The Spotted Devil

Jo - mostly clicker work. I don't do hand touching for heeling. Maybe I could teach him to heel on the RHS? Might be good physically and mentally. Are you going to the Sue H seminar? Is there one in Melbourne????? ETA: Thanks Ness The 2-food game has been a hoot in The Spotted Devil Household and has really upped his enthusiasm!

Jo - mostly clicker work. I don't do hand touching for heeling. Maybe I could teach him to heel on the RHS? Might be good physically and mentally.

I'm not sure what I'm really looking for.....but I need some varying ways to train heeling with Zig. We went to Friends of Obedience (FOO) tonight and I was really chuffed with his work - really enthusiastic with good focus and accuracy. I don't think the judge was quite ready for a Dalmatian to walk in the ring like he owned the place :D He's not far off trialling but I still think we can do better in our heeling. I know he'll never heel like a working dog (if you know what I mean) but he's not quite fulfilling his potential in my opinion. The problem is he gets BORED really, really quickly! So, of course I train in very short bursts, play 'find heel', teach more advanced work to him etc but I'm wondering if we are missing something from our training. Saying all that, I am so damn proud of him this evening :D He nearly got 2 chicken frames for dinner Any ideas???

Whoo hoo Thanks for all your hard work laffi :D What a great image Can you imagine the footage turning up on Border Security? :p

Now what do you do???? Partyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! Congratulations

Congratulations Natsu chan No brags here....still tightening up a few things up before we start to trial. However, we did go to FOO last Tuesday and I was absolutely wrapped with Ziggy's enthusiasm and madly wagging tail during his run through. For Zig, that's half the battle won We have a few things to work on for next week's FOO - it helped my nerves and I have now changed the way I treat Zig in between exercises. I instinctively told him how wonderful he was and played with him, which he loved and then, to my surprise, switched straight back on when asked. Plus tonight, after 3 months of clicker training he finally put it all together and did a wonderful, enthusiastic retrieve - yay

I think I will go, tkay....will see what I can do for you :D

Mary Ray has one out that I have only flicked through - lots of pictures and quite easy to follow by the looks of it....here's a linky I found on her website.

Ouch! Sorry to hear it Since I've started regular Bowen sessions my back has improved out of sight!!! I'm not going to push it this year but next year for sure :D

Hi sandgrubber This is purely from a personal perspective, but I would not be letting such a young, active, mouthy puppy "play" with kids of that age - supervised or not. I am a big believer in prevention so I may be being overly cautious here. I prefer to have calm, interactive, learning time to teach self-control rather than an all out play session where the excitement can unintentionally result in inappropriate but self-rewarding behaviour for the puppy. Just my opinion and I'm sure lots of people do it differently :D Not sure if that helps at all.

All done. Blood taken this morning - should have results back in a week. Will be interesting Philippa - is that Magnus? I'm trying to find a local vet in Melbourne that will at least give the 3-yearly C3 instead of my vet who insists on C7!

Yes - that's my plan too - it's pretty reasonably priced. Are you loving it?

If she is motivated by going for her walk (like my lad is), I would personally try a non-reward marker (NRM) first. For example, say I am taking Zig on a walk and I asked him to sit and he didn't I would say "oh well" very calmly and nonchalantly (this is my NRM and he knows it to mean "ah well - you've missed out on a reward, try again!"). I would stand still and then just ignore him, giving him the time and the opportunity to work out for himself how to get the reward (i.e. sit and be rewarded by moving forward). Does that make sense? Zig bounces back and switches his brain into gear when I use a NRM where he wouldn't with even a light correction.

Miss Brontë thinks the toys are for her....... Dare you to take them from HER!!!! :rolleyes: Yep - I think I'm back in there in late March....25th?

See what you lot get up to when I step away from the computer for the whole day? Just can't be trusted can you :rolleyes: That's the last time I stray

It's a really tough one - the American Dalmatian Club is doing a lot of work on health/genetics but it's very difficult to be sure. Personally, I think your first port of call should be with the breeder of your girl - they will be able to tell you about any issues her relatives have had etc. I know with my boy that this episode is likely to be uncommon as his relatives all have amazing coats. He was so hyperactive over the Expo weekend (I have never seen him that keen to work!!!) that it probably induced a stress response and suppressed his immune system. Perhaps just try washing her legs and wiping down her back to take any surface dirt off?

I use a small lid from a takeaway container - I think our soy sauce for Japanese comes in it It's probably about 5cm in diameter....Zig generalises pretty well so he will target most things I offer him....wallet, CD, envelope etc

Wow! It's a little more complicated than my plastic lid!

I threw away the bowl. Zig gets most of his food through training or, if one of us are too tired, he gets it in a treat cube. Originally it was purely for training purposes and to tire him out mentally but it has had a dual effect. I never take food off him unless it's necessary (and I can reach into his mouth without a second thought). If I had to take his beloved chicken frame from him (or something equally high value) I would ask him to 'give' - a lot of our games are based on 'give' so this is pretty automatic and he knows he gets the toy/food back (or something better) as a reward for giving. He works hard for his food and deserves to be left in peace to eat it :D

Did anyone catch Mary Ray's demo just before BIS judging? It was just wonderful :D

Sensational news Mooper So, so pleased for you ;) :rofl:

Oh my goodness - the heelwork to music is fantastic

But if they didn't give you the third degree, they probably wouldn't care. Those are the ones who given endless help and advice. The one I picked out of the phone book (years ago) interror-gated me pretty throroughly, it never changes!! It gets easier the longer you do it, you can say - "well I had a Big Name Prefix dog", and the breeder thinks, "oh, that's Mrs. Chinesewatertorture, what an old bat she is, she wouldn't have sold one unless this person was AOK" - and you move up the list a bit!! And once you have the dog, you become part of the "family", which is great. So true, Jed I "lucked" in with my breeder too! I was considering around 6 different breeds and Dals were NOT on the list.....I thought they were stupid Was chatting to a nurse during my medical assessment for leaving the ADF and, of course, the subject of dogs came up. She had 2 Dallies and said that I needed to speak with her breeder in Canberra. After the first phone call I knew I had found my puppy - I was just so wrapped with their attitude to puppies, training, the breed and the questions they asked of me. It took 2 years for my dream to come to fruition (not good timing for us the first time around and a missed season after that) but I'm so pleased I stuck with them I met them for the first time when Zig was 5 weeks old and they welcomed me into their home so I could spend my time getting to know the puppies....and they like to meet potential owners in person. I can't wait until I have the room to get another one from them!!!

Interesting isn't it! If you reverse the brands that's what's happened with Zig - looked great on EP but the poos were awful! ETA: Just thought I'd clarify that I'm really, really happy with Artemis.

Gem, the hearing dog :rolleyes: :D