Ashas IGP Adventures

Ravenbird

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Well, we passed our BH! I have to say this has been a roller coaster of emotions and decisions on my part. I looked at my calendar for the past year and had training with a real person (who specializes in IGP) 10 times. All the rest has been on me. I know many theorize to get your dog to a point of training beyond what you want to see in trial and I certainly don't have that. Asha stayed with me, she kept her long down, she didn't growl or hair up (I'll get to the one explosive bark in a minute), she did great sits and her recall was about 90 mph with a stop not quite soon enough so almost knocked me off my feet, and of course landed crooked. She still wants to be ahead of me and she still leaks really bad - but overall, it was about as good as she could be at this point.

During the judges review of our exercise the two handlers & dogs come before the judge, also in front of everyone outside the working field who is watching and he critiques each dog/handler so everyone can hear/learn what he saw. For those of you not familiar, two dogs go in & out together, working at the same time (one is on long down while the other does the routine, then they reverse). So I had Asha on a down at my side and there's about 15 people hanging out listening to the judge, looking toward him and at the two of us handlers & our dogs. He critiqued the other team first, and Asha seemed pretty relaxed, but he finished up announcing them getting a passing score and then everyone clapped. LOL, Asha went from down to stand in .03 seconds, but did not bark! I put her back into a down and then the judge began talking about our routine. I wanted to show respect to the judge by listening & nodding so was not glancing at Asha, who had decided that all these people watching us was just about all she could take. She let out a huge BOOOWOOOOWOO without breaking her down. Oh Lordy. But the judge had a great sense of humor and said "Asha, don't talk that way, I was saying mostly nice things about you!" I'm SOOOO grateful for a sense of humor and somehow the laughter from the "audience" relaxed Asha rather than stir her up. Anyway all's well that ends well.
With more experienced training and a club visit more than once every 4 - 6 weeks, I'm sure she could shine. As it is, I'm happy, she's happy and we are both exhausted.
I'd like to thank all of you who've encouraged me - having "you can do this" tossed out here & there really can help!
Someone was taking photos for the club, but I'll have to wait for those to be posted - hopefully there will be a couple of Asha to share here. For now, our little plaque for passing, and an exhausted Asha last night.

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That is so awesome congratulations ! It’s a ton of hard work and dedication for you and your dog but so gratifying, my girl and I received our BH title last September so I can relate again Congratulations now the real fun begins and you have that foundation built !
 
Yay! So glad that you enjoyed this experience and Asha did too. The pass is just the icing on the cake! Makes all the hard work worth it. :thumbsup2:
 
Congratulations!!! I wasn't even aware you were going for it. So proud of you two!!! And look at her, handling 15+ people and another dog close by fairly well!
 
And look at her, handling 15+ people
LOL, that was just the obedience test, THEN came the traffic test. "Through a crowd, a bicycle, a car honking, tied out with handler out of sight and a dog walker going by. I knew she would not be reactive to any of that, thinking "through a crowd" would be like the figure 8 around the group of 4 people each about 8 feet apart. Nope. This judge called up 10 people standing in an oval about like a large dining table and we did a serpentine through them, then halted with a sit in the middle of them, then he (the judge) came over and stood next to the dog, so Asha was basically as close to his right as she was to my left, and he patted her head. She was perfect, but I was having an internal meltdown.
 
Well HELL YEAH!!
I knew you could do it!!

You have worked so hard to get that! Good for you. It’s such a major accomplishment to do that!

Good for you!
 
Wow, congratulations! I didn't know either that you were going for it. Fantastic!

Oh my goodness, they have to be tied out? Well, it's for certain now, Oji will never get a BH.

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Big congratulations again!
 
Well, we passed our BH! I have to say this has been a roller coaster of emotions and decisions on my part. I looked at my calendar for the past year and had training with a real person (who specializes in IGP) 10 times. All the rest has been on me. I know many theorize to get your dog to a point of training beyond what you want to see in trial and I certainly don't have that. Asha stayed with me, she kept her long down, she didn't growl or hair up (I'll get to the one explosive bark in a minute), she did great sits and her recall was about 90 mph with a stop not quite soon enough so almost knocked me off my feet, and of course landed crooked. She still wants to be ahead of me and she still leaks really bad - but overall, it was about as good as she could be at this point.

During the judges review of our exercise the two handlers & dogs come before the judge, also in front of everyone outside the working field who is watching and he critiques each dog/handler so everyone can hear/learn what he saw. For those of you not familiar, two dogs go in & out together, working at the same time (one is on long down while the other does the routine, then they reverse). So I had Asha on a down at my side and there's about 15 people hanging out listening to the judge, looking toward him and at the two of us handlers & our dogs. He critiqued the other team first, and Asha seemed pretty relaxed, but he finished up announcing them getting a passing score and then everyone clapped. LOL, Asha went from down to stand in .03 seconds, but did not bark! I put her back into a down and then the judge began talking about our routine. I wanted to show respect to the judge by listening & nodding so was not glancing at Asha, who had decided that all these people watching us was just about all she could take. She let out a huge BOOOWOOOOWOO without breaking her down. Oh Lordy. But the judge had a great sense of humor and said "Asha, don't talk that way, I was saying mostly nice things about you!" I'm SOOOO grateful for a sense of humor and somehow the laughter from the "audience" relaxed Asha rather than stir her up. Anyway all's well that ends well.
With more experienced training and a club visit more than once every 4 - 6 weeks, I'm sure she could shine. As it is, I'm happy, she's happy and we are both exhausted.
I'd like to thank all of you who've encouraged me - having "you can do this" tossed out here & there really can help!
Someone was taking photos for the club, but I'll have to wait for those to be posted - hopefully there will be a couple of Asha to share here. For now, our little plaque for passing, and an exhausted Asha last night.

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Congratulations, great accomplishment. Most don’t realize how hard it is to get your dog ready to trial, let alone not having a club to help you. So many things you really can’t prepare for without a group. Awesome job!!!👏👏👏
 
Congratulations, great accomplishment. Most don’t realize how hard it is to get your dog ready to trial, let alone not having a club to help you. So many things you really can’t prepare for without a group.
Thanks - I was one who really didn't realize how hard it would be. We still have tons of work to do in obedience. She's not wrapping in front as bad, but still wants be ahead of me and I've got to tighten the about turn. I have given up on the leaking unless you have a suggestion on that. She whines almost constantly in the long down (but doesn't move) and now a NEW thing, one or two sharp barks when I do the sit or down walking off leaving her. "Back-talk" I call it. Unless I win the lottery, I'll probably just hang at club level and have fun. I'll try to land a BH with a DVG trial so we get credit with UDC, but the closest one that might happen will be at least 8 hours away. All the club trials near me (3 -4 hours) are USCA.
 
Well done! The swelling of pride and accomplishment when you title in something is intoxicating; being able to do it without regular club training is just astounding!
 
Great job Asha and Ravenbird! So cool that you got your BH! (I know nothing about IGP, so I had to look up what all that entailed- super impressive!!!).
 
Thanks - I was one who really didn't realize how hard it would be. We still have tons of work to do in obedience. She's not wrapping in front as bad, but still wants be ahead of me and I've got to tighten the about turn. I have given up on the leaking unless you have a suggestion on that. She whines almost constantly in the long down (but doesn't move) and now a NEW thing, one or two sharp barks when I do the sit or down walking off leaving her. "Back-talk" I call it. Unless I win the lottery, I'll probably just hang at club level and have fun. I'll try to land a BH with a DVG trial so we get credit with UDC, but the closest one that might happen will be at least 8 hours away. All the club trials near me (3 -4 hours) are USCA.
Just trial at the club close to you. Titles are in the book. Unless you are wanting to go to nationals it doesn’t matter. Just have fun, that is all she knows, she doesn’t now trophies, awards, clubs ect… just fun with you.
 
Finally got some BH photos! And yes, that's a Doodle that she was paired with & also got her BH.

About to start off-leash routine:
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Front after recall, not bad! She landed crooked, but self-corrected to only slightly crooked:
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After traffic test, tied back while I go out of sight. She just stared at where I disappeared and didn't move.
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Then she saw me re-appear & smiled!
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A couple more -

Heeling fast, slow & the halt with glance at judge to go on. Yup, still wants to wrap around... lots of work left to do.IMG_0124.JPGIMG_0125.JPGIMG_0129.JPG
 
Lovely pics!! You should be proud!!! And bless that doodle owner for being a straight up UNICORN! Good for them.
 

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