The Spotted Devil

Great to hear Perdy! Do pop back in before you start doing water retrieves as it's much easier to stop bad habits forming - behaviours that are quite natural for the dog but not good for a retriever! I have done heaps of work with Em on sports ovals with short grass and go back to it whenever I introduce something new - it's all about confidence building and letting the dog win, win, win! Do you have someone throwing for you? Do you know about walking singles? Oh, I meant to add to our training progress. Mr TSD operated the thrower again today - went out to KCC Park. The choice of cover/water wasn't great due to mowing and overgrowth and really yucky water but we did what we could. Set up the first retrieve left to right so Em had to swim across a reasonably sized creek - had the bird landing just in the cover but it was a fairly short mark and cover was also short. That went really well so did one right to left. We moved to another area and set up the thrower left to right near the trees - it was a really long mark with short-ish cover but undulating ground so a nice combination. The test bird landed in some awful murky water so we let that one float down stream, never to be seen again - fortunately I had suggested to Mr TSD that he use the old bird, which had quite a few frequent flyer points and was ready to retire The mark went well so, once again, turned the thrower around to throw one right to left. Went back to the previous area (we were really limited!) but put the thrower on the other side of the water and hid it behind a large mound. Very pleased with that one also. Both dogs had a good gallop and a number of fun water retrieves.

Thanks :) Honestly, it is a HUGE learning curve so I'm trying to stay within my comfort zone so I understand what and how I am training something. I figure slow and steady might be best at this point!

Thanks Perdy :) How's your Viz coming along?

Try filming too wuffles - sometimes it's our body language that is throwing them off. Also, perhaps you could try a high stool as an in-between step?

I shaped front by sitting on a chair with legs apart. Very easy for dog to find position and something I go back to. Then add the dumbbell and your retrieve is sorted

Thankyou raineth! I wasn't sure if it would make much sense to a non-retrieving person (I'm assuming you are!) so I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's also very hard to explain just how difficult even these novice retrieves are. So many people tell me that their dog would love retrieving trials but it's a lot more than fetching a ball :laugh:

The only difficult thing is that Poppy2 has learned a few bad habits in terms of retrieving from her pet home life but I'm sure she'll be fine. Em had a quiet day whilst I worked and we just arrived home from taking her to the oval with the thrower and several birdies. It was a good chance to explain to Mr TSD how to operate it and we had quite a crowd of kids watching after cricket training - they were fascinated so I went over and explained, in basic terms, what the dogs had to do in the days before supermarkets and what we were teaching her on the oval. For the first time since Em was a puppy she got more attention than the Dalmatian :D We did 2 sets of 3 retrieves - one to the right, one to the left and then another to the left but back a lot further so she had to hunt through old ground. Each set was at opposite ends of the oval - so long marks against a backdrop of trees. She nailed them with loads of confidence. Delivery was just lovely on all but one retrieve. I have her a NRM for that one and the rest of them were perfect :laugh: Tomorrow we are off to the water/cover but want to save my birdies so might use dummies most of the time :)

Technically, it is about the consequences of a dog being fearful or frustrated in a given situation. The threshold and subsequent response (e.g. aggression) certainly does have a genetic component.

I don't think I know of Duke......will trawl my memory.....such that it is......we did discuss a lot of dogs!!! :laugh: It would be Poppy 2 :D She came back from a pet home and is being trained up for retrieving - such a keen little worker. I did some shaping with her for her delivery and she was so wonderfully keen! Charlotte is now the boss and played the "fun police" when LL's youngster and Poppy started wrestling too hard :laugh: Beautiful temperaments, though, and so easy to be around. It was great to catch up with them all and I will be taking more regular trips up there this year :)

Ah ha! Who is Lulu's daddy please - I only know their call names. I'm in desperate love with Charlotte and Poppy - apparently I'm attracted to the difficult ones :laugh: Not surprising really considering my dog training history!

Hunny, if it's any consolation my dogs get away with murder with Mr TSD but my Dally competes in obedience and agility and my working Springer (oh I understand the random stuff in mouth!) is not far off competing in retrieving, obedience and agility. They know exactly who holds the key to all their fun and runs the show - the cats me :laugh: ETA: If your other half won't let you use a crate then invest in a baby gate. My Springer has a particular penchant for shoes, socks, tea towels, kitchen sponges and CAT TOYS The baby gate keeps the dogs confined to the living area which is kept completely clear of anything tempting. She will still bench surf if Mr TSD leaves the sponges and tea towels lying around (common ) but that's then his mess to clean up ;) The only issue is with one of the cats who brings all of his toys over the baby gate so we will throw them for him. It's a mad house!!!

Thanks fetchindawgs - I thought it was a massive swim for her! She can swim an awful long way when she's playing or chasing birdies but to concentrate on a long water retrieve is a different matter. I haven't given her any opportunity to cheat on water and have made a really fun game out of handling straight into the water from the shore line - backs and overs - she thinks it's quite a lark actually. I'm going to enter the January trial () - I am feeling mentally ready although I'm not sure that Em is quite there. I have borrowed the thrower and a few birdies from LL and will take it out this week with Mr TSD helping out. If she is definitely not ready in a couple of weeks I will scratch her but if I think she is very close I will run her. If she bombs out we will just use the opportunity to do some training in a different environment. The main thing that I took away from training at Howlong was that if she missed the retrieve it wasn't the end of the world in terms of her confidence - it was very easy to get that back because of all her previous wins "in the bank". Yes, 'tis Norma ST. I really love her dogs and had lots of Wei cuddles

Cross-posted from the retrieving thread for those interested in Miss Em's ongoing training... Last weekend I drove 4 hours to Howlong in NSW to stay with LL and a lovely friend/Wei breeder/retrieving trialler. Between us in the house there were 6 Weis, 4 Labs and 1 little Springy Ding :laugh: Unfortunately I had a rotten headache all weekend but we still got some good training done.....we had larger bodies of water to train on than Em had experienced previously and I was really surprised at how well she went. The first 2 water marks on Saturday were fabulous and she didn't even look like cheating. She thought about cheating on the way back from a couple of other water marks but took my handle back into the water very well. In fact, she handled much better in the water than I expected her to. We introduced her to the thrower and I made the mistake of putting a few too many novel aspects in one mark - she is used to the bumper boys but not the manual thrower/person appearing out of "nowhere" and got a bit of a fright! But she soon realised that birdies came out of the thrower and we got there in the end. I finished off the weekend having a much better understanding of where Em is at. I didn't have a lot of video footage to play with as we were all busy with our own dogs and I didn't have spare tapes but I hope you enjoy a small sample of what Em and I got up to....

Last weekend I drove 4 hours to Howlong in NSW to stay with LL and a lovely friend/Wei breeder/retrieving trialler. Between us in the house there were 6 Weis, 4 Labs and 1 little Springy Ding :laugh: Unfortunately I had a rotten headache all weekend but we still got some good training done.....we had larger bodies of water to train on than Em had experienced previously and I was really surprised at how well she went. The first 2 water marks on Saturday were fabulous and she didn't even look like cheating. She thought about cheating on the way back from a couple of other water marks but took my handle back into the water very well. In fact, she handled much better in the water than I expected her to. We introduced her to the thrower and I made the mistake of putting a few too many novel aspects in one mark - she is used to the bumper boys but not the manual thrower/person appearing out of "nowhere" and got a bit of a fright! But she soon realised that birdies came out of the thrower and we got there in the end. I finished off the weekend having a much better understanding of where Em is at. I didn't have a lot of video footage to play with as we were all busy with our own dogs and I didn't have spare tapes but I hope you enjoy a small sample of what Em and I got up to....

Wow! Little turd :laugh:

I was thinking the same megan_ Is she food or tug oriented Kirty? Either of those could help her confidence and focus on you as well. I do like the idea of the little bell and agree with pers about "pictures" - she needs to build a mind picture so perhaps some regular walking routes could help.

So....in between chainsawing my way out of our driveway this morning (linky) and getting a heap of video footage sorted for Uni I managed to get some training done! I met LL at a local park that has good water training options and hardly any visitors. Started Em on non-cheaty water marks to warm up and then moved on to known blinds over water. She was a very good girl if not very excited and it took a bit of work reminding her what "heel" meant :laugh: The marks were good - had a bit of trouble with the last one but LL tells me it was quite a hard concept - I asked LL to help her out with another dummy to get her through and that worked well. The known blinds over this amount of water were more than we had done. Em stopped to the whistle well and got the hang of casting in the water after a few tries. There were a few distractions for her but she really gained in confidence and was taking nice straight lines in the end - no cheating either. I broke all that up with a few double marks - one in the water and a very easy one on land - I think she also started to get a handle on that. Plus did a few small retrieves in order to practice sending her straight through reeds, instead of avoiding them. Em gets a bit bored with repetition and enjoys training much more if I mix things up a little - the Labs are fabulous at drills but she looks at me as if to say "oh for goodness sake, I've done that one today!!!!" She had a good gallop and swim with LL's dogs but wasn't very impressed when I kept calling her off the fun birdies and duckies on the lake! A very tired girl tonight :) Actually, both of us are!

Fingers crossed I'll have a novice youngster entered too - and she's training in 3 sports so it's not like we are particularly well prepared at this point ;)

Dalmatians have a short coat but they do shed like there's no tomorrow. Probably a little harder to train than a gundog but you have to look at what they were bred to do. Ziggy was a pretty full on youngster but has matured into a lovely dog and competes successfully in obedience and agility - more about finding the right motivation for them - I use food and tug but it has taken time. He's great with kids, visitors, our cats and foster kittens but gives a fabulous warning bark that scares the living daylights out of most people. I feel very safe when I'm on my own. They tend to be good with horses (traditional carriage dog) and love swimming but of course it does depend on the individual. I wouldn't trust mine with our chooks - however he doesn't take any notice of birds/ducks when we are out and about. My gundog on the other hand....

TSD Troy did take our suggestion on board and changed the points from 50 to 100 for FT and RT Ch in line with the Tracking Champion. I think that this is a step in the right direction - yes the other retrieving and field titles are rediculously difficult to achieve and may be worth more to us, however I think for now it is at least a more even playing field for "champion" title points. i do think, though, that for the all the titles, including conformation, the "champion" award points should be the same, regardless of how hard it is to gain certain titles over others. They all carry the title of champion and they all enable a dual champ/triple champ if achieving more than one. All champion titles should be worth either 50 or 100 points, and all grands, if offered, worth 100 or more. ETA: this if in regards to the "breeder of the year" points being awarded. Oh cool, I didn't realise - thanks ST and thanks Troy

The tiniest thing in my package, the shoe lace locks, got a work out yesterday. I can't believe how effective they are at keeping shoes consistently firm all day. What a winner! ish - that's a great pic - spoilt puppies Wouldn't mind seeing a pic of the puppies with the toys though! I bought a large Kong Wobbler for Em and it has gone down a treat. Clean Run charged me $11.95. Saw it in Petstock yesterday for $51.95 Even Mr TSD was impressed

I don't participate in Pointscores but I would like to see retrieving/field trial champions AT LEAST on par with tracking champions (currently it's 50 vs 100 points). To gain Novice (NRD) and Restricted (RRD) titles in retrieving a dog must win three times at each level. Once in the highest level (All Age) the dog has to win twice against highly experienced dogs and may trial for a long time without winning. Even completing an All Age stake is a huge achievement and a dog who achieves this 10 times under 3 different judges is awarded AARD.

My ACD was exactly the same except that she never learned not to ingest salt water It would run straight through her, poor lass. It didn't seem to do her any harm though - she survived after eating compost (very bad!!!), eating a whole box of snail bait (yep, including the box ) and lived to the ripe old age of 17 years. The night before she was put to sleep due to acute symptoms of liver cancer, she stole and devoured an entire loaf of bread, bless her

Brilliant Just watched that twice - had to show Mr TSD the second time and laughed as hard as I did the first time Fantastic dogs and patient handlers

BB - have a look in the show forum - I think it was a thread on cool coats in there?