Kavik

I have only been to one trial where I thought the angles were really dangerous, and only a couple of courses over the years where nobody qualified. For the angles, I think judges training should help with that, more education :) For the courses where nobody qualified, one was at the trial with dangerous angles, the others I think the challenges were too difficult. Some of those were Games, and most likely judges don't get as much practice at designing games courses, and people don't get as much practice running them lol

That is a really good point! Especially now with designated separate heights :) A friend and I were thinking along the same lines :)

When Zoe had kidney failure the vet said the best diet was the K/D diet, did your vet not suggest that or is there a reason you don't want to feed it? When I asked about homemade diet alternatives, they said that nothing was quite as good, but I remember yes that chicken was better than red meat, something about being easier to digest or get the protein from?

Oooh I didn't notice the one about the up contact - yay! No weaves in Open Jumping anymore

Actually, yeah Airedale might be an idea! When I was a kid, my best friend's family had an Airedale, was good with us kids, terrier coat, decent size

Most of the hairy ones I can think of shed a lot! But if you reconsider on the shedding, Bernese Mountain Dog? White Swiss Shepherd?

Firstly, a fenced in area/dog run would solve a lot of your problems :) Have you tried this yet? If she is escaping a fenced run, you could look into one with a roof and concrete floor. I personally prefer fenced runs to chains. All dogs will wander if not properly fenced in. For rebuilding her confidence in you, there are a lot of fun relationship building games you can do, many of which also help with your recall (and involve her chasing you), and trick training is also a lot of fun :)

He will be at ADC next weekend and the Aussie Shepherd Club if you are doing either of those :) Awesome, I will definitely be at ADC, so will keep an eye out for you guys :) I expect Leoney will be there with Wookiee too so the brothers can catch up (or try and kill each other.. only time will tell!) Excellent! So I can see them together! I've met Wookiee once before at training :)

He will be at ADC next weekend and the Aussie Shepherd Club if you are doing either of those :) Awesome, I will definitely be at ADC, so will keep an eye out for you guys :)

He sounds like a riot! Can't wait to meet him at some agility trials :)

There are so many fun things you can do! Lots of body awareness is fun :) 4 feet in a box perchwork walk backwards spin

Just bought 2 more toys last night :laugh:

She is old enough to do jumping and weaving :) But there are lots of other foundation exercises you may want to do first, many that don't require much if any equipment Here are some ideas

I have contributed to the thread on FB about separate heights :) I strongly believe in separate heights, for fairness and for recognition of achievement :) The seesaw - well, it means yet another equipment change! And clubs having to get another new seesaw or at least base. Would have preferred back to the old height(big seesaw). Table in or table out doesn't matter to me.

I hope you are right but apparantly leaked documents say that it is true The whole thread was started in response to the other thread on leaked documents on what the new rules would be. This one is tongue in cheek, showing how riled up people can become over rumours (as we don't know what the new rules will be yet). You can tell it is a joke because it is absolutely ridiculous, nobody would vote to have dogs housed somewhere just to be the 'white dog' at competitions!

The SCT thread was a joke! :laugh:

I really enjoy agility :) I like that there is quite a bit of freedom in the sport, in how you train each of the obstacles and in how you handle around the course, you are not judged on how you hold yourself like in obedience, only on whether your dog takes the correct course. I like how this leads to lots of innovation in both training obstacle performance and handling. You can keep it as simple or make it as complicated as you wish, and set your own criteria for obstacle performance (meeting certain criteria for competition, but room for your own criteria as well). It is fast and fun and as TSD said, every run is different!

There are lots of places you can go to help with socialisation. Markets, parks with sports fields, shops, train stations, dog training classes etc.

Hi Ginny Very cute! Will be great to watch her grow up!

I'm not close! I'm north of Sydney lol, used to take me ages to get to work. I don't work there anymore.

This is the daycare where I used to work

I've only ever had black dogs :laugh: My family would probably be shocked if I got another colour :D

perchwork is one option :)

When I start my young dog, my aim for my first competition will be for him to run fast and happy and stay in the ring with me and go vaguely in the right direction :laugh:

I found that the nerves got better after some experience in the ring. For me the important thing was to relax and not put too much pressure on us to do well. To trust my dog and my training. To remember that it is not the end of the world if something goes wrong, even the experienced people make mistakes. To remember that regardless of what happens, the judges have seen it ALL before, there is nothing you or your dog can do in the ring that hasn't been done many times before! That people who are watching are barracking for you and want you to do well :) Things are probably more strict in IPO, but in agility it is reasonably common in Novice classes for dogs to run off/leave the ring/visit the judge, happens with a lot of inexperienced dogs.