whatevah

Those little sheep were quite amazing. One jumped over the other one side ways. They would make great agility sheep. LOL ) Interesting to see the different dogs styles. Tia and Marty even though both border collies worked totally different. Was funny seeing Marty crawling out under the sheep in the paddock. Was wondering where he disappeared to. At one stage in the open paddock was stuck in the middle of all the sheep. Watched my video of it yesterday, saw that Tia had heaps of distance in the open paddock.

Can it be dangerous for the dog if a long line is left attached? What if the sheep and dog got caught up in it?

I went to this yesterday. It was really great and learnt heaps. Was geared at absolute beginners like me. One little tip, when herding keep your legs closed or this can happen. Some of those sheep have horns. Lucky I am not a bloke. LOL ) Tia did really well in the open paddock.

Moses used to do handstands as was taught to do nose touch. I am working on Tia doing drops. Borrowed Action Dogs Hoop thingi and made one up. Even got the guy at Bunnings to cut up the PVC for me (so it would fit better in my car, LOL ) Have got her running to a target and dropping onto it. Have put the target under the hoop. Only problem in her enthusiasm the hoop falls apart. Probably will have to work on getting her to do a straighter drop. As soon as she drops I click and throw the food forward and away from me. Sometimes I will play tug. Have put a video of 4 on the floor contacts under the video section which is under the photo section.

=This is 4 on the floor, I want to do this with Tia.

I liked the 40 dog tricks, Moses can do most of those, I might teach him the food on the ground trick and the scratch trick.

I am off to agility training tonight at Doveton. It is a foundation class. We did tunnel last week and also running under hoops that were on the ground, but not at the end of the contact. We also did restrained recalls with the handler running away not looking at the dog.

They're great I love the distance!!!!

Actually it is a breed thing. I challenge you to show me a flatcoat that does not lick??

With Moses we did nose touch, but didn't really like it as he would do handstands at the end of contacts. Now since he knows how to do handstands, often when chasing a ball, he will do a dead stop with a handstand. I found 2on 2off to be a very precise move and to get it from all different angles to be quite hard. With Tia I am thinking of doing the drop at the end of the obstacle, because drop is a natural behaviour for her (she offers it all the time) and less precise. Have taught her to drop on a target. At Action Dogs they teach the dog to run under a hoop at the end of the contact, they also have stride adjusters on the equipment.

Josh is the only flatcoat in Australia doing flyball. He is not the fastest dog but has a great time, check out his tail. I call him "Goofy" as he has such a hilarious run. The flatcoat club of Victoria has interstate members and they are great to talk to. I would give them a call.

I went to dog club today and spoke to the lady that has 2 flatcoats, and they used to both lick other dogs, and she just let them be, and they got it out of their system and don't do it much now. Josh also licks the glass. He licks my clothes too. At 2tollers place he licked her glass door and 2tollers son now wants a flatcoat, said Josh was a cool dog. So funny. Also if your dog likes to retrieve, they can't lick if they have something in their mouth. Josh will often carry a toy in his mouth when he is excited and sees me. I find that putting something in Josh's mouth such as a toy does calm down his happiness. He is around 5. People think he is 12 months old. LOL They are different to goldens have a little bit more pep than compared to a golden at the same age. This is a generalisation and you always have exceptions.

Piper your video was hilarious, I love the voice overs. Has anybody got a video of a herding instinct test?

I recorded Tia learning to retrieve and the final one. Part 1 Part 2 Congrats, now you will have to train the pug to put a hoop on a stick. That is a challenge. Leopuppy from this board can do it to, under tricks in video section. Retrieving is a great start to lots of tricks such as the sock trick, retrieve a wagon, retrieve another dog etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORZVcGQ_WQ

I would have loved to go to this seminar, especially since she has one of the best breeds of dogs in my opinion. LOL ) I think one of her dogs comes from similar lines to Moses, Kirchoff. But is too far too go for a weekend for me. Wish Sue would come to Melbourne.

I teach all of my dogs to come to a whistle. If I see Josh heading for a non doggy person who I think does not like Josh's lickiness, I just quickly blow my whistle and he literally turns on a dime and comes to me. I just let Josh sort it out himself with other dogs. Maybe that way he got it out of his system. My main concern with my dogs is that they aren't aggressive, anything else is a bonus. Could you do a video of your dogs licky licks might be funny. I may video Josh lick lick licking, because I have never seen a dog more licky than him not even at the flatcoat fun day.

I would be interested as well. I have broad jump, flyball jumps, (which can be used for directed jumping and retrieve over jump), puppy tunnel and tyre. Knox is great for me, I live near Belgrave.

My Josh is a flatcoat and a typical licker. He is 5. When younger he did all the licky things with other dogs. I just let him be and the let the other dogs sort it out. He doesn't do i, as much now. But if he senses another dog is nervous such as a puppy etc he will go up and lick the dogs face and it does seem to calm the other dog down. If you tell Josh off for licking it will make it worse, he will lick even more. When we had a sheep he used to go up to the sheep and give licky licks. He loves licking people. At our club we have 3 flatcoats and when they meet it is like a lickathon. Hilarious. Are you a member of the flatcoated retriever club? Give them a call. They are very helpful.

No big deal about the dog closing a door using a clicker have taught two of my dogs to do that. Tia doing it with her paws Moses using his nose to close a door

Who's going? We will be there.

I used clicker to teach Moses the weaves using the Susan Garret Method. Another thing I do is to teach my dogs to run around a pole, and when they get around the pole they get rewarded with the tug. I have found that the dog is learning that if it gets it right it gets rewarded. The dog learns to work for the tug. Once the dog is doing this well, I then start saying "sit" then I will tug, I then say "drop" as soon as the dog drops I play tug. I first started doing the sit then drop before tug but the dog wasn't really switching on, but did figure it out after the run around the pole game.

The quoits are coming along nicely you just need to add distance and start moving yourself away. Dogs find this bit a little bit hard as they think they have to bring the quoit to you. I like his style how he puts them on. Different how Moses does it. Leo's way looks a lot easier, Moses seem to do it back to front. I click the moment the quoit is on the pole.

I like the appearance of the dog.

Check out this border herding http://www.lockeyebc.com/peck.html I love the look of this border.

They have a section for complete beginners and experienced triallers. You will find heaps of people at your level. Me and Tia are definately newbies too.