Vickie

Thanks guys . Mooper we go to Manning Point, it is about 30mins morth of Forster. It is really great for the dogs & the grounds we stay at has dogs at about 2/3 campsites. GeckoTree, I didn't take any pics of the site this year...usually I do but just didn't get around to it. We always have a great setup for the dogs & people always come to look at it . We set up our 8x5 trailer & tarp the top of it, then 2 Xpens coming off the back of it, gives them quite a large secure & shaded area. The dogs are always good, but I was particularly proud of them this year. They were brilliantly behaved and they got lots of nice positive comments from people who met them.

I don't know the breeds well but I know Rob has a few & he calls them Tervs. I loved watching that video. I have had the pleasure of attending a couple of Rob's seminars & as well as being an excellent instructor, he is a true gentleman. I am very happy that he has done so well with this dog at such a high level. We have a Terv competing here in NSW. She is quite something & very driven. She is still young but already doing very well.

I didn't mean to put you off. It is certainly possible to run both Gamblers & Pairs successfully (meaning it benefits you as a team as opposed to necessarily qualifying) before you are really ready. So long as you are aware of your limitations and plan (AND RUN) your course accordingly, there can be enormous & rewarding benefits to having a go. For instance it is possible to run Gamblers & avoid the contacts or weaves. A well designed course will have a natural progression from one obstacle to another. Sometimes in Novice the distance is about the same as you would naturally be away from your dog anyway & the dog doesn't even notice. You could just make your own Novice jumping course & step over the line if you need to. It can give you an extra run & extra ring experience. Same for pairs. It is possible to run it in a very controlled manner & not let bad habits develop. My young dog started pairs before she was ready and we ran it with another dog who was also not ready. Both are highly driven & stimulated by each other. Our partner & I agreed that qualifying was not nearly as important as the control we wanted in the ring. We spent extra time on each changeover & made sure the dogs were fully settled & focussed on us before the other dog was released. It worked brilliantly & despite the time we spent, we ended up placing in each run. After all it isn't really any different to training where another dog is running a small sequence next to you. PS Wish our runs were $5!!!

Some basic tips for Gamblers: THE OPENING SEQUENCE ALWAYS plan an EXACT course in the opening sequence, practice how you will handle it & try to stick to it. Many people have a basic idea in their head but not an exact course. This can be very confusing for the dog as the handling tends to be half hearted and there is no consequence for not following the handling. With an exact course, as handlers we tend to move with a lot more purpose, making the course clear to the dog. I prefer not to do back to back obstacles (although lots of people do it well). My dogs tend to do better (and so do I) if I choose a large flowing lines. It may take a couple of runs to work out how many obstacles you can typically do at each level. We aim to complete all contacts & weaves twice & then take whatever jumps are in between them. It seems to have worked out for us in each of the levels, although sometimes we are missing a contact or weaves in Masters with tighter times. Work out where you need to finish to be close to the start of the Gamble when the buzzer goes. I find this easier to do with large flowing lines/loops. If you have a major training issue in general, expect it to be intensified in Gamblers. If your dog constantly misses contacts or weaves, they will do this in Gambers too. I am always amazed at people who only do jumping as they are (re)/training contacts & yet they seem happy to let their dogs leap off them in Gamblers. THE GAMBLE Once the buzzer goes, make sure your dog safely completes the obstacle it is on before proceeding to the start of the Gamble. Take your time setting them up for the start of the Gamble. Novice times are very generous so there is plenty of time to make sure you give them a good line into the gamble. Some dogs do distance naturally, but many need to be trained to do it. Make sure the first time they do obstacles at that distance is not a trial. They (and you) need to practise it in training. If your dog is struggling...step over the line & help them. You can gradually increase the distance they will work away from you in training. If you need to move them away from you during the gamble, don't start on the line as you will have nowhere to go with your feet. Try to start a bit further away so you have some room to push laterally. Try to resist the temptation to turn towards & watch them during the gamble. They need your shoulders to be pointing in the direction they should be heading. Hope this helps, there is heaps more but these are some of my opinions & things I have learnt.

Some birds Brahminy Kite not sure what this is...Brown Falcon? Some Pelicans Little Terns Dragonfly

Thought I would share some pics from our recent camping trip. I haven't taken a lot of photos over the last 12 months (other than pound ones) so it was nice to have a play with my camera again purely for fun. Some dogs pics My girls Shine & her friend Ally Chloe & Zeus WestieLovers gorgeous boys Winston & Riley and Spencer who was such a good boy had a ball playing with my girls

A Terv won the 26" USDAA Grand Prix Steeplechase final this year...She was the only non-BC in the class & she beat them all. Here is the link:

I totally agree especially as it relates to agility training. For some things I punish, but for most I don't. When I give lessons I don't allow NRM or any form of punishment for things like dogs missing jumps (and it's amazing how many people want to punish their dogs for things like this) All it ends up doing is confusing the dog & they either learn to ignore the handler & run out of control or shut down. We break it down & reward for understanding & compliance. It seems to work a lot better. FRom the dog's perspective, what it the difference between removal of reward & not delivering a reward they are expecting? I find this hard to understand from the dogs POV. How do they know the difference between removal/withdrawal & delay of reward. Let's say I ask the dog to sit & they know I have food on me. If they don't sit, they don't get the food. What if I am asking them to sit & was planning to use the food to reward for a wave rather than the sit. Between the sit & the wave, do they think I am removing/withdrawing the reward for the sit? I find my dogs are very responsive to the tone of my commands. I tend to say "lie down" for instance in a very specific tone. Quite often someone else will ask my dogs to lie down & they look like they have never heard the command before. I don't think they even recognise it as the same command. Usually as soon as I tell the person how to say it, the dogs will comply as quickly as they will for me. Is this a punishment if the dogs are expecting a reward? For that matter, how do we even know when & if the dogs are expecting a reward. I often don't train with a reward on me and will send them to a reward. Sometimes I have a reward in my pocket which I am not intending to give (but still expect compliance). Sometimes I will have 2 different rewards on me. Is it a punishment if I give them the wrong reward? I can't always pick which they will prefer. Totally agree, especially about the body language bit. Again, totally agree. These discussions always go like this. There is the laymans use of the word & the academic use. I find it scary that the general public would think punishment should be something to be embraced.

I am not sure what you mean by "out worked" I would love to come & watch your dog working one day. He sounds amazing since I probably know & admire most of the 20 or so working bred dogs he out worked. Where do you train?

true. Definitions play such a big part in these threads. People seem to define the term work in so many ways. What is work to one person is not to another. I think you can say a dog should work or a dog can work. Lots of people in these threads seem to use the word could. I have one bitch that can work because she has worked by my definition of the word. I have another bitch that should work, based on her breeding. She is fine pushing up to 20 sheep around a yard & in a paddock but I cannot say she can work because I have never spent a day doing what I would call real work with her. I also have 2 dogs that can't work. Sure they do something with sheep but I would never say they could work because I have tried them & they can't.

Mine don't really greet me with anything much...unless I have been away for a long time. Trim kind of swishes around me, Shine will lean on me if I sit down & Zeus will offer his paw, Noah often doesn't even acknowledge me . They have a greeting for certain other people though. Most people they know well they will run to fetch a tennis ball for When Pax comes over, it goes like this: scream, whine, scream, jump on gate, try to get under gate, wriggle wriggle, whine whine, tennis ball is fetched, both girls are on her lap, Shine is trying to lick her face off & Trim is wiggle wiggle, here's the ball, lick lick whine whine. The whole greeting process takes about 10 minutes. It is VERY embarrassing if I have someone here I don't know well...I am sure they think my dogs are monsters . Pax of course HATES every minute of it and insists on coming here in a clean white shirt . When will she learn???

I had a fussy dog once. After a few days without food, he suddenly became less fussy ...never had a problem with him since.

I like the 3 pole method. With a dog who is operant, they can gain an understanding of weaving very quickly. I usually only lure for a day, maybe 10 lots of 2-3 min sessions, making sure you do both sides equally. My reward point (accompanied by a clicker or verbal marker) is always level with the 3rd pole & about my knee height. Day 2 is a couple of lures & then put your hands away & let the dog think about what is required. Although your hands are away, you are still kind of guiding them with your body language. Any successful attempts on 3 poles are rewarded. Any unsuccessful attempts are ignored. The more operant she is, the quicker she will work out what is required. Once they can do 3 poles from any angle & at speed, I move on to 5 poles, repeat the process & then you can usually go straight to 12 as they have a full understanding. As Sash is large, it may take her a little time to get her rhythm at speed.

What a great thread, I loved looking at all the pics. It's amazing how much talent we have here on DOL. I haven't taken much time this year to look at the photo forum, but seeing a sample of the year in this thread really showcases the improvement that so many people have made over the last 12 months .

will get video & pics... we only started today & have only spent 10 mins each so far. All are putting 2 feet on & rolling it... except Zeus the smartypants who is already standing on it while it rolls. My computer is stuffed atm, I can barely load pics, let alone video, but will have a go. I may have to get someone else to load it on their computer.

I started teaching all 4 of my dogs to ride a skateboard this morning. Trim, Shine & Noah are all extremely operant. Zeus not so much . Well he surprised me by being the star & was the first of the four to put all 4 feet on & actually "ride" it. Poor Zeus, I nearly wasn't going to even attempt it with him, I didn't think he stood a chance of getting even one foot on once he saw that it moved, but what a good boy, he was very calm & just got right on it . Maybe I should do more stuff with him. At 12 1/2 he has proven that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks .

We were working on exactly the same issue a few weeks ago. We had some success in increasing distance. What we did was: only give one command. throw food to the position they stopped in to reward at that distance (and to stop them walking in for the reward) next we gave the command, let them do their comfortable distance, then a calm verbal marker then we waited...and asked for nothing at first I did a couple of leans & clicked any shift of their bodies back, throw food we got to the stage where they would back their comfortable distance, then stop, then with no command start by themselves again first I clicked on step, then 2 etc. Gradually the initial distance increased Makes me want to do some ore with it now that I have read this. I think the key (like most things with dog training) was to stop asking for things & just give them a chance to think. Hope this helps, I think I have explained it badly but hopefully it makes a bit of sense.

Reminder to keep your eyes out for snakes too.

Putting his toy/s in the box is another fun & relatively simple trick Vehs. as is Circling the box

I have been terribly slack lately about videoing...but will make an effort in the new year Vickie Youtube channel

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh. Out of curiosity if he had fun chasing dragonflies around the garden, would you be happy about it based on the fact that he found it fun? I understand people have different goals but personally it would bother me if any of mine were using all that drive in a game that didn't really involve interacting with me. For the most part, (although they do play with each other) most of the things that they get enjoyment out of are with my interaction.

My grandmother in KV uses the vet in Berry & she raves about him. I have met him a couple of times (he does special home deliveries for her :nahnah: ) and he seems very nice.

I am very confused about the purpose of this? What is it supposed to be achieving? I can understand using it like this as Ernyt says if the dogs has no interest in moving objects, but I can see some bad consequences of the way it is used in this clip. Can you explain what you are doing a bit more?

One thing I always recommend people do to see if the dog is picking up on handler emotions, is to video yourself playing with the dog and post it on a public forum. I find it can be a good indication & often comes close to replicating any feelings the handler will have in public. If your dogs tugging is less enthusiastic at home while the video is running, then he/she is picking up on your nerves/self consciousness.

Agree with the behavouralist suggestion. One little thing I would be doing immediately is rather than putting him in the run right before you leave, put him in 20-30 mins before you leave. Also don't let him out for 20-30 after you get back home.