RubyStar

Sorry to hear abour your miscarriage I still see you're keen on getting a Labrador puppy. Of course there are exceptions, but to go with the quote above, Labradors are not known to be serial barkers. They don't tend to bark for no reason. I have one Lab who I very rarely hear her bark, even when she's aroused. She once almost sighed a woof at me in frustration when we were training The other barks at random stuff but she doesn't bark her head off. So I don't really class Labs as "barky" dogs. But as I said, there are exceptions, before I get others jumping on me that theirs does in fact bark! +1 neither of our labs have been serial barkers...when there's a bark it's usually for a reason.... Several friends have Labs too and they don't bark, either. The barkiest out of a big group of Labs that I know is my very own Millie, and she only does it when she wants it to be her turn to train when we're out and about. When it's not her turn to train at home though, she is quiet as a mouse. Strange one that one! All the other Labs, including my Ruby, I have hardly heard a peep out of, ever!!

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I've been well trained by my girls

Sorry to hear abour your miscarriage I still see you're keen on getting a Labrador puppy. Of course there are exceptions, but to go with the quote above, Labradors are not known to be serial barkers. They don't tend to bark for no reason. I have one Lab who I very rarely hear her bark, even when she's aroused. She once almost sighed a woof at me in frustration when we were training The other barks at random stuff but she doesn't bark her head off. So I don't really class Labs as "barky" dogs. But as I said, there are exceptions, before I get others jumping on me that theirs does in fact bark!

Kyzer has you trained well

That's the difference between the boys and girls. The boys are sooky la-la's and tell you when their toe is sore. The girls could break a leg and not complain I think that is why females are the ones who have to have the babies ;)

Yep

Leather seats, windows up and in the sun is an awesome oven for cooking dog smells. Or so I've found

I think I need the weaves permanently set up for at least a few weeks and repeat what I did when I first trained her. 5 minutes before work, 5 minutes after work.

Warrateena? That way nobody could mistake it's pronunciation. Tinna and Tina on the end I would still pronounce Tina. Anyway you spell it, I think it's a lovely prefix name and you should grab it up before someone else reads this thread and steals it ;) Edit, I misread what pronunciation you wanted... and actually, I probably would pronounce it "tinner" if it had Tinna on the end. That's how you want it, right? Warratinna sounds good!

I've got my top 2 breeds on a wishlist. I own the first one, Labs, my heart breed, but for my 3rd dog I keep tossing up between another Lab or my 2nd favourite breed, an Aussie Shepherd. More than likely it will be another Lab as I want to do retrieving (can't with an Aussie!) but ONE DAY I MUST own me an Aussie Shep or two

Thanks, Vickie I'm happy with some of the stuff she's doing, she's a lot of fun to run (when she's not giving me the middle finger!) Definitely a different dog to run than Ruby! I've tried variations of straight on entries in the past. Hanging back and letting her find her own entry does work for her, but not every time. So I played around with zooming past the weaves myself and letting her find it all on her own that way, and I was surprised to see she was having quite a bit of success with that. However, I am not game enough to do that in a trial just yet

Congrats TO and CleoJ with your poochies! And congrats to Dr Nik!!!

Final pass jitters are a huge bugger sometimes

She might get to do one trial on it, though, with 2 trials left for the year No pressure, though!!!

Nah, not silly at all. Even owning a see-saw/dogwalk phobic dog, I think it's the most pathetic piece of equipment I've ever laid eyes on and would prefer the standard size stayed Why should dogs like Ruby ruin the fun for the other dogs? I enjoy seeing Millie go over the full-size seesaw (properly!) in training! The little one won't have the same effect.

How is Louis, CC?

Yeah definitely confusing. I thought we would DQ going back to do them again but the judge said to me it was a refusal so I can go back - we had a bit of a chat while in the ring, can't really see it in the video between me getting Millie's attention back As for what you describe, I had a similar incident but she must have passed the next pole because Millie popped on the 2nd last gap and just stood there () so I got her attention back and put her through the remaining weave. We DQ'd or NQ'd or whatever - just know we didn't go clear because of it! Oh and I can never get my head around being able to pop them back in where they popped out, so I tend to just go back to the beginning and start again (I'm not concerned about the difference of a DQ and NQ). The only reason I was able to "fix" it before was cos it was just the last gap we had to correct, any harder than that and I'm stuffed

Boxagirl Poor Bondi. I have everything crossed for her

As much of a joke the weesaw is, at least it gives me hope that I can put Ruby in Excellent Agility next year! Saying that though, I would prefer it stay at the regular height and just slowly get her used to it. It really is a joke how small it is!!!

I never watched the second DVD, did she cover anything interesting in there? I need to offset them again to help with Ruby's weaving stride. She single steps some and double steps others. Millie is usually a hopper so I'll leave her be! Wish my hard was bigger! Got the full weave set, just not the space to do it! And before anyone says you don't need to practice with the whole set, my yard isn't very wide either so setting them up at angles and with another obstacle gets hard I want one of those "Escape to the Country" backyards, with low cut lush green grass that extends for ages! Oh and can I have a free lawnmower man to go with it, please?

Thanks, Tassie Don't get me wrong, I was really happy with her run apart from the weaves/sniffing. She ran nicely for me and her speed is improving. Yes I think she saw them too late and come to think of it I shouldn't have been so hard on her because she didn't blow them off, she tried to get in them, but then blew ME off for being disappointed We tend to get to weaves and have a pause for me to show her them and then send her but I am over doing that, I want her to weave nicely as part of a course just like she'd have no trouble taking a dog walk for example without me having to stop and reset her to see it. Training will help that, I know I know :D And yep I do need to do more straight on entries. I practiced straight on entries last week coming directly out of a tunnel. Took her a couple of goes to get that! Thanks for pointing out that she did try to get in them, I can see that better now that someone else pointed it out She just hit it at the 2nd pole not the first. I can see what you mean about my demeanor and it made her stop. I did the same thing in her JDX run. She went past a jump so I basically stopped, walked her back and took her over it. In the meantime, her lovely fast run had now been interrupted because I was being stupid so she lost a bit of motivation I am going to JUST KEEP RUNNING if she misses something, it's my fault if she does! Except for weaver entries or missing a weave, I will take her back for those (even if it means a DQ) but I will do my best to take her back with a smile and spring in my step! :D Yep she definitely thought it was a dogwalk I'm so glad she is resilient like that. Had that been Ruby flying off, that would be her agility over and done with for the next 12 months! I did also notice my flappy arm into the weaves, that has become a really bad habit of mine, actually it's always been a habit since I started training weaves as it's how I prompted them to go through! I'll try keep it flap-free next time we approach weaves

We had a dog break his leg when I was a kid. He got arthritis in his leg at an early age and was really stiff in colder weather and found it hard to jump. He only weighed a few kilos but can't image him ever being ok to do agility. Like others have said, I would look elsewhere if you intend on doing agility with the dog.

The single loaded treat one would be rather handy for 2o/2o training wouldn't it? Hmmmm.... tempted.....

I had a great weekend trialling with the dogs. Ruby polished off her JDX title with a 1st place so pretty chuffed with that! Millie didn't go clear in her ADX and JDX runs (got a clear in Novice Gamblers so I guess we came away with something!) but I was pretty happy with how she ran. We are having issues with getting her to weave as part of a course without stopping and starting. It's starting to become a real habit We only really get to train once a week so I need to make it count, so if anyone has any ideas to help sort it out, I'm all ears (or eyes!) Below is Millie's ADX run from the weekend. She was very, very naughty by not only stopping to sniff when she fluffed the weave entry, but what got me cross was the fact that she blatantly ignored me when I was doing all I could to get her attention back (bar grabbing her by the scruff which is what I really felt like doing! ) Her see-saw was a bit when it's never usually that crazy in training! I am giving crappy signals all over the place especially with weaver entries, help! Go easy on me though, I'm a very novice handler with no real idea of what I'm doing. This is a dog that hasn't been in any proper instructed classes, we just messed around ourselves.

Thanks amypie for the video! Here is Ruby's JDX run: I'm so chuffed with her enthusiasm