Cleo's Corgwyn

Way to go, TSD! Its such a nice feeling of relief to have these things finished before the end of the year! FHRP - I won the raffle at Cooma last weekend, and finished Shandy's Novice title, so I guess I fit in with that pattern!

Lots of good suggestions here. Have you done a few of the select -a dog type of online quizzes? They're often a good starting point for further research, if nothing else. Once you've narrowed down your shortlist, make sure that you go and meet the breed in person, so you can see what really appeals to you about each breed. My shortlist was not dissimilar to a lot of the breeds suggested here; Aussies, Lappies, Collies, Shelties, Brittanies and the spaniels, so I'm going to throw my eventual breed of choice into the mix as well; the Welsh Corgi (Cardigan) - aloof with strangers, but devoted to their family and friends, a medium sized dog with shorts legs, need a fair amount of mental stimulation and love training, but don't go stir crazy if they miss a walk or two. Bred as a cattle herding dog and general farm dog, and don't generally have a high prey drive (mine lives easily with cats). Do shed (quite a lot) but easy grooming and coat care. Unusual looking, especially in the brindle and merle colours. My girl is a red brindle and white, and we're always getting asked what sort of corgi mix she is. Shandy is a titled show dog, obedience dog, dancing dog and certified therapy pet, but she's an amazingly sweet, even tempered and easy to live with dog.

Corgis even have their own special term for zoomies; Frap (usually taken to be an acronym for Frantic Random Acts of Play) Corgwyn are particularly joyful when Frapping, and it rarely requires any reason or cause.

If waiting is helping, then use it! If the food is not creating sufficient interest over all the activity around her, then don't try and shove it her gob, as it's only degrading the value of the food for later. Does she play well with toys? If she has a favourite type of toy, then get a toy for training only and only bring it out when you need to get her attention. Its even better if its a tug toy, so she's interacting with you

Sorry to gear that you guys missed out on Sunday. I always enjoy watching you work together - Mick always looks like he's enjoying himself!

Well done Tollersowned & Darcy! It's nice to feel that both you and your dog are improving!

Thanks Ptolomy! I'm really excited to have finished this year.

Shandy managed her 3rd Novice pass today at the Cooma Show for her CD title, making three titles in 3 months for my Cardi girl! (one obedience and two DWD)

Way to go, Bedazzled! I've signed up to do the Obedience Stewards course next month, in my first small step into officialdom, so being a judge of any description seems such a long way off!

My short list was; Small- medium size, as we don't have a large yard Smart enough to dabble in dogsports with me but Calm enough so that if they didn't get a walk every day, they were bearable Easy going enough to fit into our lifestyle, and get on with our pre-existing cats A reasonable watch dog/alert barker I narrowed my list down to a lot of the smaller gun dog and herding breeds; went and met a lot at shows,and something about the Cardigan Corgis just clicked for my husband and myself. We like their sense of humour (odd thing to say about a dog, but true) and the fact that they can be a bit standoffish with strangers, but never forget a friend. The breed just suits us, and Shandy is our first, but certainly won't be our last.

Although I haven't used one for conventional heeling, I have used one for my Cardi girl for some of the different heeling positions in Dances with Dogs, and for some moving trick work. I haven't had any problems fading the target stick, and retaining the behaviour; I just make sure that I fade the stick quickly.

TDTC Contact us Phone (02) 62934122 Email [email protected] Postal Tuggeranong Dog Training Club PO Box 1803 Tuggeranong ACT 2902

There's a group of us doing quite well, thanks Tassie. We really enjoy ourselves too. For the Spotted Devil, the Heelwork to Music video is here;

Wow, congrats on the title, Dr Nik! Shandy got her Heelwork to Music Starters Title on the weekend, in our little brag.

Nice work! Its lovely to get positive feedback like that.

Good news again for everyone! We've had a mixed bag this week; managed a second novice pass at our local ribbon trial on Thursday, but it got hot and humid at the trial on Saturday,and I knew going into the ring that Shandy was looking lacklustre, so 3rd place, but NQ. I think we got third for amusement value - Shandy did a flying corgi drop at one point, and I was alerted to her little white feet poking out behind her by the judge snickering! Only a couple more trials this year, but I'm still hoping to finish Novice this year, if I can keep her enthusiasm up!

Here's an instruction video for pivot work (and with a corgi as well!)

PA, having a short dog myself, training sticks, or soft treats (peanut butter, baby food, liverwurst, etc) spread on a wooden spoon or ladle, are great so you can use them to reward in place. Lots of stationary work for heel- ie reward for a nice sit in place, lots of one or two steps, then reward heavily for a sit in heel. Pivotwork for improving hind end awareness is really useful for small dogs as well.

Congratulations Kallistar and Tux. Nice to get through at a Royal as well!

Congrats CleoJ for your title. I saw you in person, but what happened to the video? so I can relive it. I was supposed to compete, told the organisers I would but due to several circumstances I missed the cut off date & haven't practiced since. There's only 3 more comps left this year, 1 in Nov at St Ives & a double in Dec at EP. Luvsdogs, can you not see it either? Its still playing happily for me, but I can PM you a link directly if you still want to see it?

Wow, great work by all the WA folk! Nice way to finish a title, Rubystar and Millie, and spectacular work from Ptolemy and your crew! No qualie for us yesterday, as my girl got distracted going into the figure of 8, but I was really happy with her work, and even the judge commented on how nice it was to see such happy, enthusiastic work from a dog. All our hard work on making heeling fun again seems to be paying off. We have a couple of ribbon trials coming up, so hopefully we'll pull off her Novice title soon (plus, I'm itching to watch the looks on people's faces when her DWD title appears in the obedience catalogue!)

As a pet owner, and a performance dog trainer, those are my first priorities. I would first look for a pup that would fit into our family and situation, and get on with my current dog, and then one with the drive, confidence and temperament to be a performance prospect. I would then consider colour. My girl is definitely not my first pick of colour, but given that I wanted a young adult dog with potential for training, colour wasn't even a consideration. If I get a pup,like an earlier poster said, I will be aiming to get one from lines and temperaments that I like, which will probably include that I like the looks, but while my absolute preference would be a blue merle boy with heterochromatic eye colour, but I would take anything that had the right temp and fit (luckily a blue merle bitch is only likely to produce my two favourite colours, merles and brindle pointed tri!)

Rubystar,it is a youtube link, and its embedded as media, so I'm not sure why you can't see it. Hopefully the Java plug-in worked, or I can send you the direct link if you'd still like to see it. My heelwork routine is to a song called Simarik, by a Turkish pop star called Tarkan, so aside from the fact that it was sampled in a couple of Western Pop songs, trust me, most people haven't heard it before. The best song is one that your dog works best to! Queen of Hearts was not my first pick, but I was playing around with a few songs from my list, and that was the one that Shandy worked best to, so that's what we went with. I've started a list - everytime I hear something on the radio that makes me bop along, I add it to the list. Given that I'm only starting, and so is everyone else in Canberra, hopefully BC4Me or someone else more knowledgable than me will correct me if I've got it wrong, but as you progress up the levels, your routines are supposed to get longer and more complex, and cover a greater percentage of the floor. So for example starters heelwork only requires 3 or 4 different heel positions, and a routine of a little over 1 minute- at intermediate, you are expected to use more heeling positions and the routine should be over 1 minute 30seconds, etc. Stonecutter, trust me, I'm strictly an amateur bellydancer too, but I do have lots of costumes! The thing I love about DWD is how much fun the dogs have. Hopefully I'll see you at a competition or workshop soon. We'll be heading up for the next competition at St Ives in November.

Hee - Taxi is a very handsome red husky boy, and definitely in good health! I'm sure we'll all get a lot out of it; we've all enjoyed our visitors so far, and I've heard good things about your workshop.

Thanks for the kind words, kallistar and BC4Me! I'm a bellydancer by training, so my HTM routine is to a Turkish pop song, but I chose Queen of Hearts because the music seemed to work really nicely for Shandy. BC4Me, I hadn't realised that's who you are! I'm really looking forward to your workshop. We are having a lot of fun with a new sport in Canberra, and and unusual assortment of dogs - Shandy is the first Cardi (and we think the first corgi) to title, Fresia became the first Saluki and we also have a huski with one leg, and a Wolfhound ready to compete as well.