April 21, 2011
Once we step in the ring and the leash comes off, my dog acts like she's never heeled in her life. She whines and won't pay attention in the ring, do you have any suggestions?
Full Question:
I have a 3 year all black German shepherd that I am training for competition obedience. We have a CD and am working on her CDX. However, I am having problems with her and hope you can give me some insight. I have always trained with food and toys. She has high drive but is very soft and she is a whiner. When we are training, we have no problems. It's when we step into the ring, and the leash comes off. When we are training and does not have a leash on she heals beautiful. But once we cross over into that ring she acts is if she never healed in her life, constantly whines and has never "heard" the attention word. (We do practice in ring situations to.) I just cannot get that crossover from training to into the ring. Can you please help me. She is really a beautiful dog and has great drive and great potential and she enjoys working. Is there any help? Thank You 
Ed's Answer:
This is a problem with engagement. Your dog should stay engaged with you in all environments, and if she isn't staying with you in the ring, that means you need to back up and work foundation engagement more thoroughly.
I would recommend our video, Drive Development for Competition Obedience with Tami McLeod, and if you don’t mind traveling, we will be having a seminar in May with Tami.
I would suggest taking your dog out of competition for now and take some steps back in training. Don't put her back in a real trial now, because if you do, you are just letting her practice the behavior you DON'T want. So many people keep putting the dog back in the ring and effectively teach the dog that trial day means "check out."
I think if you aren't afraid to go back to basics for a while and really work engagement, you can fix this. If you don't have engagement in ALL environments, then your dog is not ready to trial.
I would recommend our video, Drive Development for Competition Obedience with Tami McLeod, and if you don’t mind traveling, we will be having a seminar in May with Tami.
I would suggest taking your dog out of competition for now and take some steps back in training. Don't put her back in a real trial now, because if you do, you are just letting her practice the behavior you DON'T want. So many people keep putting the dog back in the ring and effectively teach the dog that trial day means "check out."
I think if you aren't afraid to go back to basics for a while and really work engagement, you can fix this. If you don't have engagement in ALL environments, then your dog is not ready to trial.
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