Tassie

What is it with ginger cats! I used to train obedience with my first BC Sam down at a friend's place, to work against distraction such as their boys playing soccer with my other dog - nt a problem. Their lovely ginger momma cat used to wander out into the paddock to 'help'. She enjoyed being a figure of 8 post - and would also race after the dumbbell, and then sit beside it. No way was my wussy dog going anywhere near her . Messing with humans' heads (and dogs' heads) is a pretty powerful motivator for them too :D

Congrats on the citizenship - and the new pup. Totally agree with what the folks here have said - I would only add - it's worth getting into the habit even this early, of popping a little light lead on the pup when you take her out to relieve herself at night. As she gets older, and more adventurous, this will help to make it clear to her that this is a 'business' outing and not playtime. I still do this with my grown dogs on the odd occasions when they need to go out at night. And I still praise them for doing what dogs have to do. It's great that she settles herself back down to sleep again - clever baby.

:D Great effort LP - from you, the lovely Leo and the Klever Kinta and those othe versatile Aussie Shepherds and their handlers.

Absolutely! I am THRILLED! It was a great night for my friend too - she managed to take the novice ring with a 196! So for all three dogs to get through was brilliant! The three of them together - ;) Lovely photo too!

AFAIK. the not touching the dog in the agility ring is only after you have told the judge you are ready. Before then you can if you want to - though most people, me included, prefer hands off once you're in the ring (but that may reflect our ob background.) And no reprimands or harsh handling of course. GD uses that sort of little tug on his dogs' backs after he's set them up in the stand. That's OK here, as ong as you haven't told the judge you're ready. In Strat Pairs, most judges allow the inactive dog to be held (to restrain), but not moved by hand. Again, a lot of people prefer to stay hands off. On the warm up routine - I think it's this month's CR mag that has a good aarticle on this.

RSG and Tiggy - how very sad - but there was obviously a reason RSG was keeping Pea. He was meant to be yours, Tiggy - like my lil WA big man Rory was meant to be mine, after Fergus died - just 2 years ago.

But we don't mind having you Thanks valley - and after all, I did travel a looooong way to visit with you guys at Nationals .

sheena - yep - think we've got another one here . Good value on CR free shipping at the moment - just saw the Moe Strenfel on there - - would buy it if I didn't already have it.

You're welcome. And don't forget the obligatory puppy photos when pup does get home. Not specifically obedience/agility - but some good information and some free downloadable books http://www.dogstardaily.com/here

Agree with Sheena - and also have a look at this Australian site. I really like the Moe Strenfel agility foundation dvd. IMHO the most important things to work on with your pup for agility and obedience, is to build a great relationship, so that your pup loves to work with you, and is happy to focus on you.

at the obedience sluts. Yes, remember Ness and Kirra working together for me when I was over there. I just came back from taking the dogs for a bit of a bike run. The wind finally dropped, and the rain hadn't arrived, and it wasn't so warm, so I loaded the bike onto the car and we headed for a park where I can ride on the road that goes through it. Second time with the bike for Rory, and first time for me with Rory and Kirra (used to ride with both Fergus and Kirra when we were training for ET.) - So proud of my dogs - they ran in their tracking harnesses, and they were PERFECT Gaited beautifully, no tangling, no pulling, and stopped when I wanted them to (for passing cars.) We only went for about 20 minutes, including a couple of wee stops - but it's a good start. Good luck at Pine Rivers tonight ladies.

:D :D

Go the lovely Dee - nice work.

I'd be luring - and try to get him moving towards the paver/book/box - whatever, and in the interim, click as soon as his paw touches the box - one paw to start with, then toss the treat away, telling him to "Get it". That should get rid of the sitting, which is a big part of the problem at the moment, it seems. Hopefully he will run back towards the box, then you can rinse and repeat. (The tossing the treat away is to get rid of the sitting, and build some more excitement. Once he gets the idea, you can reward him in place.) Once he gets the idea of putting one paw on, and not sitting, you should be able to get the second paw fairly quickly - as others have said, I'd be using a bigger box for him at first, and then go to the smaller one, once he's got the idea. Found Rory's paver while I was doing some weeding this morning - must get it out again.

Good news - and 3 weeks is not so bad. I've had to keep my BCs quiet for 6 weeks when they've had sprained toes Amd yep - crates and clicker training/free shaping are great.

I love it when they dream - although you're right - there can be some pretty violent twitching sometimes - enough to be scary. I specially like the little strangled barks they do - Rory was dreaming in his crate lst night with the little yippy barks (his barks are normally big deep ones.)

Wow - some interesting discussion going on while I was playing with my new toy (ipod - to use for DWD - when I get round to doing any .) Lil big man Rory is anybody's - cos he's been shown by a variety of handlers sonce he started showing as a baby, and he doesn't take me seriously as a show handler - good reasons for that :D . He has worked with other people for heelwork and DWD - he loves to strut his stuff - and especially if someone has food or a toy. Kirra tends to be a momma's girl - but lately I have been giving her to Kris G to handle through a sequence to show me something - she's a bit inclined to run back to me, but the more we do it, the more comfortable she is running with him. He finds it interesting, as she is much more 'hair trigger' than his Sheltie, and less forgiving of timing errors in handling - :D welcome to my world, Kris . As an instructor, I will occasionally ask if I may borrow someone's dog - to demonstrate the mechanics of a particular move - but I really don't like instructors taking someone else's dog to show them up - that's not positive training. And oh, how I wish I had a training partner - I need the motivation, as well as the critical eye.

Gosh - some great DOL results this year - well done to everyone - and wooohoooo Miss Gabby. Gotta be happy with that Danni.

Rory still has the toy that winpara put in his crate for the flight over - he brings it ouit to play with every now and again - and it made the trip back to WA to show Nanny what a good boy he is

My lil Winpara big man had a 10 hour overnight trip from Perth to Hobart with a 2 hour stopover in Melbourne (thanks Jetpets/VirginBlue) - and I could hear his tail wagging against the crate as soon as I spoke to him . MInd you, I think he probably got more sleep that night than I did .

Some great ideas here. At demos, we'll have races just involving maybe jumps, tunnels and weavers. At our club break up we set up a little challenge between the flyballers and agility people - I think the flyballers have a box and agility a tunnel at the end.

Thanks MavericksMission. that I can't make it. Maybe sometime. Hope you all have a great time. It's a super place, and such a nice bunch of people too

So guys, can I ask what the December date is? (Bet it's too early in the month for me - I don't get over there until 22nd ). Pity - I still have lovely happy memories of the one we managed to get to - must be 4 years ago now .

Not me - but look out for my friends in the mob from Tasmania . Hope you all have a really great time.

Lots of discussion on this topic - there are different opinions - to some extent dependent on breed and whether the pup is going to be involved in dog sports such as agility. Have a look here