jesomil

Interesting thread. I always try and be as open minded as i possibly can and have endeavoured over the years to learn and train in as many methods as i can. I have found it depends on the person who i was training and what they are trying to achieve. After chatting with them for a while, i would get an idea about what method would suit their personality and their dog. Some people prefer to only train a certain way. Over the years i have used completely positive training with food/toy, correction based training and also using tools such as check chain, prong, halter, martingale. It depends so much upon the person, the dog and what they are trying to train. I think i own just about every tool that can be used with dog training and i believe most can be utilised well when the appropriate situation arises. I have trouble with people who get completely into a method and refuse to believe that there is any other. I have lots of what if's and but.... discussions with these folk. I have a definate preferred method of training with my own dogs though. Edited cause it didnt make sense

Hi m-j, I cant believe you remember us from the K9 workshop 2 years ago at LL's place. Yes that is the same pup. He has grown up to be better than i could have imagined. All the travel is well worth it as we all have so much fun. We are thinking of buying another car that is better set up for all the travelling to training and trials etc. We are mad

Ooh, i love the close heeling and prancing. Interesting topic to have just bought up as i have started some heel work with my boy over the last few days cause of the training days coming up. I thought i should put some work into him so we dont look too silly :p Those videos are so motivating. I feel like going out and getting an obedience pup now

My Rottweiler who i did all the dog sports with was in her prime around 3 - 4 years old. Thats when she had reached her peak with training and competing. She still continued many years after that but about 3 yrs is when i think she was her best. My Kelpie who has just turned 2 is completely different. He is still a silly teenager. I think he will be fully trained for sheepdog work when he is about 3 or so but then get maturity and experience and probably be competing at his best between say 4 and 8 years at a guess. My dogs dad is nearly 10 and is still very immature and enthusiastic with his work and is still winning trials. He could pass as a 2 year old, so maybe my dog will never mature They all are so different. The two other breeds i have had i could say that they were at their sports prime around 3 years.

So sorry to hear you lost your beautiful old girl. She looked like such a happy, sweet dog in the pics.

I understand how you feel. My dogs collar is hanging over my bed post and every now and then i bump it and it makes that old familiar jingle of the tags . I will never forget her and what she meant to me. Why dont our beloved friends live longer.

There is a list of people who help with training sheepdogs in the Working Kelpie Council newsletter. There may be someone on the list near Albury. I cant find the current newsletter, maybe someone else has it or you could contact the WKC for more info. I wish. We travel a long way to train and for the best trainer we travel 4 hours to work with.

We wish, but we are looking and will be someday soon. From my asking where KCC park is, it probably sounded like i must live in the sticks but as it turns out, we are not that far away, just didnt know it. Oh the shame......... We have alot of access to the country with sheepies and do spend alot of time there so we are lucky.

Oh Wow, has she moved to NZ?? What a shame. I met up with her a few times. She was great !! ETA We met up to walk the dogs, not to train although we did have a few great discussions on clicker training.

Yes, we met briefly at the sheepdog thing. You had your super spunky boy

Ok, being totally random here..................but are you by any chance talking about sarah with the Labradoodle and the Aussie?

I am in BHS (south that is), not far from the freeway. Good point.

Thanks Shoemonster Wow, i thought it was about an hour or more away! Looks like it will be about 40 mins. Will probably be able to make it then. I can give a definate closer to the date.

Probably wont be able to make it on the 14th as i am not even sure where KCC park is but should definately make it to the day at Knox. Same. My current dog is young and has had no obedience trialling training as we only compete in yard dog trials but i want to start doing obedience with him as well, so we arent quite up to the picky stage yet. But when we are, I love being picked to shreds for our faults, its the best way to learn. Experienced trialler, have competed to CDX, then trained UD but never competed in it (all with previous dogs). Although, saying that, i havent trialled for a few years so have no idea about the CCD class or what is expected in it . ETA I am a new Melbournite and that is why i dont know where KCC park is, otherwise you would think i am very non doggy not even knowing where one of the primary dog places are

I am not sure from your post if you are trying to encourage more interest in the food rewards or whether the dog is now interested in food and you are changing from toy to food. So i will make a guess Some dogs that have been allowed to graze all day with their food or who are overfed tend to value food rewards less. How often is the dog fed and is it a good weight? As said before by Dogdude, you need to use a food of high value and train when the dog is hungry. I have found tiny cut up pieces of BBQ chicken to be a real winner. You need to give tiny pieces of reward at a time to keep the dog interested. If you are giving big pieces of food, the dog gets too much and can loose interest. Hope this helps.

Well Box Hill would be very nice as i wouldnt have to travel at all and it is such a dog training desert with such great parks!! But i agree it is probably getting a bit far for some. Knox sounds good !!

Wow, what a challenge!! Well done

I have a broad jump, a high jump and a box somewhere in the shed.

I definately think it increases body awareness and agility. I purposely run my dogs over rough terrain from a young age for that purpose. We have access to bush, hills and a creek where they gallop through at high speed. I have noticed friends dogs that arent so used to it being a little more clumsy in the same terrain.

I would be interested. My dog is completely a sheepdog but i have been wanting to do more with him. I have ob trialled with 3 breeds in the past so i know what it is all about, but my dog is certainly not at trialling standard yet for obedience. Sounds like it could be fun. ETA Knox would be great as its not too far away!!

Would it be for dogs only at a certain level eg just about to trial or trialling or for those dogs who are not quite there but aiming for it?

I am sure my dogs do lots of little subtle things but in my pack i dont allow aggression, standing over, humping or anything else that i deem as innapropriate. I will sort it out if there is a problem and will stop any hostile behaviour (not that there ever is any). Some people let their dogs sort it out but i think in some circumstances that can get out of hand.

I was really enjoying that and then it just stopped......

I agree with what Cosmolo said about what to do when dogs get a bit silly. I put mine into a drop stay and wait for them to settle. I dont think time out would achieve as much or help them to recognise what the problem was. I was impressed on the weekend when i saw this bloke let out about 10 dogs from his trailer. They were mostly entire males with 2 females. They all peed then looked at their owner to see what was hapenning next. They then all loosely followed the man across the oval for a walk. I was impressed because the dogs all looked up to him and there was no hackling or nonsense between the males. The man was their leader and they were a happy bunch.

So, does everyone think that there should always be a dominant dog with their dogs? In a dog pack is there a single leader then the rest of the pack, or is the entire pack sorted on their level of dominance or submission right down to the most submissive dog?