My GSD, Oka, Oka got his BH Sunday from Heinrich Balonier (SV). Coincidentally, Herr Balonier was the Obedience judge at the Bundessiegerprüfungen when Oka's father, Asko von der Lutter, won it in 1998.

I posted a little bit more about this here.

Although we didn't do as well as I had hoped, due mostly, I think, to my nervousness, I found it a good learning experience, and none of the judge's criticisms came as a surprise. He'll be doing a seminar this Saturday at the Schutzhund field in Coyote Valley (South San Jose, CA), and I'll be there to start tuning-up for a try at Sch I next year.

Aarghh! His name is Oka, not "Oka, Oka."

Congrats Dave on the BH for the two of you.

Dave, a Very BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Oka and you on your sucsess. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hoping Fanni and I do as well when we get to try for her BH.

Congrats Dave and Oka!

Hey Butch, I just saw some photos of you and Fanni and also some of Peter and his dogs and also his horses... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I am on the Malinois list and Linda Guidry posts quite often and I saw your club website...

Nice to put faces with the names..

Kick a*s horses Peter!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, all.

Butch, I'm probably telling you what you already know, but I'll share something I learned too late: the importance of patterning and de-patterning your dog for the BH (or any) trial.

What I should have done, given that I had the home field advantage, was build a routine to go through every time I took him there. In my case, that would have meant taking him to a small area behind the clubhouse, out of sight of the field, and downing him for a time, perhaps preceded by a little warm-up with a toy. Then, I should have either put him in the long down, then obedience, or the other way around, and switched the order each time so he wouldn't get used to one sequence or the other.

Obvious stuff to most of the folks reading this post, I'm sure, but hey--I'm learning!

And even a BH dog with mostly "sufficients" (and a couple of "goods" and one "excellent"--the latter on the sit-out-of-motion that was his least consistent exercise) is way beyond what most people get out of their dogs. And I've got quite a few more years to work with him.