The Spotted Devil

Another vote for shaping the retrieve - my Dally would rather have walked on hot coals in the pouring rain than retrieved a dumbbell and now he's so keen I have to reward the 'wait' I gave Em a Novice run in the practice ring at club on Sunday, just to gauge where we are at. Very funny girl - didn't help that it bucketed with rain half way through our heel pattern. Quite distracted by the novelty of it all but very waggy and prancy with some moments of brilliance so I can work with that. Recall was at half her normal speed - quite possibly because I've been working on stays a lot - she gave me a look that said "are you sure???" We did a sit for exam as only Mr TSD has done a full SFE with her. She was SO excited to be patted by a strange lady in a billowing orange rain jacket - tail (and whole body) wagged so hard and those little paws were dancing It was great to see Em enjoying herself - still a baby so lots of time. Her figure 8 was too good to be true (first time with people) and her retrieve was lovely (as it should be!!!) Gawd, but retrieving training feels easier this week :D

Beautiful mollipop It's so exciting training a new baby Have fun!

Also, some lines of the same breed mature much later than others so that's worth considering.

I don't find "shy" any less easy to swallow. "Reserved" on the other hand.. Or "couldn't give a sh!t about things I'm not bred for" Yes, that exactly describes my Dally Yet some would thus define him as being "weak nerved" - don't get me started

I think shy encompasses "interest in" as well as "fear of" but "timidity" really refers to fearfulness. But I'm not a psychologist! ETA: pf - we posted at the same time. The psychs have a bold-shy continuum scale. I think it's really important to acknowledge that we cannot know the internal motivation and thus the descriptive only refers to what we can observe. Also, I would be interested in a comparison between how an owner describes the behaviour of their dog in a certain setting and how an independent third party would describe it. corvus - how many dogs? Sorry I might have missed it.....

Hey corvus! Just thinking - but isn't the opposite of boldness not timidity or sensitivity but SHYNESS (perhaps better encompasses a reserved nature too)? Have you read Svartberk 2005?

I have heard many people say that boys are more affectionate than girls - both in cats and dogs. It's something I just haven't experienced. My entire male Dally is a sensitive sook but has never been a dog that enjoys a lot of contact - much prefers that I scratch/pat him as I am very aware of what he likes and dislikes. My ESS entire girl is a soft and sweet little snuggle pot and it's not unusual for me to have to juggle her and my 2 female cats on my lap. My male cat is more demonstrative (cat boarding owner calls it "maniacal head bumping" ) but I wouldn't say that he is more/less affectionate than my girls. My dogs have varied in their trainability but much of that comes down to breed and the ability (or lack thereof) of their owner

Ooo, a Koolhaas article? *is a slight Koolhaas groupie* :D Nah - it just came up as a possible explanation for quite different physiological and behavioural responses to learning in animal shelters - not as complicated as your stuff I suspect but very interesting from my perspective. Blackwell et al. 2010 Hasn't quite a bit of work on personality in dogs been based on personality in people? My initial research data looks really obvious to some but surprisingly it has never been done - sometimes people forget about scientifically establishing the bleeding obvious

Yes - that's what I mean by labels being limiting - it depends on what you are testing and under what circumstances. They need to be very carefully defined - I'm sure corvus has done that but it's hard to comprehend as a generalisation I guess. My Dally will drop his bundle if you raise an eyebrow in training but never backs down if threatened by another dog. My Springer is like a Jekyll/Hyde when you add birds into the equation

It's kind of complicated. I did a principal components analysis, which basically is a way to objectively work out what exactly my survey was asking about and reducing the 50 odd questions down to more general concepts. It does it mathematically so that I'm not the one that decides which questions relate to which concepts. Then I extracted the most meaningful component, looked at the questions that it was most strongly related to, compared that to previous studies, and gave it a name (boldness). Then I extracted boldness scores for every dog in the study and fitted a straight line between those boldness scores and various different factors I thought might affect the boldness scores. Then I tested the significance of the regression, and built a linear mixed model one term at a time as I tested their significance and yadda yadda. End result: Sighthounds have a lower boldness score as a group than most other groups. I can't really say if the results are right or wrong. I mean, we're talking about pesonality. All I can do is try to interpret the results accurately. TSD: Public-owned dogs. Dogs' origins were not significant. Interesting. Stats make sense. Sometimes I find the results can be right but the interpretative labels we put on them are perhaps just too limiting - out of necessity of course :p Was thinking of your research today as I was reading an article on stress and coping styles :D

Oops! Looks like this weekend's trial is cancelled. Try this one: http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2578 If you ring the trial manager the week before, they will have the property finalised.

corvus - were these dogs you were looking at in shelters or owned dogs?

Another newbie RB - it would be worth checking out some retrieving trials as a spectator (there's one this weekend, probably one of the last for the season - I'm not going and it will require some travel) OR going to a watch a retrieving ability test (scheduled alongside obedience trials) OR attending a beginners day (I will post on here when I hear about the next one). You are also welcome to come and train with me, although I'm fairly new to it all, and I know Lablover is very generous with her experience and time also. I train around Montrose/Lilydale/Croydon - mostly on ovals. There are some books that help but I think meeting up with someone definitely is the way to go. ETA: If you ever want to join me for a training session before you get pup you are more than welcome.

Welcome Perdy You will need white or black/white dummies to start with - you need to begin by teaching the dog to use his EYES not his NOSE - which is why we don't use orange for baby dogs as their limited colour vision means they have trouble distinguishing orange/red from the green grass. I bought about a couple of dozen 2" and 3" dummies (black, white, orange) from the USA as it was cheaper but you will probably be able to get just a couple locally to start you off. My youngster much prefers 3" dummies now. To begin teaching the dog to "mark", you will need several dummies but more importantly a helper who knows what they are doing! Young dogs should win, win and win some more and your helper needs to know when and how to help the dog out. For marks, on a bright sunny day, black is easier to see and on an overcast day or in shade, white is easier to see. Hopefully someone will be able to point you in the right direction in terms of meeting some experienced trialling people near you. Definitely read the Positive Gundogs book - it's a good start but not a 'bible' so an experienced training partner will also help. You will need a whistle down the track but not straight away - I would get started on marking and delivering to hand first. I don't use dokkens at all. Just switched from dummies to birds and back again as needed.

Yay Tassie and Kira A medicinal glass of wine might help those aches and pains - works for me anyway

Crap Jules The thread title made my heart sink. Good to hear she has improved - have been thinking of you both lately and hoping Amber was doing better. Maybe see you at training tomorrow x

Good to hear you're enjoying training, RS What did you end up doing yesterday Livertreats? I have started taking Em out in the morning for retrieving training and then taking both dogs out in the afternoon/early evening for training and a walk/swim. I love daylight savings This week Em and I have been working on lots of walking baseball plus some double marks, lining blind drills and today I added in a wagon wheel again - went back to 4 white dummies as we haven't done any push/pull exercises for ages but she remembered everything so will up the ante over the next few days. Did some non-cheaty water marks the last few days and Em's confidence has really improved - perhaps showing some signs of maturity, but she's also coping more easily with making mistakes - much better bounce back when I stop/cast, stop/cast, stop/cast. She dilly dallied on one of the water marks and I said "no", called her back to heel and she took the line without hesitation.....very interesting...I am learning a LOT!!!

Belated congratulations ness - what a lovely way to round off her title. Onwards and upwards to Open Well done AD - sounds like a fun comp!

Note to self: put whistle in mouth BEFORE casting dog

Well said. I'm really, really sorry you have had to go through this, Kirty. Ultimately, you put Nessie's long term welfare before your own emotions and I can't think of anything more honourable. Rest easy, Nessie.

Em says Strauss can come play stud dogs over here anytime he likes I love how his tail wags in direct proportion to how fast he is going ;) I can't even remember heel patterns in CCD......except the one where Ziggy did hover drops in the wet of course

Yes, I have competed with dogs in the show ring as well as several dogs sports. The dog coped just fine, apart from perhaps finding showing a tad boring (as do I ;) ) Some people who show in conformation will tell you not to train your dog to sit as you want them to stand for the show ring. Dogs are smart enough to learn both :D Some of the best behaved and happy showy dogs I've seen in the show ring are ones that also train and compete in obedience or other dogs sports. What she said :D

Congratulations Brookie and bedazzledx2 on what sounds like a lovely round - hint....next time I'd head straight for the single malt ;) Well done Ptolomy - how cute is Cider taking the dumbbell to your mum Very tough environment indeed - I've done conformation, obedience and agility with Ziggy at the Royal but not this year.....it's just a very long day for everyone!

They make a wonderful sound as they fly across the deck too ETA: pic

Many things in our recycling bin had a half day with the puppy before heading permanently out the door....cardboard boxes, paper, plastic milk bottles etc. Cheap and cheerful - makes a hell of a mess but it was better than her entertaining herself on the furniture :D Add chicken frames, lamb necks and stuffed Kongs to the mix and she was a breeze.