On Saturday, April 26th, The B’dos. Dog Training Club held trials for the CD (Novice), the CDX (Open) and the UD (Utility) at the Waterford grounds.
Training at these levels goes beyond the simple commands like come, sit, down, stay that some trainers in Barbados do as all the above trials have off leash exercises. At the highest training level, all exercises are off leash. And training will be directional with hand signals.
If you are a trainer promoting yourself, it would be nice to see you achieve levels beyond the basic obedience with your own dog(s). Dog training is a very practical discipline. I would always like to see a trainer demonstrate with their own dog(s) and also show what they have achieved on a practical basis. Maybe some people can talk clients into letting them train their dogs without demonstrating any training skills. Knowledge and skills, especially in practical areas, are 2 different things!
There seems to be several people around doing training at the basic level.
I agree with people bringing their dogs/puppies out to socialise and do basic group training and at the end of classes, the dogs/puppies, once their handlers have done the homework should demonstrate basic obedience.
When a dog attends obedience trials and passes, with off leash work, it is a big credit to the dog’s owner and handler and the trainer.
Some people might like these achievements but other people might only need the dog to stand and stay, walk properly on a leash etc.and therefore do basic training. But with basic training, it should still be reliable.
I am hearing of people who paid for training from one trainer and then had to go elsewhere to retrain the same puppy/dog as the first set of training was not effective.
This is not good news as word will spread about inefficient puppy/dog training and I think people need to look at results as dog training is a practical area.
At the CDX level, I was in the ring as a steward helping Sarah Hamilton who was the judge,
One person passed the final leg, Linda Pearson, who is a dog trainer, with her working lines German Shepherd Dog, Elfi, and so they have now achieved the CDX title. Below is a pix. of her and Elfi. Elfi is a very young German Shepherd dog. Beautiful to watch them with off leash heeling.
Linda Pearson and German Shepherd dog with CDX title
Linda Pearson judged the CD trials, and Jenny Fields was the steward in the ring.
CD legs were achieved by Sarah Hamilton with a Rhodesian Ridgeback, Fizz, and Brenda Kraumann with a mixed/rescue, Olivia.
Susan Blandford passed the final leg and achieved the CD title with her German Shepherd dog, from working lines, Phantom
The Utility was also judged by Linda Pearson and I remained in the ring, as steward, to help her.
None of the dogs passed at this level. But one dog was very close to passing and I think it will pass at the next trial once its owner continues to work with it.
Being in the ring with the judges and seeing the actual scoring taking place is very beneficial to those of us who are interested in judging competitive obedience.
Basic obedience is necessary for all dog sports, agility, working dog activities like schutzhund and to achieve obedience at a high level the dog(s) must be reliable and obey commands off leash.
Congratulations to those who passed and to the others, work harder at training the dog.
I stopped going to classes at Waterford with the Tibetan Terrier for several weeks before the Bouvier Des Flandres puppy arrived. There was a Barbados Kennel Club dog show shortly before her arrival. Everyone who has a young, not fully inoculated against parvo puppy needs to be cautious.
The Tibetan is now putting in some work for the CDX title. Below she is seen doing a drop on the recall. One way to teach this, is to have a target/marker where you want the dog to drop, and the mat will get smaller and then removed but the dog should by then understand where she is to drop.
Tibetan Terrier in Barbados doing the drop on recall exercise for the CDX trials
Tags: B'dos. Dog Training Club, Dog training at advanced levels, Dog training in Barbados, obedience dog training in Barbados
