wuffles

I guess the question I need to ask is....do you think she knows what stay means? I think she used to, but something has happened to lessen her understanding. Maybe I should do some individual exercises to strengthen that? Last night we trained with a group. She did the sit stay no problems. In the down stay, she stood up when I got about 10m away. I released then reset her and she was ok for the full 5 minutes. I could tell she was nervous for the first 30 seconds or so - sniffed the ground a bit and was looking around. After that she settled and even put her head down. We then did a few more quick stays just with a trusted and steady dog, with no problems. I tried short distance as well as long distance but I can't quite work out what her threshold is.

Sucks Tassie TBH I'm pretty sure it's confusion on my girl's part and confidence will help, I'm just having trouble rebuilding that confidence in her.

I'm having an issue with group stays. My girl is breaking her stays as I step away from her - but only in a group situation. We have no problems in training/trials in the recall, SFE, etc. I also have no problems in training when I do individual stays. As soon as we get in a group environment (even one other dog) she is breaking as I walk away. She'll only take a few steps, then stop (if I don't come back, she will stay in that spot eg. for the whole 5 minutes at a trial). If I reset her, she's fine. If I release then try another stay she is usually ok too - but does revert sometimes if I do a few stays. She has always been very, very steady in her stays so this is a new issue for me. I can speculate about what caused it but won't go into it. I can say that she is a very sensitive dog and her confidence seems rattled at the moment (not just in stays, but in the rest of her work). What do you all think I should be doing, keeping in mind it's quite difficult to find people to train with!

This! Tiny steps. This is what I had to do with my girl. She still occasionally looks at me like she's never heard "sit" in her life - so I just have to go right back and build the distance again. I also reward the positions very heavily - so don't try the whole exercise in one go at first - I go reward for staying standing, then reward for dropping, then reward for sitting and release, or just do a drop to a sit without the first bit at all. Also think about the signals/voice you are using and whether it is difficult for him to see/hear at a distance.

I'd just use a plastic lid

Hiccups. Absolutely terrified

Mine is 70cm, I found one at the local Petbarn!

You could try changing food? My dogs do better on some foods than others.

Mine are outside when we're not home, even in winter. They cope fine. Edit: Mine actually prefer to be outdoors. All the smells, sounds and neighbourhood goings on keeps them amused.

Maybe he just doesn't like the way you're approaching anymore? Not many dogs like to be approached in that way. As my girl matured she definitely mellowed out and became a bit more snobby!

I found that practicing while consciously relaxing my body language completely helped. Then when I get in the ring, I make sure the first few steps at least are relaxed - that is the only thing I think of. I still get nervous though :p

Thanks megan. Our training is always very play oriented but not even real motivation for that at the moment! I do some brief training sessions a few times a week (ranging from just some 2 food game up to a full exercise) and she's 100% into it - until other people/dogs are involved when she is getting stressed. She is getting her walks and socialisation and cuddles on the couch and loves all that, so it's probably not such a big deal that I'm not doing much training wise at the moment :) To put some context around it, I'm pretty sure our issues are relating to stress which causes distraction, and drops her motivation. She's started to worry about people walking past, dogs nearby, even distant noises, which have never worried her before. She's very worried about people raising their voices to their own dogs, or even in conversation to each other and I'm pretty sure this is one of the causes. ness nope it doesn't make sense that soreness is the problem. She's having no issues in the individual exercises (SFE, recall, COP) and I can't replicate the issue with individual stays -- just in the group. I am quite certain it's the "group" environment causing the issues. When she is happy she works beautifully - with scores in the high 190s. It's the happiness I am after, the scores just come with it :)

Once I posted that I realised I have seriously lost all motivation for obedience training because of the stay issue, as well as a broader issue we've had lately which is stress/motivation in the ring -- and that is sad. Any ideas to help bring the fun back for both of us? I have started some UD training but am not really finding that particularly exciting because I still have the "issues" in the back of my mind.

I would also do the ringwork and pull out of the stays if the dog was still going to be next to me. Depending on the circumstances and who the other person was, I might have a word to them as politely as possible and see what happens. To be honest, if a qualifying dog pulls out of stays here the judge would be asking why so it might become public anyway. I have a nervy dog so it's not worth putting her in with dogs I know she's not comfortable with (or ones I'm not comfortable with, for that matter). I put Ava in stays once when she was NQ because I had nothing good to say about her ring performance, so I thought stays might give her an opportunity to get rewarded. She did them perfectly. After having extremely reliable stays all the way through CCD, Novice and our first Open passes (only every broken once in CCD) we now have completely broken stays. She broke BOTH stays at our last trial - I was so embarrassed - she followed me as I walked away on both (then sat back down in the sit stay for the whole 3 minutes, and dropped in the drop stay for the whole 5 minutes). I think I know what has caused it and it is very, very hard to fix

With the amount of entries I would say it will still be going at 3pm (at least the games) :) Don't quote me on it though!

Thanks for asking TSD. She seems ok, her gait is normal as far as I can tell, so we will probably come along on Saturday and see how she goes in her first run (Excellent Jumping which is our LEAST favourite event :laugh:). Looks like a pretty huge trial on Saturday by Canberra standards!

Will do! We are easy to find too :) As long as the rain and wind are gone by then, it won't be so bad!

We might see you there on Saturday TSD - are entered but Ava has pulled up sore after training this evening Love the pic of little Em!!!

I'm off to look for pictures now! Some on this site: http://www.shalakoaussies.com/BreedStandard_Ears.html :)

Here is the Aussie standard for ears: Ears: Are triangular of moderate size and leather, set high on the head. At full attention they break forward and over, or to the side as a rose ear. Prick ears and hanging ears are severe faults.

I don't envy anyone trying to learn Finnish or Sami. We were there earlier in the year and despite our best attempts at learning at least the basics, we left not knowing any more than when we arrived!!! We visited the house of a Sami family and boy was that confusing (but useless fact, although both parents speak Inari Sami, Finnish and English, they are only teaching their children Inari Sami, until they are 12 when they start learning English... want to preserve the language and such).

Yep people in the Aussie thread will be able to help! Ava's ears were quite big as a pup so they never looked like going up. Thankfully she grew into them a bit as an adult!

Some people do tape Aussie ears to make them do the right thing... depends if it matters to you or not :) There is a lovely adult Aussie girl at my dog club with one up, one down.

I do, in case they need to go into kennels. If I had no need for kennelling, I wouldn't.

I get a lot of people question my dog's measured height (she seems smaller than her measurement). But she's clearly a 500 dog (500mm) and I don't mind her jumping 500 in obedience so I accept it :laugh: