huski

OMG that is such a good idea especially considering my nerves! I am going to think of you every time we do stays now

1. Beagle 2. Siberian Husky 3. Finnish Lapphund 4. Petite Basset Griffon Vendeen 5. Dobermann 6. Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever 7. GSD (must be a sable working line) 8. Jack Russell Terrier (rough coat) 9. Giant Schnauzer 10. Brittany

You need to come tell that to some Sibes I know, one little monster dosn't stop barking! LOL Wolfsong I haven't met many who can bark! Micha tries SO HARD to bark, he tries to copy Cherry and Daisy, but it just comes out as this pathetic shortened howl

Most Sibes can't bark so they vocalise by howling. Don't know how many of you have seen this vid but I love it!

I'm so used to it having a Sibe (he howls because he cannot physically bark) that I forget it's not that common for other dogs to do it Daisy does it too but only because she copies Mish

I agree... I do obedience with a beagle and my next dog who will be a "serious competition" dog will also be a beagle

Re phasing out rewards, I do it for basic manners stuff like walking nicely on the leash etc but I will never fade food rewards out of obedience training. I work on the time my dog can maintain drive without a reward, because obviously in the ring your dog needs to work for a set amount of time without rewards (with the exception of praise in between exercises). I train Daisy in food drive so I teach her that when working in drive she will ALWAYS get a food reward. This is because when we are training I expect 110% focus with sharp, snappy responses to commands (and you could probably get this with a dog who is insanely praise driven) but I don't want that when we are just around the house etc.

LOL yes JulesP I know what you mean - I have terrible handling and juggling with the leash doesn't help

It doesn't make a difference to Daisy if we train with the leash on or off. We do both with no problems

Maybe End of June at the moment and two trials in July

Hoping to do another video tomorrow night at training Wednesdays are a good night to film stuff

Daisy will work for any kind of food, sausage, chicken, kibble, dried treats, carrot, apple etc. She really loves sweet things though - donuts, lamingtons, cake, cookies etc. She also works very enthusiastically for anything I have been eating :D She did great heelwork for me at the farmers markets on the weekend after watching me eat a hot dog. All I had left was bread and she thought it was the best thing ever!

These ones have cinnamon in them too! Daisy has a real sweet tooth and she goes nuts for anything baked. I had the gingerbread man in my treat pouch when I was doing a heel round tonight and when we finished, I went to reward her and it had fallen out! Much desperate searching over the paddock ensued to find it :p I rewarded her with some luncheon sausage and she'd take it but she KNEW she hadn't had any ginger bread yet kept working and waiting for it :D Thank god we found it, or I would have been the meanest owner ever. I really teased her with it before we started the heel round ;)

Daisy was a star at training tonight :D We even got asked to do a demo for some people there for an intro night. I was really happy with how she worked tonight with the exception of her SFEs ;) Just could not get them together tonight. I had a gingerbread cookie (for dogs) that I was given and decided to pull it out and see how she'd go working for it - OMG forget the meat we had, gingerbread cookie is Daisy's crack ;) She was NUTS for it. I think we will have to start using baked goods more often :p

Aww, thanks for the lovely compliment on my girl, Jesomil :) We still don't have a very reliable recall (outside of obedience) though

That would have been a sight to see

That’s an interesting idea, SA. Daisy is one of the most scent driven beagles I’ve met, to the point that when we meet up with other beagles they all hang out together and Daisy is always off on her own scenting What we’ve done for obedience is try to harness the natural drive she has and redirect it so we can work in food drive (case in point – it does work relatively well and I do have a dog who can focus nicely under most distractions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ZcNZGS72o , she is also quite keen to work now too). Before, I would be lucky to have ten seconds of that kind of focus and I could shove food under her nose and she wouldn’t notice it because she was scenting so heavily. I didn’t start this training with her until she was two years old though so she had a long time to learn scenting was the best and quickest way to get drive satisfaction. I am interested to see what it will be like training a beagle pup with this method from day one.

Diva, the thing with Daisy's recall is that if she's not on a heavy scent, she will recall quite reliably. I honestly think when scenting like that she is switched off to all around her and can't hear me and that fits in to what I understand about drive peak too. Beagles were bred to focus solely on the scent and that they'd switch off to any distractions around them was desirable. I don't think it would be impossible to train a reliable recall but like I said earlier I think to get that with Daisy I would need to do some ecollar training. Siberians are notorious for being unreliable off leash and most breeders and owners advise against letting them off leash in uncontained areas. They are stubborn, independent and have a strong desire to run and I don't think the average owner could train a highly reliable recall. I don't think it's impossible to do though.

LOL Ness - I took a couple of bags of lollies to Steve's last Brissy workshop. Daisy ate the ENTIRE packet of freckles

Thanks Sandi :rofl: Lots to still improve on but I feel we are getting there!

I think that the owner being exciting should go hand in hand with whatever reward you use. I definitely agree there are far too many owners who are unexciting and it looks like both they and the dog are going through the motions. Some dogs are really keen for praise, mine is not particularly, but even with her it definitely makes a difference if I am super exciting and enthusiastic.

Good! I posted a video of them earlier in the thread but I think you missed it Will see if I can do another tomorrow night a training. ETA: found the vid... they are half way through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEvz2veHqZQ She is much better with her backend awareness now and we've incorporated the smarter looking LATs into our heelwork now, still not quite 100% but getting there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ZcNZGS72o

You can't half tell that you are really enjoy your training at the moment. Next time you need to take you scent articles and have the kids put them out for you. LOL it's not terribly obvious is it Hmmm the scent discrim idea is quite a good one! I am trying to get Daisy out and about to lots of distracting places at various times of day to prepare her better for trialling.

So, my girl is not a bad girl if she kills feral mice, or bunnies, or feral cats. But she is a bad dog if she kills someone's "beloved" pet mouse or rabbit or cat? I'm afraid she is unable to tell the difference. If she killed pets rather than feral animals, then that would be me being a bad owner, not her being a bad dog. Prey drive isn't actually a "problem", either. Many working dogs like search and rescue dogs, police dogs, hunting dogs, and most customs dogs all need very high prey drives as this is how they are motivated to do their jobs. If we breed dogs for low prey drives, we will have very few working dogs left. The problem with high prey drive dogs is if the owner mismanages the dog. It's not the dog themselves. What SN said

Went down to the park again today and there was a small group of kids and adults playing soccer. The kids were having their own game but stopped and came to sit and watch Daisy and I training I let them have a pat (while putting her in a stand/stay) and she only moved her back legs once whilst three or so of them were patting her I also used a couple of them as figure eight posts They are always most impressed by her doing a hi-10 though and when I told them we train her for competitions they said she was sure to win with that "hi-10 thing she does" - awww