Foundations in Obedience

Although tracking has been such a fun and rewarding activity to teach Dieter - we also at a very young age started basic foundations for obedience training later on. Again, his insatiable appetite comes in very handy teaching him basic commands, positioning, introducing him to things like the A-frame and tunnels. The food drive also comes in handy for building and holding focus for periods at a time. These photos are all from training with food as a motivator. We have recently started building drive for tug toys and at some point when he is ready, they will be used as a primary motivator for most obedience exercises.

This pup showing incredible focus despite bustle of activity of other people and dogs and close proximity of photographer.

I have also been just playing with him over a very flattened A-frame to get him used to it. He is still a big goof so I try to keep him from charging over it and back and injuring himself.

There is also a few tunnels up at the club used sometimes in the Police Service Dog training. Although not required for schutzhund training, I have exposed Dieter to them and he is very comfortable going through them. He will even jump into the elevated one and go through it.

Also introduced "revier" around various objects teaching him to run around basically what I direct him at. Again, no lack of enthusiasm for this exercise either.

We continue to have a blast at each and every training session. His enthusiasm, enormous quantities of energy, cleverness and impudence make him a fun little dog to train.