The Spotted Devil

Every 10 days here - 2 dogs and 3 cats. Dalmatian nails sit high up and don't wear down leaving the quick to get very long. Both dogs do a lot of running but not on hard ground. I like nails trimmed short for agility contact equipment too.

Yes, definitely can be done - a couple of handlers I know have trained it really well and the dogs absolutely nail it. I'm not one of them :laugh:

That's brilliant Jess!!!

For me, wrap around = verbal cue and decel before the dog commits. Jump long or 180 or anything else is all about acceleration (arms pumping), deceleration, cue arm, shoulder turns etc. I don't use a verbal for jumping unless it's an emergency :D

I already use "go round" when wanting them to wrap around the staunchon from the front. Maybe just zip, zip would be good. OH says Oh No, just one more word he has to remember...but hey...if it's good enough for the dogs to remember it :laugh: A wrap for us is "check, check, check!" Poor OH :laugh:

Thank goodness for training to keep a feral Miss occupied! 3 cold blinds first up. Was super pleased with the first one in particular as she pushed through the heavy cover without needing a command. She appeared in the open ground a bit off line but just kept running. Stopped her and cast left to pick up. Second one was next to a tree on bare ground - she really wanted to tackle the cover on both sides so it took a little more convincing but she picked it up on a good left back. Final one was not bad either even though she had her eye on all the cover. Whistle sits varied from really nice to a bit sloppy as in "hey, I know where I'm going ok!" Had a nice pond to work with so did some cheaty call throughs. Apart from the impatient whinging when I left her in a sit stay they went really well - tossed a dummy in the water as she was getting close to me and she had a few happy bumpers on land too. Using the same pond we did left and right backs to pile - one of each and 2 straight back to keep her guessing. Interestingly I've noticed she turns to the left when stopping so left backs in water seem easier than right backs. Had to stop her twice for the right back which is usually her strong point on land. Let her have a bit of a gallop but called her in when she went into hunt mode. She had been running around the pond in amongst the reeds but when I whistled her in she took the perfect line straight through the water back to me. Really razzed her up with a happy bumper as she swam back and her little shoulders were just about up out of the water she was swimming that hard!

Verbal cue at our club is "zip, zip, zip" but that sounds too much like "Zig, Zig, Zig!" :laugh: I use "round" which is a carry over from an exercise I played with him years ago but I'd like to change it to something snappier. Yes, pushing the dog beyond the refusal plane is how we teach it, more or less.

Great! Look forward to more when you have a regular keyboard :D

How was it? I enquired (quite late) about auditor spots but didn't hear back.

Great to hear rubyroo. Em doesn't like a whole lot of repetition either. The more I mix it up the better! Today's session felt rushed. Probably because it was :laugh: Worked all day (took Zig to give him a break from the in season Em), rushed home, swapped dogs and found a nice quiet spot before the sun set. 3 cold blinds and had Mr TSD throw an easy mark before sending for the last one. Certainly improved lining and handling, plenty of "go" and I let her run a good distance before stopping. Whistle sits were sloppy so I worked on those separately but more tomorrow I think! Had Mr TSD help with an in line marking drill - 4 dummies. Right. Walk forward. Left. Walk forward. Repeat. Very pleased with all but the 2nd mark - she went a bit wide and short but hunted it up no problem. It was getting dark so we drove around looking for other quiet places to train.

Enjoy Bulla TO! I have in-laws coming so just doing Croydon. You had a full on day at the Vizsla club!!! It's fun working out what makes different dogs tick.....not easy though. Em's not too bad - very regular seasons and has great energy/focus so I hit the training pretty hard, especially retrieving. She just smashes herself physically if left to her own devices in the back yard. Keeps us all out of mischief anyway :D

Ain't that the truth Tassie :laugh: Some good training going on there with Miss Feral and Master Rory Trying to keep Zig's mind off Em's hormones so worked on some high distraction weave training tonight. Jogging in the opposite direction is going really well so I placed my foot on top of the third last weaving pole. Uncomfortable for me and confusing for him but we both worked through it :D

Consolidated this afternoon with 3 cold blinds followed by a hand thrown mark and a blind. I thought her handling and lining had improved a bit but she was slower to whistle stop. The double she did without a command.....I have a funny feeling she knew where the blind was even though I placed it whilst distracting her with a happy bumper. Smarty pants!!! Such a lovely warm day, I made the most of it with handling drills in the water. I ran backs and overs separately. Her whistle stops and left and right backs were much better although left/right over need tidying up - that was more to do with suction to the back pile than anything else. A few easy water marks to burn off some excess energy and we called it a day.

Very busy lately but, up until last Friday, was out every day doing something - handling drills, 3 leg lining blinds, marking, whistle stops etc. A few days break for agility trials and several more for being unwell but headed out yesterday morning with a few friends. The AA dogs were doing single marks but I opted out of those - too many opportunities to undo what I've been working on. We ran Em, instead, on 3 cold blinds one after another. The first one looked the most difficult because of the amount of cover but, as was pointed out to me, it was the easiest as it gave her a path and as soon as she appeared from the cover the blind was on bare ground up on the slope so she had immediate success. As expected the cover pushed her off course a bit but she stopped and cast pretty well. Plenty of enthusiasm going back too. The next two were over bare ground so more difficult because there weren't many landmarks to work with. One was right on the border of heavy cover and she really had to hunt hard to find it as the strong wind was making scenting difficult. All in all it was good - she picked them up without too much problem considering our combined lack of experience. Her sits were snappy about 90% of the time and it was good to have someone else critiquing! At least I had fixed things that I'd been picked up on last time - they were waiting to hit me if I didn't :laugh: We then set her up on a mark and a blind with game. Mark was across cheaty water - first attempt she ran through some serious prickles and it completely threw her line. I really didn't want to handle on the mark so called her back, moved in front of the prickles and ran it again. Much better. The excitement of retrieving game took it's toll and it was very hard to get her focussed on the line to the blind. In hindsight I can see that her ears and body language were all telling me the same thing. The blind was up on bare ground but she had to push through some pretty heavy cover first. The suction of the mark kept pulling her to the right but fortunately I had a helper ( ) up there tossing a few extra bumpers out so when she finally took the cast left, she succeeded immediately. Whilst we've done known blinds and marks before this was the first time with a stone cold blind. Lots to practice! Points to remember: Don't mess around too much before sending - just get her to run If there is a barrier (such as cover) that she is struggling with - don't worry about keeping her on the line. Just get her running back. Hold arms such that I'm not giving confusing signals Lots of hand thrown marks then send for the blind Be careful what you praise for. Pick the best whistle stops, for example, and praise those.

Vickie you raise some excellent points! My aim is to fix up contacts this year - they're not super awful but the A frame, in particular, is not as reliable in trials as it is in training - too much excitement methinks! I ran Em in the Hungarian Vizsla Club's Group 3 agility trial last Saturday. Springer Devil was absolutely super - she flew around the courses with heaps of enthusiasm and no getting distracted - quite wild actually. For the first time ever she did her weaves "just like in training" - fortunately it was a nice entry from the tunnel so I was able to get out of her way and send her ahead of me. I'm not sure that leaping over the A-frame colour is the best idea though Em ended up with a 3rd place NQ in Novice Agility and a very, very enjoyable 2nd place Q in JDX - I really thought some tight tunnel entries might throw her but she took every shoulder turn, front cross and rear cross with confidence and forward focus. Every photo from the day she is having a ball - lost a bit of her 'seriousness' which is awesome. Sunday at Ballarat Em was a bit flakey, jumping early and the pressure of doing contacts was all a bit much - I put it down to stress/lack of training etc and then, of course, she came into season on Wednesday so something else to factor in. Nevertheless, what with all the retrieving training I'm doing with her, I think I might give her a break from competing in agility for a bit and stick with jumping. Continue training and proofing contacts/weaves but just work on confidence and speed in the ring. Poor Zig was stuck with a dud handler on Sunday - I sent him off course multiple times, hesitated when I should have been confident, accelerated when I should have decelerated and every time he did EXACTLY what I asked :laugh: Bless him, he doesn't seem to be holding it against me!

In terms of hormones/growth/development there is no difference between desexing at 6 months vs 10 weeks. The sex hormones promote growth plate closure so you need to wait until the dog has finished growing before desexing - age would vary between breeds and individuals. The delay in growth plate closure in long bones is what causes slightly taller dogs. Effects on HD are not clear.

I have the pink jacket and black pants (both the old design I think). Great product that stuffs into a small bag that can be left in the car. Suits my purpose anyway.

Just briefly - when training, try rewarding for being in position when you CHANGE pace. Maintain fast pace very briefly before slowing down and rewarding again. Work on change of pace separately. Make sure he understands heel position too :) Sorry for brevity. On phone and camping!

Is that THE Flick??? Wow! All grown up!

And most of which requires considerable training and proofing. Most gundogs I know, if left alone up to 10 hours a day as youngsters, will make what a Jap Spitz can do to a backyard look lke gardening. Yup. I have one of those and the only reason she's an angel at home is because she's too bloody tired to do anything but rest up for the next training session :) When you have a good hunter you need to teach awesome impulse control.

Yes! I like this from a purchaser perspective - would be interested in how breeders feel though.

I wonder if the average dog owner assumes that no listed price = out of my price range. Like POA on real estate websites.

Good on you for stewarding! I'm always running between rings it seems but it would be great to meet you :)

_megan - sorry, should have explained myself better! I just remembered you were thinking about trialling (maybe?) and if you were currently doing so it would be nice to catch up. I tend to hang out with the same people at trials but think it's good to welcome new people. If you're not trialling that's cool :)

It is hard for a puppy buyer. With Dalmatians they should be hearing tested at around 6 weeks - there are 2 different machine types with one being known to be more accurate. I know breeders who travel long distances to use the more reliable test but, when the machine broke down, they had no choice but to use the less preferred test.