Aky's Schutzhund Adventures

 Aky comes from a long line of working dogs. He has a ton of prey drive and appears to really enjoy the game.  Aky completed his AD in the Fall of 1999 and is currently training for more advanced schutzhund titles. I have a feeling he will teach me allot about the sport.
 
 

Photo by D. Dilley

Here he is getting some training pointers from Ivan Balabanov at  a seminar in Belgrade, MT May 1999

Here he is with helper Warren Jones Learning who's supposed to be the bad guy	Photo by D. Dilley
Photo by D. Dilley	"Hey; I have teeth" "Leave my mom alone"

    The Begleithunde (Bh):
           On October 7, 2000  Aky and I went to Spokane, WA to attempt our Bh under judge Ann Marie
            Chaffin.  After watching the SchH I's, II's & III's on Saturday it was obvious that the dog
            and handler teams had to work hard to earn every single point.  Ann Marie has an eagle eye and
            didn't miss a thing; yet she was fun to work under providing support and encouragement for us
            new to the sport.  On Sunday it was time for the AD's & the B's.  Piece of cake; my dog and
            I are both ready...Not...

I was a total basket case.  As soon as I stepped on                     the field I forgot everything (including how to breath)                     Aky didn't know what to think.  When trainers tell                     you that your stress travels right down the leash they                     are correct.  We were to do our down stay first.  Aky                     was perfect; I was still trying to remember to breath.

 

The down stay complete it was now our turn for the heeling pattern.  Aky definitely knew something was wrong with me, and decided that he shouldn't get too close.  When that didn't work to calm me down he decided that perhaps staying with me (on the moving sit) might be better. For the moving down he tried  another tactic and did exactly what he was supposed to flying  to me as fast as he could on the recall.  Finally I breathed a little

 

At the critique the judge confirmed what we already knew...        Our performance was not pretty; However, Aky had shown        that he had the basic idea of what he was supposed to do and       had managed to do it in spite of me.  We got some valuable       information on what to work on for the future and were       told that we could proceed on to the traffic portion of       the test....       We had passed so far.

The traffic portion of the test  was easy for Aky.  His mom  finally learned how to breath, & he was a perfect gentleman to crowds and other dogs. And he hardly noticed the cars,bikes or joggers. Congratulations Aky!!

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