Training Tips from Me!
- Always have treats on hand while working with your dog, especially in the ring in case the judge is looking for expression and your dog is ignoring the squeaky! Also, try different types of treats to keep your dogs guessing on how the next one will taste like and it will interest them more.
- Be sure to do other things with your dog at home besides just practicing. For example, create a fun, new trick and teach it to your dog. Train him or her to do something useful like be a door stop(on a light door) or carry your bag. Most dogs devote their lives to please their people! Or even go to an agility or obedience class to try a new sport!
- Even if you don't plan on ever doing obedience with your dog, you may want to train him or her some of the skills an obedience dog knows anyway. Such as heel, stay, come and stand. They can be useful in the ring at times because you can have your dog do a "stand stay" while the judge isn't looking at your dog.
- If you are training a young dog some of the basics like how to stack, then here's a tip you may want to use. Occasionally, throughout your day you may want to just get on the ground with your dog and stack him or her when they don't expect it. Then tell them how wonderful they are and play with them or let them go back to whatever they were doing. This helps them prepare to be stacked all of a sudden when it's the end of a big juniors class and the judge is taking his final look.
- Now, here's a rumor. We've all heard that a show dog cannot be an obedience dog at the same time! In some cases it is true, but in some cases it is not. It can be possible by training things for obedience using very different commands than in conformation. Obedience can also be useful because you can train stand, and then stay while you are not being judged. Also, you can use "look" or "watch" or whatever to get your dogs attention when the judge is looking for expression. Then again, in some cases, obedience and conformation can be a bad mixture. Your signals for stand and sit may seem similar, creating a young dog in training to think you are commanding a sit in the show ring! So depending on your dog, it's your decision on whether or not to train obedience and conformation on the same dog.
- If you have a shy or not-willing-to-show dog, then this is for you. You want your dog to love to be shown and love being with you. So, when the show lead isn't on the dog, completly ignore it! Even at home, before you play with your dog you must put on the show lead. You want the dog to be excited when the show lead comes out! Because when it does, it's play time! I hope this helps!
These are just a few training tips and I'll post more later. If you have any training questions or tips for me to add, feel free to e-mail me at gophyg88@aol.com. Also, check out my corkboard below by clicking on one of the topics and putting in your comments!
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My Contest Winning Trick!
This is how to teach your dog my famous back-scratching trick. Make sure their nails are nice and short before you start training! Warning, this trick may cause dogs to scratch on other surfaces such as carpet and blankets or crate beds. So use with caution!:)
First, start off by placing a piece of smelly meat (like a lunch meat) underneath a beach towel (or just a large bath towel) that is flat on the ground. Show them the meat and (after replacing the towel on top of it) point to it and tap it consistently. Once the dog smells it, instinct should arise and they should start to dig at it or scratch it. Once they move their paw in a manner like that, reward them with food(thats been in your hand) and tell them how wonderful they are. Then do that a few more times, reward them each time they successfully scratch at the food. After that, call it a day.
Next, once they have the scratching down on the ground (which may take several days), move the towel up to your leg (while you are sitting on the ground). Again, place the meat under the towel and tap it and now tell them the word "scratch" or whatever word you want to use. If they start to scratch it, then reward them immediately. Do this a few times each day for the next few days, until they completely understand and will do it on command, even without the meat underneath the towel!
Next, find a neighbor or a member of your household, to lay on their stomach on the ground. Place the towel with meat on the person's back. Now command your dog to scratch using the word and the tapping. Each time they succeed for doing it for several seconds, reward them greatly! Eventually, the person can begin to get a little bit higher, by rising to their knees but leaning way over so the dog can still reach their back. Again, command the dog to scratch the person's back and do it with and without the meat under the towel, just so the dog doesn't do it just for the meat. Once the dog scratches the persons back with ease, go on.
Now, you can start to signal the dog to scratch your own back, this part takes the longest. First, start by teaching the dog to put its paws up on your back while you are sitting on your knees and leaning over. Say something like "up" or "back" and bait them with food over your shoulder so that they jump up on your back. It helps to have an assistant to keep the dog behind you (some dogs may move around to face you head on). Once the dog learns to put it's front two paws on your back, go ahead and signal the command and tap your own shoulder. Keep your assistant near by to help the dog if necessary. Once the dog will jump on your back and scratch on command, you just taught your dog the famous back-scratching trick!!
Good Luck!
If you have any problems teaching the trick, feel free to e-mail me at gophyg88@aol.com and I'll help you in any way I can. I also have videos available (that I made with my digital camera) that may help show how to do each step. Have fun!
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