Ptolomy

While I am away Zoe will introduce her to water and do some work with her and see if it is worth persisting - if it is then Zoe will definitely be training her. Just need to find somebody to do agility with her and I will have it all sorted Oh and if anybody wants to show her.......

Cider is going to stay with Aunty Zoe for a while so she will be there if she is a good girl between now and then I introduced her to her first wing tonight Cider, not Zoe, yep I wore gloves as I have a thing about touching dead things

Ross is a Homeopath - he did a hair analysis on Beans and I was so impressed with the results that I went to see him!

I do something similar with my foot work except I have my feet doing the exact opposite to the diagram! For a right turn I point my right foot on a 90 degree angle to the right and then swing my left foot around and the same for the left turn, point left 90 degrees with the left foot and then swing the right around. So I don't actually make a T but I still give a signal as to which way we are going for the dog. However I think the T is better for the right turn as it's probably a bit clearer than what I do. But there is no way I'm changing my footwork now, I've been doing it this way for 10 years I don't think I'm going to be able to change any time soon!!! I have enough trouble changing hand signals after all these years! I was doing this too Seita for right turns - but the more "up" Scoota gets the more he goes via the Cape of Good Hope, and his bum end swings REALLY wide - so have now adapted and changed to the T

Yeah I'm interested in knowing what a T turn is aswell ? can anyone explain more ???..................... Where you are making a right turn - so you take a step with your right foot and your left foot makes the top of the T as you turn right...... The same for left turns so step with your left foot and as you step with your right foot you place it so it forms the top of the T as you turn. yeah I know what I want to say - just can't put it in words - sorry......

Ross Martin in Como

Hey goodonya Luke - so dare we ask when's the next trial???? and are you still going to do obedience with Barkly Blue?

Hmm - if you have a spare $1.50 I would put it on Scoota for the Sydney Royal - his form reads 0 0 0 0 and you are sure to get odds of 100 to 1

Oooh! When is Cider's first show? Wonder if it is a day I can come and be cheer squad 24th April

Thinking of pleading with her into tacking Cider before her first show - but not sure how far friendships can stretch :D

TSD - what a great debut - well done So when are the spotted dog Nationals, where are they and what are you entering?

LOL = celebrating we were. Rubystar is the best person to have in the car - her bag held an endless supply of Goodies or jackpots for me Big congratulations to Bedazzled who took out UD at both trials today - well done mate

Have you tried bringing glove 1 and 2 a bit closer? An exercise you can play with place 1 glove out 3-4m in front of you - give direction to this glove with your left hand and with your right hand drop/throw a glove out to your right 1-2m away. The natural reaction is for the dog to want to take notice of this new glove that you have throw to your right - but it should be close enough for you to step in if she opts to go for this glove. Another exercise is to bring all the gloves in close and try facing in a totally different direction so facing glove # 2 and send her for glove 1 or facing glove 1 and send her to glove 3. Its playing these sort of games that the dogs suddenly reaslies that your hand giving direction actually means something.

RUBYSTAR WHERE ARE YOU........... Rubystar has 2 HUGE brags and has videos to go with them - and nope its not that Ruby survived a two hour trip in the back of the Tonka Truck with my red kids ;) HURRY UP WILL YOU!

It was really noticeable last year when I trialled in Victoria and watched the Top Dog run off that a couple of handlers appeared to have no connection with their dog whatsoever and it was because they stared straight ahead not even acknowledging that their dog existed.

Yes i sent Lexi's there. I had hers scored by the AVA and then I sent them to Dr Wyburn in WA and then to the OFA. Interesting that the AVA scored the hips the highest - Dr Wyburn and the OFA were comparable. If you aren't comfortable talking about it publicly can you PM me but was sending them to OFA really expensive/slow? I like the idea of OFA being a central record where puppy buyers and people researching pedigrees can look up my dogs if they wanted to and find all thier health tests/hip scores in one place publicly available. It was really good for me because Lincoln's from US imports so I was able to verify the health results in his pedigree going back several generations. From memory it took 3 weeks from sending the X-rays to the US before the results were posted on the website - this was much quicker than posting the x-rays over east and waiting for the AVA scores to come back. Was it expensive - no it wasn't - postage was expensive - having to send a big x-ray package - but having the x-rays read wasn't. Would I do it again - definitely!

Yes i sent Lexi's there. I had hers scored by the AVA and then I sent them to Dr Wyburn in WA and then to the OFA. Interesting that the AVA scored the hips the highest - Dr Wyburn and the OFA were comparable.

As far as I know there is no website that lists games you can play with your dog to help with training. Best bet is to ask questions and if nobody responds ....then ask again! Rubystar has recommended the Shirley Chong method for retrieving - many people use it and it works well

Huski - Daisy is doing really well and yep she does know the game - and it certainly didn't take long to teach her Now I am going to pick on you! At no stage did you reward Daisy for siting and waiting while you put the article out and what did you get - her getting up before you sent her - slap on the wrist - don't forget the basics. Have another look at the video - when Daisy picks the article up - you do something with your hands - its a BAD habit! and finally (I promise) - be careful not asking for a sit when she presents with the article. You are rewarding a present and a stand and this will be a hard habit to break further down the track. Now onto leathers you go....... remembering that leathers have a strong smell of their own - so don't go rubbing them as this really brings out the leather smell even more.

I can't remember the name of the street but you know if you're coming from those new shops JB HI FI, BCF etc and turn left at the lights where Harvey Norman is on the corner, go over the railway then turn right, it's on your left not far after you turn in, it's the back way to getting to Bunnings, hope you understand my directions . The guy that runs it is pretty full on but very nice, he breeds Cattle dogs. Let me know what you find out - as I will need to restock the freezer after I move

Good luck and have fun this weekend - any chance we will get to see his first attempt on video???

Is this why Kenzie's scent has gone pearshaped - getting rid of the heavily scented article a bit too soon or changing too many criteria at the one time?

Very interesting question - especially with the push in NSW to bring English style heeling in. I noticed on some of the crufts videos I watched this year that the dog is actually leaning on the handlers leg - it looks like if the handler took their leg away the dog might fall over.

Big brag! I took the full set of metal articles to training tonight. Daisy only started learning SD on Thursday, and we only started working with more than one or two of the metal articles on Monday. We haven't trained anywhere other than the living room floor, and tonight I had the articles down on the grass with loads of smells, other dogs, noise, people etc around. She was totally on the ball and brought back the right one every time And we must have done it at least a dozen times throughout the night. AND we did it 'properly' a few times with Daisy and I turning around, someone else putting the scented article down, and then turning around and giving her the command. I am so proud of her she has really picked it up quickly Now to train wood and leather Does everyone train them separately? Should my next step be training wood on its own, then leather on its own, and then mixing them up? Should I start scenting different metal articles instead of using the same one each time? Huski's got a new party trick great to hear. After training the metals - I put them away and bring out the woods and train those exactly the same way. After the dog is working with the 5 woods - I then mix the woods with the metals and finally I put them all away and bring out the leathers and train those on their own before mixing them with the woods and metals. At this point I am still using my heavily scented article.

I see some repeat orderers popping up.....hmm maybe I need to start an i-squeakaholics thread