Obedience Anyone?   By Laura Trainor

Glens, being typical terriers, often show their independent spirit in the form of ignoring their person and doing whatever they want. This attitude can lead to the Glen running the household. Wise owners will direct this spirit by training their Glen to enjoy being obedient. The major benefits of training are:

1 - Spending quality time with your dog.

2 - Developing a better relationship with your dog.

3 – You will get a Glen to at least consider doing what you ask them to do (more likely if food is involved).

The newest training methods stress positive reinforcement. Most Glens will gladly work for food or toys as a reward along with as much praise as possible. Complex tasks can be broken down into simpler pieces, which are easier to learn and earn rewards faster.

My Glens respond to food. I’ve used the Clicker training method with them. In Clicker training, you establish that the sound of the click means that they will get a treat. The handler clicks the Clicker when the dog performs a desired behavior. Larger tasks are broken down into many small steps. After the dog has done the behavior correctly and has received a click/treat many times, the handler ups the criteria to include the first behavior and the next step. For example: to teach the dog to roll over, first we would teach the dog to down, then to down and fall onto it’s side, then to down, fall to it’s side and onto it’s back etc. If the dog needs more help, you would break the exercise down into even smaller pieces. To get the dog to down, first lure the dog by moving a treat in front of the dog’s nose and to the floor and back between the front legs. Click and treat the second the dog’s rump and elbows hit the ground.

AKC offers us many opportunities to test our training and earn titles. The Canine Good Citizen program tests basic skills that all dogs should learn. Every Glen should strive to earn a Canine Good Citizen certificate. GITCA recognizes each CGC earned by a Glen at the annual Awards dinner. More information about the Canine Good Citizen program can be found at
http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/program.cfm.

Rally Obedience competition involves the dog and handler heeling through a course designed by the judge for that day. The dog-handler team moves from one station to the next and performs the task listed for each station. There are many possible tasks for the judge to choose from when they design the course. A few examples of these tasks are: Right and Left turns, Sit, Down, 270 degree turns and the more advanced Back up three steps. There are three levels of Rally competition: Novice, Advanced and Excellent. The number and degree of difficulty of the tasks increases as the dog-handler team completes each level of competition. Rally Competition is fun! It is a good way to progress from the CGC to more formal Obedience. At the Novice level, the dog is on lead for the competition. No chance that your Glen will get away from you! The handler can talk to the dog while in the ring giving extra commands and encouragement to help the dog to perform each station. You can be as squeaky and upbeat in your commands as need be. Come-on-now-you-super-dog-let’s-go-good-dog-SIT! Also the dog-handler team can elect to do-over a station if they feel their performance wasn’t good enough. More information about Rally Obedience can be found at http://www.akc.org/events/rally/getting_started.cfm.

Traditional Obedience is a bit more strict. The tasks required for each level of competition are the same each time you compete. One command is given and the dog must perform the task correctly. At the present time there are three levels of competition: Novice, Open and Utility. Next year, AKC will add more levels of titling competition: Beginner Novice, Graduate Novice, Graduate Open and Versatility. Beginner Novice may be of interest to Glen owners since most exercises are performed on lead. The handler cannot talk to the dog during the exercises except to give commands. On the whole, more precision is required of the dog-handler team for traditional Obedience. More information about Obedience competition can be found at http://www.akc.org/events/obedience/getting_started.cfm.

Glens will consider Obedience training fun if you do. Short practice sessions are the best. Five minutes of work followed by praise, treats and playtime with their person keeps a Glen interested and eager to do it again the next day. Glens will not respond well to a drill master handler. Two or three successful repetitions (or maybe just one) are enough. Praise and play with your Glen, then go on to another exercise. Tell your Glen how wonderful they are. Learn how to play with your dog. We stuffy adults forget how much fun we had as children when we would run or fetch or tug with the family dog. Bottom line – Obedience training is just another way to enjoy your Glen.

Recommended reading:
All these are available at www.dogwise.com

Clicker Training for Dogs by Karen Pryor (the basic Clicker training)

Click Your Way to Rally Obedience by Pamela Dennison (for those who wish to compete)

Clicker Training for Obedience by Morgan Spector (for those who wish to compete)


   Persistence Pays off with a Win in Rally     By Louise Lopez

One of the many things Tula has done for me over the past year is to reconfirm the biblical adage about reaping what you sow. The dog of my earlier years was not adequately trained or socialized and our family got no more than we deserved: a dog who was affectionate at home but unruly and misbehaved in public. Even before researching and deciding what breed might be a good match for our family, I vowed that I would not repeat history. I would work to ensure our new dog was adequately socialized and trained.

After Lora Clark was kind enough to put me in contact with Noreen O’More and I came to learn more about Glens, I added to my resolutions: I wanted Tula to be a good ambassador of the breed. Before she came home last March at 9 weeks, she was already pre-enrolled for puppy school.
Our local dog club offers novice and then ongoing obedience classes. It was pretty obvious to me after eight weeks of puppy school that we’d only just begun. I immediately enrolled Tula in the novice session. About this time, my husband and I drove down to Long Beach to attend the Great Western Terrier Show. One of the things I wanted to see was something I’d heard about called Rally Obedience. It sounded like something fun and challenging and not quite as formal as traditional obedience. We were able to see some novice-level dogs go through their paces and I thought, “We could do that!” In retrospect, it was a good thing we only saw the novice class. If we’d watched the Rally Excellent competition, I don’t think I would have been quite so confident.

First up, however, was Canine Good Citizenship. Noreen had told me that, if I was interested in making sure my dog would be a positive “breed ambassador,” the CGC test was a good place to start. We tried it in early July and I got a little reminder about inadequate preparation and the dread “handler error.” I hadn’t trained Tula on one part of this test and, for CGC, you have to pass every part. We went back home and worked on the sit/stay that we flunked and, a month later, when Tula was 7 months old, we passed it at the West Coast Glen Gathering.

Next, we looked for a school where we could work on rally. We started going to rally class once a week in addition to regular obedience classes. For those of you not familiar with Rally Obedience, it’s a little like a car rally in that you and the dog go from one point to another, performing various tasks. Here is the one part of rally that I most appreciate: This is meant to be a team sport. The sense of teamwork is included as a requirement in the AKC introduction’s basic description. The handler and dog proceed together in heel position through a series of 10 to 20 designated stations, depending on the level. At each station there is a task to be performed.

The tasks can be as simple as a “sit” or “down” or, as you advance, as complicated as a halt/ 90 degree left pivot/halt in which the dog sits, then turns in sync with you as you pivot to the left and then sits again. Our current personal challenge is the offset figure 8 with “distractions.” Where we train, they put out two pylons around which you perform the figure 8 — twice — and, close by, are some extremely attractive stuffed doggie toys. To ask Tula to pay attention to me and not to a stuffed squeaky toy is really raising the bar on teamwork.

There are three levels of increasing difficulty in Rally: Novice, Advanced, and Excellent. Rally Novice is performed with the dog on leash: the next two levels are not. You complete a “leg” each time you pass a trial with a score of 70 percent or better. Points are deducted for such things as tight leash (in Novice), an incorrectly performed station and, yes, handler error. Upon successful completion of three legs at each level, your dog receives the appropriate title (Rally Novice, Advanced or Excellent.)

We worked through the fall in earnest and tried for our first two legs in Napa in early November. We passed with an 89 the first day and actually received a fourth-place ribbon. We passed the next day with a slightly lower score due to my misreading a sign (that would be, you guessed it, handler error.) I signed up for our third trial at the Long Beach Kennel Club the day before Eukanuba. I was already extremely nervous (so many people I admired were there and would be watching) and, when I managed to miss the walk-through before the trial started, things only felt worse. But I knew that, with enough focus, Tula would be okay. She seems to love to perform and to recognize when all eyes are on her. When it was our turn, I felt like I was still nervous, but the message I got from her was, “Just tell me what I need to do and I will — perfectly.” The scores were posted and, to the loud applause of our great Glen supporters, Tula placed first with a score of 98 percent to complete her Rally Novice title.

What’s next? Well, we continue to work towards our Rally Advanced title, of course. At first, I thought we’d do this almost immediately, but I found out that working off-leash was a little bit more challenging than I’d presumed. We’ve been practicing a lot and I’ve recently started using a clicker, something Laura Trainor suggested months ago. I wish I’d listened to her then, because it’s a great tool. We’re also beginning to work on agility, which I’m very excited about and which Tallulah really seems to take to. But, as far as I’m concerned, I’m already reaping what Tula and I have sown together: She is a great dog and teammate and I feel she’s truly becoming a great Glen ambassador.