Competitive Obedience Training for the Small Dog

by Barbara Cecil

  When your dog can successfully deal with tightly tied-down articles scented by other people, retie all of the articles to the mat with strings 8 to 10 inches long. (String is also tied to the scented article so it looks like the others.) You will soon find out whether your dog is using his nose to scent, or is nudging the articles to see which one is loose.

  The next step is to take the articles off the mat and tie them about eight inches apart on a light string or thin show lead. If the dog tries to pick up the wrong article, the drag of the rest tied to the string will usually be enough to tell him that he has made a mistake. Have the dog first work the tied-together articles and the scented article on his familiar mat, and then wean the dog off the mat to the articles on the floor.

  Your next move is to untie the articles from the show lead and retie them together in pairs. Untie a pair every four to five days until the dog is working a full loose set.

  I have had several feline training partners. Their influence might help explain why my dogs work so quickly.

  All of my dogs learn Scent Discrimination in our living room. My cats very much enjoy this process as they lurk under the dining room table, tails swishing, hoping to pounce on an unsuspecting Papillon.

  The cats also hide out in the training building under my husband’s boat. Occasionally a paw will stick out to snag us as we heel by. They will even chase the dog out on a go out. Perhaps I should try for the first OTCh Himalayan cat?

  Gerianne

  A dog will usually work a set of articles in the same way each time. Viewing the circle of articles as if they were on the face of a clock, the dog might always enter at 6:00, for example, and start sniffing the article placed at 10:00. He may get hung up in one spot, or never check the middle of the pile. The dog must learn to keep searching, regardless of the configuration, until he finds the correct article. Practice with additional articles in your set, or with the articles placed in vertical or horizontal lines, circles, X’s, widely scattered or very close together.

  If at any time the dog brings back a wrong article, don’t say anything. Just remove it from his mouth and send him again. If he repeatedly runs out and grabs an article without scenting, retie the articles in pairs and work your way back to loose. If the dog becomes “leather happy,” keep the leather articles tied in pairs and all the metal articles loose, sending the dog only for metal until you have worked through the problem. When training in a new place, always back up in the teaching sequence by tying the articles in pairs again or using a lesser number of loose articles.

  Scent Discrimination is a “confidence” exercise. For this reason, it should be taught slowly and thoroughly. You will probably find you will have to “back up” more while teaching scent than when teaching any other exercise.

  SCENT ACCORDING TO BARBARA

  For your first practice, lay down your mat without any articles on it. Let your dog sniff the mat, walk across it, and just as you did in introducing the jumps, let him realize it is not scary or threatening.

  Next, sit the dog about 10 feet away from and facing the mat. The dog is off leash, as he will be throughout the teaching of this exercise. Take a leather article and scent it by rubbing the dowel in your hands for 15 seconds. (Get into the habit of scenting an article in practice for about the same amount of time you will have for scenting the article in the ring.)

  After scenting the article, smear the bar with cheese, hold it in front of the dog’s nose and tell him to “Find It!” Let him sniff the bar and lick the cheese. Gently put the article in the dog’s mouth, praising with “What a good Find It!” Remove the article and reward with cheese.

  Rub more cheese on the bar, tell the dog to “Stay” and toss the article onto the empty mat. Encourage the dog to sniff the palm of your hand, and then command him to “Find It!” If necessary, run with the dog to the mat and repeat the command. If he retrieves the article immediately – great! If he sniffs or licks it first, praise, tell him to “Take It” and when he does, call him back as if it were a simple retrieve. Take the article from the dog with a big “Thank You!” and reward with more cheese. Repeat the process with the metal article. When the dog can successfully “find” each article on the empty mat, without encouragement or a second command, he is through with scent for that practice.

  To prepare for the next session, tie down four leather and four metal articles to the mat and let it air out for 24 hours. (Wash your hands first or, better yet, have someone else tie the articles for you.) Tie the articles down tightly. Don’t follow the practice of tying some articles tightly and having others loosely tied. The dog is never corrected for an honest error. Having a “wrong” article that is secured with a long line yanked out of his mouth is going to make the dog hesitant to retrieve any article, even the right one, the next time. The whole purpose of a tie-down mat is to limit the dog’s chance for error.

  Unless your dog is easily overwhelmed, you don’t need to start with just one tied-down article and add the others one at a time. With “only” scent, the dog can just as easily learn to discriminate between one in eight as one in two. Starting out with all the articles also saves the dog from having to work through the complicated misconception that this is a pattern exercise (he is to retrieve the article that is in a certain place relative to the other articles), rather than an exercise in which he is just supposed to use his nose. This is especially important if he has been corrected for sniffing while working in other exercises; at first he is not going to believe that in this exercise he is supposed to sniff! Eight articles, which have in common the fact that they carry no scent, strongly reinforces the idea that there is one article which is different from the rest because of the way it smells. In finding the one that is different, the dog discovers at the same time why it is different, and the concept of scent discrimination is conveyed.

  Ready to try it? Sit the dog at heel facing your article-covered mat. Scent the article you are going to use, then smear it with cheese and encourage the dog to sniff it. Tell the dog to “Wait,” then place the article on the mat with the other articles. Return to the dog and hold him back with your finger through his collar while you verbally rev him up – “Where did it go? Where is it?” – then release him with an enthusiastic “Find It!” Help the dog out, if necessary, by running to the mat and putting your finger on the correct article. Keep everything upbeat. The dog will pick up his attitude on this exercise from you.

  Repeat this procedure for several practice sessions. When the dog is consistently successful on his own with one “Find It” command, you can work into the format of the exercise.

  1) Start putting more distance between the dog and the mat to a maximum of 25 feet.

  2) Add the turn and sit (the same turn used for the number two glove) before sending the dog.

  3) Phase out the cheese by putting less and less on the article each time.

  4) Begin rewarding the dog with cheese from your pocket for each success.

  Give your dog your scent as specified in the AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS before you turn by “gently touching the dog’s nose with the palm of one open hand” every time he is sent to find an article. Of course your dog knows what you smell like, but there are other reasons for giving him your scent before sending him. First, it cues the dog that he is about to perform the Scent Discrimination exercise. Second, it tells your dog what you smell like at that moment. Your scent changes, especially if you are nervous, and your dog needs to be told, “This is what I smell like right now.”

  Scent only the bar, not the ends. This keeps the scent more concentrated and directs the dog’s nose to where he is supposed to pick up the article. If you scent the ends, the dog might choose the article next to the right one if there is air movement around the articles from a breeze or fan.

  Watch your dog’s approach and pattern of checking the articles so you can vary the placement of the scented article among the unscented. “Work the clock” by putting the scented article at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9
:00, and right in the center. Praise the dog as he is returning with the right article, not before. The dog that stands over the right article, looking at it and then looking at his handler, is waiting for his handler’s praise to tell him that he is making the right choice.

  When your dog is consistently successful in discriminating your scent versus no other scent, introduce the second level of complexity: your scent versus someone else’s scent. Keep the articles tied to the mat, and use as many people as you can find (everyone has a different scent), but only one person per practice. Include people who have handled food and then wiped off, rather than washed, their hands. Recruit people who have just smoked a cigarette or cigar, people with sweaty palms, women wearing hand lotion, and people who have just had their hands all over other dogs.

  When your dog is obviously scenting and not trying to retrieve any article other than the correct one, it’s time to wean the dog from the mat. As long as the dog is not encountering any problems, cut the cords on one article each practice. Systematically vary the placement of your scented article, and the untied articles scented by someone else, by placing some on and some off the mat. When all eight have been untied, remove the mat completely. If at any time the dog suffers a confidence crisis that impedes progress, tie the articles back on the mat and again work through the progression of weaning the dog off the mat.

  With the articles untied, there is a chance that the dog will bring back a wrong article. When it happens – and it will – show no emotion at all. Don’t look upset (don’t even be upset, the dog can tell), and don’t correct. Take the incorrect article from the dog and send him back to the pile with another “Find It” command. If the dog still can’t find the right article, quit for the day and assess your situation. There are legitimate reasons why a dog’s nose would quit working. With scent, the dog is always given the benefit of the doubt; if he is having trouble, correct the situation, not the dog.

  Sometimes the dog will have difficulty finding the right article only when it is in a certain place in relation to the others. You can help by simplifying the exercise. Remove a few articles, leaving the scented article in the trouble spot and the remaining articles in the same geographic relationship to it. The dog, for example, might consistently fail to sniff the scented article when it is in the center of the circle; simplify by practicing with only three articles, one at 12:00, one at 6:00, and the scented article in the middle between them. When the dog has learned to search the problem area, add the other articles back in, one at a time.

  When you are working with all of the articles off the mat, rotate the articles in your set for use as the scented article. Don’t just use the “0” articles over and over again; they will become so impregnated with your scent that your dog could probably “Find It” six blocks away! Remember to thoroughly wash and air out scented articles before returning them to the set.

  Practice on indoor/outdoor carpeting, cement, asphalt, gravel, matting, grass and dirt. Hooks made from clothes hangers can be used to anchor “wrong” articles to the ground, if necessary.

  If your dog sniffs the ground or floor instead of the articles, set him up by putting the articles on a spot where another dog has just been sitting or where something interesting has been smeared. The instant the dog’s nose strays, correct with a verbal “No sniff!” Step in, put your finger on the correct article and command the dog to “Find It,” not in his own good time, but promptly.

  Anchors made from clothes hangers for securing scent articles to the ground

  RING CONSIDERATIONS

  The AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS state that the articles are to be placed “about six inches apart.” Stewards confronted with small articles, however, seem to lose their ability to gauge distance. You will need to practice with the articles as close together as 2 inches and as far apart as 12 inches.

  The judge can put the articles anywhere he wants to in his ring. This complicates things for a short dog, who must sometimes find where all the articles have been hidden before he can start to sniff for the one he is supposed to retrieve. Practice with the articles in a “corner” made of baby gates, in front of the high jump, around the legs of the bar jump, and on a slick floor off the mat. Work with someone looming over the articles and then closely following the dog into the front.

  Scatter gloves around a practice ring, and if the dog passes up the articles to retrieve a glove or do a go out, take him back to the starting point and emphasize the format of the scent exercise. Have him smell your palm, turn in place, and then with the command “Find It” escort him out to the articles. (No tricks! The articles are always straight ahead after the turn.) Next, do a glove and then a go out, emphasizing the differences in signals and commands. Teach your dog to be alert, to discriminate between exercises, and to think about what he is doing. Neither you nor your dog can be on automatic pilot at any time in the Utility ring.

  In the Scent Discrimination exercise, your dog will reap the benefits or pay the price of your training philosophy. Dogs who have been trained using compulsive methods, where the primary motivation for performance has been the avoidance of pain, will have a great deal of trouble investigating, experimenting and thinking their way through this exercise. You cannot force a dog to scent. All you can do is reinforce a correct response when it occurs. A dog who has lost his initiative, who is afraid to try, or who waits for his handler to tell him what to do, is going to find Scent Discrimination a difficult task. On the other hand, dogs who have always been trained fairly using the inducive methods described in this book should have little problem with scent.

  “Whatever you believe and vividly imagine will inevitably come to pass.”

  Jane Savoie

  THAT WINNING FEELING!

  Chapter 17

  HANDLING

  This chapter assumes two things: your dog knows the exercises and you know your dog. If these two things are true, you are ready to concentrate on handling. Good handling will help you keep as many of those 200 points as possible each time you go into the ring.

  What is “good” handling? It is anything you can legally do to enhance your performance and make your team look like a winning combination. It means being prepared and thinking on your feet; it does not mean cheating or taking unfair advantage. Good handling is the ability to interpret and apply the AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS from moment to moment in the ring. It is the ability to “read” your dog so that you can respond appropriately to what he is doing and what he will probably do next. Handling means having control over what happens and not being just a passive recipient to whom things happen. To borrow a line from conformation: You handle in the ring to make your dog look good.

  Your ego and your alter-ego (your dog) are, after all, in a dog show. Obedience is a team sport; you and your dog are a team, and you are the captain. You are the one who has directed the training, who has read the AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS, who has decided it’s show time!, and who has paid the entry fee. You are the one who can handle your team to success.

  MATCHES

  Every insight into what you need to do to get the best performance from your dog is important information; each time you train you are learning to handle. Handling is a skill that also requires practice, and the best place to practice it is at matches.

  There are three types of matches. In ascending order of seriousness they are:

  • Show-and-go or “correction match.” Someone will call a pattern for you without judging or scoring your performance. With the cooperation of the “judge,” you may set up ring situations to work out problems. You may show as many times as you wish; there are no placements or prizes.

  • Fun match. Your performance is scored, and while you can make corrections in the ring, doing so will probably knock you out of a placement. Usually you can enter the same class more than once “For Exhibition Only” and can enter as many different classes as you wish. The organizers of a fun match do not have to answer to the AKC, so considerable latitude can be given to
practicing inside and outside the ring.

  • Sanctioned match. Given by AKC clubs between shows or by clubs working toward AKC approval, a sanctioned match follows the form and function of a licensed trial (a.k.a. The Real Thing). Your judge will probably be someone practicing to become an AKC judge. All concerned should behave just as if this were a licensed trial; you should not correct your dog or practice in the ring.

  Two words of warning: match judges are volunteers who may, in varying degrees, know what they are doing. Unless you know your judge has successfully trained a small dog himself, take any advice he may give you with a giant grain of salt. Also, many of the dogs at matches will not be well-trained, so keep a particularly close and defensive eye on your dog.

  You don’t go to a match to win; you go to learn everything you can to enhance your chances of winning at a real show. If you are observant and have the right attitude, you can glean some really valuable information at a match. For example:

  How early do you need to arrive at the show site? Does your dog need to be able to see and hear everything around the ring for a couple of hours before you compete so that nothing takes him by surprise? Or does being at a show for any length of time leave him stressed out and exhausted? If you have discovered that your dog is noise sensitive, take a tape recorder to a match and record all the distracting sounds around you. Playing the tape later during practice sessions can help desensitize your dog.

  If your dog normally eats a full meal in the morning, should he be given his full meal before going to the show? If a full meal predisposes him to a three hour nap and leaves him uninterested in treats, he might perform better with a light snack or perhaps without any breakfast at all.

  Did you bring everything you need? Keep a checklist of supplies in your training bag. Don’t forget water from home (changing the source of water can upset a dog’s stomach) and your dog’s favorite treats. Treats can be used in your warm-up and can even be used in the ring at some fun matches.