The Spotted Devil

Collars and Scents in Bay Street, Brighton and another that I can't remember the name of but is pretty obvious in Church Street shopping precinct, Brighton

Completely understandable although disappointing for all. We have trained once in the last month (and then no contacts or weavers) at Croydon due to the state of the grounds. It's just not safe!

Thanks Tassie! I'm on the right track then as that is what I am doing - I mix up my position etc as much as possible and it's such a joy to see him fly through. It all just feels too easy because he's so keen. I trained my last dog in agility quite some years ago and it was long before the rise of independent entries....let alone handling on both sides and a course other than a figure 8

Hey Tassie! Return road trip to Bendigo today so more time to think about decel Is there a point at which we start teaching it on the weave poles? Currently I'm tossing food on the line and he just thinks he's so clever driving so enthusiastically but I think he needs a challenge. Need to work on entries as well but not much room to move!

Oooh, you lucky thing! Must have been a great seminar Thanks for the explanation and ideas for training - I don't have jumps yet and not a lot of flat ground to work on so the idea of doing flat work at the park is very appealing. Ziggy astonishes me - he is so quick to catch on to everything. I'm learning that he is very sensitive to my cues as if I stuff up he goes off course OR if I correct myself at the very last second he can generally gather himself and make me look good :D

Yes! That's exactly it, Tassie, as the club base training on the GD system. But why does it work I guess is what I'm asking? That's the first time we've done anything like that and he absolutely nailed it. Ah - I've just had a revelation!!!! We did a decel in the next sequence and a front cross which was similar in theory but I only just put the two together :D He doesn't yet wrap really tightly but that's something I will practice now that I understand it. The instructor said I should have been very happy with the neatness of his turn for a dog that hadn't had much experience with the exercise....or the rear cross for that matter!!! ETA: We haven't done the foundation classes so that's why I'm missing a bit of theory. I had a couple of private lessons with a great instructor who is very good at explaining the GD system but we couldn't cover everything as we had to hurry along Zig's contacts for the Dalmatian Nationals earlier in the year.

Some input please from agility people! At training on Monday night we did a 'round robin' of different sequences. Mostly I understood why they worked, thought about what I was doing and Zig did them all really well. One of them, however, I did as I was instructed, Ziggy responded really well for a green dog but I don't understand why it worked! The set up was as follows: 4 jumps in a straight line....and the instruction was to run hard with your dog - jump 1, jump 2, jump 3 - then decell as dog takes jump 4, front cross or rear cross (we did both at different times), pick up dog and run hard back over jump 3, jump 2, jump 1. Now, what I'm wondering is why didn't Zig try to take jump 4 on the way back? I'm trying to work out if we just fluked it (unlikely as we ran it 4 times - front and rear cross on left and right) or I just moved my shoulders the right way by instinct. And if I DID want him to take jump 4 on the way home, I wonder what I would have done differently? I just feel the need to break this down even though we got it right Thanks!

superminty - can you describe how you would train using a tracking method please?

I train a verbal release only - however I actually proof it by consciously moving and even using a 'ready!' command. Otherwise I think you can inadvertently back chain the release.

amypie - hand feeding meals as training was incredibly effective for us. Making focus work really fun and rewarding also helped.....steady feet game (in a sit) with added eye contact has given Zig a solid, focussed start line stay that sets us up for success on the course. He eyeballs me, coiled like a spring until I move my arm out and point to the first obstacle. I also try to break down and test and reinforce every part of the exercise. At training, doing very short sequences and rewarding tight turns or fast lines or obstacle discrimination. Also have a look at what your body language is telling your dog in a trial....shoulders, eye contact etc. I notice some people give up on their dog psychologically and it is really reflected in their own body language. Then the dog picks up on this, blows off the handler and does its own thing. I hope that helps.

We had such fun tonight We have joined a new club (closer to home) and were able to slot into the trialling class even though we are a pair of novices with most of our theory crammed into a couple of private lessons. There has been no training for several weeks due to the state of the grounds and it was still too muddy for contacts or weavers. Ziggy was fantastic - tried his Spotted heart out and did his absolute best to follow my (sometimes poorly timed) cues and keep the jumps up. He tugged with enthusiasm for the first half hour and I switched 100% to food when I could see he was over it. In between sequences he sniffed and marked and scraped but switched back on when I asked although it was a very different environment. I learned SO much - the instructors were fantastic. Just hope I retained some of the info

Keeping the candles going for you, Jed. It's a tough ride you're having. I wish I could take away your pain

You are right RS They are all scented (LP and I have been chatting.....again )

I need one of those t-shirts Something along the lines of "Yes, I Spotted that handling error as well" There's such incredible variation between and within breeds that's incredibly hard to generalise, especially when you add mental maturity and the odd sex hormone thrown into the mix! When I first starting working with Ziggy I would have said that he was too intelligent with too much attitude and determination to do his own thing. But I was wrong. He's fantastic to work with - but it has taken lots of patience and observation to find out what makes him tick. I feel as though he has made me a better trainer. I can only hope that he has.

I agree with Aidan in terms of the arbitrary limits for duration. Personally, I would put the 'late September' trialling goal out of your head because you are training for an end result rather than critically analysing your dog's progress and going at her pace. For an anxious dog I would be training for not just reliability and duration but for confidence. I would rather my dog do a confident 30s sit stay out of sight than an anxious 3 min sit stay out of sight. Let her body language tell you when she is ready to trial - your relationship with her is much more important than a pass card

Interesting - I've actually been encouraging Zig to be more pushy/rude of late. It only takes a look to put him back in his box, so to speak, but he's become a lot more confident in training. He was an incredibly pushy pup and teen who was rather exhausting but I think I know how to handle it better now and to my advantage.

So pleased you had time with your dogs, Jed - the best medicine in the world What about Shonkypaws Chipolatas for your next farming venture???

I figured that if we are going to use the same word as quite a few people on here suggested that we do - then find just means use your nose, if that makes sense. I guess that was my biggest hurdle - he relies heavily on his eyes unless it involves someone's @r$e When I started heeling in a straight line and dropping the article, oh my goodness, but he completely fell apart but I tried to keep it light and fun and supported him a lot as he would give up really quickly. Once he realised that there was ALWAYS an article there for him to find (and ALWAYS a bloody good reward at the other end) he came on in leaps and bounds and his persistence really increased. I've only just started to add turns and you can see the penny hasn't quite dropped but he never gives up until he's found it because he's learned that it's ALWAYS there. Sorry - I'm really crap at explaining these things because I'm always experimenting with Zig! He's a dog that ultimately needs to be really confident in what I'm asking and what he's doing which is why I'm loathe to enter him in a trial 'just to see how he goes' - he just wouldn't cope.

Well I can't guarantee anything I suggest will work as we haven't pushed hard on this yet but Zig is a tough nut to crack. After the hide and seek games in the house I took half a dozen items outside (wood, leather but not metal as he really struggles holding it although he tries hard!) and threw them one by one into the long grass to ensure he was using his nose. He really struggled with the nose bit so this was a good way to switch on that "find" means use your nose. I didn't worry about anything formal but let him see me throw them in the grass (had to wait until we had mastered fetch - that was a whole other story ) and as his enthusiasm started to build I gently restrained him by the collar and released him to "find" when he started pulling eagerly on the collar....like the restrained recall I guess. When he was super keen and happily finding the article, I would toss the article into the long grass then heel him in a small circle back to where we started and send him. Then I put him in a sit stay facing away from the long grass before throwing the toy, about turn and send. Just so he realised that no matter what, he had to put that nose to the ground and find it. When we progressed to straight lines on the grass it was nearly back to square one - Zig is normally really quick to generalise an exercise but this doesn't come naturally to him at all. I have tried on the forrest track in the middle of our walk and he nailed it - although it was a simple straight line, the distractions were huge and he was clearly scenting. We did it the other day for some friends and their 3 kids who were visiting and their presence (and cheering!) didn't affect him at all which is promising. When the local parks aren't quite so soggy I'll take this a bit further and we'll see where we're at.

Then why can people get done for violating a code of practice? In essence, if an organisation or individual can demonstrate they follow the specified CoP, it is much more difficult to achieve a prosecution. So while it's not law as such it does often link in with the legislation.

Now THAT'S cold!!! It's much easier to enjoy long walks when it's cold and drizzly but I managed to squeeze in some training at a new park in between the downpours. Just did some heeling - really enthusiastic work from the Spotted One - it was a real pleasure to glance down and see an upturned head and the classic Dally tail wagging hard.

I'm always analysing what went right and wrong in my training sessions. Zig really is an experiment in progress - he's such a challenging dog to train....but as I've seen what he is capable of my expectations keep rising and thus I just tighten up whatever we are doing and ask for more. I have no benchmark to compare him against as my last dog, an ACD, was so completely different. It's lots of fun actually!!! Hopefully my next dog won't be quite so confused by me :cool:

I enjoy the challenge of the Royal in terms of the competition. But the long day makes me consider how much pressure I'm under in other aspects of my life - rest is a very valuable commodity at the moment! Plus the memory of that tiny area for so many dogs to wee in will stay with me for some time. With a male Dally who is so much more relaxed once he has marked and scraped on multiple occasions I end up spending quite a bit of time there - yuk :cool:

We had our jumping debut and novice obedience debut at last year's Melbourne Royal. It was a VERY long day - especially for jumping where we were only entered in one run......and had to wait until 5pm for it!!! If I enter this year I will enter as many runs as we are capable of just to make the day go faster

Don't know about evil but Blue Dogs and mischief certainly go hand in hand She is SO adorable