DeltaCharlie

PM Casima, she used to take her dogs to a chiro when she was living in Orange. I think he came out there once every few weeks or something like that. She will be able to tell you anyway. All of our trialling and in-training dogs are seen by the chiro every 6 weeks or so. The older 2 are retired and don't tend to throw themselves out so they are only seen once or twice a year. Our chiro is also an exceptional diagnostic vet and it amazes me how much she can pick up simply by manipulating them. Delta has spondylosis and was at a point where I was considering early retirement from agility (she was 3). She is now 5 and running better than ever. Every time we go in she seems to be better than the last and she isn't having the constant pelvic issues that she had when she was younger (we suspected HD it was that bad). The way I see it, our dogs are performance dogs and I equate them to elite athletes. An olympian is going to make use of every possible treatment to maintain peak fitness, so why shouldn't we do the same for our dogs? What we ask of them (mainly agility and flyball) takes such a toll on their bodies, it is our responsibility as owners to do everything we can to keep them in top shape. Our dogs absolutely love her and fight over who gets to jump up on the table first (picture 7 border collies trying to squeeze onto the table at the same time).

God no, if our pups are ready to compete it will be their first (or possibly 2nd) comp ever. They wont be old enough to get any more in than that. I think they are 18months old the Saturday before so hoping to get a few runs in at the Canberra long weekend trial so at least they (and us) know what to expect out there LOL Really it is just a normal trial with people from all over the country. These are the same dogs that are out there competing each weekend, they just happen to be all in the same place for this comp. There will be dogs and handlers with all degrees of experience, some will be better than others but hopefully everyone just getting out there and enjoying this sport with their dogs. It is a great opportunity to watch some of the most experienced handlers from around the country and get an idea of how they do things. I have only been to one nationals (WA 2010) and I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the other competitors, particularly the finals and I learnt a lot about agility from observing the more experienced agility handlers.

What you can see in that photo is perhaps the lower half of them? So perhaps that many again, possibly a little less. Most dogs didn't blink at the stairs, it was more the handlers that had to make sure they weren't pulled down by their overly enthusiastic dogs lol. I have shonky knees so was extra careful, I have trouble with stairs at the best of times and wouldn't consider walking down them without a knee brace even without the dog. The stairs themselves are solid concrete, just a little narrow (1/2 to 3/4 of a shoe length) which made them seem more daunting than they should have been. Charlie loved them and kept trying to go up and down them while we were waiting for our turn :rolleyes: He also tried giving me 2O2O with nose touches on them... sily boy. It would also depend on how competitive you are I guess. A few of the older competitors (60+) mentioned that they just may not enter opens and limit their runs on the day that their height was running inside so they didn't need to negotiate them too many times. For your average person they will not be any issue at all though and they certainly shouldn't be a deciding factor on whether or not you should come. The seating is only 4 rows high so not very high at all, it is also ascends at a pretty low angle so it doesn't feel like you are near the edge or anything. In all honesty I don't think I paid any attention to the height all weekend and I can get a bit funny with heights myself.

3 of our own dogs baulked at the chute and they are all in SPDM, thats how I know there were more than 1. I wasn't deliberately looking for it or anything LOL. Like I said though, they all went through straight after so it was no issue. Would have been given a refusal if it had been in a normal course but didn't matter for pairs and I noticed dogs weren't required to change if they started to go in, I guess because their whole body hadn't entered the obstacle? I dunno, I don't judge and I admire those who do because it would not be my cup of tea The other thing that may have actually caused hesitation with the chute (for those who weren't there) is that it was sitting between 2 normal tunnels so perhaps being faced with 3 tunnel entries was the part that caused the dogs to think twice rather than the actual obstacle itself. In regards to the rings, perhaps there was a miscommunication that has caused confusion. Either among the committee members or possibly even with SIEC. We arrived a little after 6am and Margaret asked us to walk across the surface with her to show her which one was more like the surface at Tamworth. She said that they were using it as an opportunity to try out 2 different surface preparations and there was a definite point in the middle where it became harder packed, almost in a dead straight line. Then when we were setting up the equipment we were discussing it with Eddie and Ashley about whether or not the agility should go into the softer ring as it generally requires less turning by handler and dog than a jumping course would. Eddie decided that putting jumping in there would be the ultimate test for the softer preparation and allow people to really make the decision on which one they preferred. I seem to recall Keith putting something on the list a few weeks ago (possibly even last week, I have school holiday brain at the moment) about testing out different ring preparations. Perhaps we have all misinterpreted what he wrote and it has gone from there. Either way, I think the surface will be great and I am really looking forward to June now It is actually one of the ladies in Vic that I was thinking of, her name escapes me but she runs a high drive kelpie in masters and had a younger one that she was training last time we were down there. She stands in the middle of the course and directs the dog from pretty much that one spot with verbals and arms. I love watching her dog run, I find it incredibly inspiring to watch and the bond between them is just magical. As I said, I can't wait for the nationals now. I think the atmosphere in there is going to be electric and the dogs just love running on that surface. Last weekend was a great test run and I think it went incredibly well. The committee did a wonderful job of getting it all organised and I know they will do a wonderful job at the nationals too. Bring on June!

I saw a few dogs (varying degrees of experience) go into the chute, realise it wasn't a tunnel and then come back out, but as soon as the handlers directed them back into it they did without issue. I think it was just the initial thinking it was a tunnel then realising it was closed, I didn't see any dogs not want to do it. In saying that I deliberately kept Charlie away from it, he has enough issues with chutes as it is and it took a bit of work to get him going through tunnels again after his initial chute scare, I didn't want to turn him off a normal tunnel before I had a chance to train him on the new chute. The other thing I saw which never even occured to me as something to train the dogs for is how to go through a tyre that has broken away. I saw a few dogs (once again varying levels of experience) unsure of what to do when faced with the tyre that had broken apart in the centre. All they had to do was run through the frame (like running through uprights with no bar) but I don't think many people have thought to expose a dog to that. CFS- We were told on Saturday morning that the 2 rings had been prepared differently so that a decision could be made as to which one people preferred? The jumping ring was considerably softer even before any equipment was set up so definitely not the same preparation. The other thing I thought of later which may be an issue for consideration- how would the "less able" competitors access the inside rings? I know I had trouble with my knees walking an excitedly pulling dog down those stairs and into the rings, I had to grip the handrail pretty tightly and I consider myself to be a pretty able bodied person. I imagine those narrow steps may be difficult for some people to manage, especially with a dog in tow. The far ring I guess could be accessed through the livestock entry, not sure about the closer ring though. Perhaps that has already been considered and I am sure there will be ways around it, especially with 5months still to go. We checked out what we think will be the outdoor rings, (assuming we read the map correctly) and they look great. Reminds me of the flat, manicured rings in Perth :D

Delta was diagnosed about 18 months ago (at 3.5 years old). At this point in time it isn't impacting her life all that much, her back legs don't extend completely (we were actually xraying for HD but her hips turned out to be fine) but that is only minor. She still competes in agility and flyball and pulls up fine afterwards, the only time we notice her getting stiff is after a long walk. I have reduced her runs in flyball as she is primarily my agility dog and she will likely have a reduced agility career as it is without potentially shortening it even further by doing a lot of flyball too. So she only runs 1 or 2 races in a day, and is only in the team if needed. As for when it comes time to retire her from agility I will be guided by her chiro and physio. I try to keep her as lean as possible, keep her fit by swimming etc, she is regularly chiro'd and she also gets joint guard. When she does need to be retired we will likely return to DWD or obedience or something like that. She is not on any medication at this point and I will try to delay that for as long as possible.

It was definitely fun to watch, I got it on video too but was laughing too hard to keep up with the dogs at times LOL I must say though, the way Chloe handled the whole thing was just amazing. She stayed calm and collected throughout it all and as soon as she saw that Pep was starting to stress a little about the whole thing she got right in there with a huge pat and cuddle for her. Poor little Pep was trying so hard to get back to Chloe to continue working lol only to have Rusty come and jump all over her again :D

Thats provided the surface is packed similar I guess. The surface at tamworth is great and packed really hard, Im hoping these guys can pack it similar to that

Tammy and I wore the same cleated shoes at Tamworth that we do for a normal agility trial and they worked great We had taken regular joggers with us too but preferred the normal agility shoes.

The RQH is something that NSW does each year and it is similar to ADAA's Medallion Stakes. There are 12 rounds in agility and 12 rounds in jumping held all over the state. Unlike ADAA, you cannot gain a quallie card for the run even if you go clear. The top 40 dogs receive points that go towards a cumulative total. 1st place in each round gets 40pts, 2nd place 39pts, etc. If there are not 40 clear rounds then after all the clear rounds are given their points it moves to the fastest dog with 1 fault, second fastest with 1 fault etc. (So if there are 10 dogs who go clear, 30pts will be awarded to the fastest dog with a fault). At the end of the 12 rounds the 40 dogs with the highest accumulative scores in each are invited to run off in a jumping dog of the year final (for the 12 jumping rounds) or the agility dog of the year final (12 agility rounds) at the Festival of Agility in Sept. Does that make it any clearer?

There are no refusals in games so if you miss the jump and go back and do it correctly nothing happens, you can still Q. In the RQH points are awarded to the first 40 dogs. All the clears, followed by the dogs with 1 fault, then 2 faults, etc. If you DQ then you can't score any points towards the cumulative total at the end of the year. So a refusal for going past the jump which is then corrected will only give you 1 fault and therefore you would still potentially end up with points.

I voted never the other day but have been thinking about it ever since and yes there are times that I will get my dog to do a jump it missed although it is very rare. If I am running a normal, straight forward course then I will never bring my dog back to redo a jump... i put that down to handler error. If I brought them back Charlie would start to shut down and Delta would probably bite me If it is an RQH run or something similar where it makes a difference if you receive a fault as opposed to a DQ then yes I would probably find myself redoing that jump with Delta, i still don't with Charlie. If it is a game, ie missed a jump in a gamble I will send them back out to it, missed something in snooker or pairs I go back to it. So it would appear that even though I say a missed jump in any circumstance is my fault and the dog shouldn't have to try again, if I have a Q riding on it (or RQH points etc) then I will go against what I personally believe is the best option and redo the jump Time to have a think about my priorities... The only time I have ever made a conscious effort to bring Delta back was when she went through a period of "if I miss the jump mum won't make me do it again so I can get to the tunnel/dogwalk/aframe faster without those pesky jumps in the way". It was getting to the point of being ridiculous so I started bringing her back and making her actually take the jumps in front of her. Only took a few times for her to stop missing jumps and she hasn't really tried it with me since.

The sniffing looked like a stress relief to me. As soon as she missed that weave entry your body slumped and everything about your demeanor told her she had done wrong even though she had actually tried to get into the weaves and unfortunately her momentum had carried her past the entry (don't get me wrong- understanding that she needs to slow down to hit the correct one is partly her responsibility too). I can say that because I do the same thing all the time, except Delta's response is to jump up at me rather than sniff Its really hard to do but maybe trying to keep the same pace and energy level as you turn her around (almost like you were doing a post-turn) and send her back in might make a big difference to her. Its kind of an "oops, try again" thing rather than a "bugger, now the run is screwed, no point trying hard anymore" thing if that makes sense. The dogs can tell when it is no longer a clear run because our body inadvertantly slumps a little, signals are lazier etc. As for the stress sniffing, I know with Charlie when he went through his really stressy period the more I tried to call him back and got annoyed with him the longer he would sniff for. It was like he had to do it until his head was cleared and he was ready to run again, and me nagging at him delayed the head-clearing process and probably made it worse. I would never consider that to be the dog being naughty though... its one of the only ways they have of communicating to us that they are not happy with the current situation and are feeling too much pressure. If only they could talk :D

We have used a variety of cool coats with the border collies and have come to the conclusion that the chillybuddy ones from clean run Found here are by far the best ones out there. They don't actually need to be wet to work, the dogs still stay incredibly cool just from the reflective nature of them, if you do wet them then they are even cooler again. They are also lightweight which makes a big difference. Charlie, Sweep and Whip all use these as they are extremely heat intolerant. I started off with the cool champions ones and used them for a little while but would never use them again now that I have found better alternatives. There are so many negatives that go with them which people don't take into consideration. Firstly, when they are wet they become quite heavy and the dogs are actually working harder when walking around with them on. Even when I did use them my dogs were never wearing them unless they were lying down in their crates. Secondly, the dogs body temperature actually begins to heat the water in them and if you are not regularly checking them it can have the opposite effect to what you are trying to achieve- they become like a warm coat. They are now used as spray jackets when we need to toilet the dogs in the rain LOL Our other dogs (the ones not using chillybuddy coats) use these ones. They are pretty good and lightweight, although they dry out quickly and once again need to be wet to be effective. We are slowly getting all the dogs chillybuddy coats as we can afford it, but with 9 dogs that is a slow process

We use an x-pen. Make a circle with the panels (the borders need about 6 initially to keep them tight then we slowly move it out a bit). Stand inside it and lure the dog around you. The circle made from the panels stops them from being able to get stuck in a corner.

I am one of those people that values the lives of my dogs over that of a snake. There I said it... Do I want any of god's creatures to suffer a slow and painful death? Of course not, so I check our barriers every day. We have snake repellers around the perimeter of our house yard and I firmly believe that they have saved the lives of our dogs. Do they stop the snake from getting in? No, not to 100% certainty. But those that do are so disoriented that they don't know where the hell they are and can then be taken back outside of the yard. We had a large brown in the yard last summer while 7 dogs were out there (with us, they are never outside unsupervised). There were 2 dogs nose-poking it, another 3 were doing fly-bys and the other 2 were fairly close by but oblivious to the excitement. Not one of those dogs was bitten and we were able to get them all safely onto the verandah before removing the snake from the yard to live another day. We have a number of friends that will tell similar stories. Any snakes that have made it in have been no danger to the dogs and were safely removed. If we were to have a snake in the yard I would rather have one that is in la-la land than one with all its senses and the reaction time to bite a curious dog. We don't just have the BCs, we also have a few small terriers and they wouldn't stand a chance. Living 20-30mins from the nearest vet- they just would not last that long. So, the repellers are the first line of defence. Then around the actual dog runs we have bird mesh, mouse mesh, and bird netting. I would never consider using shade cloth around them as they would become a hotbox in summer without that airflow, particularly considering that it would be at dog level. The runs are checked numerous times a day and to this day we have never actually found anything in them. Having all those dogs in the run would have to be a deterrent to the snakies, but given that inside the dog runs are the only sources of water for some distance, there is definitely a reason for the snakes to want to get in.

Hmm... well we have 9 LOL although admitedly not all are competing at this point in time. Brooks (12) and Jaz (10) are retired from everything although they still do a bit of training here and there to keep them happy and active. Dash (9) Sweep (7) Charlie (6) Delta (almost 5) and Link (4) are competing in agility and flyball. Delta and Sweep also do some DWD. Then we have Whip (15months) and Rush (10months) who are both being trained in agility, flyball, DWD and sheepwork. There may be 2 more added to the clan late next year We worked out that in 2014 we could in theory have 9 dogs competing. Dash at 9 is still like a 12 month old pup and so long as she is looked after there is no reason why she shouldn't still be running (except perhaps finances LOL). Delta's body may not last that long though, only time will tell with her. Good thing we love dogs

Tailwag is currently compiling videos of each of our dogs Will post them when they are ready. A few are already uploaded but being big files they are taking about 3-4hours each to upload and we have 5 trialling dogs LOL

Delta is in the MS for Reg Maxi We will be getting up there Thursday afternoon sometime.

Ive scanned through and it doesn't seem to have been mentioned so to go back to the original question: The number one reason that I was told a tug is preferable to food is the quantity of reward they are receiving. I have 3 agility dogs and they all have a different preferred reward (and I work to their preferences where required, even if it is not my preference). At the end of a sequence their rewards are: Delta (food)- A few bits of food given to her, possible a jackpot container if deserved. Total time= 3-4 secs of rewarding (if that). Charlie (ball)- Gets to chase his ball. Total time= 10secs (more or less depending on length of throw). Whip (tug)- Gets to play tug with me. Total time= however long I want to tug with him, can be all the way back to his crate if I so choose. In terms of quantity (length of time being rewarded) the Tug is definitely the best. Pros: Food- Can be used in position, great for precision work, can use their dinner as a big jackpot (eg Delta used to weave for her dinner each night). Ball- Good way to reward for distance work (throw it out to where dog is). Encourages dog to drive away from you. Tug- Very interactive, reward is coming directly from you and if you are getting really into the game its even better for the dog. Cons: Food- Not particularly convenient, the higher value the reward the messier they are LOL, can't really be thrown (unless you use ridiculously large bits), can be distracting the next time you work in that area if the dog is looking for dropped treats. Ball- Dogs can start anticipating throws (I can't work Charlie on a tight sequence if he knows I have a ball as he anticipates it after every jump and doesn't focus on my body cues, instead he starts taking off into no-mans land), increasing the duration of reward (multiple throws) increases fatigue and lowers number of repetitions that can be completed. 3 of our dogs are heat intolerant, they would wear themselves out too much with multiple throws in the heat. Tug- Not good for the handler in a chiropractic sense LOL, harder to throw distances, initially dogs may curl in looking for tug reward instead of maintaining obstacle focus. Ideally I would want a dog that will accept 2 or 3 of these rewards readily and with equal value for each. Delta will only work for food outside of home, however, absolutely loves her isqueak ball at home and will quite often tug for small periods of time. When the toys come out at home she reaches a much higher level of arousal and I can get so much more out of her than I ever can with food. Unfortunately I have never been able to transfer that to somewhere other than home. Charlie will now work for all 3, although initially he came to me only happy to work for a ball. It took a bit to get him accepting food (and now he goes nuts for it) as I couldn't throw a ball for him in the flyball ring, and to this day there is no way in hell he will drop a tennis ball for a tug. If there are no balls around he will happily work for a tug, although that took a bit of work to achieve. I managed to transfer the value of fetching by rewarding a split second tug (with release cue) with a throw and slowly increased the time he was required to tug before I gave the release cue and threw the tug. If he released before then he had to resume tugging before I threw it. I will still use a ball with him whenever possible as that is GOD, however, as I mentioned when we are working on tight sequences etc then I will take a tug instead and it gives me the option of running NFC. At the end of a run at a trial he will now drag me to the nearest grass patch so that we can throw his lead (still needs to tug on return). Whip isn't a huge lover of food, however, he will quite happily work for food during training which I need for precision stuff and when I require a lower level of arousal. When I was training his contacts initially I think he would have blown his mind if I used a tug, I needed the food to keep him calm and thinking. Then I slowly progressed to tugging with him in position. At obedience I will use food for all the precise positioning and at the end of a short sequence we will have a big game of tug on his lead. Whip at the moment has developed a slightly higher value for a tennis ball than his tug which is playing a little havoc with his flyball training, although that is just a matter of increasing the tug value again and reducing the time spent freeplaying with tennis balls.

No, as far as I know she will stay put for the rest of the weekend. Then you apply for her title when you get home so that she can run up for the next comp Other than the Open B games it wont really make a difference to you anyway as nothing new opens up for AAD titled dogs (they can already enter open and can't run advanced until they have their SAAD) We have quite a few dogs that are 1 or 2 off their next titles, would be great if all these dogs close to titles manage to gain them Charlie and Link will both be in the same runs as her for starters, although they are international program so will be different for intermediate and open runs.

Well, the person who is mostly running Delta and Charlie is me Tailwag will run Delta in a few runs (and I will run Dash and Sweep in a few). Her dogs are Dash, Sweep and Link. If my knee is no good then she will be running all 5 of them LOL

Hmm at the moment we are doing agility, flyball, obedience, herding and DWD (not every dog is doing every sport though). Most of our training is done at home though. We have a full set of trialling equipment for agility and flyball, the obedience and DWD don't really require much in the way of equipment, and our sheep trainer is about 45mins away. When I lived in Sydney I had agility Monday, flyball Tuesday, obedience Thursday, agility Friday, then the weekends were spent either at trials or herding Saturday and flyball Sunday. Needless to say not a lot gets done, especially with 9 dogs

I am also welcoming the change for smaller dogs, it evens the playing field and gives everyone the same challenges. As we have some very fast and long striding dogs in this house we know all about the challenges of off-course jumps set 4 metres away from the ones they are taking. Some of our dogs, like Vickie's, are practically landing on that off-course obstacle just from their natural stride and it takes alot to get them around some of those ridiculously tight courses that we sometimes see. Our fastest dog runs at over 7m/sec and has an incredibly long stride. If he can handle 4m distances then a small dog can handle 2m distances. I have spoken to a few people who run small dogs that are now complaining that their dog is knocking bars because they have to bounce jump or are taking off-course jumps because they are so close. My thoughts on that are "welcome to our world". We have managed to train our dogs to cope with those challenges on a weekly basis and now it is your turn to see what we have to face out there each time we run. 4metre gaps are huge to a little dog and they have had such an easy run up until now. Before anyone asks, we also have 2 dogs here that are 200 height so it is no bias against little dogs etc (thought Id put it out there before anyone accused me). One retired about 12 months ago and I know it would have been great to have 2m gaps for her instead of the 4-8m that she was running on. Brooks would have loved it. The other one hasn't done alot of agility but if there was a novice course set at 2m distances my flatmate would probably consider running her. She is quite a fast little dog and gives our BCs a run for their money so I'm not talking a velcro dog either. None of the equipment has actually changed as such, its just jumps etc being put closer together. Some of the people who have complained loudly because they have a really wide turning small dog actually have jumps etc at home. Just start training your dog yourself and don't rely on a club to do your work for you. I have never been to a club that would not allow an experienced (by that I mean simply not brand new) person set up a few jumps off to the side to practise small sets or some bounce-jumping drills on their own. You don't need to change an entire course at training every week, you just have to expose your dog to obstacles being set closer sometimes. It's worth asking next time you are at training if you can set up 3 or 4 jumps and put them the minimum distance apart for practise. You could have straight lines, boxes, curved lines, the list is endless and that will replicate anything that you will see on a course. If you dog can do all of those individually it can put a course together, you don't need to run the entire course every time to practise.

Well we have 9 dogs and it isn't uncommon for us to walk most them at the same time (2 people). Our only real requirement is that you don't bite each other (the beauty of running a large pack) Trying to insist on much else is hard when you have multiple leads in one hand as you can't exactly give a correction to a single dog. I guess if you stop to sniff we aren't stopping everyone just for you so expect to be dragged... I will admit though, we are pretty lazy when it comes to teaching the dogs to walk properly and just rely on other aids to help out. They are very rarely walked anyway so it hasn't been something that we have cared to teach. Charlie, Dash, Whip, Link and Rush wear gentle leaders; Delta wears a no-pull harness; Sweep, Brooks and Jaz wear harnesses (they can still pull but at least they wont damage their throats ) When walking back up the driveway the expectation is that everyone pulls as hard as they can because we are tired and struggle to walk back up the hill on our own