Training

[PeppersMom]

We had a training seminar at our club this past weekend. He is an AKC judge and mostly discussed handling in the ring etc. He shows Shelties himself...after feeling pretty inadequate at the results I get from Pepper in the ring I want to pass along my terrier training philosophy. We have highly intelligent terriers that get bored. period. We worked on figure 8's yesterday for 5 minutes. period. When I do scent work if he gets it right on the first try, we are done. We don't have the kind of dogs that you can drill over and over like other dogs. Now we have a right to expect SOME results every time we ask..there should not be grey areas with our training. Demand the result you ask for, but we have thinking dogs and as a result we can be a bit lazy and not train for hours like these border collie and golden retriever people. I will get off my soap box and stop feeling inferior for training a Cairn....

[eastofeden]

Aw PeppersMom....I know where you are coming from. Although I have been very lucky and have not run into the "terrier" bias with my training instructors that many people have. In fact, I know that one of the gals I train with has recommended Cairns to a friend who wants to downsize as a result of seeing my two work. (And she is very aware that it took time for them to get where they are....and the struggles we have had)

I think in general endless drilling is a bad way to train. If the dog shows that he gets it then why continue..end on a positive with them. With cairns training is never dull and they always surprise you.

Please realize that you are the superior trainer (than those BC, Sheltie, Lab/Ret folks) because of your dog.

[little feet zip]

Whenever I take Zip for Rally trainnig I'm lucky if I can get thru the course a second time before he gets bored. I think the Cairns want to please us as much as other breeds, but its like hold that thought I'll be back in a second I just want to see whats over here, and then not come back. They are'nt hard to train ,because they are smart they just make you work for it.

Rich

[kintra]

Thankfully my obedience mentor has Rottweilers and is Kari's (one of my Cairn mentors) sister, so she knows Cairns and 'difficult' breeds in general. I can't hold training sessions very long at home (10 minutes, tops), but he usually very focused for the entire 60 minute training classes, thankfully.

And it was SO worth it when we started working for his CD and RN...every judge commented on how intense/focused he was, how amazing he did for a Terrier in general, and for one of his first places in Rally Novice, he beat a Golden Retriever and other 'more trainable' breeds. That was by far our most rewarding win.

[Greg P]

I have seen cairns solve underground mazes to get to prey.

I have seen figure out how to get up on a counter by moving a chair to it.

I have seen cairns figure out how to open a gate.

I have seen cairns figure out how to manipulate the latch on a crate to get it open.

I have seen cairns work in unison to take down prey.

Cairns are very bright, independent thinkers and problem solvers. They are not at all difficult to train, however, different methodologies must be used. Methods generally used with other breeds may not work as well with cairns. The terrier mind is different than the mind of a bird dog or a collie.

And, those cairn trainers who are successful in obedience, rally obedience and agility should feel SUPERIOR for their efforts for unlocking the keys to the mind of their cairn terriers!

[Karen]

The hard part of working towards Mac's RAE title is the fact that the two runs for Exc & Adv are so similar (or at least have been in our last 2 trials) that he's bored during the 2nd one. He's ok with the first one, but we're almost repeating it for the 2nd run and his enthusiasm drops about 50%.

The last trial we were at, only 3 stations were different on the Exc course from the Adv and one of those was the 2nd jump! One "stand" exercise was replaced with another one, and another "stand" was added to the end of the course. Rally judges say it's completely legal and helps keep the trial moving.

He's got 3 RAE legs but I'm not sure I want to continue since he's not enjoying it much. With the entry fees being about $45/day around here for 2 runs, it's hard to spend it on something he doesn't care about.

Karen

[cairnsby3]

I hear you Karen, I did the RAE with Spring, but it was tedious. She was the same way, fine in the first class, but had this look on her face in the second one like "didn't we just do this? why are we doing it again, lets do something else."

I haven't even started it with Shiner, maybe when we aren't having so much fun with agility.

[PeppersMom]

I haven't even considered RAE with Pepper...I have done a double rally/obedience at one trial and by the o run he was shot. Way too much for him. Heck if he gets the right article on the first try we are done...it doesn't pay to do it over and over again. Plus I don't really enjoy handling in rally with the rule changes...if you think about it, it is actually more complicated than regular obedience..way too much thinking for my taste and I don't want to double that up 10X....yikes!