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CUTTING THE CHATTER I say this quite factitiously, as a lover of Rally chatting with your dog while maneuvering the course is the essence of the competition. But, what happens when you now have to transition to traditional obedience? All of a sudden, there is dead silence and the dog becomes either confused, stressed that it is doing something wrong, or unmotivated to work. Hence, we title this article, Cut the Chatter! Your voice can only be used in traditional obedience competition to give the initial command to heel, but your voice can be a good tool to get your dog moving to the starting position as well. Picture this…. You walk into the obedience ring, unsnap the lead and place it on the judge’s table (or hand it to an attentive steward) and instantly your dog looks worried! You are in Open obedience, and your dog is already starting to lag. You have not even gotten to the indicated place to start your heeling exercise. I’ve found the best way to “unstress” a dog like this, is to pretend that you are doing Rally. When I am faced with a ring setup where I have to enter the ring and walk across the ring to the start of the heeling, I will use the same body motions and chatter that I do when competing with my dog in the rally ring. I will say to her, “let’s go” and “what a good girl you are” while walking across the ring to start my exercise. My voice will be lively and exciting, and I will “chatter” with her as much as I can before the start. The effect it has is to tell my dog, “this is nothing to worry about”, “we are about to have fun”! Of course while heeling, I can only give her the “heel” command, and then must not give another command until the judge tells me halt, at which time I can tell her to “heel” again. But I have found that with a little incentive at the start, she is a much more willing partner in our routine. Another trick I have found to really “jazz” up her heeling, is to swing the arm that is not at my waist….. let me explain. My usual hand position is to hold my left arm at my waist and to have my right hand hang at my side. After much experimentation, I have found that I can do a cadence of sort with my right hand, swinging as I heel. Slower swing for the slow time, faster for the fast. Even though my dog is looking at my face for her attention during heeling, she is also keeping cadence with that swing of the right hand, and “no chatter” is needed to keep her in perfect heel position. |
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