Ivan Balabanov Seminar

Ivan seminar recap

Our seminar with Ivan Balabanov was a great success. We had 17 dogs each day, which made for a very full day! As usual, we were chided for having to be reminded of various training rules, for example:

Q. What is the most important thing to remember about the go out?
A. Never down your dog next to the toy.

Q. In doing "the game", would it be correct to give the out command, then ask immediately for a behaviour (e.g., sit, down, front)?
A. No, NO NOOO! You out, then make the dog miss a couple of times, THEN ask for the behavior while the dog is ACTIVE, not while he is basically passive after the out.

The "bloody teeshirt award" had to be shared between Rosellen and Warren, both of whom are working young females with more motivation than accuracy.

Jan, visiting Montana for the summer from California, was thrilled to learn how to keep her dog Udo's attention. Couloir was jumping the high jump out and back like a pro. Unfortunately, he was required to do too much obedience on the protection field for his taste. Danno got to bite through tractor tyres and water hoses and loved every minute of it. Warren and Saga's working bond is growing daily and it was great to see them work together so well. Nike's looking really good. She has boundless energy and intensity — this dog is podium bound! And, to add heartbreak to the success, Sam finally had to face that fact that Bubba will never be a Schutzhund dog.

Thanks to all the participants who drove so far to attend:

• Peter and his Malinois "Payton" from Lethbridge;
• Ingrid and her Australian Cattle Dog "Poe" from Missoula;
• Thomas and his Dobermann "Dodah" from Colorado Springs;
• Jeff and his Malinois "Viper" from Salt Lake City;
• Mark and his German Shepherd "Kinta" from Salt Lake City;
• Joanna and her German Shepherd Dog "Ike" from Salt Lake City;
• Eugene and his GSD "Skipper" from SLC;
• Jan and her GSD "Udo" from California (via Bozeman).

All of the participants gained new knowledge and skills during an intense and fun-filled training weekend with the "King of Operant Conditioning Training" for the sport of Schutzhund.

Lily & Joeri

Lily and Joeri demonstrated heeling and attention for Ivan's camera.

They will be featured in Ivan's upcoming obedience video.

Attention and reward...

... it's all in the timing.

Ot Vitosha Family Pics

Pete, Payton (Chelsea x Boril), Ivan, Nike (Chelsea x Django), Rosellen

Payton, Coral, Lily, Nike

Ivan and Payton

Nike

Showing good attention.

Danno

Through the water threat.

Nice bite!

Up you go...

Ta-da!

Arek

Sit, step back, turn around, move out!

The transport.

Raudi

Waiting for instructions from the boss.

Reward for a correct hold and bark.

Couloir

Couloir looking like he's been doing the retrieve over the 1-metre jump all his life.

Hold and Bark with Bruce

The pick up.

Preparing to heel for the attack out of the blind.

Engagement!

The Drive

With Ivan

Tango

Building confidence.

Tough dog!

Coming over the top of Bruce on the dog walk

Look at them snappers!

Kinta

Kinta and Ivan.

Building confidence.
Kinta's got the bad guy down.

You hurt him, Kinta!

Ike

Ike and Joanna

Listening.

Ike with Bruce in the blind.

Poe

Poe

Get'em, cow dog!

Ivan and Udo

Ivan giving Ivan a bite for old time's sake.

Jan and Udo

Saga

It's tough to sit still and quiet when Ivan's staring like that.

.

No more room!

Swing your partners - dos-e-do!

Bubba Joe

Bubba and the wild man.