The Spotted Devil

The ultimate distraction....Zig just did some heeling for his dinner....with one of my Burmese cats, Miss Brontë, draped around my shoulders meaning I have to hunch slightly to help her balance. Ziggy had that classic "I'm not falling for THAT old trick" look in his eyes

Have you tried having food on you BUT using food from the container as the reinforcer? That's what I would try to begin with as it sounds like she directly relates you having food to her being rewarded.....and swap between using the food on you and the food from the container so she doesn't know where it will come from I did that with Ziggy this morning and he was just about busting out of his skin with enthusiasm and took hardly any notice of the masses of school kids running around us on the oval.

Take Yank

Hey LP! Little Dizzy slept ALL the way home Not a bad deal though.....swapping an angel for a devil

LP, Ziggy says that you actually owe me a PUPPY not just a photo of a puppy because you forgot his Clean Run stuff today Zig wrote the book on naughty, so you just Express Post the little rascal

Whoo hoo! Another retrieving addict in the making In my limited experience, bumpers are certainly used for training purposes but real (recently deceased) birds (various species...I swear we had Christmas turkeys at the Easter trials ) are propelled from a thrower at Novice level. There are a few retrieving DOLers your way, laffi.....FHRP for one. Lablover is a serious trialler here in Vic and I'm sure she would know where you can get bumpers :p

OK, so NOW I'm nervous

They're really, really gorgeous So, LP....how many who are you keeping?

S'ok Shoey And here I was going to sneak in quietly and get them out of the way JulesP - was that herding? Nice!!!

Trial? What trial? At this stage, I'm looking at the double Berwick trial on the 17th (will happily pull him from the PM if necessary but he has the maturity to handle it now I think) and Mornington club on the 24th. I'm trying to stay local as I've got a lot on at Uni at the moment....as per usual! I'm not expecting him to blow it so haven't got a back up....will cross that bridge when I come to it

Ah ha! Thanks Jess - I iz an idiot I think it's time to take the leap into the abyss...otherwise I'll never do it!

Where it says "MEMBER OF" and "CLUB" what do I put? I'm really only a member of Hastings for agility purposes and just use the grounds for my own training....plus the Dally club of course.....I iz feeling stoopid

I can't believe what a difference tightening up some handling, keeping my mouth shut and not being such a tight @r$e in the treat department has made to Zig's duration heeling My expectations of him have now gone up! No wonder no-one likes to do obedience with Dalmatians - little buggers are too smart

This is my favourite part of training And extended to mean...."Aha! I'm not falling for THAT again" when you try to distract them The most important part

TSD, I am going to do a Pauline Hanson...please explain? More games?? For what focus, momentum, proofing, generalising? Sorry LL - only just got home late last night. Lots of games for all of those things - not sure where to begin....for example the steady feet is a simple "cause-effect". I have noticed that a number of dogs don't seem to understand that stand for examination means "keep your feet still". Sue's approach is to initially work in the sit....and keep your mouth firmly closed!!! Have some really yummy treats and move the treat towards the dog's nose. The instant the dog moves it's feet the food "flies away". When the dog is balanced and still the food is delivered rapidly to the dog. The most important thing is to not say a word and let the dog work it out for himself. You can use a squeaky toy or a tug toy etc - whatever works for the dog. Then progress to the stand and build in all sorts of distractions. Sounds simple enough but it was just one small part of the whole approach!

I arrived home late last night so was dying to try some games and ideas out with Ziggy today.....so much so that I completely missed an appointment I've had booked for weeks Anyway....I tried steady feet on the sit and was pleased with Zig - he caught on VERY quickly and it was difficult getting him to move. By the time we moved on to steady feet on the stand he was not going to be fooled. I will continue to proof this exercise with different treats/locations. We tried some rapid sits and drops - not too bad but could use some more work. Then we tried a little duration heeling and he was ok but looked a little confused as I have been supporting him with my voice. I switched to the 2 food game with heeling and that was a real hoot so I think I'll really focus on that for the next few days

Don't be greedy Sue needs to come to Melbourne first so I can book a working spot

Having a brilliant time! If I'd just come across for the first seminar I would have gone home very satisified. As it is, another full day yesterday and another afternoon today and I have just got so many games I want to play with Zig He's going to be one happy Dally when I start pulling out some new tricks from the bag

Whoo hoo! I made it See you all tonight.....if I don't get completely and utterly lost that is

Very much looking forward to the weekend Not in the least bit organised for my flight........ah well - don't need to pack much

I am a big fan of Eagle Pack holistic dog biscuit treats - very healthy and the dogs love them! Unfortunately, supply problems mean that they are currently unavailable and unlikely to be in the near future. K9 & Katz Kitchen have mentioned that they are looking at getting Artemis treats instead but they need to know that people would be interested in purchasing them as it is an expensive process to initially act as the distributor. If you are interested, please get in contact with K9 & Katz Kitchen - great little internet business with nice people and brilliant service. I ordered my cat food late last night and it arrived this morning at 10.30am. I always put a larger order in so I get free delivery :p

Took me 3 months to clicker train my Dally to retrieve so I am absolutely excitement central to up his motivation At the moment every retrieve is done in a different way with some of his dinner every 2nd night - e.g. just ask for a 'hold' and present to front for his food reward, then I might hype him up with some silly play, toss the article, immediate retrieve and present to front to get a food reward....then I might hype him up, ask him to heel (sometimes I kneel on the ground instead of standing), hold my arms around him, toss the article, release to retrieve and present to front....then put him in a sit stay, run out and drop some food, return to dog, send him to get the food and present to front for more food...then sit stay, run out and place the article, return to dog, send him to get the article and present to front. I might do one or all of these exercises in varying order depending on his level of motivation. Hope that makes sense like it does in my head

My Dally was the biggest whinge of a tired puppy you've ever seen.....actually not much has changed in 2 years He simply could not shut his eyes in the lounge room even if they were hanging out of his head! Every time someone moved or a cat walked past or a bird chirped he would bolt upright - very funny I ended up putting him to bed in an open crate in the laundry which was lovely and quiet. When he started to get a bit grizzly (just like a toddler ) I would sit quietly with him on the floor and stroke him gently.....one yawn.....another yawn....yet another and strike three, you're out!!! Off to the crate with a puppy kong full of biscuits and leave him there for 2-3 hours. Best thing I ever did

I'll be there Flights booked, in-laws waiting and bags still half packed from last weekend

I certainly had an absolute blast, LL Just noticed the scores for the weekend - Yo was on 142 points for his 3rd place on Sunday, only 3 points behind the winner! There's hope for us yet