pie

SUVs don't have the best cargo space - a lot of them are beaten by wagons. If you look in off topic there was a thread about dog cars not that long ago.

Jeepers - that's some serious range!

Fantastic! Love the Willie Wagtail shot. Was the one of the boat/ship taken when you were on a cruise by any chance? We did a Catamaran cruise in Freo a week ago and the view was very similar :D

Mind boggling isn't it.

Wow this was like de ja vu - another photographer just excitedly posted a photo of her new D800 on FB and was complaining about the file size and how she had to buy heaps of CF cards :laugh: Great photos, love the first one of Sid :)

This is awful to read, poor Maddie and stan and you too hazywal should never even happen.

I think it's a big gap from Excellent to Masters too - that was the time when I had to learn the hard lesson after frustration/disappointment that a Q is not the only point to doing agility - and I had to break it down more than that and find positives rather than fall into the trap of 'we failed because it wasn't clear'. Qs are just icing on the cake now I think - and our last Masters Agility run I would say was one of our best runs ever, but she ran around one jump - I still think it's our best so far :) Definitely a big jump!

You can get Alphabet Drills here: http://www.gameondogs.com.au/books-and-dvd/alphabet-drills.html Great book

Yes unfortunately you are right Jess

I think the ET limit should be determined by a vet not a set figure - it's so breed dependent, for example my Tenterfield Terrier (There are Tenties with ET titles) is 7 - but is in the same condition as he was 5 years ago - and his breed is a longlived one that is known to be sound for 12-13+ years (two of his relatives died at 18 years of age) so the cutoff is actually less than half way through his expected lifespan.

Mine just never grew Heheh just joking Your girl looks lovely, welcome to DOL :)

Don't be discouraged E&H - all dogs are different and some take longer to mature than others! Particularly if those breeds are known to be clowns haha! You'll get there in the end and so long as you are both having a blast that's all that matters at the end of the day! Plus he is super handsome! :laugh: Glad you are enjoying club training, I think it makes a big difference and I do miss structured classes now that I don't do them.

I agree with TSD about not repeating what he can't do, just keep running and make speed your goal first and get the accuracy later (speaking from experience here also - something I wish I did more of) - it will come - he looks fantastic and like he's having a blast, love those fluffy Aussie bums hehe :thumbsup: On front crosses - someone pointed out to me once that if you are running harder to get in a front cross sometimes that can backfire, because your dog thinks you running harder = me speeding up so you can never get there :laugh: (this can be remedied by raising your opposite arm to warn them it is coming I guess) Now I have learned it's more about where you are positioned but that's easier once you know he will commit to jumps and you can get a bit more distance. I don't tend to do rears with Trix (she just never really got them :laugh: ) So for her it's about thinking ahead about where I need to be on course and trusting her to do things (easier said than done :p ) Hope you stick with it I really think you guys will do great Woohoo!

No I don't like it either - I would've deleted that email too. Do not like the term furkids. On a similar note I know dog friends who call themselves their dog's mum etc too, I don't care if they do it each to their own and some of them are DOLers and already know how I feel about this :laugh: ) - but I personally don't - I am not their parent - they are my pets. Sometimes I have to pick up my bosses dog from chemo and they buzz the nurses and say 'Max's mum is here!' and it annoys me - firstly because he's not even my dog and secondly because if he was that still wouldn't make me his mum! :p

Hahahah :laugh: They probably thought "I bet she says that to all the puppies just to try and make them stay" :laugh:

Hahah yeah they are a bit ridiculous to watch - people still laugh at Trixie's ridiculous run haha. When she was a puppy her back end moved faster than her front which didn't help things - lol Awww so cute, hope they go on to do it with her, we need more agility Mannies! Tell them one was a national jumping champion once that might spurr them on and give them hope through the early challenging terrier days

OMG! :thumbsup: Oooh I hope they stick with it, how cool! Aww was she all velvety and dark *puppy clucky all of a sudden*

In an effort to do some weave proofing the other night I had 4 poles set up and placed a chicken wing near one of the poles (on the off side), oh my God I wish I filmed it, it was so funny Trixie got it very quickly and did a few very fast laps through the weavers then got her wing - but Kyzer was so strange and funny he was just growling (excited training type growl) and just running around all 4 poles staring at the chicken looking so confused, like he didn't want to go near it because he knew he wasn't allowed to eat it yet :laugh: Dogs are so funny - he got it after a bit and did great weaves and got to eat the chicken wing :laugh: Tried the same exercise last night with 4 legs spread around the poles and boy did he fly and nailed it first time - obviously grasped that concept!

OMG the 'distraction' dog in that video looks so much like my dog! Unfortunately that is the only similarity between my dogs and the video Because their contacts sure don't look like that

Hi RSA, a lot of people teach contacts by back chaining the behaviour. What this means is you teach the end of a behaviour and work backwards to build it. So for contacts, the way I teach (with a clicker) it is first to train the dog to keep two back feet on an object (phone book or similar) teaching them to find position and stay there until released, then I would transfer that to a small plank, then to the end of the contact equipment (lowered) then lift the dog and put them slightly higher up and get them to find the position, then higher, then over the lowered equipment, then raise it gradually to full height, all the while maintaining thew criteria that the dog must do it at speed and know their job, and not progressing until they do. Of course there are many other methods etc, and you can do a variation of this with a nose target/paw target placed on the ground. I do know of people who just get the dog going over the obstacle first and then add on the contact behaviour, but most I know backchain it. You don't want a dog to slowly come down the other side of the obstacle (known as creeping) you want them to drive into that 2 on 2 off position (or whatever position you want). They usually just get people on obstacles ASAP in standard agility classes because that's what new people want, they want to 'do agility' (was the case with my first dog too) but if your goal is to trial it may be worth looking at the bigger picture, I changed it with my second dog and shaped every obstacle before linking them up and it made a world of difference come trialling time. Sounds like you guys are having fun, and doing great :D :thumbsup:

Hahah this made me laugh - I think it looks great and plenty of people will get their money's worth - I wouldn't because I know I wouldn't do everything I would be meant to do because I am easily distracted hehe - but yes SG is a well oiled slick marketing machine, she knows what she is good at. I was amazed at the production quality of the 'preview' videos for Handling 360 too, certainly come a long way since the old low quality low budget agility videos :laugh: She's marrying agility training and marketing together like no one else, that's for sure!

There are so many tutorials on youtube etc I reckon you could teach yourself. That's how I did it.

Depends on the beach I guess, my two love to go, one just likes to get his toes wet and chase his ball, the other will happily follow us in, at one beach where we go fishing we keep an eye on her because the waves can be strong.

I believe it is creative cloud

RSPCA WA have issued this statement http://www.rspcawa.asn.au/about/news/update-from-ceo