Blitz's SchH Training

[flyballmom]

Haven't posted much here re: our Schuthzund training so thought I'd send an update. For those of you who don't know, I started training Blitz in SchH when she was 2 1/2. Not sure starting an adult dog would be something I'd undertake again, but lucky for me, she's risen to the occasion and is doing pretty well. We had some issues that came up and have been working hard to overcome them. Her obedience is looking pretty nice, she loves tracking and is good at it...and last night we put the SchH1 routine completely together for the first time, completely off lead and mirroring trial conditions as much as possible! She was awesome!!

Thought I'd start this new thread instead of adding to the "why does a dog quit working" thread since Blitz is a bit different sort of dog than some mentioned. She wasn't bred for SchH and certainly wasn't raised for it. I got a wild hair about 18 months ago and decided it was something I wanted to try. I'm now addicted...and learning tons. I train with the same helper as Denise (dmoniz), so also no real TD. I've been lucky to have been taken under the wings of some very special people, otherwise I'm sure we'd not be having this much success. I train weekly on one field, almost weekly on another field (same helper who has a young assistant, so 2 helpers) and weekly on yet another field with 2 different helpers. All the helpers/trainers are on the same page with what our issues are and what we're trying to accomplish, we work in protection Monday night, Saturday AM, then drive an hour and work Sat. PM. This works great for my dogs (as my Pittie guy Omen works, as well as Blitz.) More than that and Omen is OK, but Blitz starts to get bored. Just my unsolicited 2 cents worth on that issue.

That's 18 or so months worth of training in a nutshell. We have some trialing goals set, just not ready to share. In the meantime, I can't say I've ever had more fun, or learned more about different aspects of dog training!

[Mick Trainer]

Sounds like it is all going along great.

Mick.

[Ayoka]

Go blitz! And go Omen, we've been really deprived of Omie lately ya know.

[lblax]

hows she doing in the bite work??? usually thats the stumbling block when starting an older dog.

[s1960]

Originally Posted by flyballmom

Haven't posted much here re: our Schuthzund training so thought I'd send an update. For those of you who don't know, I started training Blitz in SchH when she was 2 1/2. Not sure starting an adult dog would be something I'd undertake again, but lucky for me, she's risen to the occasion and is doing pretty well. We had some issues that came up and have been working hard to overcome them. Her obedience is looking pretty nice, she loves tracking and is good at it...and last night we put the SchH1 routine completely together for the first time, completely off lead and mirroring trial conditions as much as possible! She was awesome!!

Thought I'd start this new thread instead of adding to the "why does a dog quit working" thread since Blitz is a bit different sort of dog than some mentioned. She wasn't bred for SchH and certainly wasn't raised for it. I got a wild hair about 18 months ago and decided it was something I wanted to try. I'm now addicted...and learning tons. I train with the same helper as Denise (dmoniz), so also no real TD. I've been lucky to have been taken under the wings of some very special people, otherwise I'm sure we'd not be having this much success. I train weekly on one field, almost weekly on another field (same helper who has a young assistant, so 2 helpers) and weekly on yet another field with 2 different helpers. All the helpers/trainers are on the same page with what our issues are and what we're trying to accomplish, we work in protection Monday night, Saturday AM, then drive an hour and work Sat. PM. This works great for my dogs (as my Pittie guy Omen works, as well as Blitz.) More than that and Omen is OK, but Blitz starts to get bored. Just my unsolicited 2 cents worth on that issue.

That's 18 or so months worth of training in a nutshell. We have some trialing goals set, just not ready to share. In the meantime, I can't say I've ever had more fun, or learned more about different aspects of dog training!

Looks good Beth.I saw your videos on that well known video website. I got an even later start then you. He was 4. I'm like you now, completely hooked and wishing I had started this right away. A post by Denise was one of my big motivators to get out there.

[flyballmom]

Originally Posted by lblax

hows she doing in the bite work??? usually thats the stumbling block when starting an older dog.

Oops. I guess YouTube videos are a no-no. I posted a couple of her working but they're gone now. Bitework was the issue, yes. A few months ago she started coming off the sleeve every time the helper stopped moving...or when she "thought" the helper was going to stop moving. She was only doing this with our "real" helper, not the young assistant or the guys we work with locally. Concensus said she was thinking too much and trying to hard to please him (we track with him and she's been allowed to shmooze...bad idea I now know) so we started working her only on a long line and applying back pressure every time she was given a bite. She seems to have gotten the idea that the way to please him is to stay on the sleeve (and she's taken SchH3 type stick hits and drives so at least that's not a problem)...we took the line off 2 weeks ago and so far so good!