# First AKC OPEN Match



## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

Since Atka has her CD it is time to start matchingt in Open. Most dogs lose or NQ on the drop on Recall (DOR). Atka has a GREAT DOR because I started out thinking of sheep herding and to take pressure off the stock the dog MUST lie down on cue and do so immediately. 

I trained the Drop (lie down) with a clicker or marker. After she understood the cue I dropped her everywhere... out of the blue.. on walks etc. I enforced the drop after upping the ante for speed.. if she did not dropp immediately I made sure she did using compulsion.. (not harsh). The instant she dropped we did heavy reinforcement with food and eventually a variable schedule and so forth. To this day I will on occaision jack pot a drop. 

In the Match today I was concerned about the retrieves and the broad jump. We have worked on retrieves but not a lot over a jump (an back over that jump) and we have worked on the Broad jump but not recently.

Soooooo... we went in there and I did a lot of reinforcement (this would NQ me in a show but it was her first Open Match). Ultimately she did EVERYTHING and did is solidly. She did not move on the out of sight stays with the sit stay being better than the down stay (She shifted hipd in the down.. I will keep an eye on this to make sure she is not doing it because she is sore at all.. I don't believe she is but that needs to be ruled out before correcting anything). 

Open is all off leash and she did it all off leash as well. Her finishes were good. Her fronts were a little bit off but at this stage not a huge worry. 

All in all she completed every exercise and if I had not encouraged her as much as I did she would have had a qualifying run. I am very proud of her. If this continues I will be going for her CDX (Open) title in the spring!


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## RedyreRottweilers (Dec 17, 2006)

That sounds like a great match run, esp. for the first time in Open. Best of luck getting her trial ready.


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

Thank you. Spring is the plan for her CDX title. Lots of time.. but it will go quickly.


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

CDs are fun and the 1st step in a long journey. Many quit though after this. CDX definitely starts to separate the wheat from the chaff. I think it will be a very busy winter for you.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Weird, because I was wondering about you and Atka at work today and wondering if and when you were going to shoot for Open!
Sounds like you both did great! With some fine tuning I'm sure you'll be kicking butt in the CDX ring come spring


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

Very nice !!! .... that should be a BIG boost to you and your dog's confidence ... 

We find that "Open" is a lot of fun, since that's when we get to play with a bunch of "toys" in the ring.



"FUtility", on the other hand ? .... :doh:




best of luck in the spring, and congrats on your terrific match .. :clap2:


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

We need to get Scent Articles and get that figured out with Atka (I am going to train 'around the clock' method). I will do this all more intensely (scent I can do now) after she has her CDX. She does a LOT of the UD work now. Moving stand, signals and started on directed jumping and go outs and gloves. Once she has her CDX I hope to be ready to start matching her in Utility by next fall. We shall see. This dog is not easy. She learns easily but getting her to stay focused on the task at hand... well.. it is more than difficult. I have to keep it exciting for her. 

And I will if it means wearing a pink tutu and dancing when she is successful. 

One thing I do plan to do is to concentrate on Utility once she has her CDX. Sometimes I see people continue to show in Open while trying for Utility and what I see is dogs that get confused. Not always (obviously) but a lot of the fails seem to be this. The other fails are often just not enough generalization of behavior (especially scent articles). Last are the dogs that are off from over showing. Of course all this depends on the trainer and how able they are to read the dog and the situation.


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