Ptolomy

Hmm - when this happens it tells me my dog is sore. Has your dog always sat sloppily or is this new? I would be inclined to use a food lure and ask the dog to sit up tall and click and treat

Just a word of warning and yes I feed chicken wings too. A friends Chessie got a chicken wing lodged and required surgery $1500 later........ Vet suggested in future cutting the chicken wings into thirds at the corners.

I go club training every couple of weeks, not to join in a class - but to work on the outside - the distractions are better than what you will get at a trial

Well Done you should be tickled pink! It sounds like you have already got the basics of open...what still needs work?

Scoota is now 4. I bred him and he was introduced to the clicker at 7 weeks of age. We started the basics of UD training early - he was taught scent using the dog scout method at 7 months of age - no formality - it was just a case of go out and find the one that smells like me, not worrying about turns and presents until he was much older. The same with seekback, during winter when it was too dark and wet to train before work, I would play hide the seekback in the house and each of the dogs would be given a couple of turns to find it. The box was also taught early as a game. His first novice trial was the Western Classic when he was 16 months of age. Tollers are very slow to mature and he really wasn't ready to trial, but he did well and passed. It has not been easy sailing though as he has had a few issues along the way, which we have had to work through one by one. Hs last two OC passes took forever as he started spitting scent articles out at me and the more anxious I became the more articles landed at my feet. How did I cure it.....we play in the ring between exercises, I push him away and he comes bouncing back, I rub his backside and rough him up and he comes back for more (you can probably see this on the video clip), we play touch games and really we have turned it into a fun place to be.

Its Mother's Day and just home from a double agility trial - 4 masters runs and 4 passes from Miss Beans Emmy, the rent a GSP I run came 3rd in Masters agility Also managed to fit in a show with Sexy Lexi who got BOB both yesterday and today - alright she was the only dog being shown - but hey only 39 more points to go......

Yes it was a qually round - it was his final leg of his OC - he won with 192 - which was a bit generous - but happy to take it and run.

The idea is to lay a track from one end of the ring to the other - by following the judges commands and either the judge or the steward will drop a scent article on the track. At the end of the track you about turn and send the dog to find it. You are not allowed to point to the article when you send the dog. The dog can find the article using either scent or sight and must pick the article up and return to you. The seekback at the classic caused a lot of problems with dogs not being able to find the article.

Here are the first two exercises from Scoota's UD Western Classic round from 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgZTFW9Y0Fs

Here is a clip showing Scoota doing the last 3 UD exercises at the 2008 Western Classic. This was his last pass for his Obedience Champion title - so have to admit that signals were a bit more extended than usual He ended up winning with 192. It is a long unedited clip......but it does show what a happy worker he is. Thanks to Tash for doing the technical side and uploading to You Tube for me. The first two exercises are coming....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yl5uk0FLEA

God I have never thought about it! As I go into a turn, generally the step before the turn, I slightly turn my head in the direction I am going, which will turn my shoulders and cues the dog into what is happening. Sorry, but don't have time to think about my feet as well I might go back and have another look to see what I am doing

Yes it was Barbara Murfett from Qld - she was lovely. For the Classic they always get judges from the Eastern States to judge and International Judges for the show. Amypie - this is how the videoing should be done - unlike some of the novice efforts we have had in the past (tongue in cheek).

I currently have 1 boy and 4 girls, with all bar one being desexed, and think I prefer the boys attitude. The girls are more inclined to have away with the fairy moments, or if I do it what will you give me in exchange attitude.

The dumbbell, seekback and scent gods were looking after us today. Scoota brought his dumbbell back twice in open, delivered his seekback to hand along with all his scent articles. He ended up winning UD with 194.

You actually don't find out the score - they only award 1st place. The dumbbell cost her bigtime! From memory I think the winner got 192.

The Western Classic is the top 10 dogs in each class in WA. Blaize was the last of my dogs in the ring. I had already had Scoota in Open and UD Lara in UD Beans in Novice and I had withdrawn Lexi from CCD and some of them have different signals - so we did well not to stuff it up BIGTIME.

Here is my little blonde girl Blaize competing in open at this years Western Classic. Blaize has her own agenda and can be either brilliant or bloody awful Only one slight hiccup/blonde moment in the dumbbell on the flat, but otherwise it was a good effort from her. Thanks to Tash for uploading the clip to You Tube and for helping me with my blonde moments. Now grab a bag of pop corn, a cold drink and sit back and pick the handling to bits LOL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYyyl7otIA

No Ness - responding to your emails is my full time job - I work at a hospital in my spare time LOL I think the more dogs you have the more you have to plan your training (don't get me started on this) and you tend to get in do what you have to and go home. As Leopuppy said - I do lots of 5 minute sessions with my kids, which works well for us. In the future, when they invent an 8 day week, I hope to do retrieving with Sexy Lexi .

I have 5 dogs training, 4 out of the 5 compete in obedience and agility and 1 was retired 2 months ago, but still comes training. 2 out of the 5 are Obedience Champions (although on the weekends performance I have decided that OC stands for Occassionally Clever). I work full time, and run a boarding kennel, have 2 kids........ Free time - whats that??

My last lot of titres were done through Vetwest at Canning Vale. I think it cost me $88 to have the blood drawn and then sent to the lab for testing. They rang me with the results the following day and then did some follow up ringing around trying to see if you could get a distemper only vaccine in Oz (no such luck). A lot of people knock Vetwest - but I can only speak positively about them since everytime I have walked through the door they have accomodated my every wish. My previous titres were done by Lark Hill and they were brilliant, but a bit far south for you I think. Yes Applecross will do titres - but don't get Steve Metcalfe started on the value of them. I agree with Murdoch being pricey!

What Suburb are you in?

Many many years ago when I first started clicker training - I tried it with my kids, to see how good my timing was and how frustrated they became when i got it wrong. The idea was for my son to go from the kitchen down the hall to the bedroom and to turn on his bedroom light. I gave him a bowl and every time I clicked I gave him a lolly to put in the bowl. Its an interesting exercise, especially when the kids can voice their frustration at not knowing what I wanted and how mistiming a click can send them off on a completely different path. Have to agree 5-10 minutes for a 4 month old pup is too long - break the 5 minutes up into 5 x 1 minute sessions and don't just limit yourself to shaking hands - start teaching the dog to pick up a ball or to hold a toy, to give you attention by sitting and staring at you, to walk backwards, to roll over ......the list goes on and on and on. Good luck - your will find yourself consistently smiling at how your dog is encouraged to think and what they offer you.

Hey well done Leopuppy - the pressure is now off and you can go in and enjoy the next trial. So dare I ask how the UD training is coming along????

Well a little brag of sorts...........now lets set the picture here........I am not a spring chicken any more.........in fact I have been collecting grey hairs of late...... and...........on Friday and Saturday we had our State Agility Championships and................ I ended up doing 22 runs ;) No wonder I am so sore today! Have to brag about the rent a GSP I ran for a friend. We managed to make 3 out of 4 finals not a bad effort for a dog having to jump 600 when most of the courses were set for 400 and 500 dogs. I was also sent the times thats quaified us for the finals today and we were 2 seconds behind the BC who won open at last years Nationals and was fastest qualifier, and 1.5 seconds behind our only agility champion in WA. No I am not about to change breeds - but would steal this dog in a heartbeat! Thank Emmy for the ride......you are a special girl!

At what point does Tess move in the stays eg as you are walking away, 1min into the stay....? Hmm - thinking outside the square - give Tess a week off - no stays at all - continue your other training - introduce some new UD or UDX things - like sitting in the box or between cones - teach her to jump on a table like in agility or to touch a target and then after a week go back to group stays insight (but with the dogs a tad further away than what they would be in a trial) - I would start by practising walking away about turning and then going straight back to her - working your way to being able to walk right across the other side of the oval (with the other handlers) - this will take a couple of minutes anyway, so you are in fact increasing the time she is sitting there, (but you are still insight) Make sure as you are walking away you don't turn to look at her. Each time you walk back to her and reward and tell her how smart she is, break the exercise off and have a play with your hose pipe. If she drops or breaks from the stay - I don't think I would be repositioning her as this is giving her a second chance, I would be putting her quietly back in the car, closing the door for a couple of minutes and then getting her out again and trying again - but at a lesser distance and with the other dogs further away from me.