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Slow progress with the bang game. Elbie's banging away madly on the plank of wood on top of a pipe that is on the ground but he skitters away from it. It has taken me days and he still keeps running to the side of it - he hates the wonky instability of it. Tonight I managed to get him to walk up it halfway and then go into a drop but it's going to be a long time before I can get him to run along the length of it. Did anyone else's dog take a long time to master see-saw? He desperately wants to do it but he just can't overcome his dislike of a wobbley plank ...

Depending on the dog (and you know him better than anyone) you can set up something wobbly in a common part of the house or yard where he has no choice but to walk over it regularly. My first dog Cody was petrified of anything moving under his feet and we tried everything to help him over come it. He was a purely outside dog and I'd moved back in with my parents at this point so no chance of him being allowed inside. He absolutely loved to go into the pool area at their house (you could see the roos from in there) so we built a board that was as wide as the gate and reasonably long so he couldn't leap over it, then stuck a piece of wood underneath so that it wobbled. To get into the pool area he needed to walk over the wobbly plank each time. The desire to get into that area was so great that he was prepared to do it so we used his love of going in there to help him overcome it. Initially we lifted the board for when he was coming back out as their was no great reward for coming back out again, but once he was more comfortable with it we left it there so that he was walking over the board to go in and out.

He hated the dog walk too because it was a particularly wobbly old thing at the club we were training at so we used to lay the planks out on bricks, and then chairs and built it up from there. Start small and work your way up.

Having gone through those issues I didn't want it repeated with Delta so as a puppy I had a wobble board set up in the hallway of the house so that multiple times a day she had to walk over it. I was living alone though so I didn't have to consider the inconvenience to anyone else :) I did something similar when I got Charlie (Delta was about 6 months old) with a slightly raised ladder I made from pvc. To get from one end of the house to the other both dogs had to walk through the ladder and think about their back feet :)

Edited by DeltaCharlie
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Hey guys, I have a question about dog walks.

Should the dog run over them or should they tackle them at a more "sensible" pace (ie trot or slow jog?)

I was told by one instructor never to try to slow my dog down in agility.

She usually races over the dog walk, however at a recent training session, as she approached the top, the equipment sort of "gave way" and caused her to lose balance and fall off. It wasn't a major issue and didn't deter her from trying again, but I was then told to slow her down so she didn't bang on the equipment as much and cause it to be unstable.

Our regular club has a fairly new dog walk that is very stable and we've never had this happen there.

Because of the variation in quality of equipment in trials and different clubs, should the dog be taught to do the dog walk at a slightly slower pace?

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I would never try to slow my dog down, we are doing everything we can to make sure our pups are flying over it LOL Link does the entire dog walk (2o2o at the end) in less than 2 secs and we would love for both pups to follow in her footsteps.

I also don't mind them falling off sometimes, ideally landing on their feet though. It teaches them alot about their balance but it also teaches them that it isn't the end of the world if you do fall off and its great that she wasn't deterred and got straight back on.

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That's a good point DC and I was thinking about that last night when we were doing the seesaw, first time she flew off the end (unusual) but landed on her feet and it was only about a 60cm drop, kept her going over it and she was fine but it got me thinking about how important it is to set a dog up to recover from things like that, keeping it happy and normal and not panicking(easier said than done sometimes lol) because they do happen on occasion

I think my ideal see saw nehaviour is fast up the plank, then dog braking and flattening over the centre ready to brace for the bang, some smaller dogs don't brace for it (comes with experience too I guess) and get bounced off the end when it comes back up

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Hey guys, I have a question about dog walks.

Should the dog run over them or should they tackle them at a more "sensible" pace (ie trot or slow jog?)

I was told by one instructor never to try to slow my dog down in agility.

She usually races over the dog walk, however at a recent training session, as she approached the top, the equipment sort of "gave way" and caused her to lose balance and fall off. It wasn't a major issue and didn't deter her from trying again, but I was then told to slow her down so she didn't bang on the equipment as much and cause it to be unstable.

Our regular club has a fairly new dog walk that is very stable and we've never had this happen there.

Because of the variation in quality of equipment in trials and different clubs, should the dog be taught to do the dog walk at a slightly slower pace?

They should be fixing or replacing their equipment, not asking dogs to slow down to cater for their dodgy equipment! eek1.gif

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Thanks :o

Very pleased as there was alot of good dogs there last night! She was very focused even though we were inside and in a horse arena with alot of other dogs and people, and what pleased me more is she actually went into drive there as soon as I asked :thumbsup: :D

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Thanks :o

Very pleased as there was alot of good dogs there last night! She was very focused even though we were inside and in a horse arena with alot of other dogs and people, and what pleased me more is she actually went into drive there as soon as I asked :thumbsup: :D

Well done. How many dogs were assessed? Did everyone get through? I was lucky when I did it - only 12 out of 18 pitched up for the assessment and everyone got passed.

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Thanks :o

Very pleased as there was alot of good dogs there last night! She was very focused even though we were inside and in a horse arena with alot of other dogs and people, and what pleased me more is she actually went into drive there as soon as I asked :thumbsup: :D

Well done. How many dogs were assessed? Did everyone get through? I was lucky when I did it - only 12 out of 18 pitched up for the assessment and everyone got passed.

there was 18 dogs,

We still havent heard yet :(

Dodger was very focused on Eve & did everything he was asked to do, even though he slightly antisipated the wait test, the little boy is onlt 11 months old

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Good reminder to everyone. I sometimes run my dogs with their collars on at training - not any more!!

:eek: *slowly removes Kuda's collar and walks away*

Ill admit this never occurred to me! We will be nakey from now on! (well Kuda anyways!)

The best part of this vid, you could see puppy's tail start to wag at the end! Hope they still compete!

Edited by krustie22
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Good reminder to everyone. I sometimes run my dogs with their collars on at training - not any more!!

:eek:

I always train with a collar- not any more!!!

Anyone know where you can get good quality slip leads from?

Btw was the dog in the video a flat coated retriever?

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Good reminder to everyone. I sometimes run my dogs with their collars on at training - not any more!!

:eek:

I always train with a collar- not any more!!!

Anyone know where you can get good quality slip leads from?

Btw was the dog in the video a flat coated retriever?

I love the ones from Clean Run - postage is a bugger though!!

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Good reminder to everyone. I sometimes run my dogs with their collars on at training - not any more!!

:eek:

I always train with a collar- not any more!!!

Anyone know where you can get good quality slip leads from?

Btw was the dog in the video a flat coated retriever?

Statik Paws Agility Leads

I have a couple of these now and LOVE them! nice to hold, pretty and Kuda loves to tug with them! :laugh: Hayley is a fellow QLD agility nutter! and i think was recently selected for the WAC 2012 or something? The money from the leads she makes goes towards that!

Edited by krustie22
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No passes for us but some fantastic and promising runs which I would like to remind myself about:

JDM - first run of the day and a Spotted Dog I know was a bit excited and did huge loopy turns (what's a shoulder cue Mum???) :laugh: Ran clear but 1 sec over time.

ADO - was all over the distance challenge - think he dropped a bar on the spread.

ADX - ripper run but blew a straight entry into the weaves. We've been training lots of tough weave entries and have neglected the easy ones!!!

JDO - just got away with the distance challenge. Again we blew a straight weaves entry.

JDM - tough, tight course. I ran it over and over until it was second nature and it really paid off. Threadle arm had a serious work out and he nailed every obstacle discrimination. Just tipped a bar as I couldn't get ahead of him at one of the tunnels and thus the next jump was awkward.

ADX - great run, fast and smooth. Felt great. Was forced to rear cross at the seesaw (his old nemesis) and he just needed a bit more support so hesitated and was pinged for a refusal. Finished fast, though, which was fabulous as he tires mentally at the end of the day.

He tugged all day and tried his Spotted heart out. Tired Ziggy tonight.

Edited by The Spotted Devil
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Thanks :o

Very pleased as there was alot of good dogs there last night! She was very focused even though we were inside and in a horse arena with alot of other dogs and people, and what pleased me more is she actually went into drive there as soon as I asked :thumbsup: :D

Well done. How many dogs were assessed? Did everyone get through? I was lucky when I did it - only 12 out of 18 pitched up for the assessment and everyone got passed.

I think this time they were only had 10 spots open so I don't think everyone will go through as there were a fair few dogs there :D

Murve: definately email, as they said you should get an email Friday afternoon at the latest :)

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