RubyStar

She certainly does still have sparkle!! It's Chloe's 17th birthday tomorrow (maltese), she definitely is slowing down but when she's excited (ie. when my girls come to visit) she barks and runs around like a little puppy - she just can't see anything She bumps into everything. Poor duffa! But she's still going strong, still eating well (just a bit on the skinny side).

Well done mollipop on your first pass towards the RAT! Did you enter Novice or Open? If you can tell us more about it that would be greatly appreciated! I think we’re getting a demo of what is involved next weekend at retrieving training held by the Retrieving Club, which should be great! TSD, sounds like Em is coming along beautifully, you must be so pleased! FHRP love the pics!!! I went to training yesterday with the Retrieving Club and took both girls along. My gosh I am mighty impressed with Millie (she never ceases to amaze me), what a damn shame that associate registered dogs cannot compete in retrieving trials! (even though she is no question a gundog!) I am so thankful that the RAT is available to her at least :D I have done very little retrieving with her, past a dumbbell for obedience, so for the little work we’ve done she just amazes me. We did a single mark in a bit of cover yesterday at about 50-100m (I’m terrible with distances!) and she flew out to roughly where she had marked it, then did a little sniffing and looking around and found it! Came bolting back and delivered! Her deliveries (and steadiness) need more work but boy am I chuffed!! She is just so enthusiastic about it all! We did a second single mark directly after the first, she didn’t see it go up, only noticed it as it bounced to a halt, so when she bolted out to get it she didn’t find it right away. She came back to me so I heeled her closer to about within 10m of where it should have been (I couldn’t see it, either ), sent her, and still with the same confidence and trust, she dashed out, this time found it, so I ran back to the starting pegs to try and beat her back :lol: Ruby got thrown a single mark in cover, too. She dashed out beautifully (love how steady she is) but didn’t mark it as well as Millie so spent a bit more time tracking it with her nose. She found it though and came back with a nice present I tried the dreaded water work with her, too. A lovely helper loaned me her waders so out I went into the water with Ruby and after a few goes she delivered it to me without dropping it first (us still in the water). I think we narrowed the dropping down a bit more to me holding my hands out to get it from her, it’s intimidating her. So I kept my hands in front of me as I squatted in the water and she came to me Now to keep doing that and slowly getting further and further out of the water! Need to buy me some waders I think! Can’t wait til the next training session

Cluck cluck I want one

Awesome! (for aussielover ) But I'm still curious to know the answer!

Just wondering if you're allowed to do agility training with guide dog pups? Sorry I can't help with the info! But there is plenty of foundation work you can do with a dog before 18 months.

Looking good!! His line up and attention at heel position is fantastic

Firstly, grab a rolled up newspaper and hit yourself over the head What I would do is get a helper and do a restrained recall. The helper must be someone you and the dog trusts and who has good timing. Get them to kneel down and gently hold the dog. With my pup, I had someone just hold her around her chest but I'm not sure how big/strong your dog is??? You can slip your fingers through the collar but it needs to be done at a particular angle so that if the dog pulls away, no fingers get broken!!! Get a toy or similar and run away from the dog all excited and call your dog. As soon as the dog starts to strain against the helper they release the dog, who should come sprinting at you at top speed - reward! It's actually a slightly more complicated exercise than I've described as it requires sensitivity and timing on the part of the helper - enlist an experienced person if you can. HAHA I know. Bad trainer! Sometimes it sucks having a dog smarter than you I'll enlist OH to do some restrained recalls tomorrow. I think it is the stay that is throwing her off -- she seems to be ok as long as I don't put her in a stay beforehand. wuffles, if we are talking formal obedience recalls here, then I had a similar thing happening with Millie not too long ago. I'd leave her in her wait, walk away, turn around, call, and she'd just sit there. Ptolomy, as usual, helped cure the problem. If I remember correctly, she advised starting closer to the dog, and as soon as the dog's butt leaves the ground to come when you call it, click and throw the treat behind you! Rinse and repeat. You're marking the dog getting off it's bum to begin the recall. Once she realises that is the desired behaviour, extend the distance, then ask for her to come all the way. No need to hit yourself with the newspaper just yet, it happens! You can hit yourself with the newspaper if you called your dog with your recall command when the dog was distracted and was never going to comply. I think I need to keep a newspaper in my training bag as I am guilty of this

I think that can be the case RS but if I had my heart set on a retrieving dog, wouldn't you want to see a retrieving instinct in the dog before you bought it home rather than chancing it or making your job potentially harder? Definitely, I was never arguing that point. I was responding to RallyValley who stated while instinct is important, some can be taught to do things as well. I never had my sights on retrieving with Millie (I can't, she's an Associate registered dog), we're training it for pure enjoyment. While I personally will never get another rescue/adult dog (unless under specific circumstances ie. great dog on offer with the instinct you and others here are referring to), I got very lucky with Millie. She's a fantastic dog to train, very motivated and willing to please. She doesn't tug, so she is motivated with treats, squeaky ball, and pats/praise from me She is doing better than my dog I got as a pup :D

I did notice that. I wouldn't write a dog off as a retriever if it didn't instantly race after a toy and bring it all the way back to me. There's a lot you can teach, is all. But I don't have any experience with retrievers. I have one dog that started out a natural retriever and doesn't really do it much anymore and one that isn't a natural retriever but I'm teaching him to retrieve. Mostly I think I just never played fetch with my dogs when they were young so they don't do it much. You never know what kind of untapped potential could be under the surface ready to burst out with a little coaxing. Hmm for a retriever doing retrieveing trials it's akin to a herding dog doing sheepdog trials, the dog has to have the instinct and enjoy/love it or there is no way the dog will run out 300m through a river, up a steep hill into long grass and back just to get a bird to bring back to you (and that's at a novice level ;) ) I understand what you mean though, plently of dogs who have no retrieveing inclination naturally learn how to play fetch or retrieve a dumbell. Example is Millie, I got her as a 2 year old and she had no interest in toys or play, especially not in her first days settling in! Over a couple of months, she learnt to love her squeaky ball, and brought it back to have it thrown again. I shaped the obedience retrieve, and now that I am starting retrieving with her, she is racing out for approx 100m marks already and bringing them back with just as much gusto as she races out to it. I don't foresee too many issues to graduating to longer marks (birds may be another issue ) Retrieving instinct is sometimes hidden I guess, and it takes nurturing and time for it to come out Don't be alarmed if the dog doesn't want to play in the first meeting, or even within the first couple of weeks while he is settling in.

I'm doing much simpler stuff than you are with your gorgeous PUPPY, TSD!!!! I feel so lame But what we are doing, I am very happy with. Did a bunch of single marks with Ruby, progressing to one landing behind a tree. She found it Not sure how far away we got to, maybe fetchindawgs will have a better idea of the distance. Tried some holds with her coming out of the water, she kept dropping it, so tried holds near the water, still didn't want to hold it. I was getting frustrated and she feeds off me so it was never going to go well. Once I can find some water I really need to work hard on this, thinking of just shaping it like I did with land holds. Get the clicker, bunch of treats, and make it FUN! I've started training sit to the whistle, but not enough for her to fully recognise it. She won't stop and sit if I am still moving, she thinks she has to come with me, so work to do with that. Did some throws with Millie last night and she is coming along nicely, too! She has learnt to really love retrieving things! How are you teaching the direction work with Em?

I got Millie as what we were told was a 2 year old and it all worked out She's excelling in her training, more so in some areas than Ruby. Good on you maybe giving him a home

Not true!!

Exciting!!!! If you need a puppy sitter...... :rolleyes: Love Beagle babies!!

The "Sunshine State" is not the only state to be moving forward with Rally.

Amy, Rusky and I do. Yay for Toby getting back into it!

I know I know!! ..... and so would most people on here on your FB list

Oops where are my manners!! Congrats to everyone on their show wins over the Classic weekend!!!! :D I didn't get a chance to check out the show, except for 5 mins of Lab puppy cuddles

If we keep going like this we'll be in the placings in no time!!

Which is why I think daytime trials should be outlawed - because you can't drink at them (as easily as you can at night time trials!!)

fetchindawgs, had a great time on Saturday! I definitely need to find some water to work on Ruby's holds, because working on holds at home she is doing them pretty well! I can tap on the end of the dummy or hold the end and she holds it until I ask to give, but I think she is just feeling too much pressure around water She shuts down pretty quickly if she feels I am adding pressure to her. So lots of happy water holds should get her there, just need to find the water

mollipop you're so lucky to be getting a RAT! Hope we get them here. Best of luck Best of luck to rubyroo as well, I'm sure all your hard work will pay off when you enter restricted!

Woot woot!!! And mine and Rusky's team Lab Tested... and Failed (although unfortunately Rusky couldn't run her dog last night ) moved up from last place to 3rd last!! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Pretty pointless post ahead While waiting around after our run tonight in the fun jumping teams event (we didn't enter the agility side this time), I was mucking around with weaves with Ruby and pushing her to go faster and she was single stepping them like a pro! When I push her to go fast she can really fly through, but is more prone to popping early. When we play it safe and go slow she doesn't really pop out but it's agonising to watch, so I am going to work on really pushing her for speed from now on and hopefully with enough work she will learn not to pop them! Saying that though, she only popped once out of I think 4 goes when I pushed her so she's not a serial popper which is a good thing Yep, pointless post, but I just wanted to post how chuffed I am at how her weaving speed has really picked up! I hope with enough work we can get that speed in a trial, too!!

Thanks Tony. Clear as mud :D And those original two height classes, MADNESS!!!

Which is the reason why I probably won't enter ADAA. I still don't completely understand the jump heights and classes, though. Both my dogs measure 530, so do they jump 550 or 650? If it's 650, we won't ever enter ADAA, my Labs just aren't built to be jumping that high and I wouldn't ever ask them to do that, even though they are on the lighter side. And 550 is pushing it also.