dogdude

Lots of those people enter trials too. How many dogs do you see at trials that are just not interested. It all starts at dog obedience clubs, and their hour long classes.

I just don't see a large disadvantage. I have never trained to do x repetitions / minute. I think if there is an advantage in using food to teach new things, its because it can be used to lessen drive in a high prey driven dog in order for it to learn in a more relaxed state of mind.

I guess that would depend on how you train, and what level of drive your dog has. The one advantage of prey drive is its usually stronger than food based drive. Horses for courses.

If you are training with trialling in mind, it is more beneficial to practice, sharpen and hone skills by concentrating on part exercises for everything. Forget about replicating what you do at dog club, ....its boring, and you tend to judge your dogs performance as a whole, rather than improving point scoring with trialling in mind. Train recall/fronts and finish sepperately. For eg: If I am working on speed for the recall, I want my dog to drive all the way up to me, and beyond by releasing randomly to a food target placed behind me. No release means dog must front. If I want to improve fronts, the recall is done from only a metre or so away, using various angles. Other days, I will just train the focus element, without calling at all.

How, and where do you get his focus while he is coming in? At what point are you rewarding? Is it formal recall training for trialling ? Is he anticipating the finish?

This problem is usually caused by rewarding from one pocket. You need to change your dogs focal point as he is coming in. The best way to fix it is by rewarding from your mouth (drop cabana out of it) when he is in correct position. This will take him a little time to cotton on to. If he sits crooked etc, don't try and straighten him by taking another step backwards. Instead, encourage him to adjust himself by leaving your feet planted, and use twisting and leaning motions with your body, knees and shoulders etc.

My take on teaching FO8 is the D.Bauman method of moving in fast pace during the right about turn part, and using slow pace through the left about, getting the dog to anticipate the change of pace by exaggerating it. When you adjust to a smooth, even pace, the dog should be right with you. Between exercises at a trial, I am usually just trying to keep my dogs drive level going with a few encouraging words and pats. It annoys the hell out of me when judges and stewards engage you with meaningless banter while you have your dog ready to go at the start peg.

One tip brought up in recent times is to include focus training from ring gate to startpost and first command time. It never looks good when the judge asks "are you ready", and your madly trying to get your dogs attention. First impressions can be worth something on occasions, and it will lay down a good foundation for the rest of the trial. I have also found that when you have a few trials under your belt, don't rest on your laurels in your training, even if your dog is performing ok. Continue to break exercises and part exercises down demanding perfection, because they definately lose polish over time. Every point counts in the ring. If your dog is not performing at a very high level in every exercise, don't waste your time and money entering. There will always be trials.

Think that the dog heels better allround if they do u turns. With Oscar, he returns around, but still moves his backend correctly during a left turn. The downside is that on one occasion, he has tried to outguess me during a left turn by completing a full left about, nearly tripping me over. After watching the Balabanov dvd "The Game", I noticed how much better his dogs backed into left turns. He teaches it first by teaching finish using a cross made of rope on the ground, where the dog is started at 9 o clock from him, and is not allowed to move his body past the centreline. Hard to explain. This is then tranferred into a left turn by firstly stopping mid turn, waiting and making sure the dog gets there by using his back end only. A hand in the collar helps to guide, and later he fades the stop mid turn to a very slow forward movement, until the dog has it down pat. Its something that I am working on with Brydee atm. She tends to want to jump into a left turn, like she is doing a finish. Very frustrating. Using the collar as a guide stops this, and makes her slow down and think about it.

The thing is, when you "doggie socialise", it doesn't mean you have let them play and romp around. A five second meet and greet is all it takes to get a postitive experience out of it. The experience must be a postive one, in a controlled manner. Sadly, many other people will try to use your pup as a guinnea pig for their own dogs. (like seeing if their dog is still aggressive), even if their intentions seem genuine.

Your state canine council mag should have them in them. In Victoria we also have the Vic obedience website that advertises them too. Some financial obedience clubs run them quite regulary too and they advirtise them on their websites. Some dolers are quite close to some of the Aussie ones that hold seminars and they are often posted on here.

I am the same with my bitch as Seita. My girl is a dog snob too. Its how I wanted her to be.

Sorry if my post offended. I do feel strongly against dog parks. Particulary when I hear about my favorite breed (under intense scrutiny) being involved in an attack in a public place. Please understand your breeds history, and be very carefull in how you manage his ownership. You have just proved to yourself that a 30 second fight can change your dogs life in an instant. Dogs can and do respond to learn't behaviors very quickly. Some of those experiences can't be reversed. Good socialisation involves getting your dog used to as many strange sites and sounds as possible. Meeting strange dogs is only a very small part of it. I talk to many people that say "I" like to seem him do this, and "I" like to see him do that, because he likes it. He can also be just as happy with you if you know how to "float his boat", and you will have the peace of mind knowing that you arn't playing a numbers game, waiting for him to meet the wrong dog. Good luck with him

I wish I had a dollar for every one of these dog park disasters I have read. Your dog wimpers when you go past because you have made him dependent on them for having fun. You need to make yourself the centre of his world. A "dog socialised" dog is one that is neutral towards other dogs. A free for all romp in the park will not acheive this long term. They don't need it.

Hi Kavik Most of your problems seem to be purely about focus (without having seen him), probably with S.F.E as well. Its all about getting back to basics, and search for the motivation needed for the job. Without it, you will continue to have the same problems. IMO you can stick any old dog in a trial and do quite well, but the great ones have that something extra, (drive wise. ) Not all dogs are capable of obtaining a drive level high enough for high level competion. You will need to keep experimenting to find what you need (if its there) Good luck

Be sure that you look at the "FOO" section of that site. The contact details are listed to book yourself in. They run mock trials down at K.C.C on Tuesday nights. Most of the serious triallers attend, and you will learn heaps off them. Just introduce yourself and start grilling. The entry fee is $5 per dog. You will need to be a member of DogsVictoria. Barbie food and drinks available on site.

IMO drive building is not really an age thing, although learned behaviors (coupled with a genetic element) can take longer to show with age. (with no training) You can speed up the process with the right training.

If your dog has a higher natural food drive, compared to prey drive, you are probably better off sticking with it IMO. You can still use drive training techniques with the food, but not sure what all of the secrets are for the right technique. I was very impressed watching shoemonsters "Eddie" at FOO last month. They are on K9forces program. He dam near tore my pocket off when I walked past him to get to a small piece of kabana I had in there.

This dvd is not worth the money. Has very little on focus anyway. It sits in the bottom of my cupboard :wink: If you can stand watching I.Bs mullet blowing in the breeze,......you will learn heaps.

Ivan Balabanov "Clear Communication" and "The Game" Gotfried Dildey (8 dvd set) Leerburg "Training drive and focus"

Great work R81! Retrieving work next?

My advice is to see a behaviorist. A "Sunday trainer" is not who you want to see, unless they are qualified. You need to let us know what area you are in to make a recommendation. "Game" type dogs are commonly dog aggressive. My advice is to stick to the bush tracks until you have seen somebody about the problem, otherwise you may be doing more harm than good.

Malinois for me. Love the drive levels.

Are these pups from working lines? I strongly recommend looking at pups from working lines, if your serious about trialling. Not sure where you are, but Arya could recommend good working shepherd kennels. Have you seen the parents of these pups working?

Sorry to hear that news Amhailte.