MrsD

You will get DQ'd if she *moves all 4 feet (don't I know it - Leo shook in his SFE which was an immediate DQ!) *shows any form of aggression *does not maintain position (so in your case coz she 'bowed'). Does that make more sense? LP, the dog will not be DQed for moving it's feet or not maintaining position. A DQ & an NQ are completely different things! If you are DQed the dog is DQed from any further competition on the day & the judge has to provide a written report to the controlling body within 14 days except in instances where the disqualification was incurred for barking or a correction from the handler. A zero score (& an NQ) is for a dog which breaks from position, shows an obvious tendency to attack or doesnt carry out the principle feature of the exercise. Which IMO is what Cosmo's dog did. Check your rule book .

I found a tick on Jonty last week before we went away camping - first time I have seen a tick here .

Cosmo, my guess is it was supposed to be an NQ, not a DQ - whether the steward copied it incorrectly or the judge wasn't terribly experienced & wrote the wrong thing down, I'm betting it was supposed to be an NQ (which as FP metioned is very different to a DQ). IMO if the dog rocked back into a bow (presumably the elbows touched the ground) that would have been a break of position which would mean an NQ score.

Yep, I'll be there for Mary Ray, only Wed & Friday though, for the day each time. Hopefully I will be able to stay for the competition on Friday night, sounds like it should be heaps of fun. Last year she only did 1 day of freestyle, so 2 days this year is going to be great . Are you going to be camping in your bright pink tent at Tailwaggers? :D Which one is Loretta? Can't pick her, you'll have to tell me what dog she had at Richards seminar . I remember Penny & Joan & the lady who organised it (names slipped my mind now), Im envious that you already have a subcommittee to run it, so far we only have a few small groups dotted about the place & nothing very concrete in the way of organisation, but they did have their first competition/demonstration at the recent National & State Obedience titles & there is even a mention of it in the President's message in this months DogWorld, so that's encouraging . Im not sure whether my feet are both left or not, but when I dance for some reason I turn into Goofy - have you seen the size of his feet? No wonder I trip over them all the time ;) . Look forward to catching up again at Mary Ray .

BLOODY SLACKO! MrsD - Kick him outta bed at 5am, lock him outside with Ebony, and the dog lead. ;) -WithEverythingIAm Ha - he'd probably just go & curl up in the kennel with her ;) .

The reason that they gave us was that they were too busy. Anyway as I said I have ended up with another trainer that I am happy training with, so I guess it was good in a way that I was forced to look around for someone else. As for endurance, I doubt I will ever do it , Eddie was the one who was going to do it, but he hasnt got prepared for this year, so Im guessing he will be thinking about doing it with Ebony again next year . As for knocking DSW's, you obviously missed the bit I put in one of my posts earlier in the thread, it said

Yeah I agree with that, I think of freestyle as just an extention of obedience where you teach the dogs the obedience & then you can add whatever extra exercises you want - I love it :rolleyes: . How are you going with yours? Any plans on getting Richard back anytime in the foreseeable future or any other workshops or competitions coming up in NSW? Go for it Noels, no need to miss out, there is plenty out there for everyone :p :D . Hehe, that's what I mean, I don't have time to do more than a couple but if I could then I would so I'm just a loser wannabe Piximitosis - keep trying, you need to give up work again, then you'll get there :p . EFS

You see, I have always thought the opposite - agility & obedience are almost totally at odds with each other IMO. I think that agility & herding are alot more similar than obedience & agility & probably compliment each other better. Also agility & flyball seem to me to be things that would compliment each other as well. LOL - yeah a lot of people seem to say that - yet honestly - I find that they do come together nicely in what I get out of them ;). May I ask, since I haven't done much herding - how does agility/ herding compliment each other - is it the distance work? LP, yeah, working at a distance & also the dog being able to think for itself to a degree.

Nahhhhh I don't consider doing 2 or 3 different sports (especially if you have more than 1 dog) is really being a DSW, 2 or 3 out of 12 isnt much .

We have 3 dogs, but only 2 are mine - Ebony is Dagboy's, Jarrah & Jonty are mine. Ebony & Dagboy were training for ET, but neither of my dogs were ever in training, Dagboy did mention once training Jarrah but he's not old enough & unless I was going to do it I saw no point . Yep, we went to lurecoursing 2 or 3 times, more for the social aspect than anything else, dogs liked it but we decided it wasn't for us & we were also told that if we were serious about herding that lurecoursing wasn't a good idea. So given that we are serious about herding, we made a choice to stick with herding. Didnt realise that made me a DSW . Wow, seems to be a common theme here, wonder where all this is coming from? ;) Just for the record WEIA, we started going to herding training with one trainer, but after about 4 or 5 lessons they told us we couldnt come there anymore. We were left with nowhere to train & no one to help us, so then, knowing a bit more about the ANKC herding, we looked around & found another trainer to train with, one who trains in a style that we like & who we are happy to go to. We've been going to them ever since, no plans to change. I dunno, what would you have done in the same situation if you found that you & your dog were really good at something & one trainer dumped you, would you have found another trainer so you could continue or just given up the sport? :D Perhaps you shouldn't listen to all the gossip from people who have an agenda :D .

You see, I have always thought the opposite - agility & obedience are almost totally at odds with each other IMO. I think that agility & herding are alot more similar than obedience & agility & probably compliment each other better. Also agility & flyball seem to me to be things that would compliment each other as well. ROM ;) at wannabe tart .

I'd get the electric fence & tell the neighbours that you are going to put one up for a short while so that they are aware it's there & make sure you put up a sign, I dont think you would have any problems . You shouldnt have to have it up for long by the sound of it, even if he realises it's there you could always run a wire along there permanently & then put the electric fence up as well & then when you take down the electric one the wire is still there as a visual deterent. I doubt he will know the difference or be able to tell where the shock came from anyway - if you put it about three quarters of the way up the fence on your side it's not likely that anyone would touch it accidentally (apart from the dog that is ;) . If it were my dog that is what I would be doing, my dog's safety is most important to me & that is the fastest, easiest & most reliable method I can think of to solve the problem. Good luck :D .

2 words - electric fence .

You havent lived until you've done doggy dancing/freestyle, I think it's the ant's pants :D :D . Kavik, chose a piece of music first, try to pick something that she can work to ie if she's quick (like Jarrah) chose something with a fast BPM (beats per minute), if she's slow pick something more sedate & then sit down & analyse the music (where is it slow, where is it fast, how many beats per bar/line, where does it change pace etc) & start to write down all her moves & start fitting them into the music. It's not too hard once you get the idea, just remember that you don't have to do a full song unless your dog (& you!) is very good & you feel comfortable with it, start with 30 seconds or a minute & work from there.

KK there was a thread just a bit down the page about Southside, Varicool trains there as does mystigviews I think. There are others but I can't remember who now .

We drove to Sydney from Brisbane to attend the 2 day Richard Curtis seminar, is that far enough? Also used to get up at 5.30am to drive an hour to herding on Sundays, how's that for dedication? ;) I think Tassie probably gets the award for most dedicated - last year she drove from Tassie to the Gold Coast to attend the Mary Ray clinic for a week . And CTD came from Melb. But that was for a whole week, so not as bad as just a weekend ;) .

If it's number of days, Im a gonner ;) . I dont change trainers willy nilly in general, ummm actually for obedience I dont have a trainer Im my own trainer ;) . Freestyle, I like 2 different trainers (Mary Ray & Richard Curtis) & have been to seminars with each & loved them both, but given that it's such a new sport & both are from the UK, I went to them because I may not have had another chance! It's only that a few of interested people have now got together in Brisbane that Im even still doing freestyle, it's very hard to keep momentum when there is no-one to train with ;) .

Ohh you are truly a tart ;) ;)

For the record, my conversation was with someone who isn't on DOL, so it wasn't about DOLers, just in general ;) . TBH I havent noticed that shoey is a bit of a tart, but then I don't keep up with everything that everyone is doing ;) . Jules - so you're the faithful type like me then? ETA - there's nothing wrong with doing lots of different things with your dog, if it makes you (& more importantly the dog) happy then it's only up to you what you do .

Sway - did you name & shame or what it a typo? ;) ;) . PF - I think I enjoy freestyle so much because it's just a variation on obedience & I love herding because I have a dog who is bred for it & has good instinct. As you said, I love watching dogs doing what they were bred to do . It's funny because herding (the real stuff on a property) was sort of my first experience of training dogs when I was much younger & when I moved from the property I searched around until I found obedience to take up the "hole" left by not training dogs on sheep. Now I've come full circle again & am back at herding & am loving it ;) ;) . ETA - I forgot sledding in my list of new dog sports

We were having this conversation with someone that we have started freestyle training with & were discussing how some people just can't help themselves & have to become involved in every dog sport available. As I have mentioned before, when I first started in dogs except for gundog stuff you were basically limited to obedience, agility & tracking & in Qld you could only compete if you had registered dogs. Nowdays there is a huge range of activities on offer (for both purebred & crossbreds), things like lurecoursing, frisbee, herding, flyball, canine freestyle, inground hunts, schutzhund & endurance as well as the usual confirmation, obedience, tracking & agility (which now includes jumpers, pairs, gamblers & I don't know how many others ;) ) have all become very popular & lots of people do lots of different sports. Personally I do obedience (although Im not as committed as I once was because I have other more (?) interesting things to do with the dogs ), herding & freestyle, & although we've tried out a couple of the others (we've started taking the kids along to frisbee to give them a bit of fun with the dogs), Im happy to do just the 3 sports & am not really interested in the others. I know that some people (especially in herding it seems) frown upon doing more than 1 sport with any dog, but I'm going to get around that by getting another dog - 3 dogs = 3 sports . A bit more seriously, I am happy to do more than 1 sport with each dog, but now that I have been made aware of the pitfalls hopefully my training will be geared to minimise the negative impact on the things I like to do best (herding & freestyle). However I know of some people who will try any sport that comes along & get involved for a short time & then decide that there might be something more interesting out there so they move onto the next thing. So at any time, they may be doing a whole host of sports, but not concentrating on any of them enough to do well. So are you a dogsport tart & try to share it around ;) or are you the faithful type who can be relied on to go the distance? EFS

And I thought the VCA was strict with only allowing two associate registered dogs Feralpup, actually what I posted wasn't totally correct, you can register 2 AR dogs in the one household in Qld, but they must be registered at the same time. So if you had 2 AR dogs you can register them at the same time, but you cant get one & register it & then at some time in the future register another one. So as I've already registered Jarrah I can't have another AR dog. Also, you are only allowed 2 AR dogs per membership ie if you have dual membership (like Dagboy & I have) you can only register 2 at the same time as above. It sucks, but since it's only been 2 years since they actually allowed any AR dogs in Qld, at least it's a step in the right direction :D .

There are lots of older rescue dogs around who take to herding - Perry was only a year old when I got her and two when we started herding but there are some other rescues around from working lines who have started older and gone on to great things. PM yep I agree, my problem is that being in Qld I can only have one rescue (associate register dog), all my subsequent dogs have to be ANKC or Sporting (in this case WKC) registered to be able to do any ANKC sports. WMR - hope you find the right dog .

Good to hear Carebear, better than starting in class 1 if you have some experience & as you said a bit of work to refresh her (& your ) memory wont hurt .

Ness, yep that's what I thought too, but when I read it again last night I did wonder cos technically it's not a test or trial, that's why I asked. Similary it says the dog must have had training - doesnt actually say its to be herding training, wonder if training the dog to bring your slippers would count? . (yeah yeah I know Im being a smart-arse - it's what I do best! :D )