JulesP

Yes Tony, I think Brock is very similar to your boy. Even a non-reward upsets the little petal! He is quite a challenging dog to train! I don't think people realise how hard it is to train a sook, they just see him being quiet and think he is good. My new girl is so much easier as you can make small adjustments to position etc without her crying about it. Funny you said that about the plate Ness. I have the individual weavers but at school they have the plate and I was wondering if that was an issue for him. He doesn't like mine when they get straighter though either. He is worried about something. He is being very careful not to touch the poles, which means he is having to bend a lot to get through them. I wonder if that is it.

Thanks Leopuppy! I was looking for you on Monday night as I was having a breakdown, lol.

We have a channel and slanted poles set up at school. Brock will go through both with no angst. He seems slightly happier with the slanted poles. I was actually thinking of moving to slanted poles now. So good to read that someone else has done it.

Brock is going nicely when I have a open channel. A reasonable speed (for him!), looks happy. Channel would be slightly less than shoulder width as he has a bit of a wiggle happening. Can send him through, call him through or run next to him. Once the channel closes to say 5 inches he gets very unhappy. Pace slows to a walk. Ears go down, tail down. Starts skipping poles. I think he understands the exercise. Was doing straight poles at school but in a very unhappy fashion. Any ideas?

I started my agility at K9 Company. I didn't see any of the straight obedience classes though. You pay class by class there so could go and have a look easily. Was quite expensive but as it is part of the local animal aid (Coldstream) I didn't mind paying the money. Is also indoors, not a massive area. Nice atmosphere. They should be good with dogs with issues as a lot of the rescue dogs go there. Very pet focussed rather than comp. Positive based, probably more so than Croydon.

What's the attitude towards dog aggressive dogs? Are they welcome and are the instructors able to deal with them? The dog would be assessed. There are other dogs there that have issues so they aren't turned away. Yes there are some instructors there that could deal with the dog. If your obedience is ok then you would probably go in a higher class anyway. There is also a class that is for socialisation. What are the muzzling requirements for dog aggressive dogs? I couldn't find anything in the rules about it, at the moment I muzzle my boy for offlead work, but onlead it's off as it annoys the bejeezus out of him (looking at a new one when finances improve). I guess would depend on the dog. I have seen some dogs muzzled. Lots of other aggressive type dogs aren't. The yellow bandanna system for less approachable dogs sounds like a great idea, but do club members actually adhere to it? Is it made clear to them what their purpose is? Yes it is made clear to club members what the bandannas are for. But some people are always stupid! Considering the amount of people that attend you hear very few flare ups. $65 for the first year & $45 for the following years is pretty cheap! What clubs are cheaper than that? Croydon does have a positive training philosophy. It is not so full on as some other clubs I have heard about i.e. people can use correction chains. Steve would be pleased to hear that I stand in class doing my drive work! No one has said anything but I am an instructor! The higher the class you go into the more you can do your own thing. I think it is a great club. There are some great instructors in the trial ring, we are very lucky to have them.

I have a thermomaster. Good ruggie.

He is only a pup? Thinking he is pretty young still. I don't mind a couple of steps into the walk when they are first learning. The pup will not stay up in the stand for very long, so get that release word in super fast. You have to build it up second by second. So I would be clicking, rewarding & releasing in about 1 sec to start with! Sounds like you are asking for too much too soon.

Yeah, we only had 4 weeks of the weaving course though. We all failed. Croydon teaches each piece of equipment, one at a time, for 3 weeks with the test on the 4th week. Not sure I like the format but nearly finished now, just weaving to go.

Maybe 5 mins a session, plus 30 mins at school. Brock is heaps slower than Zoe. But he is slow full stop. Very accurate though!

Am doing the weaves module now at dog school. Brock seems to really hate it! Head and ears down, tail down. drops to the ground. He is ok when there is a channel but when the weaves come into a straight line he is really not happy. Have opened the weaves back up and am working on it being super fun. He is super sensitive and hates thinking he has done the wrong thing. Even a passive no reward upsets him. Any ideas? Also he is ok with 'his' weaves but any new weaving poles and I have to start from the beginning! Have only been training weaves for 4 weeks btw.

Well chasing the foxie was a super reward!!! What a nice owner you are!

Go Molly

Why do you think that the other dog has a stronger verbal cue then?

Ask your dog to sit but give the hand signal for drop and see what happens. Both my 2 positive trained dogs are dropping. My older style trained dog sits. She also sits if I ask with my back to her. The other 2 don't. Interesting.

Depends on the puppy pre school I guess Luke. My club has a great one. Puppies are let off in a very controlled manner and if there are very timid pups they are put in another area. My border, Brock, ended up in the quiet puppy area lol. The rest of the time it is very basic obedience stuff. They do a bit of going through tunnels etc. The pups then usually move on to puppy class together and are such good friends!

You are an experienced handler though Luke. I teach puppies at Croydon (4 months +) the difference between the puppies that go through puppy preschool and those that haven't is amazing.

Is paying no attention to treats, or little attention. Interestingly I saw out of the corner of my eye that the dog did focus on the owner when he was rustling a bag when picking poo up. I actually think the dog has potential but is not going to be an easy pet for quite a while.

I was always the animal person, my husband wasn't. I got dogs, cats & horses! Apart from feeding them if I was away the husband did nothing with the dogs or other animals. They were my animals. And I work full time in a management job. So I am not sure why your wife should have to do anything with the puppy that you wanted. Different if she wants to of course.

I did say in my first post that the dog was too off its tree to be able to learn anything.

Doggie isn't anxious or worried. Just super excited.

We use a marker word rather than a clicker. I taught them all 'watch' last week even though it is not normally taught as a separate exercise there. Don't know why it isn't as it is one of the first things I work on. If I can't get some control next week then I will have to see about one-on-one.

Watch what kibble you try. Some are very high protein and you may end up feeding more protein!

The other pups aren't too bad. Just normal pups. These ones worry me as they need the most help and I don't want to lose him as I can see this pup ending up at a animal aid!! The difference between the pups that have done pre-school and the ones that have done nothing is amazing.

It is basic puppy obedience. This is a class that hasn't gone through our very good puppy pre school. Puppy is not focusing on anything! It is just jumping and biting its owner.