Tully was a little short of 14 weeks old at that time. A fine time to start training! Within a few days of bringing her home, I took her out to the field where I practice agility. Of course, such a young pup couldn't do much. She was mostly there to be exposed to the environment. Gradually, she was introduced to the tunnel, to jumps with the bars set on the ground, and allowed to walk across the dog walk, with hands ready to catch her if she lost her balance. Of course, she was still small enough that the dog walk plank was quite wide for her, and she had no trouble staying on!
At home, much of what we did was bonding. I played with her, teaching her to play fetch. This was quite easy, as she just followed Elmo and imitated him. Her pushy play style gave me a good feeling for her competitive future- a dog who is eager in play is usually also eager in work.
I lure trained her to sit and down, and began work on attention and heeling. Heeling is the base for all obedience work, and much time needs to be spent on it. It can be fun, though! I taught her using a clicker-style technique, without using a clicker (I do not click). I would have her sit, and place myself so that she was in heel position. When she looked at me, I would say "good", and hand her a treat. Tully loved this game! We spent many weeks of sessions, just sitting in heel position, being rewarded for attention. This was all on leash, to limit her options a bit, I did not, at this point in her obedience training, use the leash for anything more.
Meanwhile, in agility training, I began to let her run over the A-frame. She was very fast! I would always stop her at the bottom, and give her a treat, to teach her to stay in the contact zones. I began to lead her through a few of the jumps, with the bars down, and an occasional tunnel, always on leash (except for dropping the leash as she went through the tunnel). Puppy Tully always got to spend some time just playing at the agility field- agility is fun!
At 5 months, I started with Tully in handling classes. I knew nothing about conformation handling, so we both needed the help! (I still need help!) Our heel training was proceeding nicely. I began to take steps while Tully was sitting in heel position, and she naturally chose to stay in the position which was so thoroughly rewarded. She had the basics of heeling, and the rest was just details. She is very enthusiastic about being in heel position!
Also during this time, I took Tully along with me to obedience and agility trials which Elmo was entered in. The socialization opportunities of this were very beneficial. Tully is relaxed and happy in a show environment- it is natural to her!
At 6 months, I began to introduce some corrections in her training, for exercises that she knew well. I used, and still use, corrections sparingly. Staffords respond best to positive training methods, but do accept and understand a mild correction if it is fairly applied.
I continued with obedience and agility work as I began showing Tully lightly. She is a slow-maturing bitch, so showing her wasn't very constructive as a pup, but I wanted some experience. In agility, she was learning weave poles, with the poles off-set, and running sequences, still on leash. (she was over a year before I took the leash off for the first time) She began off-leash obedience the day she chose to heel back into the house with me, after working in the backyard. I was happy to be able to set the leash aside, as I am so uncoordinated!
At this time, I was competing in AKC events, but I was becoming interested in the UKC. Friends from California were coming up, in August of 2002, to compete in a UKC breed show. It sounded like fun, and they had day-of-show entries, so I decided to go. In her first UKC show that weekend, Tully won her class, earning her first 10 points towards her UKC championship. The first baby step of a future Superdog! We were hooked!
I completed the single registry for Tully, and continued showing her in UKC. We lacked competition in breed, and she wasn't mature enough to win in group, so we got points, but not the competition wins we needed. Meanwhile, I began to have an interest in weight pull. Elmo was so suited for it! I didn't have Tully pull right away, as I don't believe in overworking young pups.
At 17 months, in February of 2003, I decided to let her pull in competition for the first time, as the amount of weight needed for a UWP leg was not enough to really strain her. Tully earned her first UWP leg! I let her pull a bit past the 10x her body weight needed for a UWP leg. She pulled to 820 pounds, 23.43x her body weight. She was still pulling easily, so I decided to stop with that success. She was 3rd place in her class.
She also found some competition in breed that weekend, and picked up her first competition win. 2 more steps towards being a Superdog! Of course, I didn't know she was going to be a Superdog at that point, I hadn't really thought about it. I was just playing with my dog.
In April, I picked up the 2nd leg on her UWP. This time, we just went for the minimum pull. I hadn't done much weight pull training, and it showed!
In May, I brought Tully to her first UKC obedience trial. She already had 2 legs on her AKC CD, but was definitely still a distractable pup, at 20 months old, and lacked consistency. Still, she earned her 1st UCD leg on May 10th, with a 3rd placement. A couple weeks later, on May 24th, she got her 2nd UCD leg with 1st place from a decent sized class of 20 dogs! I was so proud!
Tully still had no UKC titles, until July 5th, 2003. She was now 22 months old, still very much a baby, both physically and mentally, but showing such promise. I brought her to the Washington Classic that day, and entered her in both of the breed shows being held, and the one obedience trial. I also had Elmo entered in obedience, so there was a lot of hopping around, but I managed to make all my ring times.
Tully was the only Stafford entered, so we'd have to place in group to achieve anything. She didn't need any more points; she needed competition wins. The terrier judge for the first show was Betty Umberto. I thought she didn't like my dog... until she handed me the Group 4 ribbon!
A quick change of collar, and I dashed Tully over to the obedience building. Being still quite young, she was a little confused by the quick switch, and we had a couple no-sits on her heeling. So, no placement in the large Novice B class, but a very respectable 189 score finished her UCD! Her first UKC title!
We switched collars again, and back into the breed ring she went, this time under judge Richard Beauchamp. I was shocked to get another Group 4 placement! This was the last competition win Tully needed, so she had now finished her UKC Ch, on the same day as she finished her UCD!
Of all the dogs at the Washington Classic, only my pup earned the Total Dog Award!
A few weeks later, Tully earned the first leg on her UAGI, with a 3rd placement. It was a very hot day, and Tully had a bad table experience at our last AKC trial, so I was unable to get her to qualify more than that one time.
On to August of 2003, and Tully's 3rd weight pull competition. She was ready to pull now! She pulled 1400 pounds, more than 36 times her body weight, over a thousand pounds more than she needed to qualify! Tully had her UWP!
All that was needed was her agility title. Tully finished an AKC agility title in September, but her UKC title had to wait. We have so few UKC agility trials here! Finally, on October 18th of 2003, a scant 6 weeks past Tully's second birthday, our next chance at UKC agility came.
Tully ran 2 trials that day. She earned a perfect score of 200 in each. The first trial, she was fast enough for first place, but in the second trial, a Border Collie beat her on speed, and Tully was second.
She had done it! Tully was now UKC titled in conformation, obedience, agility, and weight pull! Her UKC registered name was now; UAGI UWP UCD Ch Daydream London Calling. SUPERDOG!
I introduced Tully to the Agility II equipment that evening, by the way, and she followed up by earning her first 2 UAGII legs the next day. She also continues to compete in weight pull, and is on her way to a UWPCH.
When my girl grows up, she is going to be amazing!
