DeltaCharlie

Delta's favourite obstacles in the world are her contacts. She doesn't care which one, just so long as she can race over it and into her position LOL Comes from being so heavily rewarded and usually pays off with discriminations (seems that 9/10 if there is a tunnel under the contact the judge wants you to take the contact) because I don't even have to handle it, I just know she will take the right one where most dogs will suck into the off-course tunnel. Its a pain though when we are required to take the tunnel because I simply cannot get her into them! I have tried at training so many times, even to the point of holding her by the collar with her nose already in the tunnel, giving her the tunnel command and she will still back out of it and go up the contact... Charlie doesn't really take off-courses of his own choice, its pretty much always due to lazy handling on my part. The only time I ever remember him voluntarily taking himself to an obstacle was during a snooker run where he locked onto the weave poles and decided that nothing was going to stop him from doing them. Most bizarre thing as he is not a great weaver, he cant usually be sent to them from a distance, and will often run past them in a "what weaves? I don't see any weave poles" fashion. I think we may have been doing lots of weaves over the preceding week though as he had forgotten how to weave the weekend before. So at that point in time they were highly valuable (didn't last long though ) Whip hasn't really seen many obstacles so no idea what he will be like yet. He has done jumps and tunnels (3-4 obstacle sequences) but doesn't really suck into the tunnel or anything. Although Tailwag started his weave training (just entrances with 3 poles) and he kept trying to go over to them one day. If he ends up being a weave suck like Dash I will be most impressed.

Meh... we will still travel to do ADAA They are trying to organise more that are closer to Canberra again as many ACT people used to do ADAA but stopped when they didn't hold close trials anymore. There are a few of us die-hard fans that will still travel to attend though The closest ones are either Camden (2hours) or Dapto (2.5hours). I really like ADAA, the whole atmosphere of an ADAA trial is much more relaxed. People are not playing for sheepstations and they all just pitch in and help out. I think one of the big contributing factors to that is the fact that in ADAA you are only ever competing against dogs that are your height. Then you have the regular program that allows you to continue running your dogs as they are starting to age etc because you are jumping them 1 height lower. Delta is not even 5 but I run her in the reg program because she simply cannot handle jumping 650mm (she is only 500-510 at the shoulder). ADAA gives me that option and she is fine over 550mm. I also really like the NFC (not for competition) option with ADAA. It means I can set my dog up in a trial situation and then suddenly whip out a toy in the middle of the course for doing something great. $4 runs are also great, although you have so many options with ADAA that we still end up paying just as much but get twice as many runs as we would with ANKC. An untitled dog can run in 4 different jumping and 4 different agility runs each trial, plus any games that are on offer! The titles can be a little confusing to work out at first, but you start to get the hang of it after a little bit

Haha, Delta was desexed at 6 months, you can't even find her bits to check LOL I could just imagine if they decided to go looking through all the desexed bitches with hidden girly bits, the trials would take forever to get started!

Wow I have never had anyone look at how my dogs walk before a comp. I can think of quite a few dogs trialling in NSW who would be excluded just because they can't walk, let alone jump which is really sad to see out there I don't know why their owners insist on trialling the poor things... but that is off track. Vetting for ANKC and ADAA has always been just for entire bitches wherever I have trialled, and that is across 4 different states/ territories. I have never trialled in QLD though. I had my dogs measured before their second trial (nobody could do it before their first although it was obvious they would be 500s) and I just emailed the trial secretary to let her know they would need measuring. A few others were being done at the same time. I know enough judges now though that I will have Whip done before he trials. I use the multi-entry agility forms which allow up to 7 classes to be entered on one form. I assume it will say on the schedule if single entry forms are required, otherwise we always send off the multi ones no matter what state. I can email you a copy of the excel version if you like and you just have to type in the details and make the necessary changes for each new trial. If you are a member of the agility australia yahoo list they have a copy for download in their files section. Otherwise http://www.agilitynsw.com.au/ have a pdf version that you can print and handwrite the details in. Good luck and have fun

I would never try to slow my dog down, we are doing everything we can to make sure our pups are flying over it LOL Link does the entire dog walk (2o2o at the end) in less than 2 secs and we would love for both pups to follow in her footsteps. I also don't mind them falling off sometimes, ideally landing on their feet though. It teaches them alot about their balance but it also teaches them that it isn't the end of the world if you do fall off and its great that she wasn't deterred and got straight back on.

Depending on the dog (and you know him better than anyone) you can set up something wobbly in a common part of the house or yard where he has no choice but to walk over it regularly. My first dog Cody was petrified of anything moving under his feet and we tried everything to help him over come it. He was a purely outside dog and I'd moved back in with my parents at this point so no chance of him being allowed inside. He absolutely loved to go into the pool area at their house (you could see the roos from in there) so we built a board that was as wide as the gate and reasonably long so he couldn't leap over it, then stuck a piece of wood underneath so that it wobbled. To get into the pool area he needed to walk over the wobbly plank each time. The desire to get into that area was so great that he was prepared to do it so we used his love of going in there to help him overcome it. Initially we lifted the board for when he was coming back out as their was no great reward for coming back out again, but once he was more comfortable with it we left it there so that he was walking over the board to go in and out. He hated the dog walk too because it was a particularly wobbly old thing at the club we were training at so we used to lay the planks out on bricks, and then chairs and built it up from there. Start small and work your way up. Having gone through those issues I didn't want it repeated with Delta so as a puppy I had a wobble board set up in the hallway of the house so that multiple times a day she had to walk over it. I was living alone though so I didn't have to consider the inconvenience to anyone else I did something similar when I got Charlie (Delta was about 6 months old) with a slightly raised ladder I made from pvc. To get from one end of the house to the other both dogs had to walk through the ladder and think about their back feet

Guess we will be seeing both of you there then Tailwag and I are running 5 of our dogs at BDOC

No way Id be letting my pup on a flyball box. Whip is 13months old and only just starting to see a flat turning board. People then wonder why their flyball dog breaks down by the age of 5 Wait those extra 6-12 months and you could have them still running competitively at 10. I know what I would prefer.

Well if my vet refused to accept a decision I had made I would be finding a new vet personally. It is your dog afterall so it should be your choice what you want to put in their body. Just tell them you have your reasons, you are not going into it blind as you have done the research and spoken to knowledgeable dog people, and you have decided not to give your dog the additional vaccine. Umm... off the top of my head the biggest reason why most people don't bother with the kennel cough is that it only protects against one or two particular strains and your dog could still contract any of the other strains. In saying that, the KC up the nose vaccine is the only one that I give to my dogs past their puppy vacs, because we are trialling almost every weekend so they come in contact with plenty of other dogs. I titre test for the other main things to check they are still immune.

I just stumbled upon this thread entirely accidently and started reading through it. Elbie sounds just like Delta, this was my attempt at using packing tape a few years ago. She paid no attention to it whatsoever. I recently tried again because Id like to use it in our DWD routine so out came the sticky tape. Somehow she misinterpreted my clicks and started offering me a bow (another trick I never succeeded in teaching her) so the session turned into a "learn to bow" one LOL. One of these days we will get around to actually learning how to be shy :D

When you were rewarding her for being in position (earlier in your training) how fast was she getting into position? It sounds almost as though she doesn't realise that the idea is to get into that position as quickly as she can because she has been rewarded for getting into it at her own pace. Even in the early stages of training (my 12month old boy is only just working with a contact plank on the ground) I won't reward unless they get into the position quickly. Provided they understand the position to begin with of course. I just say "too slow", rev them up a bit and ask for it again. If they are faster then they get the reward, otherwise we try it for a third time. If they are still slow the third time they are put away for a few minutes to think about it. Or in our case, we have plenty of other dogs so they can sit and watch someone else have a few turns. This way they actually gain an understanding that the criteria is to do the position quickly, not just get into it at your own leisure. When you then move to backchaining along the downramp etc you need to maintain the expectation of speed. Use whatever reward you can think of that will get the most out of your dog and use that to rev them up beforehand. Make them REALLY want that reward. I think it could well pay to take a few steps back to reteach the position how YOU want it performed. It will pay off in the long run.

Yeh some of ours would be fine to just start off beside the bike but some of them have an obsession with trying to bite wheels LOL. We have worked hard at desensitising but would like the added assurance that they aren't going to be able to suddenly dart at our wheels LOL. Should add, this isn't to train for ET, purely for exercise and we would likely have a few dogs with us at a time so would make things easier if some were on an attachment.

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone bought a springer or walky dog attachment for their initial training and no longer need it? We are looking to buy 2 second hand ones and I thought of this thread. PM me if you do in case I forget to come back in here

The dog needs to be 18 months old to compete. Delta was well and truly ready to compete when I started with her, she had been doing masters level courses at training in the months leading up to it and we were well and truly prepared before our first trial. Charlie was not as prepared, he was more than capable of doing a novice course (and went clear or had a minor fault in the first few runs we had in both ADAA and ANKC) but mentally he wasn't prepared for it. He hadn't done anywhere near the training that Delta had but I used the logic of "well he can do all the obstacles and follow me around a course so I will enter him". It backfired on us bigtime as he completely shutdown and it has taken a lot of work to get him back to enjoying the sport. He is in masters now and I still find myself having to do "yahoo laps" if the course is beyond us. Most of our issues have come from me putting him into the ring before our partnership was ready and I will never do it with a dog again. I want them ready to tackle whatever is put in front of them (beyond novice skills) before I will consider entering them in a trial.

Who said anything about teaching it incorrectly? As far as my criteria goes a drop is lying with your arse end down and your chest on the ground. How you position the rest of your body is completely up to you. So no, my dogs are not learning it incorrectly then having it fixed, they are fulfilling my criteria. I leave it up to them to work out the most efficient manner of performing it and what suits them in terms of comfort. It just so happens that they all start to lie down in the manner you are after within a short period of time so I told you what I do. Even at 6 weeks our puppies knew the command lie down and they would all lie in a "nice" way.

I thought I had heard something about them also considering a Trans-Tasman thing on the alternate years with people going to NZ to compete (and them coming here) and they didn't want that clashing with a year that had a nationals. I may have it completely wrong as I didn't have much to do with the sport at that time and I haven't heard of any Trans-Tasman comp happening yet.

At this age I wouldn't be worried about it. I would just be acknowledging the drop. At our place the game that everyone loves is to lie them down and put them in a wait, then walk away, ask them a few times if they are "ready" then release them to a tug (or just release them and they run randomly across the paddock to nowhere LOL). They work out very quickly that the "lazy" drop is not very efficient That's coming from an agility person mind you, not sure how good a game that would be if you were keen to do obedience too. Mind you, my obedience dogs in the past worked out quickly enough that there was a good chance you were going to be moving again fairly quickly so the same principle applied. If I asked for a wait (stay component) they used to roll over on their hips because they knew they would be lying there a while and I would rather them be comfortable as it means they are more likely to hold their stay.

My dogs are titled in Agility and Flyball and we compete in these most weekends. We have a full set of trialling gear at home for agility and a full racing lane for flyball (plus another lane that has no box). We have also started DWD with a few of them and are looking to enter our first comp once our routines are finalised. The young pups (Whip 11months and Rush 6months) have seen sheep once and will be returning to the trainer again sometime in the near future. Delta was trained up to Novice level Obedience but I never actually got into trialling with her, although that isn't ruled out for the future. A few of Tailwags dogs would probably be ready to trial too if it interested her. My dogs also used to go to Lure-Coursing which they absolutely loved!

I am not a fan of the Wee-Saw... the rest of the world must be laughing at us and shaking their heads! We are already behind the rest of the world when it comes to agility, and instead of trying to catch up we are now going backwards

I love it :D Very cute, but very well written!

I have one and used to use it for a lot of things. Delta was taught to weave using one as she wouldn't drive to a toy (food driven dog). You can set them to beep too which can take the place of a click as a reward marker. The other thing I used to use it for is when I was training one dog, the other dog was able to be rewarded for lying quietly in their crate and not upsetting the neighbours

Just wanted to add to what a few people have touched on. A bitch in season will have her body changing to prepare for mating and pregnancy (her body doesn't know she isn't being bred) and their ligaments and tendons will loosen significantly. They are at a much greater risk of injury and should not be doing strenuous work (I'm talking from an agility/flyball point of view here) for that 4 week period (and some take longer to get back than that). That's not to say they can't do anything, just be aware of the risk and take measures to minimise it, so no intense jump work etc and set them up with good approaches to contacts. We don't do any flyball box work during that time either.

I'm 27 so was part of that same period of school that you would have been where we weren't taught any grammar (I think it was about 10 years worth). Grammar is a huge part of the curriculum these days and as a teacher I find it so hard to teach grammar to my Year 4 class because I was never taught it myself. I have actually had to ask the kids the answer multiple times because they understand it better than I do. When I was training to become a teacher I was really struggling to get my head around what on earth a clause was. In the end, my supervising teacher grabbed a bright year 6 child, told her that we were testing her knowledge and asked her to explain just what the different clauses were. She managed to put it into a simpler language than the grammar books use and I have remembered it ever since.

That sounds like our place (except our old dogs are our little dogs so they get it doubly as good). Little dogs (old dogs) no longer have to sit for a treat, eat in a crate etc. They are allowed on the lounge beside us while we eat (they just lie there so no problem at all, would be different if they showed interest in the food on our laps) and they get to sleep on the bed. The only other dog allowed on the bed with my flatmate is Sweep, one of the border collies, coz he is her heart dog and is just allowed so many more privileges LOL. No dog is allowed to sleep outside of a crate until at least 2 years old coz they just annoy everyone else during the night. Link is 3 1/2 and still in a crate coz she was annoying them all night and nobody was getting any sleep. We have a lounge that we sit on and an opposite lounge that the dogs are permitted on. These rules are for all the border collies (we have 7), the 2 little dogs can lie on the lounge with us. When we are not sitting there though it doesn't matter, and Charlie will often sleep out on the human lounge at night. It just stops 9 dogs trying to sit on our lap LOL. Everyone eats in crates (except the little dogs), Link and Dash share a big crate to eat in though. Not only does feeding them in crates prevent dog fights, it also stops them from being able to run around or roll around with a belly full of food. The rule is that you don't do anything physical for at least 2 hours after eating. The only other rule we really have that doesn't apply to everyone is that no matter what the little dog is doing to you (one of the terriers has a tendency to ambush collies and bite them for no reason lol) you are not allowed to lay any teeth on them. Your Mummies will deal with it, you just lie there and take it until we get there. Yes, the little dogs know that they can get away with murder BUT I would rather that than the alternative if one of the big guys thinks they can deal with the situation themselves. There are definitely inconsistencies with how we treat each of the dogs (some dogs just have to look at us funny and they get in trouble for staring and begging LOL whereas the next dog can do it and it is simply "looking at us with love in its eyes") but each dog knows what it can and can't do and it all works relatively smoothly. I have never seen any of them decide that something isn't fair Mind you, the dogs seem to have the same rules for us which is a little annoying at times. My flatmate is the pack leader in their eyes and I am second in command. It is pretty much how it works with us too, Im naturally more submissive (to use a dog term) and if we were both like me nothing would ever get done, if we were both like her we would probably clash a lot. Its a good match for us living together but the dogs know it too. If she is not around then the dogs will do whatever I ask of them without hesitation because I am the "stand-in leader". If she is around and I ask them to do something, they will glance over at her first with a "well she isn't asking me to do it so I'm not sure if I have to" look. Even my own dogs do it and they were adults when I moved in with her I find myself having to be more forceful when she is around so that they know I really do mean it

For years my weave poles were tomato stakes stuck in the ground with pvc pipe over the top of them. If you need to replicate the bar along the bottom (depends on your dog) you can try putting something like the stuff they use to make seat belts along the ground with holes in it at 600mm (or 550mm for ADAA) and put your poles through that.