The Spotted Devil

I run a Puppy Games short course at my club - the constant puppy fix is brilliant :D I really love The Focussed Puppy too.

Very special indeed mita - as you say, everyone wins. I was fortunate to be shown around by the CEO herself so was given a real insight into the inspiration behind the joint approach and the design of the facilities.

How are the ears going rubyroo? Monday, Tuesday were hard running days. Wednesday was agility weaves/contacts and Thursday was agility jumps/puppy games class demo dog. This morning I went back to the public lake/park to review a few things. Ducks etc were everywhere but her focus on the dummies was excellent. Started with a pile of 5 on the top of the hill. Sent her from the bottom of the hill. Did that fine but was holding the dummy by the end so verbal praise only. Doubled the distance to the pile but set her up and cast right back. Perfect. Increased the distance again and sent left back. Perfect. Moved around the base of the hill and sent her from beside me. So so much better than last time we did this! Moved again, had her sitting at the base of the hill with me over the run/swim river - amazing how that does her head in! Gave a right back and she just sat there staring :laugh: Tried again and she went no problem. Walked back to another small pond/feeder creek and placed a dummy for later. Then ran a basic wagon wheel to practice selection and lining. It ended up to be good for impulse control too as she preempted me on one of them. She was wound up like a Spring, pun intended! Finished off with the known blind requiring a short channel swim. She was super responsive to being handled and even took a right back when I should have given a left back. I swear she said "you idiot" as she took the cast.

No word of a lie I had tears in my eyes when I saw the thought that had gone into the group housed cat facility. It's such a nice place the LAPD drop in to have their lunch with the cats.

I visited an amazing facility in LA earlier this year that had the SPCA(LA) on one side and the "council pound" on the other. Inspiring management and a great combination of resources.

Lovely video BC4ME

That's so thorough Vickie - I am pretty good at breaking behaviours down but am slack on the table. Love it!!!

That's ok scootaloo! Feel free to forward this survey to anyone you know who feeds stray cats.

Just a bit clumsy :D He runs like a gazelle though

teekay - I posted this elsewhere but you can see the difference in natural swimming ability in my dogs...(this is before Ziggy tried a life jacket) Confident in water... Not so much...

Love it Tassie! Does he like tugging? Try tugging on the table and make it harder and harder for him not to fall off - as soon he falls off stop playing. Worked wonders for Zig! The first time Ziggy saw the smaller table in a trial (maybe ADX??) he leapt clear over the top of it - must have thought it was a bigger broad jump. Nearly brought the house down

Pics or it didn't happen rubyroo :D Yes, we've had a great year particularly considering I've spent nearly 4 of the last 12 months overseas. Funny little thing KNEW she'd worked hard on the last retrieve of the weekend - took numerous casts on the blind and never gave up on me - when she returned with the bird and I took it from her she leapt into a huge play bow ready for me to throw it as a reward I nearly did! Really wanted to let her carry it back to the car Sorry you copped the nasty weather too rubyroo - it hailed at home yesterday Quite lovely today although I am stuck at Uni teaching and having meetings....work has been cancelled tonight though so will see if I can squeeze something in with the dogs.

Ah - I've pulled Em out of agility for a bit and just concentrating on jumping. Does the most amazing weaves in training but becomes very unsure in a trial - partly because my handling changes I expect and she hates being crowded. Lead out from the table to the tunnel beyond the weaves, for example, and she nails them. Freak :laugh:

Thanks Spotted Devil, do you think the life jacket actually held him in more of the right kind of position to swim, or just stopped him looking like he was struggling? If it actually trains him to pull under the water instead of on top of it I may get one, although as he doesn't like water usually I'm not sure how much use it would get. It would provide peace of mind though. I will look into it, thanks I think it lifted his rear end and thus dropped his front end - even with lots of rear end awareness he has always been "front wheel drive". Zig didn't like the water much until he got sick of watching Em being rewarded for water retrieves :laugh: He's still not the most efficient swimmer but I think he has improved a lot since I bought the life jacket - it's given him confidence too.

My Dally swims like that :laugh: I bought a life jacket for him and it's worked a treat. I don't always use it now as he's getting better coordinated.

My dogs have such a strong reward history they'll just about work for cardboard :laugh: High distraction and/or early learning = awesome rewards (cooked/fresh meat, boiled egg, 4 legs etc). Low distraction or an advanced exercise with strong reward history = low value rewards which are now regarded as close to awesome by the dogs (e.g dry food, dry treats). Mix it up and keep them guessing! Em did some water work the other day in freezing pouring rain and I jackpotted her with a brisk towel down and a pig ear.

Thanks rubyroo! Another great day today - 3rd place, 1 point behind 2nd place and 4 points off 1st place. It suits us very well NOT to win at this stage and just get more experience in Restricted. Friday night, the wind whipped up at 1am and no-one at the campsite got much sleep. I was very impressed with how my tent and shower tent stood up to the battering but was looking forward to the "wind easing" forecast at 5am Saturday. Unfortunately it didn't ease until about 8pm Saturday night!!!! Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day and the usual late night chat and drinks didn't take off at all. I had dinner by 6pm and was asleep before 9pm which is unheard of :laugh: Sunday was much more pleasant fortunately. Absolutely beautiful property - we could have 3 runs without moving the vehicles as there was just so much to choose from. Oh to have a week of training there! Saturday - runs were much tougher than either of the 2 Restricted trials we've finished but I was delighted by the challenges. Em and I learnt so much. Run 1 - shoot at the mark right to left. Leave. Pick up the blind. Pick up the mark. We lost several dogs on this run as it was a pretty tight angle and the suction to the mark was too much, particularly with the wind blowing the scent of the mark right at then. Em got sucked in once or twice but I stopped her quickly enough to get out of trouble. My handling could have been better but she was quick to stop and cast well. At one point I cast her left back, she took a right instead, immediately realised it was wrong and stopped before I could blow my whistle - very funny stuff - I didn't mind what I called the "thoughtful pop". Picked up the blind ok and then did a super job on the memory mark - up and down contours and hunted right in the area. We got pinged for some over exuberance in this first run....I lined her for the blind, said "blind" and before I could say "back" she was off! Pulled herself up very quickly and I called her back to heel. Did the same on the memory mark but was fine after that....just a bit edgy on the first few retrieves of the weekend! 2nd run - no-one did much good on this run and we all scored pretty dismally. Very tight double mark. Short mark right to left landing in very cheaty run/swim water. Long mark left to right angled back landing on the 2nd small hill. Pick up the short mark. Pick up the long mark. Every dog desperately wanted the 2nd bird down (long mark) and we all had to handle. I was pleased that I got Em right in front of the water entry then cast her back into the water. She took it which meant that the training had paid off!!! Went into Spaniel quatering mode in the water which tells me she was a bit unsure. She ran quite wide on the long mark - not really sure why - maybe a combination of my lining at the pegs and the contours. I cast her left and she took that straight to the bird. 3rd run - long-ish mark landing on the face of a hill (several contours away). Reload. Send. Em took a great line, attacked the face of the hill, slightly over ran but quickly hunted it up and flew back. Fire at the 2 bird (into water) as she's returning. Em stopped and sat when I fired, watched the bird all the way down and I didn't quite trust her body language so gave a come in whistle as a precaution. She really knew where that one was and tried to deliver at heel. Nope - sorry kiddo! I sent her for the 2 bird and she went like a rocket - at the point where she had sighted it she turned sharply and went straight into the water (it had gone a lot deeper than the others) but she had no problem. Thrilled to bits with this run. 2nd place on 140 one point behind 1st place. Score looks dismal but that probably reflects the 2nd run! Sunday - another much more challenging day but some simply stunning water to work with. 1st run - double mark. Long mark right to left (land). Moderate mark over water on the upside of the hill. Pick up in any order. Selection was excellent on this run. I sent her for the 2nd mark first - she attacked the water really well until half way over when she spied an easier way out. Decided not to handle. She got out of the water and went straight to the bird and took the same route back. Memory mark, she went a bit wide but seemed to realise and went straight to the area of the fall without a command. 2nd run - long mark left to right requiring the dogs to cross 3 creeks (deep and swimming water). As it's something difficult to train for some of the dogs did the first one or two and then struggled to push past the third one. Em took a nice line across the first two, hesitated briefly and then attacked the third one without any mucking around. As they returned we had a short two bird coming towards us - I had trouble with the gun but got it firing just before the bird hit the ground. Em sat and had a good look. No-one thought she had seen it but I knew she had. She delivered to front (yay) and then took the line angled across the first creek directly to it. Delighted with this run. 3rd run - was certainly our downfall but I would run it the same way if I could do it again. Leave dog at peg. Shoot at the blind. Reload. Call the dog. Moderate mark right to left landing in tussocks. Em grew wings on this one...as soon as she hit the tussocks I couldn't see a thing. I knew she hadn't suctioned to the blind but she was taking too long. Caught a glimpse of her on the exact line but she had run too far. Whistled her in and she picked it up no problem. She was a lot wetter than she should have been :laugh: Blind took more handles than I would have liked but partly due to the initial line. One of my mentors said I did the right thing by not holding too long and asking for momentum rather than the perfect line at her level of experience. 3rd place on 170 points. 2nd place was 171, 1st place (very well deserved) was 174. Judge said how much he enjoyed watching her run - said her focus at the pegs is amazing (that's Em saying "hurry up! hurry up!") Watched the last run of AA, packed up and headed home. Em won't leave me alone tonight....thinks I'll produce another bird for her :D

No freaking way Although thanks for the confidence vote!

Cold and BLOODY WINDY Having fun though :D 2nd place today. Beaten by a point. Again :laugh: 3 tough runs but we really enjoyed the challenge! Just what we needed to expose us to the "real world"

Congratulations RMR Great Rally score and awesome attitude!!!!!!

Great advice, thankyou Showdog. And yes I have been practicing in front of a mirror. It's hard to know if it looks "right" from the handler's angle (well, the inexperienced handler anyway) without the mirror, so it's really been invaluable. I think you're right that a bit more encouragement of self stacking might be a better way to go. The other tip I got was to stack the dog before you look in the mirror. Gives you a sense of what the dog should look like from your usual angle in the ring :D

yes , I have seen some funny looks and heard some bewildered comments , from people observing agility walks lol Even retrieving people struggle with that bit - I'm sure some people think we do the same course every time :laugh:

Well said gsdog2 :) And congratulations on your title!

Wonderful to hear rubyroo! Build on that relationship We are camping and Em has stolen my bed already :laugh:

One other thing I try to remember myself and remind people in my classes... Your dog's behaviour is not a personal reflection of you. Don't get caught up in the trap of tying your own sense of self-worth to your dog's performance, whether walking down the street or in the trial ring. If my dog works well and is happy it indicates: 1) My training program is on the right track 2) My handling was good If my dog makes some errors it suggests: 1) I have some holes in my training/handling 2) It's not the end of the world. Every trial I've ever competed in has a mix of both those outcomes!