skip

Hi Alsan, I drive from Orange tp 15 min past Bathurst to go to agility school. Look at the ADAA ( Australian Dog Agility Ass ?) site and it listes the agility school ( Paws Agility). They can advise you. There are some young dogs there. But I personally chose to socialise my rescue dogs and do obedience for a year or so until starting agility. I went to obedience school to learn to have my dogs working nicely with me, heel,drop,stand,sit and recalls. But also to socialise with other dogs. Agility is more to my liking. The dog is directed over a series of obstacles such as jumps,tunnels, see-saws,and ramps. Time is also counted. Your dog is well suited and would benefit from either with training. Heaps of time to enjoy him. Good Luck. PS Google "agility" and all the info can be found. Although somebody here will maybe have good links?

I'm a beginner dog owner but I find the dogs will nip more if the food is a bit far away, just in case they lose out. And I taught to take gently when they were not excited and more calm. I sometimes feed mine with a closed or partially closed hand until it is front of their mouth and then I open for them to take it gently. There are usually sitting or dropped and the small one oftens gets so excited she wants to break and leap up. So I've begun to hold the hand down closed and wait till she stays still. So in my case if they break or snatch it is no treat. I also teach them to leave food in front of them until told to take it. If they go to take it I remove it until they wait for permission. Much like they must wait for me to finish putting food out before they get dinner. If they ever got pushy it would be no food until they sit quietly and wait till invited. Sure someone will give good advice here! What a lovely breed, bet he is lovely.

Sorry I have no ideas to change the behaviour cause mine to it too! They skip round an invisible patch and return to me. Some days they do it more so. Mostly at obedience training. Although one dog was prancing off and not wanting to go thru the weave poles the other day. Acting really undecided? So I did something else and changed dogs. But I was a bit disappointed thinking maybe he doesn't enjoy it all of a sudden. When the next dog started smelling near the poles I realised there was a squashed poo there! So now I check more carefully. How about my dogs won't go thru the tunnel when at agility training cause it has a little bit of water in it? And they do sits in the wet with their bums about 1/2 cm off the ground if they can. ???

HI Bosko I'm surprised that more people haven't answered your post. There are a lot of dogs that have this behaviour. I have two rescue dogs and was not that experienced with dogs. I got some outside help from a trainer and joined obedience. One was 8 months old and spent most of that time in a pen. But she was oK it was a 1 1/2 year old xbred dog that was scared of people espicially men. And if you pick up a paper or hold a belt he is gone, petrified! He wouldn't allow anyone to hold him by the collar. In fact even a year later doing flyball he panics if a handler tries to hold him by his collar. But they do come good gradually with consistant training. I took him to the vet for needles and I remember her saying it can take 12 months for a dog like him to settle down. I took my dog places to gradually build up his confidence. I remember a man who looked at him on the street to comment on his breeding and looks. He was maybe less impressed when the dog went agro and barked growled etc. Just cause the bloke looked him in the eye. But now he is so more confident. He loves an older man at the dog park that he thinks is the best ever. As he goes to the park every day he will often bolt over to other walkers he knows to visit, male and female. Not the dogs usually the people. And he sucks up to them so much he gets pats and even treats. He is pretty popular and laps up all the affection he can get. Such a change. My friends called him a "special needs" dog. Maybe he will always be a little bit sensitive but he improves constantly. And this could also be why he is also so desperate to please and easy to train. I could do with a little less seperation anxiety too but again it is not as bad as before. I couldn't be happier with him. I supose it is modifiying his behaviour not really changing his nature. Don't know if this is what you were asking. My dog is only small and was older when I got him so I don't have the same problems you maybe have. I am not experienced with dogs but I've learnt heaps from this dog. With your trainers help I'm sure your dogs behaviour will change. Let DOL know how he goes and what works. I'd be interested.

Read the training information in those sites Wherezaball. Much thought / experience seems to have gone into these training methods. Thanks, very interesting.

I'm not a fly ball person but I have a small fast dog so went to a clinic at our club. My dog wants food and me, couldn't care less about a ball. But he's 1/2 kelpie so it must be in there somewhere. The instructor suggested for dogs like mine- 1. Buy a ball or special toy 2. Hide it in the house 3. Each night suddenly jump up, get the ball, run around, get the dog all rev-ed. 4. When dog excited put toy away. Sit quietly. 5. Wait a while until all quiet and repeat. Continue with this until the dog thinks the ball must be sooo! good he wants it sooo!! much. 6. Then start the exercise most people use where the dog just has to touch the ball with a nose and treat. 7. So the dog touches the ball and gets a treat. Gradually go to picks ball up gets treat. And finally chases ball and gets treat. I don't know if this will help but it turned my really! uninterested dog into some keen little black flash. I know your dog does fetch but this exercise made mine mad for it. He will even retrieve from water. However he will only do a few at a time 100% and then will signal disinterest. So I stop. I did this for interest so don't think I'll go further with flyball but dog now has a great fetch. For turns we used a pole in the ground. Once the dog was good round the pole we place the pole in front of the box. The dog goes up the box round the pole and down again. My dog is small so I started at the box but yours could be turning maybe a little in front. Gradually ( again the gradually ) move pole to dog has to turn on box. Before this we threw the ball a dozen or so times to see what way a dog turns naturally. Like being left or right handed. Like I said I don't do flyball but I found this clinic interesting and the instructor 100% passionate about it! So I'm sure those experienced flyball bodies have a lot of hints ! Good Luck.

Well, I've just learnt something from this post! It's not hard,I don't know much. Not being experienced with BC's I was walking some relatively unsocialised BC working dogs on a friends property. They were away so I let the 2 BC and a young lab off for a walk. I do know these dogs a little so had my little 2 as well. On the 2nd day one BC was on a long lead as he does like to move the cows about. I was watching him follow one little male dog about. All the other dogs I know normally have upright happy waving tails. So the fact that his tail seemed low and tucked in made me doubt his intentions. Maybe I owe him a sorry! as he was as good as gold really.

Thanks for that thread information Kavik and Sandrasm! I have two small dogs, weight 4 and 10 kgs, so they are maybe toy/mini class. Are there any things you need to watch out for when training little dogs? My instructor hasn't got into contacts for my dogs? He said mine would be so unlikely to jump off above the end that it might not be necessary. I'll ask again next training as he also said that it was not compulsory to touch the end colour now? Is this a new rule? I asked about jump height in training and was told most people jump their dogs the height that the dog must jump in competition. So they develope muscle memory of the jump required. This was as I was wondering about how often/high I was jumping the smallest. And thought it might be better to jump her height in a run but if just doing figure eights etc over a jump for training purpose it could be lower. Not that she struggles at all, she jumps up and down like a yo-yo. I just don't want to lose that energy. Thanks.

After watching agility I was interested. When I could get dogs I found one suitable for agility and a girlfriend for him. I have done obedience for two years, even doing some local expo display. But I wasn't really wanting to trial, I was waiting to start agility. Somebody locally organised a charity fun day of agility training. There were 2 sessions, 2 teachers and maybe 10 dogs with each. So these dogs were a real mix. There were some jumps, tunnels, dog walk, A - frame, tyre jump etc. It was just a simple intro to what agility is. It was loads of fun. Most of these dogs hadn't done anything before although some were from obedience club. Most were on lead as requested although mine were allowed off lead. Positive rewards etc encouraged. Our club at the end of each month also gets out some basic agility equipment. Then members and their dogs can use them with some supervision. Our club doesn't have anyone experienced or interested in agility or teaching it. So I too am interested in agility. The only people to train me are the organisers of the fun day. I need to travel for over an hr to get to Sunday training and it is with ADAA? I did call the agility assoc?, number from the net but they couldn't tell me of any training school near to me. And the ADAA teachers that teach me are experienced, fun, passionate about agility and kind to the dogs. I'd love any pointers? At the fun day I won a magazine that outlined exercises not needing obstacles. This included basic obedience plus: running with dog on both sides, figure 8 with crossing over, heeling to both sides, getting your dog to turn to you and away from you, teaching " go " and " out " and contacts. So I started with these. Loads of questions and hope I can learn from advice on this forum. Where would that foundation thread be to find??

Hi Husky87 I take two dogs to obedience and agility. Obedience I take one dog in the first session and the next in the second session. We obviously have two sessions and we start at 9.30 am. It would be a very quiet day at training with a 8 am start!!!! The dog not working is in a pen but mine are small. And I swap which dog goes first as they are both so desperate to work. Although in the second session I am at a disadvantage. I am in the higher group so the dogs do basic heeling pattterns,warm up etc in the first and then in the second it's straight to harder exercises. So I have to be accepting of the fact that the second dog is not as settled. And I'm sorry, I am not that experienced with dogs but I thought taking a agressive dog to training would only be good. There was a man who came with a agressive unsocialised dog. But the man himself was loud, rough and given to threatening the dog with his fist! Nobody knew how to deal with this. But it was even more strange that this man had even come to training. One trainer in particular saw the fact that he was there as meaning something. Over time he has learnt to tone down his behaviour. He is learning to treat his dog with respect and affection. At the end of the year he and his dog received a special award for encouragement. The dog itself was agressive to dogs and I don't think many people would go near it either. But now the dog has improved out of sight. Sorry this is a long tale but some part of our small country obedience club is about socialising dogs. Many dogs these days are rescued and already have bad habits. We also get too many hunting types as pig hunting is popular.( disgusting in my opinion but thats another topic ) Glad you have a behaviourist to advise. Good luck with it.

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie so of course I had to read this post. Thanks Rusty for that site listing. I thought I knew what collars were what but I learnt some aspects I hadn't really thought about. I have 2 smaller dogs ( 4 + 10 kg ) that wear a collar + dogtag. These are nylon flat ( actually puppy collars ) and I use buckles to do obedience training etc. I like them to have tags in case they are ever loose but their collars do leave marks. They have short soft fine coats so this article said Leather Rolled Collars leave less mark. So if I was to get my saddler to make little collars like this they would be better? And I was thinking recently about a slip collar for the larger as there were some occasions where he has slipped his collar. In fact he can get out easy if he gets a fright. He doesn't leave me, they usually stick like clue, its usually to avoid an aggressive dog. But I wouldn't want to have him out of my control. I use a harness on the small one as she's like a fairy jumping bean, only use a collar if she is working. ( obedience class and she is still pretty much a fairy). Hope to learn lots from all the experience on this site. So I'll maybe ask too many questions. These two are my first dogs that are my own.