Tassie

Totally agree with megan. and grumpette - I do the same - usually saying something to the dogs like "make room for the people" - usually gets a smile of acknowledgement. Nice job of blaming the victim mace

LOL - nope - guess which idiot mother left her videocamera at home - not in trial mode methinks.

Oh - and forgot to add - for agility - Greg and Laura Derrett and Stacey Peardot Goudy (in person) and Susan Garrett DVD and on line.

Mary Ray - and Sue Hogben and the other WA gurus - including you bedazzledx2 ;) - we loved it when you came over to Tasmania and showed us how happy and brilliant obedience trialling can be.

Great debut, TO - and good boy Darcy too. Well - first rally trial in Hobart today and happy to say both Rory and Kirra passed in both morning and afternoon trials, although both were a bit sloppy compared with what they can do - but it was sunny and hot (well hot for Hobart anyway. :D Rory got 94 and second place (by one point) in the morning, and then 87 in the afternoon. Kirra was miss consistent with 83 both morning and afternoon, but most importantly, my little agility girl who doesn't believe in formal obedience, had fun. :D Now we have to wait for our next Rally O trial, not till after Easter:(. Altogether we had 33 dogs in each of the morning and afternoon trials - big numbers for Tasmania these days.

LOL - you need those bike shorts with the gel; pads built in :D

You should give it a go, smisch - Den would love it - and it won't muck up your lowchen's showing - they're amart dogs and will know the difference. And the willingness test, as Abbiestar said, is just that - and you can talk to your dog.

Which socks did you get Jules? These ones (thorlos) - http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=1840&ParentCat=473 Oh thanks Jules - yes I looked at including those - but I'd just got 3 pairs on a 3 for 2 offer locally - CR is still cheaper though LOL. They're great socks, aren't they - sooo comfortable.

Woohooo - great start to the year.

Which socks did you get Jules?

My 3rd box arrived yesterday - weaving poles are great, and small jump cups fit perfectly on them. And a few more toys (just in case mine didn't have enough ) - Rory chose the beaver toy to play with, and Kirra liked the smaller one - not too squeaky, and they are good for tugging and throwing. I gave one of these wool balls to a friend's kids and their ball mad BC last night - the kids had a great time playing withit - and the 5 year old found it nice and easy to catch and throw. The BC had to wait till the kids were finished

Still waiting for order No.3 (well 4 if you count the cool coats I bouight while they were on free shipping before the BIG one. Used the popup tent with the travel bed for Kirra hanging out indoors at a dog show on Monday - and they HyperKewl coat - she seemed happy with that. Very convenient to carry. Rory is no real use as a tester, cos he just loves toys - any toys pretty much - does like his isqueaks. Agree about the Wubba friends - Kirra who's not such a toy dog, loves those - and she was playing madly with the flippy flopper cloth frisbee yesterday - I think there's another one in the box that's still to come. (Oh, and I have a gift vouicher still to spend - given by a friend :D )

Do your WA courses have a lot of grass? We were lucky in that the course down here doesn't have too much grass, and unlike the first time I did it, the grass this year wasn't under water . RS, I figured the bike riding would help build endurance - and be good for Rory's show gaiting - I think it did, so will try to include some bike riding this year too.

LOL DSO. I did the first one with a Kmart special, but last year I lashed out and bought a reasonably priced one - something like $350 - from the local bike shop - really nice people, happy to advise. I have to say it is soooooo much nicer to ride than the KMart special - and a bit lighter to put on and off the bike rack. So I would say it's worth the extra money. Oh - and don't forget the most important item of all - gel seat cover

I always explain to my puppy class people that not all dogs are party animals and there's no rule says they have to be! We give shy or worried puppies time to sit back and have a good look - just work them with their people on things like the focus exercises. There is a little one on one greeting time with other pups - but that as much as anythign is education for owners in things like body language, play styles etc. (Mind you - I have had pups that started out quite shy and worried the first week, only to become the life of the party in later weeks :D ).

Congrats ellz - that's lovely! And it was really nice to have a chat the other day

DSO - if I can do it (as I did with Mr Rory last year) trust me, yoiu can do it. :D Mind you, the mention of 'hilly' in connection with Canberra would put me off. The course we use down here is quite handler and dog friendly - and on a lovely sunny day, as it was in 2011, it was lovely, in spite of a very cool breeze coming off the snow :D .

to both Ptolomy and the weaving kids, and kathq on the tracking - and yes, it is addictive ROFL. Happy New Year for tomorrow - my resolution is to be more organised in training - well not hard, since I'm not organised at all - but next year ......

Welcome to you and your new pup - looks super. (Don't forget to come over to the Border Collie pics thread in the Breed Sub-forums!) dancinbcs - you are so right. (BTW Scott, dancinbcs is hugely knowedgeable on all things Border Collie :D ) It's one of the nice things about this breed, and one of the things that makes them so trainable, and so very willing to learn - anything! - that they think being with their person is the best thing since sliced bread. But they can and do learn to wait patiently on their own. I find that a crate or playpen really helps - it becomes their safe place, and since you' will be showing that you will always return, they can settle down in there.

Same with Zora Wuffles, she came over with two toys in her crate and she still has them, one Toby got too while he was in a destructive mood but the other is intact and lies around the house. RV - Rory still has his baby toy that Winpara sent with him when he came over as a baby puppy. It's in the (growing) toy stash that he keeps on one end of the sofa in the family room. (It had a trip to WA last year to show nanna Winpara that he's a good boy. :D )

So you don't want to know that the courier arrived this afternoon with my (2nd) order - shipped 7th December.

No more pain and suffering for your darling Zedley - you've done such a kind and loving thing today. Comfort yourself with that thought, and with the memories of the good times.

A group of us met up for a Rally O training session today - given that our first official trial is in 2 and a half weeks . So, we discovered that we and the dogs had gone a bit rusty over the Christmas break - maybe it's time to get our training going again. :D Agility girl Kirra wasn't too bad - though the round-the- back LAT is a bit tricky for her, and we need quite a bit of work on straight sits (especially for the Halt, 1step halt, 2 steps halt, 3 steps halt. Still, it was nice to get back into it with a real goal ahead - and get a good idea of what in particular needs work.

Well done with Coco. Sounds like she's really understanding the game. To try to answer your question - we try in early training to not let the dog get too far off track at any point - we only move forward when the dog is on track, so hopefully the problem ofhaving to quite won't arise until much later (when you haven't marked the track sufficiently well, and it's got a long delay on it and you've put out 2 tracks that day and not quite remembered what you thought you wouild remember - from which you'll know I'm talking about me.) So hopefully the problem won't arise - but if it's gone completely belly up - and I have to abandon, I would probably just toss a sock for the dog a few times - play as if the track was successful, though not to extremes and take the harness off. Depending on the environment, if it's safe (and I wanted to get the articles back that were out there) I sometimes let the dog free track - ie. no harness or lead - in the general direction - and then make a huge fuss if the dog does pick up the track -then you have the option of continuing the fre track - or as you do in Track & Search, harnessing the dog up again and finishing the track as per normal. Either way, I'd probably go lay a short easy track, and run it fairly hot, just to restore everyone's confidence. In terms of being interrupted by people and or dogs - think of it as a training opportunity - particularly for TSD later on . I normally either slow the dog down or stop him completely - I usually call out to the person ahead of time that my dog is working and could they call their dog please - then try to end any conversation as soon as possible - maybe with an offer to talk to them about it later if they'd like. I once had an off -lead Golden with no lead and no recall and very rude owners, come bounding 50 metres off a path to greet Rory just as he was about 5 metres from his reward. Guess it was lucky he wasn't half way through his tin of cat food - that might not have ended so well. So we had to stop and wait , and then resume as soon as possible - but it wasn't a real problem. My feeling is that once the dog has a fairly good understanding of the game, and a high value for it, then interruptions don't matter, and the occasional handler brain fart and failure isn't really an issue. Think police and SAR trackers.

WOW!! How beautiful is that :D