COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING FOR THE SMALL DOG

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Chapter 1

CAN A SMALL DOG BE COMPETITIVE?

Good question! If you are thinking about a small dog for obedience, it is a question you have probably already asked. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to training and showing the little guys that should be considered. First, five reasons for…

SMALL DOGS, BY DEFINITION, ARE FUN

Training a small dog is not a grim necessity as it often is with bigger dogs. It is never a serious question of muscle or dominance or survival. Training a small dog is purely elective. Even if your dog is behaving badly, muscle and dominance involves picking him up and carrying him off.

When the task of training is entered into willingly, a happy, upbeat attitude for both dog and handler is relatively easy to maintain. Competitive obedience is a team sport; if your teammate is fun, the sport will be too. Obedience, which tends to take itself too seriously, could certainly benefit from a little levity!

Unlike some of their bigger canine cousins, small dogs are not only fun, they don’t scare anyone. Training or showing, your dog is the one everyone else wants to watch, talk to, and pet. In the ring or out, like it or not, cuteness counts.

SMALL DOGS ARE EASY KEEPERS

They are bright, amenable, and energetic. They are also compact and adaptable. If the weather is not right or the hour is too late to practice obedience outside, a small dog can practice in the house. Could a Golden Retriever work on his Retrieve Over the High Jump in your living room? Probably not, but a small dog could.

An apartment or house too crowded for the average-sized dog could still accommodate any one of the 48 short or small breeds. In fact, the size of the dog might determine whether or not you can have a dog at all.

Do you have a lot of room in your apartment or house? You can have several small dogs; they are even more fun by the bunch.

Small dogs are also highly portable and good travelers. Going to an out-of-town dog show? There is almost always room for you to travel in someone else’s car when you’ve got a dog that rides in your lap or whose crate is as small as an overnight bag. You can share the cost of motel rooms with your friends; your dog takes half your pillow, not half the bed. On an airplane, a little guy can ride in a crate that fits under the seat, spared the trauma of travel in the cargo hold.

YOU’VE GOT TIME

Generally speaking, the smaller the dog the longer the life span. You don’t have to rush your training to advanced titles before canine old age and its related problems makes earning a Utility Dog title or an Obedience Trial Championship an impossible dream. At the time a big dog is being forced into retirement, a small dog is just hitting his stride.

YOU GET ALL THE CREDIT

Go into the ring with an obedience breed, do a nice job, earn a high score and…so what? Whether it’s true or not, folklore has it that certain breeds are naturals and easy to train in obedience. If you are in the ring with one and can’t win, well, something must be wrong with you.

But go into the ring with a Shih Tzu, or a Boston Terrier, or any one of the obedience unknowns, do a credible job, and you’re considered a great trainer! No one expects your dog to be competitive because most people have never seen a dog of your breed compete. The potential in many breeds of small dogs may be the last and best kept secret in obedience. (Until your breed is discovered, keep taking all the credit yourself!)

THERE ARE STILL FIRSTS TO BE WON

There are so few small dogs in competitive obedience that there are still attainable firsts to be won and records to be broken. You could have your breed’s first Ch/UD, or UDT, or OTCh.

It is relatively easy to be nationally ranked in obedience when the number of dogs competing in a particular breed is still low; you don’t have to score that high or enter that many trials to find yourself on top.

All right, if training and showing a small dog in obedience is so much fun, so easy and so gratifying, why doesn’t everyone do it? Isn’t there a down side? Well, yes, there is. To keep things in perspective, here are five reasons against…

SMALL DOGS OFTEN TAKE LONGER TO TRAIN

Small dogs learn just as quickly as their larger relations. Teaching and training, however, are two different things, and it’s the training that can take awhile. The reason? It takes time to develop a working partnership. And working with a small dog is just that, a partnership. It’s not dominant/submissive. It’s not getting your way by imposing your will. It’s not even leader/follower. It’s partners: teammates competing in a team sport. Developing that kind of relationship and rapport takes an investment in time.

YOUR TRAINING OPTIONS ARE LIMITED

Your dog is starting to lag on the outside circle of the Figure Eight. Are you going to pop him with choke collar corrections so he will hustle? Your dog is not going far enough on the go out in Directed Jumping. Are you going to use a shock collar to fry him all the way to the end of the ring? Your dog isn’t dropping fast enough on the Drop on Recall. Are you going to throw a shaker can at him for a drop-through-intimidation?

No, none of the above. What you are going to do is find positive, inducive solutions to your training problems because anything more severe than a gentle collar correction is simply not an option with most small dogs. Severity creates more problems than it solves.

If you are short-tempered, have little patience and less imagination, you really have no options at all. You will not succeed in competitive obedience regardless of your breed.

BEWARE FALSE PROPHETS

Most obedience instructors know how to train the generic dog, but very few will admit that they have no idea how to train something different. If you have one of the toy breeds, some instructors won’t even allow you in their classes. They don’t want to be responsible. (Does this suggest anything to you about their methods?)

If you are dependent upon an instructor who has never trained a small dog herself, you’re going to get plenty of erroneous advice or, at best, no advice at all. You are going to have to sift through everything you see, hear and read, asking yourself, Is this the best way for me to train? You have to be smarter and more alert than other trainers. You must think about what you are doing. You cannot be afraid to say, No, I don’t want to do that with my dog.

And, of course, when you do train around other dogs, you must constantly be on guard against an unprovoked attack. Even unprovoked play (as in, Gee, he only wanted to play. He’s never seen anything that small before!) could cost your dog his life. You can’t relax your vigilance in class, at a show, or anywhere there is another dog, not even for a moment.

THE AKC OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS WERE NOT WRITTEN FOR SMALL DOGS

In the United States, the American Kennel Club OBEDIENCE REGULATIONS were developed around the Standard Poodle and German Shepherd Dog. For small dogs, inequities exist in every exercise. Distances are not shortened just because your dog is proportionately smaller. You are a long way away from your dog on the Recall; the opposite side of the ring is a long way away for your dog in Directed Jumping. Gloves, scent articles and dumbbells are objects for blind retrieves.

Because a small dog occupies so little space, every deviation from heel position is magnified. If a small dog is lagging, forging, crowding or going wide by even an inch or two, he is glaringly wrong. If a big dog is heeling two inches out of position, will it even be noticed? Probably not. Small dogs have to work harder and be better than bigger dogs because their every error is easier to see and score.

There are also judges who will not give you the score you deserve because they cannot, for some reason, judge small dogs. Bob Squires, former Director of Obedience for the American Kennel Club, told of one judge who would take a point off in a heeling exercise each time he saw the dog out of heel position. According to this judge, that happened with a small dog each time the handler was in mid-stride!

YOUR PUPPY CHOICES ARE LIMITED

If you are relatively new to dogs and want to get a small dog for the express purpose of obedience, you might have a hard time convincing a breeder to part with a puppy. Many breeders of small dogs are only interested in conformation; they view obedience training with distrust. A few even equate obedience with abuse. Your job, then, becomes one of education. You might have to start with an adult dog – a retired brood bitch or male champion, for example – and through training and the passage of time, prove yourself good, honest and true. Show the breeder that you don’t abuse dogs to train them and that you can be trusted with a puppy.

Puppy testing, which can help you evaluate temperament and suitability for obedience, might also be of limited use. Your choice may be one puppy (which might be the whole litter), take it or leave it. Also, some of the things you look for in an obedience prospect, such as fearlessness, pushy attitude, chase instinct, and high energy level, are not necessarily qualities nurtured by conformation breeders.

Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to get into a breed and, once into the breed, to find the perfect puppy for you. Small dogs are rare and wonderful things…and that, of course, is as it should be.

Excellence in any field depends largely on three basic factors: (a) how well you know where you want to go, (b) how much you really want to get there, and (c) how strongly you believe in your ability to arrive at your desired destination.

Terry Orlick, PhD

IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

Chapter 2

PUPPY AND PRE-TRAINING

A puppy’s adult behavior depends greatly on the conditioning – intentional, unintentional, or absent – that he receives during the first six months of his life. After puppyhood has passed, all socialization is remedial. If your puppy is to realize his full potential, his puppyhood should include a successful introduction to and sampling of everything he will encounter as an adult.

Most pre-training and socialization experiences don’t occur naturally in the security of your home. You are going to have to take the time and trouble to set them up. You are also going to have to do everything you can to assure that your puppy’s adventures will be positive learning experiences.

If something negative or scary does occur while the puppy is being exposed to varied and enriched environments, that’s okay, too. Fear is inherent in a puppy’s personality – it is a survival mechanism – and learning how to deal with fear is part of learning how to handle life. It’s how you handle your pup’s displays of fear when confronted with strange, stressful, or threatening situations that will go a long way toward building or destroying his self-confidence.

It is so easy to baby, over-protect, or simply pick up and carry away a small dog from the source of his stress. Don’t do it! Don’t try to force him to act brave, and don’t reinforce fear by petting or consoling him. Your response to a non-threatening situation which your puppy perceives as dangerous should be to encourage investigation: Well, let’s check it out. Your attitude should reflect interest without emotional involvement. Many small dogs see danger where there is none their entire lives. (And who knows, from their perspective they might be right!) Your pup’s obedience potential will be enhanced if both of you learn how to deal with fear while he is still young.

While it is important to socialize and pre-train your puppy, it is equally important that you do not get involved in any formal training. Utilizing the recent research into canine intelligence and learning stages, puppy training classes have become the vogue. Folks have begun to realize what wonderful blank slates they have in their hands: If a puppy can be so easily taught, I’ll train this bundle of fuzz through Utility and have a Super Dog before he’s grown!

Whoa! Slow down! All that potential will never be realized if you don’t let your puppy be a puppy; that means no pushing and no pressure. You can ruin your pup by trying for too much formality too soon. You can’t ruin him by waiting. Puppy means play.

In my house, each puppy follows a malleable master plan. At three months of age there is an eight-week puppy socialization class, and at six months a conformation class for further socialization and lots of hands-on. If the puppy is show quality, I will enter her in matches and local shows in the Puppy Class. Then I will stop showing her in conformation (unless she is winning!) until she is about two years old and has her adult body and coat. In the meantime, we will be tracking.

At about 10 to 12 months of age, I will start playtraining obedience; no hurry here, as I won’t show her in Novice until she is about three years old and trained through Utility.

Barbara

The first thing I do with my puppy is tracking. I would like to have him certified before six months of age and earn the TD shortly thereafter. If a puppy class is available, I will take him for socialization. but I don’t teach any obedience to my young pup other than an informal recall and walking on a leash. If he is show quality, I prefer to get his Championship before getting serious about obedience.

I will start some low-key obedience around 9 to 10 months of age. My dog will be trained through Open with an understanding of most of the Utility exercises before he ever goes near a Novice ring.

Gerianne

While you are waiting for that little mind and body to mature, plenty of training can still be taking place. Here are some playtraining suggestions that will enhance your puppy’s obedience potential:

• Take your puppy with you everywhere you go. Take along a pocket full of treats too, and ask everyone who meets your puppy to really make a fuss over him and offer him a treat. Enlist people of both sexes and of every age, creed and color.

• Teach your puppy to stay alone. Employ a systematic program for separation, starting with just a few minutes and working up to several hours. Bonding is so important to some trainers that they forget separation is important – and inevitable.

• Crate train the puppy and, in the process, be sure he is reliably housebroken. The pup should think of his crate as a place of safety, introduced as his bed inside of an exercise pen when he is first brought into your home.

• A puppy should learn to ignore continuing background sounds (leave the radio or television on when you’re not home) and, taking his cue from you, not panic at loud noises. If your puppy should become frightened at a sudden sound, jolly him out of it, as in Wow! Did you hear that thunder too? Wasn’t that great? Then go on about your business, unperturbed over what the puppy perceives as a threat. Comforting a frightened pup only reinforces his fear: She is telling me I’m right to be afraid!

• The puppy should learn to wear, without protest, a buckle collar with an identification tag.

• After he has learned to accept a collar, he can learn to accept a leash. The first few times you put the leash on your puppy, just go where he wants to go. When he is no longer distracted by this new attachment, you can become the leader, using food as a lure to keep him moving by your left side.

• Of course, it may not be that simple! If the puppy balks or starts throwing his body around at the end of the leash, stop, turn to face him and squat down. Remain impassive and look past him; a direct stare will only increase his panic. When he stops fighting, show him a treat right under his nose, stand up slowly and step back. When the pup moves toward you, give him the treat. Continue to back up, using the food as a lure. Once he is moving, turn so he is again by your side. Reward him with a treat, then use another treat to lure him on again. (No, you are not teaching your dog to heel. You are not teaching moving attention. You are just teaching your puppy to walk with you on a leash. Lighten up!)

• Now that you are walking together, walk everywhere: on grass, concrete, indoor/outdoor carpeting, slick floors, matting, dirt, gravel, and through puddles after a rain.

• Teach your puppy to negotiate stairs. Pick him up and set him on a next-to-the-bottom step and have him come down. Praise, pick him up and put him on the second step, and so on, until he can come down five or six steps without a problem. Then induce him to go up, one step at a time, using food treats held on the step just above the one he is on. Choose a flight of stairs that is safe – not slippery and not open casement – and has a step height the pup can manage.

• The pup should learn to settle down and ride quietly in a car, even if his first trip is just around the