ROFL. Go Betty!

Will's sudden move cross country had nothing to do with me.

Honest.



Had to call him 4 times today before he returned the phone call. Imagine that!

At least you know what you want, and are willing to go after it!

What some people call obsessive or stalking I prefer to call determined.

LOL

Almost the polar opposite of how I ended up in my club.

I was there for the French Ring club that shared the field.

 Quote: Charlie Snyder

One of those people, that if you ever get the chance, you sit, listen and learn.

Sometimes I feel like I would give my eye teeth to sit down and learn from someone like this.

Betty, you're hillarious Your not getting my eye teeth, but I think if there's something I really wanted, I could learn a lot from you. Stalking's not so bad hey?

Learned a ton from your post Mr. Snyder. Thanks.

Having also done AKC OB and Schtzhund I will go out on a limb and say AKC can be much harder for a few reasons. They are often indoors in very crowded conditions with contact with other dogs almost impossible to avoid. The "audience" is within feet of you and your dog in the ring. That includes the little ahole with the hot dog or ice cream cone.
I've shown in a metal building during a hail storm where the majority of the dogs folded from the noise.
The judging is also very anal compared to Schutzhund. In Schutzhund you may be told your dog was crowding you and you loose a few points. In AKC the judge's pencil will fly with every contact the dog makes with you.
Then there's the people in AKC. EEEEK! They freak out if someone farts at the other end of the building because "My dog was stressed because a fart scared it as a puppy."
I've seen folks get screamed at because "your camera flash is going to spook my dog".
As far as protection sports and breed, the DVG is open to all breeds and mutts alike.

Betty, I like your style. It's not "stalking", it's perseverance.

 Quote: bob scott

Having also done AKC OB and Schtzhund I will go out on a limb and say AKC can be much harder for a few reasons. They are often indoors in very crowded conditions with contact with other dogs almost impossible to avoid. The "audience" is within feet of you and your dog in the ring. That includes the little ahole with the hot dog or ice cream cone.
I've shown in a metal building during a hail storm where the majority of the dogs folded from the noise.
The judging is also very anal compared to Schutzhund. In Schutzhund you may be told your dog was crowding you and you loose a few points. In AKC the judge's pencil will fly with every contact the dog makes with you.
Then there's the people in AKC. EEEEK! They freak out if someone farts at the other end of the building because "My dog was stressed because a fart scared it as a puppy."
I've seen folks get screamed at because "your camera flash is going to spook my dog".
As far as protection sports and breed, the DVG is open to all breeds and mutts alike.

You're cracking me up even if it's true. I'm not sure I could handle people that get that anxious over trivial things.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the point of the obedience and things of that nature to teach your dog to focus on you DESPITE what is going on around you?

That's what I gathered from reading as much as I have. It's one of the first steps in training...that dog learns to focus on you at all times and can do so regardless the distraction such as brat with hot dog, farts or hail storms.

Or am I expecting too much?

 Quote: Valerie Munk

You're cracking me up even if it's true. I'm not sure I could handle people that get that anxious over trivial things.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the point of the obedience and things of that nature to teach your dog to focus on you DESPITE what is going on around you?

That's what I gathered from reading as much as I have. It's one of the first steps in training...that dog learns to focus on you at all times and can do so regardless the distraction such as brat with hot dog, farts or hail storms.

Or am I expecting too much?

I've only been competing in AKC for about a year, but that's long enough for me to know Bob speaks the truth!

Valerie, this is just my view on the whole subject, but I think dog training is a journey as opposed to a destination. Yes, the goal absolutely is to have 100 percent of your dog's focus, 100 percent of the time. In the real world, however, we dog trainers are only human and the dogs we love and train are only canine. That vision of perfection, though, is always in our mind, and each tiny step that gets us closer to that picture is tremendously satisfying.

So, no, you're not expecting too much to have a non-distractable dog, as long as you realize it's a long-term goal, and even the most experienced trainers and the most seasoned competitors constantly work at it.

 Quote: Cheri Grissom

So, no, you're not expecting too much to have a non-distractable dog, as long as you realize it's a long-term goal, and even the most experienced trainers and the most seasoned competitors constantly work at it.

I think that this statement needs a gold star :-) Absolutely you are not expecting too much so long as you do not expect it overnight ;-) Like many sports, some AKC obedience folks try to place the blame on their dogs' failure on others. Most of the time it is sour grapes and the handler's unwillingness to acknowledge deficits in their training. With that said, I do get irritated when a fellow competitor stands against the ring gating playing tug of war with a squeeky with their dog.

That is just rude. Sort of akin to someone in a schutzhund trial having to do the obedience portion with a helper working another dog right along the field. Yes, the dog should ignore it but it sort of sucks if your dog is the only one that has to overcome that challenge ;-)

Frost once lost out on HIT trial due to when she was doing her down exercise, the photographer dropped his stacking table on the ground causing a big boom sound. Frost stood up for about 30 seconds before laying down again. The judge came up to me heart-broken that she could not qualify me. I just shrugged my shoulders and said that she was young and at least it gave me some insight on what I needed to work on.

Two weeks later we were competing again outdoors in a huge storm. The wind and rain was blowing so hard that during the stand for exam 3/4 of the ring gating blew over. Frost cringed but held her ground. She completed all the exercises in a ring that was no longer standing and qualified (and was the only dog to do so once the ring gating was down). Needless to say I was proud of her ability to overcome such a distraction.

So yes, by all means strive for a dog that can focus with any type of distraction but just realize that it takes a significant amount of time to get to that point :-)