MrsD

No, you don't need to let them know you are coming, just turn up. Even if hubby doesnt want to come, come yourself & have a look around & listen to the talk, I guarantee you it will be different to what you've already experienced . If you are going to come, send me a PM & I'll come down early especially to meet you & introduce you to some people .

Erin, how did it go last night? Was there any improvement? Hope to see you tonight .

Try Southside - Southside Dog Obedience Club Inc, contact Mrs A MacMaster PO Box 2273 Runcorn 4113. (07) 5522 6990. [email protected] www.geocities.com/southsidedogs . One of the people on this forum, varicool, trains there & says it's good, perhaps PM her & go & have a look at training one night .

Erin, did you sign any paperwork when you joined up? You know the sort of thing like your name & address, dogs name/age etc? And did he give you a receipt for the money? I'd be inclined to call Consumer Affairs & see what they have to say, cos Im pretty sure you are entitled to some money back .

Even if you don't get your money back I hope to see you down at the club sometime in the future Erin. Good luck with the phone call, let us know how it goes .

LA, the southside is a big area, can you give us an idea of what area on the southside? The fact that he's a crossbreed should make absolutely no difference to the club .

Hi Tali, where about in Brisbane are you? Southwest Brissy - Centenary suburbs area. have sent you a PM Tali - click on the link at top right of your screen that says "new messages" to read it .

Hi Tali, where about in Brisbane are you?

Erin, if you dont want to try either of the clubs I suggested & want to go to someone who runs a business making money out of dog obedience at least let me know who you are considering & hopefully I can let you know what they are like or suggest someone good . BTW, he sounds like a bully - both with people & with his training methods. Luke, whilst I agree with most of the things you have said, it's not quite so easy as just "making yourself alpha" when you dont have any experience of how to train a dog or what specific dog breeds are like to train. Erin needs to go somewhere that they can be shown the most effective way to deal with their puppies & where she can get lots of different ideas & ways to try until she finds something that works. Suggestions of what to do over the web are all well & good, but being actually shown what to do is by far the easiest & most effective way for her to learn. Edited to add - sorry Erin I think I misunderstood your post, I thought you were still looking in the yellow pages for trainers, but I think you mean when you chose the one you're at now .....

FWIW dogdude, it's not a club, its a privately owned business, owner operated that runs classes. I've PMed Erin & suggested a couple of places for her where I think she will be happier with the training .

Erin, what club/class was it? PM me if you'd prefer not to tell everyone. I agree with the others, 5 months isnt too young, but at that age you should only be doing a few minutes at a time & then having a break. And certainly not for 2.5 hrs even an hour is probably too long in reality, although that's how long many classes go for.

Nice to see some of my former fosters in there varicool .

BCNTC, is that competition? Or just practice at your club? I have a video of Jarrah learning his retrieve on the flat the other day, must see if Dagboy can put it on the computer for me.

Yeah if she's been out of it for a while it probably wont hurt her to start in class 1 again anyway - at least you're pretty sure of an elevation at the end of each month . When I started Jarrah I just took him down on the last Wed of the month for elevations & we went straight to Class 2 :D . Anyway come down when you get back & see what you think & decide if you will be happy training there & you can take it from there .

June is good as if you join up then they will give you 13 months membership (usually 1st July - 30th June, but they add the extra month ) .

nahhh just ask for the one with the sheltie & the kelpie, as I said Im the only one there, most of the longterm members & instructors etc know me . You will still have to attend the first night induction, but if she actually does still work ok you should be able to get someone to look at you & put you in a suitable class. Just explain that you have trained her before & ask for the OIC (her name's Lorraine) & she should be able to help you.

Carebear, sorry to hear about you & Martin, but glad you are getting it sorted out to get home . Redlands is a $5 joining fee & then $15/year for membership & $3/night training fees. No problems with using a check chain there if you need/want to, most of the trialling members use either a check or martingale, classes start the first Wed of each month with a "dog-free" information evening about the club, ways of training etc. If you want to look at their website its http://www.geocities.com/redlandsdoc/index.html We find it a very friendly club, lots of people to help if you need it, if you do make it down look out for me in the second set of classes (class 1 & 2 are at 6.30pm, class 3 & 4 are at 7.30pm). Just look for my 2 boys, there is only one other sheltie there & its a tri colour bitch not a sable dog (she knows me anyway so will head you in the right direction ) & no other kelpies, so Im fairly easy to spot, if you cant see me, just ask, most people in those top classes know me :D .

The other day when I read this thread I thought "herding" but yesterday I taught Jarrah a formal retrieve with the dumbell in 1 day (this is a dog who's never seen a dumbell before & is famous for running off with anything he can & chewing it up :rolleyes: ), so today Im going with obedience again :D .

And here was I looking for the Border Collies in the picture :rolleyes: .

Carebear, I didnt realise you were headed back to Brisbane, I thought you were over there for the foreseeable future? :rolleyes: Anyway there is an agility school at Clem Jones Park (Carina Leagues club) which run (from memory) on a Wednesday night. You have to enroll in a beginners class & the places are limited & they use all positive methods. The website is here http://www.badclub.org.au/ There is also Qld Agility & Jumping dog club which is run from the Mt Gravatt showgrounds on Thurs nights. Website is here http://users.bigpond.net.au/lest.agy/Training.htm As for obedience, Im not sure what would be your closest, Im just on the other side of the Gateway from you & we go to Redlands (which is off Old Cleveland Rd at Birkdale/Capalaba) as thats closest for us, most of the clubs are not near the city, the only 2 others I could suggest would be Southside (which is at Runcorn) or Metro which is at Chermside - both probably no closer than Redlands. Hope that helps. ETA Redlands does do some agility as well, more a fun thing than really serious like those 2 clubs I mentioned above, I think they train Tuesday nights for agility (Wed for obedience & Friday for trialling), so that may be worth thinking about.

Thanx Mooper - actually the earlymornings/long drives comment reminds me of my trip to Canberra. Still cant believe my friend kept getting me up at 3.30am to get to the show - 5.30 for herding seems like a sleep in in comparison .

Hey CTD were you using a clicker in that clip or did I just not hear it?

You poor soul. If you are like me, everything in your life will change. Home, vehicles, lifestyle, normal????? friends who think you are possessed. Getting up at 5.30 to travel to a trial or training. Well..........you get used to it. Everything had basically already changed anyway - it's just the early mornings that take a bit of getting used to :D . Im not so bad, but Dagboy is NOT a morning person - even if he gets up at 10am let alone 5.30 :cool: .

Whilst supervision & building a dog run will stop it happening again, it wont actually stop the behaviour. Personally if it were my dog & he'd attacked another dog badly enough to cause that much damage, I would be thinking about electrifying the fence, call me cruel if you want, but I doubt he would do it again. You can hire electric fences from various places, Im sure a quick look through yellow pages or an enquiry at a stock & feed store would throw up something suitable. Good luck with it, I hope you can get something worked out & fingers crossed that the neighbours dog is well again soon :D .