wuffles

No, she does it both ways. I try to reward from both hands (although yes I do reward more from my left as habit). So do you think her leaning/off centered front is due to anticipating the reward? I only ask as I had a similar issue with Daisy anticipating/predicting the reward with fronts too. For recalls, I would say yes. She looks from my face to my hands to my face to my side because she KNOWS something is going to happen after the front. I alternate between no finishes, round the back finishes and flip finishes to keep her guessing so perhaps this contributes. Same on retrieves. However in Rally, where you take a few steps back and call them to front, she wants to swing around like a flip finish. It's just like she doesn't understand what "front" means so somehow I need to strengthen that understanding.

No, she does it both ways. I try to reward from both hands (although yes I do reward more from my left as habit). Edit: Come to think of it I do reward quite a bit from the left, because she can forge in heelwork so I reward in the correct position with my left hand. When doing fronts, though, I think I mix it up pretty well (and very often use remote rewards).

Mine get a small portion of lamb flaps with excess fat removed (they get about a 10cm x 5cm piece each), or two chicken wings frozen together. Any more than that upsets their tummies.

Do you always look at your dog when she comes in? I got pinged 2 points on a recall for that. The hands didn't matter. :laugh: To be fair to the judge, the trial was way back when nobody used food or a positive motivator to make the dog work so hands in that position weren't as relevent as they would be today. If you do look at your dog as she is coming in may have some relevence to the straight front, or maybe not, this is where filming yourself is good. I thought that was the case, thanks Kavik Where else would I look except at my dog? The hands don't necessarily have to be in the same place at the start and end of the exercise, it's more relevant to each command. For example in the lead up to the recall you can have your hand on your hip to heel, then walk away with your hands loose, then turn around with your hands in front of you. But after you give the recall command your hands have to return to the same place they were before the command - ie. in front of you. If that makes sense :)

Here is an example from our last trial where we lost 1 point. I think she may be looking at my pocket!!!

Good idea, I do notice that she tends to look at my hands when she comes in for a front (anticipating the treat - even though it's pretty rare for them to come straight from my hands :laugh:) so that could be a possible cause.

Thanks TSD :) I have done this but as I say as soon as I remove the big cues she gets crooked again. I guess I just need to keep going back to things like this to try cement her understanding.

I think my dog is already confused about the distinction between front and heel If she has enough cues (if I bend my knees for her to come in that way, or if I hold a treat at the right spot, she is fine, but once I remove them she tends to swing the bum).

Thanks Leema. I have tried some shaping but I couldn't get an offer of anything except heel position so I gave up :laugh: Might have to try that one again.

I'm having a bit of trouble getting completely straight fronts all the time with my girl. She's probably straight 80% of the time. I didn't worry too much about it until we started Rally O with the dreaded front, 1, 2, 3 steps back exercise And I figured I should probably fix it for Open obedience too :laugh: If I physically move and pull my hands in close (especially if food is involved) she will come in straight and close. It's when I try to tone down the body language that she gets crooked again. Sometimes in Rally she will try swing her bum around towards heel position instead.

Mine copes fine, as Kia says, as long as you don't expect her to work in it :laugh: To be honest she copes a lot better with the heat than most other dogs I know.

I have the Walkyguard one too and it is good. The only thing is I have to put it in the car backwards for it to fit properly :laugh: But it is sturdy.

You can ask the judge for permission to use other languages and from what I understand it is usually given. I guess it is just to make things easier for the judges and as fair as possible. You can use hand signals only, yes.

Yes, now I am paranoid about our change of position and will be eating my words if anything goes wrong at our trial next week

I am only a beginning trialler but I can't see my dog ever responding to a command said by the judge rather than me. The only time I've ever seen a dog do this is for "exercise finished" ;) I guess it could be an issue for some people but I use "down" with no issues in the trial ring.

I use down. My dog has her Novice obedience title. Edit: I don't use "drop" at all. Yet one day another trainer told my dog to "drop" and she did Goes to show the command doesn't really mean anything.

All dogs need a different amount of food, the feeding guidelines are just that - guidelines. The way I want my dogs' ribs to feel is like the back of my hand - can feel bone with only a slight covering. If they feel like my knuckles I add extra food, if they feel like my palm I cut back :laugh: (We don't feed BH anymore but when we did my 35kg dog got 1.5 cups and my 18kg dog 1 cup.)

My girl came home at 12 weeks and we had no issues.

Just got the schedule for the first ACT trial, hope to see some of you there.

One of mine is crate trained and the other isn't. My older rescue boy came to us well behaved and toilet trained. He does have a crate but it's so big that it doesn't fit in our car or lounge room, therefore it doesn't get used. We used the crate when we got our puppy, for toilet training and confinement overnight when she was a baby. I use it to separate them when they eat bones (older boy outside, girl in her crate). These days it sits in the lounge room, both dogs use it (despite the fact it's way too small for my big dog). It gets taken to all our obedience and agility trials and I prefer it to tethering anyday.

Pets1, did you advise your buyers to do this? The number of reactions does indeed seem alarmingly high. I bought some Advantix from somewhere else a few weeks ago, and applied it last week to my 18kg dog. No major issues, except it stains her fur. They were all advised of this, plus a complaint in writing to Bayer Australia Hopefully someone works out what's going on.

Pets1, did you advise your buyers to do this? The number of reactions does indeed seem alarmingly high. I bought some Advantix from somewhere else a few weeks ago, and applied it last week to my 18kg dog. No major issues, except it stains her fur.

I agree with previous posters, I never do things "because they are a fad", I do things because I think they will be good for my dog. If they are not, I stop. The things you mention are popular because they work for many people (but not all).

I don't think anyone is arguing with you, we all agree you need a good relationship as a starting point.

My response was directly related. As you very well know from your long history of arguments here under various user names I do not use prong collars myself. K9Pro is also well aware of this, and he is more interested in finding help for dogs owners than forcing some petty political/moral argument onto them. Every trainer who refers to me does so because they have come to expect that I will actually train the dog rather than bang on about which tool is the best to do it with. Just as I don't care if they use a prong collar, they don't care if I don't. The proof is in the pudding, everything else is internet waffle. :thumbsup: