Ptolomy

Shoemonster - this is how I taught my kids scent discrimination - its brilliant http://www.dogscouts1.com/Dog_Activ-_Scent_Discrim.html As for chewing the articles - I had a minor mouthing issue with Scoota which I cured by using the clicker - handing him the article and immediately clicking. I would take it and treat. I would then hand him the article again - if he chomped it I would take it and not reward. He is smart and it didn't take him long at all to catch onto the game.

And shoemonster - don't just stop at teaching gloves - you should be teaching scent, signals, dumbbell and box now too :D Sexy Lexi, who is 2, is in the process of learning all the UD exercises now - she has one novice pass, but at the moment is back in the cupboard waiting for her to grow up a bit......

Thanks Ness for posting the info on the food bowls. The two food game is something we play often and we use it to increase speed and to also have he dog reliably coming back to us. Last night I was training with my mate and her 2 year old toller - raced out to get his dumbbell, picked it up and was tottling back with it. We wanted to speed him up - so we sent him out for the dumbbell and the moment he picked it up and turned we threw the food behind us and told him to "get it". Well...did he race past us to get the food. We didn't mind him dropping the dumbbell either as the aim of the game was to increase his speed. We did this game 3 times and the next time he came roaring back with his dumbell. Problem solvered! :D

We teach gloves by using food bowls - so basically you are teaching the direction bit first and we work on holding the gloves as a separate issue. If you don't use food then sorry can't help - if you do - let me know and I can try and explain how its done. This is Scoota doing gloves at the Adelaide Royal..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6jzkou5kBU

Just to keep Ness off my back :D ...... Back from the Adelaide Royal where Scoota put in a ripper of a UD round - and won with 193 and then followed up the next night with 195 in open BUT he did move 2 feet in the SFE (this is where OC stands for occasionally clever!). Tickled pink that he did his sit stay as this has been a bit of an issue. The icing on the cake was his clear round and 4th in masters agility as Scoota has done no agility training for months. Going out on a limb here - BUT Miss Squishy Face - I would have to say that SA is not the most positive dog training state I have been to. I do gloves in UD and we often ask people how they train food refusal as I don't think I could do it with any of my kids - since they are food trained and are very food focused. Apart from the gurus in WA - I am yet to hear a positive way of training the exercise that doesn't involve flicking the dog in the face, so some sort of physical punishment to the dog if it takes the food.

My girl is also allergic to fleas and we use 1/4 Capstar (which you can get from the supermarket) every day (she weighs 15kg). I only use it for 6 months of the year and will be looking at starting it in the next week or two. It supposedly kills fleas within 20 minutes - where the spot on treatments take weeks to kick in.

Gees Miss Squishy Face - coming 3rd in CCD at the Royal is a HUGE brag. We were there doing agility at the Royal on the Sunday night and felt very sorry for the novice and CCD dogs since the ring was covered in food, dog hair and had been used as a toilet area by the show dogs for the previous three days. I did watch a clip of one of the novice dogs working and I see the judge had the start post at the far end of the ring away from the crowd which was very nice. Well done again!

Ask your vet about an anti-histamine a day - it might help the itches, but it might be a case of trialling a couple of them to see which one works best. Good luck.......

You can use the sweet potato as treats too - initially I used to part cook mine - but now I just peel it, dice it and stick it in my pocket. Now the food elimination diet will help if your dog is allergic to foods, however if it is something else it will be tougher to work out what it is. Has the vet given you a plan to get the dog off Pred as you wont really know if the food diet is working until he is off it.

I find the clicker great to "fix" behaviours that are broken (yes they were initially taught with the clicker). Also, having just got back from the Adelaide Royal - the moment we arrived and the crowd were setting up in the stands - I had my clicker out doing some heeling and positions around the crowd, clicking and treating, and the dog thought this was just another distraction game and was unphased by the crowd or the noise.

Its my guess you had to use a meat the dog has never eaten before and camel was your choice? The same with the vege? I think my choices were goat, camel, emu, horse and one other which I can't remember. After a couple of weeks when the itches have ceased do you then have to add a new food every 10 days??

You wouldn't need private lessons every week - maybe once a month to begin with - so really having to travel 30 minutes shouldn't be a consideration if you want value for money. Sue H is in Canning Vale - about 3km from K9. There is also Gina O'Keefe who lives in Leederville, but does train at Carine. Kathy used to trial many years ago with her Sibe, and is a great behaviouralist - but for me, I would walk over hot coals (and do often ) to have a lesson with either Gina or Sue. Not sure if you have contacted Perth Training and Midland to see what nights their training is on - you might have to ring K9 for the contacts. Good Luck!

Hey come on you are not being very fair - the Royal would have to be the hardest place to trial. You are trying to work a dog in a ring where show dogs have been groomed and toileted, added to that the crowd sitting virtually on the edge of the ring, making noise, clapping and laughing at inappropriate times and you bring your sister, who the dogs loves and happens to run out to say hello.......... ARGH - I can relate to everything that happened and I have to say I feel really sorry for the novice and CCD dogs that competed tonight. I guess you have a couple of choices Don't do the Royal next year Don't bring your sister to the royal next year Spend a few weeks prior to next years Royal working your dog around the show dogs PS well done on your recall! Sal - you would have to be tickled pink with Ness's work at the Royal - not just on one night, but both nights. Glad to hear you have worn the video out watching it so often and have picked all the positives out and as for us coming back next year........now theres a thought LOL

WE are currently 19 months into the injection program. Unfortunately, Beans couldn't handle the increased dose of injection - so we have settled on a jab every 3rd day - so she is still getting 1ml every month - just not in one hit. Has it made a difference - hmm I think so. We are due to go back the end of September when they will look at repeat allergy testing - and that will be interesting to compare results. As for the injections. I give Beans a treat after each one and after the first few she started linning up when she saw me get the vials out of the fridge Good luck!

Next Nationals May 2010 in WA! It sounds like everybody had a good time and clear runs were the added bonus - well done. How good would it be to make the final - with sooo many dogs competing. What a buzzzzzzzzzzz

Hmm - think you need to move to WA and go and have a lesson with one of our gurus. Take it from me food is never done away with. The dogs are all taught to keep working because at some points I am going to either click and treat or JACKPOT with a truck load of food. :D SO what you need to aim for is to vary the intervals between food rewards - but never ever cease them. Remember also that training can be fun - you can take him down to the oval and play with him - teach him hand touches, play line up games and the moment he does what you are asking reward him. You then become fun to be with and I bet the sniffing takes second place.

Gees a lab that doesn't care about food - I really have to wonder about this - so my next question would be what sort of food are you using. Its my guess that it is boring and whatever smells are on the ground are more attractive. Just my thoughts. How would I cure it - reward more often - so every couple of second - then break it off and allow him to smell the grounds. Then call him back again and go through the same process - so he then learns that there is a working time and also a free time. You can't expect him to stay attentive for the entire time you are there. Good luck.....

Hey Leopuppy - congratulations on your JDX title - now you get to play with the big boys in masters! I got a call from the WA crew wanting to know which courier company we used to bring our stuff back following the obedience Nationals as they had 3 umbrellas, dogs beds and a truck load of dog food toget back to WA The agility Nationals are definitely in WA in 2010, but I don't think the month has been decided yet - in our latest K9 mag they are calling for people wanting to be on the working party.

I am getting the results second hand and we are only getting WA results. I have checked the Nationals website and still no results. I know WA won all three strat pairs classes, agility open A and jumping Open A and masters gamblers. I have not heard how Deb O got on with Ghillie.

I have just heard the first lot of results from the nationals - it must be lunch time. These are WA dogs..... Nifty and Raven were 1st in Masters Strat Pairs. Raven was 1st in Masters Gamblers. Sprite and Spice were 1st in Novice Strat Pairs. Snazzy and Tivi were second. Dom is leading in open Agility and Mako is 3rd to date.

Obedience Nationals are in WA next October and are at night. The agility Nationals I thought were 2010 in Perth. I have just heard from the WA crew who arrived in Melbourne yesterday - they said the weather was OK - the grounds were awful! But then we did warn them after coming home from the obedience nationals a couple of weeks ago. Good luck everybody - and......go the tollers!

10 years ago the WA State Team was made up of GSD's. Now the number of GSD's competing you can count on one hand.

Hmm interesting question...... going into a stand for exam - I used to pat my dogs and say gentle good boy........this worked for a while - but one trial Scoota came out with new batteries and it didn't matter how much I tried to get him to settle it just wasn't going to happen and of course the judge walked towards him, his tail went WAG WAG WAG and he moved all 4 feet. I went for a lesson and Guru Sue suggested.........instead of trying to get him to settle - do the opposite - rev him up until he is bursting at the seams and then ask for a stand. Well he moved the first couple of times, but getting the tusty clicker out, I now have a really reliable stand, where he can wag his tail at a zillion miles an hour - but all 4 feet stay firmly planted on the ground.

I only taught the flip finish to Scoota as I felt that if I sent him around behind my back it would give him the opportunity to be distracted as he went around. While the finishes were nice - we would sometimes lose points for him jumping up as he flipped or not quite getting his bottom all the way around So less than 6 months ago (he is now 4) I decided to teach him the other finish. It took no time at all to teach and now I use this 95% of times in a trial, because he is more accurate and we lose less marks. I tend to see people who do the flip finish using very exaggerated hand signals which extend all the way backwards, or all the way around their back, so just be aware if you tend to use this finish when trialling :D

Thanks to Leopuppy - here are parts of our open round from the Nationals. Considering he missed lots of sits and drops the day before - he didn't do too badly .