Vickie

Thanks Ness. Glad we looked calm b/c I felt anything but when I was running it

Finally videoed some agility training yesterday. I found this course on youtube, complete with course map. There are 3 different sequences & lots of challenges in each. So far we have only tried sequence 2. We are managing to get through it, but nowhere near as smoothly as the guy on youtube. I am pretty happy with the turns both girls are giving me, but am still not managing to get some some of the position I need to get to. Here is the course if anyone is interested in trying it. It's FUN to run! http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/course...2010-05-29.html

OMG they are BRILLIANT!!! I so hope the people in the shots & families get a chance to see them, they will be stoked. I would be. My favourite is the white pony with the flying mane

Shine is 4 today For her birthday, she got to go for coffee with me this morning, then did some lovely training and..... she got one pricked ear .

Have you given up on the roasts VJB ? and what's with the recommendation for "little" & "tiny"???

What an awful choice for you to make. I cannot imagine how hard it must be seeing a special young dog in such pain. I have a friend who had stem cell done on his BC. She was severly displastic. She is now back in the agility ring & looking a hundred times happier & better than what she was before treatment. If it would help, I am sure he would be willing to have a chat to you about the process & recovery. Let me know if you are interested & I will PM you his email address.

WOW that is amazing Steve. I think I might come & live with you and bring all my dogs so I can have them for as long as possible. What is your secret?

If you go just over the bridge at Windsor and take the first left, there is a beach with plenty of sand off the river. I have taken my dogs there a few times & found it a great place for photos.

Lewis, what a good boy!!! I know. The little moments are the ones you remember forever, the ones that make your heart swell and inspire you to aim for more. I thought about putting thsi in the brags thread, but it's something different I think. We have had some nice wins in agility lately, but the feeling I had with them is nothing compared to what we did yesterday. Sometimes things are special b/c they are unexpected, even if the performance can be improved.

no, it was filmed by a film crew, but I don't have it on video. I have heaps of video of her on sheep...just not on geese .

I heard all about that from the others What a thrill Well done to the young uns

How cute is that wagging tail!!! I don't know much about obedience, but I do know I have never seen a beagle focus like that. Well done!

How are you rewarding him when he gets stuff right? Do you have kids that you yell at sometimes? or a partner or sibling? My dogs run for cover when I get angry with my kids but luckily it doesn't affect our training relationship. I can certainly see how it could with some dogs though. Do you ever lose your temper with him? Have you tried clicker training him? It may be a better way to communicate with him for a while as there is no voice or physical touching required.

That is the best story Huski! Good for you & Daisy making those people swallow their words & feel like fools You have every right to be proud of her...and yourself too

Do you ever have those days where your dog just totally blows you away? Where you get a lump in your throat & just could not imagine admiring or loving them any more? We were doing some filmwork today and after we had finished, they were talking about dogs working geese. Someone asked me if my dogs would do it. I replied honestly that I had no idea. They work sheep, but have never seen a goose before, let alone tried to work one. I put Trim on a long line and asked her to drive the geese down a corridor. She hasn't worked anything at all for quite a while & the geese had never been worked before so we took all necessary precautions. Immediately she recognised them as "sheep-like" things and proceeded to drive them, albeit hampered a bit by the long line. Once I realised she would work them like she works sheep (and that they weren't going to attack her), we took the line off & asked her to cast & fetch them to me. She was brilliant! She stayed off them, kept them settled by giving ground where she needed to & covered beautifully to keep them on a straight fetch. It has made me realise how much I miss working her, how bloody talented she is...and just how beautiful she is to watch when she works. I couldn't be more proud of her if I tried. I love my gorgeous girl! Thanks for letting me share Please feel free to share your "God, I love my dog moments"

I just googled art & craft categories & this is the first link that came up: http://www.burkeshirecouncil.com/arts_craft_show.htm seems to be divided into sensible categories for each thing...might be worth looking at. I am sure there are others online.

It sounds like you could be rewarding more things than you are intending to. That is the danger of not rewarding enough...often people are rewarding not just what they are asking but also rewarding/or allowing some other self rewarding behaviours at the same time.

I don't think they/(mine anyway) actually "know" to be calm in their crates. Mine need to be crated too out of sight of the rings. I think it's more a case of not seeing or hearing what is going on than actually being trained to be calm there. I think they are calm b/c there is no expectation that they are about to perform. I have never taught them to be calm at home, they just are because I am not initiating anything with them. They can be calm on lead a certain distance away if there is no expectation that they will be entering the ring...but walking them (especially Trim) past the ring is near impossible without them trying to drag me into it. People always think they are stimulated solely by the other dogs running, but I think they are actually stimulated more by the commands the other handler is giving in the ring. Trim once finished a course with me, jumped 2 ring ropes and had done about 4 obstacles by the time the person in the other ring realised she was running my dog & not her own .

young humans that I am a much better dog trainer than kid trainer!

I'm a bit confused reading this. Are you putting him into drive? Can you take him back out? I would only ever want my dogs in this state so that we can use it. We don't really have an issue of them "exploding if they stay there for too long" as we are using it to train & practise behaviours. Once training/practise stops, it is over. They are NEVER allowed to use their teeth on me. I am not saying this is the case with you, but I do see people getting their dogs aroused for training and asking for too much before rewarding. What is acually happening is that there is a whole range of behaviours going on, not all of which I would want to reward. A number of these dogs are a little out of control, I think partly becasue they are calling some of the shots. I want my dogs excited to the point they are trembling with anticipation, there is a routine to tell them they need to focus, they are not asked for a behaviour until I see them focussed, once the behaviour is done, they are rewarded. The reward seems to work as kind of a release for them & helps to bring them back down. And we start again. Does that make sense?

From my perspective, the sillier they are for a toy, the more they want it, and the more they want it, the more likely they are to work out what it takes to earn it . I'm sure there are exceptions, like the collie rough we have here...I admit that I haven't put the time into her but she has as much toy drive as any dog I have ever seen, she is just not as quick on the uptake about earning it. I'm thinking about taking her to the "so your dog's not Lassie" seminar

We were just talking about this on the weekend at a trial. My girls are in their highest level of arousal right before they enter the ring. They look like they will be out of control, but somehow they focus once we start & use the drive to run. There are lots of dogs in agility who will be out of control if they are too aroused & lots at the other end of the scale who will hardly manage a trot unless they are worked up before the run. Although I can never manage quite the same level as we get at a trial, I try to train for agility with as much arousal as possible. Even in the teaching stages I want them over the top. I simply reward what I want & ignore what I don't. I have had a few students who tell me when they come that they can't train with a ball or the dog cannot think. I always like to work through this with them & have done so with success & changed a few minds along the way. I guess it depends what you are training. I can see that some behaviours would be difficult to get when the dogs are over the top. When I watch Pax train her dogs for obedience, they are in full drive & it seems to work brilliantly for her with some very flashy end results. So I guess I am the odd one out. I want as much as I can get, all the time.

Congratulations to you & Kuta !!! what a great result. I know all about one dog missing out LOL. I have to cover Shine up when I run Trim or she goes mental. It was a great trial, I LOVED the veterans & so did my old boy. He had a big smile on his face . Hopefully we can meet at the next one

agreed that getting professional advice is best. In the meantime, how long & often is he alone? can he cope if you are home but in another part of the house? ie if he is outside & you are in or vice versa? What is your routine with him before you leave? what is your routine with him when you arrive home? How you deal with the last 2 situations can certainly make a difference in a dogs anxiety while you are out. It might also be a good idea to drop a quick note in your neighbours mailboxes & let them know that you are aware of the problem & will be doing your best to fix it.

Totally agree . I'm sure that each method I have ever used could work for every dog I have ever trained, but there is no doubt that some methods suit some more than others. And why not make it as easy for them as we can? Years ago I was determined that Zeus had to learn something the same way as Noah had, since Noah picked it up so quickly & was so reliable. A solid week later, I gave up & taught Zeus another way. He learnt as quickly & reliably as Noah once I tried the new way. It just simply suited him better & I feeling like an idiot for putting through a week of frustration, simply to prove some stupid point to myself. I regularly get asked to help solve a problem in agility. My first solution is always to try something that has worked with my dogs. Then something that has worked with another dog & sometimes I make up something totally new..just because I think it will suit the dog I am presented with. The more we try, the more we learn. So long as we are not creating other problems or making things worse...trying new (and sometimes unfashionably old) things will always make us better trainers.