BC

I do 2 or 3 times a year.

I use lamb flaps, lamb necks and chicken frames. The dogs eat the meat and bones so nothing is left.

Is Keilor far from you, Keilor Obedience Dog Club is excellent, I know two of the trainers there. They train at Niddrie, A.J. Davis reserve I think. it is too far from my place...any suggestion near werribee/hoppers crossing/altona? I go to Werribee and it does have a class for puppies and young dogs. They are a large club, and run all different dog sports and obedience classes. I would suggest you go to an induction day, where you can ask all of your questions and get heaps of info, then you can decide whether you would like to join, but I would highly suggest it http://www.werribeeobediencedogs.org/

Great, just leave the registered number blank then. Trial style training at Werribee is great. This is where you start to get very one on one and picked on for all of the things you are doing wrong and you get many hints and advise on what to do. I will PM you.

You give a command whenever the judge tells you to, such as a drop, stand, etc. Should not need to on a sit, but in CCD you can, just lose a couple of points. Dont correct your dog for anything. If you're doing a recall for example, and you dog does not come, just wait until the judges tells you what to do. Also heeling, if your lab is lagging, just keep going, dont correct at all. Keep moving and dont change your movement to adjust to your dog if they're not doing the right thing. This is an easy thing to fall for. Hope this helps, good luck and have fun. I know exactly how you feel. I started trialling 2 weeks ago and just got our CCD on thw weekend.

There are 2 forms, 1 to register yourself and 1 to register your dog. The one to register your dog has "registered number" but just leave it blank. There is also a section to enter your membership number, but if you have not registered yourself just leave that blank also. Try and send both forms in together and the VCA will sort it out. If you need to other form to register yourself please let me know and I will give it to you on Saturday if you are entered in the funday. Cheers

Thanks everyone I will tell you though, there will not be 3 passes in a row with CD A little more work needed yet !

To get Cooper to hold it, I would let him grab it out of my hand, just touch him slightly under the chin, with a yummy piece of hotdog up above his nose, and the command "hold" I started off with a couple of second, then built up the hold time from there. I also had heaps of trouble with Cooper being interested in toys etc out of the house. Played with everything at home, but when we got to training, no thanks. He just wanted to herd everything. I started teasing him with it. Shake his toy in his face, throw it in the air, throw it between people, and the first sign of him wanting to grab it, I put it away. He then started looking for it after a while, and as soon as I grabbed it I had his attention straight away, thats when I actually started letting him have it. I then started doing the same thing with the dumbell. I tease him with it a bit first, and then he is keen as mustard to go and grab it at training. I found this the hardest part of his training so far. Training is tough

I do but if it gets to a point where Cooper has to close his eyes due to the rain, which means it is really heavy, I'll stop. I'm lucky cos he doesn't mind working in the wet at all. He doesn't react any differently. Its funny seeing him in a down stay with his head on the ground and his eyes closed But I do end up feeling for the little mite so I'll put a stop to it. Trial days, if its very heavy rain, I wont go at all, but showers yes. However, hot days, no way !!!

Well, we now have our CCD title 1st trial today we got 86 and 5th in ring. 2nd trial we got 85 and 4th in ring. Heeling was the most disgusting he has ever done :D I'm surprised we got the scores we did, but he was pretty pleased with himself and I'm just happy we got 2 passes. Cooper thinks Bendigo is a great ground to have a gawk at EVERYTHING !!!!! :D But we have come out of it successful, so next up is the Royal, which means a bit more work at home than I have been doing of late. We need to be in tip top condition My friend got her 4th OC pass so is extremely happy too, and weather was fantastic, so overall a great day :D

Anal glads are part of my service if they need to be done. I will normally ask the owner if the dog is scooting at all, and all little dogs I normally do anyway. I would've thought anal glads, but dont know about a pup ?? Better to get it checked.

Sure. Its this Sunday at Finn Street Recreational Reserve, Finn Street, North Bendigo. First trial starts at 915 and the second trial starts 1 hour after the morning finishes (around lunch time) I think the weather is supposed to be clearing in Melbourne so hopefully will be quite a nice day in Bendigo

It's interesting to hear everyones methods. I'm not against any, but every dog is different. I had no choice but to try a different method as getting the finger off Cooper with FR was not nice I have never had a problem with Cooper mouthing, which I am thankful for. When I say hold, he holds it, and doesn't let it go. Even if I have my hands on the dumbell while its in his mouth, he will not let it go until I say "give". He has never spat it and I dont think he ever will Hopefully he does just as well with articles. Its also great how he knows the difference. He will play with the dumbell at home, but when we are at training, he knows what he has to do with it. I am assuming it is the environment, and he obviously knows the difference between work and play. As I am a novice handler knowing the different methods are great. I am 99% sure I will have an Aussie pup in a couple of months and I'm sure she will be different to training Cooper so knowing different methods in all aspects of training are a great help.

I cant remember what Pal etc smells like so I cant comment. I think it is just all canned food makes me a bit ill And from what your saying I wont be buying Pal anytime soon

Good luck. It makes you feel so good when they finally piece it all together, and they actually like it. Never in a million years would I think Cooper would actually enjoy it.

The entire dog smelt of a yeast infection, yes, I even smelt its feet. She even pointed this out to me when I was getting ready, but to think this is normal???? As I said, some people are just not educated and dont realise what is and isn't right. And, she has the dogs inside. Can you imagine the smell :rolleyes:

Cool, I dont use it that often, but I quite like it. Might stock up on a couple of cans if its on sale here. The only thing I dont like is the stench when you open the cans :rolleyes: but the dogs think it is extra tasty !

Yep, I hear ya. It will take a big absess or something really major for them to even realise, then they'll think, I should've listened. Unfortunately the poor dog suffers in the mean time. I'm very anal about dogs teeth and skin, no, everything really, and no matter how many people I tell, your dogs teeth are rotting, or your dog has a skin problems, please get it checked out, it falls on deaf ears Sometimes we have a win, and they're my happy days :rolleyes:

I just love seeing a happy dog work !!!! They might do some silly things sometimes, but they're having fun....

After 3 months Cooper is now retrieving the dumbell on the flat :rolleyes: My biggest hurdle was getting him to take it in the first place. When he was 1, I was advised at class to shove it in his mouth and force him to take it. Cooper being the sensitive soul, gave me the big finger and sulked, and I was told off the trainers their dogs took at least 12 months to teach using this method. This was not the answer for me, as I much rather my dog do something cos he wants to, not cos he has to. I left it alone for a couple of years but had to get my bum into gear when I was at trialling level. The way I got him to take it was to buy another dumbell, and put it in his toy box. One day he just picked it out of all the other toys and started throwing it around progress. Since then, he has come in leaps and bounds. He started trying to grab it off me within the week. He started holding it within the next 2 weeks with some good food bribes held above his nose. We then moved to grabbing it below face level and then holding it, then grabbing it off the ground and holding, and then picking it up off the ground. I had not done much dumbell work with him in the last month, but at training I threw the dumbell and he thought he might like to run and grab it and bring it back. WOW WOW WOW. He now loves his dumbell that much, after I have thrown it, and then say fetch, he runs that fast he runs past it, does a burn out, and brings it back with the most beautiful front. I know I will most likely lose a point for an untidy retrieve, but hey, he loves it and I'm so proud. I now know with the right methods, this can be taught within a couple of months solid work. After that long winded story, I'm interested in how you have taugh dumbell.

Cooper had no play drive at all out of the house. At home, great, play tug, chases the ball, throws it to himself. Outside of the house, forget it. His herding instinct kicks in and he feels the need to keep an eye on everything thats going on. I have trained him to now play outside of the house. I teased him and teased him with his toys etc and then put them away. Another thing that enouraged Cooper is if he saw another dog playing with the ball. He felt he was missing out so we started encouraging him to join in, which worked quite well. After his ring practice, we play a bit of chasey with the ball, but only for a couple of minutes as the last thing I want is for him to get sick of it and he will switch off from it very quickly, but it is progress. However, the toys are still not a motivation for him. When training in the ring, he gets heaps more joy out of jumping in the air like a gazell and kissing my chin. So now, when he's done well, or if we are finished, I hold my arms out to the side and he has a ball springing around kissing me. He loves it and its a way of me showing him he's done well and then he's all proud of himself. That is working so I'm sticking to it for now :rolleyes:

Anyone going to Bendigo this Sunday? I am pumped up :rolleyes: It's only my second trial with Cooper and I competing and I'm hoping for 2 nice passes and a title.

Yep, she sure was embarassed. I did give her a little talk, but her embarassment was enough for me. I dont think she will do it again, and I'm sure the vets have had a word to her too. I have done her dogs twice in the last 6 months, and charge $100 for both of them each time, yet she cant spend $10 every 3 months to worm them. It's sad, cos I know she loves her dogs to death, but I think it is more the fact that they are not educated properly. Consider another one now educated Just a shame you can tell someone a million times what needs to be done, but it takes something like this to happen for it to sink in. It should have been prevented 6 months ago when I first told her to get the ear checked :rolleyes: but at least she knows now and the little one will be more comfortable.

Maybe he is not deliberately peeing on the other dogs head, but when he's weeing the other dog is having a sniff and getting wee on his head ?? Occasionally mine do this and its gross, I know, but I've just gotta catch them and call the other one away so he doesn't get weed on. Now they tend to wait until the other has finished and then wee on top of it. They're both very young dogs, and are probably in the early stages of working out whos boss, hence the marking. Weeing when excited it common in pups, and I've even seen 4 year old dogs do this. I think it will all settle down when they mature a little more and know whos who in the pack ranking. I do agree with spending time with each dog seperately though. IMO I think dogs need to learn to be a little dependent and not rely on the other one too much. It also helps the dogs bond with you, and not just each other. Good luck

Hmmm, yellow ?? Doesn't sound quite right to me. They come in black, chocolate, blue, red and merle. I think thats it, and I've never heard of yellow ??