THE TRIALS OCTOBER 14, 2011

It was a gorgeous day and hot as hell. Once we got there, things were nerve wrecking. We were going first then we were going last. It was back and forth for a while. Here's how the day went.

There were four phases of the trials that day, BH, Schutzhund 1,2, and 3. You would think they would do the the trials in that order but noooooo, they did it in the reverse. The BH dogs went last. 

Here is what happened with Sophie and I.

THE WRITTEN TEST 

Here, I am taking the written test

I had to take a written test and pass, in order for Sophie to do the BH. As I stated before, Schutzhund originated in Germany, it is open to dogs of all breeds, even mixed breeds. So why would I need to know how many teeth a German Shepherd has or what is the normal temperature of a German Shepherd? That question I knew, it's a 101, which is for most dogs. Lucky for me and every one else, Schutzhund USA posted the questions on line for you to "study". Still, what do these two questions have to do with the trials?

TEMPERAMENT TEST
 

Judge Ann Marie checking Sophie out!

The temperament test must take place before the beginning of the trial.
  
Your dog is to be on a slack heeling lead, with no commands given. The judge should be able to approach your dog without incident. The judge verifies the documentation of either a tattoo or micro-chip. This must match the pedigree/scorebook submitted by the handler

The following are some examples of traits a dog must possess in order to pass the temperament test.

THE DOG IS,
self-confident; 
quiet, secure and attentive; 
animated and attentive;
impartial and good natured; 
friendly and outgoing.


The temperament evaluation occurs not only at the beginning of the trials, but,  throughout the entire event. A dog who shows any type of bad temperament during any part of the trial is disqualified.

 

ANTICIPATION

 My nerves were shot. Harold took this picture of me with my sister, Joe Feeney. My stomach was tied in knots. I was going over the exercise in my head. After all this was the first trial I have ever done.

WAITING OFF FIELD

Sophie did well with the temperament test, now it was time to get ready for the exercises. Here, we waiting for our turn on the field.











CHECKING IN WITH THE JUDGE

Ann Marie, Teresa & Ka'imi, me & Sophie, Tony & Bond

Here we meet up with the judge, introduce ourselves, give the dogs name and state what phase of Schutzhund we are trying to pass.

There were only three dogs in the BH class. The first dog is a Dutch Shepherd named Ka'imi, Sophie and a Yellow Lab named Bond, as in James Bond.

Because there were only three dogs, we had to do a round robin.


Here is how it worked. Teresa and Ka'imi did the obedience exercise, Sophie and I dog did the long down, well she did the long down, I stood thirty feet away with my back to her. Tony and Bond were off the field. Once Teresa and Ka'imi were done,  they did the long down. Sophie and I went off field. Tony and Bond came on the field to do the obedience exercise. When they were done, Sophie and I came on the field, Tony and Bond did the long down.

I was hoping Sophie and I could do the obedience exercise first.  Don't get me wrong she did the long down perfect. It was going off field and waiting to do the obedience exercise that messed things up. She was waiting for her reward for doing good. Actually I messed that up. I could have given her a reward while we were off field. There were so many "do's" and "don'ts" that I was afraid I'd make a mistake and she'd be disqualified.

When it was time to do her obedience routine, it was obvious she was hot and so was I. We started off pretty good. On leash, we walk up the field, she was a little wide on the about turn, we did the normal, fast, slow, back to normal heel just fine. We did the two right turns, she was a little wide again. And by wide I mean she was not next to me. We did the about turn, walked seven paces, which is where I messed up. I was supposed to stop with my left foot which she would then automatically sit. Well, I stopped with my right foot, confused, she sat very slowly, slower than normal. At that point I thought to myself," Aw the hell with it, I already messed up, lets just have fun". 


I totally forgot to speed up the pace into the group and remembered half way into to it. We walked out of the group, lo and behold she sat perfectly. Then we did the whole exercise off leash.

When we did the walking sit, walking down, we lost a few points. As I explained in previous post, you have your dog heel at your side, between 10 to 15 pace you command your dog to sit, which she did. Walk 30 to 35 paces away, turn and face your dog. Wait 3 seconds or for the Judge to tell you to return to your dog. After picking up my dog, we did the walking down. I walked 11 paces gave the command down.

For some reason I am unable to upload the any of the videos for the trials. I really would like you to see how Sophie sits. It's actually quite funny. She leans out to left of me waiting for her reward.

THE TRAFFIC

I haven't explained this exercise before, quite frankly, I forgot about it. This portion of the Schutzhund BH is to test your dog in everyday situations. A person jogging by, a bicyclist riding by and walking up to a person in a running automobile. You dog should be walking calmly at your side as the jogger and bicyclist pass by. Upon approaching an automobile, you should have your dog either sit or in the down position.

The important thing is she passed and for that I am happy.