Sayreovi

Are you talking about just obedience?

Sorry to hear SP You did your best and she had a wonderful ending too life......remember her for her good traits and the happy times (like at lure coursing) I really feel for you and your mum, it was a hard decision too make RIP Iko

Never heard of it, sounds like good fun though........same as Flygility

The change of equipment helps the dog alot more then what you say to them Put their flyball harness on and they know they get to do flyball, if you want to say something i generally say 'Are you ready?' and get them really revved up with that. ETA: I your pug, so cute

Why not do both? Alot of flyball teams would love to have a small reliable dog in their team Where abouts in Melbourne are you?

Good on Jade, Nicole would have been proud

That was amazing!!!

Nah the one at KCC is the one i want to get into, unfortunately there are heaps of students wanting in but not enough instructors

I am a dabbler, i will give everything a go and just continue working on all at once until we are ready to compete then i focus on that till we are ready to compete in something else. I love the variety as do my dogs. Honestly i would love to get an Ob Ch or an Ag Ch on one of my dogs name, who wouldnt if you are competing/training for those rings, but it isnt the be all and end all of training in my mind anyway. One day maybe, both myself and my dogs are young, still have plenty of years to achieve those goals.........for the time being i am happy being a 'jack of all trades, master of none'

Bulk of my dogs diet is chicken. Frames, wings or necks. Occasionally they get half a chook with all the meat attached. Other then that they get lamb necks and for their meat they get beef. Refuse to feed kangaroo, havent found cheap rabbit anywhere to give them a go and still wanting to give turkey necks a go as Darcy loves chicken necks.

Whenever they need it or we have a show whichever is first, my dogs are outside dogs so them smelling 'pretty' aint high on the must have list.

Yup, one of mine is on 400g a day and his ideal weight is 20kg. My other gets fed a kilo a day based on 5% even though he is the same weight due to exercise levels and metabolism so is fed more. My breakdown for Nova was 20 x .02 = .4 so 400g of food a day. Sometimes they get more when i add an egg or if i add sardines i take a little meat out. Then i did 400 x .70 = 280g RMB (70% of 400g) 400 x .10 = 100g Meat 400 x .08 = 80g Offal 400 x .12 = 120g Veggie slush This formula works for me and dogs are looking great on it, and Darcy (who eats a kilo) was a really picky eater who just couldnt put on weight because he didnt like the food he really loves this stuff

If you are willing to travel a little further south, Berwick ODC (in Narre Warren North) holds agility on Saturday afternoons.....beginners start at 12.30pm i think or 12 either one Tell me about the waiting list for K9 ive been on it for 8 months now i reckon.

Never actually fed shanks, i fed necks more.......but they certainly dont last long either, about 10 minutes for one dog and 15 the other. Wolfgirl where abouts in Victoria are you? Wouldnt mind giving the turkey wings/drumsticks a go because i am having trouble finding necks too.

Nova is Ch. Ximinez Driver Reviver AFCH Darcy is Magpielane Rebel Wind FDX (1/3 AD) Working on Darcys Ch title but there are other things i want to do more at the moment......there arent enough hours in a day!

Give me a few weeks and hopefully Darcy will work out he can do it all in one go then i will be looking for a partner too He is 500......Nova is 400 but certainly not reliable enough yet.

A dog running in the other direction i think would be an NQ Perhaps the judge made a mistake between your scores and another dog? Something that only can be answered by the judge because from what i can read you (or the dog) didnt do anything that should be awarded a NQ.

Congrats on your passes guys!!! LP Leo did a very nice run, i sat and watched the rest of the mornings agility then just went to training. Congrats to Silvawillow for all your passes! I did want to stick to give Nova another go because even though we didnt even finish in the morning i was very proud that he was listening to me then.....well until he went running to the poll but that was my fault too slow in calling him back. Darcy decided today he would do the broad and collapsed tunnel (his pet hate) but didnt want to do weavers I knew he was going to refuse the table because of the things underneath he is weird like that!! Missed out on Kinta hugs, i didnt see her so didnt think you bought her....

I agree bring Kinta....i havent seen her either!! Yeah i will be there, doing Novice Agility both morning and afternoon, have entered both dogs but going by lasts week performance it depends who gets to run!!

I suppose in a way it is used as a release cue as well as a reward for distance exercises, but it isnt primarily a 'free' cue, the dog is coming back to me to get a treat is quicker then if i was to go to the dog in position. Yes the dog may be rewarded in position but what if the dog breaks when you are walking up to it, will you still reward for the dog breaking? Especially if the dog doesnt consider the click an end of behaviour? A click is always followed by a reward, i have one dog that if he wasnt rewarded once for a click wouldnt care about the ones that follow, its a pain especially when i sometimes click a little slow for the wrong behaviour but i still have to reward. I dont know about the agility, i dont throw food for jumps and one dog will continue to drive out away from me waiting for the click at the end. Its where the cue 'go' is used by me. Ive confused myself

must agree here - not so much for a random behaviour after the click (like you peeing eg) - but if the click ends the behaviour and in coming to get the treat they are constantly doing something (like sitting or a particular way of leaving the obstacle) - whilst the click is saying YES that is right - the treat is the main reinforcer and could be saying YES that bit was also right! ... depends if it becomes a habit - I am not so proficient with the system/havent been going long enough that I have experienced this - but understand the theory... more so if it is a habit formed during the training... .....and if the way they are sitting/leaving the area is correct then i have nothing to worry about.

This makes sense - Think of the dogs that cut the 'broad jump' in obedience - simply because the reward comes from the handler.... so they cut it to get to the reward faster. Throw the food out and the dog will jump straight first. Another example would be my girl 'sitting' every time after she heard the click for 'stand'.... result was a 'stand' then sit immediately after the click. Wouldnt that be a training problem rather then a rewarding problem? Dog wasnt trained to go out far enough or clear the jump properly. If the dog ended up cutting the corner the front wouldnt be straight thus wouldnt get rewarded because it wasnt the correct way.

According to who does it not count - thats the thing you need to be aware of. Like i mentioned with the example of the jump and throwing food forward what happens after the click can, and does effect there behaviour. If the food was given from you at the side of the jump you will get a dog that jumps a bit slower and at angles to turn once over to get to the reward. The primary reinforcer (eg food) should be much more important than the secondary (marker), so there are going to be effects from how the primary is given. The dog is working for the click, the click indicates the correct behaviour and means reward come and get it. If the dog did a detour on the way like did a wee before getting his treat it certainly doesnt mean i rewarded the wee otherwise wouldnt it happen all the time unlike what i actually clicked for? For my dogs the click ends the behaviour. They break out of whatever position once the click has been heard because they know the behaviour is finished, what they did was correct and so they get a treat. I dont throw food for them because in a way getting the food of me is also secondary indication that its finished and we can start again. Sorry i dont quite understand some of your examples.....are you talking about obedience or agility in regards to the jump?

Ahh see its easier to explain when you have pictures!! Nice turn on Elvis

I use clickers, have for about 2-3 years now. For my dogs the click means reward and end of behaviour. The click means 'yes thats exactly what i want' anything the dog does afterwards doesnt count (and if anything it would be reinforcing coming to me) For example i am teaching my dogs box work for obedience, so when i initially started i clicked steps closer to the box, dogs immeditately returned to me for the reward and we started again. After awhile they got to the box and i stopped rewarding movement towards the box only them being in the box. Once i clicked they returned immediately. I dont have any jumps at home yet so havent progressed to that but it will be in the same way, they return to me when i click and we start again. Prefer to use clickers because one dog is a nut about food and i can get what i want by just clicking as i may not be fast enough saying yes. Plus i wont confuse the dogs if i may be late (which is a high possibility!) First dog is a crossover boy and is an amazing worker now, i just have to control my nerves and my second dog was raised pretty much with hardly any corrections and with a clicker. Neither dog throws behaviours at me, they will both wait until i say something then try their best to find out what results in a click!! ETA: Ive just finished reading Morgan Spectors book so have all these new ideas that i want to try out. Especially my stays! Ive stopped using stays and just say sit or drop and i actually did an out of sight 'stay' with them both (Nova was tied up though best to be safe) while i ran to the car to get more things. Any other circumstances Darcy would have been up and flying after me!