Tassie

The 30/20 percentage seems very high to me - prefer something like 26/14 or thereabouts - for active dogs.

He's such a good clever boy - and handsome with it - and of course his helper is pretty darned good as well :laugh:

Some great advice here, Megan. Another thing it might be worth trying - and again away from club - is pretending he doesn't know how to jump, and teaching jumping again as if he was a puppy. I'm think the Susan Salo puppy or foundation jumping dvds - starting with jump bumps - might be good. Obviously play training - using bait plates, toy targets etc.

And so another couple of tracking addicts are 'born' - sounds good kathq and Ptolomy. And sounds like your dogs love it as much as mine do. I know they have their place, but I'm almost as paranoid about snakes as I am about ticks - and down here we do have to worry about snakes. Could track on ovals, but it's a bit warm in the daytime for my wusses, so tracking training is on hold for another month or so.

Yep - we train ours alongside a wall - and build it up very gradually - like rewarding one step at a time. Don't know where you are, but if you know any people who do Heelwork to Music/Dances with Dogs - they may have some ideas. The problem we find is that the dog's head and shoulders will be in position, but there back end tends to swing out without the wall - suggests we're trying to get too much too soon :D Don't forget too that it's Rally O, so you can experiment with positioning your left hand differently - and it is only 3 steps in Rally ;) ETA Forgot to say, it helps to do quite a bit of rear end awareness work with the dog as well.

Thanks for the discussion and explanation on the PQ for FC - I loved the - now why does that sound familiar . But yes accel/decel is key - hence I have to remind myself to keep looking like I'm still running when I'm 3 jumps behind Kirra on a final sequence - she's heard Greg say "I stop,you stop" too many times :laugh: .RS - I did both front and back feet on box at pretty much the same time - admittedly with luring - but even boy brains got it quite quickly - girls will have no trouble :laugh:

And the variant on that - where you mark the head turn (with click or verbal) then throw the treat a little distance away, telling the dog "get it" or something like that, then as she's away from you a bit, use her name, and mark the head turn - rinse and repeat - interspersing with getting her to come to you for the treat. Tossing the treats gives her more chance to respond from a little distance. Mix and match the two.

Disclaimer - no expert here - Kirra has point and pray - Rory has sort of 2o2o - but hasn't used them in anger yet :laugh: - in fact the few times he's had the chance to use the contact equipment, his first move was to run up to the down end, and throw himself backwards into position - nice try, Rory - boy brains :laugh: . But seriously - you've done some shaping with Pippa, haven't you - so I'd probably start with a perch box of some sort, and shape back feet on front feet off - then don't let her self-release - i.e - mark and reward in position, then release. You can gradually build up duration - then transfer the behaviour to a small plank - slightly raised off the ground. I gifure by shaping on a perch box, you haven't poisoned anything. There is that new Rachel Sanders 2o2o dvd available on CR ;) - have ordered it - but it hasn't arrived yet.

You can introduce the clicker as a marker at any age - but.... you need to know what you're doing - and the essence of the training is the same whther you're using the clicker or a marker word to inform the dog that what they did is correct. I think Vickie has advised you about chasing games - lots of her chasing you, and high excitement and high value rewards when she gets to you - and as Sheen says, you can mark the head turn towards you - BUT - make sure the head turn happens whenever you use the dog's name - otherwise you're just training her to ignore her name, as you are training her to ignore the recall word you might use if it's not working. I'd probably start some name response work quite close up. THe other thing I would suggest is to use a light long line on her (as in 5-10 metres long - but not a retractable please) - this way you know that ultimately you will win - even if you have to walk down the line to her if she's really not listening. By the way, although it might look like it, I think it's better if you assume that she doesn't know her recall well enough, rather than that's she's being 'cheeky'. :)

FANtastic!!! - great start to the year! And well done on Pip's 2 Rally passes - bet that was a blast too - for the dog, anyway LOL

So well said Vickie. Some super advice here - OP - she will be fine even if she never becomes a dog-park dog - as long as she loves doing stuff (and particularly 'work' type stuff) with you - BC heaven :)

Congrats! Nice brag

Le, you'll probably remember the very early days of agility in Oz, where we had the flag stewards just to watch the contacts . ETfix typo

I get the Clean Run mag on subscription from www.cleanrun.com - you can get print or digital. But ask around people at your club who do agility - someone will have it. :)

Thanks, that's great. +1 - thanks so much!

@ Aussielover - just saw an article in thw January Clean Run mag which might be of interest to you - on equalising the value of food and tugging - had some interesting exercises. - :laugh: Lablover - that's awful - but very, very funny. It's a bitlike the old Viszla joke - when will my Viszla calm down - answee: about 4 hours before he dies.

Super well done TN - it's a buzz, isn't it. :D

That sounds encouraging, Jules. And BTW - you're allowed to be a stress-head - not so sure about the vet being allowed to be a drama-queen :laugh:

You said it Pto omy - fantastic wuffles!

:laugh: RS - I do sort of know what you mean - Rory was going to be my next agility dog - and he may be one day ;) . I have done foundation agility stuff with him, and basic jumping training, and end contact behaviour, and a bit of sequencing and handling, but I tend to slide over to obedience because he really likes it, and is quite flashy, and I find it's easier to train when I don't have access to equipment on a regular basis. I guess the nice thing about positive, motivational training is that it's really not that hard to switch and swap - certainly at the moderately competitive having fun level that I compete at. :laugh:

Congrats, CleoJ and Wuffles and the clever fur kids. We have to sit on our two passes until April now - hopefully we can finish off our titles then. But great to see other states getting on board. @Amypie - you'll be ready. If Kirra can pass quite nicely, (and as I've said before, she doesn't believe in obedience :laugh: ) you'll be fine. Don't forget, you've got 2 retries to use - at a cost of only 3 points. Had to use one with Kirra in each trial - on the 270 left, cos she was a bit far ahead, and I would have trodden on her if I'd tried to get it done first go :laugh:

That's a great brag! Well done - hope it's the first of many such posts :D .

Now there's a spotty dog having a whole heap of fun :D - and super well done on his JDO TSD!

That's totally brilliant, kathq - bless Coco's cotton socks :D - now, as long as she doesn't come to think a roo at the start peg is part of the cues for the SV .

LOL Sheena - I used to call that "the magic weapon" with my first BC. But yes, pretty sure it would not be acceptable in the Rally O or Obedience ring. wuffles. We have 2 passes as well - but our next trial isn't till April so you guys will be well titled ahead of us.