The Spotted Devil

Have lots and lots of fun Look forward to hearing how you went. I remember returning to agility with Ziggy after a break of about 10 years - whoa - talk about shock to the system :laugh: My ACD had to jump the old heights too and I retired her early because of that damn spread - just impossible for a dog of her build to clear consistently. Wet and windy here today and the dogs were FERAL despite a serious workout yesterday. Couldn't get any work done :laugh: So.....seeing as all the crates are packed up (no puppies or girls in season) I had Zig do a down stay whilst Em did her crazy version of perch work, followed by Em on a sit stay whilst Zig did his. Both very, very good after a little initial confusion so I might progress that exercise a little further. Did a bit of work on weaves downstairs when the sky cleared and they were both flying through completely independent of me.....need to work on angles again... Dogs were still feral last night so I had one doing a sit stay whilst the other had to run into 2O/2O position - hilarious confusion until they worked out the deal :laugh: Then I brought them inside and we played the "find it" game with each dog having to stay whilst the other dog searched for the item. This was way too much for Ziggy who would bolt in an attempt to beat Em to the item. And he doesn't even like retrieving

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I love being able to take one dog out and leave one at home. How tired is Hamish before you leave in the morning? At a young age particularly I like them to be mentally and physically active....so a combination of training and play. I try to have a young pup/dog up and about 2 hours prior to leaving the house - as they get older they just get used to being grateful that I've left the house so they can get some sleep! Can you just give him access to one room eg the laundry? Has he got a nice cosy kennel near the back door?

Fantastic! Best. Easter. Ever :D

I use Cottage Kennels in Plenty for my 2. Dogs from the same family are housed and exercised together but fed separately during cleaning. No contact with dogs from other families - which I like. Very secure kennel complex. Dogs are fed what I provide if required and medical treatment is no problem. Dogs always come back freshly washed and groomed and at similar weights although obviously not as fit. Both of mine are slow to warm up to strangers but they do pretty well here. Zig licked his paws a bit last time but they were there for nearly a month so a very long stretch and he understandably missed us.

Wow! I didn't realise how lucky I was - all I get is Em bouncing up and down, just about begging to go out training from the minute she comes in. It will be interesting to see what happens if I decide to breed her.

Beautiful pics RV :) That's a long swim for a baby puppy!!! Love the training grounds too.

I know! What a great combination eh!!! Love it i There's always something to review *rolls eyes* Isn't the cooler weather lovely though - and the dogs are just jumping out of their skin at training :) Love the auto correct :laugh: No, you're right RS - just put the link up so you could see the other dogs and the lovely tweeds and the yummy food

The toughest thing of course, Tassie, is to not babysit the weaves at trials - I am a shocker for it!!! That's one of my 2013 goals by the way :D Fortunately, another person also saw Zig work so hard to find that weave entry so could share my joy :laugh:

I went to training last night and spent the first 20 min reviewing the speed/focus forward exercises we'd been doing the last few weeks. Very, very pleased with both of them - Zig picked up some speed and Em stopped looking at Mama and RAN :) I left them both alone in the weaves and they were nailing some very tricky entries - they do so much better when I'm out of the picture Ziggy hit the weaves at an awful angle and just about fell into the wrong side....he pulled himself up and you could literally see the cogs turning as he twisted himself hard to take the correct entry. Bloody brilliant that dog :)

He improved on every run, Tassie! Well done Slightly nuts but in a good way :laugh:

She will be great fun! You will have your hands full running 3

Is that 300 height or 300 grams RS :laugh: Don't worry - that JDM pass card will come soon enough and will be all the sweeter

What a great weekend Tassie with the unlicensed teen and the feral wild child I'm working on speed and independence with my 2 using a few exercises. So far it's working really well and has them flying ahead of me doing jumps and weave poles without any support. I suspect it might blow their chances at our first trial for the year in April when they start picking out "lines" to run but so be it :)

Ptolomy, I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn so that's probably a wise idea :laugh: Glad to hear you went back for more fun! Nina sounds like a real cutey pie....I'm sure she'll get the hang of the swimming stuff but video before she does so would be priceless :D Livertreats sounds like she is having a LOT of fun with her red dog......as is Strauss by the sounds of it! Great work with both of them RS Sounds like practice and exposure is just the ticket :) Lunch was GOOD! We didn't have the full hot meal but a really lovely English style picnic with egg and bacon pie, balsamic tomatoes, goats fetta, cold cuts, bread and several other delicious things. Not to mention the glass or 2 of riesling :D I like the photo on Facebook of Em with her tongue sticking out just a tiny bit.

Great thread! I'd love to give my Dally a run in the ring again. I'm very conscious of his faults so I think I need to focus on his strengths a bit more. I think I've inadvertently taught him to A-frame.....any ideas to fix this apart from luring?

I'm dreadfully sorry, beth.....one is hard enough but two is just unthinkable. Take good care Run free Bob and Molly....no doubt you've brought much joy to the gillybob household

Ask and ye shall receive RB :D Thanks to Chris Van Eeklen (again!) for his fabulous photography skills.....even if he did enjoy making me think that Em broke More photos on Facebook:Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch

Thanks for the update!

Well! What a LOVELY day out Em and I, along with half a dozen women handlers and a variety of dogs (GSP, Lab, Golden, Flat Coat, LH Wei), took part in a retrieving demonstration as part of The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Fowles winery hosted "Are you Game? for a Real Food, Real Wine Lunch…?" - whilst the guests downed canapés and champagne we showed them how "Ladies Shoot Their Lunch", which is one of their wine labels. Had a nice drive out to the property with another handler and we had the opportunity to run our dogs on the retrieves. Em did a lovely across water retrieve (very cheaty!) but everyone agreed her land mark would be more spectacular for the onlookers with those flapping ears :laugh: I ran her on a hot blind just for training purposes and she was good - straight out and straight back so more confidence building. As 12pm approached the clouds were looking ominous but we had quite a crowd watching and our MC did a super job of explaining what was happening. We kept it quite simple as 30 minutes was all we had but the dogs all did us proud. As predicted, Em's ears were popular as was her 3 foot high flip into heel position after delivering to hand. Slightly excited apparently As we walked back to her stake I had her heeling both sides, doing spins, sits, drops and nose touches. The easy stuff looks so much much more impressive :laugh: She had lots of pats through the fence...,just as well the barrier was there or else there would have been muddy paw prints on tweed The winery provided us with a lovely lunch and a couple of bottles of wine. Delicious! Em on Instagram:

Welcome fbaudry Hope you have the chance to hook up with someone! On Wednesday I did some agility training and, on, Thursday, some brief weaving in the morning and some drills in the evening for Em before taking a class.....clearly we've been neglecting drills a bit lately as it took a bit to get her head around them. Started with single T but she was fixated on the left and right pile so walked her up a bit closer to send. Extended her out again and mixed up sends, stops and casting back, left and right. Much better by the end of it. Then did walking baseball with 3 dummies which always gets her thinking! Much harder to guess which one you're going to be sent for next :D Today I was busy, busy, busy so just took her down the local lake to do some anti-cheating work with game. Very populated area (dogs, cyclists, walkers etc) and not a lot of useful training ground but, if you're creative, you can find little pockets to test concepts. Em was so much better - she could easily see where I was walking around (a metre from her) but chose to take straight lines on the call throughs on the creek. In the pond I set up a very cheaty line across water and called her through both ways before sending as a blind. She was really good - one reminder going out and coming back was all it took and she took those reminders with good grace :D Then a couple of hand thrown marks into the pond - she smashed through the cover and attacked the entry really well. I extended the line for delivery and she sprinted back no problem. Not a heavy session but it was good to see she remembered what we had practiced during the week. Until tomorrow anyway :laugh:

You are possibly seeing some of the results of breeding specifically for 'modern' field trials that MRW lamented about ;-). No doubt :)

Thanks Mudlark - much appreciated. I guess it's also about what you are used to - I see more of the field-type dogs at retrieving trials (and there is a huge difference between the UK and American field types) so become used to seeing a lighter framed dog. I'm also used to see them running hard rather than trotting and I think that gives me a different perspective - you see different things!

Sounds like an interesting lady. From a bit of reading, it seems she did prefer a "moderate" dog. From here The Lab is such a multi-purpose dog nowadays that it doesn't surprise me that there is such variation in type.....pets (primarily), showing, retrieving, agility, obedience, guide dogs, assistance dogs, drug detection. I know customs prefer the field-type dogs - very high drive dogs that will work all day. Guide dog organisations don't really care what they look like (provided hips and elbows ok) but a steady temperament and no desire to chase whilst on the job is essential. Of course there are some dual-purpose dogs out there but live and let live I say - no dog can be everything to everyone :)

Yes, it's hard to fit everything in....not to mention life, work, study....... :laugh: Hot again today so took the dogs to the water in the morning. It turns out Em CAN do memory marks I suspect that it was poor handling on my part that confused her earlier in the week. She seems to have a strong understanding of the verbals I use e.g. watch, leave, blind, yes, back, ok etc. When I stuff them up she has no idea what I'm on about Ran a few backs/lefts/rights through reeds into water - the tough bit was dealing with her impatience :laugh: Starting to stretch the distance between Em/me and Em/water entry. Finished off with a half T drill in the water: send for long dummy, send for long dummy/stop/cast right to thrown dummy, send for long dummy. I think she's developing an understanding of a few things based on her response.....when I stopped her and threw the dummy to the right she had a good look at it then purposely turned around and kept swimming for the long dummy - I suspect that is due to all the two bird work we've been doing so rather pleased actually. Stopped her again and cast her right. She took the cast, picked up the dummy that had floated right out of my view behind the reeds and then chose to swim all the way back and push through some moderate reed cover instead of taking the easy exit onto land that was right in front of her. Really pleased with that effort!!!