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I've been using the roast turkey rolls in the meat section, cut up into small chunks. They have a long use by date on them, are easy to cut up and don't crumble like roast chicken does. A little on the dear side, but I only use them when I need some high value treats, and comparable to cheap steak at $10/kg which needs to be cooked, cooled and then cut up. My guys all love dry food for treats as they don't normally get it. Problem is most of the grain free ones are too small for my boofy hands. The new VIP grain free one in Safeway is perfect size though, just hope it's better quality than it sounds.

RS Silvia's classes are open for dogs of all ages. LoLaBu Land Experience is her website. I did her Puppy Class as a working spot, you can also audit which means you get to see everyone's training videos, read their feedback, ask questions, comment but not submit any videos. It's called puppy class but there are dogs in there of all ages, it's basically a foundation tricks/body awareness class. Cost wise I found it relatively ok. There is a huge amount of information available on the site, you have access to everyone's training videos and feedback. Like most online classes I've done it moves fast, but Silvia will always come back and comment on every single video you post, even if you're way behind everyone else. Plenty of benefit to be gained by watching others and heaps to learn from everyone's feedback and struggles. I wish I had more time to dedicate to it watching and learning but I just don't. If you spent a few mins a night working through it you'd cover a lot of the actual training ok. Most time consuming was videoing, editing and uploading when I chose to. Edited to add: To start with it starts off slow, and you think it's pretty easy to get through the first tasks (you get homework to complete over a 2 week period, then you start a new block) but then it gets busy very quickly. Initially I wasn't raving about it, I have a very good friend who is brilliant with her clicker training and her feedback on my timing and mechanics was just as if not more valuable (Silvia isn't as brutally honest ;)) But after a few weeks I started to see how far we'd come, and suddenly I had all this "foundation" of skills that I could do so much with. I've done a lot of SG's online stuff, all the crate games, collar grab etc and while I still do a lot of SGs stuff, I find I get really bogged down in just how many layers of training there is. It's a little too easy to drop the fun. ST has a way of putting it all together in a fun way and suddenly you look back and think "wow, look how far we've come!" :D

Thanks everyone - I'm really stoked with how well he's going, he's such a fun boy to train. :D TSD the girls love him, Zee has a play mate and Darcy gets left in peace to sleep in front of the heater. Not sure Sasha the cat enjoys being herded by two dogs instead of one, but I'd still back the cat everytime :laugh: Absolutely recommend it I think Bowie was about 12 or 14 weeks when I started, there is a lot to work on if you do everything. I've picked out the tasks that ST marked as the foundation for another skill and pretty much worked with those. I got held up with work, a dislocated finger and a few other things but I'm really happy I stuck with it, even just for the amazing body awareness he's learnt. Plus you get your choice of her training DVDs if you submit a graduation video

Well done on the quallies TSD Thought I'd post this here, I'm pretty stoked with this as 1) it shows how much I got my video camera out this year for training, which is a major improvement for me! and 2) I'm having so much fun training with Silvia. Amazing how we went from a few weeks of skills to this platform where we could give just about anything a go with some imagination and patience :) This is Bowie's graduation for Silvia Trkman's puppy class. There was so much more skills and things I could add but it took forever to load to youtube at 4 mins

Looks like they only tested four harnesses? They are refusing to publish which ones they tested, which isn't much good to anyone. I don't have the room in my vehicle for crates for all 3 dogs, and I hate the idea of my dogs travelling in the cargo area - which is effectively crumple zone! Have been looking at the Bergan harnesses on CR, which seems to be very good and doesn't look like any of the ones tested in the article above.

Got mine about 5 years ago from Murray when I used them for Cruz. Assume he still makes them. Funny, I tried to sell mine for ages and had no takers and then after DM seminar had about 4 people ask if I still had them, all wanting to buy. So now sold - finally ! I forgot you even had those - you should thank DM for making them so saleable again :laugh: What did you think of them? I gather same person made the ones at WB dog club, I remember those being pretty reasonable but certainly never used them channel style to know what they were really like.

Anyone know who to get training channel weaves from? Not in a hurry as I have another 6 or so months before I want them, so willing to wait.

What do you want to achieve with your Crate Games? I've done it with all 3 of my dogs, one as a mature age, two as babies when they came home. I do it because it teaches good control behaviour (so reliable start lines) but also makes the crate a good place for them to be when out and about trialling, or travelling. With my 7 month old BC I didn't do the strict CGs, I just applied the principles of it to real life. He was already comfortable in a crate when I got him from the breeder. Every night we played a round of running to his crate, rewarding, releasing, rewarding, back in the crate, rewarding and then finally bed time (in varying degrees!). Each morning we would play a quick game of self-control where I opened his crate and then worked through higher levels of distraction as he got better at it, obviously for plenty of good rewards when he was successful. He is now very comfy in his crate out and about, he's been sleeping out of it since he was 4.5 months. At trials or training etc he will run to his crate on cue, and I can drive him into his crate from 50 or so metres away. He is still rewarded for running in there when asked, and waiting nicely when I open the door. He has the best crate games out of the lot in terms of driving into it, but still lacks the self-control of my mature dogs (hardly surprising for a drivey 7 mo BC). I do need to work more on his self-control and I will do that using CGs.

Two words, freaking awesome! Can't wait til he's back again, by far my favourite seminar presenter so far. Really inspiring to work with, I've worked a spot 2.5/3 days so far and would normally be stuffed by now, but really looking forward to putting everything together tomorrow for handling :D

No, unfortunately, regardless of what level you're at. If you happen to have a toy on you and pull it out and reward the dog as you run out, then you're not going to get thrown out but I would expect there would be some sort of repercussion. Teach a behaviour that you can do in the ring, build up a huge amount of reward for it and use that as a reward or for motivation. Whether it be a hand touch, bark on command, weaving through your legs, spins etc. You'll get plenty of benefits from teaching those kind of tricks as well, so maybe look at 2 or 3 different ones. There is no silver bullet for it, it will take plenty of work. But it's worth it. :)

When I went back through Novice with my almost 4 yo I was horrified at how many novice triallers seemed to miss the Trialling basics 101 briefing. Many took up well over the SCT if not double in one way or another, especially in agility. I figure that if I can get in, train what I want to train without being disrespectful, and get the hell out, I'm still doing far better than many of the novices and often using up significantly less than the SCT anyway.

You can if you're willing to throw some $$ down the chute. Been there, done that. I had trouble with Zee weaving in trials for ages, weaves fine at home, fine at club training, fine at our usual few training spots but not at a trial. I put it down to arousal levels, if she wasn't "high" then she didn't weave. I spent probably a month or two picking the judges I entered under, picked those that I knew would be ok providing I didn't take advantage. I always let them know what I was up to before hand and everyone of them said "what are you telling me for? Just do it" I tugged her into the ring (instant DQ in most cases, once again a few turned a blind eye) picked the closest and cleanest path I could find to the weavers, got her to weave and ran out of the ring as fast as possible to reward her. Because I didn't waste anyone's time then no-one had any issue with it. The other thing I would work on is go back to proofing your weaves for every situation you can think of at home/training and out and about. Can you run the opposite way while the dog weaves? Throw toys, squeak toys, drop meaty bones, run at a 90 degree angle laterally while the dog is weaving? Play tug with your other dog? WIll they weave while you sit, fall over, lay down, do star jumps, anything and everything you can think of in order to proof the weaves and entries at home. The advantage of doing all of this is that you're not only working on proofing, but layering some pretty awesome value for the weaves too.

Really interesting points guys

This!! Darcy is nowhere near as light and agile as some of her 500 counterparts but is still capable of doing well because she runs a tight line. Other states run separate height trials. NSW in particular, SA has tried it but didn't do it again that I know of. Means they spend more time adjusting courses and less timing running, I've seen some of the NSWr deliberately do our close to the border trials in order to run even 2 of each Masters class per day. At Moorabbin there was 3 totally different JDM courses. JDM 1 had maximum spacing on nearly all of it, pretty typical for that judge who also likes to lay "traps" for fast 500 dogs. JDM 2 was tight and was nearly minimum distance between obstacles 1 and 12, but still pretty snug right to the end. JDM 3 was hugely big and open for most parts but had some tight corners here and there. I don't know how you can say that they geared to 500 dog striding

These days they do have the ability to gain an Ag Ch, as a pass (not placed) still gives you 10 points of the required 500 each in agility and jumping. Yes they have to be consistent but it's still achievable, especially in the height categories where there is less dogs and more chance of picking up placings. I think there has to be a reasonable limit on Master's courses. IMHO Masters should be a challenge and dogs should be running at a good pace and handled to a reasonable standard to qually. I've seen many a handler disappointed by missing SCT and it's hard when there's a split second in it but there is always room for improvement in training and handling, especially when you are already so close to SCT. Wide turns, late cues, poorly understood crosses etc might mean being a smidge over SCT with slower dogs but with dogs capable of running JDM courses in 5.5 m/s+ it equals off-courses, DQs or dropped bars.

Yes, trialled in it once but prefer ANKC agility. NADAC is only done in Victoria, in Qld they have ADAA - ADAA have run one trial in Vic a few years ago and another in WA I think. Not sure if they run any in NSW? NADAC courses tend to be much more open and flowing with significant focus on being to handle at a distance. There is no tyre, seesaw, broad or spread. The A-frame is lower, wider and rubberised. Dogwalk is rubberised but same as ANKC. You have the option of running your dog down a height from it's normal jump height and again once it's over 7 yo (??) so a 500 height dog can run the equivalent of 400 if you wish, and 300 if deemed a senior. Rings are run one at a time, and they are fenced with safety fencing. They also have one event called tunnellers where the course is made up of nothing except tunnels and another called hoopers which is running through hoops on the ground instead of jumps. So the dogs don't even have to jump, great for the oldies who still want a run but struggle with jumping.

Thanks. :) I guess you would know where to look for them too which means you see and come across more than us non-herpers ever would.

Good luck showing your little girl JJ, I hope she does really well for you :) Tenties I hope your eye op went well! Darcy, Zee and Bowie are going really well. Bowie is growing legs like you wouldn't believe, typical working puppy. I'm doing nearly all his training with shaping and he's loving it. He managed a handstand against the wall the other day, totally blew me away! JJ sorry I know I've bugged you about this before (as above ) what kind of temperatures do you call "cools down properly". I'm really hanging out to recommence our hill walks but I'm guessing it's still way too warm. I know the risk is never going to be non-existant unless I move to NZ :laugh: but I'd like to minimise it if I can.

Have you had a look at it yet Sheena - what did you think? I've been looking at that one myself. What do you think of the contacts one TSD?

I ordered one of these and received it yesterday. Pockets are my first preference but not always an option. Belt is unfortunately not included in free shipping, it's $8 shipping if you want the belt for those who are interested. Have yet to use it but I like it in comparison to the others I've looked at. I have big hands and this one gives plenty of room for me to get hands in and out easily.

Judging by what you've written and without seeing what's going on, this is where you've come unstuck... Ignoring the toy and moving on himself means you've just lost your value in your reward - either your dog is self-rewarding with the second set of poles or he's doing what he thinks he should be doing because you've now rewarded that. Regardless of why, the value for the 1st set of poles is no longer there. If it was my dog, I'd go back to building the value for the reward first away from the poles. Go back and watch the DVD, take plenty of notes. Work on that reward and take a break for a few days. Go back to building the value in your 1st set of two poles, work your entries around the clock and go again - make sure you are getting that reward in between 1st and 2nd poles very clearly. Don't rush, take the time it takes but make sure you're moving on when needed too.

I don't use a frisbee much but when I do I like the Triple Crown Foam discs. Can play tug as well as being soft on their mouths and fly quite well.

Luna looks gorgeous JJ :D The petstock guys told me that Japan (?) has discovered pig's ears and are getting all the best ones, not sure how true that is. Even the ones from Best Friends aren't as good but at least you can pick and choose out of the big bin. I've also heard that Woolworths and Coles are trying to corner that market as well. Prime is awesome, I used to get down there a bit but now we don't meet in W'bool anymore I don't get there as often. They have gotten a bit dear on their roo tail though, does anyone happen to know of cheaper roo tail/bones? A friend has a dog that can only eat roo due to the low fat (he has pancreas issues ) Brat boy is sprouting legs at a great rate of knots, I can't believe how much he is changing even day by day. He is an awfully quick learner, we've been shaping heaps of body awareness stuff for his dinner - he is a nut for it! :laugh:

Come to think of it, neither did I - I don't think I really understood much about shaping at all when I trained Darcy to weave, and that was from the summary out of the back of Shaping Success (before the DVD was ever released).

I had my two girls done before my new puppy came home. Darcy, vaccinated x 2 for puppy and at 12 months and Zee, vaccinated x 2 as a puppy both showed usable immunity (I haven't gotten the actual results off the vet). I did get titres for all 3, but at $216 each for the testing alone, not including the consult and blood draws I think I'll be checking prices next time and not bothering with the hep.