Olympic's Emeril - Schutzhund 2

Arlo and me and his High SchH 2 trophy, 84, 77, 75. For full results, click Here

October 3rd & 4th 2009, the Durham Schutzhund Club hosted a fall trial with Judge Nikki Banfield, USA. I had entered Arlo in this trial just a week prior to the event, as although I had planned to enter a fall trial, Arlo had been ill the previous week due to ingesting large quantities of wood.... that's another story. Because of this, I was not sure he was feeling well enough to trial. It turned out he was feeling great, and our practice sessions at the Durham club really impressed me. It seemed that Arlo was finally able to transfer what he has learned to a new location much more easily now. Along with this and some great words of advice from training director Peter Lauder, I was feeling confident going into this trial. Overall, our performance was good. Leading up to the trial I struggled once again to overcome and control my nerves. My nerves got the better of me during the tracking phase, as for the first time that I can remember, the spectators were allowed to come down onto the tracking field. Every other trial I have attended or been entered in, the spectators were required to stay up on the road. They were very close to us, we were the last to track, there were many people there watching, some of whom have world level experience, and well..... this unsettled me. I'm sure my nervousness translated into Arlo's performance, as the conditions were outstanding, plush sod, lots of dew, no detectable wind, the track was visible.... he could have easily put in a 95+ point performance, but instead we ended up with 84. I am not going to complain about that, as he did very well considering my state of being. I had also lost some points due to a misunderstanding of the rules... once again, another story.

Leading up the obedience routine, I was feeling quite unwell... nausea, nervousness, panic! I really don't know why I get into this state of mind, Arlo is a very reliable OB dog, not a high scoring one, but quite predictable. Once we started working, I quickly settled into my "trial mind", "in the ring state", "in the zone".... I don't really know the correct term for this, but it happens almost always when I run agility, which is far more often than I enter a SchH trial. No matter what I am feeling or worried about waiting to go on the field, it all virtually disappears once my dog and I start working together as a team. All I see is my dog, me, and the judge. It's as if no one else is even there, I forget completely all about everyone else. It is a nice state of mind to be in. Arlo and I worked great together, and what a wonderful feeling being out there with my canine partner working as a team. We lost quite a few points on little things... things I admit, I have not worked on at all. I have since begun to work on those "little" things that turned into big point losses once added up, as I do intend to trial with Arlo again. Even though our score was quite low, I did get many comments from the spectators about how nice we looked out there together, including a "nice job in OB" from a 2-time WUSV competitor. But, my favourite comment was from the judge... in her critique, she said that it is obvious that the handler and the dog have an excellent working relationship together. :-)
Arlo did his best work for me, and that is all I can ever ask for.

The protection phase was the one I was most worried about. His bitework has progressively gotten less intense over the years, and this can certainly be attributed to his illness, however I just cannot be certain how much his illness contributes to his performance. However, he had worked great with the helper Jason at our practice sessions before the trial. He was actually more fired up than he has been in a while... a good sign. His protection routine in the trial was very flat, and I did loose a little bit of control a couple of times. I have been told that nervous handlers can have an adverse affect on a dog in trial, but it was difficult for me to tell how much this was an issue for him. We squeaked by with 75 points... a pass, but not enough to move on to a SchH 3 level. One must score minimum 80 points in the protection phase to be eligible to progress. So, we must try again if we want to move on. The following morning Arlo did have a fever of over 40 degrees Celsius, which could certainly have been a contributing factor to his level of intensity on the trial field. The day of the trial I saw no signs of him feeling ill, and I was very diligent to watch for these.

Overall, my experience was good, and I am happy I decided to enter. The judge Nikki Banfield was outstanding, super nice to the competitors, very fair, and very detailed in her critiques, which I found to be very helpful. I felt it was a privilege to have trialed under her. At the end of the trial, she told everyone that the dogs only know what we (the handlers) teach them, so if we are having training issues, then we are to go home and look in the mirror, as it is us and only us who are responsible for those. Then she told everyone to go home and hug their dogs. I think that message really hit home for a lot of people, as it is so true. Our dogs only know what we have taught them...

A big thanks to friends Graham and Josie for the great photos. My camera does not have a good zoom lens yet, but we will have one soon.




Heeling the "J" pattern.



Dumbbell throw over the jump



Retrieve over the frame


Long down


Waiting for our critique


Bark and hold, Jason Peter is the helper


Back transport


Setting up for the "out"


Judge Nikki Banfield after our protection routine critique congratulating Arlo and I on a successful SchH 2 title.


Fun shot after all the awards were handed out.... Josie caught this one of Arlo looking up at his trophy....

Dream Tracking Fields Turned Into Nightmare...

This was the scene last year at the Brayford sod farm, photo was taken in early fall 2008. It is 300 acres and only a 10 minute drive from us. I was able to get in a lot of practice time here, it is so huge I could go several times per week. The quality of the sod was excellent. It was pristine tracking conditions.


The excellent tracking conditions continued into the spring of this year.
Arlo tracking in April of this year. The grass is brown, but is short, well maintained, and uniform.

Later on in the early summer, we found the sod farm had been neglected, was full of weeds, overgrown, and had bare patches of ground spread throughout. It was a nightmare! I was so disappointed... sure enough I find myself an excellent field for tracking, one that is not used by any other trackers, is close by my home, and then shortly afterward it turned into a weed infested mess. To make matters worse, because of the neglect, it seemed that local ATV riders took advantage of this and would make it a habit of ripping around out there creating dozens upon dozens of unavoidable cross tracks. Ugh!
Virtually the same view of the sod farm as in the top photo, this one taken in the summer of 2009. Over grown madness with far from uniform vegetation.


I was initially quite disappointed at the time when I first discovered that the sod was not being maintained. I would drive by often, hoping each time that I would see that it had finally been cut. It was never cut the entire season. So, I decided to track there anyway. It turned out to be an excellent practice field for running tracks in "less than ideal" conditions. You could not lay a track that did not include some changes in terrain, be it from short to long grass, several different types of vegetation, bare patches of dirt, and cross tracks. The usual wild animal cross tracks were always there, but the ATV cross tracks were a sharp thorn in my side. Sometimes I would not come across the particularly bad ones until I was well into my track. Very frustrating! Well, as the saying goes... when you get lemons, you make lemonade. So, I used these fields to increase the dogs' confidence on terrain changes and navigating through cross tracks. It increased Arlo's confidence in particular in a short time.

Close up view of a typical patch of ground on the once pristine sod. You can see bare patches and several different lengths and types of vegetation.


Another typical patch of ground we would track through.


ATV cross tracks. They were unavoidable.


How many cross tracks can you see in this photo?


And this one?

Sometimes I would see this while half way through laying my track.


How many cross tracks do you see here? Arlo seemed to be able to navigate well through cross tracks like this. Eros had quite some difficulty.


We have since found other sod farms to track on that are well maintained, yet they are considerably farther away from us. Nonetheless, we are extremely grateful that the land owners are allowing us to use their fields.

Summer Bite Work - Tito

Club helper George working with Tito and the bite pillow


Nice pulling.


Hard to tell who is having more fun in this photo, George or Tito :-)


The smoke from the fire gives a really nice effect.


The beginnings of the bark and hold.

The take off for the escape.

Club helper Rich.

Olympic's Zorro - Ausdauerprüfung (AD)

Eros completed his endurance test today, the AD, under Judge Johannes Grewe. This was our second attempt at it, having failed the last one in November in Buffalo due to cut pads. This time it was run at our home club, and I was able to keep him trotting on the grassy shoulder of the dirt road almost all of the time. There were 5 of us running it, and all of the dogs passed.

This is me checking his paws on one of our breaks.


Another break.


The five of us and our dogs peddling off down the road.


At the end, with his medal for completing the test.

February Training Weekend

Mike Bauer, giving some instruction and tips to Me with Eros.

February 7th & 8th 2009, the Capital City Schutzhund Club hosted their annual February training weekend. This was my first opportunity to attend. This year they invited Mike Bauer, a 5 time WUSV competitor to come out and share some of his training insights with the group. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend on the Sunday, and missed all of Saturday along with Saturday evening's dinner and socializing. I had never met Mike before, and was very pleased with his easy going manner, and his willingness to help and point out where he thought the handlers could improve. It is always so refreshing to hear another opinion of your work with your dog, especially from someone who has had world level experience.

Mike offered me some great tips, and I was very happy to get his advice. I had been really re-thinking my whole training philosophies since our disastrous showing at the Buffalo trial, and his tips were welcome. Eros was worked in obedience and protection, and much to my surprise, Eros showed great nerve and fight in the bitework phase. Eros has never been worked in defense drive, only strictly in prey. He also has very limited experience on new and strange helpers (my fault = bad handler!). I informed Mike right at the beginning of the protection session that Eros has been, up to that point, trained only in prey drive. I was lucky to have Mike work him in the bitework phase. Mike pushed Eros more than he has ever been pushed, and that was also the first time Eros had ever seen Mike. Eros took everything Mike through at him in stride, and showed no evidence of fear, unsuredness, or lack of courage. I have to admit, I was a little surprised at Eros' performance, as I had always viewed him as somewhat of a softer kind of dog whose great drive made him look so good in bitework. This one little session proves that not to be the case at all. In fact, I was elated when Mike said more than once while working Eros in the bitework session that, "This is a nice dog!". He said it in a real genuine tone, and with enthusiasm. For this to come from a 5 time world competitor who's standards for "nice dogs" are quite high, I feel it really means something... Now, on to some serious training!

For many reasons, I did not work Arlo in the seminar. In hindsight, I wish I would've had given Mike the chance to see Arlo's bitework. I would've liked to hear his opinion, as this is what I've been struggling with for some time.

A big thanks to my friend Trish for snapping a whole bunch of great photos for me.

Mike working on a distraction exercise by swinging a ball around. Eros has nice focus, and only needed to be corrected once for looking away, and then he did not look away again.

Mike now throwing the ball past Eros... nice focus again.


Getting ready to start heeling.

Mike giving me some tips, must be important, he is very intense!

Some nice attentive heeling, not Eros' best work, he was stressed (so was I)

Nice attention.


Waiting for protection to begin.
Nice barking.


Nice bite.
Little run with the sleeve.


Hold and bark.
Hold and bark after the out, no re-gripping this time.


The bite.

Me walking around Eros during the guarding phase, normally he'll look away from the helper at me, not this time.


Eros getting pushed into the crowd a little bit. He's got some sleeve goober on his nose...
Mike adding some physical distraction...

At the end, love this photo, we are all smiling. Not sure who was speaking or what was said.