Vickie

Beautiful photos! Looks like fun:)

Agreed. Nothing will ever meet the approval of the whole DOL audience, but if it made the general public at least think about and aware of these issues, then it is better than nothing.

Great post Steve. Puts it all into petspective

And yet, very few dogs who ARE performing the true function look anything like this standard. Weird huh? And yet, for herding breeds farmers rarely use these dogs. Weird huh? Geez, you make it all sound so easy. I might just give it a go. I wonder why you don't see more dogs, bred for form in sheepdog trials, (and i mean the ones that dont use trained sheep), weird huh?

Not all breeds are judged on form. Purebred working BC's & Kelpies are judged purely on function.

great news!

Great photo!

I regularly hand my dogs over to people who are struggling with something with their own dog. It is very rare that it doesn't make a difference. So often training issues are emotional or based on lack of confidence in themselves or their dog.. When you hand someone a trained dog, they only have themselves to think about as they know the dog can do the right thing. Often when they try again with their own dog, the difference & resolve in them is incredible and their dog responds accordingly.

I thought the show was great! Sure there were a few bits that I didn't like or agree with but overall I thought it was pretty realistic & I also think its entirely possible that the 2 people can turn their & their dogs' lives around from such an experience.

This is different to a dog being distracted by sight, smell, movement etc. when I said I've never seen it, I meant I've never seen a dog fixate (through eye) on an obstacle during a sequence to the point it can't move, although I have seen dogs...including mine, fixate on the wrong obstacle...but they are moving towards it, not stuck on it.

Sounds like an interesting article. Mine show eye on stock, but I cant say I've ever seen even a glimpse of it in agility. Actually I don't think I have seen it in any other agility dogs either.

I do something a little different as mine work sheep so i need a recall that is not motivated by a treat or toy, since neither can compete with the opportunity to work. I do start with rewards, like everyone else, but at some point I set them up in a situation that makes it really hard for them to want to recall. When they choose to ignore, I walk them down (in a small area). It is neither negative nor positive. I just take their collar, about turn, call them & let go. I expect them to follow. If they don't, we do it again, and again, and again...If they choose to follow, they get praise. I used to use this method with a couple of horses I had who were hard to catch when they arrived. It worked & seems to work for the dogs as well. I am prepared to do it for as long and as many times as I need to.

A different perspective/approach on dogs that are tunnel, contact etc sucks. I was training my pup this morning and she went off course to do the AFrame. The way I proceeded was to look at the handling cue that she ignored in order to get to the AF and spent some time training and rewarding that cue away from the sequence. I dont consider that she found the AFrame more rewarding than the jumps I wanted her to take, instead it meant to me that she found the AFrame more rewarding than following the cue I was giving (regardless of which obstacles she was supposed to take). Once I had spent time reinforcing the cue, we tried the sequence again and were successful. Hope that makes sense.

Here is a page listing some people that make equipment. http://www.aussieagility.com.au/equipment.htm A few are in Vic :)

He's awesome Nekhbet Love the tricks you have trained. Very cute & very nice dog!

I'm pretty sure Dorothy does Chutes as well as tunnel bags. Maybe drop her an email. http://www.aussieagility.com.au/products/tunnelbagsbrochure.pdf

They can definitely be trained. We have a couple of Chis in agility & they are fantastic!

What are you using to reward her? Are you rewarding every time? Or just sometimes? What do you do when she doesn't come? Try saying her name & running in the opposite direction. Unless there are major distractions, most pups will run after you. When she does, praise & reward her. Also be careful not to use the word come if she is not coming. Get the behaviour you want first & then put a word on it. She is not defying you, she either doesn't understand or you are not making it worth her while to do it. It might be worth finding a good training class & joining. You will both find it beneficial.

Thanks Le, I'm pretty sure you were the one who first explained the concept to me, way back when i first started agility, I just wasn't sure about the name of it.

Sounds like a similar thing :) thanks :)

Thank you :) yes, that describes it to a tee.

When your dog doesn't understand something one week & without doing any work on it, nails it consistently the next week? I keep thinking its latent learning, but the definition is different.

Interesting! What sort of situations does she diffuse? She will go & stand between 2 dogs that are posturing (I only allow this if I know the dogs). She doesn't allow squabbles between puppies & seems to know which one to push away. She will lay on the ground near puppies who are intimidated by her size. She will lay between our cat and any dog she feels is looking at it the wrong way She will lean against or lick people who are raising their voice A couple of weeks ago, she cried to be let out of a pen in order to comfort a friend who had just received bad news. I guess some would say that she's just bossy, but I think there's more to it than that. She always seems to know just what to do & how much to do it. My grandmother calls her Aunty, lol, since she's always looking after everyone.

Agreed. One of my bitches here diffuses situations, both here & at other places & she does a damn good job of it, bless her.

I think the answer is yes, it is possible, but...there are so many variables. My 2 male BCs were 11, when our cat chose to come & live with us. They had tried to chase cats their entire lives but all 3 ended up living in harmony. The variables that helped us were that: The cat had no fear of dogs, never ran & was more than willing to swipe at dogs for inappropriate intent I was home all the time, so dogs were supervised for quite a while Cat had an easy escape to front yard Our other dogs were not cat chasers I don't think the dogs had any intent other than chase, they werent killer type dogs I had good control over dogs & they were responsive to verbal correction.