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We were insanely flat out the whole time, even with heaps of our team members on the stand each day helping us out. It was great to see all the DOLers who popped by to say hello. Every year the show reminds me how much people love dogs and it's so great to see even though it's also a huge reminder how many of the GP have no idea how to appropriately interact with dogs I was super proud of Blaze too, she did a few great demos and had no problem working under distraction. It's a tough environment for any dog especially a young one.

We were there today at the K9 Pro stand and will be back tomorrow, I'll have Blaze with me too

Hey Karen! They are Belgian Malinois

My two big babies, Wisdom and Blaze - Blaze looks shorter than Wiz but she is actually taller! :) Daisy is doing super too, she will be 10 soon :)

Yes I was thinking the same thing - the two additional indentations appear as though they could be the points. Also, I don't understand the theory but am working with people who do - many of the contact points on dog collars can cause electrical burns (even when not in use) because of the way the hardware is engineered. When you change the way the current is delivered you don't seem to have the same issues. Sorry I can't recall the details. Left my work brain at work. I've never heard of or come across any collar capable of causing electrical burns, it's just not possible. I have seen dogs with pressure sores though and some dogs do have allergic reactions to the metal from the probes - a reaction can happen within a very short period of time ETA: it doesn't look like pressure points from an ecollar to me, the points are an odd shape not consistent with probes

Bec from K9 Pro here! We are booked out now until October for standard consults though sometimes I can squeeze in an urgent earlier if we can move things around. Just shoot me an email if you want more info on this option [email protected] - we do everything we can to accomodate urgent consults where possible. Steve and I will both be away running instructors workshops in QLD from tomorrow, but I will be back in the office on Tuesday running consults and answering emails etc.

I would strongly recommend taking your pup out and about from day one, not waiting for vaccinations. We recommend all of our puppy buyers and puppy owners to take their pups out at least once a day, every day until the first fear period.

Well done again! A very challenging ring by all reports.

I would be extremely surprised if the biting/mouthing at you is in any way anxiety related, but obviously we'd need to see him to be sure :)

Thanks ness. I did contact them but the earliest available time slot was September! So I'm looking at a couple of other places now. Bec from K9 Pro here! We do have options for urgent consults if you need something sooner, PM me if you'd like more info on this - unfortunately the down side of being so busy at HQ is that we do have a long wait time. We see a lot of young working dogs with very similar behaviours to what you have described on a daily basis here. With any trainer you select, make sure they have experience with young working dogs, we see so many come in for training that have been told they need to be PTS or have severe anxiety when they don't - not saying this is the case with your dog but it's exceptionally common. Any trainer you speak to should able to make you feel confident they can assist you, ideally they should be able to show you videos of similar dogs they have worked with. Nothing you've described sounds remotely unusual or uncommon to me, but I would recommend engaging a professional ASAP. No-one here can accurately assess your dogs behaviour, best to get professional assistance as soon as you can.

There's a pretty cool cafe in the Hawkesbury now that is designed for dogs and owners - coffee and food is great :) https://www.facebook.com/Kurrajongbarkpark/ And the best part is that if you don't want to go to a dog park, the seating area is totally separate and lovely.

It is out of stock Australia wide, all of the Animal Naturals supps are. AN is made in the USA and they moved processing plants a few months ago which caused production to cease, and for much longer than expected. It has taken them weeks/months since production started again to start fulfilling all the orders world wide. We anticipate we will see the first shipment hit our shores within the next 3-4 weeks but I wouldn't guarantee anything until the supps are actually in my hands. Annoying because I use Super Fuel and have run out also!

I use clickers but generally use yes as a terminal bridge. Sometimes I don't want to sound neutral, if the dog has nailed something I will put a more excited tone to the yes and I don't think that's a bad thing. More important than what word you say or clicker you use is timing and reward placement

I would air block the dog (lifting and twisting their collar is usually an easy way to do this) in an emergency situation like that. Once air is cut off, they will let go, they have to, it doesn't take long.

Many of the things you may call "new" aren't really new methods. I started learning about training in drive 10 years ago, and how to use it in competition. Steve from K9 Pro who taught me had been developing his TID program for 20+ years prior to when I started learning about it. I'm not sure what you refer to when you said some IPO handlers still need to catch up to "new" methods, on a world level the quality of obedience in IPO is extremely hard to beat in any venue. Each successful competitor has their own take on how to train a winning dog, but you'd be hard pressed to find many top winning handlers who don't use any aversives including tools like ecollars and prongs. There are many ways to use different tools.

Yes it is rare to see a dog completely trained with compulsion, but all of the top IPO competitors (world wide) use a mixture of methods and tools and they would never claim to be 100% positive only. Mario Verslijpe, Mia Skogster, Bart Bellon, Uta Bindels... the list goes on, openly talk about using various methods including corrections. Like anything, using reward OR correction (or a mixture!) to get amazing results takes skill. When we talk in a competitive sense, it is entirely possible to use corrections in training without removing the joy from the work. Certainly doesn't look joyless to me... The idea that using any kind of correction means the dog isn't working in drive is as old fashioned as the dogs that are trained with heavy handed compulsion and plod along next to the handler. For some high drive working dogs, using something like a prong collar correction can actually increase drive.

I have wash and wear dogs which is excellent. The only thing I dislike is the ridiculous amount of hair my beagle loses and when my Mals are in season and find a crazy ass amount of hair to lose. We have a hydro bath so I bath them probably once every 1-2 months but they also swim regularly. I do nails frequently also. I changed up my hydro bath routine this weekend when I gave Wiz a bath. I used a new natural shampoo first, then the Showstopper True Colours shampoo, then a bit of leave in conditioner. Really really pleased with this combo - her coat is ridiculously soft and shiny and the natural shampoo has a really nice lasting scent.

I only ever recommend wire crates or airline crates until the dog is 100% proficiently crate trained. Soft crates are easy for them to bust out of. Personally there is no way I would be trialing different types of crates - the crate I put you in is the crate you stay in and if the dog is properly crate trained I have never found the type of crate makes any difference. I only use wire crates as they are easier to clean than soft crates IMO.

I love Ping!! My god he is so cute

The change in color is amazing!

Be careful what you let your puppy learn... lol

With her mum

Then and now pics are my favourite!!!! I have heaps of Blaze. Will find some and come back to spam the thread lol

I bag up their daily food allowance into small bags and use each bag in a training session, except for the final meal which would be a bit of egg/supplements/mince and/or bone. Yes it is a bit gross handling raw meat but you get over it! I also get cheap chuck steak, chop it up small and blanch it for a couple of seconds in hot water so its still raw inside but a bit less slippery to handle. Dried treats aren't ideal for training treats.