Today was Maya's first Subnovice Obedience class and my first class as an official member of Capital Dog training :D We were the newest members of a group that meets every Thursday morning and we were tossed into the work the moment we arrived.
After an absolutely HORRIBLE Rally class last weekend (Maya decided she did NOT want to work and that leaping in the air to bite me repeatedly like a little devil was a better idea) I was pretty nervous about starting an official competitive obedience class. Not to mention that I really don't know ANYTHING about competitive obedience or the technique required to pull it off.
Subnovice obedience is a starter class that teaches you what you need to know for Novice.
Novice is for dogs who are working towards their CD title (Companion Dog) which is a title you receive after passing three "legs" (aka three tries with qualifying scores with at least 2 different judges)
It includes:
Heel on leash
Figure 8 on leash
Sit
Down
Stand for exam
Off leash heeling
1 minute sit stay
3 minute down stay
Like this video:
Sounds simple right? And it IS! Maya is a champ at everything, but she is also a puppy (11 months old today) and that means DISTRACTIONS!
But she did great today, especially considering that it was a new class with a new instructor and new dogs. Also we were LATE which never helps things...
We first worked on heeling on leash with FOCUS. There are a total of 5 students (me included) and we walked our dogs around doing halts and turns and changes of pace (fast, slow, regular) as instructed. Since it was my first time I made many mistakes (I didn't know you can ONLY turn right in obedience! Just like Zoolander!) but everyone was extremely nice and supportive :D Maya was a bit distracted, but she focused fairly well which was great considering that it was our first class.
The instructor is great AND a shepherd lover, but not a positive reinforcement trainer and gave us all a lecture about how we should be "mother dogs" and be strict and not try to solve everything with treats... She also said that gripping the sides of our dogs faces and shaking (without anger) is all it takes to get attention sometimes. I respect all ideas (and this trainer has MANY titles under her belt) but I think we will do our best to leave the face shaking to those who need it and do what we can with positive training and motivation.
Next we worked with dowels as an introduction to competitive fetching. Maya LOVES fetching, but the trainer made it VERY clear that THIS fetching should be on our terms and NOT a game. Maya wasn't too sure she liked not being able to chew and fling the dowel around, but she did really well with having me handle her mouth (and shove a wooden dowel into it).
Next was the stand... this is a command that I never even realized existed until I started getting interested in training... WHY WOULD YOUR DOG NEED TO LEARN TO STAND? It seemed dumb, but since it is part of Rally and Obedience, Maya and I have been working a little bit with it for the last couple of weeks (with moderate success). The instructor told me that we could just watch if she didn't know stand yet, but I said we would give it our best shot.
Maya did BEAUTIFULLY. She needs to stand on command and be completely still as I walk away (about 6 feet) and the "judge" walks up and touches her head, shoulders and rear. Then I walk back (around Maya's back and to her side in heel position).
I was SO proud and could not have dreamed for a better stand! The instructor even praised us as having the MOST beautiful Stand of the whole group!!!!
We did recall. Again, since there were four fun dogs for Maya to play with in the pen, I imagined that the moment I took her off leash she would instantly run away from me, but she did GREAT!
I started her in one corner of the pen and walked to the other corner. I called and she came FLYING towards me and did a PERFECT front.
#1 she normally comes rather slowly #2 she has been SUCKING at fronts lately (she comes in front of me, does a circle and then heels...) so the fact that she did it perfectly was GREAT! We did this twice (both directions) and she was wonderful. Considering that other dogs in the class (who have been taking it for many weeks) couldn't even be off leash yet because they have terrible recalls... well... I felt much more at ease and felt that YES we were not beyond our skill level.
This is Maya's FIRST actual obedience class and I have taught her all of her skills myself (whereas a lot of my fellow students have been training for years) so I am pretty happy that she is doing so well.
We then did a sit stay, all at the same time! The dogs sat in a line, we walked a few steps away and they had to sit and stay while the teacher ran around behind us like a crazy person making noise and throwing toys around. Maya's face was like O_O the whole time, but she didn't move! Same with the down stay (considerably longer) she moved into a lazy down, but she didn't break her stay!!
At the end of the class the teacher took us aside and made it very clear that she is incredibly biased for shepherds :D She gave us some toys and training tools she had extras of and a lot of good advice and offers to help with whatever we need.
I am very glad we got into this class (and it was free!) and while I know that not EVERY class is going to go as well as this first one, at least we are on the right track.
Now I need to sign Maya up for nose work or something that DOGS like.. since I keep making her do silly human tricks for my sake.
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