Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Sue Ailsby ¤
   Title: Passing the Junior Water Dog! ¤

"Nice job, Scuba and Sue! Would you share with us the tasks you had to do?
Did you train for them at all? If not, how did you use the training you
have done to pass?"

At the Junior Water Dog level, there is a 25' retrieve of a "bumper"
(canvas dummy) from shore into the water and back, delivery may be near
the handler and not necessarily to hand.  This was fairly simple, a
straight retrieve (she was c-trained to retrieve at about 12 weeks) which
we practised many times until she was terribly proud of her bumper, and
practised maybe 25 times in the water, usually at a much greater distance
(80 to 100 feet, as far as I could throw it).  Then we both had to get
into a rowboat and sit on a platform nailed across the stern while the
stewards moved the boat around in the water.  The dog could sit or lie
down on the platform, and was allowed to change position but needed to be
under control at all times and not get off until asked.  My breeder
practises this on the coffee table with a book under one leg ;-) - we
didn't any trouble with this either as my dogs are all table-trained very
early and stay on the pause table at class while I'm teaching, so the idea
and the surface were familiar.  The motion was a little iffy at first, but
we worked with the boat on dry land at first, clicking for staying through
small motions and progressing to bigger ones.  The motion of the boat was
much less than we had trained for because there was no wind and the water
was like glass at the test.  The third exercise involved Scuba waiting on
shore (held by the harness by a steward, why risk an anticipation if you
don't have to?) while I sat on the boat platform and was rowed out 60'
from shore, then she had to enter the water and swim out to the boat.  A
straight recall which we didn't practise in the water, but I counted on
her being a little concerned about watching me floating off and leaving
her stuck on the beach with a stranger, and sure enough she plowed right
in.  When she gets to the boat, you can jump in and swim back with her, or
let her swim back, or use the harness to pull her into the boat.  Scuba
wanted to stay, so I pulled her in.  Lemme tellya, hauling 40 pounds of
wet Water Dog into a boat by a tracking harness gave me new respect for
size disqualifications!  Some of those suckers were over 80 pounds, and
there's NO WAY I'm gonna be hauling THEM in!  The final exercise was a 2
minute swim together, without her either climbing on me or getting too far
away (the judge said to keep her within 6').  We had practised this only
once, but I was counting heavily on several things she already knew - a)
the targetting to my hand, so I could get her away from me by turning
circles and treading water and holding my hand out away from me and
letting her swim after it trying to target it, b) heeling, from which she
had the idea that we were supposed to be reasonably close to each other,
and c) the word "out", which means that where ever a dog is, it shouldn't
be there, which I also taught (of course) with the clicker.  It worked
like a charm - a couple of "out"s when she got too close, followed by some
targetting, and she got the idea very quickly.  In fact I never used the
heel cue but just said "ssst" when she got a little far out, which is what
I use when we're walking off leash on the farm, and she peeled right back
in.  By the second day, she definitely knew the job, just two buddies
going for a swim together.

And the going out and the coming in were the first day, and the Junior
Water Dog title.

The Apprentice tasks start with an underwater retrieve - I drop a
three-handled rubber non-floating toy into the water, she has to put her
head under, find it, pick it up, bring it above the surface, and give it
to me.  We started this at 9 weeks by sprinkling dog food in an inch of
water in the bathtub.  First she'd eat the stuff that was still floating,
then she'd go grazing for the stuff on the bottom.  By 16 weeks, she was
putting her head under about 8" of water, and we practised with the toy in
a wading pool in the summer.  In the new PWD book, there is a fabulous
photo of a dog retrieving from the bottom of a swimming pool, head down,
tail up, with the entire length of his body perpendicular under the water.
TOO COOL!!!        Then there's a 60' bumper retrieve in the water from
the beach, again no biggie because we practised with much longer ones in
heavier water.  This more advanced one includes a sit-stay rather than
being held.      Then a boat rows across 60' out, and when it is opposite
us, a steward splashes a 10' rope with buoys on it a couple of times, puts
it in the water, and rows out of the area.  Scuba, see the rope?  "That
guy's floating on the water!"  Never mind, honey, see the rope?  "But mom,
that guy's on the water!"  Never mind Scoob, see the rope?  It looked a
little iffy for a second, but she finally got her mind of the guy and the
boat and saw the rope, then it was just another water retrieve.  She
hasn't quite got the idea of "mark" yet - me saying there's something out
there and her trusting me enough to go in a straight line until she hits
it, but it's coming.  I put my hand in the send-out position, she didn't
get it, so I turned my head to look at the rope, and did a little
searching-the-water body language and she got it.  As soon as I saw that
she had it, I sent her.  We had practised dry-land retrieves of the rope,
although this was a much bigger one than I'd practised with.     Then we
have another boat exercise.  I hand her the dummy, she heels carrying it
25' on shore, then she hands it to me, then I tell her to get on the boat
platform, then I get in the boat and row around a bit (they turned me
loose on the lake in a rowboat, are they INSANE???  I might NEVER have
managed to get back!), beach it again, get out, walk up onto the beach,
turn and face her, then call her off the boat.  All fairly easy stuff for
the dog, except we hadn't practised her handing me the bumper in range of
the platform, she jumped on the platform, I asked her to get off, she got
off and spit out the dummy and jumped back up on the platform, I asked her
to get off and take it, she did, and finally sat and handed it to me
before joyfully leaping back up on the platform.    And finally, another 2
minute swim.

And the going under and the coming out were the second day, and her
Apprentice Water Dog title.  

Fascinating tasks coming up at the Working WD and Courier WD levels -
double retrieves in the water from a boat, delivering a message from my
boat to a steward in another boat and bringing a different message back to
me, swimming to the other boat and taking a loooong, heavy buoy rope with
a fishing net attached and deploying the net all the way back to my boat,
jumping out of the boat to retrieve ALL the toys that "fell" out of a bag,
and, for me, the most interesting one, taking a huge buoy (like those
boomer balls) with a short rope attached, swimming 75' out in a straight
line from the boat, dropping the ball and leaving it there at least 60'
from the boat, and coming back to my boat.  Gosh this is fun!

Saw two funny things at the trial.  One dog had just spit out the ball
successfully and was coming back - just had to get back to the boat within
about 15 seconds to earn his Courier title, and the owner was kneeling in
the boat scream "Good baby!  You get dinner, baby,!!  BIIG DINNER!!!  BIG
BIG BIIIIIIIIIIG DINNER!!!!!"  Another handler (with great good humour, I
might add, no matter how it sounds in black and white) couldn't get the
dog to leave the ball far enough past the marker, and had to keep telling
him to pick it up again, take it farther out and drop it again - it went
like this:  "Drop it baby, that's it, drop it, DROP IT, no baby, take it,
TAKE IT, now GO AWAY, that's it, GO AWAY, good baby, drop it, DROP IT DROP
IT!!! no, take it, take it, now GO AWAY!!!!  OK baby, look,  DROWN!!!

The enthusiasm and support of the competitors and gallery were wonderful,
we were forced to spend TWO whole days at the beach in the sun - and why
DO people still go to obedience trials???

Sue eh?
and Scuba AWD