Bonkers for Bella: Changes

Novice Obedience Exercise Descriptions

Heel on Leash: Dog and Handler work as a team, the leash must be loose and held in a natural position. Orders for this exercise are: "Forward", "Halt", "Right turn", "Left turn", "About turn", "Slow" "Normal" and "Fast".

Stand for Examination: The dog stands in position before and during the examination without displaying resentment. Handler is instructed to "stand your dog and leave when you are ready", after positioning the dog the handler stands with dog in heel position, give the command/signal to stay and walk straight forward approximately 6 feet and then turn and face the dog. The judge will approach the dog from the front, using the fingers and palm of one hand, the judge will touch the dogs head, body and hindquarters. Judge will then give the command "back to your dog", handler returns to heel position. The dog must remain still until judge has said "exercise finished".

Recall: The dog must stay where left unitl called by handler and then must respond promptly when the handler commands or signals them to come. On order from the judge the handler will give the command/signal for the dog to stay in the sit position. Handler will then wakl forward to the other side of the ring with arms hanging naturally. On the judges order handler will command or signal the dog to come. Dog must come at brisk pace and sit stright, centered directly in front of handler. On judges order handler will give the dog the command/signal to finish. Dog must move quickly to heel position and sit.

Finish: Dog is directed to "swing" it's hind end around to the left to come to the heel position and then sit, or "heel" around to the right and behind the handler and come to the heel position and then sit.

Sit/Stay & Down/Stay (Group Exercises): The dog must remain in either the seated position or the down position, whichever is required by the particular exercise. The dogs will line up in catalog order along one side of the ring. The leash is removed and placed with the handlers armband behind the dog. Handlers are instructed to "sit your dog" or "down your dog", and then "leave your dog". The handler will walk across to the other side of the ring and stand in a natural position across from the dog until the judge orders them to "return to your dog". Any dog that leaves the place where it was left during the first group exercise will be given an "NQ" and excused from the remaining group exercise.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Changes

Over the weekend I decided to give Bell a trial period without crating her at night. While doing my house cleaning on Saturday I moved the crate into one of the spare rooms and in it's place I washed all of the doggie blankets and put her bed/blanket down and attached a leash to the leg of the bed.

In the evening I let her out to go potty and then told her to "go to bed", instead of walking around my bed to go to her corner she likes take a shortcut by hopping up and over my bed, but this time when she saw that the crate wasnt there she put the breaks on and stood on the edge of my bed looking down. I told her again to "go to bed" but she stood there looking at me funny, like 'I wold but it's not here'.

I again told her to go to bed and guided her off of my bed and onto hers. It took about 10 minutes for her to settle down and get the idea, she kept wanting to either climb up on my bed or go over to Sadie and but her; but once she finally laid down she stayed put for the rest of the night without any problem.

She repeated the process last night except that it only took her about 5 minutes to settle down and go to sleep. I think that she is going to be just fine! Though the crate was doubling as a night stand for me and I dont have space for a night stand and both doggie beds, I think I'm going to make some sort of shelf for the wall that I can put up to use instead. For now though I'm just happy that I can get that huge crate out of my room! And now I'm going to now be on the hunt for some new doggie beds instead of a new crate!

The other new change for Bella is that over the weekend, we added a doggie door to the door that goes between the back yard and the garage. This way the girls will have access to the garage without us having to leave the door open all of the time. When it's cold or windy outside this should help to keep it warmer in the garage.

After about 5 minutes and some treats, Sadie is a pro and loves coming in and going out through the door. But my poor little 'fraidy cat' having a more difficult time adjusting. I have coaxed her through it a few times, as long as she is on a leash so she cant run away and I hold it open for her she will creep through. But she now is even balking at walking through the doorway even if the regular door is open. I'm hoping that with some time she will settle and get accustomed to it, and that with Sadie using it, it will help show her that it's not going to hurt her.

Poor girl I guess it was just a lot to change for her in one weekend!