Utility Articles

[Princetopher]

Justicemom

Sounds like you almost have a formal obedience retrieve. You just need to change sides and get him to come back and sit in front and wait for you to take it.

If you want to sit some examples of AKC obedience, here are a few videos of Justice and Ember. Justice is doing Utility. The 3rd level of obedience and where you use the articles and Ember is doing Open)2nd level) and Utility.

Justice
http://s666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/jrtsheltie/videos/?action=view&current=Justice194UB.flv

Ember-Ember had really hard day. She kinda lost it in Open.
http://s666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/jrtsheltie/videos/?action=view&current=Emberutilityb417.flv

http://s666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/jrtsheltie/videos/?action=view&current=Embersdayday.flv

I have 2 complete sets of 6 for Ember and Justice. Plus 2 additional extras of both the leather and metal, so I can have extras for 3 and 4 trial weekends. BTW I love Prince's dumbbell.

thank you so much. ok this stirred up more questions. what is the difference between metal, leather etc. it seems both were used for different types of things. i noticed the scent given and found. your pups are just amazing and gorgeous. i had a smile on my face while watching. just a joy to see shelties with such aptitude. i noticed they were not overly excited but calm when working even when jumping objects. is this desirable? well thanks again and after i give away my daughter in 9 days i may have time to start working on some of these things. tommy

 

[ClantyreSheltie]

My little Evie out of my first litter just started going to Novice classes. I have put CDs on four dogs, but only actually taught one to "heel". The rest were close enough, and two had no formal training at all. So now I want to put a UD on something, since my last UD potential died at almost 6 years old with one CDX leg. She never failed an individual exercise, but couldn't hold a stay because of her sound sensitivity.

Sooo... Evies co-breeder is the only person in Hawaii (to this day) that has put OTCh titles on two dogs. When I told her Evie and I were doing serious obedience, she asked if I wanted one of her spare sets of articles. She has four sets, and hasn't done obedience in 15 years. Once we finish our CD and get going on our CDX, I might take her up on that.

 

[2GoodDogs]

How heartbreaking to lose your dog at six! Bobby just turned 6 and I hope he can finish his UDX this year, and retire to a herding and tracking career.

 

[Justicemom]

thank you so much. ok this stirred up more questions. what is the difference between metal, leather etc. it seems both were used for different types of things. i noticed the scent given and found. your pups are just amazing and gorgeous. i had a smile on my face while watching. just a joy to see shelties with such aptitude. i noticed they were not overly excited but calm when working even when jumping objects. is this desirable? well thanks again and after i give away my daughter in 9 days i may have time to start working on some of these things. tommy

The metal and leather dumbbells are called articles and they are used to scent discremination. Each has a different challenage to it. With the leather, it has a texture dogs generally like to pick up, it holds scent really well but it has a scent of its own that the dog must learn to work though. With the metal, dog generally don't like picking it up and it really needs to be trained for them to pick up let alone find, it doesn't hold scent well but it doesn't have its own scent so the dog generally shows their ability to find more subtle scent. In AKC, there is metal and leather scent exercises, UKC has only metal and Canada has wood as well as metal and leather. With wood, dogs generally don't mind picking it up, it holds scent fairly well, and it has a mild scent of its own. I think of it this way-leather stinky, wood neutral, metal light scent.

In Open, for the retrieves exercises, you can use either a wood dumbbell or a plastic dumbell. The dog just has to go get it and bring it back in a controlled in formal fashion.

In obedience, the goal is to have a dog do the exercises in a happy, brisk fashion. They get points off if they walk or go slow as it doesn't reflect willingness to work. A trot is the goal. A fast working dog is fun to watch and my ideal picture in my head has a running dog for the retrieves, jumps etc. But points can be lost for pouncing on the dumbbell, not picking it up clean, being crooked when they come to front or finish, being slightly out of heel position, touching the handler, so control(even self control) is important. One of Justice's favorite ways to lose points is hitting/bumping into me when he comes into fronts. At 1-3 points loss depending on how bad it is and more if he has a crooked front, I'll give alittle speed for accurancy. My Diva is a speed demon. She is very sloppy because of it. I am trying to get her fronts heeling and finishes better before I enter her. She is trained though Open but doesn't yet had the control I want.

How heartbreaking to lose your dog at six! Bobby just turned 6 and I hope he can finish his UDX this year, and retire to a herding and tracking career.

How is Bobby doing on his UDX quest? Ember's injury has stalled us out. Still 1leg to go. We are back training and hopefully we will just it this spring.