Thanks! that means a lot to us!
Katyusha and Zastava
- Thread starter Katyusharocket
- Start date
Thanks. I try really hard to do right by them. I'll never quite deserve them though. Theyre so sweet, all of them.
You treat them as they should be treated - 'part of the family'.
Have fun and looking forward to pictures and stories!!!
Yes we will! That's going to be a pretty big show again when it's a cluster so you should get to see a little taste of everything when they have so many events.
I looked at pre-entries for conformation today and not one single Doberman entered so far for this weekend's show.
Is that a good or bad thing for your day?
Well, I'm still learning a lot about showing and competing, this will be a first for both Zastava and I. I believe it is both a good and bad thing. If she is the only one, she will be best of breed. Kind of good
, until you are asked "out of how many Dobermans"
There are also only 3 other dogs pre-registered in the Guardian class of breeds, I don't know at all yet what that will mean for our days. I've been working her hard at nosework, and my vet clinic was nice enough to place a hide around the lobby while neither Z or I were looking and she did fantastic, it was the first opportunity I had to work her at it without her seeing me do the preparation (cutting up cheese sticks), and she showed me that she knew what the command "SEARCH!" meant. She got right to work, and wow was that ever a distraction rich environment! In her nosework level, novice A, the entries are required ahead of time and are now closed, so I know she will compete against 8 other dogs for that. It will be lots of competition, but a damn good feeling of accomplishment, say, even if she gets third place.
I want to make a disclaimer that anything I just tried to explain is just how I understand things as a complete beginner, so if anyone has anything to add or correct me on, I will be happy for the enhanced understanding from that.
Wow I bet that will change.
TBH, some judges won't give it to you unless they feel the dog is worthy, so it's still an accomplishment if you do. You just won't have any competition wins, but still get a few points for the breed wins.If she is the only one, she will be best of breed. Kind of good
Your nose work sounds fabulous! I'm thinking she'll be spot on and you will both have fun. I know nothing about conformation, but if you're there it would be fun to step out and see what it's like. It's the only way you'll know.
Looking forward to hearing about your adventures!
Thank you! I try to look at things from her perspective, like simple cheese stick cutting means she will soon smell birch. One thing I added recently is that she always wears a specific leash when searching and she never wears it for anything else, I feel like cues are important to dogs, and I felt today, at the clinic, that she was reading this as a pre-cue to me saying "SEARCH", when I switched her from our walking traffic lead on to the 8 foot leather lead that she only knows means "get sniffing and I'll give you cheese when you find it!". And man she meant business. A boxer of one of the clinic staff tried to engage her for normally valued play time and Z walked right past with a "NOT NOW!" look.
Experience will be what we get right after we really needed it!
That's what many experienced nosework people say too. I guess it makes good sense.
They do catch on to certain keys like this. As I've said previously I use a nylon harness for nose work and it only took a few practices for her to know exactly what was going to happen when I put it on. And your start behavior and start word, it all comes together as a picture for them!
Does UKC have different elements like AKC? Are you doing all they offer? Interior, Exterior, Containers & Buried is what AKC offers and in Novice there is one Birch hide in each.
Yes, at least in novice A, for this event, we were able to register for containers, interior, exterior and vehicle searches, sounds like the main difference is vehicle rather than buried. From what I have read, UKC novice A also only uses birch scent. We are going to try all 4. In a mock vehicle run Tuesday using the clinic staff parking area, Z alerted to two cars that were both incorrect, but Katyusha found it on the first try on the correct car. I did not know which car was correct and they were sneaky, hiding it way up top of a front suspension spring.
I think AKC is the only one to use buried, and the element itself is not so difficult, but the set up for trials is driving the clubs crazy, carrying/hauling sand and water for 20 containers (upper levels) and then disposing of contaminated containers (someone rewards over the container and a dog drops food in one... it's a pain. And for us training at home hauling that stuff to train with in different locations. 
I hope eventually AKC changes to vehicles. Vehicles can be challenging because of the many different ways air or wind can take the odor. So many nooks and crannies that the odor can flow to and get stuck away from the actual source. I do think they will (or should) set the hides carefully in Novice level to avoid big challenges, but all that could change if it's windy. But wind can also be your friend if Z has learned to follow it back to source.
I hope eventually AKC changes to vehicles. Vehicles can be challenging because of the many different ways air or wind can take the odor. So many nooks and crannies that the odor can flow to and get stuck away from the actual source. I do think they will (or should) set the hides carefully in Novice level to avoid big challenges, but all that could change if it's windy. But wind can also be your friend if Z has learned to follow it back to source.
As of Tuesday she was unable to follow back to source, but it was a really gusty day, and the wind was kind of coming over the building, falling down in front of the cars and making all kinds of eddies and whatnot. I walked her in front of the cars, about 6 of them, and behind them and she picked one and I thought for sure she had it. But nope. I don't know if our vehicles for this will be indoors or outdoors. Wind forecast Saturday is max 5mph and Sunday is max 10 mph.
Gusty is way harder, not surprised she had trouble.
That sounds easier, especially if it's not in gusty poofs!
She's new at this and you will both learn a lot. Hope you have great judges, many will explain things if you NQ, like what she was doing and why. I know you'll have fun and learn new stuff!
They are always outdoors for UKC.
She placed 1st in vehicle search at 24.77 seconds. I can write more later about what I learned today about the two of us after we are home. We are still waiting on container search results, but I was happy with her performance on that, too.
