Tassie

You're entitled to be excited!!! That's a wonderful achievement.

She's such a clever girl!! And I guess you helped a bit, xena98

She must be super cute ... and she is only a baby, so quite a bit is forgiven :) . However .. I would be just taking it little by little, building up the time whe will stand steady, and heavily rewarding her for that. Make sure your hand with the reward is down at her head level - otherwise she will be lifting her head to look at you and/or the reward, and that will cause her to sit. You could also gently support her while people are going over her - again heavily rewarding her for remaining standing - even with help. You could try posting this in the Show forum ... some of us here in the training forum do show as well, but most of us are performance people. Oh - and your breeder may have some good ideas - or there may be some puppy show training classes available near you.

Haven't seen it .. but in answer to your question .. yes, all ANKC disciplines other than conformation, and gundog and herding competitiosn, are open to any dog registered with the ANKC as a pure bred (Main or Limited Register), or Sporting Register (based on a number of working registries, such as ISDS) or on the Associate Register - can be pure bred, not otherwise registered, or mixed breed - but Associates must be neutered in order to be registered.

Check in can mean different things in different states - but it usually means what time you have to be there (or a bit before) so that you can collect your numbers from the secretary's office (people will tell you where that is), and they can mark you present. If you have a bitch you need to present your bitch to be checked. but I'm guessing Billy s a dog, so you probably won't need him for check in. Again - just ask. THe Geelong folks are friendly .. even to interstaters :laugh: . Get there in plenty of time before check in so that you can find out where everything is - rings, toilets, office, canteen .... Worry wort me leaves extra time for traffic hold ups - especially in winter. About your extended signal for the down - in Novice Rally, it's likely to cost you a point or two, as long as the dog does go down - slow response. But it's not as costly as in normal obedience. Don't forget that if something goes wrong, you can call a retry - will cost you 3 points, but wipe any points you'd lost on the station up till then. You need to be fairly sure the dog will do the move on the retry, though ... and you only get 2 retries over the course as a whole. (There's quite a bit of strategy involved, especially as you move up the levels. ) But most importantly .. breathe, have fun, talk to your dog, tell Billy he's wonderful whatever he does .... :D

What biker girl said :D . And I would have a look at the signs again on the ANKC rules site .. just to make sure you can do each of the Novice signs. Then really make good use of your walk through time .. ten minutes. Look at the flow of the course..which ways you'll be heading. Be sure to ask your judges for any clarification you might need .. remember they want you to succeed. :D Do your walk through as if your dog was with you .. footwork, cues, how much room will you take up .... Then have a quick practice with your dog away from the ring somewhere to polish anything you think might need polish. And don't rush...it's not really a speed event, in spite of what my feral agility girl might think! :) Try to keep engaged with your dog .. that will help to avoid the dreaded tight lead. And have FUN ????

I have the same as ness. :D Customer service from the seller was good, and the machine has been fine .. touch wood. Used fairly often in the first couple of years when the boy was showing more regularly (BC) .. bit less this year, but (touch wood) still going fine. Having said that, the Lazor one at the $195 would be well worth looking at I'd reckon.

Naughty Gabby .. you're right - reckon she'd used up all her goodness for the moment. But for Inka - now you can get rid of the silly lead. :laugh:

+1

They are! Fingers and paws crossed for you here biker girl! You could always move back here to Tas - we miss you :D

An agility friend and I were reminiscing about a Stacy Peardot-Goudy seminar we went to .. and remembering Stacy saying "There don't need to be two frantic people out there!" Actually, I'm still on a high from Rory getting his CDX last weekend, so he's on a bit of a free pass :D . and Kirra has a Senior's pass to go out there and have fun. :D

Go Mr CK!!! He was certainly on fire there AD ... great stuff. My guys have an agility trial on Saturday - will be interesting, since other than the weavers in the back yard a couple of days, Kirra has done no agility training for a month - and Rory hasn't had a chance to consolidate what we learnt with Nancy Gyes in Sydney .. he's been busy with Rally and obedience. I just have to try to remember to stay calm!!! :laugh:

Gotta love it when you can reward a nice set of work in progress SD articles with a happy set of weaves :D . And I can remember the days when we were told .. you can't mix disciplines - you'll ruin your dog. :laugh: Just saying :) .

:laugh: DD ... loved that description of your problem sequence ... welcome to my world :D Had the weave poles up at home this evening .. with a couple of jumps .. all I can fit on my small amount of flat space. First agility training for the feral girl for a month .. she was pretty good .. and the boy hadn't done any for a couple of weeks .. DWD workshop the weekend before, and rally and obedience trial (successful) last weekend .. he did a good job of his weaving too .. including rear cross, and some awkward entries .. and he's getting speed up. Now to see if that translates into a trial. I have to remember to treat it as a training exercise and not to get frantic and rushed ... that's all

Yay to you and the gorgeous Zig ... and I agree - he does look pretty pleased with himself. It's great that you trusted your instincts, and found something that you and he can enjoy together - and something that will help him to 'get' that being allowed to say hello to other dogs is a reward that you control - but that he can "open the fridge" to get that reward. Magic stuff .

CC - lovely to read the hopeful update on Louis. I think about you and him every time I see the WA thread. It really does seem like he might be in that lucky percentage - largely thanks to how quickly you acted :) . Fingers and paws still firmly crossed here for you and him.

for you and Gabby xena98 ... let's hope you're on a roll now. Ouch, CC - that must have hurt. Roxy is such a beautiful worker - she will get there. In a way I'm not looking forward to UD, because I know how easy it is to mess something up in that - and UDX ... well hmmm ... a little way off yet.

That was a good day at the office TO ... well done ... especially on getting the veteran out .. Rally is great for that, I think

Rory and I have big brag. :D Double Rally trial yesterday .. a bit off with the pixies, but he managed 2 more legs towards RAE2 .....but that's not the big brag. He backed up in a double obedience trial today, to finish his CDX title with qualifying scores in each trial ... 191 in each trial ... talk about consistency! So very proud of my lil big man .. and do grateful for the help and inspiration we've got from some great trainers and teachers .. especially Ptolemy and Bedazzledx2 :D

Yay for this and for Vickie's rant . And TSD .. Premack with micturition drive ... you should patent that

:laugh: I know ... Rory was starting to get paw/foot even by the end of the first day. You and Gabby had such fun ... so you'll be working up your routines for the next comp?! I loved the "time poor training" idea too ... I guess we know it, but Amanda made it seem totally do-able :)

Ummmm ..in case you haven't noticed, it's quite a long drive across the paddock ..not to mention getting back again . :laugh: Was bad enough doing Bass Strait, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide .. and back to Melbourne to get tomorrow night's ferry :D Not that I don't want to ... now if only you could move Perth a bit closer ...... :D

Halfway down page 2 .....better do something about that :laugh: Have just finished two brilliant days of Workshop with Jill and Amanda Houston .. in Adelaide. Poor little Miss Kirra snoozed in the car while Rory and I had huge fun learning new moves and polishing existing ones, and sharing the experience with xena98 and lots of other lovely SA Dwders. Now somehow to find time to put what I've learned from 3 fantastic teachers and motivators .. Nancy, Jill and Amanda .. into practice.

WA gundogs on fire again .. another day another discipline, another Q ... Way to go, guys :D

Just congratulated you on the Tracking thread ... but hey .. that is such a great achievement. And to do it in such quick time .. well done to dog and handler :D