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Cross-Training Your Obedience Dog! Remember the old adage – “Jack of All Trades – Master of None”? There certainly is some value in that old phrase, as you will see that if a trainer focuses on just one area, they seem to excel, with proper training. Cross-training though has become the buzz-word of the 21st century and it has a lot of value in making your obedience dog better in the ring. Here’s how! One of my favorite sports is tracking. I find it fascinating to watch a dog use it’s nose to follow a path, and to do something that I am not capable of doing, which is scent work. When teaching my dogs to track, I am developing their keen sense of smell, and find that this increases their ability to do the utility articles. We all know that if we do not use something, we loose it, so it just makes sense that training a dog to utilize all of their scenting ability will also teach them to distinguish between our scent on the article and that of the stewards. With tracking we also learn that dogs are very capable of scenting a track that is many hours old. Thinking about this in relation to scenting our articles, we now no longer have to worry about not putting enough scent on our article, or how long the judge takes to place it in the pile. The other aspect about tracking is that the dog leads you down the track, not the handler leading the dog. Good preparation in my mind for the dog to learn to work independently in utility. I would like to add that I have never had one of my tracking dogs sniff the ring in obedience. Our Goldens are so darn smart they just know the difference. Another favorite activity of me and my Goldens is Rally. With 50 different exercises to master to compete in Rally, my dogs have learned to maneuver their bodies to form different muscle memory than they have in obedience. Because our whole body posture is different in Rally, I can use those postures between exercises in obedience competition to jazz up my girl. Before competing in Rally, I would simply walk or heel between the exercises. Now, I talk to her, telling her what an “excellent girl” she is between exercises and use some of same hand motions I do in Rally. What a difference it has made in her obedience performance. For those of you who have trained your dog in agility like I have, I can tell you that hand signals for the directed jumping are a piece of cake for an agility dog. They have already learned to take the direction of a jump, and it simply takes a bit more practice for the directed jumping exercise. Finally for those of you who also love the conformation ring, your dog has a head start on the stand for exam exercise in obedience. All of our stacking and having the judge examine the dog, is just a prerequisite to including a stay command. Also, you have taught that dog a stand on your show lead while free-baiting that just needs to be incorporated to a stand off-lead. So, consider cross-training and utilizing the strengths of different venues to make your obedience dog spectacular! |
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