Ty and the tennis balls

My Flat-Coated Retriever Ty (AKA Ch. Grousemoor Timeless CD RE JH WC; RL2) is a fanatical retriever and carrier of things. Here's a recent picture of her showing off her talent. Yup, that's 3 tennis balls in her mouth.

Obedience Numbers Quiz

The following quiz is designed to test your knowledge of the many different numbers that you should know when training for and showing in AKC obedience. There are 21 questions altogether. Have fun!

1. During the Figure 8 in Novice & Open, the ring stewards stand:

a) 6 feet apart
b) 8 feet apart
c) 10 feet apart
d) Not sure

2. When you throw your dumbbell for the Open Retrieve on Flat, you should throw your dumbbell:

a. Less than 20 feet
b. Exactaly 20 feet
c. At least 20 feet
d. Not sure

3. When you leave your dog for the Novice Stand for Exam, you should walk:

a. About 6 feet
b. About 8 feet
c. 10-12 feet
d. Not sure

4. The obedience jumps are how wide?

a. 4 feet
b. 5 feet
c. 6 feet
d. Not sure

5. On the Utility Moving Stand and Examination, after the judge's command to "Stand your dog," without pausing, the handler will command and/or signal the dog to stand and continue forward:

a. About 6 feet
b. About 8 feet
c. About 10 to 12 feet
d. Not sure

6. When lining dogs up for the Group Exercises (AKA stays), the judge should allow (updated 5/1/14, due to changes to the AKC regulations):

a. 2 feet between dogs
b. 4 feet between dogs
c. 6 feet between dogs
d. Not sure

7. The minimum ring size for Novice and Open is:

a. 30' X 40'
b. 40' X 40'
c. 40' X 50'
d. Not sure

8. The minimum ring size for Utility is:

a. 30' X 40'
b. 35' X 45'
c. 35' X 50'
d. Not sure

9. On the Open Retrieve over High Jump, the handler will stand a minimum of how many feet from the jump?

a. 6 feet
b. 8 feet
c. 10 feet
d. Not sure

10. On the Open Retrieve over High Jump, the handler must throw the dumbbell at least how many feet past the jump?

a. 8 feet
b. 10 feet
c. 12 feet
d. Not sure

11. When setting up for the Open Broad Jump, the handler will stand at least how many feet from the jump?

a. 6 feet
b. 8 feet
c. 10 feet
d. Not sure

12. When the handler leaves the dog for the Open Broad Jump exercise, the handler should stand to the right side of the jump,
between the lowest edge of the first hurdle and the highest edge of the last hurdle with their toes about how far from the jump?

a. 6 inches
b. 1 foot
c. 2 feet
d. Not sure

13. When setting out the articles for the Utility Scent Discrimination exercise, the closest artricle should be about how many feet from the handler?

a. 10 feet
b. 15 feet
c. 20 feet
d. Not sure

14. When setting out the articles for the Utility Scent Discrimination exercise, the articles should be arranged about how far apart?

a. 4 inches
b. 6 inches
c. 8 inches
d. Not sure

15. In a Utility ring that is 40 feet wide, what's the approximate distance between either of the corner gloves (1 & 3) and the center glove (2)?

a. 13 feet
b. 15 feet
c. 17 feet
d. Not sure

16. In a 50 foot Utility ring, the jumps are placed how far from the unobstructed end (the one without the judge’s table) of the ring?

a. 22 feet
b. 25 feet
c. 28 feet
d. Not sure

17. In an AKC Utility ring, the jumps are set up:

a. 18-20 feet apart
b. 20-22 feet apart
c. 22-24 feet apart
d. Not sure

18. To qualify on Utility Directed Jumping, the dog must stop and remain at least how far past the jumps?

a. 8 feet
b. 10 feet
c. 15 feet
d. Not sure

19. On Utility Directed Jumping, the handler should command the dog to sit on the go-out when the dog is about how far past the jumps?

a. 20 feet
b. 22 feet
c. 24 feet
d. Not sure

20. A substantial deduction is how many points off?

a. At least 2
b. At least 3
c. At least 4
d. Not sure

21. A minor deduction is how many points off?

a. 1/4-1 point
b. 1/2 to 2 points
c. 1/2 to 2 1/2 points
d. Not sure

That's all the questions. Need to check out your answers? Click here to see a list of the correct answers.

Did you enjoy the quiz? If you answered "Not sure" often, you better pull out your rulebook for some study time!

Obedience Numbers Quiz answers

Here are the answers to the Obedience Numbers Quiz:

1 b 8 feet
2 c At least 20 feet
3 a about 6 feet
4 b 5 feet wide
5 c about 10-12 feet
6 b 4 feet per dog
7 a 30’ X 40’
8 c 35’ X 50’
9 b 8 feet
10 a 8 feet
11 b 8 feet
12 c 2 feet
13 c 20 feet
14 b 6 inches
15 c 17 feet
16 b 25 feet
17 a 18-20 feet
18 b 10 feet
19 a 20 feet
20 b at least 3
21 c 1/2 to 2 1/2

Toledo KC Trials

I showed all 3 dogs at Toledo KC's weekend trials. On Saturday, Joker was in the 1st group in Open B. He not only got through the individuals, but also did the dratted sit stay and earned his 1st CDX leg. Hurray!

Gryff had a nice Open B run, earned a 197, was in a 4-way runoff for 4th place, and didn't win the runoff :-). He was having a beautiful run in Utility B, with only 1.5 points off on the 1st three exercises (Moving Stand, DJ, Signals), when he anticipated his finish after I took the glove on the DR. I think I did something odd with my left hand, so I will accept at least partial blame. First article was fine - in fact, he did GREAT pickups and deliveries all weekend - and then, darn it, he anticipated the final finish on the 2nd article. With the 6 points off for those 2 anticipated finishes, he STILL had a 192! Dang. Happily, UDX leg #7 was in the bag.

Ty was entered in Novice this weekend for 2 final times, which I decided a couple of weeks ago. She had a no-sit on the last off-leash sit, after which the judge immediately said, "You caused that, you stopped funny." I can't disagree :-). Perfect recall, hurray! Ended up with a 194, out of the placements for the first time. It was an excellent class, with some really fine Novice dogs. I decided to take the plunge and move her up to Open B for Sunday after checking with Sunday's judge about the likelihood of there again being 3 groups of stays.

Joker was first in Open B today at 9:00. He decided that he really didn't need me to tell him when to do his drop on recall, and did a lovely one about 1/3 of the way to me. Given that that is a problem that has been just waiting to happen, I wasn't that surprised. I'm just grateful that he did his sit stay again! He did once again put a smile on the judge's face :-).

Gryff had another solid Open B performance, and this time, we ran off for 1st place, the first time this has happened (we are still seeking the Open B 1st needed for his OTCh). It took 2 runoffs for Kerry Allison and Alax to beat us out. They took home High in Trial with their 198+. Our knocking on the Open B 1st door is getting louder . We got 3 more OTCh. points for our 2nd place in Open B. He also got 4th place in Utility B for 1 more point. The 4 weekend points gets us to 61. We also earned UDX leg #8.

I came out of Utility with Gryff and had to grab Ty and go right into Open with her. It was good heeling was last :-). She was my little fire cracker of a teammate today! She did a lovely job while being completely on the edge of anticipating pretty much everything :-). It was a lot of fun. Sadly, her sit stay only lasted 2:40 before she went down, but I knew the whole thing was a gamble, especially the out-of-sights (we've done a lot of long stays, but not much out-of-sight work), and I'm thrilled that she only lost 2.5 points on the individual exercises. She had SO much more fun doing Open than one more trip in the Novice ring! Now that I know she's close to ready enough, I plan to really get serious about stay training and polishing the rest of the class and I will enter her again at the Fulton Co KC trials that will be mid-March at TKC. Nice to have a concrete goal .

I'd also like to congratulate:
* Russ Hornfisher & Golden Morgan for finishing up their UD title yesterday, and Q'ing again today.
* Deanne Matthews & Cocker Spaniel Magnum for finishing up their CD title yesterday, and earning 4th place yesterday and 3rd place today.
• Jill Baker & Sheltie Hobbit on their 2nd CDX leg yesterday, earning 2nd place (if I'm remembering correctly).
• Kay Braddock & GWP Jet on their Q in Open B yesterday in their 1st attempt at a UDX leg. They almost got one, too, except for Jet taking the HJ twice in Utility.
• Belinda Venner & Sparta on their 4th place in Open B today.
• Deanna German & Dash on the 1st CDX leg in Open A today, the lone survivor.
• Jackie Takacs & Golden Monty for their Novice placements, including a lovely and smooth 1st place today.
• Kathy Cox on her 7th & 8th UDX legs on Chase (Gryffin and Chase finished their UD's on the same day in October 2007 and seem to be getting to their UDX's at the same rate :-)) and a 4th in Open B yesterday, and her new Novice girl, Haley, for her Novice placements this weekend.

There were a lot of others that were close to a Q. Better luck next time!

Thanks to all the people at TKC who worked to put on the trials. Great judges, great stewards, GREAT food (oh, those desserts...).

Judging In NY

I had a really enjoyable trip to Rochester NY to judge rally and Novice obedience for DOTCORNY (Dog Obedience Training Club of Rochester NY). I judged rally both days (that's a lot of paper to cart on the plane), Novice B Saturday, and Novice A Sunday. This trip involved several first for me: first time to fly to an assignment just for the weekend (my Alaska assignment included a week of vacation beforehand with my husband); first time to judge rally and obedience on the same day; first time judging two days of rally in a row (two sets of courses to plan for); first time judging obedience two days in a row; first time all of my Novice A exhibitors (3 of them) Q'ed (that sure felt great!).

The trip didn't get off to a great start Friday. Before I ever left for the airport, I knew my flight would be delayed. We were scheduled to leave at 3:05, the expected delayed time was 3:50. The plane didn't even arrive until 3:47. We did board pretty quickly, but then sat at the gate for an hour or so as they tried to restart an engine :-(. When that finally happened, we then had to wait for de-icing. We finally got to Rochester about 6:30 (instead of 4 something), but as it turns out, another judge was due in about 7:00, so we waited for her to arrive and went out to dinner. Jane took us to a fine Italian restaurant whose name escapes me.

I hadn't judged obedience since May 2007, so I admit I was dreading the assignment the whole week before. As I got underway Saturday morning, I felt much more comfortable than I expected to. I even used a different heeling pattern for Novice B than the Old Standby L pattern. I didn't agonize nearly as much about NQing people whose dogs were not working with them. I only had one perfect 100 in Rally - I don't miss much :-) - but did have a bunch of well prepared handlers with a great variety of breeds. There is clearly some excellent rally instruction going on. A 15 year old junior handler won rally Novice A Saturday and got 3rd Sunday. Every time I'd do the A class awards, I wished I was showing because they gave out a custom embroidered towel or fleece throw of the appropriate color to match the placement ribbon. They were really cool. I will say doing 14 awards ceremonies over 2 days was a bit tiresome ;-).

My stewards were just great. Almost all were experienced, though not necessarily in rally. We had an excellent rhythm going by Sunday afternoon. The next dog was always ready thanks to my gate stewards. Jean and Stephanie handled the explosion of paperwork that is rally. I received several compliments on my organization. I have separate notebooks for obedience and rally with tabbed sections for each class and other miscellaneous papers needed. They do help to at least sort of contain the pile o' papers. Best of all, a club member who is a rally judge pulled all the signs and built all the courses, so all I had to do was tweak it. Boy, was that a luxury! Thanks, Penny!

I had a completely uneventful and easy flight home. It was nice and sunny at both ends. What was really fun was that Diane Propst (one of the other judges) and I had assigned seats next to each other - totally by accident - on the flight from Rochester to Detroit (she was going on to Kansas City), so the flight really zipped by. Betsy Horn Humer was the 3rd judge on the panel. I'd never met her before, but she seemed really nice. She, Jane Jackson, and I talked field training at the judges' dinner Saturday night :-). Betsy has had Chessies for years.

It was great to talk to Diane and Betsy about judging - they both judge all obedience and rally - and they answered a couple of procedural questions that came up. It's not what you know but who you know or if you know where to look it up :-).

My sincere thanks go out to DOTCORNY and Jane Jackson for hiring a provisional judge (that's me), to Terri Clingerman for her great hospitality, and all the behind-the-scenes club members who worked to make it such a pleasant trial. I think I'm actually looking forward to my next couple of judging assignments thanks to their trial!

Utility Training Concepts

Picking up on last week’s essay’s topic, I’d like to explore some of the concepts I train on regularly when working on the Utility exercises with a dog who understands all of the exercises.

When I’m training the Signal Exercise, I vary how far away I am from my dog. I vary how long I wait between signals. Because my dogs know how to stand at a distance, I vary the order of position changes, although I more often do the order required for the Utility ring. I vary the background behind me. I glance away from my dog before each signal, simulating looking at the judge for her cues. I work on my dog’s attention at a distance, which is critical for successful signals.

On Scent Discrimination, I vary where in the pile I place my scented article. Gryffin has been having a particularly hard time when it’s in the center, so I almost always put at least one there during a session. After the first retrieve, I put the next scented one somewhere my dog didn’t check, if there are any such places. If I do more than two retrieves, I again put the next one somewhere my dog didn’t check at all or very well. I almost always have a chair nearby to put the extra articles on as there is typically one there in the ring. If I am training with someone else, I ask them to scent the articles in the pile, and also to place my scented article out in the pile. Most judges are out beyond the pile to watch your turn, so that is what I ask my training partner to do. I use the “After a sit” method of sending to the pile, so I vary how long I have the dog remain in heel position before actually sending him to the pile, and sometimes I do another couple of turns instead of sending to the pile.

On the Directed Retrieve, I sometimes give the signal to the glove, but don’t release my dog to retrieve. I vary the order in which I have my dog retrieve the gloves. As with the Open retrieves, I vary how quickly I give the retrieve command to make sure my dog isn’t anticipating. I am careful to have my gloves at the distances apart and from me that they are in the ring, though I do occasionally use different distances to simulate an inexperienced steward who places the gloves badly. I frequently have a decoy glove near the path to the correct glove.

On the Moving Stand, if I have a helper, I ask that she say, “Stand your dog!” multiple times to make sure my dog isn’t anticipating the stop. I ask for a thorough exam of my dog. If I’m by myself, I sometimes say the judge’s commands myself. I’ll go examine my dog myself when training alone. I vary how long I wait before I cue the return.

On Directed Jumping, I vary which side of the ring I put the bar jump and the high jump. I vary which side jump I have my dog take first. My first OTCh. dog Tramp developed what I called “right jump-itis” - we had the jump on my right first so many times in the ring that she learned that that was the one to do first. When we finally got the one on my left first, she went to the wrong one. At least monthly, I put my dog in many oddball places, that, although they would be a qualifying go-out, are way off center and sometimes just beyond the 10 foot mark. Then I walk to the other end and send my dog to the jumps from these odd places. I practice to gating with a center stanchion often since that is pretty common at local trials, but I also practice sending my dog to a blank wall and to gating with an off-center stanchion. I practice stopping my dog short on his go-outs. On the next send, I expect him to go all the way, but am prepared for him to stop himself where I stopped him short the last time. I correct him somehow if he does stop short. This keeps my dog sharp about listening to me.

A final critical part of Utility training and ring preparation is that of stamina. Having a dog who finds the exercises reinforcing simplifies this aspect of Utility trialing. Even an experienced and fast Utility B dog is going to be in the ring for 7-8 minutes, which means you better have your dog well prepared to work without food or toys for that length of time and longer. An inexperienced Utility A dog who works slowly might be in there as long as 10 minutes. Be very aware of time during your training.

When my dog has a good understanding of the exercises, I also add other types of proofing regularly to challenge my dog’s understanding. Simply training around other people working their dogs is a great first step. Training in several unfamiliar places is especially crucial for Utility, particularly for mastering go-outs and signals.

One of my familiar phrases for first-time Utility students is that most people enter Utility about six months before they are really ready. Take your time to be well prepared. While there are a lot of little ways to NQ in Utility that can happen no matter how experienced you and your dog are, if your dog is hardly ever passing a given exercise on the first try when training in familiar places, let alone in a trial, don’t start showing or stop showing for a while and train some more. Utility is a challenge, but it makes it that much more satisfying when you succeed.

Sunday at Oakland Co. KC

I showed at Sunday's two Oakland County's obedience trials (I was at my son's Solo & Ensemble music performances in Livonia on Saturday). I did all four classes with Gryffin, Novice B in the morning's trial with Ty and Open B in the afternoon's trial with Joker.

Gryffin was listed as first in each of his classes, which meant aiming to get there at 7 AM for an 8 AM start. With the roads being so bad and snow covered, we didn't arrive until 7:30. We started out with a nice steady Q in Utility B, which helped to make the ugly drive there worthwhile. We were in a runoff for 3rd place with a 193, lost it to Linda MacDonald and Wings.

Much to my embarrassment (and also amusement, I must confess), Gryff failed his drop on recall (1st ex. in Open B) because of.... a sticker on the floor! The judge used stickers to mark everything, and apparently, they were different enough (whiter and bigger) from the ones that are all over my building floor to cause a major brain blip. The drop was supposed to be close to one of the Figure 8 stickers. I cued the drop, G spotted the sticker, his eyes kind of spun around in his head, and he stopped and sat. I waited a while to see if he'd figure it out, but alas, he didn't. Given the rest of his class was pretty sloppy, at least he didn't blow a really high score . Happily, he looked VERY solid and straight when I got back on his sit stay, always a welcome sight.

I was all done with Gryffin's morning classes before showing Ty in Novice. I hadn't shown her since the weekend she finished her CD back in October. She did a nice solid job and got first in her class with a 197. We're entered a few more times in Novice since were not ready for Open yet.

In the afternoon's trial, Gryff again Q'ed in Utility with another solid performance. Well, except for a lot of moving during the exam on the Moving Stand. We had 4 solid and confident article pickups for the day, something we've been working hard on since our last trial in December. He also Q'ed in Open, which earned him his 6th UDX leg. OB and UB finished up at right about the same time. I got called for a runoff in UB, and it was admittedly sloppy. Came out of that, watching others running off, then got called into OB for a runoff. Bonnie Burman was in the Utility ring for a runoff, and we were going at almost the same time. This last runoff felt the like the best one of the day. In Utility, we'd runoff for 4th against Laura R. and Flare and she won the runoff. We had a 195.5. In Open, we were in a 3 way runoff for 2nd in OB with a 198, ended up 3rd.

Joker failed right away because he was not looking at the broad jump and stepped on the first board. He also went down on his sit stay (which was after the down stay in the afternoon trial). However, he did once again put a smile on the judge's face, and I think his heeling was less ugly than usual :-). I was even able to see him on the 2nd outside Figure 8 ;-).

Kay Braddock and Jet Q'ed again in Utility A for another 1st place in the morning trial. A bit of bad luck kept them from Q'ing in the afternoon's trial. They've had a bunch of that during their short Utility A journey - one tiny error that's prevented a Q. I saw all but her Signals in both classes, and they looked great. Unlike a lot of Utility A dogs, Jet has generalized her performances well to the ring and looks as confident and solid there as training at home.

Nancy Stein and Reuben held it together to earn their 3rd leg in Novice B in the afternoon's trial. Stays have been really hard for Reuben to master, so it was great to hear that he did them with confidence.

Linda Owens and Pam Bannick both finished their UDX's in the afternoon's trial, and Linda earned High Combined with two scores of 198. Nice going, Linda!