huski

I'm not AD, but for me a dog who is happy, positive and drivey is working with serious enthusiasm. Tail up and wagging, eyes bright, excited, focused, responds to commands sharply and quickly. This is Daisy working at her drive-iest; She actually missed a few commands because I revved her up a bit too much, but that is easily fixed.

And back in the "good old days" you wouldn't see the range of breeds we do competing in various dog sports. I wonder how many scent hounds those old school trainers managed to train to competition level? I wouldn't tolerate anyone speaking to me in such a disgusting abusive manner, you'd have to be a real pushover to take that crap

That must have felt awesome Kavik!

That's fantastic SSM - definitely go the hounds!! They are the superior group after all

Wow thanks everyone, I feel like a bit of a dirty thread hijacker

If my dog is a flat or disinterested I do everything I can to pick them up, I would rather have a dog working 110% for basic things over a short period of time rather than have my dog work for less than that for longer - if that makes sense? I mean what vocal cue you give to tell the dog 'oops, try again'. If I tell Daisy 'no' then she tries something else i.e. if she comes to heel crooked, I say no and she moves her bum in.

A dog could be trained in competition obedience but could never have been taught that pulling on the leash in certain circumstances gets them no where. Teaching a dog to do competition heel work and teaching them to walk on a loose leash are two different things.

So not a new situation for him, but he was heavily distracted and probably a bit disinterested? What does he do if you give him a NRM?

Where did you have him? Was it somewhere new or somewhere with a higher level of distraction than where you normally train? Is it possible that his down command has just not been proofed enough? If my dog doesn't respond to a command I question why first - how well does she know the command? Is it that she missed it or is it that I haven't proofed it enough under heavy distraction? I teach her that missing a command or not complying with a command means she will not get her reward. How I correct a missed command would depend on why I think she missed it. It would be highly unusual (i.e. never as far as I can remember) that my dog intentionally blows off a command when she's really switched on. It would be far more likely that it was because she was distracted/lacking drive, didn't really understand the command etc. Do you have a no reward marker?

Awww thanks everyone! We caught it on video too /proud dog owner brag Can't wait to hear more proud moments - they make the best stories!!

That's an awesome achievement Vickie!! You must be so proud one of mine would be a recent one from the weekend. I took Daisy to a mock trial on Sunday and it was her first time ever in the ring and we were asked to do a Novice run out (we are about to start in CCD). A group of people outside the ring said not to bother bringing the beagle over because they only wanted good dogs for the trainee judge to judge. They were not expecting Daisy to be any good at all. Well she blew them away and she smashed every exercise, even though it was the first time we did all the exercises all at once under trial conditions plus the extra COP. Had it been a real trial she would have scored quite highly. But best of all everyone had to pick their jaws up off the ground and I got so many lovely compliments including that my dog was bloody brilliant and that we were wasting our time in CCD. We changed their perspective on the breed and I was so proud of my little beagle

Hahaha Nic it would be awesome to have you handing us a trophie, although with my nerves just a pass would be ok ok so for total trialling noobs like myself, what do I need to do/bring to a trial? Something to sit on? A stake out peg? probably won't bother with our crate as I never use it out and about. Is all I need an arm band thing to put my number in? Is all I need to do when I get there is go for vetting and bug the trial secretary aka Seita??

It does indeed Kath! Will definitely come and say hi, hopefully we might even get to watch some if not all of you UD round

Thanks so much for asking for me Nic, that makes me feel a lot better about my hand positioning! Just realized this Sunday is two weeks til our first proper trial holy crap! Am already sooooo nervous but excited too! Wasn't going to share the trial date on DOL but am feeling more confident after our mock trial. Just worried about group stays, because we've never done them in full on trial conditions before. Daisy is doing really solid stays under heavy distraction at the moment so fingers crossed we will smash them on the day!

So sorry to hear that Kirsty :D Run free Leo

Bedazzled what method do you use now to teach LLW? What method would you use to teach a dog who had a very serious ingrained pulling habit? I'm not saying I agree with Black Bronson, but I would never write corrections off altogether... on their own they may be a crappy teaching tool but as part of a whole method I don't think corrections are always a bad thing Even methods like 'be a tree' and the change of direction technique that are commonly use to train LLW are corrective in some way.

Great to hear Tiggy! You will need to do a video update soon!! We had a great training session tonight too. I played around with hand positioning and tried having my hand on my hip, with one hand down; both hands hanging down; one hand on my stomach and one hand down and Daisy worked brilliantly regardless but I find I spend the whole time thinking about where my hands are and trying to make sure I put them back in the original position after giving a command Both hands in the middle is still the most natural position for me. I think I will see how we go trialling with my hands like that and if we have lots of trouble with judges I will force myself to change!

Don't worry, I never used to be able to let Daisy off leash and never used to be able to get more than a few seconds of focus on her if I was lucky. Mason is still young he will get there - it has taken me 12 solid months of hard work using the method of training we do now to get Daisy to where she is :p Yes! Probably not till we're done with obedience though. She would be brilliant at it, she is one of the most scent driven beagles I've met. But it was so easy and so much fun to train her scent discrim I am sure she will love it. Thanks TSD (and to everyone who asked my question). I tend to look at Daisy in the eyes but I have been curious if it is making her barking during stays (which is sporadic not a regular thing she does every time) worse. I took your advice re singing incy wincy spider and now I do it all the time Just means more experience in the ring for me which can't be a bad thing!! :D :p

I train Daisy so the leash being on or off doesn't matter :rofl: We do a lot of off leash training. I know! I don't think you need as high a score to pass as you would in a Novice trial normally. I could be wrong though (Seita or other QLDers will be able to correct me if I am!)

The problem I have at the moment with stays is the way Daisy will occasionally bark at me if she's bored I'll feel terrible if she does it in the ring!! Where do you look when you are doing stays with them?

Yes, CCD is the first one and it's on lead. CCD is optional, though, you can go straight into Novice (CD) if you wish, and that is offlead. Yep the only downside in QLD is that before you can compete in Novice you have to pass a Novice sweepstakes which doesn't count towards your title. So you have to do four trials to get your CD title.

Well done!! That's brilliant RS. Out of sight stays are one area I know we will need to work on heaps! I am confident we will go straight into Novice from CCD but training for Open will take a while. I think I'll give Daisy a bit of a break if we get both our CCD and CD titles before the end of the year and will try for Open next year. Daisy has got the basics of the dumbell down pat and will retrieve it over the jump but it's not polished at all and we have tonnes of things to work on.

Yep - CCD is all on lead apart from the recall and stays. Novice (CD) is the next class up which is what we did in the mock trial video I posted on Sunday night, it's all off leash and has one extra exercise.

Shush you :p I said to someone at training last night that even if we never do it again, at least I have video proof we did it well once :rofl:

Thanks RS I am really excited! I am 98797897987979798789638783264723 times less nervous than I was before Sunday - I'm so glad we did that mock trial as we did it under exact trial conditions and I feel way more confident now knowing we can definitely do it! ETA: LOL yes poor Daisy, she really is a star putting up with my nerves and handling I don't know how she does it!!