MrsD

Ohhh I know which one he is @ the sexiest puppy bit. Leonie often has him crated where we (the girls who do DWD) have our dogs crated, you are right, he's a lovely boy .

you will be able to train her to do the stuff you want while you are training DWD, it's actually a bit harder if you teach proper obedience first as the automatic sit means you have to give a command to stand & working with the dog always on the left means they become one sided. You are better off without the automatic sit & working the dog on both sides from the start. Jonty & Jarrah both did a bit of obedience before I started DWD, but Whisper went straight into DWD without any obedience training. As long as your puppy has some self control & focus which it sounds like she has, you should be fine, obviously puppies are friendly & playful, that comes with the territory, but if she has some basics like knowing how to sit, drop & stay you'll be OK. Im not sure how the Sydney DWD contingent work in terms of classes etc, they will be able to fill you in on that when you contact them.

Long time no see MrsD!! ;) I know - last time I saw you I think Ella & Jonty were still in baby puppy class, weren't they? They most certainly were! Only 3 years ago!! Well what's 3 years amongst friends? This is going to be the chattiest K9 Force workshop ever Looks like I won't be the only one in the naughty corner then will I Miss Chatterbox Huskie I don't know what you're talking about Maree, Im shocked - Miss Chooka-Maree in the naughty corner? Surely not! .

OT - mrsD you might see my little puppy at VIP at some point. His name is Rave and he's Ella's son. Aparently he's doing pretty well down there!! Awww, how old is he & what class is he doing? Who's his owner? I'll keep an eye out for him, but Im only usually down there Tuesday night & Sunday mornings for DWD training, so if he's in a class on another night of the week I may not see him until we have the christmas party.

Bub, yes there is a group that train in Sydney, I'll find the contact details & PM them to you later. There is also a DWD Yahoo email group once you get hooked . There is a DWD Trial at Erskine Park on the 13th Dec that I am thinking about going to, if you want to see some of the dogs at competition level.

LOL on that note I have had a judge forget to tell me that the exercise was finished. I stood there with Ella sitting at heel watching the judge waiting, he asks me what I'm waiting for and I said for you to tell me that the exercise is finished. He laughed and said it was finished! was it one of the newer judges or one of the older ones who's memory was going? :D (just so everyone knows, I'm just joking, I actually know alot of the Qld judges & they are lovely ;) )

Good Dog Bad Dog & VIP both use positive methods, I train at VIP & know Jo from GDBD as she trains with us at VIP, both are very good. Logan All Breed Obedience Club is still mainly old school I think, but that may suit some people & some dogs depending on what they want to do. If you are interested in obedience trialling I would recommend that you find somewhere who has instructors that trial themselves (like Logan or Southside).

My tip would be that when you are at the starting peg before each exercise & the judge says "Are you ready?" actually LOOK at your dog & make sure he/she is ready too (ie, sitting, giving focus etc). We had this drummed into us over & over & over again at our club, no use saying you are ready if a half a second before the judge asked your dog stood up/lay down/is looking behind them/got bitten by an ant etc. Second top tip has already been mentioned by someone but I will repeat it because it's important - always do EXACTLY what the judge tells you to do ie if you leave your dog in the recall & the judge says "about turn" after you have walked away, don't about turn & halt, turn around & keep walking & wait until the judge tells you to halt.

Seeing as I train at VIP I quite often get their rolls of food (as prizes/thankyous/giveaways etc) & I find that as training treats their dog rolls crumble to bits . I guess if you only had a small amount in a bag it may be OK, but when you've got a treat bag full of cubes & you are putting your hand in there constantly to reward, by the time I get to about a third left most of it has become crumbs. The trick is to freeze them, then only thaw just enough to break the cubes apart (about 10 seconds in the microwave). Thanks, I'll try that next time I get some & see if it's any better :D . Rommimum, have you tried a different flavour? ETA - Chunkers I mean.

Seeing as I train at VIP I quite often get their rolls of food (as prizes/thankyous/giveaways etc) & I find that as training treats their dog rolls crumble to bits . I guess if you only had a small amount in a bag it may be OK, but when you've got a treat bag full of cubes & you are putting your hand in there constantly to reward, by the time I get to about a third left most of it has become crumbs. I do however recommend their Chunkers, as someone else said you can break them up with your fingers (I break mine into 3 or 4 pieces, Im not so tight ) & my dogs will dance the Cha Cha for them .

Long time no see MrsD!! I know - last time I saw you I think Ella & Jonty were still in baby puppy class, weren't they?

Looks like I will be joining you all down there .

I agree. Me too Me three - exactly what I would have said Barb ;) .

I was going to suggest VIP if you are on the northern end of the Gold Coast too, I train there & they are great .

How are you teaching him all the other tricks you have taught & what are you using as your reward? I would be using a clicker & clicking either the lying flat or trying to catch him at precisely the point when he is on his back with the clicker (even if you have to block him from completing the rollover) . Pick either/or depending on which response you want.

I definitely need it I just hope we don't have to wait around as much as you guys did, it won't do my nerves any good . You reminded me, I took about 600 photos yesterday but I havent had a look at them yet, with the bad light (& fast moving dogs & handlers) Im betting I will be lucky if I end up with 50 that aren't blurry . ETA that's a fantastic pic - & not even staged! ;)

Stop it you 2 - Dagboy is giving me filthy looks already! All 3 of you are MEAN :) ;) :D:cry: :champagne:

Yarrowfell, a starters routine is just that - for a dog & handler who are fairly new to the sport. There are certain things that are required if you read the judging sheet ie that dog & handler work as a team but in general it is like the equivilent of CCD in obedience. Heelwork to Music you would expect to heel the dog in more than 1 heel position (so probably 2 or maybe 3 at a stretch for Started), heeling must make up at least 60% of the routine. Freestyle you are pretty much able to do what you want, my first routine only had about 3 steps of heeling in the whole thing because my dog couldnt heel at all the rest of it was just tricks, but in reality some heeling is usually used but there is no set component. Score wise, the total number of points is 180 (60 points from each of 3 judges) & a qualifying score is 135+. Like obedience you must also get at least 50% of the marks available in each exercise from each judge to qualify. I have just posted 2 started routines in the dog sport section if you'd like to take a look, just something to be aware of though, the lady in both videos is a top obedience handler up here in Brisbane & is in actual fact probably more advanced than Started (I'd hate for you to see the video & think you & your dog have to be that good to be able to compete in that level). There are a couple of routines from WA on Youtube somewhere as well that aren't quite so daunting, they are from their first competition about a month ago, I'll see if I can find them for you. If you contact Tony he will give you heaps of info about DWD & I know he will be only too happy to have someone else to train with .

Huski, Dagboy managed to video all of the routines but sadly his hard drive died last week & he hasnt managed to get a new one installed in that computer (which is the one that has the card in it for reading the video camera). Once he gets that done he will be able to put some on YouTube, but until then the only ones that are up there are 2 of Lisa & Cass who came 1st in HTM & came 2nd in Freestyle Heelwork to Music - 1st place, Lisa & Cass Freestyle - 2nd place, Lisa & Cass

Well the first Thursday's demo went well, yesterday's competition also went well despite the Started divisions being bumped back til almost 5pm. There ended up being 11 dogs competing in Started Freestyle & 8 of them qualified (including our very own BC4Me ) & 5 entries in Started Heelwork To Music with 4 qualifiers. I have to say that the spectators absolutely loved all of the dogs, even when things didnt go exactly to plan (well the handlers plan anyway :cry: ) the crowd didn't mind one bit. Of course Maree & Mutley stole the show competing in Intermediate Freestyle. Friday is Novice Freestyle & Heelwork To Music.

The Ekka is such a hard trial to do well in because of all the things you mentioned, so congratulations on such a great result .

:cry: :cry: :( It's so not fair that I can't have another dog :love: :love: :love: :cry:

Page 3 girl LMAO :D you've met me Barb, I couldnt think of a more unlikely person to be a page 3 girl :) but thanks for the laugh . No I wasn't in the article, actually the only pics they had were of dogs (& no, not Jarrah) :p . On a more serious note, I think it's fantastic publicity for the sport, it's exactly what we need to get people interested in it & hopefully the audience might see it & say "Hey, I can try that with my dog!". We practiced the routine tonight & it went much much better, I think I just need to stop him & settle him down before certain moves otherwise he just gets wound up more & more & goes a bit skitzo on me . BTW, you know that Im expecting a video on YouTube from you too, don't think you can get away with performing at the BC specialty & not letting us see it ;) .

There is an article in today's Sunday Mail here in Brisbane about Dances with Dogs at the Ekka, on page 3! ETA - Barb, do they say "multiple bad rehersals = good show"? (this is me dancing without Jarrah :laugh: )

Thanks girls! :rolleyes: Another rehersal this afternoon, hopefully it will go better than last weeks!