FHRP

Yep, that's it. It's not just about crating your dog for hours etc. but like the title says, a program. I did ask K9 force to elaborate on how he did these things with his dogs...

This is not quite true poodlefan. We have jumps with lower heights than current ANKC small jump height and many instructors make the effort to place both the tyre and spread jumpes lower than small dog height. We also have or had a table that was lower.

Susan briefly talked about Ruff Love and crating when here. She did say a run can be used instead, although he preference was for crating. I think there'd be some disagreement from enthusiasts that you'd need to work from home to crate that much....

So, has anyone done the 'Ruff Love' system with their dogs? edited for spelling

I will have to think how I will train my next dog in regards to jumping at lower heights when young. I've heard from several trainers now that they basically do ground work and then full height when the dog is old enough, rather than the lower heights gradually coming up to full height. I've so far gradually built up the height and although I can't complain about their jumping style, I do question what it teaches them. What do other people do? At our club dogs start on the lower height and work up, regardless of age.

It happens so rarely I ignore it in that run! Like I already said, 99% of the time it would be ahandling fault of mine. If it's in training, what I might do is go back and do that bit again to improve my handling and prevent the bar coming down.

How do you actually do these things? Your aims are what I have heard from a number of other trainers. I think some of it comes down to what we want from our dogs though.

I am lucky that I've never had any real issues with my dogs knocking bars. I was careful not to take it for granted with my younger guy, but as a whole their jumping style rarely knocks bars. They are usually not the most economical jumpers like many of the working breeds are, they clear the jump by a good distance unlike the flatter jumpers you see. I think this means they can be more forgiving of me talking at the wrong time (although I do avoid it). Yep, I think this is possible. A local dog here, a super fast bc, is most likely to knock bars when jumping out to 'nothing'. Watching him recently on a course where he knocked three bars, each time was when he had no obstacles in front of him, either a 180 turn back or the end. The handler is aware of the 'issue' and tries not to give any physical or verbal cues while the dog is over the bar in these circumstances... Yep. Melbourne Royal last year my older guy was clear on the Masters agility course with just the spread to jump. Very unusual for him to knock bars , but yep that sucker came down. Like I've already said, my guys are forgiving jumpers and in normal circumstances I would have never expected that bar to come down. On looking at what he was jumping into, there were two metal bars of fencing about 5m from the last jump and all sorts of people and structures behind that. I am sure this put him off. My young guy did the cavaletti work, jumping grids and some great jumping exercises with Stacy Perdot before he ever competed. What I found was that the work I had done was very controlled stuff and when we got out on a Novice jumpers course which were fast and flowing, he was hyped and went flat chat and he had to learn how to control his body at speed. Now he's like my older guy and I'm shocked if he pulls a bar, but 99% of the time I can put it down to my handling if he does Trying to convince people at our club (both inexperienced and experienced) that they actually need to tach a dog to jump correctly is not easy Until they have a problem, of course

There certainly is Vickie! There are more and more consistently fast accurate dogs that are well handled now. I'm sure you and Trim will do great in Open

Congrats Vickie and Trim! A nice way to start her agility career. Onto Open already!

As you can tell from all the replies, there is no magic age for a dog starting to lift his leg to pee! My Lab was desexed at 9 months and started lifting at about 12 months old, so desexing definitely did not prevent the behaviour. My Vizslas started lifting at about 8-9 months old, although the younger (3 years old) still squats in my yard. My Whippet started lifting at 4 months old! Like others have said, encourage continued squatting!! I don't have a particular problem with dogs lifting their legs to pee (and I most definitely do NOT allow them to pee on peoples letter boxes when out for a walk!) and I actually see some advantage when I'm trialing my dogs - take them to a tree before we go in the ring and they can relieve themselves. However, I'd prefer my washing line post and the trees and bushes in my yard weren't peed on

My first concern was the negative results you are relying and putting on loud noises. Do you want a dog that is sensitive to noise? Start making a negative association with a cap gun and any loud noises may also be cause for concern for the dog. Trucks, thunder, back firing cars etc. Owning gundogs, one that is shot over, and raising a litter of gundogs of which pups went to hunting homes, we actually make the effort to introduce loud noises while the dog is doing something they love, inlcuding at meal times. I'm sorry I don't have any constructive advice on how to actually teach what you are after. I am currently training the formal food refusal exercise done in UD obedience, but that is quite different.

Lablover I'm sorry to hear about your darling girl

For the basics of a BARF diet for 3 dogs - 22kg, 25kg & 13kg for a fortnight: Chicken carcasses (at $5/10kg) - $5 - 7 Veggies - $20 tops mince chicken carcasses (to have with vegies) - $3 ($1p/kg, 1/2kg per vegie meal) Lamb & Beef bones- $10 - 15 Fish - $3 Yoghurt- $2 eggs - $3 So for the basics it costs me about $55 per fortnight for 3 dogs. Now, add in the times I forget to defrost something and go and buy chicken wings (at least $2/kg and usually need 1.5kg) or FourLegs ($4 a packet). Then add the treats I buy - cabonossi, pigs/sheep ears, smackos etc. and you could probably double it

I use a sighthound collar on my Whippet which is a limited slip. He did slip a flat collar when my other dog was attacked. Sighthounds often have necks larger than their heads so slip normal collars quite easily. I haven't found it necessary with my Vizslas though and don't see any need to change things now. Fortunately 90% of their walking is offlead anyway

Never I train and walk my dogs on flat collars.

Yep, that's Barrington Tops A few years ago now....

The Agiltiy Nationals are being held on the 15th & 16th of October at the showgrounds of the CNR RANFORD & WARTON ROADS. Does that help? All information can be found at http://www.geocities.com/anwa_2005/ Do come and say hello! Thanks everyone again for all the support. We plan to go and have some fun. We could quite easily crash and burn, but we'll give it a go

Sounds like it Shiloh ;) Better to get onto it now. Take poodlefans advice and seek someone qualified and experienced. The Vizsla club again may be able to help point you in the right direction for that.

Wow, thanks guys We've never been to Perth before so are looking forward to the trip... oh, and the agility :D

Hi Shiloh, I aso recommend contacting the Vizsla club for some advice. It is very hard to tell from just a few posts here what is going on and if it's within 'normal' full on, into everything Vizsla behaviour, or something you really should be concerned about. I have two Vizsla boys and my older boy was labelled 'dominant' by a certain instructor at our local club as a young dog which IMO is absolute rubbish. I also had issues with the puppy class instructors I took my younger boy to who didn't know how to handle the bouncy, lively pup I had (on the other hand my older boys puppy class was fantastic!). Perhaps give your breeder a call too. They should always be there for adivce. isaviz also hasa good point, physical issues may need to be ruled out too.

It really is easy for the handler if they ride a bike.... apart from the sore bum At 10km per hour, it's an easy pace and I even did it with my Whippet when I had a cold and no training. For the medium to large sized athletic dogs it should be easy. For the smaller or giant breeds it really can be a test of endurance. Both my boys I have put through got bored with the whole thing....

Here is a link for the rules of an endurance test. http://www.actca.asn.au/Web/endurance_test_rules.htm

Very hard to tell anything (other than she's cute ) from that picture. I'd say if the vet thinks she's overweight then try to get some weight off her. People are often used to seeing Labs carrying a lot of weight, so seeing one in good or lean condition may cause people to comment. My Lab was a big boy and weighed 30-31kg at his ideal weight.

I train at ACT Companion Dog Club on Tuesday nights.. sometimes. I've been taking the Open sets class and occasionally running the younger boy in the class for the past two sessions so not really putting in much training at all. I attend seminars when possible/interested.