Luke W

Luke, Isn't it the other way round - Dunbar is American and Gwen English? They are actually both British. I was being just a little facetious. Gwen is more fun and forgiving, Dunbar is serious and unforgiving. At least - that's my vague recollection having read the books about 6 months ago.

I started with clicker training and tend to use a clicker for new behavior. For known behaviors, I try to use a verbal marker. I mix it up a bit. I'm a bit uncoordinated when it comes to treats, lead and clicker. A verbal marker is easier when you are working with a lead. When I finally get rid of the lead in obedience, I probably start using a clicker more again.

Yes, Dunbar does seem unforgiving and tries to really ram home his points with dire predictions. I think he figures better you put heaps on pressure on yourself early on and TRY not to make mistakes, while at the same time, he understands mistakes will be made. He just wants you to aim for perfection. From memory, his methods are pretty much exactly the same as the methods in The Perfect Puppy - he's just a little more British, while Gwen is a little more new age American . I think you should really strive to be mistake free, but realistically, it's not going to happen. Strive though. I tihnk you should try to follow Dunbars advice but don't be TOO hard on yourself if you don't quite live up to his expectations. My pup made mistakes in the house (my fault), I made mistakes with my pup. We aren't perfect, Dunbar encourages us to be perfect (I'm sure he's realistic, maybe he stresses perfection in the hope you get 80% compliance). The first 6 months are the hardest. You will have stressful times. There will be times when you are tearing your hair out. There are times when you will kick yourself for missing the signals and letting the dog shit on the carpet. It's all worth it though. Things do get better all the time. I don't think having a dog in a bed is necessarily such a bad idea - but I think it should be done AFTER the dog is crate trained and very happy in it's crate. Crate training should be a priority. I just can't stress it enough. It makes life so, so, so much easier. It's much less stressful for dog AND owner. I repeat, my dog loves his crate. I've just turned around to see where he was...you guessed it, lying in his crate on his back, sound asleep (door open, he went in of his own accord). ETA: convince the rest of your household that crate training isn't cruel. Tell you OH that dogs in the wild spend most of their time asleep in a den (a hole in the ground). It's the natural thing ;)

ps - bokeh actually looks pretty good to me!

Krislin.. Notice how the first has a smaller DOF than the second yet both were shot at f/3.5. DOF is not just related to aperture (aka fstop), it's also related to focus distance. All other things being equal, same focal length, same aperture, the closer the subject is, the smaller the DOF.

ahh - OK - I was confused - I read it as the OP would be away on holidays from week 10 to week 12...but the OP actually means - she will be at work during the days from week 8-10...My mistake.

All my opinion, new dog owner who reads a lot...(I have a perfectly behaved, perfectly house trained, crate trained, totally inside, Level 2/3 obedience trained, 8mo old cocker who thinks I'm god) You're not going to like this... Cancel your holiday if possible. This is crucial bonding and learning time. Take the time off work but stay at home. A less ideal alternative - leave him with the breeder till 10wks. Second - follow the advice in Ian Dunbar's books and use short-term and long-term confinement techniques. This means: Get a crate and a pen. I would not let him sleep on your bed. Get him used to sleeping in a crate. Bathrooms are cold - set up his pen in a spare room, spare area, or even your bedroom. Buy plastic sheeting to cover the floor ($2 shop, cheap) in addition to the newspaper, he will eat the newspaper. As for chewing - baby proof your house. Anything loose he can get his teeth on, he WILL chew. He will prefer socks, underpants, glasses, towels, rugs, pens, shoes, etc, etc over any chew toys you can provide. ETA: Congratulations, you are about to receive an amazing creature who will bring untold joy into your life!

How can I tell by just looking at my lens what the f stop range is? forgive me if I am not saying it correctly, I dont know camera speak. there's lots of writing on it but no mention of f stops whereas on my dear old film Minolta (that I never learned to use properly ) it shows an f stop range of 3.5-22, well, I think thats what it is. Yep - that's it - it'll open as wide as f/3.5 and close down to f/22.

I'd getting a second opinion ASAP.

Damn - my wacom pen is slimey - how the heck did THAT happen??!?!?!?!?

This isn't quite what your looking for but it is related to water safety. I read an article about teaching your dog how to find the steps. Dogs will normally just try to get out via the nearest edge. The method involved a 'marker' near the steps that the dogs could easily see (there were notes on ideal positioning) and gradually teaching the dog to rely on that marker to learn where to get out. Let me see if I can find the article.... Hmmm...can't find the article. The key was some sort of pole, flag, sign etc...that could easily been seen from the dogs level. You then simply taught your dog to target the 'marker' to get out. Steps aren't easy to see from a dogs eye view in a pool. Wish I could find the article.

know the feeling all too well. bloody cockers

haha - me neither:

that's cool ruthless - would make for some nice macro shots

Great work CD!

I cry a little tear with you. I'd really like to teach barkly to run parallel to me...not toward me! I also wish he'd keep his damn nose off the ground!

Website back up again. One of my hosts servers had crashed (Netlogistics)...arg

hmmm...looks like my website has gone down I'll have to contact my host.

Well done to the agility woofas and handler!! And to everyone else - keep up the good work - be proud! have fun!

I guess so - I do a lot of the exercises in the video and my dog seems to have a reasonable amount of focus. He's not perfect by any means - but he is an 8m old cocker spaniel - not a 4 year old border collie I just loaded up the DVD and had a quick browse through...I've watched and read quite a bit of 'puppy/foundation' material so some of the stuff in the DVD seems basic to me. Some of the things covered include: hand feeding, rewarding focus, toys, self control in a crate, turning on/off... Are you playing tug? Using a clicker? Using food for treats and lures? have you rewarded eye contact? Can you turn your dog on/off ? If your stuck in Level 1 - I think it'd be useful. Other things to consider... Books - Building Blocks for Performance, Control Unleashed One other question, suggestion... Just an idea: What's your 'reinforcement rate' - Your dog should succeed at least 80% of the time and be rewarded (usually with food) when he does. Get your reinforcement rate up - way up. Try training your dog for 60seconds - make him succeed 20 times in that 60 seconds - he should get 20 treats in that 60 seconds. Focus any better?

Thanks guys EXIF:

http://agilityclick.com/prod119.htm

Another one from the same session:

Barkly was a bit tired and resting on the lawn. Playing around with the CS4 RAW converter - all done in the RAW converter, including spot removal, vignetting, sharpening, etc...

I found Advance Puppy did make his poos a bit stinky and also a little runny too. It also meant his anal glands were more likely to empty at inopportune times. He never really had a problem with gas though. I switched to Eagle Pack Holistic Puppy. Much better.