Hello all!

Probably you find this an easy topic, but I hoped someone could give me tips on making the transition easier on my dog.

I trained her (Dobe/Aussie -- oops! but working lines) up to UD at 14 months. Many things happened (not important really) so have decided it would be better to move her to SchH (DVG since we are up in Canada) There are circumstances which make the protection work not possible with this dog, so just want to work on the obedience (can only compete in the BH though) and maybe work on the tracking (she loves it but think I can only compete at FH since I am not doing protection work)

ANYHOW, because of her CKC (CD to UD training) she really listens more to the handsignals (could be that my body languages is more consistant to my verbal commands LOL) than verbal -- so any tips on how I can get her to just go verbal for the SchH?

Mind you, she loves the fact that I am "repeating commmands" for speed changes since (in her mind) she does not have to pay as much attention :rolleyes:

Thanks for any tips -- thought someone may have run into this before and could come up with ideas. BTW, she IS one of those dogs -- if it works for 99 out of 100 dogs, she WILL be the 1 dog it does not work on. Makes life interesting LOL.

I've shown multiple SchH dogs through AKC Utility, I always just gave both the hand signals and a verbal command when switching over entirely from one to the other - it's takes a few months of constantly repeating both commands at the same time, but I haven't had a dog yet that didn't understand both commands in the long run. Not hard to do, just a bit time consuming.

A UD at age 14 months would be very impressive - congratulations!

When I've had the occasion to change a command, I always said the old one first, then followed with the new. Seemd to work pretty well. I've also found it easier (for the dog) to go from voice to hand, rather than hand to voice.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Old earth dog Bob Scott:
I've also found it easier (for the dog) to go from voice to hand, rather than hand to voice.

Unfortunately, that is what I thought :rolleyes: So, next dog do the SchH stuff first and then the CKC/AKC stuff? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, Will ... but sorry, we had everything down packed at 14 months except the scent discrimination. We were working on that -- wood and plastic were great -- when she was attacked four times by four titled dogs in an obedience setting <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> and my landlord beat her so severely that I could not even bring my hand over my waist without her cringing completely <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> ... had a lot of work to get her back.

Thinking back, I should have probably worked on SchH obedience instead of going back the CD/UD route ... but I took her back up to that level. It was a long process, but we made it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> She still much prefers being outside than in small confines ... even at 4.5 years ...

Anyhow, that is the reason I can never do protection with her. No matter, she much prefers the obedience and tracking <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I believe you can only go to OB 3 with out a SchH title.
No FH

Ron

I can go up to OB 3? Interesting! I thought I could only do a BH, but that would be great. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Are there no tracking titles I can get then? I had understood that I can only go for the top tracking and bottom level obedience if I don't do it all? Mind you, I don't mind just doing it without getting the titles since she enjoys it so much.

How can we find out what I can actually compete in? I had planned on doing the obedience with her anyhow, so going for a title would not be bad.

Ron, you are wrong about FH. BH is the only prerequisite for FH.

Kiersten, this link has answers to all your questions:

http://www.dvgamerica.com/newtitle.html