17 Kvě Trial Series, Part 1: Setting Up the Trial

I make sure to distinguish between the different phases of training obedience that a handler will go through during their dog’s life. In this article series, I will focus on what comes after the learning phase, the first phase in which you teach basically everything to a puppy, a young dog, or even an older dog that you are just starting out with.

When your dog already knows the fundamentals of the required exercises in obedience, your training plan starts shifting into a pattern of alternating between the trial/competition preparation phase and the maintain/polish/improve phase.

The trial preparation phase is one that I generally recommend to be about 5 to 6 weeks long, so it extends about a month or a month and a half before your trial. The maintenance phase is where you maintain the level your dog is already capable of accomplishing, but also possibly try to improve something or perhaps even teach a new exercise for a higher level trial.

The trial preparation phase has its specific rules and should be approached in a specific way, though. In this article series, I want to give you a peek into the trials I conducted for my clients at the beginning of May.

We will start with how I organize everything, how I guide them through the trial preparation phase all the way to the final training session, the trial itself, and then the aftermath.

Hopefully, you can use this as inspiration for your own training and make sure that you and your dog are as ready as you can be when the trial day hits.

Trial Organization

To begin with, I start with setting up a date for the trial. I usually like to have two trials per year: one in the spring and one in autumn. Where I live, it gets pretty hot in the summer, so April or May and September or October usually have the best weather conditions for the trials. I don’t want it to be too hot or too rainy for the trial.

When setting a date, I try to schedule the trial at least two months in advance. This can vary greatly in different countries, so please find out how to do this in your specific country. Two months in advance is generally enough time to have everyone decide if they want to attend and which specific trial they want to tackle.

I have the good fortune of being allowed to have trials at one of the training fields I have my regular training sessions at, so this is already a huge advantage for the dogs as they know the field well and don’t need to adjust to a new one. It also makes it easier to conduct trial training sessions, which I will describe in the next article of this series.

I am also lucky to have a good friend who takes care of all the administrative work: applications, pedigrees, vaccine certificates, officially announcing the trials, communicating with the judge, and the hundreds of other little things that are necessary for a smooth trial. This frees me to do what I do best: focus on obedience training with my clients.

Trial Attendees

I had 14 people sign up for the trial at the beginning of May this year. It was a pretty varied group, just the way I like it: a Beauceron, 3 White Shepherds, a Tervueren, 5 Australian Shepherds, a Golden Retriever, a Groenendael, a Bullmastiff, and one mixed breed dog. The trials were also very varied: 5 BH-VT, 2 IBGH1, IBGH2, Upr3, 3 ZZO1, ZZO2, and ZZO3. 

ZZO1, ZZO2, and ZZO3 are all Czech national trials. They can be roughly compared to Upr1-3 as they are the obedience parts of the main, three-part (tracking, obedience, protection) trials.

Czech national trials generally have more varied exercises than the IGP. These include, for example, barking on command, crawling, ladders, and more. This wider variety brings with it a bit more lenience from the judges in regard to execution. You can get away with some minor mistakes in heeling, for example, which would be otherwise inexcusable during an IGP trial and would cost you points. If this a topic that would be interesting for readers, I can gladly write an article comparing IGP and the Czech trials.

I want to just briefly mention some of the handlers and the challenges they faced so you can get a better understanding of how wonderful and hard-working this group was. 

• We had a young girl going for her first trial, as nervous and anxious as they come.
• There was a lovely lady facing some health issues and her mature dog, both of which powered through the trial like soldiers.
• One of the dogs had some minor health issues that prevented him from jumping the hurdle. His handler didn’t hesitate for one second, made all the necessary vet checks, and got a green light for attending the IBGH1 trial without any physically demanding exercises. She made these changes just a few weeks before the trial, and they did a great job nonetheless.
• Another pivot was also necessary due to one of the dogs starting to have problems with the shooting. Again, his determined handler just switched to a trial with no shots (also IBGH) and went on as if nothing happened.
• One of the female dogs went through her heat right at the trial, which is always a bit unnerving for the handler as the dog can be a little unpredictable. In the end, they made a nice-looking team on the field with only minor mistakes due to the heat.

As you can see, I had quite the group on my hands. Very different dogs, very different handlers, and very different trials were awaiting. Unfortunately, in the end, I had 3 people that had to cancel—one due to scheduling reasons and two due to dog health issues (nothing serious, fortunately!). So, in the end, there were 11 dogs at the trial.

With the trial all set up, the attendees accounted for, a lot of motivation, and a little bit of anxiety, it was finally time for the trial preparation training sessions which I will tell you all about in the article next week. Stay tuned, and be mindful!