FHRP

Hi Monah, glad to hear you're considering the Bach Flower remedies. As I mentioned to you before (I think!) I used them with great success with my Spinone who came to me as a 5 year old, only ever having been a kennel dog. Along with training (and this is important! the remedies helped me to be able to train her, they weren't the cure all), she really blossomed.

I used a 'modified' version of this with great success. I say modified because I didn't have the steps set out in front of me in writing, but basically went through them. I trained my totally disinterested Vizsla this way for Open obedience and on the way to his CDX title the retrieve was the one exercise he never failed He has gone on to complete both Novice and Open gundog working tests as well which involve multiple retreives It does take patience, but it's worth it

My first OOB attempt. I stuffed the frame

Love your b&w ones Vickie, doesn't orange stand out well

If it was my dog and so close to the cut off I would try and opt for the Kindy class, especially as you think he is immature. Kelpie's are not large dogs and hopefully there will be other large puppies in the class. If in doubt talk to someone at the club. I'm not sure how Broadford operates, however our club offers a Kindy class for pups under 6 months old which is not a puppy preschool like the vets run, however offers more socialising than the Beginners class, while still covering much of the syllabus. Our Beginners class has Beginners A and Beginners B with A class being for pups that have come through the Kindy class and B for the dogs over 6 months just starting at the club. Class structure is slightly different, however the two streams merge when entering Intermediate.

My first go at back and whiting part of a photo :p

99% of the time in agility if my dog 'makes a mistake' it is my fault, so I either fix it up and continue or just keep going. If I go and put a dog back on a contact (a reflection of my training, rather than the dog being naughty) I may well leave the ring as I have used up my time IMO and started training. My pet peeve at the Nationals was having to leave the ring after a DQ. Terribly demotivating for both dog and handler.

Fantastic vids Dasher is not the only Whippet with no inerest in lure coursing!! My Herbie could not care less about chasing a plastic bag ;) We went up to Sydney to give the Whippet a go at something (my other dgs do agility, obedience, retrieving etc.) and he showed no interest. My young Vizsla on the other hand goes absolutely spare. Now, real rabbits... that's another matter with Herbie....

Love all the stories, so glad to know we aren't alone At a retrieving trial on the last run in a Novice stake my boy struggled to find the bird that was across the river. After lots of hunting along the bank he finally picked up the 'bird' and the judge commented that it took him a while, but he got it. I was thinking to myself that I didn't mark that very well because it wasn't where I thought it was!! When my dog entered the river to return I could make out that his 'bird' was in fact an empty plastic water bottle He delivered it beautifully to hand without a mark At a breed specialty obedience trial I threw the dumbell which managed to roll out of the ring and the judge told me to send the dog before it even stopped! I sent Flynn who went over the solid, under the ring rope and continued on to the stewards tabe which had the food for food refusal sitting on it ;) Thankfully he didn't eat the food, but returned, back over the jump, without the dumbbell I've also gone to set my dog up in front of the last jump instead of the first jump at an agility trial Enough embarassment for one thread

As already said it's not necessary to train at a club to trial, however training group stays can be hard if training alone or with just one other person.

I would say that 5+ is when a team is in their prime for agility and obedience. Physically and mentally the dogs should be as capable and sound as they're ever gong to be and the team work between dog and handler has developed. My older guy at 9 is mr reliable now, but I have to face that although in great nick he can't compete physically with the younger dogs in agility. My younger guy is coming up to 5 and although he's been titled in Masters for a couple of years our team work is only coming together now to how I would like it.

Congrats country joe on the placings. I hope one day I can say "it was only restricted" ;) Great also to read of all the breeds competing! A shame I didn't read of the Vizsla in the placings though ;)

I would try a martingale collar on her, although I have even seen a determined dog slip one. It probably isn't necessary to get a sighthound specific martingale, but I quite like the blackdog sighthound collar that Staff'n'Toller posted a link to. The purple is quite nice on GSPs :rolleyes: My Whippet always wears a martingale or limited slip sighthound collar. He managed to slip out of a flat collar while on a walk along a busy street, that was the last time he wore a flat collar.

How many dogs do you have? I currenty have three dogs, only seriously train two. A pup on the way so will have a lot of work to do there very soon too! How often do you train etc. I train agility once a week with both Vizslas. Obedience once a week, concentrating on the older boy's UD work and playing a little with the younger in UD and reminding him of Open. Retrieving I've been slack lately but that is usually every weekend in the field when not trialing and once a fortnight on drills. Do you find it hard to train all of them? I find it time consuming, but it's what I enjoy. Currently I am maintaining training more than introducing new things. What are their rough ages - ie: are some retired, do you have multiple dogs at trialling level? The trialing dogs are 9 and 4.5. The 9 year old trials lightly in agility and obedience. The 4.5 year old trials in agility, retrieving and very occasionally obedience. Do you feel that you have enough time for each dog? Yes. Athough when I get my new pup and begin our field work adventure I suspect I'll spend less time training the other two for a while. However as I mentioned they are at a maintain stage (not to say I couldn't improve what we do!!). Do you have multiple breeds to train or do you only have the one breed? Any preferences in working style? I have the two Vizslas that I train and a Whippet. My preference is for gundogs when it comes to training

;) He is always very happy with himself after an agility run, I love it

Thank you for the kind words Vickie. I've been told that I look calm when out there handling my dogs, I certainly don't feel it! I too thought the jumps & table looked enormous! My guys never had problems with the heights, but I too am glad they are lower now ;)

Rogan in Open Aglity in 2004 http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=84...mp;ctime=000454 Rogan in Open Jumping 2004 http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=84...mp;ctime=180932 Flynn in Masters Agility 2004 http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=84...mp;ctime=234249

Paula, I am sorry to hear of Shadow's passing. She was a beautiful girl. I'm sure Bella has welcomed her into doggy heaven.

This is so true Vickie and I know I'm guilty with my older Vizsla I was concentrating on speeding up contacts at a recent class and it became blatently obvious (again) that Flynn was basically slowing down the contact waiting for the praise and release and having no idea of where his feet should be. Fortunately (or unfortunately!) we have had relative succes with this method and at 9 I'm not about to retrain it I'm afraid. However, when putting my young guy through the same exercise who had been taught 2o2o more thoroughly I was able to get the speed and drive to the end. This is what highlighted the difference in understanding of the obstacle. Rogan's training hasn't been perfect and I find in trials he is waiting for me before perfoming the criteria Bad trainer I never instruct my class to slow their dogs on contacts. I make them set criteria (my preferred being 2o2o) and try to get them to stick to it. I still find that 90% of them slow their dogs.... probably a reflection of me as an instructor

I think what country joe may have been referring to is the Utility Gundogs Working Test which is certainly going to be open to all Utility Gundog breeds. It is going to be run through the VCA. They are intending on applying to the ANKC to have titles awarded for the tests. I have been sent the judges guidelines and from what I have read about of the NAVHDA test in America, it sounds very similar, although may be more thorough than their Natural Ability test? It tests conformation, obedience, retrieving, pointing and tracking game.

I have dabbled in many dog sports trying aglity, obedience, tracking, flyball and retrieving. I have found that training the basics of dogs sports is pretty straight forward and achievable by many dogs. To get to the top in any of them takes a lot of time and dedication and the individual dogs temperament and natural ability plays a role. By far the hardest (and dare I say most rewarding) Novice title I have put on a dog is an NRD (Novice Retrieving Dog). As already touched on by WS, to get this title you have to beat all other dogs at your level in a trial, it's not only getting through and qalifying. It took a heck of a lot more training to do this than to get through Novice agility or obedience. However I did choose to try it with a Utility gundog rather than a dedicated retriever. My main focus with my dogs has been agility and my two Vizslas have gained their Masters titles with relative ease. However with the new Agility Ch title, I doubt either will ever get there. Both went through their Novice obedience titles with ease and bother have gained their Open titles (a struggle with the older, straight forward with th younger). Neither have UD titles, but if I put in the time and effort that I have into Agility I would expect they could get there. I also believe the OC is more achievable than the AgCh for my dogs if that is what I was after (but by no means easy). I've touched on Retrieving, and my young boy who I trial has managed a win at the next level and if I plugged away long enough he could probably get an RRD, or maybe not. A RTCh title??? No way, not this dog. Tracking is the only dog sport that I haven't 'got anywhere' with. Mainly due to time restrictions, and lack of training opportunities. I hope to try it again with my younger V when he's finished with retrieving. Flyball I managed to train my younger guy the concepts of in two classes, however prefecting a swimmers turn and shaving down the time I would imagine would take much more time and effort, something I'm not interested in though. So going by my experience Retrieving has been the hardest field I've trained for. However, a dogs breed and natural ability certainly comes into it. To make a flat statement that one field is the hardest would be wrong IMO.

Puppies ears can do all sorts of things while the pup is teething. I wouldn't worry too much, however massaging the ear that isn't sitting right wont hurt. I'm sure you'll get comments from other Dobermann owners, but my Whippets ears were all over the place while he was teething and they sit beautifully now

And here I thought it was so the basics of the more complex trialing exercises were introduced young! Having repeatedly seen the problems people have once starting Open (or now Novice) and even the companion classes, with teaching their disinterested dogs to retrieve, I think introducing the concept of retrieving to all pups is a great idea. However, I'm not convinced our club has 'got it right' yet.

Thanks for posting them, I missed them last time! They certainly are beautiful dogs, and with a coat I could probably manage!! OK, I think I've hijacked this thread long enough.

I think it's about time we see some pictures of your dogs WS!! I love the looks of the field setters I've seen on various websites.