Vickie

I had recorded this & finally wAtched it this morning. Well done Steve! So many important points touched on, great to raise more awareness.

She looks fantastic LL! Well done! Isn't it the best feeling ever when they get it

Ain't that the truth!!!

Is ball throwng just a game you play or is it a reward for the dog? Does the dog initiate the game or do you? The first thing I would do is intensify the dogs drive for the ball. the more desire the dog has for the ball, the easier it will be to train to do what you want, using the ball. I understand that substituting treats or another toy works, but I prefer to use a combination of the dogs desire,some patience, my own body language & good timing.

We had some amazing & very talented boxers In agility in NSW a few years ago. They were extremely powerful & very impressive agility dogs. The lady that trained & ran them has a good sense of humour, lots of patience & most importantly took genuine joy in running them. I always loved watching them. I'm sure she does/did obedience as well. I could try to contact her & ask if she'd be willing to have a chat with you? She's a great source of information.

Another one here who is extremely unhappy about the seesaw! I am still dumbfounded as to how it actually got through since all but a couple of people I have spoken to are dead against it. I guess we'll have to wait & see how it goes since there's absolutley nothing any of us can do about it now. No idea how or when I'm going to go about retraining it yet I suspect it's going to be a big problem for Trim especially since she moves low & fast to the end.

Just to clarify, new rules come in July 1st, equipment changes by dec 31st.

I think it's a form of procrastination for most

not always. Sometimes, actually I would say often, exactly the same techniques DO work. I don't think many dogs are truly low drive. The ones classed as low drive often have different or unchannelled drive rather than low drive. I have a dog here at the moment for training. She would be classes by most as low drive, stubborn and just plain odd behaviour wise. I am training her exactly the same way as I train my own high drive dogs. Only difference is that I have had to take the time to give her the reward history & consistency that I have given my own dogs. In the beginning a basic behaviour would take a week. Now it's a day. 6 weeks later & the average person would be hard pressed to tell the difference between them.

Poor Tiny, I was so hoping she would make it.

Welcome back Kavik well done AL, sounds like Mindy did great! She will be fine on 600 so long as she is fit & jump fit. My 500 dogs do 600 easily & we often run pairs at 600. Great news Jess! The compression bit is hard, bit they do work it out. Hoping for you that she continues to keep the bars up. I totally understand how frustrating it can be.

Chloe had to write a poem for school. It's a bit cute so I thought I'd share My Dog Peppi I want my own dog I’ve wanted one for years And now I finally have one with very funny ears. Peppi is her name She’s small and white and cute Even though she’s small She jumps in my mums Ute. Woof, woof, woof She barks when people come She’s like an angry guard dog But nowhere near as dumb. We have three other dogs She plays with them quite well All their legs are longer so She often needs a spell. She loves my mum and dad Even my brother Ben But it’s clear to everyone that I’m her 10 out of 10. I love my little Pep I know she loves me too We will be together for a long, long time I hope so, I really do.

so what if you're at someone else's house? And he can't come inside? If he chooses to baulk then & you can't catch him, what would you do? Is the problem fixed? You know, I don't think anyone judges you, or anyone else, if your dogs are not 100% reliable. I am more than willing to admit that none of mine are 100% in a number of areas. People judge you because you regularly contradict yourself in your posts. You label your dogs one way and give anecdotes which do not match your labels. People judge you because you regularly give advice on things you are yet to achieve with any of your own dogs...and when you get called on it, your excuse is often not that you can't do it, but can't be bothered doing it or have chosen a work around instead.

Do your dogs discipline your other animals? Like they would another dog? Our cat made the mistake of trying to get into the dishwasher a few weeks ago. Shine was dumbfounded as to why he didn't retreat when his head was in her mouth. She tried 3 times, but he just didn't get it! She also bared her teeth at him last night when he decided that instead of laying against her, he needed to be ON her. Lol, again he was oblivious, again she was confused.

Maybe I can help you? Would you prefer me to guide you through the posts, or use lure? ROFL! YES, please help!!! I don't care which, guide or lure, either is fine, so long as you don't keep changing your mind / contradict yourself the whole way through the explanations!!! Clicker method would work too, but the above rules HAVE to apply! And I warn you, I am like NO person you've EVER helped before

I am SO confused...

totally agree! Would also add that it is worth having a good think before deciding that something is not a problem & doesn't need to be fixed. Unless you can 100% guarantee effective management, lots of things people choose to live with actually do need to be fixed. Sometimes tackling one thing thoroughly makes tackling other things much easier.

Just curious, how much of your agility training involves sequencing more than 2 obstacles? I would say that currently only about 40% of the training I am doing for agility actually uses more than 2 obstacles. When I look back at how I started training years ago, once obstacles were learnt, about 90% of training for agility was on sequences. Now I kind of feel that while obstacle performance & handling always need improvement, most of our fine tuning is actually happening off the course. Thoughts?

no, you're right, it isn't black and white. I think it's possible to make an exercise b&w, and possible that this exercise can impact what happens in the ring, but I certainly haven't found a guaranteed magic cure for bar knocking. I know that using these exercises has taken Shine from a bar or 2 most runs, to a bar every couple of trials. We're not there yet, but we're closer.

WOW! That is awesome proofing!

it could be that she is not judging her spacing well between collection and/or extension. This is often the case for dogs who pull bars on speed sections. have you tried this grid? Try setting a straight line of 5 jumps. The spacing between 1st & 2nd is 6ft, 2nd & 3rd is 7ft etc. When jumping this her striding between jumps should look balanced. Dogs who are not judging spacing between collection & extension will typically struggle & look very unbalanced. Do it both ways straight & then put a curve in it. It's a great grid and very challenging for many dogs in the beginning. the other exercise I really like is just one jump at all different angles & distance. Reward is given every time they don't touch the bar. Reward is not given if they touch it, even if the don't actually knock it. Most dogs don't actually know that they are supposed to keep the bar up. This exercise makes it very clear to them.

I answered other. I would say any dog able to be left in a crate without stress or destruction is crate trained.

I think that's different. In this case, you know you will have to deal with it later, as opposed to thinking you have dealt with it when you haven't. Since everyone is going totally off topic anyway, send her to me!!!! We need a few more Tollers over here in agility.

If I am time poor (I'm not right now) I just make sure that I make every second of every session really count. And....my house is mostly a mess vbg

lol, I'll let you know when it's resolved. probably too much to explain here in enough detail, but basically 1. Rewards need to be higher value, timed & placed better. More time needs to be spent building the value of jump without leadout. 2. Set a basic/black & white "this gets rewarded & this doesn't" criteria 3. Set up success, then set up failure. Success would be Pep close centre in front of jump, Chloe close centre on the other side. Failure would be one of the off to the side a bit. 4. Narrow the gap to reward success & build it gradually until pep has a clear path to Chloe & chooses to take the jump 5. Start building distance, ie 2 jump, the 3 jump leadout with lateral distance along the way. 6. Take it to another part of the yard & start again 7. Take it to another obstacle, set up success & failure 8. Take it to another location, set up success & failure 9. Take it to a competition 10.should be pretty close to fixed by now vbg! In the above, steps 1-4 may take a little while, but if done correctly, steps 5-10 should be a breeze. Btw, I am not saying that I don't practise stuff we're good at...I set up easy stuff all the time for my own dogs. I think it's important for all of us to just be able to get out & run like the wind sometimes. But this is a motivational thing, not an aim to fix an issue.