At the dog show, they have a contest for all breeds. The dogs who take training classes learn how to be put into a spot and the owner walks away from them. This is the true stay command.
As you can see the dogs are lined up with their people and you can observe that they know what is going to happen next. You can see they are distracted a lot by the people walking by and the sound and the other dogs around them.
The dog owner is a trainer, one on one, and they have worked with this a lot to get this to work. At a command by the judge, the people are told to walk away from their dog. I don't remember seeing this but I bet the owners have to say a command to their dog before they walk away to the other side.
The fallout of what dogs stay is minimal. The white thin dog in the second picture was asked to leave, I don't know why.
This little guy, was the first to fall out of line, he just followed his owner to the other side. You can see in his face that he just didn't want to be away from his person.
This next guy was sweet. He is a Burmese Mountain Dog, and he first moved a couple feet forward, then stopped. Then he moved about ten feet forward and stopped. Then he slowly walked all the rest of the way to be in front of his owner. The owner had to keep her dog quiet and kept from moving so as not to spoil the whole contest. He did stay still. At this point I think you should pick out a person in the line who was holding there best pose in the still position.
Before this contest started, we had spent some time with the owner of the dog above, who we did not know, and she told us this white standard poodle was a rescue dog. She told us she doubted he would do very well but she had been practicing. I had previously photographed him, and he ended up being the winner of the contest. Once they started the contest, he stayed still and didn't move for the entire period. Some of the dogs lay down to rest and some stayed but just looked around. It was an interesting contest. Dogs are so willing to please their owners, even if it is something like this. Oh yes, I watched one similar to this last year, but in that contest the owners literally walked out of the building, leaving their dogs in the ring. That is true obedience!
5 comments:
What a great post. One so admires all those obedient dogs. Our own dog - Amy - has never managed to get the hang of the concept - but I suppose that is my fault.
Those were nice pictures of loving dogs. That little dog who followed his person is a sweetie. He did not want to be parted from them.
FlowerLady
ooh what a challenge for all of those dogs, who think their owners are their entire world...
It must have been an awful decision for them, when they stayed....knowing in their little hearts they wanted to follow.
Burmese Mountain Dogs make WONDERFUL pets! Friends of mine rescued one and she's just the sweetest, smartest, most giant and cuddly lap dog ever.
I think that is really neat. They are so intelligent, but they have personalities, just like humans do. I don't know too many obedient people either, do you?
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