Ptolomy

Yeah but the dog is on a non qualifying score anyway......

So what happens if only 1 dog is on a pass in that class? Does the judge who chooses this optiion ask for a couple of stand ins'? I know if there was only 1 dog on a non qualifying - then the dog would do stays by itself. We haven't had a case with only 1 dog on an open or UD pass. I have to admit not having a dog in novice at the moment I am not sure what would be done in this case. It is purely up to the judge whether they split the stays or not.

It is against the rules to train in the ring. I don't think any judges would allow it. Hmm think you should move states. Where in the rule book does it say this???? as she runs off to find her little blue book.......

Our judges in WA would allow it. I have had a dog struggling with heelwork - so I have helped her along and then done another exercise or two and left the ring on a positive note. In WA they have now introduced Not for Competition in obedience. It costs you half a normal entry and they put you at the end of the catalogue and you can go in and have the judge call a round for you and you can do what you like (except use food or toys). There are a few people using this in novice and CCD in preparation for the Nationals which are here in October.

In WA the judges now have the option of doing 2 lots of stays one for those on a pass and one for those that aren't

If my CCD dog wasn't on a pass there is no way I would be doing stays

This issue not only affects agility dogs. Put a UD box next to a jump or an A-frame and try sending an experience dog to it and 9 times out of 10 they will have no idea

Top efforts Smisch and Rivsky - I hope you celebrated in fine style I guess that raises the next question - do you celebrate your dog doing well and how do you celebrate a title. Pink Bubbles are the order of the day when Deb and I travel interestate The boys are always rewarded with on the spot jackpots of various sorts. I have to say I spend longer in the supermarket trying to decide what jackpots to take than I do deciding what I am going to have for dinner

My old girl does the old left abouts where the dog goes behind me - all the red kids do the u left about turn. Having trialled in other states there are certain judges who really dislike the flip finish and will dock you points no matter how well it is done. ;)

I tend to do duration by time as I can't count steps and keep my eye on my dog and where I am going. I think I started with 10 seconds for Beans and Lexi - then jumped to 20 seconds and then back to 15 seconds. The longest I have ever done is 2 3/4 minutes. After that I got sick of walking and I figured they would just keep going and going and going. :D The idea is that you break their evening dinner into 3 containers and they have to work for each container of food. After being successful 3 times thats it for the night - you don't ask them to do anything else at all - so if you are only heeling for 10 seconds you could be on your way home in less than 2 minutes! I only ever did duration twice a week and on most occasions it would be once per week. I would work on the other bits on a different night and as Ness said the idea is to keep pushing the dog to work longer and harder.

Hey Smisch - nice meeting you on Saturday - thanks for coming up and saying hi.

LOL perhaps we could purchase a rock solid SFE for a gold coin donation - hmm now there's a thought

Its up to somebody to put their hands up to organise the seminar and contact Sue for suitable dates. She has previously conducted seminars in NSW, SA, NT and QLD.

The seminar is being run by Sue Hogben and will be covering: Rock steady stays Rock steady stand for exams Heeling - footwork and how to get your dog to work without food or toys being present. When: Saturday 29th August 12.30-5pm How Much: $40 There will be a lucky draw on the day for somebody to win back their $40. Tea/Coffee/cakes/slices available for a gold coin donation. PM me if you need more details or who to contact. The seminar is being held to raise money for the National Agility Championships.

Rubystar - the guru is holding another seminar - I will try and get details to you ASAP. :rolleyes:

We were warned that the conditions would be bad - but our eyes nearly popped out of our heads when we arrived at the Ekka on Saturday morning. Gees our Royal grounds are beautiful in comparison and we only have alpaccas to worry about. Well done Nicole on your excellent agility run - unfortunately we were still playing obedience so didn't get to see any of the agility. You must be tickled pink considering it was your first run in this class - its one you will remember for a long time. :D WA took out 1st, 2nd and 3rd in masters jumping. Brooklyn dropped a bar - otherwise he would have made it a quadrella :p There were some terrific courses and some great runs.

I didn't get a chance to say well done on your open results - so well done Top effort :rolleyes: in what was a really tough ring to compete in. Keep up the great work.

Good luck :D and fingers crossed it doesn't all go pearshaped between now and then - as that often happens. :D I am trying to work out when to enter Beans in her first UD trial - its still a case of......Are we there yet?????

Yeah I do they same. If she drops in a sit stay I pull her out and do one by herself. And of course she sits perfectly the whole time then! Hmm going to throw something your way to think about - like you if the dog drops during the sit stay I grab my lead take the dog out of the ring and we do another one and of course - we don't have a problem and then I reward her. Are we now setting up a pattern of behaviour where it is Ok for them to drop the first time - because we will give them an opportunity to do it again, get it right and then they get rewarded. I have now started putting them back in the car if they drop - too bad so sad. I will redo the sit stay later in the day, or not at all that day.

and its a toller problem Some things to be mindful of in a trial - getting the dog into a sit stay and then having to wait while the judge checks their stop watch and then tells the steward what to do, meanwhile the dogs have been sitting for close to 5 minutes. Get the dog into a sit stay at the last moment. Mix it up at training - do a down stay first and then a sit stay If you are doing stays at training have one in a sit and the next in a down and the next in a sit. Go back and reward regularly Make sure you are training for longer than what you will be doing at a trial Do some informal ones at home put the dog in a sit stay and then go and pull some weeds - does the dog move??? and if all else fails I think we should all get together and at the next rule change get rid of this exercise

Hey some great agility results from over the weekend - well done Rivsky, Xena98 and Bully

I had a puppy with a liver shunt. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and looking back he used to sleep way more than the rest and he performed really badly in his puppy testing - however, he didn't have the tell tales signs of not putting on weight or a poor coat. He went to his new home and at 12 months they could no longer keep him as they were both working shift work and he needed daily exercise otherwise he became destructive. So I took him back and found a lovely new home for him a few weeks later. By this time he was over 12 months of age and as agreed the new owners took him in to have him desexed. The vet ran a pre-op blood test and they phoned me when they had the results. We were looking at $5000 for surgery and there were certainly no guarantees. The research I had did found 6 other tollers with a liver shunt. 5 had had surgery which was unsuccessful (2 of these died within 24 hours of surgery) and 1 had gone down the conservative path of changing diet and lifestyle. None were still alive. Because surgery was so expensive and the success rate was so poor, we decided not to do ultrasounds or further investigations but to take the conservative option. Changing the diet made a big difference and Phoenix did really well. At 18 months of age his owners one day came home and found him walking in circles and banging into walls. He did not know where he was or who they were - and we made to decision to have him pts. I wouldn't wish this on anybody :rolleyes:

I believe Ness has a brag :D I just wanted to be the first to say - well done

I am in a similar boat and unfortunately there is no distemper only vaccine available in Australia

Wow that was a long time ago - Blaize is 9 this year yep amazing that she made it this far To date Blaize is my best heeling dog but she has a faulty on off button and she can either be brilliant or bloody awful - there are no inbetweenies with her. I have gone out on a limb and said Beans will be my best heeling dog - for the second trial running she has scored higher than Scoota in heelfree - on the weekend she was like a little wind-up toy As for Lara - so many people bring up her antics at that trial in the DOR - most said that she should have got extra marks because of the degree of difficulty. Lara will be 13 in December, she still comes training and does little bits and pieces, she is very grey, slightly deaf and yep she is the best $50 I have EVER spent.