Cleo's Corgwyn

when I teach roll-over, I make sure that the dog is engaging it's muscles, by luring the head tucked up against the shoulder.

My old girl won the roll-over relay at Dr Ian Dunbar's Dog Games workshop by going nine in a row while most dogs were still going for their second roll! People laugh and say it's because they corgis are so close to the ground, but they're also an athletic and muscular dog.

We have a couple of very nice Lagotti at our dog club, and they certainly love to train. I also meet the breeder of Credere Lagotti at a workshop, and was impressed with her dogs.

I also know some lovely miniature Poodles. They're a nice size, and often have nice working temperaments.

Both breeds can have temperament issues, but providing you choose a breeder carefully, and feel confident that they understand your needs, your should get a great dog.

Wow, Rubystar, great job with your own dog, and the part timer! That's an impressive haul for a small dog :)

I'm sure I'll manage, it just like anything new, I like to be informed! If she show signs of coming into season soon, then her breeder will keep her for a few more weeks, otherwise we're going to meet her this weekend.

When the aim is for her to be company for my boy, I'd like them to be able to keep each other company and get to know each other, before I have to spend several weeks keeping them separate!

Some lovely news and brags; great work ChequeredBlackDog, Lisa CC and Sayreovi!

Thanks everyone, lots of good advice there for me to digest. Yes, Mim, Zim was 18 months old at the start of this week.

He's never been used at stud, and probably won't ever be. He only has maybe 6 or 7 best of Breeds to finish his title and then he'll probably be desexed. But of course, Murphy's Law dictates that she'll probably come into season just before his last show!

He certainly *thought* that he might know what to do when his playmate, my friend's Belgian Malinois came into season a few months ago. I guess it will be wire crates and keeping them separated for several weeks when she comes into season. I might temporarily fence off the side of the house as a toileting area for her as well.

I'll look into getting her some britches as well, as our dogs are inside dogs.

Thanks again, everyone!

I recently lost my older girl, who had been desexed since she was young, leaving my 18 month old boy alone and missing the company. I've now been offered an older puppy bitch, who sounds ideal, but I've never had to manage entire dogs before, and I'm interested in how others manage. My boy is nearly finished his show title, so probably only needs to remain entire for a few more months, but how can I best manage it if the girl comes into season before then? I don't have a problem with crating, and have solid plastic and wire crates here, but I don't have dog runs, or anything, just a suburban yard.

Is it worth looking into Suprelorin, or similar for my boy, and is that even allowed in the show ring?

Advice and personal experience welcome.

Thanks Clover, we're missing her greatly still, but Zim needs to keep busy as well.

Congrats right back at you; it's nice to be a part of other peoples success, as well as your own.

Very proud of my little boy today. After some atrocious prep (we lost my other Cardigan 3 weeks ago and I've been away with work all week), he earnt his first two Rally passes in his first trials!

He's not quite 18 months old, and apart from some teenage boy distracted behaviour, I saw some flashes of really nice work. He's such a fun dog to work with :)

Well, my 16 month old Cardigan teenager actually managed to hold his attention together for a minute and twenty seconds twice today, to pull off two passes in Heelwork to Music Starters. We performed to Can't Fight the Moonlight. Although he bounced around like the overexcited teenager he is at times, he was pretty focused on me, and nice and drivey the whole time, so I can keep working on the control. He's such a fun pup!

my dog club starts puppies as soon as their vaccinations have cleared too. It's good for them to learn to work and focus with other dogs around, and we do plenty of socialisation and play to break the class up. We break our beginners classes up by age and size.

Is anyone else entered in the Sydney comp next weekend? I'm taking my young Cardi boy up for his first comp, HTM Starters. Hopefully he'll work through distractions.

I've done a few over the last couple of years;

Kamal Fernandez (UK trainer) is brilliant at reading dog body language and tweaking people's handling to better work with their dogs.

Ian Dunbar's K9 Games was great fun, and I got some great training games to use in my own classes, plus my dogs won quite a few games!

Denise Fenzi's workshop last year was brilliant. Positively Powered Up did a great job running them (little touches, like giving everyone their own ceramic coffee mug, great morning teas and decorated cookies and cake pops as gifts) and Denise's heeling games are just wonderful. Her take on inspiring your dogs to want to work with you had me in a constant state of mind blown excitement, and she's a really good presenter too. I've since done some of her online training courses, via the Fenzi Academy, and I highly recommend them as well.

Unfortunately, it's pretty rare for obedience and rally to use ozentries. I have a check book primarily for entries!

You can get a check from the post office for a fee. Some of our local trials have started using direct deposit, which makes life easier too- you could possibly contact the trial secretary and ask?

Yep, as Diva said, all three clubs in town are pretty good (I've been a member at all three at various points, although I mostly train at Belconnen these days). I also know a few of the private trainers, who have good group classes, depending on location.

I am planning to start in CCD with my Belgian Shepherd - Shiloh - in April, but I'm just not sure how you decide if you are ready for it and how long before the trial do you say Yes I feel confident or No we will just wait?

I feel that the bond I had with Shiloh has diminished over this Christmas period and am hoping that once my christmas roster is over that we can focus and be ready.

My main question is How do you Know you are ready? Do you aim that if you could compete at CD level that you are right for CCD Level or do you use some other marker?

I hope this makes sense. I am just changing for the conformation show side of things to the obedience agility side. :)

Thanks

One of the judges I train with once told me that given you can lose up to 20% of your score, and still pass, you should aim for pretty close to 100%, under distraction, in training, then you can still afford to lose a few points under the stress of trialling, and pass.

Have you tried Rally O? I'm planning to start trialling my young dog in Rally O, that way I can still praise him, and gee him up in competition, before we have to go all formal in CCD. He'll probably have passes in both Rally Novice and Heelwork to Music, before he starts CCD.

I'm loving everyone's Christmas photos! I love the variation between dogs who look like their costumes have been nailed on, and those that are so pleased with themselves.

Here's my contribution; two smiling Corgwyn in their Christmas collars.

OK, interesting exercise to sort through, for each of the different sports, and what is achievable

Shandy:

DWD

Heelwork to Music Novice(1 pass down, 2 to go)Both Novice titles done and dusted. Need more work on Intermediate after she had a couple of months off with a broken toe

DWD Freestyle Novice (only one pass to go)

Work up Intermediate routines and start competing that, with passes in at least one

Rally

Rally E (one pass down)RE done, and two RAE passes. Not bad considering her issues. Plan to finish RAE when Zim starts

Have a go at some RAE two passes down, eight to go

Obedience

Slowly work on getting on getting her confidence back with the dumb bell (after her jaw issues)

Maintain the rest of her open work

Some CDX passes, if the above comes together. No passes, but she's enthusiastic again, and retrieving nicely, so we'll give it a go this year.

Start on some scent discrimination for amusement

Zimri (currently 14 weeks!)

Move through Obedience levels at club, with an aim to entering Rally at least before the end of the year

Plenty of trick and rear end awareness, with the aim of at least a Starters DWD Freestyle routine before the end of the year.Moved through the obedience levels, and he's such a lovely enthusiastic worker. Will enter rally soon, and start Obedience as soon as I think he's ready for CD as well.

I have a couple I like to use;

Restrained recall

Get someone else to hold your dog, walk off as per normal and call, then start jumping around, making noise, and playing with toys, until the dog start pulling to get to you, then your helper can let go. Big party when they get to you- this is designed to make you really fun, and improve the speed and rive in their recall.

Take off on recall

Leave dog in stay and walk off normally as per formal recall. When dog is halfway to you, take off running away from them. Big rewards when they catch you. If you want to improve your dogs front position, you can take off, and sit in a chair behind you, and reward them between your feet.

Between Legs recall

Another one to try if you're struggling to get nice close fronts, is rewarding your dog by tossing their treat or toy between your legs, so they have to go through to get in. This can help to stop your legs seeming like a solid barrier, and encourage your dog to get nice and close. Be prepared for some bruised shins if you don't use this one carefully!

I hope these are the sort of thing you were looking for?

Hmm,quite a few for my two this year.

Shandy (CH Milnholm Carnival Queen DWDFN HTMN RE CD)

Now that her jaw seems to be properly heeled, we're going to give Open a whirl, and I'd like to finish that title (CDX) and get her RAE finished this year too. I'm also aiming to finish at least one of her DWD Intermediate titles this year.

Zimri (Llandwyn Crescent Moon (AI))

At 14 months, he's ready to start competing. We're aiming to finish his conformation championship this year, and get it out of the way- almost halfway there. We'll probably start with Rally soon, and I think his RA is quite realistic this year, providing we get to enough trials. I'd like his CCD title, and at least a start on his CD. We should be able to get both his DWD starters titles as well. If we can squeeze it in, and if he keeps progressing the way he is, we may try for some agility in there, so let's tack a JD on the wishlist as well.

I'd also love to try some herding with him :D

Wow, I think finding the time for all these competitions may be the hard part!

I train Cardigan Corgis, which while not little, are definitely short! I got a lot of Denise's training (as recommended by Disco Dobe. I did a workshop with her when she was in Australia this year, and I've also done some of her online courses, which are great.

If you're luring, just start slowly, as Pie said, and reward heavily for stationary position (sitting in heel) and then just for a single step at a time. I also use play a lot for heeling with my pup; ie I give him little shoulder pushes, take off in funny directions and reward heavily when he finds heel position again. I'm really happy with the way his heeling is coming along, as he is really happy and focused when we do it, as he thinks it is all a big game. I retrained my older girl using toys and food games, and she went from being a lagger to quite an enthusiastic heeler, although she'll never be as precise as my pup is.

If you're finding it hard to bend, things like licky sticks (like a gravy in a roll on tube) or soft food on the end of a wooden spoon can be quite handy. I also teach food chasing games ( ie do the right thing, and I'll throw the food for you to chase, which actually increases the reward value for most dogs). Spotted Devil has written up a good explanation of this in the training thread, or you can google 'Two Food game'.

What about this?

http://dogpack.com.au/

I've met the girl who owns the company at a few events and she's so nice.

I bought one of these when Zim was a pup, and it's very handy for hands free leashing and quite adjustable.

Any signs of reluctance to eat or chew? My girl lost a lot of muscle tone around her head and face with Masticular Muscle Myositis, and lost weight generally because she didn't want to chew.

A good vet check up will hopefully find a simple solution.

Yeah, I'm not sure how spending a few minutes or an hour with a litter could make you better qualified to know the puppies than a breeder who has spends hundreds of hours raising them?

I made a number of visits to the litter as they grew, and my breeder still would have made the right choice for me, if I had left the choice to her.

Roova, as I said earlier, I based my testing on the FOCUSed puppy tests. I knew the lines behind this litter and pretty much any puppy would have been suitable, as they were all confident, happy, drivey pups. The pup I chose was just a step beyond that. He would probably be a bit of a nuisance in a pet home who wouldn't put the time into training and working that I do, as he's crazy smart and confident. When I did the visual startle test, he raced over, grabbed the tag on the umbrella I had put up, and started trying to drag it off to play! Most of the pups were suitable for performance, but I chose the feral monkey boy :) At 13 months, he's showing plenty of potential in the four different dog sports we're training for, and will start competing very soon. But his breeder knew that before I tested him, the testing just helped to confirm that he was the best choice for me.

My dogs are TV watchers, so I played youtube videos that she barked at (mostly other dogs making noise) and marked and rewarded for her barking back. She picked this up pretty quickly. I also use the fingers flashing out of a fist signal, as well as 'Speak' as a cue.