Sayreovi

We will be back next year with two more, Kami who is on maternity duties and Kato who has just turned 18 months if anyone wants to join us :laugh:

I will be there (hopefully :p) next year with my girl.

Just curious about the line up, do the judges decide on the day which order the dogs will run or is it done before hand and based on breed?

Great photos!

Still annoyed at myself for missing it, but looks like everyone had a good time!

Well done to those that passed.....we unfortunately didn't even make it to the venue

Was all packed and ready to go the night before, woke up, hit the snooze button (I am not a morning person :p) and woke up 2 hours later Damn thing was set for a 2 hour snooze not 2 minutes

What a bugger, looked like a nice day today as well and it was Darcy's last chance as he turns 8 this year

What a bugger

How much rain has there been down in Melbourne ? Any chance the ET will be called off ? l can imagine the grass portion will be mighty boggy after a few laps of 20 riders and dogs going over it.

We are under water in the South East

Also very interested in how you guys are advising not to teach 'over' as a command. I too was worried it would become too repetitive and lose some meaning, but my little guy at the moment is so excited with jumping over things, he chooses to jump something if we go past it, and I didn't want that to become a habit.

Put him on lead :)

He needs to learn to take the jump you want him to take not what he decides he wants to do, if I allowed my dogs to do what they want all they would do would be dog walk, a-frame, tunnel, weaves over and over again :laugh:

It will lose meaning, he might start to ignore you and it's the last thing you want in a trial ring when so much is going on, you want him to be listening for whatever command you might say (in case of discrimination) not doing the obstacles in the order he thinks it goes :laugh:

I am not saying I am an expert (far from!!) but it's something that makes so much sense now and I can see an improvement in my dog so it worked for us!

My girl works quite well, if I run her & don't say anything, but she is more accurate & faster if I give commands. :)

Interesting, I noticed the complete opposite. I used to say a command for everything and my boy was slow and sometimes unresponsive (I would have tuned me out too! :laugh:) Now I try and run him using very little commands generally only his name, 'here' to change direction and 'go', everything else he does easily by himself by watching my body signals. He is much faster and much more confident in his decisions now, it was a very immediate change in his attitude once I had trained myself out of it :laugh:

Hey guys, just joining into this thread. My little man is now 12 months old and we can start doing some agility training! We had our first lesson last week and he had the most fun I have ever seen him have!

So far we have just been working on shadow handling and he has just come off lead for this. Also starting to build confidence with small jumps and learning the 'over' command.

I am hoping to compete next year when he is old enough, and it is important to me that we start out the right way for competitive agility. Can anyone recommend some good books that might be helpful with our training?

Good luck, its great fun! :D

Only thing is don't you learn to say 'over' for every jump, I got into that habit and it was hard to break.......it makes the dog tune you out eventually and it does throw the dog off as generally we are too slow to issue a command and once you get up to Masters you want to save your breath for running instead of saying 'over' when the dog should be taking the jump regardless :D

You will probably fade it out as you are just starting, so I apologise if you know that, but just in case I posted as I wish someone told me off when I first started saying it instead of having retrain myself :p

Hi tollersowned,

all handlers do need to be DogsVic members (or interstate equivalent)

M

Thanks for that and the tip as well, I would still be biking him around Thursday and Friday but you're right he can do it so I will just take one of the others out or by myself :D

Got his soundness cert done today, all good to go :D

Thanks for the offer Murve, I should be good hopefully :laugh:

Will let you know about car pooling, gotta see if I can fit the bike into my car and if not will let you know :D

Our training is going well, slowly working up.....I am more worried about me not being able to do it rather than the dog and unfortunately don't know anyone else who could swap in (they have to be a DogsVic member yeah?)

Still doing it though, hopefully don't let my boy down :laugh:

They require a fair bit of physical and mental stimulation but should never have "crazy high energy" at home. They are meant to have an off switch and be calm until called upon. Apart from that though they are an awesome breed and I wouldn't trade them for the world :D

I've only met them at agility so perhaps that's why they always seemed so lively :laugh:

I thought you might off :laugh:, they tend to come across as nuts at agility and flyball but I just wanted the OP to know they aren't meant to be like that at home :)

That being said my girl can go from hyper in a flyball comp ring waiting her turn to calming down enough and lay on her back, eyes closed while I rub her belly waiting for a judging decision to be made while all the other dogs are still carrying on......but she is a little special :laugh:

I have heard Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers (NSDTRs) referred to more than once as "the Border Collie of the Gundog Group"

They might be worth a look.

HW's suggestion of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is also excellent. They are beautiful-looking and seem to have crazy high energy :)

Tollers would only be suitable if you are flexible about your previous post on size or coat as they are a fairly small breed (about knee height) and aren't short haired. Some people seem to think of them as miniature Golden Retrievers but they aren't, they are pretty reserved with strangers so not sure if that suits you?

They require a fair bit of physical and mental stimulation but should never have "crazy high energy" at home. They are meant to have an off switch and be calm until called upon.

Apart from that though they are an awesome breed and I wouldn't trade them for the world :D

Bring on QLD Agility Nats 2014

Yeah!!

After all this excitement and wishing I was in Sydney I will definately be in Queensland and I will have 2 (maybe 3 :p) dogs competing!

‎1st - NSW: 2nd - WA: 3rd - NZ: 4th - Vic: 5th - Qld: 6th - SA: 7th - ACT: 8th - Tas

Well done to all those competed! Pass or not, it's a brilliant effort and everyone should be proud of their dogs :D

No I got it, you were trying to be witty :)

Heh been here ALOT longer than you actually :)

I generally just don't see other peoples posts as attacks because they post information or decide there is an ulterior motive based on the dog food someone feeds their dog :laugh: :)

So it got proved to be incorrect. What if it hadn't? Are those who feed the food not allowed to post anything about another brand incase it's seen as an attack?

You were the one who brought up BH by the way, it wasn't mentioned by Sheena at all. Bit paranoid.

Sounds like the black hawk club on the attack of other kibbles again

So those that feed BH are now not allowed to post information about another brand that buyers should know without it being labelled as an attack?

What a joke

Day 1 passes (minus open classes which were still running)

http://www.agilitynationals2012.com.au/results

Very quick posting results which is great for those of us stuck at home :D

He is stunning!

I love sable Shepherds Who bred him?

why is it people think black hawk is the best dog food out there. Then they judge people if there pets don't do well on it. # of my dogs do alright on black hawk eg they scratch throughout the day. Shelley my golden retriever smells more when feed black hawk. Yes I still feed black hawk to 2 of my goldens and my chihuahua, Missy my whippet has horrible gas on black hawk since feeding her earthborn holistic grain free primitive she hasn't had such horrible gas. So black hawk doesn't suit every dog out.

I don't think anyone said it suits every dog. A few people have said their dog has issues on it, people usually say 'buggar' but there is no judgement. It's when people who no longer feed it continually come into this thread who keep saying it doesn't suit their dog/s.....we understood the first time. No need to keep harping on about the same thing.

If English.ivy wants to try another kibble to see if that would help then why not. To say cause the dog is outside in the cold is why it won't gain weight is bull, can someone please tell my golden retriever Shelley she should be lossing weight and be really thin,She and my other golden are both outdoor dogs altho there in a varander with a wood heater to lay in front of. Still outside in the cold yet Shelley doesn't find it hard to maintain her weight and she is only getting feed 1 cup a day.

You're kidding right? If a dog is using alot of energy trying to keep warm and isn't fed extra to compensate for that extra expense then of course it's going to lose weight!

Your dog is a Golden Retriever bred to retrieve ducks out of freezing cold water, compact build with a layer of fat and an insulated double coat to protect from the freezing. English Ivy has a pointer......a big yet fairly light framed dog with a very short coat and little body fat....so it's not bull that the latter would lose condition as your GR in the same environment.

I read all your posts and by the end thought the same as Crisovar, she (he?) doesn't come across as accusing or negative more helpful than anything, too me anyway Just because you aren't a "clueless dog owner" doesn't mean you can't receive advice on something simple.

Why do so many people in this thread get so defensive quickly and thinking everyone is accusing them of everything under the sun?

http://www.vicdog.com/trials.htm

There are a few, but not many.....maybe that's all that's offered at the moment? Either way it's a good link to have :)

I just can't believe that after 10 plus pages, the person asking for advice still hasn't taken it aboard.....though given the OP previous threads I really shouldn't be surprised

Feeding dogs isn't exactly rocket science especially when you have a 'normal' dog.