Over the past few weeks, Liam and I have been working on a new skills program Canine Hoopers Canada (CHC) has instituted.
The skills program has five levels: First Steps, Pre-Bronze, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each level has a series of exercises that you teach and, then once you can do the skill, you take a video of you and your dog doing that exercise. There's also a written portion to each skill level but you can use the rule book to find the answer, so no trick questions.
You can start the program wherever you like. When I looked at the first two levels there were exercises that we once knew but that I would have to re-teach so I decided we would start at Bronze. That, and because, Bronze focused more on actual Hoopers sequences and moves rather than foundation skills.
Each of the exercises for the Bronze skills weren't all that long but with the weather being so hot and humid and having to get a good video that showed both you and your dog, I was only able to do one or two sequences a day. Some of the exercises said you could use a ground target so I was using our treat ball, then I asked if that was permitted and got the reply that it could only be a target and not the reward. I was, however, allowed to throw the reward after the skill was completed. It meant though I had take new videos of some of the skills we had already completed.
Then came the hard part, you have to take all those video clips and put them into one video to be submitted to the CHC where an assessor (a qualified judge) would review all of your skills. Next time, I'm going to put the videos into a folder and rename the ones I'll use for the submission with the skill name so it will be much easier then to put together the final video.
Video of our Bronze Skills Test
Its took about 10 days from the time I submitted my video but then I received an e-mail saying that I had incorrectly performed one sequence. The assessor told me I could just redo that one skill and submit another video. I struggled a bit because I thought the test was more about the dog being able to perform the obstacles with the handler at a distance but it turned out they also wanted to see consistent (a certain) handling from me as well.
In the video, in the part labelled Front Cross L to R, I have Liam do the three hoops directing him only with my left hand. What they needed to see was a change of side also known as a change of hands. The program is so new that I didn't even know whether I was to submit the new video to the assessor or complete the online form again. I submitted it to the assessor and shortly afterwards received an email with our assessment report. In the video below, you'll see now that I release Liam with my right hand then direct him with my left.
Video Front Cross Right Hand to Left
Today, we got our title certificate by email with the notification that our medal is in the mail.
We'll be excited to get our medal. Sure, hope Canada Post doesn't lose it. Ours will look like the one on the left.
It's a really nice program. You can work at your own speed. You don't need a big facility or a lot of equipment. And you get a nice medal for your efforts.
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