dogdayz

So sorry Hedds, Mr Hedds and Banjie, you will miss her so much. Jem always so much a character you will be so badly missed by family and freinds, human and canine alike. Run free at the bridge, sweet girl.

I take a break for as long as the dogs will let me, after having had 6 weeks of nothing, i have a collie who is demanding to be worked so she restarted today , and a weimaraner who is quite content to sunbake all day, which is probably fair enough as he does get quite stressed by hot weather. So collie resumed work today, just light obedience and introducing a new exercise or two, prior to needing them, at the weekend she will resume herding. For myself i enjoy this point of the year going through the schedules for 2007 and deciding the main focus trials for each dog.

I got my collie rough as a pet but after starting obedience school thought i might like to do that. Got my weim to show but that didnt work out so then looked for what else i could do. We now dabble in a number of dogs sports, with mixed results, but always fun. So i have basically made my activities and aims to suit my dogs. I would love an agility dog, neither my current dogs really suit agility, and i would love an aussie shepherd, but at the same time my OH would like another staffy, and in my heart the collie roughs will always be number 1 for me. My suspicion is our future household will be collie and staffy based, and the dogsports will be made to fit the dog.

Title wise my weim got his TD and then TDX titles, but overall i guess the biggest acheivemnt was to get my collie who is a a much less natural tracking dog her TD and two further passes to her TDX. Aside from that we have just done a lot of quiet work away from competition and it has shown in the weims general confidence level and maturity has improved heaps, and hopefully that will be demonstrated next year in the obedience ring. Goals for next year, well we hope for two tracking champions, passes in obedience for both dogs, the collie national obedience trial, a second PT pass in herding. Im currently in training for endurance and hopefully one or both dogs will commence training for that when the cold weather returns. But most of all just to get through a year injury free and the tails still wagging.

Answered as best i can, but its hard. Some stuff is seasonal, tracking for example only train march to september a few hours once a week (but the dog may only be tracking for a few minutes of that) , herding we do very short (maybe 10 mins) in height of summer but up to an hour on a cold wet winters day, and for both those probably only 1 day a week of 'real' training but then there is stuff like sock games randomly through the week. Obedience never more than 10 minutes at a time and only maybe twice a week, but the odd stay or drop gets thrown any time any day. Having said all that my two are competing now, whereas probably the first two years we did much more consistent 15-30mins a day stuff. Right now Im training heaps to get myself fit enough to train the dog for endurance

Problem i see at club level, is by the time you reach the trial level classess with distance stays the number of class members has dropped off dramatically so often the dogs are proofed with a small number and its the same dogs every week. Like i said earlier with my girl the other week finding herself alongside a tiny (chi x australian terrier at a guess) in a woolly jumper was something she had never come across since a puppy. Partly becuase the dogs in her social group tend to be medium/large and partly becuase very few of the tiny dogs seem to go through the class levels, even now i am struggling to find one i can train her alongside.

I think a number of the poorer ones are not necessarily less trained but handler nerves among new competitors feeding back to the dogs who are already being asked to work on a strange ground among strange dogs get the better. I know my first trial was walking much slower than normal causing the dog to lose interest. I have very consciously to make sure i go at my normal speed, and even now i am aware that i often start too slow, and realise the dog has lagged on first turn, so speed up to get her back.

I hate stays... afraid to say last trial i went to it was my girl doing the interfering....but that was a first. I would never describe her as reliable on stays she is prone to take the judge looking at his watch in the sit, as her cue to drop, but never has she moved off her spot, but on this occassion she did, and the agonising part was you could see for a full minute before she was going to, she was just intrigued by the tiny dog in a jumper next to her and she had to investigate. What caused it was probably several factors, second trial of the day and i know she is more a one trial a day dog, in the earlier trial there was a major disturbance in the drop stay so perhaps she was unsettled by that, but most of all she has probably not encountered any really tiny dogs since she was in puppy class a few years ago. So overall my fault not proofing her enough. This weekend we skipped the trial as i simply did not feel able to trust her again, so she will now get a few months reproofing before next going in the ring. In this case the judge reran the other dog and it passed Certainly in the past i have been on the recieving end and watched my weim stood over and growled at by another large breed in both the sit and drop stays. He held his sit, but after a while in the drop he sat up, which wasnt bad for a dog with major fear issues, i was proud of him that day, but have never put him in the ring again (10 months ago) as i am unsure of what damage that has done. Previously he had never broken a stay, in fact i once put him on a stay instead of wait for a recall, and he was not going to move however much i called him Owner of the dog that threatened him, laughingly told me its a good thing he didnt react as the last dog that did got its butt kicked...i can say neither of my dogs will be in a ring with that one again even if they were on a score to get their title, or any prize. Not sure the idea of running passing dogs seperate would work, my girl once got first place in a trial, despite being eigth going into the stays.

Not been going to any club as we have been trialling most weekends since april, but will start weekend training again with it being quiet until march. Will also do Hastings cos of their weeknight training. Course will make deciding who i enter under for interclub comps a little tricky.

So many new people going to westernport....and i havent been in ages, but hopefully in next couple of weeks with trial season being more or less at an end we will return...hey corinne fancy some collie grooming if you come down

Great for Darcy, and Pickles looking a stayer :D Agree with SAS its great to see the fosters taking part, i think it benefits the handlers as well, I know from my own fosters it great experience to handle a range of dogs and i always try to have my fosters out training with my own dogs (though we have yet to try flyball). Though the downside is i sometimes look and think I'm sending the better dog off to a new home

I would agree with the less formal training early on. My collie was excellent at doing the formal novice routine by 6 months but became so bored, now it became a struggle to motivate her for that kind of work. Having set all formal type work aside for the past year, and only been herding and tracking regulalry (not saying these arent discipline but they give the dog more freedom to think for itself), with just trick training or very short obedience work (literallly just a heel sit and drop while out), i do belive both dogs are now much more eager to spend their time with me and look for work now. While i like most endeavoured to do weekly dog school from 12 weeks, i belive other than socialisation it was detrimental to doing competition. think the next pup will spend the first 12 months will learn the basics of sit drop and stay but largely will have fun and build a bond with me, while i also learn that individual dog, its body language and its motivations more fully, before putting any tightness on its work.

For the first dog (collie rough) i wanted a pet, but having been around collies all my life in england, i wanted the english style of collie, and also wanted to avoid the nervy temprements that were becoming too common. After almost giving up on finding those two elements together, i found a pup, though she was neither male or blue which had been my preferred choice. She has the looks i wanted and a very large dose of independence. It was only after she arrived i realised i lived so close to KCC and all its dogsports, so we try to fit her to that. What i have learned over the past year though is that her prey drive is high, and we are using that now instead of food bribery. She is scared of nothing and very dominant, but understanding that more and learning to hold her motivation rather than losing it and her then deciding she isnt going to do something. If i had her again as a pup i suspect she would have been trained very differently and been much better for it. second dog the weim was chosen for showing and obedience, but fate thought otherwise and with some early eye and digestive problems he was desexed. A couple of incidents at young age with aggressive dogs have added to an already soft and nervy dog. We have now discovered he is an excellent tracking dog (somewhat wasted on a novice handler like me), and when he is going out to track all signs of his nervousness dissappear, he is totally focussed. That has given hope that with the right training combined with a little 3year old maturity we will overcome his nerves in other fields and his obedience plans are being dusted off. Agility wise he can do it, but i am not sure i will go there, i find i am heart in mouth all the time in case he does himself some serious damage with his overenthusiasm. But both dogs are excellent pets so yep they are what i wanted and while we may not excell in any field we have a lot of fun and a little success. Togther the two have definitely helped me learn the various sports. Would i consider another breed, the answer is yes, while i will always have a collie rough, i would love to have a dog physically suited to agility and a stronger herding instinct, and i think the aussie and coolie are high on the list of possibles. Aside from the aussie though, i like the brittany for agility and tracking, and have even been softening to another weim. the only thing definite is that it will be fun choosing . In the meantime my OH wants another staffy and Im sure i can make plenty of use of a staffy too

...and skye is no lady

Poor fluffy butt banjo has passed his HIC and is improving all the time, and still his mum laughs at him As for my queen of fluffy butts she has gained a pass at PT, and is getting practice in more or less every week when tracking doesnt intervene....her biggest probelm remains that the sight of sheep makes her toilet even when she doesnt need to, not real helpful in trials

Mine is tracking....mainly as the dogs love it, probably as it gives them the most freedom from me. But to see my weim who is normally a bit hyper and on edge to sounds and dogs around him, just block everything out and look at his most relaxed when tracking is something else. And the collie, well she probably prefers the sheep but she certainly loves all the sticky beaking tracking allows her to do. Aside from that i find it the freindliest of all the sports probably because you are never competing against each other. Downside of course are the early cold wet, mornings, but somehow you overlook those.

Congratulations ;)

Shame tollers as you are probably too late...but Hastings Obed club have a workshop happening this weekend. There are plenty of tracking people in your are though

I had the collie rough who was trialling...and yep know hat you mean about how good they are in training and then they make it look like they have never been trained when they get to the trial Im kind of getting used to it though as she has her'i have never heard that word before' days in tracking, obedience as well Love the dingo btw

Thansk for the PM with details. Never seem to hear about these until late Skye needs a second pass at PT and ther are not many trials Reading this thread have realised i saw Coopers two passes last weekend, and Mintys pass a couple of weeks earlier.

I am just hoping that with the intro of CCD the judges remain as freindly and helpful as i have found them at encouragement trials. Its been great as a new trialler to have had help and advice to help allay the initial fears, hopefully the fact its now a titled class wont make it too ominous. On the positive side it means my boy can do ccd now instead of stepping into Novice having passed encouragement when he is still a big goofy baby

Well as Hedds didnt mention it....must have forgot.... BANJIE WON HIS CLASS TOO

Guess you can get away with that as we love your pics .....but Hedds Im not sure can use the same excuse (ducks for cover) Im quite keen on yb's idea that Hedds takes Skye, but not just for stays, give some nice action shots of skye twisting and rolling on the end of the lead when shes asked to sit. Not sure which team would lose points for the performance though :p

Mmmm...will have to check with club on the rules for this comp, Beck is only in ther white encouragemnt level class, but has passed encouragement externally. So for a club comp is he graded according to his club grade or Novice which is what he would have to enter under if in a true VCA comp.

or stick both in encouragement and get hedds to take one for stays sorry just the thought of Skye doing a damn thing anyone asks her..the look on her face would be priceless Will they let Beck do encouragement as he passed in a trial?