I went to the Championships with Charlene on Sautrday. It was very family oriented with lots of parents with kids. The competition had two parts, obedience and agility as well as a police scenario. I was impressed with how well these dogs are trained with hand signals as well as voice commands. The Trainer must be very animated in their walking to make it more fun for their dog. I noticed that they all swung their arms exaggeratedly while striding and the reward their charges with playing/toy and not food. Dogs must always heel on the left side and at the same pace as their trainer (even running and slowly pacing). Hand signals can be used to get them to go from lying down, to sitting, to come, and stop.
The police scenario was a guy being mugged by two others and dragged to a car. This was interesting to watch because you can see the dogs in action. One of the muggers has a cap gun and fires it at the K9 unit before dropping it, then the dog chases the “offender” and grabs him by the arm. You notice that if the “offender” struggles, the dog will struggle. Otherwise it just biting on to the arm just to contain the “offender”. At the end of the takedown scene, the dog is challenged to run after an “offender” but is called off by the constable and the challenge is to see if the dog will.
We did see a coupleof newly graduated dogs that had trouble with that task. One dog actually had trouble with the agility too and ran head first into a pile of barrels! Pic to come in a bit.
Bertha