Agility Dogs

AWWW....poor boy. Glad to hear he's having heaps of fun.

We had another awesome night last night. Still not too much in the way of results, but some cracking runs. Cheeky girl popped out of the weaves in this one, but it was my favourite run of the night. And Wikki keeps improving. Last time at this ground she was consistently 8 to 10 seconds over course time. Last night she was 3 to 4 seconds under - a big improvement. :) Woo finished her Masters Aust Agility Dog title and Xena got her Aust Agility Jumping Dog 3. :)

Exactly. I think Susan is AWESOME, but this time around I know I won't get the value out of it because I just don't have the time to commit. I think the thing is that this stuff is not just about getting a dog titled. That is easy. This is for people who want to be at the pointy end of agility, whether it is here or abroad. It's for people chasing tenths of a second (but will help those chasing tens of seconds as well - I have dogs in both categories and it is working for both.) I think the proof is in the pudding with this stuff. For Susan Garrett and Lynda Orton-Hill to still be matching it with the super fit, stick think 20 year olds in what is becoming and increasingly youth dominated sport at a world level speaks volumes for her ability as a trainer/motivator/technician. Not for everyone, but you can't deny the formula works. I think the criticism that it is a cookie cutter approach is probably justified if you haven't had a heap of exposure to what she is doing and if you try and translate it on your own without getting the full picture. It's not really cookie cutter - yes, she expects the same outcome from every dog, but within the system things are tweaked for each dog. Maybe not wholesale change like some people use, but definitely different depending on the character of the dogs involved. This is a super exciting time for agility in Australia - so many different people coming out that we've never seen before. It's going to be very interesting as more and more of us move away from what we've been doing for the last 10 or 15 years and adopt the more movement based handling systems. (I know some have been using them for a while, but all in all they are relatively new to agility in Aust.)

LOL. I know what you mean. She is a marketing machine and not a bad dog trainer to go with it. Was just amazing to watch her and her dogs when we were in the US.

I used to really worry about this, but not so much any more. We have 3 BC's who are either high drive or have been taught to have a high level of drive (if not very high). They all get walked and trained every morning and then again each night when we don't go out to training. Feedback from all the neighbours that that apart from a fence fight at exactly 8:32 every morning they don't make a noise all day. I know they do occasionally chase birds, but I can confirm that the yard is in one piece and that the dogs are quite sane. They do all get a biscuit before I leave (no bones because they can lead to fights in our house), but other than that they are left to their own devices all day. I guess there are three of them though - that may make a bit of a difference. ETA - we leave home about 8am and get home between 6 and 6.30pm 5 days a week.

It is incredibly frustrating when people let their dogs run up to you in what is meant to be an on lead area. My boy doesn't quite turn into Cujo, but he is very unimpressed with rude approaches. Over time I've realised though that when I have a sense of humour failure it just reinforces to him that he is right to scare the other dogs away. It's taken me a long time to come to the conclusion and then keep control of myself when sheer stupidity presents itself. Generally now I just steer clear of those areas when I've got him with me. Such a shame because Cootha is such a pretty spot.

You have PM.

It worked for us. Our boy used to HATE the people next door. Now he's fine.

:D Me too. Although we picked it up from a flyball comp. Not a Kennel.

That's the cool part - I'm doing next ot NO time on equipment, but the learning is just amazing. Time on the other hand........

I've only ever seen one vet who was aware of the dangers of ivermectin in Australian Shepherds. It's not very comforting! We didn't ever test for it, but we are pretty sure that is a problem with my boy (a BC). He threw up two months in a row immediately (within 24 hours) of receiving an ivermectin based product. We now use different products. It's very important to be aware!

I am 100% in favour of puppy and 12 month follow up vaccinations and all my dogs follow these protocols. (With subsequent titre testing.) After that I do not vaccinate on a scedule, but I am pedantic about annually testing for the 'big 3'. If/when the dogs are showing a lack of immunity they will be vaccinated and again subsequently tested to make sure it 'sticks'. The reason I like the test is that I can see my dogs have a level of immunity, not simply that they have had a needle that is designed to give them immunity. As long as people are following a protocol annual/3 year vaccination or regular testing I think that is totally their choice. Blindly hoping that dogs have immunity is a little less than ideal IMO.

Tassie, SG calls it her 50/50 system (before it was called 360 handling) for those of us over 50 or 50lbs overweight. It's designed to get less mobile bodies IN FRONT of more mobile dogs. (I'm thinking about my less mobile knees and hopefully incresingly mobile dogs.) I say go for it - what have you got to lose!? ETA Where the GD stuff in particular is based in the ability to get to places with (relatively) limited dog training this stuff places more emphasis on dog training and the ability to communicate more effectively.

I have to admit that i'm the biggest sceptic in the world on this one. That said in trying to poke holes in it the more I look the more I find what she is doing is just AWESOME. The dogs really love their words and are more confident as a result. Getting in front has never been a problem for me, but with this stuff I'm getting FURTHER ahead when I need to and in better position to give the dogs earlier information. I haven't taken the whole thing on board just yet - I'm working on picking things and including them one at a time. I don't like the blinds that much yet, but may still come around on them. :) Interestingly my young dog has just COME ALIVE in the last week and a bit (it's been coming,but it's like someone has just flicked a switch.) Last night she was absolutely incredible, making CK (the dog in the video) look positively ordinary and CK was running well. :) Fun times!

He's been a different dog in the last couple of months Barb. The less I'm caring about results the more fun we are having and the better the results have been with all 3 dogs......go figure. ;) :D

:) Thanks Vickie. We are more connected than we've ever been atm. I'm just so excited that we have finally gelled like this. I LOVE watching him run when he's this happy. That said I can't wait to start my new pup from Deb later in the year. ;)

So proud of my boy and just wanted to share. I've had quite a battle with CK getting him to the point where he is happy and confident running courses. This was him yesterday training on an international course set by one of the judges from this year's WAC. I didn't ever think we'd be playing like this. :) Just love him to bits.

Similar to Susan Garrett's reasoning for always teaching this sort of stuff on a winged jump - wingless jumps just make it too hard and put too much pressure on dogs back ends. (The jumps themselves don't but they do encourage dogs to tuck much tighter.) So do you think the pole would be better placed slightly out to the side as well as back & how would you fade the pole & still get the dog to square up ?? Honestly, not sure. Because it just looked similar I made the comment - I'm not sure how it translates to moving the pole. Sorry. :)

Correct. The foundations are done on pool noodles. (Tho SG is starting to suggest that the small noodles might be encouraging too much front end and not enough drive from the rear.) Then once the dog is performing that with drive you start to transfer it onto winged jumps. She does VERY little work with single uprights and mentioned in Bne that she thinks they should be banned becuase of how (on tight wraps etc) they put so much pressure on the dogs rear end. :)

Similar to Susan Garrett's reasoning for always teaching this sort of stuff on a winged jump - wingless jumps just make it too hard and put too much pressure on dogs back ends. (The jumps themselves don't but they do encourage dogs to tuck much tighter.)

Some great advice on here. I'd just add that you should be careful about yelling at other dogs etc etc. You don't want to teach your dog to join in and 'help' you. Timing is everything with this sort of thing, but since it all travels down the lead it is something to be wary of.

Loving the pics. This was our effort. :)

This is fantastic news! The guys behind this club have trained (and trained with) some of the best flyball dogs in the country. (Like a 3.8 second dog!!) If you are at all interested in flyball on the Goldy these are the guys to go and play with. Good luck with the new club. :)

This is exactly why my dogs don't go to dog parks any more. My boy was hurt when he was a youngster by a boisterous young lab. I didn't know enough to get him out of the way. It took me years to get him comfortable around bouncy dogs. (as opposed to interacting with them.) I don't think you have anything to report, but I do think you owe it to your dogs to get them out of harm's what when you can see potential for problems.

I don't think this is quite right. The council doesn't know anything about my status with Dogs Qld, yet I have a breeders permit. (I chose to go this way so that I can choose whether or not to desex - all my dogs are desexed so I haven't told the council I'm a CCCQ member. The alternative 'Companion' animal permet mandates desexing.) From my understanding they don't care if the pups are going on a registry or not. They simply want 'breeders' ie: people who have multiple litters from an individual dog or cat to be registered with them, keep the property appropriately clean and keep records of dogs that come and go from the property. This extends to people who 'show' dogs which includes trialling dogs, not just conformation showing. http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/forms/ca10193_animal_permit_conditions_breeder_or_show.pdf The ANKC, Greyhound etc comes in when it comes to registering individual dogs. ie: You don't have to desex an animal to get the discount if they are regsitered with any of the bodies you mentioned.