January 20, 2001
Obedience Camden County KC, NJ
The Adventures of the Non-Obedient Beanhead and His Mom
Good to my word, you did no hear about my little Beanheaded doggie for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, a new year has started and so has my doggie calendar. You are all doomed.
Doomed, I say, doooooooooooooooooomed.
Evil Joycie laughter is heard.
After taking a two-month couch-sitting break, Crumpie and I have officially started our 2001 year this morning.
During that break we did fun doggie stuff like play �Snow Frisbee�,
retrieve the Dumbbell, and play �look how cute I am� at two conformation shows.
We did practice on some of the obedience, but for the most part,
I sat and watched TV and Crumpie carried around his toys in hopes that even
Trooper would play with him. Never mind the fact that Mike and I did play with him,
but he felt compelled to pull out of the basket every ball, the dumbbell, and his new toy the ball-dumbbell.
Fear not, he lived and when we did start attending classes, Crumpie was super focused. So was I.
Our rest did both of us well.
On with our day.
After all of this time off, what do I choose to enter? Obedience.
Ok, not my favorite of the sports, but hey, it was something different to train, right?
I am seriously rethinking that attitude now. It has got to be the challenge, that I am thoroughly convinced of now.
Like any good kick off to a season, the weather was bad. At least this time,
the show was indoors and there was no tent setting up. Hooray. I found a place for the
crate really fast and we were ready to go. We were supposed to be the 6th dog in,
but while watching the first dog (to see the heeling pattern), I realized I was going to be
the 2nd dog. Like that is a surprise? Heck, I am always the first dog on the line.
So in we go.
On Lead Heeling � Crumpie was into this just a little too much.
Man, we flew through this exercise, with our �fast� being short because we covered ground.
The judge had to call a �normal� and �about turn� on top of each other.
Crumpie not only got all of his sits during the �halts�, but they were straight ones to boot. Hooray.
Figure Eight � Holy Tomoly.
Sometimes during the turning portions of the 8, Crumpie lags or goes wide, but not today.
He actually made it look like we train.
Stand for Exam � Crumpie did an �up� and I left him, but when I turned around the judge
told me that I was suppose to go out six feet. Sure��I looked professional, now didn�t I?
I move three more feet out and Crumpie is still standing. He only moved one little paw, but he stayed.
Points off. I will take it as this is the best we have ever done.
Off Lead Heeling - Like wow wee, this was a repeat of the On Lead Heel.
He did forge a bit and I was disappointed, but he did all of his straight sits.
Again, this is also the best we have ever done.
Recall � I leave Crumpie and go to the other side of the ring,
but when I turn around he is halfway to me in laying in a down.
Crumpie would rather die then to break a stay during this exercise and has NEVER done so.
We NQed with this lack of doggie obedience.
My heart was broken, but what am I going to do.
I know why he did this as last night I had done something stupid like practiced in a
�quite� room while other dogs were running/barking/playing during their Fly Ball Practice. Dumb me.
Long story, but I should have known better.
We wait about half an hour and then it is time for the Sits and Downs.
I know already that all of the practicing we have been doing for the last month
(with AWESOME results and some hope for a Q) is out the window. Crumpet is
already insecure and now I am going to ask him to perform the Sit, which he has had serious problems with.
The Down might be ify.
One Minute Sit � Actually it was a ten second one. Crumpet went right into a Down.
Three Minute Down � After one minute, Crumpie decided I made a mistake and really meant get up and CREEP toward mom.
Both of these exercises were a result of me pushing it to much last night.
I should have known better then to ask him to do this with all of that
FUN activity going on around him. Back to practicing.
I hate practicing (but I love training) and I hate the fact that dogs have no concept of time.
How hard is it to SIT FOR ONE MINUTE? ARRUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!
Ok, Determined me has really come out.
There is something that I am either doing or not doing to make this clear.
A mother of all thoughts hit me after I got home last night from that run-through
and I am going to change the way I train for this. IF clarity is what is called for then clarity is what we are going to have.
Some of my best training has happened in the living room and that is where
it is going to start��because if it doesn�t, we are going to visit that place behind the barn. : )
Now, now, now, I am joking, but frustration can be evil.
The other thing that I saw today that got the gears in my brain going,
was while watching a Jr. Handler (about 12) with her Mini Poodle in the ring.
Ironically, this little dog also worked EXACTLY like Crumpie and sadly mirrored
Crumpie�s performance. Broke the Sit at ten seconds and had to creep in to mom during the Down.
It makes you wonder if the drive of dogs that work like this does not call for some �special�
or different approach to training non-moving exercises.
I am dieing to try to out think Crumpet with my new thought and simple observation today.
That is a feat and the serious challenge. The CD title means �Companion Dog� to the dog world,
but right now it means �Cranial Dysfunction� to me.
The good thing is that I have another chance to go again tomorrow if the roads are passable.
The bad thing is that I have another chance to go again tomorrow.
I did come home and practiced a few �short� sits�one for stay and one for come�in the living room.
I was hoping to boost Crumpie�s confidence in both.
That is better then not doing anything to help the insecurity factor.
This is a working relationship and I seem not to be holding up my end.
There is a reason and I have to come up with the �why�.
On a happier note, to show that I still love my little working buddy,
he just had to have a new crate pad with little dinosaurs on it and a �weekend� travel bag.
Hee hee hee hee I find it amazing that evil thoughts always get mixed in with the happy
thoughts when you KNOW that tomorrow is yet another day.
Hope everyone�s rainy and dreary Saturday was fun. You know mine was.
Joyce, the Captain of the One Dog Team Bean
Determined Bean
In the words of Mr. Hanky from South Park����
Howdy Hooooooooooo, Everyone.
Our day was fun and exciting.
I woke up this morning to our little world being covered in every kid�s favorite��snow.
At last second, I decided to give driving to the trial a shot.
I am glad that I did because the driving was fine�..except for the �jug handle�
that was located right across the street from the expo center.
I would really hate to tell all of you that the day was a no-go as I sat within sight of the ring.
The snow caused a lot of people to not show up, but that really did
not matter to me to much as I was one of the first dogs scheduled. Once again, I was second doggie in.
On Lead Heel � If I thought yesterday�s exercise was awesome,
then today�s was even better. Crumpie was super focused and super driven to do this.
He even surprised me. He got all of his sits.
Figure Eight � This was not as good as yesterday�s as the forging and minor
lagging was going on, but Crumpie knew where Heel Position was no matter where I was.
Stand for Exam � The fact that Crumpie moved a back leg was my fault.
It was an odd situation and Handler Me did not take her time
to set him up correctly��but���with a huge guy of a judge �barreling� down on him,
Crumpie stood his ground, kept his head up, and looked happy about pleasing me.
This was truly the first time that Crumpie looked confident in
the Stand (and I had no doggie treats to reward him with either.)
Off Lead Heel � Crumpie did have to forge a bit here and there,
but it was like he reminded himself of where he needed to be. Fine,
I do not want a robot dog, but I do want one that thinks a bit. (Hum. Is that the problem for the Sits and Down?)
Recall � I will admit it, I was petrified about this exercise.
My heart was beating in my head, ears, chest, knees and ankles.
After yesterday�s �broken� recall, I did not know what to expect.
I put Crumpie into a sit and right before I issue the command to wait,
Crumpie forges ahead into a stand. He does not look at me, but I step backward,
pull his attention back to me. I am not sure if this has NQed us as I cannot remember the rules,
but I get him back into a sit, tell him to �wait�, and walk out.
I might have walked to East Ygpt because that is how long it
took me to get across the ring. I turn around to find that my little doggie
is STILL sitting in place and he had the biggest darn happy face. Cool-o.
I issued the single word of �Come� and Crumpie came screaming toward me.
In a �sit in front� that you only see other peoples� dogs do,
my little doggie made me proud. I think he was still in a running
stride with his legs tucked under him when he sat. Okie Fadokie,
the sit was crooked, but hey, he came in and sat closed to me without
jumping up or touching me. Hooray.
His �finish back to heel� was crooked as, but the look on
his face was the best that anyone could have. It was the same
look that told me that the Long Sit and Down was going to not happen.
As the Gate Steward handed me Crumpie�s lead, she said that enthusiasm
was not allowed. Everyone laughed. My response was to never motivate your dog. The crowd laughed even harder.
Of course, the first thing I get nailed with is criticism of what
I did wrong. Never mind the fact that at that point I was shaking like a leaf
because of that uncertainty I had on the recall or the adrenaline of not being
the obedience ring in over a year. Criticize me after a few more weekends.
One Minute Sit � What sit? It was a one-minute stand in place,
three feet away from the start. I turned around and he was already there.
I decided not to make eye contact with him and stared at the ceiling or at the ring next to us.
Three Minute Down � We made it for one minute and then Crumpie got
up and crept toward me. The judge put a halt to that and made the oh so
cute little dog down again. I repeated my �look away� and started form ideas.
No more trials (I had wanted to enter New Brunswick, but not with a dog that
is playing by his own rules) until we play by mine.
I have decided to use start to seriously train the sits and downs with my
new idea as well as to hit obedience matches where I could leave him on lead
and stand in front of him. No trust from me to him and Crumpie thrives on that fact that I trust him.
Nope, not any more.
In defense of my little teammate, I have not really trained him properly for
these exercises. I assumed that since he stays everywhere that he would do so for this.
My bad and I am willing to work with this in mind. If I cannot ever achieve the finished product,
I will change that philosophy.
So all of this is going through my head and I have to deal with more criticism.
Good googly moogly. Do not get me wrong, I love being told opinions as that is what
makes you think AND do better, but not while I am walking out of the ring. Does it occur
to anyone that you already know what mistakes you have made? AT least let me have a few
minutes before you tell EVERYTHING I did wrong.
And no, I am not going for that perfect 200 either. I figured that if
I could have fun in the conformation and agility rings, then I could make obedience fun too.
The 200 can and might happen, but personally, I really could not care less.
Besides, can I get one GREEN ribbon before the Delusions of Grandeur come from the Peanut Gallery?
Hee hee hee hee hee hee.
I have issues, Mandy (Crumpie�s mom) had issues, and Crumpie has issues. We need to iron them all out.
And with that, we start our new training. : )
Hope the snow and slush did not dampen anyone�s day. It sure in heck did not soak ours.
Joyce, The Determined Bean
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Last Updated on April 21, 2007
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