Druidale German Shepherds and Spanish Water Dogs

Show dogs that work, working dogs that show

 

 Dun Roamin Druidale

"Rudi"

DOB unknown

 

Rudi lives life in the fast lane and is very rarely still. He was rescued from a pound in the North East just before Christmas 2004 where he had been taken as a stray. I foolishly agreed to foster him over the Christmas period and until he got a home. He's been here over 5 years now and will be staying for good.

Rudi is a very handsome lad and is very active. His activity levels and some of his characteristics have led to me calling him a 'Border collie in a GSD skin'. He is completely ball mad, almost totally obsessed with them to the detriment of everything else. He does that lovely cantilever down that collies do when they are waiting for a ball to be thrown. That behaviour is part learned and part trained....I had to put some control into our games at an early stage as he was leaping in the air to grab the toy as it was thrown. He naturally prefers to lie down rather than sit.

 

 

Rudi is a bit of a challenge to train as he has a very short attention span (except when it comes to toys!), but we are finally gaining an understanding. He does tend to live life in the fast line when he is out and about, but at home he has learned to relax and can often be found with Brock laid on him, or curled up on the sofa, snoring his head off.

Rudi has been a total nightmare to teach to walk nicely on a lead and I admit that at one point I gave up and he was only exercised off lead. He would dash to the end of a 6ft lead, hitting it a full speed, then before you could blink he'd be back at your side, and then repeat the whole thing again. Not a pleasant experience for either of us. I tried clicking him when he was in the correct place, but that was getting us nowhere. I tried 'penalty yards' and 'being a tree' but Rudi just wasn't getting the idea. I did fit him with a Halti harness which did help for a while, but he would still pull in that given a chance.

Thanks to Marie Miller and TTouch, I found the solution. Rudi was walked in a double connection, using a head collar and a H harness. This technique prevented him from pulling into the harness or the head collar and enabled him to learn to balance himself. He was so used to pulling, that without a lead to pull against, his body weight just fell forwards, which meant he has to rush to try to balance and his back end just struggled to catch up. For those of you that have experience of riding, he was very much like a horse that is working on the forehand. Rudi was walked round the TTouch confidence course which enabled me to learn how to use the double connection properly and showed Rudi how he could balance himself. The double connection meant that I could now walk Rudi in busy areas without him either barking or lunging or pulling me over. A definite requirement as I had started competing in flyball in the April, and I needed Rudi to be under control whilst he was exercised at the tournaments. I was very impressed with the calming effect the double connection had on him, and the fact that I could now walk him calmly through a very busy flyball tournament and he would remain calm and non reactive.

I continued to use the double connection on him for several months but although that really helped, I really don't feel that Rudi was fully understanding what was required, although he was more in balance. I needed a way of getting him to think for himself, something that Rudi finds very hard to do...he just tends to rush on in and think later. I decided to use the '300 peck chicken' approach to teach him to walk nicely, firstly using the double connection, then with the Halti on but not attached to the lead and then finally with the harness only. This is working very well and Rudi finally seems to understand what is required of him. He still has his moments but as we are only at the 85 step stage at present, I'm sure that he will grasp the idea soon. He has however grasped the idea of not dragging me along on the lead, and now when the lead goes tight, there is very little pressure on it, which is a major achievement. I am also use this approach to teach stays to Rudi and sound progress is being made.

 

There is still along way to go with Rudi, but we are getting there. He has started to learn scent work and really enjoys playing find the tennis ball. Its time to progress to a substance (I'll probably use gun oil). I also feel that he would enjoy tracking and that both these disciplines will help him learn to concentrate and focus. Rudi is so fast and so ball mad, that flyball would seem the ideal sport for him. However, at the moment, he doesn't understand that the ball is out there, even if someone is holding a ball in full view. One day the penny might drop. I need to go back to clicker training him to do the jumps and then add the toy in. He has figured out how to do two flyball jumps, collect a ball and come back over the jumps, so there is hope yet for the boy.

Rudi has tried his paw at agility and does seem to enjoy it, although he gets very distracted in a class environment. I will be trying some of the techniques from Control Unleashed to see if that will help him. Rudi has progressed to being able to run in non-KC shows at the lowest levels and has had a couple of clear jumping rounds.

Just to show how obsessed Rudi is for a toy, here are some shots of him trying to get the Frisbees down off the post when I had placed them, thinking they were out of his reach. The fence is 7ft tall, and yes, he did succeed in getting his toys down. 

 


 

 

 

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