2003

Big Sky Schutzhund Club October Trial Results

Worden (Billings), Montana			October 4-5, 2003			USA Nikki Banfield
	SchH 3		T	O	P	TSB	total
	Nike ot Vitosha SchH2	Mali				“a”		Rosellen Westerhoff
	SchH 2		T	O	P	TSB	total
	Nixe vom Leerburg SchH1	GSD						Janice Bogy
	SchH A			O	P	TSB	total
	Broken Circle BucksKgdmBytheC	ACD						Ingrid Rosenquist
	Arek von der vier Eichen SchH3	GSD				“a”		Debbie Dilley
	BH			O
	Saga vom Grunewald	GSD		FAILED				Sami Jones
	Bull Mountain’s Night’s First Light “Venus”	Mali		PASSED				Coral Westerhoff
	FH		T				total
	Can Tango v. Bullinger	GSD						Sue Geske

Congratulations to Nike Ot Vitosha and her new SchH 3! Nike is an awesome working dog with a gifted trainer. Congratulations also to Poe and Ingrid on their successful SchH A! Many Thanks go to the Westerhoffs for again providing such beautiful trial grounds. Debbie and Ingrid provided gift baskets for all competitors and Debbie sponsored some great new trophies. Bruce Westerhoff worked as trial helper, track layer and trial secretary — thanks, Bruce! Lily Westerhoff didn’t trial this time as Joeri is retired and Ura, her new puppy, is just learning the ropes. But Lily kept busy videotaping the trial and earning some money for horseback riding lessons. Finally, congratulations to the new team of Coral and Venus for achieving their BH!

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Seminar Notes
Anne attended a five day seminar with Ivan Balabanov and Michael Ellis in Kentucky in November. Here are a few notes she made regarding obedience:

1. There must be a clear beginning and end to an obedience session and to each exercise. Give the dog a cue that you are going to be training when you start your session with the dog in drive. End with a verbal cue that everything is over (something like “that’s all” or “we’re done”). For each exercise, end with the release word you have chosen, and HAVE THE DOG LEAVE THE POSITION WHERE THE EXERCISE OCCURRED. For example, if you have asked for a sit out of motion, give your release word, and have them move towards you for the reward.
2. Think about the way you are playing with your dog with the toy. They should be empowered by the play, not just be hanging on. Be conscious of actually playing tug where they win by pulling against you, and then you win by pulling against them.
3. When you are working on the motion exercises and the long down, realize that you want to have the dog focused on you. If they are stationary but distracted while you are out of the heel position, use this opportunity to give your release word and have them power to you for the reward. This might sound like you are rewarding them looking away, but if you already have a firm foundation of focus for reward, it will actually teach them that they don’t want to lose focus because that toy is going to come out and surprise them. I saw this in action and it really works well. This will also help for the recall where you don’t want the dog looking away from you – if they do, use it as an opportunity to release and play.
4. Use any potential stressful situation on the field to build drive. For example, when you start introducing heeling in the group, reward the dog when you reach their “awareness distance” as they approach the group. For some dogs this may be ten feet away. You’ll know where it is by their body language. Then throw the toy into the group, have them bring it back, move closer, etc. The intent is to have them associate the group with the reward. In one session I saw a dog that was a little worried about the group become totally focused and eager to enter the group. This same approach should work for any other potentially stressful situation for the dog.
5. Retrieving was covered, including teaching the hold. Most of you have seen the hold exercise, and it is too long to describe here anyway. For building speed on return, use lots of verbal encouragement, slap your leg, etc. The word in my notes that I have is “explode” immediately after the pick-up so there is a tight turn and fast recall. There was discussion on running backwards, but the general impression is this should be done perhaps only a few times at the very beginning and then not at all. Obviously, the dog should be taught this initially when very, very high in drive. There was one session where the handler had someone hold the dog, the handler threw the dumbbell, and then ran out and got it themselves a few times until the dog was very stimulated. There was much discussion on imprinting puppies on the retrieve and how critical this is.
6. End comment/philosophy – think about the end result that you want and then shape the behavior to get to that picture. Be sure that you have clear, distinct release words and that your bridging words (good! and no…)are used appropriately and at the correct time (always easier said than done!!). Always give your release word before you produce the reward, and have the dog break position and move towards you. Be exciting and happy that you are a team member with your dog. Have the mentality that you are not “working” your dog, but “playing” with your dog so that the result is good communication and a willing worker. Teach incrementally, but put things together as fast as you can so you are truly enforcing the desired behavior. The perfection expected in successive approximations of the correct behavior should be done as quickly as possible for the individual dog (Ivan is an absolute master of this). If you do all this, there should be a minimum of punishment (leash corrections, e collar stim, etc.)needed at any stage in training.

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Danno Brags
Anne writes:
“And a little brag…. took Danno to Missoula for a supported show for malinois over the weekend, where he went winner’s dog all three days and best of winners one day for a major (there were five bitches). So that’s six points. Not bad for a nearly six year old dog who had never set foot in a breed ring. I also got to see four of his “kids” that are now 14 mo. old. His son Issac finished his championship in Billings and now has two group 4 placements. One of his daughters, Nova, had some great obedience runs with a 197 in Novice A, trained and handled by a junior. It was a fun weekend!”

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Spring Trial

BSSC’s spring trial was held in Bozeman 28-29 June, 2003 with USA Judge Mike Hamilton, assisted by apprentice judge Ray Blomberg. High in Trial went to Rosellen Westerhoff and Nike Ot Vitosha, who also earned their SchH2 title.

Anne Camper and Danno tracked beautifully to earn their first FH with a 96-V “excellent” score and High Score Tracking. What a team to watch! Tracking conditions were a little harder this year due to recent rains followed by scorching temperatures, but you sure couldn’t prove it by the FH team.

New club member Robert Kochan with his super young dog “Nick” earned their BH on Saturday and their SchH1 on Sunday with the high
protection score. It was obvious that Mike Hamilton thought highly of this team.

Eugene Gelhard and Skipper repeated their SchH3 for the fourth time. Thanks go out to Eugene and Rosemary for once again making the long drive from Utah and for their continuing support! We’re looking forward to seeing Gene progress with his new puppy, “Rocky”, when Skipper gets to enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Pete and Ellen Higgins drove over from Spokane to try TR3s with Dobermans Remington and Zephra. Unfortunately, Remy, who has had some poor health this spring, wasn’t ready to enter to track in sun-baked hardpan after having trained on the lush green grass of Washington. Zeffie also had some problems in the dirt and was unable to complete the track. However, it sure was nice to see old friends and catch up on the news.

This trial could have easily been called “The Westerhoff Family Trial”. Lily, age 9, showed her malinois Joeri, age 10, to another OB1, while Coral, age 7, showed Joeri to another TR1. Coral did an outstanding job of laying the track and then handling Joeri through some difficult moments. Lily was a smooth and composed handler even though Joeri made it obvious she’d rather have continued her snooze in the sun during the long down. Mike was genuinely delighted to judge both girls, and had high praise for their professionalism and sportsmanship. Bruce Westerhoff, in his debut as a Schutzhund competitor, competently handled Debbie Dilley’s dog, Arek, to a SchH2. In addition, Bruce was tracklayer for the FH and decoy for the SchH1 and front half of the SchH3. Finally, Nike and Rosellen did an outstanding job of earning their SchH2 and HIT. Mike commented that Rosellen’s handling was “smooth like ice” and he expects to see more of this team.

Mary Lehman and Phoenix, who also drove up from Utah, successfully completed their BH test. While Mary is an old hand at search and rescue, this was her first Schutzhund trial. Phoenix is a handsome dog who also showed steady nerves in Mike’s demanding traffic portion of the BH test.

Jessica Boerger and Couloir had some unfortunate problems in tracking, but turned in respectable and enjoyable performances in obedience and protection. Janice Bogy and Nixe squeaked out a passing TR1, Sue Geske and Tango passed their TR3 with the first track of the trial, and Ingrid Rosenquist and her Australian Cattle Dog Poe got their OB1 with a performance that included some rather interesting retrieves!

Happy birthday to Derek Jones, who had to share his special day with a “stoopid dog trial”, and will have to share Halloween with the Nationals. I know he wishes his parents had a different hobby…

Thanks to EVERYONE for making the trial run so smoothly. Special thanks to Jessica for taking care of trophies and judge’s gifts (and keeping Warren in beer while he ran the Saturday night barbeque), Sammie for a great job as trial secretary, hostess and photographer, to Warren for general organization, host duties, and trial helper work, and for coordinating and captaining everything from start to finish; thanks to Bruce for his stinky feet on Danno’s FH track and helper work; to Rob for helping with set up prior to the trial; and to Sue for track laying. Also, thanks to Anne for laying the SchH3 tracks and running the group and jumping to help do things every time Warren needed a spare set of hands…. and Ingrid for crawling around in the slime in the kiddie pool to scrub it out for the kids… and to Rosellen & Debbie (and unknown accomplices) for cleaning up and putting all the food away, and Janice and Gus for one of the more entertaining “dummy” dogs we’ve seen… This might be the smoothest run trial yet. We all “done good.”

Trial Results

Bozeman, Montana			28-29 June 2003			USA Mike Hamilton
	FH 1		T				total
	Danno Ot Vitosha SchH3 IPO3	Mali	96 V				96 V	Anne Camper
	SchH 3		T	O	P	TSB	total
	Angus vom Hausreid SchH3	GSD	76 B	78 B	74 B	vh	228 B	Eugenius Gelhard
	SchH 2		T	O	P	TSB	total
	Nike ot Vitosha SchH1	Mali	95 SG	92 SG	87 G	“a”	274 SG	Rosellen Westerhoff
	Arek von der vier Eichen SchH3	GSD	82 G	71 B	88 G	“a”	241 G	Bruce Westerhoff
	Couloir vom das Wendl-Rudel SchH1	GSD	38 M	83 G	88 G	“a”	— M	Jessica Boerger
	SchH 1		T				total
	Apparitor of Y. Maeda BH	GSD	95 SG	81 G	92 SG	“a”	268 G	Robert Kochan
	BH			O
	Apparitor of Y. Maeda	GSD		PASSED				Robert Kochan
	Phoenix vom Valkyre	GSD		PASSED				Mary Lehman
	TR 3		T				total
	Can Tango v. Bullinger	GSD	88 G				88 G	Sue Geske
	Wittrock’s ZZZZZephra	Dobe	36 M				36 M	Ellen Higgins
	TR 1		T				total
	Joeri Casa de Mandingo’s	Mali	81 G				81 G	Coral Westerhoff
	Nixe vom Leerburg	GSD	70 B				70 B	Janice Bogy
	OB 1			O			total
	Broken Circle BucksKgdmBytheC	ACD		84 G			84 G	Ingrid Rosenquist
	Joeri Casa de Mandingo’s	Mali		74			74 B	Lily Westerhoff

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Welcome to new members!
Welcome to new club member Robert Kochan, who comes to us via Japan. While serving in the Air Force, Rob trained with the Kanto Plains Schutzhund Klub and had the opportunity to work with some of the top trainers and helpers in the world. His young dog “Nick” is a happy working dog with a clear head and nice grips. He also brought over a very promising young female, Ally, who Anne has generously agreed to foster for the summer while Rob completes some mandatory USAF training in California and Alabama. Welcome Rob! We hope you enjoy your time in the Big Sky Country.

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INTRODUCING BABY ZOUKA!
Anne has a new puppy, coming to her all the way from Belgium. For more information about Zouka, click here.

Diva graduated from Guide Dogs!
For Diva’s story, click here.