whatevah

I watched a DVD I think by Patricia McConnell living in a multi dog household, and she says the dogs name then tells it what to do, so if you have spot, bot and cot together, all dogs in a sit, then you say "Spot" sit, drop or whatever. The other dogs know that he is being worked.

What is a BT?

What colour Aussie are looking at getting? When I train Moses, I just say to Josh "Go", and Josh walks away. Then I continue on training. If I am training Josh, I occasionally throw a treat to Moses, for being quiet. Will be getting a puppy soon in late November. Her picture is on the border collie thread in the photo section.

You can train more than one trick at once, if you spend too much time perfecting one trick the dog may get bored with it.

Learnt quite a lot during the week. A few things I liked was the way of teaching a puppy a kick back stand from in front, also how to get quick spins. She also showed me how to get faster pick ups using the clicker. She teaches puppys a lot of stuff from a young age especially to spin as it makes the dog more flexible when its older. Also liked the "Cantalever" drop from in front. In agility she worked with a dog that was barking using a clicker and got excellent results. Demonstrated with Moses on how to teach send to the box using a target. Met Tassie.

I know of one other sheltie that will be there and does freestyle, it is Robbie. Richard is putting out an obedience DVD at the end of the year. Did you like the work he showed with his puppy? It was great.

Who here is going to see Mary Ray, just so I know who to look out for. I am driving up on Saturday. Those who saw Richard in Sydney what did you think?

I am off to the Mary Ray seminar at the Camp Tailwaggers next week. I am doing the camping option without meals, there is even a doggy beach nearby, I was going to bring my surf board and go for a surf before the morning seminar. I prefer camping because I have my own room and it is cheaper, I like being under the stars, and I don't have to worry about other peoples dogs barking all night long keeping me awake.

Check out my web page, I have an article on how to teach your dog to swim, practice makes perfect. Both of my dogs were scared of puddles when I first got them. My mum dog a Cavalier is a natural he just followed Moses in, and when my mum walks him he heads to the nearest water and waits for her to throw something in for him to retrieve. http://www.dogtrick.741.com/josh_dive_into_water.htm I have photos and a video and instructions. http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?showtopic=9220 I also find that dogs new to swimming panic a bit and do upright swimming. I try and get my dogs used to water as soon as I get whilst still puppys. In the USA dock jumping is a dog sport, the dog runs to the end of the pier and jumps off, Josh is a natural at this, I am thinking of buying a dock jumping instructional video, shows methods of getting dog to do running jumps. I always check water depth first.

I have a licky flatcoated retriever, part of their hard wiring. A couple of things I do is too put my hands inside my sleeves, though sometimes he will lick my sleeves. I also avoid eye contact and will sometimes fold my arms and look the other way. Sometimes I hold him back and his tongue really stretches out. I also give him a toy because if he has a toy in his mouth then he cannot lick. I tell people not to pat him or make friends with him, or else he will seek that person down for licky licks. If people tell him off he just licks more. So when meeting new people I tell them not to pat him, if they ignore well they get licked, and I say "I told you so". He used to lick other dogs mouths out as well, but that has stopped except for one Newfoundland. He also used to lick our sheep as well. He will also go inbetween peoples legs and do a little dance, but then he is not licking. He is 5 years old!!!!!!!!!! At the end of the day I just put up with it, at least he is not aggressive, and he has an excellent recall. So if I see potential people in sight that could be licked I quickly call him before he has the chance. When he is crated in flyball he licks the crate. We were at 2tollers place and he licked her glass door. LOL

Moses use to pace around at night, so I did a lot of clicker training and free shaping as it gave him a great mental work out and would tire him out. What I have found though at seminars he will try and work me, offering things. What I found seems to work in that situation is to get him to do "dead dog" stay because in his mind he is working. Also to reduce eye contact with him. I have also had him try to work me before going into an obedience comp. Crates are great too.

I only just started trialling in obedience this year. My aim was just for a pass and in 6 trials I got 6 passes and two titles. In Novice I could have done position change and scored more points than the retrieve, but my dog likes the retreive better and keeps him motivated in the ring. What was interesting was that even though we never got a super high score I always had people coming up to me and saying they loved how my dog worked in the ring. They liked his enthusiam. The most important thing to me in the ring is that my dog is happy and working with a wagging tail. But what I found was at obedience clubs they would put me in a lower class just because I didn't have a title on my dog even though he could do or the exercises. Since my dog has two titles now, I am treated differently which is just rubbish. At a certain club my dog could do exercises in open!!! But they put us in the second lowest level, where he was doing recalls on a lead!!!!!!!!!! Halfway through I told that I was bored and the dog was bored, then after much discussions and phone calls through the week they let me into a higher class and only because I had passed an instructor course at a different club. They said that they wanted me to learn their "new method" which my other club had been using for 30 years!!!!!!!!!!!! Another guy was allowed to go straight into a higher class only because he had titled a dog. Just because you don't have a title on your dog doesn't mean he isn't as good or that you don't know what your on about. There are things that I have taught my dogs that they would have no idea about. One of my dogs can do a lot of service dog tasks, and my other dog is trained to do gundog retrieving.

Second day was even better!!!!! When he starts working the dogs he will split you into two groups, best to be in the first group, as they work longer. Its the first few who get out on the floor first, will post some photos soon. Really fantastic and the best seminar I have ever been to, I am even tempted to go to Sydney and do it again!!!!!!!!! LOL He even talks a bit about obedience and shows early training with his pup POGO. Also talks a bit about drive training.

I did the Richard Curtis seminar yesterday and doing day 2 today, it was fantastic, he has you working the dogs heaps. You are split into two groups, one group on the floor at a time, so you get to watch other people as well. Bring heaps of food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Rusky. With my dogs have never had a major problem with stays. Firstly if I am working on time, I will keep the same distance, if I am working on distance I will keep to the same time. Never increase both at the same time. I build up the stays in small increments. If my dog fails a stay, it is my fault because I made it too hard for him. So I will then go back a step, either in time or distance. I always finish on a good stay. I never want my dog to fail more than two stays in a row because then it becomes a habit. I never yell or grumble at him because I don't want him to become nervous about stays. At the moment I am working up to a 3 minute out of sight sit stay. He can do a 5 minute out of sight down stay very easily. So I am working up the time on the sit stay, then will work on out of sight. He can do 1 minute out of sight sit stay. We are up to 1min 30 seconds in sight sit stay. I need to work up to 3 minutes out of sight for open. So I am going to keep on working on the in sight till I get up to 3 mins 30, then do out of sight working up from 1min 30. He has a tendency to do puppy sits even if left in a straight sit, so it is physically hard for him. Hope this all makes sense.

When I take puppy's for puppy school it is a common problem that they don't want to stand, often they have been so reinforced for sitting thats what they want to do, I just use a food lure, and feed them when they stand, and give multiple treats, also teaching a hand target is useful too. You can also teach a kickback stand. Have the dog in a sit and move toward them and when they move their bum up in the air click and treat.

I used to do doggy dancing exercises at obedience trials in the ring after they say "exercise finished". You will see a bit on youtube, in the CCD one, the guy who filmed it edited it out of my novice one. I do high 10's, jump over legs and reversing. I am doing the camping option with no meals so should lose some weight. LOL look out for the toller.

I use both, when I taught weaving, I used a yes word and then threw the toy. I usually use "yes" for toy and the clicker for food, or if I don't have a clicker I use the "yes" word. But you can use either. Go to http://www.k9events.com for info on clicker, also check out my web page.

the Nova Scotia Duck tolling retriever is on there. I have a lot of people tell me that Moses is a very intelligent dog, and that I would be lucky to get another dog as smart as him. My next dog will be a border collie, people say I will be disappointed. But I don't know is he intelligent because he was born that way or was it the early work and training that I put into him????? He is not smart at some of the simple tricks such as head down, and bow took us ages, but better at some more complicated ones which use retrieving like coits, and retrieving trolleys, things out of peoples pockets, opening and closing doors/drawers etc.

Yep doing the Mary Ray one as well. With a young dog you can still do freestyle, there is lots to learn, like heeling, spins, walking backwards, marching, waits, etc that a young dog can do.

I am doing both.

Sounds great I train like that too. I don't add the sit in front with the retrieve article for ages, and play a lot of two toys game, I want to keep it fun for the dog. You are right about the obedience clubs.

I did only obedience with Josh and he got bored, so when I got Moses just taught him everything I could think of, to teach him to think for himself and helping him to learn quicker.

2 flat collars bought from Supermarket, 1 x double lead, 2 x single leads, numerous toys. My favourite is my whistle for calling the dog, and my treat bag container.

thanx for your reply's exactly what I was after. With Josh he was mainly food/ lure type trained, he wanted to be shown what to do. He also didn't have much tug drive as I tried to teach it to him when he was over 12 months old. With Moses I introduced clicker at 8 weeks, I got more of a thinking dog. I also introduced tug much earlier and got a dog that likes to tug much more, and I played the two toys game with him and got a retrieving maniac. I think you can alter drive levels with early life ground work. But they are different breeds. Next dog I am going to do much more tug training earlier, and maybe have a stronger tug drive than retrieve. At the moment the retrieve is stronger than tug. So I am always throwing toys instead of just standing there and playing tug, I still want retrieve drive though, but would prefer stronger tug.