Rally Advanced - Take Two

Katherine

Katherine

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You may recall Snap's and my difficult RA debut this Spring--- and of course I'll never forget it ! I took three months off with him to work on relationship / attention building exercises and just having plain fun. We went back into the ring this morning at Savannah. I had chosen this venue because they only have a single Rally ring and because it is located in a separate building from obedience.

Good news from the trial today was that Snap stayed with me! We had a delayed start as they had to set the proper jump height. He held a nice stay at the start, even as a border collie walked by and got settled; and when the steward ran by to adjust the bar.

However, he had a good time and told me lots of things over and over, for which we were NQ'd. I guess that's better than being excused.....

I know that I have a particularly barky sheltie, but I can't have been the only one with this issue in the ring. Suggestions for curing this problem ?

Video: * *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5yTMwdo0yc
 
He worked really well with you. nice attention and heeling. Too bad about the barking.

Does he do this in practice or just in the ring?
 
This was our 7th trial. In our very first trial we lost 12 pts for barking. After that I worked hard in obedience class on the barking, using a hand clamp over the muzzle. In one trial early this year he barked once. But never has he gone on and on like this in the ring!

He does bark some during practice. How much ---I'm not sure. Perhaps I've tuned it out ? Maybe I need to video class as well.
 
You mean you were non-qualified because he barked? Obiousoly I don't know anything about the point system for rally.
 
Lahree said:
You mean you were non-qualified because he barked? Obiousoly I don't know anything about the point system for rally.
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Yes, "excessive barking" is an NQ. Geez, shelties should have a handicap in this department!!! I asked the judge about it and he said that he has 9 shelties and that they have been taught not to bark in the ring.
 
Katherine said:
Yes, "excessive barking" is an NQ. Geez, shelties should have a handicap in this department!!! I asked the judge about it and he said that he has 9 shelties and that they have been taught not to bark in the ring.
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My dogs never bark in the obedience or rally ring. Diva threatens between exercises but it comes out as more of a grumble. I have to be very careful not to get her too excited.

If Diva barks when we are working obedience in practice all the fun stops immediately. I stop moving, I drop my arms and I remove my eye contact and look at the wall. As soon as they are quiet(could be a sec later) I praise good quiet and we start the exercise over from the beginning if she does it quietly , she gets nice quiet praise and treats. 99 out of 100 times the stop in motion gets them to stop. If they continue they get a stern wrong and a time out(could be a 5 sec down stay or me changing dogs). After the time out, I start over from the beginning of whatever I was doing. I never ever work them when they are barking. My dogs love working and know it means treats, praise and fun so they learn if they want fun, keep the mouth shut. Now agility is another issue for Diva, she can bark as long as she is paying attention. If she is just wildly barking at me, I put her in a down to chill out or take her off the field.

Justice and Ember never bark during agility even though I encourage Ember all the time. Ember has a huge mouth normally at home. It is just working=no bark for her.

Rachel's dog Pike had a horrible barking problem when she heeled. What finally worked for her was using peanut butter on a wooden spoon. She would start healing and jam the spoon down for him to lick and then praise the quiet when he was licking the PB off the top of his mouth and tongue. He could not bark and lick at the same time so she got lots of opportunity to praise he for the quiet. She repeated this though out the heeling section.

BArking can certainly be a huge problem for some shelties. Justice's unlce once lost 14 points in Novice for barking. 1pt a bark. He lost 16 points total so it was a big deal.
 
I never knew that you can NQ for excessive barking.

I'm sorry for the NQ, but other than the barking, Snap looked great!

Bailey doesn't really bark in the rally ring. Our first trial, she barked once, jumped on me once and carried her leash in her mouth for a little bit, but the judge didn't NQ us.

I think Dr. Shelli's training is a good way to start. If you're training and he barks, your training session ends. Go sit down until he stops barking and try again.
 
I really appreciate the detailed input and support, you've given me some great ideas ! I feel as though lots of short training sessions with zero tolerance for barking should get me started on breaking this.

Barking aside, I really was pleased with how Snap looked. Thank goodness a friend was there to take the video. Otherwise I would have left the trial feeling completely down and not been able to see the "good" in our run.
 
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