DeltaCharlie

I never actually went to any in Penrith (I was living in Blacktown when Delta was a pup) but I was going to say Coreen Ave too. They are my vet of choice in the area, a little more expensive for some things but a really great vet and I trust them completely with my dogs. They were the only place that didn't try to talk me out of titre testing my dogs (in fact Nicole was a wealth of knowledge on the topic) and they were always great with the dogs. Mine love that place LOL. I have heard that their puppy preschool is great too, they really try to show new owners the range of activities available to dogs. They approached me about agility and flyball demos for a puppy preschool reunion but they don't have the room unfortunately.

Hi there, I am busy making the tug toys that I will be selling at the nationals and want to get a bit of an idea of what people would like. So far I have only been making various coloured ones, some with patterned fleece etc. I will be making some in team colours too so if there is any specific colour teams would like (matching tugs perhaps???) let me know via email and I can get them sorted This is what they look like: (previous tugs) (so far for nationals) I will also be making some tug leads so let me know about colours for those too. These tugs and leads are very durable, Charlie's tugtoy is over 12months old and still looks exactly the same (minus the dangly bits at the end). It is used as his flyball and agility tug as well as frequently being left on the loungeroom floor to be played with by our 5 border collies so you imagine the workout it receives :D Both my dogs still have their original leads, I made them 18months ago. Not sure exactly what I will be pricing them at, probably $10-12 each. I will do a deal if an entire team wants a matching set. Bec

We will be there, looking forward to it. The dogs had their first taste of Flyball since Easter on Wednesday night... lets just say they were a little excited LOL. I am attempting to get them flyball fit in time... hopefully they dont collapse on me after 2 days of running in the heat.

I noticed at the Sutherland trial they are selling their old A-Frame for $150. No idea what it is like, I didn't see it, only saw the notice on the noticeboard. Perhaps contact them???

We are only going to be up there for the Sunday. I have Delta in JDO GDX and SPDX pairs with Shine. Charlie is in JDO GD and JDX although I will be DQing him in JDX as he is running really nice at the moment and I don't want to undo all our hard work by getting that final pass and putting him into masters. Its the same reason why Delta isnt running JDX at the moment, I don't want either dog in JDM until I sort out all the issues (theirs and mine). We considered going up both days but after having Port Macquarie last weekend and then a double in Sydney the following weekend it was just going to be too much travelling. Dash is in the JDY so we need to go up on the Sunday.

No idea sorry guys, was just a thought. I was a member of Springwood at the time, thats how I knew they were auctioning theirs off.

Eddy is still making things but there is a wait into the next year. He is going away for a few months (Numea perhaps???) so that will put a halt on things. Plus he is making ALL the equipment for a few different clubs so when Tammy spoke to him about a new seesaw he told her it wont be ready until next year as he has so much to make already. I cant remember exactly which clubs are getting new equipment (Port Mac was one of them) but it may be an option to buy their old A-Frame as he is making them new ones. Some clubs sell off their old equipment pretty cheap, I nearly bought Springwood's old one for $50 last year. Just another thought.

Ahh what a shame, I will be in Sydney on the Friday and Saturday for the agility trial at Manly, but we are going home on the Sat night

Just be careful doing a four on the floor. I started it with Delta as it seemed like a good idea and she was doing it very naturally. However, as she got more confident and I started phasing the target out I started to realise all the issues with it. To a dog, 1 blade of grass is no different to another blade 2m away and there was really no way to say to her exactly which one she needed to be on. She also started going really fast, jumping off the A-Frame and landing in a drop. When it came down to it, she was still fulfilling the criteria I had set for her. If I was to get her to run through then I may as well have just done a running with her. I started talking to more people about it to try and fix my issues and discovered that Ann Croft, the lady who originally made the behaviour known actually had to retrain her dog too as she was having the same problems. I ended up going with a drop on the end of the contact as it was a good compromise. She still got to lie down which is what she wanted to do, and there was also a definite position in her mind (front feet on grass, back feet on hard surface). Plus going into a drop meant that her weight was well and truly off her shoulders which was something I was quite worried about at the time. Charlie prefers to keep standing in his 2o2o, although he will sometimes sit on the contact if asked to wait for too long. I don't really mind what they do with their body, so long as their feet are right. I figure that going with what the dog feels more natural with is better, as you want the dog to be comfortable or they will not want to continue offering that behaviour.

Do you have the details of that? I'd love to go and look it up. No I don't sorry, it was only mentioned briefly during the seminar when people were discussing different end behaviours. I was interested too and meant to ask her for more details but forgot. Vickie may know more.

I had alot of issues with Charlie being able to stop himself at the bottom. I started off lowering the A Frame but it wasn't really teaching him to adjust himself as the angle was different. So I worked on backchaining it, so that he learnt to get into position with increasing momentum carrying him over. When Ronda Carter came out earlier in the year she suggested using stride regulators with him so that he could get his stride right to end up in the right position. What I discovered, however, is that if I carried raw chicken bits he was capable of stopping 100% of the time Turns out he knew how to adjust when it was really worth his while... She also mentioned a study that was done in the US over 3 years which examined the impact on dogs joints going over the A Frame with each popular end behaviour and they discovered that there was not much difference between running and 2o2o. In fact the greatest impact on the dog was actually during the up phase of the AFrame. Considering how many repetitions are required to perfect a running vs a 2o2o (which can be done without the equipment for the majority of it) t is actually less strenuous for the dog to do a 2o2o.

No idea, that was my first comp with Canberra I have only just moved down here. I was with Norwest briefly (1 comp LOL) and Parramatta (PICSI) before that.

Thought that was you LOL. Both times she crossed was against our team haha (Im with X-Factor), very fast dog you have there, Im hoping I can get a similar speed out of Delta once she works out how to turn and catch properly on these boxes (she is currently about 4.3secs), they are very different to the Norwest ones and both my dogs have dropped their turns unfortunately.

Yep was a great weekend of racing, my dogs were absolutely exhausted by the end of it though. It was Delta's first ever comp and she ran so well for me both days, I am very proud of her. I was also very happy with Charlie, I have been having issues with him running at agility/flyball lately but he gave it his all both days. I would have come over LilBailey except I wasn't sure which one was you LOL. I saw all of your dogs (Charlie was in Div 2 against you guys) but as they all had a different handler I had no idea who you were. I tried to get photos of your team running but every time I grabbed the camera and stood ringside I ended up having to steward :rolleyes: Here is the link to the photos I took though, there are some of Twiggy in there for you Linda. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14652975@N06/...57616637956735/

Ummm I should point out that I do actually use and understand the GD system. I am just not completely brainwashed like some people are...

You have found one of the inconsistencies in the GD system Basically, using his system, the way you send the dog over the 3rd jump in a serp would be a big NO-NO anywhere else on the course If you are bringing your off hand up to bring the dog in over the 2nd jump, then bringing the near hand up again to send them back away over the 3rd jump then you are doing it right. If you are running a course and want to send the dog laterally away by bringing that hand up, you are flicking them... makes no sense I know

I tend to turn it around. Explain to him that every time he uses it while your dog is playing or about to play (as an example) it is teaching the dog that the word means "go and play with your new friend". Because that is basically the connection a dog is going to make if it hears the same word every time it greets a new dog. I like the idea of having a separate set of commands for each person though

Ive seen a few chis doing agility. They cope with the jumps fine

How old are they? Is it hot where you are? Been pushing 40 degrees here the last few days and my dogs have slept for about 48hours straight

Transcript from show

You need to know their flickr name and type that into the search thing. It will come up with any of their photos that have been used, then you click on it and it takes you to the image that has been created using it.

You can shape them to wait until they receive multiple clicks before the reward comes. I tend to avoid using the clicker for things that require a release though. Or I use the clicker to teach it initially (like contacts for agility) but then after rewarding them I give them a "wait" command before they get a chance to move out of position. I would usually wait until they had the first behaviour downpat before asking them to wait there, by that time the clicker is probably back in the cupboard.

No weaves in any of the jumping (except the open courses). Thats why Charlie is restricted to jumping I figured I could get him all the way to masters without ever having to teach him to weave ADAA has no weaves in elementary and in some of the games. I'm dreading the day Charlie gets his BAAD, for now he seems to be really good at dropping one bar in each course, Im so proud of him

Ahh, someone explained that to me at the last trial. I think it like Gamblers without contacts (so basically a jumping course with normal gamblers rules).

In theory they should be good for life, however, most boarding kennels and sporting clubs still require more frequent tests. They are all different so I guess you will probably have to ask around and see what the general consensus is. I have 1 club who are happy to accept these results for life and another who haven't really made up their mind about when I need to do it again, although probably every few years. My certificate from my vet says they need retesting again 12months on, but the vet told me that was purely so that they could still keep an eye on everyones dogs and give them yearly checkups. If people are happy to come in for a check up she doesn't see the need to retest.