Training

[PeppersMom]

ANyone training their Cairn for obedience competition? We have been at it for a year and would like to talk to someone about the nuances of training these guys..what works and what doesn't...Also I stripped my guy for the first time with some help from my breeder..I finally got brave enough to really do it and it wasn't bad! For me it was just finding a place to start and diving in. I will still ask her to help me with the dicey areas like tail and head but its finally clicking. I have no clue how to layer and that kind of stuff but it will come...

[bradl]

Good for you! In our area there are quite a few Cairns who do obedience at various level - all the way up to Utility.

We have a CD on our two oldest (9&10) and will be taking our youngest to class starting in a couple of weeks.

My experience has been that (depending on the dog of course) that they are SO smart that too much repetition does nothing for them except give them the idea you are asking them to improvise a bit. I also found in the beginning that I was heeling too slowly. They are quick thinkers so it helps to keep them focused on you and moving relatively quickly, compared to the big dogs.

Once we got over the initial hump of "huh? you want me to do what?" they LOVED class (and the movable feast that was a pocket full of treats).

Have fun! Keep us posted on your progress. Here are a couple of pics. The first is our oldest girl. The second is our boy (l) and oldest girl (3rd from l) who were part of an all-cairn obedience team. We beat a team of Newfoundlands in a hilarious performance.

[hallswel]

Wow I am impressed! Please do keep us posted on your progress.

[magadog]

Hi. It can be done. Some Cairns are more amenable than others. Some-- well-- one of mine in particular-- I haven't found a way to quit having him train me. In spite of that, he did earn a CD title. He is trained to the next level but prefers an improvisational style-- audience pleasing to be sure.

He is the brother to Brad's more obedient Cairn, Haggis-- who's not quite so feral as my very own Geordie, his former wombmate.

On the other hand, Geordie's half-sister Maggie was the second-ranked Cairn terrier in Obedience for 1999-- in spite of my mediocre handling (a handicap of mine-- I suck as a handler). For Maggie, it was almost like an "acting gig." She took on a different persona than her usual independent demeanor when we did obedience. She loved it, managed to earn her CDX the same year as her CD and has training well into the UDX level. The problem has been two-fold, though. An injury initiated some arthritis in her lumbar spine and knee. Accupuncture has done wonders-- but a combination of her tentativeness about the jumps and my schedule, etc. has stopped us for now. SHE is good.

Geordie is good in his own way. He INNOVATES. One of these days I'll rise to the challenge. I have often wished I could just send a VIDEO of the Troll.

See????? Bette Tapes Geordie Obeying!

But training is fun, and both my dogs wish they could go back to school. We will. . .See Maggie doing the glove retrieval from Utility.

And here's a whole page I've dedicated to obedience with Mag and Geord: Obedience

Best--it can be done. But it's not like people say, Gee, I want an obedience breed! I'll get a Cairn terrier.

That's like saying I need a lap dog, what do you think of a Saint Bernard? Maybe not THAT outrageous, but you get the idea.

Jill in Oregon

[bradl]

I'd not seen that movie. Very cool

[Greg]

Petey starts his classes this week....he is six months old and is pretty good about following my commands (when he's in the mood). My wife is the one that has trouble with him so she is going to be the handler....she has never had a dog for a pet and really lets him get the best of her at times....it will be training for both of them.

[PeppersMom]

Wow thanks for all the advice! I had been training at a club where the trainer favored larger breeds...border collies, labs etc..it was obvious he did not care for small guys. I switched to another club closer to my house and this trainer is a Judy Howard fan and she owns small dogs. However she is really into high scores and I am just interested in having Pepper pass...not be an OTCH dog! He has a hard time with attention and staying...I know what everyone means with improvising...I would rather have one of these creative guys than a lab that retrieves a million times just because! I try to keep training really short too. I am entering him in a Cairn specialty in June that offers obedience too..

[PeppersMom]

Wow congrats on your Georgi's son Oliver! I watched it on the Westminster web site! My Pepper's auntie Player went to Westminster a few years ago and his cousin Sparky won in the Eukanuba a few years ago too. We have a few puppy mills around and I can't say enough about buying a puppy from a reputable breeder. Even though Pepper is fixed, its a pleasure to own a good representative of the breed!

[PeppersMom]

I'm convinced this dog knows more about obedience than I do..I stink as a handler too..I get really nervous in matches and my footwork goes out the window. I am tall and of course Pepper is small so we look a bit on the comical side in the ring! He has to crane his head around to look me in the eye and ends up with crooked sits. I think Cairns have different levels of attention in obedience..one is totally focused where they watch all the time..this is very much hot dog induced, and the other is quasi pay attention where they are aware of commands just enough to perform, but they are also watching stuff around..then there is totally not paying attention and I'm going to do what I want to do...you hope you don't get #3 in the obedience ring! The problem is you never know which one is going to be there! I find no matter how hard the correction, if Peps is in mode 3 there is no way he is going to pay attention even with food. Thats when he really acts like a terrier.

[bradl]

You are so right about those three modes. When I hold a treat down and I see my dog just turn his or her head away from it, I know I'm doomed for that day. Happens in the breed ring as well as the O-ring.

[PeppersMom]

Pepper bombed this weekend at an O-trial ..he forgot that he wasn't supposed to stop and smell a wall on the off leash heeling! Also a pit pull tried to bite his head off on the sit/stays so I pulled him out of there...oh well theres always the next time!

[magadog]

I think I would "bomb" too-- if a dog tried to remove my head, too. Okay, so he heeled like a scent hound. Tell us what he did RIGHT! You're too hard on yourself.

Ten years ago I took then ten-month-old Maggie to (presumably) FUN match. We did PRE-Novice. The only things she passed were the sit and down stays. She went on to easily finish her CD in straight shots and her CDX in with only four failures-- and placements in the others. She was four to five during that time.

She is well-trained in Utility-- except that I have taken a longer hiatus from obedience due to finances, time, and inertia-- and some injury induced arthritis-- but we may go back yet.

She failed her first CGC test with flying colors. The Drill Sargent evaluator comments, "Well some dogs just can't do obedience." She didn't know what she was talking about.

Geordie has failed eight consecutive Open trials-- amusing observers everywhere.

Jill

He has a UDX on ME!

[PeppersMom]

Actually I found out later that other than NQing on the heel off leash, Pepper's score was really good. And if I had caught him sniffing and given him the extra command we would have lost only the extra 5 points rather than NQing...handler error strikes again! We will never know if he would have stayed with that pit bull next to him, but I did not want to chance a dog fight...Many many people came up to be afterwards and said I did not right thing by pulling him out of there. Unless I am reading the rules wrong, but isn't a dog supposed to be excused from the right if they are aggressive 2 times toward another dog? This pit did it twice to Pepper before the sits and downs started.

[kcsdogs]

Pepper bombed this weekend at an O-trial  ..he forgot that he wasn't supposed to stop and smell a wall on the off leash heeling!  Also a pit pull tried to bite his head off on the sit/stays so I pulled him out of there...oh well theres always the next time!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bummer oh well happens to the best of us! At least no one could ever say that doing obedience with a Cairn is boring! By the way how did the Pit Bull do?