Tassie

OSoSwift - love the descriptions of Rommi's SFE. My lil big man Rory had only his second go at SFE with another person yesterday at dog club. Given that I fully expected him to do something like Rommi, he was actually pretty good - moved 3 feet the first go, but stayed pretty steady really - and didn't do his trick of standing steady for the exam, then turning to follow me as I return - duh. He got that bit pretty right yesterday. And had his first go at figure of eight rond a person - not bad there either. Still need to work on duration and distraction proofing - and stays with other dogs, but I'm feeling quite encouraged. (Need to check out some more of Ptolomy's vids, since I try to channel her LOL.

Woohoooo RV - that's been quick. And I like that you're adjusting your goals to suit Toby - my bet is you'll find that as he gets more confidence, you'll be able to come back to other things. Tracking is great to give dogs confidence - especially dogs who don't like to work in too close . He dosent mind bikes going forward and my bike but dog forbid you turn the tyre of the bike or there is another bike nearby - especially one with a child on it! He jumps a mile... so its just straight lines for the time being. ;) ;) Onya TOby - keep your mum guessing . Still think even straight lines is a BIG achievement. ;)

Looking good Cosmolo! And you're not planning on trialling Cos because .........??

:D Goodonya Miss Em ;)

;) Looking great AD Go Mr CK!

;) Woohoooo RV - that's been quick. And I like that you're adjusting your goals to suit Toby - my bet is you'll find that as he gets more confidence, you'll be able to come back to other things. Tracking is great to give dogs confidence - especially dogs who don't like to work in too close .

Sounds like she's doing really well - you must be thrilled. Fingers crossed it all keeps going brilliantly.

Here's hopiing you have a lovely smooth sailing, and a great trip. Andy's is worth detouring to Westbury from the Bass Highway - very popular bakery, and not a big detour.

I truly think this is the right approach. He is a baby - and he has boy brains - so just having fun with him and having him bond with you is the best foundation you can do. Another thing that I would say is what one of the well known US trainers said (sorry, can't remember which one) - "Don't forget that if you're not training your puppy, your puppy is training you." What she meant was that everything we do with our pups is "training" - as in teaching them to live with us and in our world' - not just the more formal training we might set out to do. So like others, I would say - concentrate on just having fun with your lad, catching him being 'good', and encouraging him to focus on you and want to be with you. And as poodlefan suggested, try rewarding little chunks of behaviour or approximations - darned good tries -, rather than trying to get the whole behaviour at once. And if you're doing something like luring a sit, try moving your hand more slowly - give the boy brains time to figure something out.

Just be thankful it was a bee not a wasp, RS - wasps do multiple stings, and they hurt BIG TIME! Loved this - bless her little chocolate heart.And on her weave progress - sounds like the penny is dropping nicely.

What the others have said. Foundation, foundation, foundation ..... The agility foundation training I use (Moe Strenfel, Greg Derrett mostly with a dash of Mary Ray ) - works for everything (except probably stock work - although it doesn't really hurt for that either). I started off with lots of foundation training with Rory, and he was showing at the same time (still is). We've just been playing round with obedience up till now - getting more serious this year. Agility has been a bits and pieces - Susan Salo jump training once he was about 14 months old, and 2o2o on a training board. He's only really had access to other obstacles in the last few months - and a bit of sequencing. So far so good, so again, I'll try to be a bit more systematic with him this year. He's also been started in tracking, and we'll pick that up again this year. Oh - and a bit of playing with HTM - and now with Rally O. Yes - I'm a Jill of all trades rahter than a perfectionist - although I am trying to be disciplined. The only 'conflict' I've come across so far, has been that I've tried to follow the Derrett/Strenfel/Garrett no blind cross - but now I have to teach him a round the back LAT and finish for Rally O (and probably for DWD.) He looked at me at first as if I had lost my mind - - but he's getting it now. It's like the others have said - the foundations are pretty universal - and the context and equipment tell the odg where he's at. Even using the tracking harness when they're biking doesn't seem to be a problem - again, the context is totally different. Lots of foundation and lots of fun and enjoyment - will be great to see the babies coming on.

Love it, Janba.

I used to have a tunnel suck, but I broke her - crappy handling of off entry tunnels :D - now I have a contact and weaving suck. Most dogs will take an off course tunnel if they make a mistake in a tunnel/contact discrimination - not my Kirra - she'll take the contact every time - like she did in one of the courses at Natonals - might have been Open or Masters - can't remember - she had to work hard to off course to the contact - but she still did it .

We only have one a year down here in Tasmania - this year is scheduled for July 10 - held at Longford in northern Tasmania. It's an out and back course, mostly on roads. Some of the others sound nice - especially Sale, but it's expensive to bring the dogs across Bass Strait more than a couple of times a year - and we're already planning to come over for a DWD workshop in April. In July we won't have to worry about it being too hot - but it could be sleeting and squally like it was when I did it before.

:D Be afraid huski ..... be very afraid .....

Good Daisy - sounds good, huski - is now a good time to warn you about the dangers of creating a tunnel suck? (It's the main reason I haven't bought a tunnel.) Seriously, sounds like Daisy really gets it - it's great to see the light bulb go on. I pinch a flex tunnel when I can to use in puppy class at club - we have to be on lead, so we do restrained recalls through the tunnel - I restrain the pup if there's only one handler, and the handler goes the other end - but usually it doesn't take long before some of the pups are takeing off through the tunnel while their owners are still getting to the end :D . It's a nice confidence builder for pups and handlers.

Yep - good point about not wrapping the lead round the hand - I NEVER do that - even just walking the dogs - and I warn my puppy class people against it. For the bike, I have my hand loosely through the loop - so that one part of the handle loop is between my hand and the handlebar, but it's ready to drop if necessary. I've done ET already with my agility girl - she's too old for it now - and my previous boy. I was going to wait till my new boy was 3 or 4, but he's taken to it like a duck to water, so it could be this year. In the meantime, the riding is good for his show ring gaiting, and general fitness, and the shorter rides are good to maintain my agility girl's fitness.

Great start RV -- don't think it will take Toby too long at all. For leads, I use my standard Black Dog one for Rory - a slightly shorter one for Kirra when we're training, cos I prefer her to run on the inside - between the bike and Rory, as she's a bit smaller. As far as one handed goes - I don't do that - just hold the lead handle in your hand and then hold the handlebar as normal. RS, you want them to gait with the bike, and at a distance away from it, so I find I use 'steady' and 'settle' quite a bit if they start to gallop. They'll usually just settle in to a nice placement beside the bike, and you can just adjust your speed as they learn to gait nicely. It's also really handy to have a verbal 'stop' or 'wait' in case you see a baby rabbit just off the track as I did the other night. We had a nice ride Tuesday evening - nice cool breeze - Kirra did about 4 km with us, then Rory and I did another 4 km - mostly at about 11/12 kph. I'm just loving riding with Rory - he's a natural.

See what you mean about partying with neighbours close LOL. I'd still do a bit more revving though - neighbours will cope. Yeah, the timing is a real trick - I'd be trying to get the throw done just as her shoulder goes past the second last pole. Maybe even get a heavier tug so it goes faster? And yep - know what you mean about the different sides - I find left hand is much more tricky than right.

Sorry - took a little while to find the vid . OK - I could be wrong, but I'd say your reward is a little late sometimes, so she's not quite sure that her job is to get to the end. I'd try to time your throw for just when she passes the second last pole, and make sure it's going down the reward line, so that she is rewarded as she gets into the last gap, but still has to bend to straighten the line to actually get the reward. I guess I'd party a bit harder too - remember it's Susan Garrett's method and she has huge parties, and really revs the dogs up hard before and after. (Product disclaimer - remember I'm just another learner )

Yep TN, Jedi's looking really sure of himself now. RS, Which end is she stalling - entry or exit? Exit - just fiddle with your reward timing to make the exit really exciting. If it's entry, I'd open the poles out a bit more for a little while maybe?

The well known dog trainer's command - "OI" - sometimes I think dogs are hardwired to respond to that . Like others, my interrupts tend to vary according to the situation. Usually a sort of gutteral uh-uh, or ugh - it seems to operate as a noise which is different from what the dog normally hears, and is enough to deflect the dog's attention back to you for a moment, so you can follow it up with some more positive direction. Depending on the situation, I might also follow up OI - "with what do you think you're doing" in a tone of voice which lets the dog know I don't appreciate it. With one of mine "By golly" works pretty well too

Sandra64 - it's just that in general internet politeness, using all capitals is regarded as shouting, and therefore seen as somewhat impolite, to say the least. So Parkeyre was just giving you a gentle heads up about that.

Have to say that I've only ever had a few rough crossings in the twenty years I've been travelling across - mostly it's like a mill pond - no more bumpy than on a plane or bus or train. The new Spirits are way better than all the previous boats - they go fast, so they tend to skip over the waves rather than rolling and pitching. My dogs travel at least twice a year - haven't had a problem with any of them over many years - touch wood. And they don't seem to mind it - though I have to say they are used to spending quite a lot of time in their crates in the car. I used to worry about the length of time, not being able to check them etc. - but as I said, I've never seen dogs (or other animals) really upset. I have seen cats in the dog kennels, some in crates, some not. And I've seen chooks in cages on a trailer. All fine in the morning. The dogs are normally in the kennels for about 10 - 12 hours - depending on the time of year and ship departure/arrrival time - shorter in summer when the ships are doing 2 trips a day.

My grass is dry and awful There is one patch in the middle that keeps growing, though, so it needs to be mowed once a week to look respectable otherwise I have this messy middle bit with the edges dead! The whole yard is actually really atrocious Don't think my soil wants to grow grass as this is the 2nd attempt at trying to grow grass since moving in. The soil is full of rocks so I suspect that they are heating up and burning the roots. Gah!!!!! Sorry, totally OT to agility Not really OT RS - after all you need a nice surface to train on :D . Must be a bit heart-breaking trying to get grass going in those conditions. Don't know how you guys cope with the heat at all.