Competitive Obedience Training for the Small Dog Read online

  COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING

  FOR THE SMALL DOG

  By Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell

  T9E Publishing, Council Bluffs, Iowa

  COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING

  FOR THE SMALL DOG

  By Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell

  Illustrations by Randy Cecil

  Published by: T9E Publishing

  11092 240th Street

  Council Bluffs, IA 51503

  Copyright © 1994 by Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-60865

  Cover Photograph of Reina by Sara Nugent, Houston, Texas

  Excerpts:

  From In Pursuit of Excellence, 2nd Ed. (pp. 9, 16, 29, and 38) by T. Orlick, Champaign, IL: Leisure Press. Copyright 1990 by Terry Orlick. Reprinted by permission of Human Kinetics Publishers.

  From The Inner Game Of Tennis (pp. vi and 27) by W. Timothy Gallwey, New York: Bantam Books. Copyright 1974 by W. Timothy Gallwey. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

  From That Winning Feeling (pp. 27, 95, 96, 98, and 106) by Jane Savoie, North Pomfret, Vermont: Trafalgar Square Publishing. Copyright 1992 by Jane Savoie. Reprinted by permission of Trafalgar Square Publishing.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief excerpts quoted in reviews.

  Seventh Printing, 2004

  Printed in the United States of America

  Also by Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell:

  FEAR NO MORE: COMPETING WITH CONFIDENCE

  Second Printing, 2003

  Available from T9E Publishing, 11092 240th Street, Council Bluffs, IA 51503

  This Book is Dedicated To Our Dogs, Past and Present

  Gerianne, Beginning in 1977…

  Esther — Basset Hound

  Gerianne’s Esther Marie UDTX, Can CDX TD, Ber CD

  Smokey — Basset Hound

  BIS CH Silver Bow’s Smoke Ring CD

  Skye — Border Collie

  OTCH Schuyler King TD, Can CD

  Zipper — Papillon

  Am/Can CH &OTCH Denzel Loteki Top Secret TDX,

  Can CDX TD, TDI

  Zack — Papillon

  Am/Can CH Am/Can OTCH UOCH UACHX Loteki Sudden Impulse

  UDX TDX MX MXJ VCD3, AD VAD, EAC-V EJC-V NGC-V NAC,

  CL4-RF CL3-HS, Can UDT

  Rudy — Papillon

  OTCH UUD UACH Loteki Secret Agent UDX TDX MX MXJ NJP

  VCD3, PD1, OAC OJC-V NGC NJC TN-N, CL4-RF CL3-HS, TDI

  Rumor — Papillon

  Am/Can CH OTCH MACH UCDX UAg2

  Loteki Denzel Spread The Word UDX TD RN MX AXP MXJ MJP

  VCD2, AD PD11, EAC-V EJC-V OAC OJC NGC TN-N

  TG-N WV-N, CL4-RFH CL3-S

  Tish — Papillon

  Am/Can CH UCD Loteki Superstitious CD NA NAJ

  Riva — Border Collie

  CH OTCH HC MACH VCH UCD UAgl Outburst Chasing Butterflies

  UDX RAE TD HXAsd HIBd HSBs MX NAP MXJ OJP VCD2,

  STDsd, PD1, EAC EJC OGC TN-E WV-O TG-N,

  ASCA RS-N, CL3-SFH

  Raymond — Border Collie

  DC VX UCD Ettrick On Edge

  CDX RAE HXAsd HIBsd NA NAP NJP, TN-O

  Rick — Border Collie

  CH Skyland Ricochet CD HXAsd HIBd HSBs AX OAJ XF, NAC

  NJC, CL2

  Barbara, Beginning in 1978…

  Belle — Golden Retriever

  UCDX Cecil’s Southern Belle CDX

  Mr. Bear — Golden Retriever

  UCDX Just About A Bear CDX, TDI

  Sprite — Border Collie

  UUD Sprite UD

  Mickey — Papillon

  CH UCDX Mickthea Regalo CDX, TDI

  Tuffy — Papillon

  CH UCD Mickthea Neblina CD

  Reina — Papillon

  Am/Mex/Intl CH & OTCH UCDX Mickthea Reina TDX

  Dinkie —Papillon

  CH UCDX Mickthea Yvonne UD

  Tootsie — Papillon

  UCDX Aérien Avant Tout CDX TDX

  Celina — Papillon

  CH Aérien Celina of Cadaga TD AX NAJ, OAC NJC, RS-O JS-N

  Bébé — Papillon

  MACH OTCH NATCH ATCH UOCH Aérien Cadaga Bocca Baciata

  UDX TD RE MX MXJ, ASCA UD, MAD JM SM RM,

  S-EJC-V S-EGC-V JS-E-SP GS-E-SP

  Pistol — Löwchen

  MACH 3 NATCH-3 VERSATILITY NATCH ATCH-SP TayWil’s

  Aerien Pistil Pete UD RAE OJP OAP NFP XF, UCDX, ASCA UD,

  ECC 400 EJC 400 EAC 600 HP-N, PG2 PS2 PJ2,

  CL4-H CL3-F CL2-S CL2-R

  Petey — Löwchen

  TayWil’s Aerien Everlasting RE

  PREFACE

  COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING FOR THE SMALL DOG is the book we wish we had read before we started training our first Papillons 10 years ago. Training a small dog is different, and after experimenting and improvising, making mistakes and learning from them, we decided to share our experiences with other small dog trainers.

  Perhaps it would be more correct to say other want-to-be small dog trainers because what we so often hear is, “I would train my dog, but I can’t find anyone who has ever trained a small dog to help me,” or “I won’t train my dog the way I see big dogs being trained.”

  We understand. Because we share your feelings, we have written this book so that you can do most, if not all, of the teaching and training yourself. When your dog has learned the exercises for each level of competition, you can join a class for the experience of working your trained dog with other well-trained dogs prior to showing. This is the way we would do it if we were starting all over again.

  Throughout the book, our hypothetical dog is referred to as “he.” This is just for simplicity’s sake, as half the authorship definitely prefers to train a “she.” When we call our literary dog by name, he is “Zipper,” in honor of the first CH/OTCH/TDX toy dog in the history of the American Kennel Club.

  At the end of most chapters, you will find relevant quotes from our favorite sports psychology books. We hope these quotes serve to illustrate our belief that the mental game – especially when your playing partner is canine – can be just as important as the physical game.

  We have many people to thank for their help in the preparation of this book, most notably Jill Morstad, Judith Bowers, Randy Cecil and Molly Howard. Gerianne would like to thank Dick and Kay Guetzloff for giving her a sound foundation in “common sense” competition obedience training. Thanks also to our patient and understanding husbands, Jim Cecil and George Darnell, who never once complained about the long hours we spent laboring in front of our computer screens.

  Please write and tell us what you think of our efforts. If you want/love/train a small dog, you are our kind of person. This book has been written for you.

  Barbara Cecil and Gerianne Darnell

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Can A Small Dog Be Competitive?

  Chapter 2 Puppy And Pre-Training

  Chapter 3 Training Plan And Philosophy

  Chapter 4 Equipment

  Chapter 5 Heeling: The Handler

  Chapter 6 Heeling: The Dog

  Chapter 7 The Sit, The Down And The Stays

  Chapter 8 Recall, Front And Finish

  Chapter 9 The Go Out

  Chapter 10 The Four Stands

  Chapter 11 The Retrieve

  Chapter 12 High Jump And Bar Jump

  Chapter 13 Broad Jump

  Chapter 14 Signals And Drop On Recal
l

  Chapter 15 Directed Retrieve

  Chapter 16 Scent Discrimination

  Chapter 17 Handling

  Appendix

  A. Jump Heights And Distances

  B. Sources Of Training Equipment For Small Dogs

  C. Recommended Reading

  Chapter 1

  CAN A SMALL DOG BE COMPETITIVE?

  Good question! If you are thinking about a small dog for obedience, it is a question you have probably already asked. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to training and showing the little guys that should be considered. First, five reasons for…

  SMALL DOGS, BY DEFINITION, ARE FUN

  Training a small dog is not a grim necessity as it often is with bigger dogs. It is never a serious question of muscle or dominance or survival. Training a small dog is purely elective. Even if your dog is behaving badly, muscle and dominance involves picking him up and carrying him off.

  When the task of training is entered into willingly, a happy, upbeat attitude for both dog and handler is relatively easy to maintain. Competitive obedience is a team sport; if your teammate is fun, the sport will be too. Obedience, which tends to take itself too seriously, could certainly benefit from a little levity!

  Unlike some of their bigger canine cousins, small dogs are not only fun, they don’t scare anyone. Training or showing, your dog is the one everyone else wants to watch, talk to, and pet. In the ring or out, like it or not, cuteness counts.

  SMALL DOGS ARE EASY KEEPERS

  They are bright, amenable, and energetic. They are also compact and adaptable. If the weather is not right or the hour is too late to practice obedience outside, a small dog can practice in the house. Could a Golden Retriever work on his Retrieve Over the High Jump in your living room? Probably not, but a small dog could.

  An apartment or house too crowded for the average-sized dog could still accommodate any one of the 48 short or small breeds. In fact, the size of the dog might determine whether or not you can have a dog at all.

  Do you have a lot of room in your apartment or house? You can have several small dogs; they are even more fun by the bunch.

  Small dogs are also highly portable and good travelers. Going to an out-of-town dog show? There is almost always room for you to travel in someone else’s car when you’ve got a dog that rides in your lap or whose crate is as small as an overnight bag. You can share the cost of motel rooms with your friends; your dog takes half your pillow, not half the bed. On an airplane, a little guy can ride in a crate that fits under the seat, spared the trauma of travel in the cargo hold.

  YOU’VE GOT TIME

  Generally speaking, the smaller the dog the longer the life span. You don’t have to rush your training to advanced titles before canine old age and its related problems makes earning a Utility Dog title or an Obedience Trial Championship an impossible dream. At the time a big dog is being forced into retirement, a small dog is just hitting his stride.

  YOU GET ALL THE CREDIT

  Go into the ring with an “obedience breed,” do a nice job, earn a high score and…so what? Whether it’s true or not, folklore has it that certain breeds are “naturals” and easy to train in obedience. If you are in the ring with one and can’t win, well, something must be wrong with you.

  But go into the ring with a Shih Tzu, or a Boston Terrier, or any one of the “obedience unknowns,” do a credible job, and you’re considered a great trainer! No one expects your dog to be competitive because most people have never seen a dog of your breed compete. The potential in many breeds of small dogs may be the last and best kept secret in obedience. (Until your breed is “discovered,” keep taking all the credit yourself!)

  THERE ARE STILL FIRSTS TO BE WON

  There are so few small dogs in competitive obedience that there are still attainable “firsts” to be won and records to be broken. You could have your breed’s first Ch/UD, or UDT, or OTCh.

  It is relatively easy to be nationally ranked in obedience when the number of dogs competing in a particular breed is still low; you don’t have to score that high or enter that many trials to find yourself on top.

  All right, if training and showing a small dog in obedience is so much fun, so easy and so gratifying, why doesn’t everyone do it? Isn’t there a down side? Well, yes, there is. To keep things in perspective, here are five reasons against…

  SMALL DOGS OFTEN TAKE LONGER TO TRAIN

  Small dogs learn just as quickly as their larger relations. Teaching and training, however, are two different things, and it’s the training that can take awhile. The reason? It takes time to develop a working partnership. And working with a small dog is just that, a partnership. It’s not dominant/submissive. It’s not getting your way by imposing your will. It’s not even leader/follower. It’s partners: teammates competing in a team sport. Developing that kind of relationship and rapport takes an investment in time.

  YOUR TRAINING OPTIONS ARE LIMITED

  Your dog is starting to lag on the outside circle of the Figure Eight. Are you going to pop him with choke collar corrections so he will hustle? Your dog is not going far enough on the go out in Directed Jumping. Are you going to use a shock collar to fry him all the way to the end of the ring? Your dog isn’t dropping fast enough on the Drop on Recall. Are you going to throw a shaker can at him for a drop-through-intimidation?

  No, none of the above. What you are going to do is find positive, inducive solutions to your training problems because anything more severe than a gentle collar correction is simply not an option with most small dogs. Severity creates more problems than it solves.

  If you are short-tempered, have little patience and less imagination, you really have no options at all. You will not succeed in competitive obedience regardless of your breed.

  BEWARE FALSE PROPHETS

  Most obedience instructors know how to train the generic dog, but very few will admit that they have no idea how to train something “different.” If you have one of the toy breeds, some instructors won’t even allow you in their classes. They don’t want to be “responsible.” (Does this suggest anything to you about their methods?)

  If you are dependent upon an instructor who has never trained a small dog herself, you’re going to get plenty of erroneous advice or, at best, no advice at all. You are going to have to sift through everything you see, hear and read, asking yourself, “Is this the best way for me to train?” You have to be smarter and more alert than other trainers. You must think about what you are doing. You cannot be afraid to say, “No, I don’t want to do that with my dog.”

  And, of course, when you do train around other dogs, you must constantly be on guard against an unprovoked attack. Even unprovoked “play” (as in, “Gee, he only wanted to play. He’s never seen anything that small before!”) could cost your dog his life. You can’t relax your vigilance in class, at a show, or anywhere there is another dog, not even for a moment.

  THE AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS WERE NOT WRITTEN FOR SMALL DOGS

  In the United States, the American Kennel Club OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS were developed around the Standard Poodle and German Shepherd Dog. For small dogs, inequities exist in every exercise. Distances are not shortened just because your dog is proportionately smaller. You are a long way away from your dog on the Recall; the opposite side of the ring is a long way away for your dog in Directed Jumping. Gloves, scent articles and dumbbells are objects for blind retrieves.

  Because a small dog occupies so little space, every deviation from heel position is magnified. If a small dog is lagging, forging, crowding or going wide by even an inch or two, he is glaringly wrong. If a big dog is heeling two inches out of position, will it even be noticed? Probably not. Small dogs have to work harder and be better than bigger dogs because their every error is easier to see and score.

  There are also judges who will not give you the score you deserve because they cannot, for some reason, judge small dogs. Bob Squires, former Director of Obedience for the American Kennel Cl
ub, told of one judge who would take a point off in a heeling exercise each time he saw the dog out of heel position. According to this judge, that happened with a small dog each time the handler was in mid-stride!

  YOUR PUPPY CHOICES ARE LIMITED

  If you are relatively new to dogs and want to get a small dog for the express purpose of obedience, you might have a hard time convincing a breeder to part with a puppy. Many breeders of small dogs are only interested in conformation; they view obedience training with distrust. A few even equate obedience with abuse. Your job, then, becomes one of education. You might have to start with an adult dog – a retired brood bitch or male champion, for example – and through training and the passage of time, prove yourself good, honest and true. Show the breeder that you don’t abuse dogs to train them and that you can be trusted with a puppy.

  “Puppy testing,” which can help you evaluate temperament and suitability for obedience, might also be of limited use. Your “choice” may be one puppy (which might be the whole litter), take it or leave it. Also, some of the things you look for in an obedience prospect, such as fearlessness, pushy attitude, chase instinct, and high energy level, are not necessarily qualities nurtured by conformation breeders.

  Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to get into a breed and, once into the breed, to find the perfect puppy for you. Small dogs are rare and wonderful things…and that, of course, is as it should be.

  “Excellence in any field depends largely on three basic factors: (a) how well you know where you want to go, (b) how much you really want to get there, and (c) how strongly you believe in your ability to arrive at your desired destination.”

  Terry Orlick, PhD

  IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

  Chapter 2

  PUPPY AND PRE-TRAINING

  A puppy’s adult behavior depends greatly on the conditioning – intentional, unintentional, or absent – that he receives during the first six months of his life. After puppyhood has passed, all “socialization” is remedial. If your puppy is to realize his full potential, his puppyhood should include a successful introduction to and sampling of everything he will encounter as an adult.