wuffles

Does anyone do mock trials? How do you handle them? When people at our club do mock trials, they generally run their dogs through exactly as they would in a trial, including no rewards until the end. I have issues with motivation with my dog in the ring, so I am hesitant to put her through a full round without rewards. But what SHOULD I be doing? What do you guys do? I like to start with a few games (eg. two food) to get her excited, also some start peg rewarding, but after that I'm not sure what the best approach is.

Agree, I rarely practice full rally courses, the individual signs are the most important thing and I do most of that in my lounge room! :)

Aww Ava looked to be doing so well during the parts I managed too see with my inexperienced eyes :p. Wish I could of stayed to watch some Rally O, if only I hadn't made other plans that day . Good stuff on the Rally results though . Thanks, her heelwork was pretty miserable but the rest was ok. With only one pass in CCD and one in Novice on the day I don't know if the conditions were particularly good for trialling :laugh: Now that your first trial is out of the way, will we be seeing you at any upcoming ones? :)

Did anyone else trial or do anything fun on the weekend? We had an obedience and rally trial on Saturday. Bombed the obedience in the morning, Ava forgot what "sit" means in the COP :laugh: Am having some motivation issues in the ring at the moment. Ugh. Then we had rally in the afternoon, where we got 96 points and 3rd place in Advanced. It was a real effort on my behalf as she just wanted to go home and have a nap! So we need one more pass in Open and one more in Rally Advanced for those titles :)

I'm a volunteer instructor at our local dog club, I agree, go and visit the club and ask some questions first. Our classes aren't suitable for highly reactive dogs as there are just too many dogs out on the field and no matter how much people are told, some will still not give a wide enough berth. I have some mildly reactive dogs in my class who are managed quite easily, as well as a moderately reactive one who has caused no issues so far. I give a little spiel in my first class about the "rules", not letting dogs eyeball each other, suitable spacing between dogs, recognising signs and moving away, etc. Though this is not something all our instructors do. Many have no experience with reactive dogs. We cannot afford to be picky unless more people volunteer! That being said, I think that more work needs to be done with most of these dogs as group classes (at least like ours, who are not specifically set up for dogs with issues) help but often don't seem to translate to "the outside world". My own dogs certainly behave differently on their morning walk then they do at dog club! Edit: Our syllabus does include a "meet and greet" type exercise which is included in assessment. However, owners specify whether they would actually like the dogs to meet, and if they say no, they are allowed to stop 2m away (dogs on opposite sides of handlers) and continue walking without the dogs meeting.

They look nothing like Aussie to me, lots of breeds can have blue eyes :) Can you just put one breed? My rescue boy is just registered as a "Crossbreed" but the vet calls him "German Shepherd X". Edit: For a pup to be brindle, doesn't one parent need to be brindle?

They don't have to be purebred. You can just register him as an Associate with Dogs Vic. Edit: Oops I meant Dogs NSW :p

My OH used those little glucose sachets in soccer games, but the main reason was that his conditioning was probably not quite up to the level it should have been so they did give him a bit of pep. I try not to ask more of my dog than is fair on them and I would think having to give these supplements would mean I was pushing too far, I agree with Nekhbet in that regard. My dog definitely performs a little worse as the day goes on but in my mind this is not a big issue as it is in line with her personality, drive and conditioning. I get tired as the day goes on too :laugh:

Yep I give a small breakfast. I think it's important seeing as my dog is lean and fit, and I'm expecting a lot of her that day :) She's super food motivated anyway so it doesn't dampen her enthusiasm.

Ours sometimes does this but after a wash or two it goes back to normal Maybe try cleaning then freezing it, that seems to stop ours being sticky.

Boarding kennels (the right ones). My dogs need exercise, whether that be on leash walks or free running in a large area (that my yard cannot provide). I wouldn't let anyone else take them to an off leash area, and I don't even like the thought of them being walked on leash by someone as they can take a bit of management. One quick walk a day is not enough for my young dog, she is very active. Being confined to our backyard for 23.5 hours a day doesn't work for her at all. I do not want to leave them outside at night as they will most likely bark and disturb the neighbours (especially without much daytime stimulation). In boarding kennels I am assured that they are secure. They get supervision, and let out into a large exercise area 2x day. There is always something going on and my younger dog in particular enjoys watching the happenings of the day :) If we are only going away for a few days, mine stay with friends (generally separately) where their individual needs will be met.

One of my friend's dogs doesn't know how to play bitey face. Ava always rolls on the ground in front of him with her snapping turtle face and he just takes a few steps back and stares at her like she's a weirdo.

Don't know if anyone else finds this but mine are absolute ferals when together, compared to when apart

To confirm my dog's reaction to the table, she looked beneath her (where the beep comes from), jumped straight off and was very worried. She refused to get back on and wouldn't come near me when I beeped it with my hand. It probably took less than 5 minutes for her to be getting on the table and staying there with constant treats, but she was still not comfortable (ears back, slinky). I left it there for the day so as not to overwhelm her (I did turn the table off and ensured that she was happy to get back on it like that which took another few minutes. In our Novice Agility run she did the table sans beep with no big issues but there was subtle body language indicating she was still a bit worried). She's not a spooky dog and to be honest I first put her onto the table when I didn't even have treats on me because I was so confident she would be fine I went and got them straight away, though. I wouldn't say she is bombproof by any means but has had no previous issues with loud noises, beeps, storms, etc. She's never been scared of equipment, ever, and is usually very gung ho about it all even if she crashes into something. She was in the area when FHRP's dogs were on the table and didn't seem particularly worried as long as she or I weren't the ones setting it off. She does have a strong sense of what I call "What Should Be" so the fact that the noise was coming from under the table when it previously had not, may have been what rattled her :) We've only trialled a few times so she is still very green.

I would have thought it was blown out of proportion too if my dog hadn't reacted badly to it :laugh: I have no criticism for Le and it was great to be able to practice at Canberra (we're not entered in Nationals anyway so I have no need to worry in that regard). Now that I know my dog has an issue with it, we will do some training, but I won't put her on it in a trial situation until I'm 100% confident that it's not going to spook her.

Are you on the Agility-Australia Yahoo list? Lots of discussion about it there. In one of the Canberra trials last weekend the table was set up in a practice ring. From what I observed most dogs were fine with it. Some looked confused but didn't mind. And a small number hated it. It was used in the Novice Agility ring but the judge let us turn it off, which I did. I would recommend getting your dogs used to quite loud beeping and beeping coming from underneath them before using it in trials.

Hrmm. I will have to get some video and have a look. I don't think I'm one to throw my arms and legs around but stranger things have been observed when watching video of myself

We're losing points in obedience trials for wide turns (right abouts are our worst). No problems in slow pace but the faster we go the worse they become, so fast pace is just a mess. I've been doing some work with hand touches which is working well until I remove the "touch" hand signal then it all falls apart again Suggestions pleeeeeeeeease? Edit: Her static turns are lovely and tight if that makes a difference. Another edit: Oh how I long for short fast paces, but the judges don't seem to think like me... I think our last one had at least 4 turns in fast pace

I like this one too :)

I think that all breeds can be great for agility, as long as the lab is kept lean. But also remember that fast dogs are very hard to handle so sometimes it's nicer to have a "medium pace" dog to learn with if you have not done agility before :laugh:

Hehehe that's "bunny ball" in our household, I don't even remember where he's from but he's a couple of years old now.

Paddington is sooooooooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are some of mine.

I rarely have time to wash my dog before trials, and she doesn't need washing nearly every weekend anyway. She's generally well groomed anyway so she always looks presentable. Same with me - I may wear trackies but I'm showered and my hair is brushed at least :laugh: I don't think it has ever affected my scores in the ring.

I don't worry too much about pretty collars/leads for obedience... my dog is long coated so you can't even see her collar, and the leash gets abandoned after the first level anyway. I noticed at our trial last weekend when they were collecting our leads for the stays, that everyone had very plain, cotton/nylon leashes. Mine is purple with a few pink streaks through it and it was the most fancy one there :laugh:

I meant to reply as well but ran out of time! I would also make sure that he understands your criteria and even more importantly, YOU know what your criteria are. I want my dog to be looking at me the whole time. At one stage my dog learned that if she looked away, but then looked back at me, she would still get rewarded - so I had to go back and build up the focus one step at a time. If she looked away, I didn't try to get her attention, I just released her and started again (then rewarded just before the point she looked away last time). After a while it was clear that she just didn't realise that she wasn't meant to look away.