Reddii

I agree with both the other replies. My boy (16 month BC) is pretty similar, although I'm not sure he wants to play - same result though. When another dog rushes us from behind a fence (strange concept I know, but you know what I mean) we have a command 'this way' which means we walk a little bit further away. HEAPS of praise when he does not acknowledge the other dog and keeps walking. He has come to learn that by listening to me rather than having to protect himself a. all is OK and b. even better things happen. The other thing we do, although not all the time becuse I want him to be able to ignore the dogs, not just have his attention taken from them, is to play with his favourite squeaky toy on our way past them (fits in my pocket). That way he is positively reinforced and will not be quite as fearful next time (he knows where the dogs are). It has been a bit of a long road as I inadvertantly taught him the fear when he was younger so we've had to turn him around in this regard. Also - it is easier to teach this stuff on his own than with his mate. I find my bitch will correct him if he gets really out of line which just makes them fight and the whole situation gets out of hand. When the situation was at its worst I was just taking him for a 15 minute walk through 'dog infested waters' and doing heaps of the work I mentioned above. Hope this helps too. Cheers. Tony

I treat for paralysis tick with Pro-ban. Advocate does the rest.

For me it's definitely just fun (I get in trouble at agility for playing with the dogs when they have made a mistake), but I'm sure if you asked my girl she would tell you flyball is life and death! :rolleyes: Everyone in the team wants to get a good shot of her lined up for the start. Apparently she watches the lights with such fierce intent it's scary!! No barking or carrying on, just 100% serious concentration on the job! lol.

I have a second flyball dog in my family!!!! :rolleyes: After our success at the nationals in Canberra with Xena and her team (Xena is 21 months) it is brilliant to see our other young dog coming along so well. CK - 16 months. I spent 2 days with him sitting beside the ring when I wasn't racing with Xena and by the end of it he was mad keen to go. He ran in the beginners on Friday, but was a bit distracted with all the goings on around him - he still managed a 5.5sec run with a .38 sec start! Last night he was heaps better again at training. Seems he has realised that if he does what he is meant to do he gets the tug toy and nothing is better than a tug toy! He's still only running over low hurdles, but will be ready for his first comp shortly, albeit with a good height dog in the team to keep the hurdles down! WOO HOO!!!! Just as good though was that Xena worked well all night for my OH - usually she just cries and tries to come and find me!! I love it when things go right with both dogs!

I wouldn't worry too much about cat poo either. Every time I turn my back my two are into the litter tray (if I don't close the door). We don't have anywhere high enough in the hosue to 'hide' the trays......... Hope your Roxy is OK.

Xena is pretty quick to the ball, we just have to work on her drive to come back to me a little quicker. did improve over the weekend and we'll keep working on it. No problems & no harm done. We were just all paranoid that even though there was nothing in it Xena might get spooked as she has been a little fragile recently. Didn't affect her at all though. She did about 60 runs across the 3 days and only made one mistake which was really my OH's fault for standing too close to the box - we know that can distract her! I know how you feel - my boy is a complete rat bag without a lot of focus just yet (16 months). He ran perfectly (well, didn't not complete a run properly, let's not talk about the time he wasted stopping to say hi to the box loader ) in the beginners on the Friday, but then at training last week kept crossing into the other lane. Wasn't until we twigged that he had never had a different box loader and that she was in the other lane we worked out why! Poppet is gorgeous - would you believe she is 8 this year and was running as strongly on Sunday as she did Friday. Poor little thing - we made a decision not to rerun her if anything went wrong unless we had a really good chance to win the race. About 1/2 way through Sunday that chance came up, Poppet had gone early and Bec was taking her out the back of the ring in a huff. I yelled at her to get back and send her again - I think Bec got such a shock that she just about threw Poppet over the first hurdle on the way down to the box!!! Likely to be the one and only time Poppie beats a BC! (OK, she did have 2.5 hurdles start).

Hey Laffi, I've been meaning to get on to this one. Might be worth giving Animal Options (Rowan Kilmartin - 55466756) a call. He is a wholistic Vet who tries to avoid medicating where possible so may not be one to immunise for the sake of it. Mind you, he isn't cheap, but I'm pretty happy in how he treats the fur kids...... Tony

Could have been - we were running Xena (my B&W BC) and Poppett (B&W Cocker). There wasn't anything in it - not sure if your the chocolate dog wanted to say hello or wanted the ball, certainly wasn't aggressive. BUT we were all so worried because of what Xena had been through that even a small thing like that might have set her back to being too watchful to run. There is no way Poppett could have run for the whole weekend without a break and we only had 5 dogs.

Ok maybe it wasn't a black card, i'm not 100% sure on the warning system. She got a Yellow card (1st warning) for crossing lanes, she didn't get fully over the line and came straight back. 2nd time (red card?) she crossed over again but didn't chase anyone. 3rd time (Black card?) she did chase the other dog (a Dally) but AT NO TIME was there any agression. I only saw her cross over once and it was the time she chased the Dally - NO AGGRESSION - it really was just wanting to play! It is so stressful with a green dog isn't it? I ran my boy in beginners and was sooooooooo up tight with worry that he would do just that - got lucky and he decided to get a bit of the focus thing happening for the first time in his life. It sounds as though you've done a great job with your dog. Thanks! Between an injury (crash with another dog while passing) and getting seriously bullied she went from mad keen flyball dog and leader of the fur pack at home to being pushed around by our meekest kitten and refusing to chase a tennis ball. Now after a couple of trying months she is well and truly back in control! (Even challenging OH on occasion.) We have done a lot of work with Xena getting her confidence back - the whole Fanatic Flyballers team has been awesome helping us get her back on track. THEN........another BC chased her on the first day in the singles and pairs and we all held our breath thinking our weekend was over before it had begun, but she was so good. Just dropped the ball, ran around him twice as he blocked her and then came back over the hurdles to me! Funny thing for me with dog sport. I've played A LOT of sport at quite a high level over the last 30 years and it has always been about the win for me. With the dogs the win was nice, but the competition and seeing the dogs do well was what really gave me the buzz - maybe I'm just getting old. Same with our first agility comp. We got dq'd for a wrong direction, but she ran so well I just didn't care. We are already starting to suss out how to do Sydney next year - can't wait!!!

WOO HOO.......Back today. What a buzz the nationals were. Sooooooooo happy all our hard work paid off and we won division 3. Only 10 weeks ago my girl was cowering in a corner and wouldn't work. she ran faultlessly over 2 days and the other dogs only made 3 mistakes across the weekend!!!! Congrats to all who did well. BTW - I saw the pug cross into the other lane, it wasn't 'aggressive' as such, but it did chase the other dog which I think has been deemed suspected aggression or something under the new 'rules'.

On the southside you have 4 options that I know of. BAD (Brisbane Agility Dog Club) trains at Carina on a Wednesday night. They cater for dogs from 11 months old and up so you really need a good recall and a bit of focus on your dog before you begin there. The beginners course is about a little more expensive (don't remember, but it wasn't that bad), but ongoing training once you've done that is $5 a night. They are really good and have helped me with my girl. Great bunch of people. ADCQ (Agility Dog Club of Queensland) train at Tivoli on a Sunday night. They cater to dogs from 8 weeks and up. Their program is really good in that they start with the basics and teach all the obedience etc you need for a good AGILITY dog (ie: not classic/trial obedience, but the agility tools you need). The basic courses are about $40 to $50 for six weeks depending on what level you are at and then ongoing training is $4 a night I think. I run my younger boy here and then my girl in the class after. Again, great bunch of people really dedicated to those who are dedicated to their dogs. Both these clubs are ADAA affiliated and I can't recommend either of these two clubs highly enough. The other two options I have heard good things about, but have not trained at so can't really comment. One group train at the Mt Gravatt Show Grounds on a Thursday night and the other is attached to the Redlands Dog Obedience Club. One other more expensive, but much more relaxed option is the Dog Sport classes at RSPCA. Great bunch of people and not really into trialling so the training is heaps of fun and lots of laughs, but not as hard core as the other clubs. (I play flyball with a couple of the people from there.) Works out to about $15 a lesson.

We are heading off on Wednesday (not game to fly the puppies just yet, they are still a bit soft - bloody BC's!). Staying in Port Macquarie on the way down and then staying in a B&B tram place about 20mins from the show ground. Look forward to meeting you there. Cheers. Tony & Xena from the flyball fanatics.

:D Sure was. Very impressed.

Greenslopes is where I got my bag from - was in the old packaging, which is partly why I believed the discontinued story. Pet Stock don't have the Sensible in the 15kg bag. Was there on the weekend. Pretty cool store though.

WOW!!!!!! Just got a phone call from Michelle at RC who had done all the homework before she rang!!! (Where do I find account managers like that!?) She had spoken to the pet shop concerned and it turns out that RC have NOT discontinued the line, but the store had decided not to stock it any longer and the shop person there had decided to tell me it had been discontinued. What she also mentioned that as a member of the CCQ I can get fantastic discounts on their product. with this product $122 is the rrp for 15kg. through their 'breeder program' (only have to be a member of a CC, not a breeder) it is $102 for 20kg. Worth the price of admission on it's own. Thanks all for your feedback. T

Flyball and agility are two VERY different things. It should never happen and if it happens at a comp then the dog is banned, full stop. The problem is that flyball does hype the dogs up amazingly - HEAPS more than agility and when they are in close proximity.......some dogs just aren't suited to it IMO. The other thing is that in agility you have a measure of control over your dog along the whole course - directing them. In flyball it's rev them up as much as you can, let them go and trust the training has been effective. When my girl was attacked badly (to her, no blood, but did really scare her, just lucky we stopped it before it got real) it wasn't by a flyball dog, it was by a dog owned by one of the flyballers that one of the kids accidently let out of it's enclosure. Second time that night another dog took offence to her staring (fear, not eyeballing) at him while he was going nuts at other dogs running and he lunged at her while on lead and gave her a good nip on the rump and another hell of a scare. That was when she retreated to the 'safety' of the agility equipment. The other time was by a dog that decided to chase her across the lane and give her a nip. This happens a bit, especially with greener dogs that aren't as focussed as some. I've trained at two clubs and there are dogs with 'issues' with other dogs at both, it's just a matter of how it is managed. The dog that got at the poodle does not play flyball with our club any more.

Xena was a pretty quick come back - very lucky I have to say. She's so focussed and loves to work so much that she was back to work pretty quickly, and some helpful passing exercises from DOLers has got her back to where she needs to be. One of the guys in the club deserves a medal. His miniature poodle suffered a similar problem, but took 18 months to get back!!!! At Scrimp. My boy CK must be the prince. As he gets more and more confident he's getting better, but his biggest problem now is that he wants to say hello to every bloody dog that comes onto the training field. It's sooooooo funny to watch him at flyball. One minute he'll be clowning around looking at one of his girl friends, then you'll call him to attention and he's all battle stations, the minute I say enough on the tug toy he's back to being an idiot!! He's going to be brilliant when he grows up but until then :D

After a VERY trying 2 or 3 months at flyball training with Xena where she has been attacked twice, had a head on collision and been attacked again we had our second to last session before the Canberra comp last night..........You would not believe it was the same team we started with 3 months ago. At her lowest point Xena spent 20 minutes cowering behind the agility equipment in the corner of the field refusing to come out or chase a tennis ball. Then we spend another 20 minutes running her up and down the hurdles with me in between the other dogs and her - the only way she would work - good thing I'm reasonably fit! After a LOT of hard work from us and patience from our team mates Xena is back to 100% and passing perfectly with all but the dog she collided with (dogs that attacked her are not playing any more). Last night she even passed ON the first hurdle (oops) with one of the crazy dogs she's been a bit tentative with. Now all we have to do is get through Saturday's agility trial w/o an injury and it's off to the show!!!! Looking forward to seeing all the great dogs I've heard about from down south. CK is also going really well. He's entered in the beginners class and seems to have come good just in time. Last night he did 4 or 5 full runs with very minimal errors so should be a starter on Friday as well. As a side note the whole Xena thing has been a really interesting study in dog psychology. She went from being top dog at home to WAY bottom of the pack (even below our most timid cat) to being back at no 3 (Me, OH, 1 & 2) and challenging for no 2 now that she is 'back'. I would never have thought it could do that much damage to a dog's pack status.

Yeah, well, the petwise I go to didn't have it so I ordered it in. They rang me yesterday to tell me that it had been discontinued by the manufacturer. Seems they might have been telling porkies. Isn't it funny how different dogs have different reactions. Both my look great and my girl's stomach has settled right down.

Just had a Eureka moment. Have emailed their Aust office and asked........

They told me it has been discontinued after I placed an order. Will have to have a bit of a look around - I went to 5 stores on the weekend before finding a bag of it so didn't really question what she said. It is possible that this is old stock on the websites too, at least there is some of it around for the time being.

LOL this sounds like our household. Never get hassled for food or rushed when the food comes out, but there is definitely a keenness to work if they haven't eaten that day! We don't fast intentionally or on a program, but it doesn't seem to hurt them when they do.

Thanks for the replies. Xena has a bit of a sensitive tummy and has done brilliantly on the RC and my boys coat has come alive at the same time so it's a bit disappointing. I'll have a look and see if I can find a vet that stocks it. If not I'll give he proplan a try.

Hi there, Wondering if anyone might be able to help me out before I spend a whole heap of time researching formulas. Seems that RC Sensibleis no longer available in 15kg bags according to our favourite pet store. Both my dogs are doing wonderfully well on it, but the 4kg bags are SOOOOOOO much more expensive they make me baulk at it. silly given the money we spend on the dogs any way, but it does. Any way, does anyone have any suggestions on what foods have a similar formulation? Cheers. Tony ETA - Sensible, not sensitive.

I've got no real experience to draw on other than my current two. Xena - 21 month old BC bitch. Totally focussed, nothing distracts her from the job she is doing until she is nearly dead on her feet. Has been that way since about 15 months. until then she was awesome for about 40 minutes of a class and would then go 'walk about'. CK - 16 month old BC dog. Totally focussed on what he is totally focussed on. This might be me, it might be the duck poo or one of his friends on the other side of the oval . Generally he is pretty good and is steadily improving, but the 'switch' definitely hasn't been thrown yet. It has been suggested to me that boys from this breeder can be a little slow to mature. He's so goofy you can't help but love him though so I'll have a few laughs and probably a few tears while I wait for him to grow up. :rolleyes: Would be interesting to hear others experiences.