Competitive Obedience Training for the Small Dog Read online

  Most pre-training and socialization experiences don’t occur naturally in the security of your home. You are going to have to take the time and trouble to set them up. You are also going to have to do everything you can to assure that your puppy’s adventures will be positive learning experiences.

  If something negative or “scary” does occur while the puppy is being exposed to varied and enriched environments, that’s okay, too. Fear is inherent in a puppy’s personality – it is a survival mechanism – and learning how to deal with fear is part of learning how to handle life. It’s how you handle your pup’s displays of fear when confronted with strange, stressful, or threatening situations that will go a long way toward building or destroying his self-confidence.

  It is so easy to baby, over-protect, or simply pick up and carry away a small dog from the source of his stress. Don’t do it! Don’t try to force him to act brave, and don’t reinforce fear by petting or consoling him. Your response to a non-threatening situation which your puppy perceives as dangerous should be to encourage investigation: “Well, let’s check it out.” Your attitude should reflect interest without emotional involvement. Many small dogs see danger where there is none their entire lives. (And who knows, from their perspective they might be right!) Your pup’s obedience potential will be enhanced if both of you learn how to deal with fear while he is still young.

  While it is important to socialize and pre-train your puppy, it is equally important that you do not get involved in any formal training. Utilizing the recent research into canine intelligence and learning stages, puppy training classes have become the vogue. Folks have begun to realize what wonderful blank slates they have in their hands: If a puppy can be so easily taught, I’ll train this bundle of fuzz through Utility and have a Super Dog before he’s grown!

  Whoa! Slow down! All that potential will never be realized if you don’t let your puppy be a puppy; that means no pushing and no pressure. You can ruin your pup by trying for too much formality too soon. You can’t ruin him by waiting. Puppy means play.

  In my house, each puppy follows a malleable master plan. At three months of age there is an eight-week puppy socialization class, and at six months a conformation class for further socialization and lots of “hands-on.” If the puppy is show quality, I will enter her in matches and local shows in the “Puppy Class.” Then I will stop showing her in conformation (unless she is winning!) until she is about two years old and has her adult body and coat. In the meantime, we will be tracking.

  At about 10 to 12 months of age, I will start playtraining obedience; no hurry here, as I won’t show her in Novice until she is about three years old and trained through Utility.

  Barbara

  The first thing I do with my puppy is tracking. I would like to have him certified before six months of age and earn the TD shortly thereafter. If a puppy class is available, I will take him for socialization. but I don’t teach any obedience to my young pup other than an informal recall and walking on a leash. If he is show quality, I prefer to get his Championship before getting serious about obedience.

  I will start some low-key obedience around 9 to 10 months of age. My dog will be trained through Open with an understanding of most of the Utility exercises before he ever goes near a Novice ring.

  Gerianne

  While you are waiting for that little mind and body to mature, plenty of training can still be taking place. Here are some playtraining suggestions that will enhance your puppy’s obedience potential:

  • Take your puppy with you everywhere you go. Take along a pocket full of treats too, and ask everyone who meets your puppy to really make a fuss over him and offer him a treat. Enlist people of both sexes and of every age, creed and color.

  • Teach your puppy to stay alone. Employ a systematic program for separation, starting with just a few minutes and working up to several hours. Bonding is so important to some trainers that they forget separation is important – and inevitable.

  • Crate train the puppy and, in the process, be sure he is reliably housebroken. The pup should think of his crate as a place of safety, introduced as his bed inside of an exercise pen when he is first brought into your home.

  • A puppy should learn to ignore continuing background sounds (leave the radio or television on when you’re not home) and, taking his cue from you, not panic at loud noises. If your puppy should become frightened at a sudden sound, jolly him out of it, as in “Wow! Did you hear that thunder too? Wasn’t that great?” Then go on about your business, unperturbed over what the puppy perceives as a threat. Comforting a frightened pup only reinforces his fear: She is telling me I’m right to be afraid!

  • The puppy should learn to wear, without protest, a buckle collar with an identification tag.

  • After he has learned to accept a collar, he can learn to accept a leash. The first few times you put the leash on your puppy, just go where he wants to go. When he is no longer distracted by this new attachment, you can become the leader, using food as a lure to keep him moving by your left side.

  • Of course, it may not be that simple! If the puppy balks or starts throwing his body around at the end of the leash, stop, turn to face him and squat down. Remain impassive and look past him; a direct stare will only increase his panic. When he stops fighting, show him a treat right under his nose, stand up slowly and step back. When the pup moves toward you, give him the treat. Continue to back up, using the food as a lure. Once he is moving, turn so he is again by your side. Reward him with a treat, then use another treat to lure him on again. (No, you are not teaching your dog to heel. You are not teaching “moving attention.” You are just teaching your puppy to walk with you on a leash. Lighten up!)

  • Now that you are walking together, walk everywhere: on grass, concrete, indoor/outdoor carpeting, slick floors, matting, dirt, gravel, and through puddles after a rain.

  • Teach your puppy to negotiate stairs. Pick him up and set him on a next-to-the-bottom step and have him come down. Praise, pick him up and put him on the second step, and so on, until he can come down five or six steps without a problem. Then induce him to go up, one step at a time, using food treats held on the step just above the one he is on. Choose a flight of stairs that is safe – not slippery and not open casement – and has a step height the pup can manage.

  • The pup should learn to settle down and ride quietly in a car, even if his first trip is just around the block. Obedience competition means travel, so plan fun destinations. You are making a big mistake if the only time your puppy gets to go in the car is when he is going to the vet.

  • Start grooming the puppy when he is tiny so that he assumes brushing, trimming, clipping toenails and cleaning teeth and ears is just part of life. He has no vote on when or if grooming is to be done.

  • Speak lovingly to the puppy each time your eyes meet. When you pick him up, smile and talk to him sweetly as you hold his face close to yours. Encourage the pup to take treats held between your lips; you can even put a dab of peanut butter on your cheek and teach the puppy to “Give me a kiss!” You want the pup to learn that looking into your face is a pleasurable and rewarding thing to do.

  • The puppy can learn his name, the one particular sound that applies to him. When you say his name and he makes eye contact, praise, pet him and give him a treat for being so clever. His response to his name always earns a positive response from you. The name is never, ever used negatively as in “Zipper! No, no, no!”

  • Every pup must learn, and the sooner the better, the most important obedience command of them all: “Come!” Start with puppy recalls, where you and a friend call the pup back and forth between you; do random recalls whenever you and the puppy are alone. (For more on puppy recalls, read Chapter 8, “The Recall, Front And Finish.”)

  Encourage the puppy by squatting down and clapping your hands when you call. Do not stand erect or bend over from the waist – to an insecure puppy, that looks belligerent. If the pup hesitates or stops, turn and
pretend to run away, arousing the puppy’s chase instinct. Call the puppy from very short distances at first; when he comes willingly and happily, gradually increase the distance. Coming to you is always rewarded with play, praise, and often a treat. Coming to you fast is rewarded most of all.

  • Using food, toys and praise, you can teach the puppy to “Sit,” “Down,” and “Stand.” Check the appropriate chapters in this book for introducing these commands inducively. This is play-training only; if it becomes work, don’t do it!

  • Your dog might not ever see another dog smaller than he is (though there is some question as to just how small a small dog really thinks he is!) The time to learn to interact with canine behemoths is now, with all dogs on leash and under their handlers’ control. Try for successful interaction with dogs of different sizes, sex, coat length and breed peculiarities.

  • Play retrieving is best introduced when the puppy is between 9 and 12 weeks old. At this age, a puppy will chase, grab, carry and give up an object to his pack leader. Throw a toy for the puppy; as soon as he picks it up, entice him with another toy to quickly return to you. Take the first toy from the pup as you throw the second; this trade-off is the easiest way to teach the pup a play retrieve. In addition to squeaky toys, use retrieve objects made of cloth, metal, leather and wood. Stop each session while the puppy is still eager, but give him something else to play with when you release him with a big “Okay!”

  • The pup can learn that while certain behavior might be “bad,” he is not a “bad dog.” (Anyone remember Parent Effectiveness Training, circa 1970?) Don’t forget for a moment that your puppy does not know right from wrong; he only knows what pleases and displeases you. If you catch the pup in mischief, just stop him with an “Ahh!” and then immediately redirect his attention. (“Ahh!” – spoken with a guttural tone – is better than “No!” because it is seldom found in everyday language and can be used with intensity without volume.)

  While on the subject of right and wrong: Never punish your pup for putting an object in his mouth. If the object is dangerous or forbidden, take it out of his mouth, put it out of his reach, and give him something safe to play with. Utilizing this method is not only important for your puppy’s future in obedience, it is also the only prayer you have of getting an object away from him undamaged. Yelling or grabbing teaches him 1) picking something up means trouble, 2) he can avoid trouble by running away, 3) you can’t catch him, and 4) if he runs fast enough, or hides, or avoids being seen in the first place, he can destroy or consume what he has stolen in peace.

  A puppy’s response to a calm verbal reprimand and redirection is positive, not negative. There is no fear because the correction didn’t punish him, it merely stopped him to get his attention. With this method of “correction,” the pup anticipates success and develops confidence in himself and in you, which is exactly what you want when you begin training him for competitive obedience.

  Time invested in your puppy while he is still a puppy will pay huge dividends later on. Remedial work is never as successful, and never as much fun, as getting it right the first time.

  * * *

  This chapter is titled “Puppy and Pre-Training” because many of the suggestions for puppies should also be implemented for obedience-bound adult dogs who suffered deprived puppyhoods. By working through the puppy exercises, you can discover an adult dog’s reactions to different stimuli and determine how these reactions can best be handled in his obedience training.

  Chapter 3

  TRAINING PLAN AND PHILOSOPHY:

  WHAT, HOW AND WHY

  Ever wonder why most obedience dogs are trained the way they are? A dog is taught the Novice exercises and shown to his CD, taught the Open exercises and shown to his CDX and then, if the dog is not too old and the handler is not too discouraged, taught the Utility exercises and shown until he earns his UD.

  Are dogs trained this way because the American Kennel Club (which should certainly know what it is doing) has decreed certain exercises appropriate to certain ages and stages of training? Is it because obedience clubs and instructors routinely divide classes and students into Novice, Open, and Utility? Is it because “everyone says” a dog can’t be started on Open work until he is well-grounded in the basics of Novice, and can’t start Utility until he is solid on everything taught in Open?

  Probably all of the above. It certainly isn’t because it is the best or most effective way to train. And it’s not because “it works” because, too often, it doesn’t. The traditional method of teaching a dog the obedience exercises in the order of Novice, then Open, then Utility, is boring, time-consuming and discouraging. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a better system.

  Remember your first efforts at dog training? You were probably a kid, sitting on the back porch with the family pet and a box of doggy biscuits. You had never heard of the American Kennel Club or its OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS. No one had told you that traditionally there was a certain order in which the dog was supposed to be taught certain things. Your “training” depended upon creativity, problem solving and a sense of fun (the very elements missing in most formal training today). Can you get in touch with that creative kid again? Who could be a better trainer for your dog? Who knows your dog better than you?

  Let’s rethink tradition. What if you were to take the obedience exercises and break them down and divide them by type rather than by class. One logical grouping, the one followed in this book, would include the following categories:

  -Heeling

  -Stays

  -Recall and Go Out

  -Retrieving

  -Jumping

  -Scent

  If you stop thinking of the six Novice, seven Open and six Utility exercises as separate entities and instead divide them all according to type, you can develop a plan to teach your beginning obedience dog exercises from all three AKC obedience classes at the same time. Introducing similar exercises and parts of exercises in a logical sequence actually makes it easier for a dog to generalize commands and concepts. You can introduce early in the dog’s training the things it will take the longest to perfect, then combine things the dog has learned and polish them into formal exercises before competing at each level. Relative to the traditional method, you can quickly and easily train a dog all the way through Utility before showing in Novice…not by training formal exercises, but by teaching informal categories.

  There are, however, three caveats to this approach.

  First, you must have the Big Picture. You have to know what the finished exercises, perfectly performed, look like. Then you have to figure out the Little Picture. How can each part of each exercise be broken down into still smaller parts, and how can these parts be related to parts of other exercises? You have to think things all the way through.

  Second, you must be able to read your dog: know when to teach, when to train and, since a dog’s confusion or lack of knowledge is never corrected, when to reteach. A good trainer not only knows what he wants from his dog, he can see things as his dog sees them. The successful trainer does not force (or more commonly jerk, manhandle or punish) his dog to fit into an unalterable training program. He changes the program to fit his dog. You have to be creative.

  Third, you are going to have to find an organization or instructor willing to let you take a cafeteria approach to the traditional classes. If you are part of a highly regimented organization, one where you can’t even enroll in one class until you’ve “graduated” from another, you are either going to have to buck the system or train on your own. Innovation, even when it brings progress and success, does not appeal to everyone. You have to be brave.

  TRAINING BY CATEGORIES

  Following is a sample master plan, designed to train a beginner dog through Utility. Each horizontal line represents a different category of obedience training; each category can be subdivided. “A” represents the point in time in which each category is introduced. “B” represents the point in training when you feel the dog is
ready to compete in Novice, Open or Utility. As each “B” is approached, handling, ring procedure and the exercises in their finished form are emphasized.

  Each “A” and “B” can be moved left or right to fit the learning style, mental and physical capabilities, age and attitude of each individual dog and handler. For example, a very young dog could be introduced to jumping, but jumping full height would have to wait until the dog had reached physical maturity and his bone growth was complete. While you are waiting for the dog to mature, he could be perfecting his recall and go out and starting to work on signals. You don’t have to wait until one thing is “finished” before beginning something else.

  On this chart, the control exercises are covered in the first three horizontal lines. The fun stuff – the next three lines – is introduced while the dog is still enthusiastic and eager to learn, long before the control emphasized in Novice has left him flat and, all too often, uneager to learn more. An older dog, even one trained through Novice or started in Open, can go back and utilize the chart by moving the appropriate “B” points left or right.

  There is no set timetable. You don’t work on a certain category for a certain length of time before introducing the next category. Because every dog and trainer are unique, each training schedule or timetable must also be unique. Each trainer sets the goals, invests the time, and adjusts the schedule for his own dog.

  ADJUSTABLE SCHEDULE

  The dog on this schedule could be trained through Utility before being shown in Novice. “A” represents the point in time in which the exercises on each line are introduced; “N” represents the level of performance desired prior to showing in Novice, “O” Open, and “U” Utility. You can move each letter left or right to fit your dog and your goals.