luckydog

As the large clearly vicious dog attacks mine... owner remarks "its never done that before!"

Thats a really nice set of photos! Love the retreive over the jump, great shot. In the down stays shot (the one with the dog sitting up) there appears to be a dog about to exit the ring at the far corner. I think it might actually be a roll of rope but it makes for an interesting optical illusion.

Suzie (my Retriever) truly hates the tunnel. Trying to get her to go through it at Dog Club is really stressful, so its one of my goals this year to get some sort of tunnel at home to build her confidence, so this thread is really interesting to read!

And she is only 16 years old! I am amazed the dog is not disturbed by the wildly screaming crowd.

What a fantastic day that must have been! Well done!

Where would it be?

Here is Suzie coming towards me between the two concrete strips. While she may not look straight, her finish is perfect.

Actually I also do this. At the local running track is the simplest grandstand ever, just two rows of concrete separeted by about a 70cm wide gap with grass growing between them. I park the dog and walk about 20 meters away and call her, she has no choice but to come straight to me and sit in front.

Back to basics.... do really short distance recall (literally from 1 meter in front of you). Just lure her into place with food. Then slowly increase distance. Only do the long distance when he short distance recall ends with her in front of you.

Reading the thread now... its spot on! Not sure there is a way to search for threads?

So I bought myself a proper white plastic dog bone to practice retrieving. Only problem is that Suzie is not the least bit interested in it. She wont hold it and wont pick it up. She loves my sons socks though! Suggestions?

Wow Shoemonster, didn't realize you had so many videos on Youtube! Fantastic CCD performance (I watched the second one - loved the duck poo eating! So much for cleaning the ring before the trial lol)

Well done!

One other word of praise for Ballaraat Dog Club was their catalogue. It contained a whole page of advice for trialers (all good stuff). Plus under the Novice entries they had a reminder not to use the dogs name during change of position. After reading a post by LeoPuppy I was already 'warned' about this, but I thought it was great of the club to think about this. My only confusion is the clubs name is spelt 'Ballaraat' rather than Ballarat. At first I thought it was a typo, but that is not so. I wonder why?

I was there today, apart from some morning drizzle, it was a really good meet. The grounds were nice and flat with plenty of places to train or run your dogs, the catering was very good and the whole thing seemed very well organized. Seems like a great club. They also ran the ropes so that each ring (well really they are square ) had a space between it. It meant if you were standing against the edge of the ring in the stays, there was a metre space between you and the rope for the next ring. I thought this was a great idea. Sadly Maili bombed out in both the AM and PM CCD (total loss of focus). She scored 92 last week at Knox but this week couldn't manage better than 72. But the highlight was Suzie who pulled it together in Novice to score 193 and place first in the ring. Her first pass in novice after only completing her CCD last week. So we drove home on a high.

Reading this series of posts really brings it home to me. Suzie (my Golden) is the first dog I have ever trained and I have done just about everything wrong. I think I came very close to ruining her (well Jury still out) but I have learnt a huge amount. There is hope for her (and me) yet. I had stopped going to my local dog club (I won't say which one) because they refuse to use food and train for an hour (which bores the dogs). My dogs were getting more and more 'bored' and my Golden was getting more and more anxious. But I have since found the club has a triallers group with a great 'leader'. The dogs don't do more than 10 minutes in the practice ring and the advice I am getting is awesome. I also got a huge boost from going to the practice trials at FOO (Friends Of Obedience) at KCC Park, where I got some great tips that had immediate benefits!

If the dog has a short snout it is probably reverse sneezing. One of my current dogs suffers from this, it doesn't affect her but I have never been able to stop it once it starts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_sneezing

Its fascinating to see the different hand signals used in distance control exercises, by different handlers. In Open class its optional and it is part of UDX. Its worth going to an obedience trial just to see that part of the exercise.

Just had a great day at Knox with Maili (mutt of unknown parentage) and Suzie (my Golden). Suzie came second in the AM CCD bitches trial (91/100) which completed her CCD Title She then came first in the PM trial with 94/100! The PM trial in CCD bitches was a great ring with lots of great scores. Maili lost all focus in the morning trial (her first ever trial) but she pulled it all together in the PM trial and came second (behind Suzie) with 92/100! Great what some food and clicker can achieve.

Wow the Wangaratta site is very swish, very professional.

Congrats on getting your CCD!!! Isn't is always the case that the handler blows the points and not the dog (sigh). Sounds like you will eat up novice.

I was berating my son over his homework situation this very afternoon. My Golden Retriever went and sat under his desk. From a human perspective the dog was not involved in the conversation at all, from a dog perspective I am sure she felt very involved and concerned that there was some conflict in her 'pack'. So I totally agree that the happier we are as human beings with ourselves and our fellow human beings, the better things can be between us and and our animals.

Ballarat Dog club has created great XLS entry form for Obedience (need Microsoft Excel). Really really clever, I think you could easily modify them for any club entry. Congrats to who ever spent the time to do it. http://www.bdoc.com.au/obedience_links/pag...ntry%20Form.xls Or look for the actual link on this page: http://www.bdoc.com.au/obedience_links/obe...008_details.htm

Depends purely on the dog, but I am strongly against any sort of chain type correction collar. I recommend either a half-martingale or a soft choker (one made of abseiling rope). Both are very soft on the dog. You can use those at almost any age. Correcting with a chain is in my opinion very 19th century but maybe necessary for very large dogs.

You can bring your dog, your children and your neighbour. There are no restrictions provided you keep control of all them!