Liath is starting her advanced obedience.

[*jean*]

 
 she got her gold when she was 2 and hasnt done anything formal since.
 last saturday was her 1st session. shes now 8yrs and 3 quarters. 9 in june.
her sits have become sloppy  she doesnt sit square but drifts off to the side trying to catch my eye.and she moved in her down me out of sight stay after 2 mins. she has to wait until I return and the excersise is over... My about turns with her  off lead at heel are dodgy as I get muddled between left and right. her off lead heel work is good,waits fine, recall fine. sendaways fine.
 have been told this sat she will have to go from stand to sit and down from a distance. at a distance go from left to right and also do retrieves. also a blind retrieve hidden in others. ( a mans hanky the trainer said to use) she can do this in the house so hope she does it in the hall. she has started spitting out retrieves in anticipation of food treats so have stopped food treats. practiced her out of sight stays in the fields today. sit down ok ,..stands hopeless .. she just lies down. any tips?

[Mollycuddles]

Clever girl Liath

Molly is doing her Obedience and is in a Match next Sunday and also an Open show in May but she will only be doing pre beginners classes atm

She can do down and sit from a distance but stand we are still working on her scent work is quite good and she seems to work better off lead than on with her heel work.

not much help am I as we are still working on advance obedience and have quite a way to go yet.

Are you going to enter her in competition?

[Nicola]

Well done Liath      She'll be great, she's such a little    I'd like to do this with Tilly too, I might try to find a class or a group over here for her to go to.

I taught a hand signal to most of the commands mine know, I think it makes it a bit clearer for them, especially when we're working at a distance so I can drop them to either the whistle or a hand signal without having to shout commands at them. I don't use food treats in training once they're out of the small puppy stage either. Did you teach her the hold when you were originally training her? For the spitting out the retrieves I'd go back and reinforce the basic hold.

[*jean*]

No I wont be competing with her its all for fun really ( tho the trainer wants us to..!)
  nicola she never spits retrieves out when its "game". she has to be told to let it go.
 she is just a bit wise and worked out treats were involved. I was using them to try and make her sits more snappy. so she decided to make her retrieves more snappy as well and spit them out at my feet in hope of food. she is a fast learner so I only fuss her and praise her now when she presents to hand and ignore dropped retrieves . As she is attention seeking and loves praise it wont take her long to "get it".
 Its the stands. when I leave her in a wait from heel she will stand until I walk back to her and pick her up again, but she wont go from a down to a stand. Im a bit stuck really. Henry ( my sisters dog whos doing it as well is a big lurcher and he does a beautiful stand. )

[*jean*]

well she wasnt too bad . she has the hold to a tee except when she is doing the excersise..she takes it right back and lowers her head and just lets it drop.  Im trying to be quicker than her. Ive taught her the hold command since years but its like shes been re programmed. so this week im going to have to put a bit of work in. she will carry the cloth round the house and give it to me on command. take her to the hall and she acts herself. she can also pick out the cloth amongst others no problem.
 her wait on a sendaway was good too, but on the return she took an extra 2 steps! her 5 min out of sight stay would be better if the other dogs did not move. as soon as they do she does. practice practice.

[Mollycuddles]

Liath is a good girl pleased it went fairly well

We only do it for fun but we were picked to enter the 3 way match class and I thought I'd give it a go,last year they had a limit show and me and Molly was placed 3rd, the judge put a write up about that show on the obedience uk site Molly's write up was  ..... very well tried, there are lots to think about in a round and try and put them altogether, you lost marks for a tight lead and the dog coming forward after the turns, but a dog with potential so please keep up the training....  i think it was me that let Molly down but it was quite scary however we both have improved a little since then.....I hope...

regarding dropping the retrieve on present, Molly did this but will now hold the dumbell till I ask her to give and the only thing that improved that, was as you said, practise.... practise..... practise.... and to keep telling her to hold it and say good hold before giving the treat. Liath is an intelligent little dog I'm sure in a week or two she will be perfect.

Molly has a much worse fault one I don't think I'll ever master, she wants to go and see people who are watching and it takes all of my efforts to stop her going to the steward or judge, last week at training on her retrieve, great send away, beautiful pick and about to come back to me then does a quick u turn to see the ladies sat at the table ( still with the dumbell in her mouth)then back to me, lovely present, lovely give and then perfect finish    what am I to do with her she also has to say hello to folks sat close to the ring whilst running an agility course  so as you can see it will always be just for fun

[*jean*]

the way I see it if its not fun Its not worth doing. 
 I can see it all going to hell in a handcart on the day but really does it matter? shes still my dog , still easily the easiest trained dog Ive ever had  except for my 1st collie she was very bright. reckon they are on a par. A lot of its me .. Ive got to make liath understand what i want from her.
after that shes away. shes also a gutsy little madam and at the obedience she scouts around the others pockets looking for treats and stuff. because shes little and cute this got her lots of cuddles etc which has reinforced her behavour. so im stopping the treats.
 ive given her a day off today, im just heading off to work so Ill do some work tommorrow.
just short 10 min sessions 3 times a day. dont want her glazing over on me! her stays are ok when she is alone so will practice making all 3 sit then taking one away at a time leaving her till last.. see how it goes.

[Mollycuddles]

Awww bless her she sounds so like Molly

Yes and it's that wriggly bum that makes everyone go awww and they then have to give her a cuddle so Molly sees this as a treat too , but like Liath she is the most easily to train little dog I have ever had the privilege to live with.... gosh you and me with Liath and Molly would cheer up an obedience show if we both entered the same one  ..... on comes the entertainment....

[speedyjaney]

but she wont go from a down to a stand. Im a bit stuck really.

I taught Jessie stand from down by asking her to walk backwards then wait......it had the desired effect...so I put hand signal toit and she now stands from sit or down to the hand signal.....I didnt want to look a plonker at training by saying walk back wait...lol

Janey

[*jean*]

but she wont go from a down to a stand. Im a bit stuck really.

I taught Jessie stand from down by asking her to walk backwards then wait......it had the desired effect...so I put hand signal toit and she now stands from sit or down to the hand signal.....I didnt want to look a plonker at training by saying walk back wait...lol

Janey

Ill try it! thanks.

[sportsmonki]

I agree with Janey.  I would also teach distance control by getting the dog walking backwards and then waiting in the stand.  To walk back out of a down they have to get up, and then you can just shorten it so they get up straight into the stand.  If you dont want to compete...(DC isnt till C anyway) you could always try moving her through the sit into the stand, or drawing her forward out of the down into the stand?  Maybe teather her so she cant move forwards too far.  Also, you could practise down to stand whilst you are stood next to her...maybe help her at first with you hands...then when she has got it start building up distance.

I agree that the most important thing is to have fun...it sounds like Liath is a lovely dog 

And mollycuddles...Molly is fabulous and has a great attitude 

[*sandra*]

No I wont be competing with her its all for fun really ( tho the trainer wants us to..!)
  nicola she never spits retrieves out when its "game". she has to be told to let it go.
 she is just a bit wise and worked out treats were involved. I was using them to try and make her sits more snappy. so she decided to make her retrieves more snappy as well and spit them out at my feet in hope of food. she is a fast learner so I only fuss her and praise her now when she presents to hand and ignore dropped retrieves . As she is attention seeking and loves praise it wont take her long to "get it".
 Its the stands. when I leave her in a wait from heel she will stand until I walk back to her and pick her up again, but she wont go from a down to a stand. Im a bit stuck really. Henry ( my sisters dog whos doing it as well is a big lurcher and he does a beautiful stand. )

tori(liaths sister) also did her gold at the same time, and jeans asked me to go to class as well, but i wouldnt be back  in time for work, it would be fun to have them both there again, although tori hasnt done much since Last class, as she lost her old companion and got depressed for , i swear about eighteen months> but shes a good girl anyway . but it would have been interesting!

[*jean*]

No I wont be competing with her its all for fun really ( tho the trainer wants us to..!)
  nicola she never spits retrieves out when its "game". she has to be told to let it go.
 she is just a bit wise and worked out treats were involved. I was using them to try and make her sits more snappy. so she decided to make her retrieves more snappy as well and spit them out at my feet in hope of food. she is a fast learner so I only fuss her and praise her now when she presents to hand and ignore dropped retrieves . As she is attention seeking and loves praise it wont take her long to "get it".
 Its the stands. when I leave her in a wait from heel she will stand until I walk back to her and pick her up again, but she wont go from a down to a stand. Im a bit stuck really. Henry ( my sisters dog whos doing it as well is a big lurcher and he does a beautiful stand. )

tori(liaths sister) also did her gold at the same time, and jeans asked me to go to class as well, but i wouldnt be back  in time for work, it would be fun to have them both there again, although tori hasnt done much since Last class, as she lost her old companion and got depressed for , i swear about eighteen months> but shes a good girl anyway . but it would have been interesting!

Interesting!! ?? 
It would be  chaos!!  we had fun last time didnt we?
 the trainer said she had never had such a good class and such laughs since then. 
of course the spaniels were the best! ( teachers pets!    .. altho she herself has german shepherds! )

[*jean*]

Liath now has done a 5min out of sight stay and is reliable in the sit and the down for the stay. tho she sat up when I returned to her instead of waiting in the down til the end of exercise (I was too busy this week to practice so she was a bit cheeky!)
from a distance I can get her to sit to lie down to sit  ( stands are still a problem) when doing this her back feet don't move position so shes not coming forward which is good.
 she can be sent reliably away to a sit then redirected to another marked spot.
 she stops on command on a sendaway and a recall. ( tho today she took an extra 2 steps the first time 2nd time was spot on)
 she can pick out her hanky from the sterilised ones and give it to me, shes better at presenting now.
 treats are banned!  she can distinguish between her hanky and ignore the  decoy one sneaked in by the trainer.she finds that part really easy.
her heel work is good and her waits and recalls to heel are fine.pick ups fine, her sits are still  not dead square but better without treats. only another 3 classes to go in this lot, not having a test apparently ( thought we were) Its like an introductory series to advanced dog training. the trainer has said that liaths ready to enter some competitions now but I'm really not into that. I know she can do it and thats enough for me. I just cant get her to stay in a stand unless I physically lift her up into position and tell her to wait , she will wait like that until I tell her sit or whatever but she wont go into it herself. when she goes backwards she sits the second she stops. SO i was told to practice all week. ( as well as lambing my week starts monday, the fun never stops  )