The Spotted Devil

Just lovely Ptolomy - love the little sneeze at the end I noticed that Em has started doing that during heel work - almost like "c'mon, where's my stinking reward????? That was brilliant!!!"

Springers are 'liver' but the uneducated often call Em 'chocolate'

Beautiful! Well done!!!

Thanks - will pass that on! Well done Ceilidh :D

Oh you meanie LL That dog would fetch with 2 legs tied together!!! ETA: Interestingly my dogs have been in kennels for a week. I supplied food for Zig and they commented on how slowly he ate. Obviously a little stressed but what a different dog in training yesterday and tonight - nearly took my arm off at the elbow ;) And tugged like a fiend :D

I have just had word that all the agility competitors received a letter from the CEO telling them that, as there is a race meeting this Sunday, there will be no parking at Flemington and he suggests that they all catch the train Not very helpful when the competitors have to register by 8am and the first show train arrives at 9.45am! Not to mention multiple dogs, crates etc. A few people I have spoken to will try to arrive 6-6.30am and look for street parking. Glad I didn't enter this year.

Oh my goodness Ptolomy What an awesome night you had - congratulations I bet you felt a bit drained when all the adrenaline had passed! Sounds like you had a great weekend too bedazzledx2 Congrats on the title RS! And to Mason as well - nice start to novice at the State trial! Piper, what a lovely brag and to finish on such a positive note is a credit to you

I just picked my dogs up from kennels - no urine smell even though the Dally is a huge marker and clearly had a bit of splash back after he'd been bathed ;) They are, however, EXHAUSTED!!!

The problem with using a NRM is that we often assume the dog understands the criteria when they don't. Plus we have a tendency to let criteria slide in the first place. We've been trialling for 18 months and never had a major issue with weave entries. However when I broke it down to it's very basics it was clear that Zig didn't truly understand the criteria....so I was giving him a NRM for "trying" which goes completely against my training principles. I do use it but very carefully and only when I am working on something very precise that I can mark. I use a very bright happy voice and he responds in kind.

And in terms of weaves, if Zig misses a pole or entry it's a signal that I need to go and work on it in isolation. Otherwise he can become hesitant. The last few weeks I've been working on angled weave entries using 4 poles. It came off beautifully in the following trials except we couldn't nail a straight entry to save ourselves

Be very careful here KTB. In something you can clearly measure like weaves, start lines or contacts, this can work so long as your criteria is clearly defined. With general handling this becomes much harder to get right. If my dogs miss a jump or take the wrong one, they are never wrong as far as I'm concerned. 99 times out of 100 it is a bad cue I gave or poor timing. To make them think they did the wrong thing when responding to a cue at speed is to make them hesitant and erode the trust they have in me & my handling. This! If it's a mistake during training that I want to handle better I will tell him how good he was for doing exactly what I asked and sometimes even reward that and then set him up to try again. If I'm teaching something new I don't say anything but just try it again and reward like CRAZY. The absence of a reward is sign enough that it wasn't quite right. In a trial I try to keep that forward momentum going so don't stop to re do something. Zig is actually running much harder now and I will have to adjust my handling to suit - it's a great problem to have.

Serious question.. are more heavily spotted Dals and those with darker ears (like your avatar dog) less likely to be deaf? I know coloured ears are an indicator of hearing in another mostly white breed. Not that I'm aware of. The incidence of patching (anywhere) and brown (vs blue eyes) is associated with lower incidence of deafness. With my ESS - black, liver or tri - don't mind at all. Bloody hard getting one to retrieve if it's just a pretty face. I'm lucky as I love my Em's markings but I looked straight past them when I was choosing. With my Dally - I actually wanted a liver for something different but the breeder only bred blacks (although liver has now popped up after 20 years!!!!) A poorly spotted dog can really affect it's appearance - although it is only cosmetic it can throw a dog's conformation out. Personally I like lighter more even spotting but my real preference is for excellent pigmentation, great skin and a coat that just wipes clean. So more about the quality of the coat than the spotting or colour. Again I was lucky as the aspects of structure, temperament and spotting came together for me although he's not perfect.

Yay!!! I pick up my dogs from boarding tomorrow Missing their company dreadfully and I've so many ideas for training. Can't wait to see their madly wagging tails :D

I also throw food a lot and have Zig running to a bait plate which also serves to increase his excitement and heart rate. Thanks caffy for your kind words I am blessed with a pair of slightly crazy and very funny dogs which helps!

Slightly OT but I have trained start line stays using food (in position). After reading September issue of Clean Run I want to retrain using Premack - still with food though. Since I've "trained" tug Zig's motivation for food seems to have increased exponentially as well - he's just so much more animated about everything. Somewhere in is the dog that would not tug AT ALL. When I see his level of excitement and enthusiasm the hard road to get him tugging in any environment was really worth it. I imagine it's also helped build rear end strength - he is a big, awkward dog which makes it difficult for him to control his forward momentum on the A-frame. I think the tugging helps.

Obedience and agility with Ziggy. Will do ET next year if things go to plan and would like to get him back in the show ring. Young Em is training for retrieving, obedience and agility. Once she starts trialling retrieving will probably take priority as there are many more obedience and agility trials to enter. Obedience might be her Summer sport. I train aspects of most sports every day - even if it's just heeling turns or positions or perch work for their dinner. There are lots of cross overs and I make sure my cues are very clear and consistent. If I have an obedience trial coming up, agility might slip into the background for a few weeks but I'll still train aspects of everything - even in the same session. I'm in no hurry to put titles on my dogs - I enjoy the training so much and it's my time out from study, work, renovating the house, tidying up the block and having house guests. It's as relaxing and satisfying as meditation

Good question. My Dally has always preferred food and I have taught him to enjoy tug. I don't use it as a reward but more as a tool to get him focussed for agility - in fact I feel as though I've back chained it like the retrieve as we are starting to play tug before we train/compete, enter the ring and then food is his reward at the end. He would be mightily peeved if his reward was a tug but will happily tug in the presence of food before we run. But this was a dog that wasn't even motivated by food or praise or anything apart from wanting to lift his leg somewhere (thank you Premack!!!) so I have spent the last 4.5 years trying to work out what makes him tick and developing any reinforcer I can think of.

My young field bred ESS is extremely birdy - live birds send her into an absolute frenzy. She was quite disinterested in swimming until she noticed live duckies on the lake!!! When introduced to dead birds for retrieving her motivation to retrieve went through the roof and had her traversing ground that she was previously hesitant over. That behaviour was maintained when we reverted to throwing dummies although initially she was very disappointed

TM - your dog associated the presence of the shredded foam with your displeasure, not the actual act of shredding the foam. Your dog knew he was in "the s**t" but not because "he did something naughty".

Guilt implies the need for an individual to have self awareness and an understanding of what is right and wrong. Right and wrong are HUMAN constructs. Dogs are simply very good at picking up on cues in their external environment. In addition, dogs don't have the brain (frontal lobe) development that leads humans to say "I think, therefore I am".

I'd probably suggest that the owner is guilty of anthropomorphising ;)

That will be one SPOILT LAB tonight I imagine Congratulations

After 3 days with a migraine I've decided to pull out of our club's agility trial today So disappointed but I think I'd struggle to set up a crate let alone do 8 runs

Go krustie and kuda What a way to start!!!

Wow! Ripper shots FHRP - you have worked hard to match up pics with names too - very impressive!