JulesP

Thank you! Anyone else?

What did you find to be the best deal? Any one want to give a review on their bath?

Well to be honest it is so I don't feel bad about leaving a doggie alone!!!

I basically feed all of the available dry feeds as my cats don't like eating the same thing twice in a row! I am usually rotating about 3 dry feeds. Also means that if there is a problems with vitamins then they should be ok as they are not just eating the one food!

Get a 3rd dog One goes out, 2 stay home!

Do you guys pay rent for your flat bits of grass?

I'm going too Tassie, if I ever work out which day to go and watch! Running out of time now.

Back end awareness on telephone books. Retrieve using the Shirley Chong method. Targeting. Work on start line waits. Or do what I am doing - lots of drinking on the verandah and no training

She has already got a b&w one!

I have done......nothing! No training at all!

Sorry we are cross-posting! Do you use really stinky food?

If you watch Ness' heeling vid, you will see she has her hand closed. She may or maybe not have a treat but Kenzie thinks she has. That is what I mean about pretending.

Luke I hold my treat in my left hand, with my hand sort of a bit above my waist (to get upwards look). I might stick the treat out of my hand or I might have it in my fist. She basically doesn't know if I have it there or not.

Sorry Luke. Bit grumpy. Kavik is wanting doggie to focus ahead for agility. I reckon it is a tad hard if you have been asking for face focus, but with Poppy I have been putting her tug out in front and waiting for her to focus on that. Marking and releasing when she does look ahead. Toss your food forwards etc Luke don't forget Barkley is still a baby. I like to pretend I have food even if I don't, sort of with hand movements. It does take a little while to build up to a whole obedience round minus food. Don't stress you will get there. Release is very important for agility though so make sure you have a really sound wait and release.

Arr well my trainer who has actually worked with dolphins must be talking shit then. I'll leave you all to it as I don't actually have a problem with reliance on food.

A mark is a verbal clicker. A bridge is well think of it as a bridge! Some thing that spans point A to B. So you have your pup in a stay (it is maybe just learning). You say 'good stay, good pup, good stay'. That is a bridge. Or in a recall. Pup is coming but tentative. You give more encouragement. That is a bridge. Or in shaping, you might say good pup, but not quite, keep trying.

I never delay my marker word. Sit mark the sit bridge mark the stay treat release

I have a release word. My dogs still tend to hang around after the release word though! They want to do more stuff!

My dogs have probably done the best on the Salmon one. It gives super shiny coats. I spoke to the rep about the corn gluten meal and she said that the meal didn't have the stuff in it that causes allergies. Can't remember which bit of the corn does cause allergies. Could be crap but that is what she said. Corn is mainly a problem if your dog has allergies to it. Selects is a bit of a pain to get hold of.

If you have to treat after each click then you haven't conditioned your dog to the clicker/verbal marker correctly. As Dog Rock said you are training Classical Conditioning here. My dogs go nuts if I say yes to them. You can put a string of things together and change how you mark. I wouldn't mark my dogs through a sit drop stand routine as they don't need it. Sounded like Barkly still does. This is a good exercise though to draw out the giving of a treat and get rid of the problem of the dog only working for the treat. I have never used a clicker/mark as a release. I use verbal encouragement as a bridge.

Yep always mark before treating. The mark in very basic terms means 'that is right something good is now coming'. The mark is never delayed but the food can be. So you could go sit mark drop mark stand mark treat free tug A thing I have noticed with people using food is that they don't verbally praise as much as we did when we used non-food training. It has all got a bit quiet with a reliance on the food being enough. Levi I would still be using food until doggie is staying there. Sometimes people try and fade the food too quickly or are not generous enough with the food.

Luke I reward prior to free most of the time. A treat after free is a treat not a reward. The only time I treat after free is if I am running to a jackpot box. After a free I might play tug or give a good patting session.

No in my mind using a headcollar is not positive. It does create some form of discomfort and if you are staying in the positive sphere you want to avoid that. If something is going wrong with my training I look at me and try and communicate better with the dogs.

Trying to teach one of my dogs to retrieve, used the shirley method. Took ages. Didn't work. Would the ear pinch have worked in a short time?? Perhaps. Not a method I wanted to use so dog doesn't retrieve. Oh well not the end of the earth.

I dunno Midol I have never ignored or isolated my dogs. I don't think that an ecollar is a humane way to train though and would only use it in a life and death situation. For the record I used to train the 'old way'. I don't have a problem with people having different views but positive trainers should be allowed to have their say without being made to feel like they are idiots.