Tassie

Wow!! That's great. What's his name? His call name is Ollie - here ya go - here's his full official name - from his trial last weekend AG CH 400 JEOLENA BOY CANNY GO ADM ADO JDM JDO GDX SPDX SDX :D

And to me, the reward-based training is what it is all about, whichever discipline you're doing. IMHO the relationship is definitely key - and that's why I wouldn't be training in any place that used methods which threatened that relationship. The thing I've learnt really strongly over the years of seeing a shift in training methods in most of Australia - and certainly in agility pretty much all over, is that it's all about handler and dog learning to play the game together - the fundamentals are the same - just the details of the particular game that change. :D

Lisey, there's a great little Stafford in Victoria who just completed his Agility Chapion title - he's quite often handled in Masters by his owner's daughter - who is just 10 I think - she handled him in Agility Nationals last year - and you should see them at Nationals at Durack next year, all being well.

Yours is the second post this morning that has made me go about training methods at clubs. Personally - I would not be training at a club that required dogs to wear a check chain (and my boy also wears a snake chain for conformation - but my current dogs have never been trained in anything other than a flat collar). And the rationale that it's easier to check them, doesn't fill me with confidence about the training methods. I would definitely recommend having a look at VIP - even though they're not specifically obedience, the foundation training there would be IMO much preferable - and easily transferable to obedience. Maree and Muttley (whose photos are on the front page of the website linked) are a wonderful team - tears to the eyes stuff. Muttley just retired from Dances with Dogs competition at the Ekka this year - but still appears in the Outback show.

Great work - and good for you for being happy with a small amount of high wuality work!!! :D

Leah82 - each course is different. As you move up through the levels the courses get more complex and more difficult, and have more obstacles. You get time to walk the course to work out where it goes and how you're going to get the dog around it - each obstacle is numbered. One of the things you learn as you do classes and training is to recognise certain patterns or sequences, so you can mentally divide the course up into sections. Well - that's the theory, anyway. One of the great agility trainers always says that the essence of agility is running with your dog - the obstacles are things the dog has to learn to negotiate to keep on the path set by the handler - you can see that in AD's videos. Sometimes it goes really smoothly - sometimes not so much :laugh: - but the essence is teamwork and having fun. Sounds like you and your little girl are making a good start in that area - well done. @AD - big brother Rory says - looking good there little sis and half bro CK. :D

Quick reply - this is a good general guide - to give you some ideas at least Digital textbook

:laugh: Tony. Yes - you would much rather have her happy and fit even if somewhat noisy. I must say I'm happy that mine are quiet when they're working - well fairly quiet anyway - Miss Kizz growls sometimes when she's really pushing, and she yaps in frustration at me sometimes, poor thing. :laugh:

She looks so happy Tony - and you too :D . Must be lovely to see all your patience paying off.

Yep - I only have to get an apple or carrot (or cucumber or zucchini ....) out of the fridge, and I have 2 pairs of eyes boring into me. And in the autumn, Rory goes out and helps himself from the apple tree (that's once the apricots are finished.) And yes, he does separate the apricot from the stone, so no worries there. I do stop him after the third apple on any given night though :laugh: .

Yay for the princess :D Heck yeah! Well it does in my world anyway. :) And way to go with the NRA. Firsts are always good! You're having fun with Pippa - well done with all your girls. It's kind of nice to have a look back at this stage of the year isn't it. We tend to be so busy doing stuff, we don't seem to have time to reflect on what the kids have actually achieverd - either in training or in competition - or in the whelping box :laugh: .

Totally agree with what Megan says. I just pretty much ignore what the pack says, and go by how the dog is doing. I weigh mine every few weeks - just pop into the vet's waiting room when it's not full, and pop them on the scales. My 21,2 kg Border Collie male gets 2/3 cup of Black Hawk morning and 2/3 cup at night. My 14.9 kg BC bitch gets 1/3 cup morning and another 1/3 cup night. This along with training treats, and a biscuit seems to maintain them at a nice healthy weight - deliberately a little on the lean sie, since they are agility dogs.

RV - I think Zora's achievement in producing those beautiful (and it sounds like clever) pups for you is more important than anything else :D .)

Phew! That was fun - can you tell I'm just a little bit proud of my kids - and so grateful to all those super trainers who have helped us on DOL and IRL.

Thanks for the updates - so glad your litle girl is coming good - and so quickly. That must be very encouraging.

Oh TO how disappointing. Yep - think I'm glad my bitch is desexed. One less thing to worry about :D Fingers crossed she'll ve finished for states.

Wow - that's certainly something to brag about. Well done!

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Had a chance to do a little bit of agility training with the misguided missile today ..in a howling gale. Did a bit of UD training first .. Directed jumping ..did some nice stuff, in spite of the agility gear being not too far away. Then some practice in only going to a contact when directed there :-) ..starting to make some headway. Discovered his weave entries were affected by alternate poles being striped .. Got the entry when the first pole was striped, but not when it was a plain pole and ether second pole was striped. Who knew? And huge trouble trying to stay in the poles when there was a contact as the next obstacle . But i guess it's a good training session when you can pinpoint holes. :-)