Donna Rock, ACE Award Winner

It was with great excitement that I learned yesterday that my friend Donna Rock and her Doberman Annie have won the AKC's prestigious ACE award for Canine Excellence in the Exemplary Companion dog.

A few of you have met Donna, most don't know her. She's not from here, she's from Louisiana. But her story is astounding and Annie is an incredible dog. Here is what the AKC says about Donna:

Exemplary Companion Dog: “Annie” owned by Donna Rock of Lacombe, LA

Annie is an 8-year-old Doberman Pinscher, who has comforted her owner Donna Rock through loss, given her hope, and provides the assistance necessary to help her achieve her goals. Born without arms, Donna originally purchased Annie to be her companion and to train for obedience competition. The two developed such an exceptional bond that Annie became Donna’s service dog, assisting her with everyday activities. Together, they have excelled at the higher levels of obedience competition, where verbal commands are not allowed and the dog must respond to signals. Donna and Annie have earned numerous Obedience and Agility titles, including the prestigious Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH) and the crown jewel in Agility, the Master Agility Championship (MACH). Their teamwork, skill and performance inspire those at ringside to understand the true purpose of the competition.

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, Donna lost her home, belongings, and even her place of work. Donna, who is employed by the USDA, was temporarily reassigned to work in Washington, DC. Through it all, Annie was there for her owner, helping her in the subways, on escalators and navigating through large crowds of people. Annie has loyally remained at Donna’s side, giving not just physical, but emotional support as well. Their amazing bond is the key to their success, not just in Obedience and Agility competition, but also in their day-to-day challenges.

We all sometimes struggle with training and get frustrated when things don't go our way. I'm including two videos below which are incredible and inspirational. The first is Donna working with her new BC Roller and also some with Annie in a training session. The second is Donna's OTCH run from earlier this year.





No one deserves this award more than Donna and Annie. Congratulations.

Brisk. What is it and why should you care?

brisk

adj. brisk·er, brisk·est

1. Marked by speed, liveliness, and vigor; energetic: had a brisk walk in the park.

I've been going to obedience (and now Obedience/Rally) trials for many years. One of the most common mistakes I see in Rally and the lower levels of Obedience is a lack of briskness on the part of the handler. In straight English, I see a lot of handlers walking at a snail slow pace around the ring, looking at their feet, taking tiny steps. It's usually because of apprehension/nerves.

In Rally, lack of briskness (LOB) is a specific deduction. Enough hits for lack of briskness and a team may NQ (not qualify) on points even if they do all of the stations correctly. In Obedience judges don't have a specific LOB deduction but can and will deduct for a very slow team. Obedience heeling routines have a "Slow", and the handler must slow down perceptibly during this portion of the heel. If the handler is already walking slowly, it's much more difficult to have a perceptible "Slow".

In high levels of competition obedience, handlers learn exact footwork and pacing, often using a metronome. I'm not going into that in this post. For one it would take too long, for another I'm not the person to discuss that, Andrea or Paula are the ones to go to for that. Briskness applies to all footwork at all levels in all situations (except for the Slow), so I'll discuss briskness.

Though the above definition says "speed," briskness in Rally and Obedience should not be a race walk. You should not look like a five year old desperately trying to make it to the bathroom. Lively, energetic, vigorous; those are the important components of briskness as it applies to pace in the Obedience and Rally rings. You should move through the ring as if you have a destination in mind. A place to be. Not as if you're wandering aimlessly through a garden. You should stride out confidently, shoulders back, with long energetic strides. If you have a toy dog don't worry. In almost all cases the dog can keep up quite well unless he's very tiny and you have very very long legs. Even then, you can slightly shorten your stride yet still be brisk. Briskness is an attitude as well as a physical pace.

One thing that helps is to look forward, not down. If you're looking down at your toes you are less likely to be brisk. If you are looking forward toward the next Rally sign (or ring gate) you are more likely to be pulled to it and be more brisk.

One last huge benefit to briskness. If you are brisk, your dog is far more likely to stay engaged and involved. Moving briskly keeps the dog's attention focused and helps them be more up in attitude.

So get out there and be brisk! Practice it with and without the dog, and carry it with you to your next show.

The attention heel, what and why?

Ginger teaching Baker to heel in 2005. Photos by Jennifer Riess.

On March 7 and 8 the Columbia MO Kennel Club will hold its annual show at the Boone County Fairgrounds. Traditionally, this show has always had a large Obedience entry, and some of the top Obedience competitors in the Midwest and the U.S. will probably attend.

Some of the most common comments we hear about the top competition obedience teams have to do with what we call the attention heel. "Why do they do that odd thing with their heads?" "Why are they watching you all the time?" Indeed, in almost all top obedience teams, the dog will heel on the handler's left side looking straight up at the handler. They don't look where they're going, the don't look down or out, they look up. Some people call this the "pretzel heel," or just plain weird. To a lot of people it seems stupid. "I wouldn't want my dog to do that, he'd fall in a hole and break a leg!" "My dog is of a breed that's supposed to be alert to his surroundings. No way should he be staring up like that." "Those must be robot dogs."

But there's a real and valid reason for the attention heel, and that's why you see it so often in Obedience. It helps to first understand that Obedience is a sport, and like many sports there are some aspects of it that have only vague connections to real life. In real life, you're not likely to have to run full speed then throw yourself down on your belly or back to slide into a small object on the ground, but if you're on a baseball team you need to learn that skill. Being able to bounce a black and white ball off your head and not only that, get it to go a specific direction is quite useful in soccer. In your living room, not so much.

In Obedience, dogs may not need an attention heel for a walk around the park, and most handlers teach a separate skill called Loose Leash Walking (LLW) for those casual times. Yet even outside the obedience ring an attention heel can be useful, especially when moving through crowded areas.

Which comes to the "why" of the attention heel. The reason why we use the attention heel in competition obedience (and in Rally) is because when the dog is focused entirely on you, the human, it's a lot easier for them to react instantly to turns and speed variations. So their performance is more precise. Obedience is a game of precision. Further, when a dog's attention is focused entirely on you, her focus is NOT on that kid dropping an ice cream cone right outside the ring, or that dog of the breed she irrationally hates, or the birds above or the ground squirrels below. And believe it or not, most dogs really like the attention heel because your attention is also focused 100% on them. It's a two-way communication, a dance of subtlety.

We teach the attention heel in many different ways. The photo above is of Ginger and Baker, taken 3 years ago, and she uses food to teach the attention heel. In the horribly unflattering photo below, I'm using a toy (riot stick) with Viva. I'm holding it on my left shoulder with my right hand. With Zipper, because he's very small, I will not teach him to focus on my face but my hand. I'm doing that by teaching him to target a small stick held in my hand and follow it with his nose (a game he loves so much that at the moment he spends more time boinging up and down than going forward).



So if you come to the fairgrounds in a couple of weeks (and we hope you do), watch the Obedience and look at those top teams. See how the dog and handler move as one, with the dog always in the exact right place. And enjoy watching that attention heel.

—Robin