Whippet - KC Bronze Award - anyone done it?

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lizziebell

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Feeling a bit of a failure with our young whippets obedience training, probably doesn't help that our training class is full of working dogs - collies, spaniels, retrievers, labs etc.

We have older sighthounds, and they are pretty well-behaved for what we need. They both did puppy training classes, but as this was many moons ago, the KC awards weren't very widely available so it was a short course of basic commands.

When I started taking our puppy whippet training, all that seems to now be available are the courses following the KC awards, so that's what we are doing, and I've found I actually enjoy it. Puppy enjoys going, but doesn't seem to be progressing!! If we are moving doing heel work then he's great, but gets easily bored of all the sit/ stays - gets distracted quickly and just blanks me. I'm a very calm, concise and consistent person - I don't waffle, shout or get frustrated when he refuses to sit/stay. I ask and wait for the correct response, and correct any wrong responses (I don't repeat the command like a parrot, or frantically beg, like you see some people do).

We go to classes once a week, and we train at home 2-3 x a day, although maximum of 5-10mins at a time, as any longer and he's not interested.

In general, at home, he's perfectly obedient for what we need, but in terms of "Obedience Training" aiming for the KC bronze award, we are falling behind others in our class. He's only 6 months this week and hitting adolescents so possibly this doesn't help.

Any tips from whippet owners who've gone through the KC awards? Do I give up, accept that he's obedient for our needs, or carry on and hope as he matures he turns a corner?
 
I gave up with my beagle mix - from what I have read she is very much like a whopper. Her stays and recall just were never going to be solid enough. She is fine as a pet and at home but training was just too exciting. She has got steadier with scent work, agility and more breed specific style work from me but the kcal awards just don't suit her
 
Sounds exactly like my big whippet. Super bright but will NOT be drilled nor will he perform on request more than once. He has the blanking thing down to a fine art! The puppy is a different sort of dog, very obedient and loves training. I think on the whole though, whippets arent a great choice for obedience. They are bred to work hard and be able to think for themselves and quite a lot of them just arent interested in obedience training.

Have you thought about scent work? Brilliant while his body is still maturing, and then fly ball? I know lots of whippets that excel at that :)
 
sounds like my lurcher used to be. she was really good if we did an agility type course when there was lots to do but the basic sit stay exercises were impossible to get as she was bored. she was so turned off the instructor asked me if she was deaf as he knew there was a deaf dog in the class. the deaf one was brilliant and much better behaved than my lurcher., i did hear that long dogs find it uncomfortable to sit for any length of time and i eventually gave up with sit and just asked for lie down (which she was good at)
 
I haven't done the award but it does sound like my whippets - they get distracted/bored quite easily. I think it's in their breeding, they were bred to think independently when off hunting etc so they do seem to be a bit ignorant sometimes! If we're doing something active they are more inclined to listen, sit and stay aren't easy.
 
Many years ago, before such award things, I took my whippet to training classes. She was the most biddable little bitch and learnt everything very quickly.
She did hate having to sit on the hard cold bare boards in the hall. She learnt the stays, recalls etc but I stopped once I had an obedient dog for life at home. She just wasn't the right breed to enjoy it.
Nowadays I would probably diversified to agility which Whippets can love.
Six months is quite young though, be careful to keep life fun and not too much drilling.
 
Being totally honest, I never bothered with puppy/training classes for any of mine. With Fizz whippet I only really concentrated on recall (by making it the most fun game ever) but otherwise she learnt a few bits and I left the rest as she just isn't interested. I would suggest something more exciting (scent work, agility, flyball etc) as they do seem to be better at more active/engaging things than boring obedience ;)
 
With my limited knowledge (!), it sounds very familiar, especially at 6 months. I think obedience training can be of very moderate interest for whippets, and certainly sit/stay is a bit hard on the pointy whippet bum :)

The only important things I learnt were: how sensitive he was to my body language even when I didn't realise it and he enjoyed doing stuff on walks rather than in class. He has definitely improved as he matured, and since the discovery of dried sprats for rewards ;)
 
Annette4 said:
Being totally honest, I never bothered with puppy/training classes for any of mine. With Fizz whippet I only really concentrated on recall (by making it the most fun game ever) but otherwise she learnt a few bits and I left the rest as she just isn't interested. I would suggest something more exciting (scent work, agility, flyball etc) as they do seem to be better at more active/engaging things than boring obedience ;)
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Going off breed topic I know, but I'm finding this with our terrier - he just looks at me saying "but WHY would I bother?" at puppy class - he is generally well behaved but is the one who never gets picked to demonstrate with! So I'm concentrating on recall and basic good manners. Once we've got those down I'm thinking I might try to find something more fun for him - something involving obstacles and ham at the end, maybe....
 
There were a couple of whippets at the classes I did my KC awards. They were allowed to have a piece of carpet to sit/lie on for the stays which certainly helped their boney bums. I know at least one got all the way through to Gold so it is achievable if you are preferred to persist but if you feel you have enough of the basics then no one is forcing you to go through the awards. :)
 
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