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Utility

8K views 61 replies 11 participants last post by  DevWind 
#1 ·
I have 2 in Open currently! I know.....I'm crazy! LOL They are my first dogs to show at this level too. Winx isn't real consistent so I may be showing her longer. She has 2 CDX legs, which is pretty exciting when a couple of years ago I wasn't sure we'd ever get a CD! Pilot is a very consistent guy. Usually if we don't qualify, it's my fault. He has 1 leg. I showed him just to see where we were at and he did very well. Everyone tells me that he has tons of potential. I've got to clean up a few things, which we're working on. We've lost a beautiful heel. I'm working on getting it back. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the Matthew Twitty seminar I signed up for. Maybe it's just a young dog thing I need to work out?



I need to come up with a plan for teaching Utility. I've been working on a few things. Anyone have any tips for training at this level? I do have friends that are teaching me some things.
 
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#2 ·
So jealous you are getting to go to the Matthew Twitty seminar! He will help you "heal your heel" for sure.

I am wondering how to train for Utility as well someday, so I hope you get some good answers!
 
#3 ·
I had the same problem, focusing on other things and my heel went out the window. I was so disappointed the last couple of times we were in the Open ring. He was so good. Back to working on heeling again, hope I don’t lose something else. We have most of utility down pretty well. But that darn heeling, he used to be beautiful. I actually have the little bugger back on a leash and a treat in his face. How embarrassing. I actually picked him up and left the ring before we even made the first turn. I didn’t want him to think he could be that bad and get away with it. We have so very few trials in Alaska, it’s a long wait for the next...

Good for you to do the Twitty seminar. I’ve done a couple of Connie Cleveland seminars and really liked them. Will you be a working team?
 
#5 ·
I had the same problem, focusing on other things and my heel went out the window. I was so disappointed the last couple of times we were in the Open ring. He was so good. Back to working on heeling again, hope I don’t lose something else. We have most of utility down pretty well. But that darn heeling, he used to be beautiful. I actually have the little bugger back on a leash and a treat in his face. How embarrassing. I actually picked him up and left the ring before we even made the first turn. I didn’t want him to think he could be that bad and get away with it. We have so very few trials in Alaska, it’s a long wait for the next...

Good for you to do the Twitty seminar. I’ve done a couple of Connie Cleveland seminars and really liked them. Will you be a working team?

No. I have an auditor spot. I've done a couple of Connie Cleveland seminars too.
 
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#4 ·
Heeling is the hardest thing in obedience (GOOD HEELING) and it needs constant upkeep.
I like to do a heeling only session each day -- it might only be three minutes. I will pick something to work on during that session, say, about turns, or left turns, or halts, and make sure not only do you get a correction in but that the dog improves and does it correctly in that session. Having said that, keep the session short. When I teach heeling I practice every day but here's what I do. I use food initially to teach heel position. I will form a meatball-sized piece of food in my hand, and break off tiny bites as the reward during the session. As soon as the meatball is used up, we're done. So sessions are always 2-7 minutes, that's it. You can go work on the other exercises separately. Don't EVER ask your dog to heel if both you and him can't give 100%.
 
#6 ·
I'll have to go back to the basics like this. I took him to an Open class in a very busy environment when he was still basically a puppy and his heel has never been the same. Mr Pilot Man will be getting that heel back. His scores are always in the 190's but I'm very picky with him.
 
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#8 ·
I have 2 in Open currently! I know.....I'm crazy! LOL They are my first dogs to show at this level too. Winx isn't real consistent so I may be showing her longer. She has 2 CDX legs, which is pretty exciting when a couple of years ago I wasn't sure we'd ever get a CD! Pilot is a very consistent guy. Usually if we don't qualify, it's my fault. He has 1 leg. I showed him just to see where we were at and he did very well. Everyone tells me that he has tons of potential. I've got to clean up a few things, which we're working on. We've lost a beautiful heel. I'm working on getting it back. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the Matthew Twitty seminar I signed up for. Maybe it's just a young dog thing I need to work out?



I need to come up with a plan for teaching Utility. I've been working on a few things. Anyone have any tips for training at this level? I do have friends that are teaching me some things.

Hey there. How have your obedience trials gone this summer and fall? I was curious about an update.
 
#9 ·
They both got their CDX on the same day in September! Pilot qualified and took 1st both days. Winx qualified on the second day and took 2nd. I found out that Pilot needs work with someone holding his dumbbell. He scored 192 and 193. He lost at least 5 points each day points because he wanted his dumbbell back. It’s not a normal thing around here for the judge to hold it the whole time. I have to be careful with his corrections so it will be a challenge.

I’ve been working on utility with Pilot. We have almost gotten gloves down. We’ve been working on go outs but the jumping part is getting really good. We both got completely frustrated on the scent articles so we put them away for a while. We are learning utility together and without being in a class. We have some cleaning up to do in open yet.

I made a deal with Winx. If she qualified she was done with obedience. She’s not a big fan. She does agility now and loves it. And I have the benefit of a very well behaved agility dog with the best start line stay out there. ?

We are taking a break from trials while we are learning utility.

Thank you for asking!
 
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#11 ·
Well, Utility is coming around pretty nicely! As I was working with him one night, someone said, "He's really starting to look like a Utility dog". I'm taking that as a complement! Found a method of teaching a go out that's working for him. He's wanting to run out on "mark" so I'm working on that. Just excitement I think. We are back into private lessons so that helps. We are going to just keep at until we get it.

I did go ahead and enter him in Open B in January......Our first time playing with the big kids!
 
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#12 ·
We are catching on to articles! Yay! I apparently worked on too much and confused him on other things today. How do you break it up so they understand each one? I’m going to only do a couple of things each session but do you only work one exercise or a couple?
 
#14 ·
I did food on the article. He only worries about where the food is. Take it away and I'm back at the beginning.
We did hide and go seek with the PVC tubes. Food again so back to the beginning. Not to the extent you're talking about.
Tosses into a pile were probably the most useful with him.
When he was figuring it out and got it wrong, I just said "wrong" and resent him. Very happy response when correct.
I keep corrections light with this one. He's a softie.

It's been off and on for a while with him working it out. For whatever reason, it just clicked what I want from him last week. I started with using tongs to place the unscented ones out and only scenting one. He is up to six metal articles. I had my 8 year old granddaughter set them out for me. She touches them is very creative with her placement. She will do a normal pile or line them up. Last night, she spread them all over the kitchen (don't worry, it's a small kitchen) and he found the right one. He is starting on leather too. At first I thought he was just getting lucky, but he's sniffing and actually searching for the right one now. We need to get it on turf still. Lots of turf rings here. We are well on our way with articles.

For the other exercises, while they are still learning how do you separate them? I'm thinking about doing a signal session, or directed jumping session. Just working one exercise a session. Is this the way others do it? I completely confused him yesterday by working on too many things. Since I've never done Utility, I'm not teaching a puppy. He's 2 1/2 and technically my first CDX dog by 5 or 10 minutes. My biggest problem is that I can only get to my club once or twice a week and weather here isn't real good for outdoor training.
 
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#16 ·
Thank you! He does have some of it down pretty well. He goes to the correct glove with decent reliability. He loves the jumping part of the directed jumping exercise, we haven’t put it with the go out yet. Although I think he might do better with the go out if I did. Sometimes the work IS the reward. ? In this case it could be. He is balking after 2 or 3 go outs. Maybe if I let him jump when he does it correctly, it would be a motivator to try again. We’ve been working signals one piece at a time to prevent walking. I plan to start keeping a journal of what I did in each session. We’ve been lazy today after the weather keeping us up all night.

He has his CDX so we are trying to maintain and clean up there while learning new exercises.
 
#17 ·
Articles are his favorite now! I took him outside to work with him. every time I released him, he ran to the article bag. He got them right every time and we were outside. Now that I'm done being sick and got everyone on a schedule I'm working with him more.
 
#18 ·
This has kind of turned into my Utility diary! LOL He has gotten very good at pretty much everything. I've recently figured out the jumps are like a wall with him for go outs in trials. He gets to the jumps and turns to look at me. We finally found a way to replicate his behavior so I can work on it outside of a trial. We moved the jumps closer together. Now I can really work on the pressure and get him through it. Next trial he's entered in is on his home turf so hopefully that helps!
 
#19 ·
Have you watched any of Connie Cleveland videos on directed jumping? She has some good games to play.
I have an idea. What about sitting your guy, walking out with the dumbbell and setting it beyond the jump. Then walking back and sending him for the retrieve?
 
#23 ·
Welcome to the joys of (F)(H)Utility. I used the Laura Romanik Go-Bop method (google if interested) but it sounds like you are already substantially into the training process and are having trouble with confusion in the ring. Or in different locations.

Directed Jumping is a lot about constantly seeking to balance where you reward. Since going out all the way is his issue, in training, you need to be rewarding almost every time he goes all the way to the stanchion. It may help to back up to basics and teach him to touch the stanchion with his nose or "bop-it" ala Laura Romanik. I am not a fan of putting treats at the stanchion. I think the dog quickly realizes there is never a treat at a trial and gets confused about what you want.

In training, when he gets to the stanchion and touches it with a nose or paw, use your reward marker ("Yes!" Clicker, whatever) and then walk out to him and give him the reward with your hand touching the stanchion. (If he gets up and comes to you after your reward marker, no problem. The reward marker marks the correct behavior but it is also a release. Just walk out to the stanchion and give the reward.)


If you reward too heavily on the stanchion touching behavior, he may begin ignoring a sit command in a trial and keep going to the stachion. If that starts to happen, in training, begin rewarding the sit more often, but going all the way to the stanchion in a trial is MUCH better than going halfway. It's only 3 points. Halfway is an NQ.
 
#24 ·
Yes. I’ve seen dogs nearly knock over stanchions. I’ve taught him to go out to a mat which magically shrinks as he gets better. I am continuing to improve his performances. All of these ideas are helpful!
 
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#25 ·
I'm no great utility trainer but I've started putting a bumper at the stanchion (tucked against the side of it, under the gate) and man does that create some drive!!! Gotta say I've not had the stop-between-the-jumps situation, although I firmly believe the dog has to break and mend every part of an exercise before they actually know it.
 
#26 ·
100% agree with you! I feel like that’s true with ANYTHING we teach them! I’m afraid with a bumper he would completely forget the task at hand.
 
#27 ·
That should tell you where you rank versus the bumper ;)
 
#28 ·
You could be right! Haha! He’s a little weirdo.....his equipment is extremely important and he must keep anyone from taking it! Ive done too well with teaching the retrieve I guess..... At the last trial, he tried to retrieve the judge’s pen when she dropped it.
 
#29 ·
There are some differences between the Australian sendaway for directed jumping and the AKC one; our distances are a bit greater and we send the dog to an area delineated by pipe or other edging. When I first started trialling many years ago, we sent our dogs out towards nothing and they had to keep going until we cued them to turn and sit. However, the principles are the same. I like to send the dog to the required destination in relation to the jumps from early training, and gradually move the starting place back. So, if the jumps were causing a problem, I’d go back to sending the dog from between the jumps and gradually move the starting position back (not the destination). That might also assist your dog by ensuring that, in early retraining, he bursts past the jumps before he has a chance to slow down.
 
#30 ·
Oh my! This weekend was different! I've been working super hard on the directed jumping exercise and guess what?!? He DOES them at a trial now! Everything else seems to be broken, but hey, that's how it goes. He wasn't himself at all. Did all new things. Not sure what's going on. No training for a few days so we can either let the problem resolve or get him looked at. He's just a little off is all....nothing serious.
 
#35 ·
So…..Matt Twitty seminar. Learned a lot of valuable techniques I plan to use. The one thing I was told that I’m not sure is going to work was the “pressurized play” specifically brought up for my dog. It’s not a bad thing for the right dog. Mine just acts like he’s being beaten. I’m just not going to work on upsetting him to point of biting me. Just doesn’t make sense to me To potentially ruin a sweet dog. Instead, my plan is to build his confidence on the exercises. Even if it means taking several steps back.
 
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#36 ·
I am not sure this is going to work for you either, honestly. Matt could have done a better job explaining what he’s looking for in pressurized play. It’s supposed to be a play-bite, not a bite-bite, but Pilot is so sweet that he just can’t comprehend biting you in any way. I liked your compromise of tugging instead. Tugging may be the key!

I did think his insight on not looking Pilot directly in the eye on some things helped a lot.
 
#38 ·
Update.....

I'm not exactly sure what happened at that seminar. He is showing like a different dog now! No "border collie slink"! He heeled pretty nicely. Not where he used to be but MUCH better! Did his signals but didn't quite lie down all the way and anticipated the sit. (That's something I can work on!) ?The mats were sticky. I don't know that it bothered him but it may have been a factor. The biggest acheivement? HE DID HIS GO OUTS! Walked too far forward but he did them! To white gates against a white wall. The judge even paid me a compliment and said he had beautiful go outs! I'm so happy with how he did! We went someplace where we really didn't know anybody and kind of did a different "warm up". I played into the "mama's boy" stuff. Got him out of his crate early, took him out to potty, came in and let him snuggle and get pets. Oh...and I forgot to put his chain collar on. So some combination of events really boosted his confidence.
 
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