Dog Community

Buying utility articles (jennie_c_d)

Posted : 12/30/2008 5:27:14 PM

No, not even close, LOL! I have decided, though, that Ena needs a metal article to "play" with the same way she's "playing" with wooden and plastic dumbbells. She's 11 months old, but she's still every bit puppy, and super mouthy. I want to get some metal in that mouth, before she becomes more refined and decides that metal tastes like ick and she's not doing it, LOL. I've worked hard, to this point, to get her taking all sorts of things, but I somehow neglected metal.....

Anyhow, how do you measure for articles? I haven't even gotten a proper dumbbell for her, yet. She's playing with Emma's. They're too big, but fine for now. One, two, or three bars? Why? Why do they even MAKE all those choices? To make my head spin?

Emma doesn't have any plans for utility classes, but Ena does. I don't trust Emma for the out of sight stays. She's small, and if a dog attacks her, she will NOT run away, so no open or utlity for her. She does have the potential to be very good, at both, and she'll probably do them in wild card classes and matches and such. I definitely want to keep training both of them forever.

spiritdogs

Posted : 12/30/2008 6:09:54 PM

Sort of the same way you measure a horse for a bit LOL. Maybe this'll help: http://www.scentarticles.com/sizing_kit_description.htm

buster the show dog

Posted : 12/31/2008 1:35:07 PM

jennie_c_d
Anyhow, how do you measure for articles? I haven't even gotten a proper dumbbell for her, yet. She's playing with Emma's. They're too big, but fine for now. One, two, or three bars? Why? Why do they even MAKE all those choices? To make my head spin?

The reason you have to make these choices is to support the scent article industry. Ideally you will buy two or three different sizes, each in two or three different styles, rather than just picking one size/style and teaching your dog to accept that. In fact, in these tough economic times it's your patriotic duty to buy multiple styles of scent articles to do your part to stimulate the economy.

Seriously, you really don't have to get too obsessive about measuring for scent articles. It's a little known but true fact that you really don't have to buy fancy scent articles at all. They only have to be a certain size and numbered (a Sharpie works just fine). I have a friend who earned multiple UD's using squashed beer cans as her metal articles, and some squares of leather she got as scraps from an upholstery store for her leather articles. Most places that sell "official" scent articles just have them in small, medium, and large sizes, and you just pick the size that your dog can carry comfortably. Toss four of five different sized bones out on the floor, and I'll bet you'll find that your dog can carry any one of them around just fine, for a long time. So, it's not like picking up a scent article (or retrieving dumbbells) and carrying it a whole 20 ft or so depends on having just exactly the right fit. As for the number of bars, some people prefer the two or three bar models because that means one bar is farther off the ground than is the case with single bar style articles. So, the two or three bar models are slightly easier for a dog with a longer muzzle to pick up. But again, dogs manage to pick up all kinds of stuff off the ground if they want to. The goal is to motivate the dog to pick up and carry the article, rather than worry that the dog won't do it if the article isn't juuuusssst right. One good way to keep young dogs willing to mouth metal is to coat a nice big spoon with peanut butter or liverwurst or something else yummy for them to lick off the metal.

jennie_c_d

Posted : 12/31/2008 5:45:51 PM

Thank you! I had no idea you could use squashed beer cans as your metal articles, LOL. I'm about to go hand the goober a spoon. I'm sure she'll play with it. I'm not super worried about her picking stuff up. She'll pick anything up. She carries stuff, really well. It's totally informal, right now. I just praise the heck out of her when she carries a stick for 1/2 mile on our walk. She does it, by choice. I've just shown her dumbbells, and let her hold them for a minute, then put them away.

The concern later may be that she has no teeth (as is common, in her breed, by UD age, LOL) and has a hard time holding things. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. So far, she has an incredible mouth.