What's working for obedience

Clearly all the obedience practice is starting to kick in both for Tristan and myself. He's such a natural at tracking and protection that I feel it's really the trainer and Tristan that make him do well on those Schutzhund phases. Obedience, however, is much more about Tristan and me working together. The trainer obviously is critical and I know Tristan easily would be titled by now if the trainer handled him. This Schutzhund journey though is about Tristan and me as a team.

All the work we've done has been so important. I think it's gelled recently because of some insights I've had and implemented plus I'm finally following some really basic training advice. In no particular order, here's what's helped.

• I've started getting to the training field a bit early or staying a bit after just to let Tristan run around. I want him to understand that he gets to do that too.
• I thought I couldn't let Tristan off lead because I didn't trust his recall. I started dropping his lead and calling him back while he was still very close to me. That way I could step on his leash if he didn't respond right away. He learned he could be off leash so long as he stayed close to me.
• I play with him more while we're doing obedience. I give him a ball on a rope to leap for or to retrieve. This is standard practice but I wasn't doing it enough. The trainer often talks about the dogs being stressed as a result of training. I realized I wasn't recognizing stress. I expected to see signs of it rather than understanding it naturally happens because the dog is concentrating on following a lot of commands. Tristan needed more breaks to mix it up and lighten up.
• I got truly mad at Tristan for the first time ever. He didn't come in from the back yard when called. I'd finally had it and yelled at him and gave him a big yank to get inside. Tristan immediately started acting very ingratiating. He knew he was in trouble. Ok, no laughing. I think this comes under the category Duh. I think I'm firm with Tristan but this was an eye opener. Remaining even tempered and firm with him isn't enough. I see how all the dogs love the trainer even though his corrections can be very strong. He is clearly the alpha male. What I consider to be firm and what it takes to be dominant with Tristan aren't the same.
• I make Tristan give me eye contact all the time. When we play fetch (which we do endlessly) I make him look at me rather than the ball before I will throw it. It's easy to be on autopilot during the day but I realized I need to have him always look at me when he wants something.
• I reinforce obedience through the day when I'm home with him. I've always made him obey a command once given but now I take the opportunity to give more commands throughout the day.

After the recent trial, I've become even more motivated for Tristan to pass his BH so he can go for Schutzhund titles. We should have been ready for it but weren't. There's another trial coming in November and we will be ready.