Sayreovi

To let the dog and handler have some fun, it is not all about competing. I didn't care if Tinny never competed, i just wanted to do some training with her to build some confidence and to let her have some fun. Perhaps i worded it wrong, i am all for having fun. Hell if it was all about competing with my dogs, Nova wouldnt be with me There is nothing wrong with training a dog without competing, about 99% of dogs wouldnt see an inside ring. Thats the problem not everyone will train to 'have fun' and they get annoyed at the dog because they cant go further. Besides there is a different between a complete new person and someone who has already trained 2 good flyball dogs.

Nova is a very small male, he is about 45cms. Darcy my other Toller is on 50cms exactly. The thing is Nova is of a very heavy build and being quite small is going to be greatly disadvantaged if he turns out to be 1mm over the height. Tim - I will try that tomorrow, i measured him here and got close to 45, a little over but i actually lifted his fur to get closer to the shoulder blade, does anyone know if they do that? I dont actually have any training between now and the trial and have no equipment so cant train at 500. I am fairly sure he will do it, but i will certainly stuff up, because my handling is for a smaller height and therefore take sharper turns.....something i will forget in the ring. Thanks for all the posts, i will ring later on and see what happens

Thanks Helen, it is actually Southern that we are entered so have 2 weeks, but i dont have any equipment to train between now and then. I may just change the height and see how we go, ive entered in both agility and jumping for both trials with Nova only.

Thats going to be a problem now, I went out to measure him just before on he is about 45-46cm. Do they take into account the fur? I took a measurement just on top of his shoulder blade and he is about 47cm, but when i measured to the actual skin he is close to 45. So he is big enough to be asked to be shown the height card. Its going to be a big problem if i turn up and they measure him to be in the 500 heights as we have always trained at 400. I will be at Geelong all day Saturday and its the Saturday after that Southerns comp is on. Geez i am about to just ring the secretary and ask them to not enter us.

OK so i didnt read the rules properly and have sent away the entries for a trail , apparantly i need a height card? Where do i get one from and how do i get judges to measure him in time for the trial in 2 weeks?

Thanks!! Good to hear they went well...sorta, gotta love the Tollers eh? Congrats on your passes again and good luck for the finals

Congrats!!! Ive been waiting for someone to post some results, did you get to see or hear about how any Tollers went?

;) I didnt even notice the dates!

I agree, if a dog is focused enough i have no problem, just gotta get that focus first.

Not sure if they are any where on the site, but here are the ones off the top of my head: 5pts FD 20pts FDX 50pts FDCH 150pts AFCH 400pts FM 700pts FMX 1000pts FMCH 1300pts Onyx 2000pts FDGCH 3000pts Jeddah Award I am not entirely sure if the first three are correct but the rest i am sure are. Congrats to all who recently got titles. Nova got his AFCH at the Weiners weekend after nearly a year of competiting, not bad for a dog pretty much everyone gave up on eh?

Interesting! Thanks, will give it a go tomorrow if it isnt pouring down with rain like today.

I didnt know that Bordercollies4me and Wherezaball were going so it was helpful LOL

Well in that case, Nova took 4 years to get a performance title, Darcy has only been training for about 6 months and is yet to be trialled. Oops, silly me, Darcy had been trialled in Flyball, he only competed in one race well, what he did wrong can only be trained out of him at comps so he has to wait until after the Nationals now.

Dunno, what do you consider serious training? I train once a week in agility and flyball but its hard to be seriously training with a dog thats a pain

I mainly do my own thing now my dogs, i will still join in sometimes in classes if it will help me as well as my dogs. We pretty much only do flyball (team training) and agility, i know what my dogs will do so i work on the things they have trouble with my own way but always take the advice of the instructors/triallers who give tips.

That may be so, but i am not going to encourage people with an aggressive dog to train in flyball. Whats the point of training your dog in flyball where you can go only so far and never compete? You are competiting, so its clear you have been able to train your dog to do it even with other dogs so close.....but not everyone is capable of that level of training :D

What do you mean individual runs? Flyball is a team sport, 4 dogs racing at once, the crosses will be close as well as having dogs over the other side. You may have control in a calm situation but will your dog still focus on you with other dogs running past an inch away? It is not a sport for a dog aggressive dog. You can teach it yes, but you would be very hard pressed to find a team that will allow you to compete as i personally wouldnt race with a dog that may decide he didnt like mine and attack.

I train in Flyball, agility, obedience and showing. Plus i dabble in retrieving with Darcy. The boys have no problem telling them apart, i use different equipment and commands for each. Ive found that each sport has helped the other immensly. There is no way that i will become successful in retrieving if i continue the other sports as that takes up alot of time and training, which is why i dabble until he is going well in the other sports that i can concentrate on it.

Carlins Mum - Sorry, but how are you teaching the dog to pick up the one with scent? I am a complete novice in this area, so need step by step instructions

Hope to see you there then, come say hello if you see me i will have 2 Tollers with me (only one competiting) The fastest i have seen a team run is 19 seconds so it will be exciting to see a 17 second team

If you dont mind Ness, i would like to hear how to train it. We are at that level and we have done directed retrieves, just not sure where to start with scent discrimination.

Wherezaball - You are part of the 17 second team? (Cant remember who did it) We are staying at Dubbo, both on the way there and back. The Berwick team arent all travelling together either LOL, some will already be up there way before hand, someone is flying up the day before and the rest of us are driving up. None of us are doing the events before hand, IMO it was a stupid idea to do it the day before 2 days of racing. Not only is there a risk of injury it would also wear the dogs out and create problems in the last day of racing. It will be interesting to see how many dogs actually do it. We arent camping, we found a house that will allow dogs (not inside) and accomodate the 15 or so people staying

Only 3 people? I so wanted to come but it was a Sunday and i needed the work Glad you guys had fun though!!

We are going (Berwick) The only teams i can think of at the moment who are going, is Weiners, Ballarat (2 teams) and us.

My dogs have tried Evo, and it didnt do anything spectacular for them. It looked great on the bag but one of them didnt like it much.