Natsu chan

I'm so glad you got some success Rubystar. All this talk of Scent discrimination made me decide to have a go this afternoon. The little girl's retrieving much better lately and she's great with retrieving the leather and wood articles. The metal will be a challenge I think. So I grabbed a wood when we went for our walk and set her on a stay and went and stashed the article in the grass. It's so dry the grass and the article are the same colour. I sent her off and she pelted out past it then applied the brakes and looked around, then back at me, completely baffled. We played with tracking about 8 months ago for some fun and something different from obedience work so I just said find it. She's a good girl we haven't done any tracking work for ages but she put her nose down instantly and scouted around. She was so pleased with herself when she found it, she pounced on it and wagged herself back to me. The second time she put her nose down as soon as she got within range, and I left it at that. Might have another go again in a few days. Thanks for the inspiration! I hadn't thought about doing SD just yet but I'm glad we had a go.

All right let's see what I can come up with. Firstly the rules are here: http://www.ankc.org.au/home/inner.asp?pageid=70&mainid=2 You have to be a member of your state canine association and the dog needs to be registered, either main, limit or associate. The form to register an associate dog in WA is here: http://www.dogswest.com/Pdfs/Applications/...egistration.pdf Starting with a club is a good start. Does that help you? Good luck with it, obedience is great fun!

I don't really have a brag per say, I went into this season expecting nothing and came out with two passes and a second in CCD which was so much more than I expected. She's pretty consistent so if she hadn't come into season I think we might even have finally cracked her title. There's always next year though. I'm very pleased with my little girl she, she's sensitive, too much so at times but she tries her little white socks off, and she's carrying an injury so it's not always easy for her. Besides she's stuck with me and I'm a lame duck who's been out of things for far too long. :D So we just go out and do our best and have some fun. Mind you it's been a challenge, she's been scratched multiple times for coming up sore this year and we've missed out on qualies consistently by 2 or 3 points but I'm terribly pleased with her and she's happy and that's good enough for us. The rest of you have done so well this year and it's such a pleasure to go to trials and see lovely happy dogs working so well and enjoying themselves too.

I live in Melbourne I know so lol not much help but Melbomb Cali court is where you're thinking of I grew up the next street over from Cali court and my family still own the house. Cali court is the shops on the corner of Karong ave and Daws rd. It's a good butcher too by the way. I also know what you mean about the butcher in Castle plaza seems he hasn't changed at all.

Send her over here Leo. I'll take her, she's lovely of course I'll probably collapse with exhaustion after a full day but thats the breaks. Don't worry Leo she's only a young lass yet. She's doing well really and you know it. They can be frustrating though sometimes I think it's a little game they play with us. I swear Koori has little thoughts like this "Oh I can do it you know, if I feel like it. But you know I don't really don't feel like it today and it's so much fun to watch your face go all those interesting colours."

Oh that sounds much better Colleen. I'm glad she's back to being her cheerful self, that's always a good thing to see.

Oh Ptolomy thank you! I've been wondering how I was going to manage making a box considering the last time someone let me loose with PVC pipe was well best not spoken about. ;) A hula hoop never occured to me. Brilliant! Ruby in my experience most people use the word 'box' as the command.

Oh Congrats Dee_al, two passes in three trials in one weekend is fantastic work especially with a green dog. Well done. The cool coats do help though with the heat and some judges will let them wear them during stays on hot days. I know Koori has done her stays in a couple of trials with hers on.

Well done! And good luck for tomorrow.

Good luck with it Colleen. It'll be good to see a few more collies out there showing they're more than just pretty faces. Sounds likes you and your girls are enjoying yourselves. Just think with all the show traing they'll have lovely stands.

Well I tried this with Miss Pants and got what I was expecting she hesitated and then came to the heel position and poked me in the backside which I'm sad to say is what she does when she thinks I'm doing something strange. We've been working of stands with my back to her and out of sight stays, so not terribly surprised. She always comes to heel when she's uncertain so I expected that.

It does provided that you get your qualies from at least two different judges, having said that I can't see you getting the same judge for all three trials. Good luck!

We tried this, this morning with my girl not with eye contact because I don't do that but for attention. Without her cue word 33 seconds, but I thought that was a bit unfair really as I always use a cue word. So with her cue word 62, then I released her as she was starting to tremble with anticipation, poor girl. She's a 4 year old collie and we do trial but only at CCD level.

You guys are doing a fantastic job! I can't get over how fast you're doing this.

You had a go GayleK good for you! How was it did you enjoy yourself? I will say that some dogs find it hard doing two trials in one day, it gets hotter in the afternoon and this weekend was quite hot. They get tired too as the focus required is mentally tiring etc, don't be disheartened it was a first go for both of you. Keep training there's always next time!

I wonder if his uncertainty with people in public places is due to the fact that a lot of people will look at a dog in the eye when they go to pat them? My girl gets worried by people doing this as she's quite submissive and seems to perceive it as the person warning her off. Like your boy if they ignore her she's fine, friendly in fact. A judge in the obedience ring can do what they like to her. I've never seen a judge eye ball a dog, but the general public do. I found just taking mine out and chatting to people for a moment or two before they stroked her helped a lot as she felt less threatened.

I wouldn't worry too much about it really. You're entered so go and enjoy yourself, it'll be eye opening. There's a lot of people here helping you who have titled dogs. Listen to them they know what they're talking about. Myself my girl and I are stuck at CCD probably forever as while she enjoys it, she's carrying an injury that makes it physically challenging for her. We are not competitive but we have fun. If you want to do well the details count. The perfect heel work is when a dog floats along in the heel position, even or perhaps especially if you were to suddenly start doing the foxtrot. All distractions, all turns, all everything should only enforce the dogs desire to be in the heel position. Should your pants fall down during fast work, and you need to shuffle along while kicking them off you dog should stay in the heel position (though I don't think a raising of the canine eyebrows in that situation could be penalised though frankly the judge would probably be rolling on the grass with the steward at that point). Turns should be smooth and tight, you're a team but heeling in perfection should be almost be as you're both one entity. Sits should be quick and straight, as if Benson has a magnet in his rear, drops the same, stands too. It all sounds so easy, but it requires a lot of training. You can do it if it's what you want to do, but don't get disheartened. Trialling is a learning curve like most things. Benson is your first dog yes? Well, things will go wrong as you're both learning but have a vision in your mind of what you're aiming for and train with it in your mind. It won't always work, you'll have set backs, complications, stuff ups but don't be disheartened get in there and keep trying. And if you see a short weird female at a trial with long hair and a collie who can't decide if she's a tri colour or a blue merle, that'll be me feel free to shuffle up and say hello.

From what I understand not necessarily, my old girl was probably affected as she had some interesting reactions to various things. The vets didn't really believe me as it wasn't a case of her having a reaction every time, but she often had reactions to low dose drugs when she shouldn't have. She was PTS before the test became available. My current girl is a carrier but nothing on that list passes her lips, the old girl gave me too many frights. Breeders should be mentioning it but really given that a lot of vets still don't seem aware of it it's not surprising that some breeders in less affected breeds don't mention it.

Levi you could get her DNAed for the MRD1 gene then if she's clear you wouldn't need to worry about it. Here:GTG dog disease list It's very simple they just take a swap from inside the cheeks with what looks like a giant cotton bud. Moxidectin is not safe for dogs with invermectin sensitivity. Daily tablets are. Don't panic just look for an alternative. Here's the drug list for you too, it's best to give it to your vet as well.

Nerves that's what does it. A lot of the herding breeds are very sensitive and will get distracted and edgy if you are nervous. You live a fair way out from KCC don't you? Other wise I'd suggest going to FOO's run throughs even if it's just to take him and look around. Those ring ropes shouldn't make any difference and to a dog if they've done practice runs it shouldn't but to us it's like a trigger. It's interesting our first trial I was almost gaily happy and even though the weather was foul and even though my girl was very sore (which I wasn't aware of at the time) we did quite well, NQed but almost everyone did the ring was nothing but slippery deep mud. I was quite happy but the next time I was expecting better got all worked up and things went wrong. Take him to a few trials don't necessarily enter just go watch, train and calm your mind down. When you do trial don't expect anything and just try and stay calm. I can't be sure it's nerves but if Benson is normally good then it must be something he's picking up on that's making him anxious, if he's worried about the ring ropes then set some up in the back yard and train inside them. Some people insist that you have to go in with the intention of getting a qualify score which is all well and good but if you're a nervy person or your dog is it creates problems. Qualifying scores are lovely and that's what we all aim for but think of trialling as a fun day out for you and Benson. Stay calm and happy, the qualifying scores will come as a matter of course then and you'll both enjoy yourself regardless. That's just mho off course. Others more experienced will probably have some better ideas. Don't worry too much.

I'm still training this I must admit. I do blocks of training in fits and starts as collies don't really like retrieving and a lot of short duration training with lots of praise helps no end. So 1) Collie rough. 2) puppy 4) forced retrieve 5) Yes. About the same, but she's softer and requires more encouragement.

Well done everyone! Adelaide Royal is always challenging but goodness a pei getting third is fantastic! As for Scooter goodness me they'll be misplacing your entry next year after that! I can see it now..."watch out for the Sand groper with the orange dog...they snaffle all the ribbons!" Well done sounds like you had a fantastic trip. Ptolomy I don't know about any other club but I started out in SA at Oaklands park, I was taught food refusal by using a cue word so the dog only took the food offered to it if the cue word was used. Perhaps things have changed that would have been in '89/'90 some where around then. Slapping a dog in the face isn't very constructive.

I've found that if you always heel off with the left leg and always do stays leading off with the right that it just comes naturally since which leg you take off on becomes another signal. Which is of course why some triallers are so strict about it. Dogs are very observant, if you're consistent they almost seem to learn things by themselves.

Poor girl, but it's better gone she just doesn't know that. You're taking wonderful care of the beautiful girl so just hang in there. Did she give the vet that look? Mine always do..."Licking? Me? What are you suggesting" She'll be just fine don't worry.

Oh your poor beautiful girl! Fingers crossed. Try not to worry too much, chances are she'll bouce back out the car afterwards like nothing happened. Our first collie use to get cysts too...heaven knows why but the vet just use to drain them off.