Tassie

- but it seems that i-squeaks are like shoes - you can never have too many .

Love the look on her face in this one - looks like she's saying "Finally ....." Mine have to wait a few weeks longer for theirs - pick up in WA.

OK - you guys inspired me - again. :D But I'm way behind in the SD stakes, as I haven't taught Rory to retrieve yet - let alone metal... So tonight we just did some Shirley Chong type teaching retrieve. He's picking it up from the ground, and starting to get the idea of delivering it ro me. We did a few sit in front of me (I was in a chair) and hold and give. Quite pleased with his progress so far. Did a few SLS with Miss Kirra - trying to get it back in gear before Nationals .

Way to go!

That's a really nice post Sue&Cindy - I'm sure club instructors will appreciate it. It is a commitment, and it can interfere with training our own dogs (my boy and I go to class at another club because of time constraints ), but it can also be very rewarding, to see people and their dogs developing a nice teamwork relationship, and gaining confidence in each other. Nearly every week, someone will have a 'lightbulb moment' - that's always fun.

ANKC - approximately 600 mm inside diameter and be a minimum of 4 metres and a maximum of 8 metres in length.

After Rory's obedience club class yesterday, I realise I have something else to add to the long list of things I should be doing with him. I realised I hadn't done any fast paced heeling, and he thought I was wanting him to do his show gait, leading out and away from me a bit. - actually gaiting quite nicely. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Steady feet is coming on though - thank you WA gurus.

Oh, I do like the way she's looking up at you in those pics - very nice bond you have there. And the losing 10kg is a good brag too.

Glad you decided to join in Rajacadoo, look forward to seeing cattle pup pics I've had cuddles with rajacadoo's new baby - absolutely to die for puppy - lovely cuddles - confident but not in your face. I did try to kidnap him, but no luck. ;)

:rolleyes: Oh, that is a big brag. No wonder you are so thrilled with your girl. That's just wonderful.

ANKC - approximately 600mm diameter, and between 4 and 9 metres in length (from memory, not sure about the top figure.) I did check ANKC regs, cos I was thinking about getting one of these as well.

And Dyzney - should you have a brag on here somewhere? Did I miss it?

Now I have to make sure Kirra doesn't read that post, amypie - or she'll be digging in the kitchen drawer for a skewer .

If you're lucky and have a cooperative state control - they actually pay the team entry fee - ours does in Tasmania . On the other hand, the cost of the entries pales into insignificance compared with the cost of getting from Tasmania to Perth . It's amazing I had enough left to buy i-squeaks . So looking forward to meeting all you guys. But you have to promise not to laugh at the stout older competitor with the fast and frequently feral BC girl .

Ack - Kirra is going to hate me - she already rolls her eyes when Rory is squeaking one of his louder squeakies - and I'm getting mediums .

Aaaaaw! But just wait till tomorrow. She'll likely be back to her bouncy self, and you'll be panicking about trying to keep her quiet. She's a very pretty girl.

Watched the vid at school with no sound. Can't wait to watch at home with the sound on - and see what the dogs think. Hmmmmmm - now ... what's the collective noun for Tollers in the presence of a box of i-squeaks. I know -...... ....... a tsunami of Toller tails ...... And thanks again Ptolomy - apart from actually getting the i-squeaks - we've had lots of fun already

For what they are, yep - I have one - it's OK - but a bit on the light and flimsy side - Be OK for little dogs, but maybe not really tough enough for your kids RS. (Or my BCs - especially the little big man.) Must get it out of my friend's garage and get it home to try him out on it.

Yes - just saw the new baby on FB - gorgeous -can't wait to meet. As far as I know, puppy training is on this Wednesday (tomorrow) - 6.30 - 7.30. I'm planning to be there - in an effort to work on the naughty tail . You guys coming up tomorrow?

I'd say the first thing you need to work on is to get the tug game under your control - as has been said - you start it and you finish it. You need to get the pup to take the tuggy when you present it - get her revved up, play hard for a minute or so, then stop all motion, take pressure off the tug, then what I do is put a hand under pup's chin, and gently take the tug. I usually say thank you when the pup releases the tug, then present it again for another game - rinse and repeat. So you might be playing for a few minutes, but with several releases and re-starts in that time. Once pup is reliably releasing, you can put a verbal cue on - could be 'give' or whatever you like really - but the key cues to the pup will be all motion stopping, and pressure coming off the tug. If pup has trouble releasing at first, you can swap for a nice treat. If you're clicker training, you could click the moment the pup relinquishes the toy to you, and treat. Although I'd lose the food from the picture as soon as you can - I find it can confuse the issue for some dogs if you're mixing food and tug. The other important thing in this re-training phase, is that you totally ignore all approaches by the pup to play tug. (Later you can relax that a bit, but not at the moment.) Hope that makes sense.

I'm going to publicly embarrass myself (hey what's new?) and say that I always hear people mention measuring at the withers, but frig knows where the withers are And I call myself a dog person, shame on me!! ;) Hi RS - I don't think anyone has answered this yet. Basically, the withers are the shoulder blades that you can feel on the dog's back at the base of the neck. Here's a link. We have a lab bitch jumping down here at 500, and a friend's lab boys jump at 500 in NSW, so unless she's very tall, Ruby should be a 500 dog. And a big for ness's portable jumps - I bought 1.2m lengths of dowel from Bunnings, rather than broom handles - but that was only because of availability. A friend with the right gear cut the 1.2m lengths in half, drilled the holes for me, and cut the ends off the nails - I did the rest. I did buy clip on jump cups from CR - I'd done the cutting the PVC T things before - the postage was worth the saving in effort . They're working fine for me, and I can slide them up and down when I want to change heights - plus there were a few extra. I'm using 1m lengths of 25 mm PVC pipe for bars, and they seem to sit in the CR jump cups OK. So, thanks ness.

Mine have had no problem with Sentinel Spectrum - but just got a new packet, and they've changed too - haven't had to use them yet - and I don't think it will be a problem with my two gutses - but why did they have to change them. Looks like the shape has changed - they look bigger, and the pack is certainly bigger.

Stay distance is as per ANKC rules - on ANKC website - but it is not given as an exact distance - same as recalls. So can vary from judge to judge. It is up for review at the ANKC Obedience conference at the end of this month. Think the aim is to make it more likely to be uniform.

So, sounds like she was taught drop from a sit? I'd be teaching the fold-back drop - where dog drops the front legs first. If you're luring this one, the food goes between the dog's front legs - slowly - you may need to mark and reward elbows on the ground as a halfway stage. but fairly quickly withhold the reward until the but drops - then mark that and reward heavily. Try to lose the lure asap, but keep the hand signal, and the mark reward. Sometimes when you're teaching this, the dog will back up - try it in a corner, so the dog can't back up. I find it easier to teach this one from the front, but once the dog is doing it reliably, you can put it to the side. I't s nice one, since the dog drops from the actual position, without coming forward. And agree with the two food speed drop game. Lots of fuin - gets great focus from the dog - and gets ready for drop on recall.