RubyStar

Congrats! Great achievement! I couldn't imagine trialling in those conditions Way to go!

Congrats mercedes and newfsie!! Onto Novice now, M?? :D

Congrats to all those who need congratulating! :D

Both. Millie is happy to start working without the sight of treats when the distraction level is low. If I'm in a class scenario, treats are in my pocket. If I'm at home, I will sometimes have them on me, but most times, I will not as I am working at getting them off me due to my other one (Ruby) being too dependent on food to work. Millie does some work without the sight of treats and then gets a jackpot for a small bit of heeling. If I do not show her a dinner bowl first, I could use this approach. But for my other girl, she won't do an ounce of work until she sees payment up front, so she gets her dinner bowl placed on the ground and has to heel around it giving me attention and not look at her food bowl to then get rewarded with it. This is the only way I get motivated work out of her as she knows the drill!

I agree, if your dog clearly loves it, enter for a bit of fun if for nothing else!

You've really made me want that Beagle to trial, sooner But no, want to get my 2 Labs somewhere first then think I will keep my plans of my third dog being something else and then 4th dog perhaps the beagle, as by then, I hope to have a better understanding of how to train better and get the best out of a beagle! They're gorgeous little things, totally fell in love with this light coloured pup at a dog show and wanted to pinch her But I keep hearing horror stories of them being escape artists. Training worries I can handle, Ruby was a bit of a horror pup in her social ways, it's just the escape artist bit that worries me! Please tell me it isn't as bad as I've heard!

gundoglover, that story made me laugh I know humility over here! Out of interest, what breed was it?

Best of luck!!!!

Very much agree here too, poodlefan!! Edit: typo

This lets you know what exercises are in each class: http://users.lavalink.com.au/theos/obedience.htm And these are the rules for ANKC Obedience trials which will be handy to read up on: http://www.ankc.org.au/_inc/doc_download.aspx?did=201 My favourite DVD's so far are Patty Ruzzo's and Chris Bach (http://www.trainthethirdway.com), but that is a personal choice and I'm sure different people have found favourites in other ones Both of these women train with positive methods.

You must be lumping not rewarding for each required behaviour. I'm not quite sure what you mean again :D No to the above. The second she sees the dinner bowl, it's almost too much for her to process anything else but that food bowl. She's a fantastic little worker on minimal treats, as long as I don't work her with dinner bowl in sight as her reward for a job well done. The only thing I make her do now with a dinner bowl as reward are sit stays Doesn't sound ideal, but it's ok with me because she works better with minimal stimulus, so I get more out of her training than my other Lab who will only work for food or squeaky toy! It can be a real joy to train a dog who enjoys interacting with you and is motivated just because they want to be there with you, and gets me down when food is the only motivator for the other one! Edit to add: we have tried doing small portions of heelwork or a recall for her dinner, but anything we do ends up a disaster so is not contributing in a positive manner to her training. So I've decided not to train her when she simply won't give her best. We get much better results doing small bits of heelwork and other exercises outside of meal times with a handul of treats, or sometimes without any (at home for the time being where there are no distractions) and then she gets a jackpot :D With Ruby on the other hand, she works her sweet little booty off at the sight of a food bowl so I use that to my advantage with small exercises before dinner as reward.

Beagleboys - I love beagles and so glad when I see the very rare one out there competing! I would so love to see any videos if you have any of you and your Beagles in the obedience ring! A Beagle is on my list of future dogs (and to compete with, too!) :D

And here I was thinking it was a Lazy Labrador problem If I'm doing stays in a class situation, I do sit stays both times so while all the others are in their down stay, my girls get put back into a sit stay after I've moved them off the position/praised/rewarded for the first sit stay. But they're lazy buggers, still doing it on and off *sigh* I rarely practice the down stays for this reason. I vote for the stays to be abolished, too And the heelwork

I like going to a club for several reasons: - it motivates me to get up, go out and train - the people are lovely - without them I wouldn't be interested in trialling and wouldn't know what I know today However, in saying that, if I was to ever get a 3rd dog, I would seriously consider skipping the club classes next time around. I will still be a member of the club, but train next to the classes and for shorter periods, and utilise the ring run-throughs they offer once I was at that stage. But I can only really see me doing that if I could find a training buddy. If I was to train on my own, my motivation would run right down (hence why I use clubs, now). Heck, I'd probably do that now with my current two if I had the training buddy, no need to wait for the 3rd dog to switch tactics. But I'd do a lot of things differently with a new pup, and not just with the "to go to class or not go to class" debate!

Do I sense that you kinda hope you sleep through the alarm? :rolleyes:

Congrats on your final pass!! And best of luck for UD tomorrow :D

I was actually suggesting that you need to stop procrastinating and just move to Perth already!

If we could ditch the heelwork, I'd be in agreeance here

Gonna pick your training brains when you come to Perth, then I think depends on the level you wish to obtain with your dog. I have much rather a highly motivated dumb dog. Mind you feel a bit awkward discussing dumb dogs, as each of us has varied opinions in what is considered dumb or intelligent. More often than not, we base our inteligence tests in human terms. I know what you mean, I enjoy training Millie more as she just wants to be there most of the time. She isn't dumb, though, just not as switched on to learning new things like Ruby is. But if I clicker train her and shape things with her a bit more like I have done with Ruby, I think she will learn how to learn and has the potential to be pretty good... just a shame she's stuck with me as a handler

Yep, that is Ruby, too! She works her little booty off to the max sometimes if she knows payment is well worth it You can see her try really hard! With Millie, if I show her the good stuff (ie. dinner) she won't do a damn thing for me. All she can think about is the food. I have to train her with mundane treats and have no problem hiding them on her as she just loves to be there with me most of the time. Perhaps I should just be spending all my effort training her

Thus my experience with our first labrador. She achieved CDX. At the time I was .....quite.....happy, but after owing a further labrador who at 7 months being in the run off for best in trial, realised .......concentrate on dogs with high innate motivation/drive. Yet another reason why police etc...require dogs with a strong retrieving drive (and great temperament). Also health! Sorry, I'm not sure I completely understand what you're trying to say Are you saying it can be done? Or depends on the drive in the dog? I have one Labrador who is smart, picks things up easy but lacks motivation. The other, takes longer to pick things up but her motivation is way up there. Sigh! Wish I could take the good things from each dog and roll them into one super duper Labrador obedience machine

Yup, thanks guys! I need to figure out how to go about either re-training or getting some magical help from a guru! My girl knows what to do, it's her motivation to do what she willingly does for bribes that I need to clicker train How do you clicker train motivation? She's such a cow sometimes (in the most loving sense of the word!), where she won't even muck around with me having fun with tricks she's known since a puppy unless there's payment in the form of food or squeaky ball!

Oh my Makes one wonder how they made it to open in the first place! Poor person!

I'd fall asleep reading a Java book, too! :D It is the root of all evil.

If by fouling you mean #1's or #2's, yup, cost us first place that one :D "poo bag in ring 1, please!" Thats 10 points, I can understand how you could go from 1st to last! So it if goes twice? 20 points cause it says on each occasion. So if it doesn't number 1s and then 2s is that 20 points? For those that are reading and not understanding the fouling rule, here it is: Fouling: A dog which fouls at any time while it is under the control of the Judge must be penalised 10 points on each occasion. The deductions must be recorded as 'penalties for misbehaviour' and deducted from the total score. Yep that'd be right. If they do a number 1 and then go and do a number 2 afterwards, that'd probably be 20 points. But I think it would be at the judge's discretion on whether to deduct 20 points if they just happened to do a #1 and #2 together - you'd be awfully unlucky, no, awfully unprepared if that happened to you! I take full responsibility for the poo accident, I hadn't ensured she had gone beforehand! So there was no way I could be mad at her, and all I can do is laugh about it now Funny thing is, due to the poo, we ended up coming 2nd! Only 2 of us qualified that night Not bad to come 2nd after a big mishap like that