2024 Goals for Asha

[Ddski5]

What a great job! I am always amazed at how far you’ve come with that beast. Haha. You really put in the time and work to provide structure and knowledge to Asha.

The bond we make by training our dogs is unbreakable!

I think this right here is one of the most greatest feelings and achievements I’ve ever felt. To take an unruly raw mind and hone it into a purposeful being is just amazing to me. The strong strong bond is the key and this is made through training.

 

[Ravenbird]

You really put in the time and work to provide structure and knowledge to Asha.

I really appreciate your compliments. You've been round the block and seen the shine come out. That said, before Asha I had no formal instruction on how to train, with the exception of a puppy obedience class in 1993. I'd venture to say 80% of my work with Asha - behavior and training - has been online, including this forum. These dogs, especially the challenging ones thrive on being challenged! I think they are begging for you to turn the tables and give them a "bet you can't learn this trick" just so they can say "hold my beer and watch this".

 

[Rits]

I love to hear this! I knew y'all could get there! Lots and lots of hard work and time. Some days you really feel lost and wonder if you will ever see the other side. And then you do ... there is absolutely NO better feeling than seeing the hard work of all of that training with your partner pay off!

 

[Ravenbird]

I love to hear this! I knew y'all could get there! Lots and lots of hard work and time. Some days you really feel lost and wonder if you will ever see the other side. And then you do ... there is absolutely NO better feeling than seeing the hard work of all of that training with your partner pay off!

All these words mean so much!

 

[Katyusharocket]

Only you guys who watched me struggle with Asha for years for exploding in public know how much this means to me! I did have her prong collar on since she was not being judged. No photos, we were short on help as it was.

I think those days of struggling were before my time here, but I have seen them referenced a lot, by both you and others, it seems Asha's outbursts have their own legacy LOL!

Even though I haven't read every detail of your history, I still love to see what you are doing, and I gotta tell you, when I see it, I think to myself that I couldn't do it. It's not so much jealousy, ok maybe just a little, blended with a much larger portion of respect. I am going to buy a traffic cone and go back to the tutorial you made for us, and try that out. Baby steps but it's good to start somewhere!

 

[Ravenbird]

Asha's outbursts have their own legacy LOL!

Oh, Lordy, the memories.

 

[Ravenbird]

Long 3 day trial weekend, too pooped to tell stories now, but we Q'd in every trial in Novice A obedience, thus earning our CD! One of the 3 was a 195 which was a proud moment indeed. The other two trials, so-so. Blue ribbons because we were the only entry in Novice A, so a Q means first, even if it wasn't bragging rights kinda score... 4 Q's and 4 Blues and one NQ from total of 5 Novice A trials.

Stories later...

 

[JanS]

Congratulations! To Q means you're worthy of those ribbons.

 

[remy]

Congratulations, so happy for you two!!!

 

[MichiH]

Congratulations

 

[Rits]

Congratulations!! You've worked so hard and thought it wouldn't be possible with her reactivity. Proud of y'all!!!

 

[Ravenbird]

thought it wouldn't be possible with her reactivity

Turns out the stand for exam is solid. She can tune out the surroundings and heel beautifully in warm up around the area, crating area, near the ring, but we get in the ring and she tunes ME out too! "forward... Halt" she stands there looking into outer space... Her very best exercise, the recall, gallops up to near-perfect front... "finish your dog" "Fuss!"... and she continues sitting there in front, looking at me as if I had said "salad". Saturday she did everything near-normal and beautiful. Trying hard to pinpoint why she shut down on Fri & Sun, but I have no idea. I mean, it wasn't surprising on Friday, her first day, Open & Utility going on in the next ring (all 3 days) with running & jumping and lots of shouted commands. I know her mind was going 90 mph maybe working hard at tuning it out. She went through the motions, but not really connected.

The best part was learning that we are far from alone with this problem! I watched several dogs warming up for Novice B, gorgeous healing, snappy sits, total focus & oh so sharp in the best kind of way. Got in the ring and halted and had that same blank look like Asha did. Got off leash and was trotting 2 feet behind the handler. Asha also lagged behind for the first time in her life. Off leash she's usually a foot in front of me, but Sunday she was a foot behind in some places. Anyway, I stayed all day Fri and Sat to watch Novice, Open and Utility and learned that this seems to be pretty common and the people I talked to all said yup, yup yup, so at least I don't feel like it's just me, just my dog or my training. I will probably try CDX in the future because heeling is a small portion instead of the main dish. Getting to retrieve & jump *may* get her mojo in gear. There were 3 other Dobermans there, a delightful show bitch doing some Rally and Open, a 10.5 year old doing Rally and another dog doing Open or maybe Utility. The bestest, happiest dog I saw in Utility was a miniature/medium poodle.

Here's photos of the venue, behind me was the crating room, and the business end with organization making the whole thing run smoothly.

 

[Katyusharocket]

This is truly amazing to me! Congratulations to you both!

 

[Ddski5]

Amazing work right there.
Great job.

 

[Ravenbird]

Onward & forward, ScentWork trial in August - it's so popular now we have to hope to just get in. I think yesterday was the first time we've done SW since January. That's how I am. Train & concentrate on one thing, then on another. Lucky for me, Asha seems to do well with this. So now SW to the front and I'll throw in some obedience exercises that in Open: the retrieve, jumps & signal commands and the down on recall. That cluster show is in Tucson in November again, so *may* try Open there.

I "warmed Asha up" since we hadn't done any SW for months by starting with one hide with 4 containers + a food distraction. In Excellent level there are 3 hides and 2 distractions (can be toy or food) in each element. At first she was pretty distracted by the food - not an alert, just thinking she could get to the food. It was about 10 pieces of kibble in a plastic jar with holes in the lid so she could smell it but not get to it. I had to say Leave It several times but when she alerted on the hide it was huge payoff with tasty smelly treats - the reminder that odor pays big, distraction food didn't pay at all. We ran a few of those then I left the jar of kibble and did 3 hides in the living room as "interiors", not containers.

Here's the video of her working the 3 hides. In order that she finds them: There is one hide under the pillow on the rocking chair, one hide in the drawer on the TV stand and one hide under the cushion of the couch. The distraction jar was on the floor behind the curtain where the warm air would rise and trap & enhance the kibble smell. She did investigate it but totally ignored trying to get the food. Yay! I'm excited to rotate these venues, it gives us both a break from monotony.

 

[Katyusharocket]

I think this is amazing! You guys make a great team! Watching this reminds me too, just how powerful of a help to humankind dogs can be. Maybe I will take one of mine down this road someday, but I haven't yet. This gets me thinking about it though.

 

[remy]

Awesome job! I hope you guys can do the trial in August!

 

[Rits]

Good girl! Love watching them source, it's my favorite part

 

[Ravenbird]

Love watching them source, it's my favorite part

Me too! I need to edit out a long video to one section showing Asha pin-pointing the exact spot. It's awesome!

 

[Ravenbird]

Asha pin-pointing the exact spot.

I put the video up in the nose work thread.