hello all,
i have a 4 1/2 yr old gsd.we do obedience and working trials kia does great at both of these but somtimes after jumps she likes to do abit of a victory lap around me and then thinks that we have finished and we can play now and starts running away from me with her toy,our trainer had asoumed that kia was spayed at a young age as she is abit immature but when i told her that she isnt spayed she was a bit shocked,she said somthing about kias hormone levels?. what should i do get her spayed or leave her as she is?
when kia concontrates she is great she does everything perfect it just takes me a while to get her into "concontrating mode"

kia also trys to get me to notice her when doing stays when she is in a down stay she doesnt get up but she moves her legs and turns her bum to the other side, depending on her mood somtimes she will do perfect stays, how can i get her to be doing stays the right way all of the time?

thanks
heather

hi
I am guessing you taught all the seperate parts of the agility equipment seperately and rewarded her for each? I think she is therefore expecting praise for the jumps, so I would suggest putting her back on a lead and keeping it quite short, lead her over a jump and then lead her through another piece of equipment and then praise her. Do this with all of the other pieces of equipment, so she doesnt start presuming you are going to praise her for one specific equipment.  Dont think it is to do with her hormones all the time, but it might have an impact when she is near her season due to the behavioural changes and being more bothered about the males around her and not focusing on you.

Stays-I would teach her a way for her to get your attention, for example a trick that you wouldnt need her to do in a competition or training and then once she has got that, go back to the start and re teach her a down stay, only rewarding her when she does stay still and not fidgeting.

hope this helps

Anne Bussey teaches a very good way of ensuring Stays are rock solid, if you are near Kent at all I'd suggest a one to one with her... :)
(Method used is reward based).

Lindsay
x

I can't help with the training I'm afraid as I'm not a great expert - but I'd have thought it was more likely to be a training thing.  I see no reason why being spayed or entire should make a difference to her obedience Sorry I can't help more, but I'm sure someone else will be along to help you on the training front :)

There are plenty of unspayed bitches in Obedience and Working Trials, her behaviour has nothing to do with this.

I expect she has learned to do what she does because of how you train and reward, all you have to do is change the way you train (tee hee).

You need to teach her that the release comes when YOU say so.  Think about how you train I expect you have inadvertently taught her to do this.

You would not be penalised in Obedience or Working Trials if the dog shifts from hip to hip however you can train a dog not to move at all.

HTH

Perhaps I have seen you at trials?

I was just thinking...I'm not quite clear if Kia does this occasionally or a lot, but some bitches can be very peculiar to train around their season. All my dogs and my family dogs have been fine except the current one.

She was totally "doolally" 3 weeks preceding her first season and only "recovered" in the first week of her season :P

She was spayed after her first season so we didn't experience this odd behaviour any more. I thought I'd just add this in to this thread, although by the sounds of it
Kia is doing this on a more regular basis and so presumably hormones would have nothing to do with it...

Lindsay
x

thanks for the replys kia does this occasionally not all the time,her behaviour doesnt change around her season never has done.
i dont think that it is the way she is being trained in trials at all, she does know that at the end of a jump she is ment to wait but she just gets abit carried away with her self,she tends to do it more when we have been waiting.on the clear and scale she waits good but its when we do the long jump, mind you i would like to do a victory lap if id have just jump 9ft!! she acts immature about most things but ive just learnt to live with her like that.
i was just wondering weather to keep her whole or get her spayed and would i notice a difference if she was spayed?
i do know that there is many un spayed dogs doing trials and obedience im just wondering what is best for my dog if she has a low/high hormone problem.

heather  x