Tassie

Yay, Jules. That's great. It's so nice when you can see the improvement. Rory will be off to his acupuncture/massage doc this week - his lower back is out a bit I'm pretty sure - and Kirra will go for one of her fairly regular blissy maintenance/preventative sessions with him. :D

Good if they're having fun. On the call front - and fronts in general. A couple of things - the old sitting in a chair and rewarding the sit in front between your knees helps to encourage them in close. (For retrieves as well). And platforms are your friend. I get the dog really happy getting on a (low platform) size enough to stand and sit. Then use it to get the dog's muscle memory built up for straight fronts. Then use another platform at the heel position - and voila - you can get the stationary call front for Rally - and nice finish left and right to precise sit at heel. And all in the comfort of the living room :laugh: . Has worked really well for Rory. (I use the platform for change of position as well - again, training muscle memory.) My platforms are made of those metre square tough foam camping floor mats - the ones with the interlocking side - you can just cut them to size, then use duct or gaffer tape to tape them securely together. Warning - the dogs can find the platforms highly addictive - especially if they've also used a board to train stopped contacts .

Oh, and I can so relate to speed with no steering ... That's where I'm at with Rory in Jumping.

Yay! Hoping you would brag in here TO. That was a lovely start to your Rally career. It's fun, isn't it :-).

:laugh: Way to go Hank!

That's great xena98 - congrats to you and the superstar Gabby.

Great weekend for the Tollers TO - and super well done with Mindy Aussielover. You must be thrilled with how you are both going. The feral one and I had fun in enormous winds at our club's agility trial - with the bars held on (more or less) with rubber bands. 6 runs for Kirra - 2 DQs - my fault, 2 NQs and 1st place Qs in JDO and ADO - both 10 seconds or mre under SCT - clever girlies. Rory and I had one run in JD - DQ - and he did have a brief excursion to visit his best friends at the scribe's table - but quickly came back and got on with the run. It was a fun course - 2 physical tunnels, but 6 tunnels on course - my tunnel suck couldn't believe his eyes - actually checked back with me at one time to make sure he was allowed to go in another one. Still lots of speed and enthusiasm, and a little bit more steering this time. To give you an idea of how strong the wind was, Kirra's K9Royale crate tipped end over end - with 15kg of Kirra in it!

You definitely need to be a Dogs SA member - so that is your very first step. And I would be contacting the breeder asap (phone or email) to see if you can get Esky's papers transferred into your name .. otherwise, as has been said, you could ask the breeder to sign the entry form as owner, with yourself (complete with Dogs SA membership no) as handler - and you would send the breeder a cheque for the entry money - or pay the breeder somehow. ETfix typos

Aaaw - look at her - she's loving the new learning :-)

That's lovely, Clover - and I bet she's doing it with a smile on her face. They just love to learn :D .

Nice brag Lisey ...and happy birthday to your Bookie :-)!

Thanks Ptolomy .... You've earned the clink! :-)

Wow, congrats on Shandy's HTM.N. That's impressive.

Need to do lots more rear end awareness work with the feral one so she can handle a course with lots of left pivots ...and work on persuading her that s call front is not an excuse for her to offer her back up from DWD ...and that a finish ends up at heel, not with her head peeking out from between my legs :-). Did I mention she was feral at the Rally trial on Saturday. ;-). With the one who can do stuff..back to platform work to try to eliminate the little forward movement in distance control,...and get in with teaching the UD stuff we haven't done .yet. Oh and then get back to trackng and TSD.

I've bragged on FB already, but I'm proud of my lil big man, so going to brag again here. :-). My Rory became the first dog in Tasmania to get his Rally Advanced Excellent title on Saturday morning, and then got another double Q with better scores in the afternoon ...four classes, four firsts. Then on Sunday, he was sitting on a 181 in Open, but went down in the sit stay..silly exercise! ...still got first. In the afternoon, with the weather changing to cool, and then light shower and cold wind for the stays, he got his first Open pass with a 186, and another 1st place. I was so thrilled with the enthusiasm he showed, and we got some lovely compliments. Huge thanks to the WA gurus, especially Ptolomy and Bedazzledx2 for all the great examples, and the advice.

Congrats too everyone on their successes. Seems like it was a good weekend for DOLers. RS you should be able to get your Q card ... it can be sent to the interstate judge for signature..the only thing is it could take a few days, but the affiliate conducting the event should arrange it for you. We had a similar thing happen here once they ran out of cards or something, but a got them in the end.

Well done! That took a lot of courage and determination, but with any luck, this could be the start of some better times for this family.

:laugh: They certainly are TW - I always warn people when they're coming over here for holidays not to plan travel using mainland - especially WA map distances. We might have been neighbours when you lived here - that's my stamping ground as well. :D

Yumm! Gosh TW, you're keen - that's a big trip. Yes - worth going up for a double double - trying a new dog friendly cottage up in Ulverstone - looks quite nice - dogs allowed inside, and close to the grounds. The grounds are lovely - right alongside the Leven River, near where it flows into Bass Strait - can be windy though.

persephone and CavNrott. So well said. Like others, I don't go there all the time - but occasionally will check on a 'resident' - and either shed a tear, or as pers said, marvel at what can be achieved. Thank Dog I don't have a dog in that category at the moment - but the time will come, and I for one find it comforting to know that those threads are there in case of need. I think it could be said that they embody one of the great strengths of DOL - the knowledge that there are others who have been there, know how you're feeling, and can provide the sort of support that only other dog people can provide - as well as practical suggestions.

Have fun at the weekend all of you. :D Almost feel sorry for the salesman, Ptolomy. :laugh: ... but only almost! Double Rally and Obedience weekend for us ... 300 km away.

Naaaaww! :laugh: But you're right. We have a Dal bitch down here doing ob and Rally - her name is Prada - and every time I see her, I see her feet clad in those red stilettos .

xena98 - know what you mean - and if I look towards a sign to check if it's finish left or finish right - the Rory man takes that as a cue and will finishe right anyway - of course that day it was actually a finish left. :laugh:. Ness - you're so right - and judges are always so keen to point out who actually lost the points. TSD - it's worth doing some practice with signs on clipboards for some of the signs, to work ouit where you need to be in relation to the sign - especially to make sure you're giving the dog room to do the move without clipping the sign, or tipping a cone. So when you do a walk through (you have 10 minutes to walk through the couirse before the class starts), make sure you have your appropriately sized imaginary dog with you - so you'd need to allow a bit more room for Zig than for Em. Only a paw lift on the flip finish :laugh: - Rory jumps into those - and into the Advanced/Excellent sign - stationary side step right - haven't been pinged for it yet - he does it in obedience as well.

Good post, Diva. I was lucky to have a great chiro (dog and human - and a horse person - highly recommended by someone I trust implicitly - she would not let anyone lay a finger on her dogs unless she was convinced of their skill and ability. :) ) Mine were having maintenance/preventative - but sadly the chiro herself has problems and can't work. So we now see a holistic (and 'normal') vet who does massage, acupuncture, electro magnetic pulse therapy - and avery gentle manipulation. He too seems to have the magic diagnostic fingers. And the extra bonus is that my confirmed vet-phobic Kirra will take treats in his consult room , and do tricks for treats in the waiting room afterwads - if there are no other animals, instead of just making a beeline for the exit door. The 'greyhound' men - can be great - but I would really need a recommendation from someone I trust implicitly.

:laugh: AD - her big brother came with 'blast' fully installed and operational - steering on the other hand is a work in progress. Their breeder actually said that the blast likely comes from mum - Dad was apparently a bit more concerned about getting things right - interesting, isn't it. Rory is concerned in that way round the house - but not out on course - or should I say, on a course. :D You're right - balance is important.