My club hosted a seminar with Peter Verachtert this weekend. I had him work Danni and she looked outstanding. She has been worked in protection maybe twice in the last two months.

The video is a bad cellphone video that got filmed in portrait instead of landscape, but it's good enough to enjoy.

http://youtu.be/rIGlmV0LUwo

From my blog:

My club is holding a seminar this weekend with IPO world championship helper Peter Verachtert. Peter is a great helper and it was nice to get a session in with him with Danni. The video is a crappy cell phone one, but it works. Peter had hardly any critique for us. The only things he mentioned were the way I sat her during the escape (because she had downed on her own) and mentioned he would do it a different way. He said she was to the side in her bark and hold but not to worry about it. After the two long bites he came and said I should end there because she has no problems. Her bark and her bite are good and she looks great.

When I left I thanked him one last time because I won’t be able to make it out the rest of the weekend. He said, “I like your dog very much. She shows great temperament and a great overall picture.” And whether or not he was trying to, that really spoke volumes to me. I have always focused on making my dog understand protection in and of itself rather than just a routine exercise in a sport. She takes it seriously. And even if she’s to the side in the blind, her barking and biting are really what stand out and the overall picture is what matters in the judge’s mind. So many people are so focused on the minute things so often that I think we forget to look at the dogs as a whole and their performance as a whole. And really, when you lose the big picture, you lose the picture.

Anyway, I sincerely want to thank my amazing helper for all of the awesome training foundation he has done and continues to do with my dog. Christopher Smith owns and trains Q’Judah! des Barriques IPO1 FH2 and I would not be where I am today without him, or the rest of my wonderful training friends.

 Quote: Katie Finlay

From my blog:

He said she was to the side in her bark and hold but not to worry about it.

I noticed that, but I also noticed that that was on him. He was holding the sleeve straight down on his left side, which pulls the dog around to the helper's left, especially if the dog enters the blind from the helper's right and has to run all the way around the helper to see the sleeve..

I had that problem one night while helping on two experienced dogs. I asked TD why these two good dogs were suddenly coming in crooked, and he pointed out that that's the way I was bringing them in. In your sig pic (and the video that the still came from), the helper is giving a better presentation, and Danni is positioned better.

Haha, It's my dog, but thanks. She does it with everyone. He's holding the sleeve the way it should be as far as I know. I trained her to go around opposite sleeve slide.

But I'm not worried about it. Her barking and biting is good and that's what the judge is going to see in the overall picture.

Nice Katie. Pretty cool to get those comments from someone like that.

Thanks Steve. It really was awesome. He's someone I really respect.

 Quote: steve strom

Nice Katie. Pretty cool to get those comments from someone like that.

Yes, I was thinking that.