Vickie

We do heaps of camping with the dogs, both at trials & at the beach. They are well exercised at both venues & just tend to lay around when we don't have them out doing things. us too :p hopefully it will just be a few showers tomorrow. I don't mind the camping in the rain, but always prefer not to run in it.

yes I'm sure more competition is an incentive to increase training handling skills. But I don't know anyone here in nsw anyway who doesn't run their fastest due to lack of competition. I can't think of a single dog that can't be beaten by someone. We are regularly seeing less than a second between 1st & 5th. It doesn't just come down to physical speed, one wide turn can move you down a number of places. Dogs that are super fast are often not the winners. The winners are usually a little slower & much tighter. My girls are a good example, shine is faster but usually gets beaten by trim who is a little slower but much tighter. Shine will get her in the more open courses. There are lots of screaming fast dogs overseas who can do tight well too. I don't see that combination much here and that I think is mostly a training issue.

agreed. The study I was told about used pressure pads, so impact was actually measured. The person who told us about i. Is coming back to aust in march. I will be sure to ask more about it & hopefully get a link to something published

Here's a question. For those of you who watch international agility clips on youtube, there is a definite difference between the speed of their fast dogs & the speed of our fast dogs. What do you think the reasons are for this? Genetics? Training methods? Handling skills? Different types of courses? Much higher numbers of dogs? I think it's possibly a combination of all of these but the training methods account for the majority of it.

I cannot find a link to it, but there was a study saying (& most international experts agree) that to correctly teach a running AFrame puts more stress on a dogs joints than a 2o2o does. The information I was given says that most of the physical impact for the dog is taken on the ascent rather than descent of the AF. The sheer repetition required to teach a running AF means more stress on a dogs body.

now that's a challenge if ever I heard one! There goes my day tomorrow lol

Could be a red tri Aussie too. yep. It's getting very hard to tell the difference lately

This would be a choc tri BC. Not a recognised colour in Australia (is recognised in the rest of the world), but certainly not rare since it WILL be produced when 2 recognised colours are bred together. Unrecognised colours are becoming less & less rare in BC's as so many strive to breed them.

Agree with PF. I would never try to train someones dog at a dog park or social gathering & would be very irritated if someone tried to train mine. I also know what I know & feel there are others heaps more experienced to give advice on certain things than I am. I will always recommend a professional for any kind of aggression, even if I have a fair idea of what I think needs to happen. In answer to your question, in a more formal environment, I tend to break the session into 2. The first bit is a sit down chat, giving an overall picture, as much as the handler is able to take in. A summary of things we will be working on. The second bit is a hands on starting a few exercises with the dog, homework is given & phone or email support is available between then & the next meeting. I like to have a full picture of where I'm heading before I start training anything & think it really helps to progress through stages.

Pretty good, we're still in the luring phase but he is gaining independence and drive all the time. I am hoping he will single step His tunnels are pretty good, but sometimes he gets tired & lays in them. This was a good day Since he seems to be able to jump over our fences, I think we will jump him at 600. What do you think?

Not this cat amypie lol. Every time I train my dogs he feels the need to be right in the middle of it all, I'm sure he's trying to learn! let me say it's hard to build & maintain enthusiam for the aframe when they get half way up & "attack cat" happens to be sitting on the top. I guess he thinks it's the best view!

I'm switching to cats

The well known methods I am aware of are the ones that Kavik has mentioned. And yes I think all these methods use a lowered af at some point. I Would say that there is as much, if not more, precise training & proofing involved in these methods as there is on the 2o2o.

Another game which is fun is to set up a course of jumps, either no or low bars. Each person runs another person, rather than a dog. It is hilarious & obed people can join on too

Thanks for sharing your experiences kelpiechick I will go have a look at the blogs, and agree, I haven't heard of 100% yet either. Peppi has a pretty natural stride that we are hoping to cement as much as possible with the DVD training. We have Ronda Carter coming for seminars early next year, she has also trained this method, so I am confident that she will be able to troubleshoot any issues we are having.

Oops, we posted at the same time Bec. There are extra steps to go through if you already have a trained 2o2o

Is it just called "Running Contacts" it's called reliable running AFrame. I think the whole thing would be hard if you didn't have regular access to an AF, but the groundwork can be done with a PVC box (took me 5 mins to make) and 2-3 jumps. I think the groundwork is useful for general agility, regardless of what you are planning to do on the af.

No, that one is about training/fixing a 2o2o. The one I'm talking about is training a running contact on the aframe

Has anyone watched or trained the Rachel sanders running contact DVD? We're going to do it with Pep. After watching it, I decided to do the groundwork with the girls as well. We're finding it a very worthwhile exercise to practise observation, placement of reward & teaching the dog to be less handler focussed/ dependent.

Agility wise I would do a lot less playing games & rewarding while the dog is in front of me. I made this mistake with trim and am still paying for it occasionally. I fixed it for shine & she turns in to me a lot less.

Imagine being responsible for the inevitable vet bill/s

The thing to consider about training dogs not to lunge at cars is that even if you change their behaviour onlead with you walking alongside a road with them, it is not enough to make them safe. My first BC was a car lunger. I did many of the things suggested here & he learnt to walk with me alongside a road without lunging. I thought the problem was solved, it seemed to be...right up to the day that our arsehole landlord entered our property while we weren't home, left the gate open & we came home to a dead dog who had chased a car down the road. I took no chances with my next 2 dogs. I corrected any lunging right from day one & none too gently either. I spent heaps of time with them on our family farm & on the beach on long lines with while my husband drove around. I taught them to respect moving vehicles. My girls have never shown any inclination to lunge at cars whatsoever, thank goodness, but I still taught them to respect moving vehicles. I regulary walk all four on the beach with cars driving past & feel secure in the training I have done, both with cars & their recall. Car lunging is SERIOUS. It is not something that you train like you train a sit or a drop. Training & proofing it correctly can save their life. Please don't assume that just b/c you seemed to have cured it onlead on the side of the road, that it is fixed.

WEEK SIX: It's hard to believe she has been here for six weeks. In some ways it feels like she has just joined us, but in many others we cannot imagine a time we didn't have her. Pep remains very bonded to Chloe. She will not sleep anywhere but Chloe's bed. She has already started to wait near the gate to meet the kids as they get off the bus & gets super excited when she sees & hears Chloe each afternoon. Last night Chloe stayed at a friend's house & Pep was very restless, she ended up curled up on Chloe's pillow & couldn't be shifted. Chloe continues to run & play with her each morning before school & do some tricks with her each afternoon. I notice that she very rarely needs to lure anything now. What Pep knows, she seems to know by voice command & hand signals and her responses are getting very quick. Pep attended her 2nd trial last Sunday. Again, she was great, just trotted around with Chloe all day. She was interested when I ran our dogs but otherwise pretty unphased by it all & happy to do tricks with Chloe & tug around the rings. We still try to shape something different every few days & she is still picking things up very quickly. Here is her first jump in the box session. She has done some perch work so this was a very easy exercise for her to work out AS far as agility goes, Chloe still hasn't done a lot which is good for now. Every now & then they run over jumps & through the tunnel, it's all just fun. We are going to try running contacts with her, but she is being taught a 2o2o on stairs as well. She has no fear of surfaces or movement & still runs up the seesaw & AF every chance she gets. Here is her untrained AFrame...now we just need to train it so that it stays exactly like this

ain't that the truth! There are so many variables too. I find breed, temperament, handlers ability & general relationship with the handler have so much to do with how easy/hard, successful/unsuccessful tugging is. Reason for playing tug & level of commitment you want/need and give plays a big part in it as well. I'm finding tugging with a terrier a whole different ball game to tugging with my working bc's, and they are totally different again to my showline bc's. The end result kind of looks the same but the process has been different for me.