wuffles

I feel your pain as one of mine always chucks up bones too. I just give chicken wings/frames frozen as that seems to help him keep them down. Thankfully his teeth aren't too bad. Edit: I also give him smaller chunks of marrow bone - not cut down the middle like most butchers do - just sliced straight across. I make sure he doesn't get the ends as he will eat them and throw them up, but he doesn't actually ingest any bone from the middle. Not as good as meaty bones for the teeth but I make sure he gets the bits with sinew on the outside so he has to actually work at them.

Ummm yes I will admit that broadjump may come into the 'fun but kind of pointless' category Ava loves jumping over things so I can't really complain about it.

When I think about it, I can definitely find use in most obedience exercises which seem a bit pointless at first. For example... sitting in front after a recall. I like my dog to do this no matter the situation. I want her to take the shortest possible distance in a straight line. I want her to end up close enough so that I can quickly clip the leash on or grab her. I want her to come in fast and with enthusiasm. And it's even kind of useful if her sit is straight.. makes it easier for me to clip her leash on and keeps her attention on me rather than what might be off to the side. For my dog that doesn't naturally retrieve, even teaching a formal dumbbell retrieve has been useful. Previously, she would never have gone and picked up an item that I ask her to. Now she'll do that, and she won't drop it on the ground (most of the time). Instead of picking it up and doing a victory lap before dropping it on the ground 10m away Dropping at a distance is very useful. SFE is useful (even the stand position - I want her to be able to stand still in any position, I don't think there's much point only teaching one). Walking around the back of her is just another distraction and she needs to know to stay until she's realised (eg. in an emergency situation where there may be lots of people walking around, some possibly very close to her). I actually have used 'heeling' in real world situations. I use it at the dog park when I want to remove her from a situation. It keeps both of us calmer than grabbing her collar or running away or yelling. I've found it's been an effective way to both get her focussed on me and make other dogs (and people) leave us alone. I've also used it when I've come across kids on bikes or scooters on our walks... I can steer her in the right direction and keep her safe. I can think of a purpose for most obedience exercises, even the finicky bits. I understand that some people don't care, and that's fair enough, but the more I think about it and write about it the more I love obedience

I train both obedience and agility at a club, group classes, 1 hour a week each. At the moment I am doing very little agility training outside that hour... maybe another hour a week at home if we're lucky. Obedience I do a little bit each day at home and actual longer training sessions vary depending on when I have time... some weeks we might just do 5 x 5 minute sessions. Some weeks I might do 3 x 30 minute sessions and 2 x 5 minute sessions. Often in the mornings I do 30 second bits of training... ask my girl to heel for a few steps, reward, end session. Or I might ask her to stay for a few minutes randomly. I don't use a private trainer because I don't think there are any around here? I didn't even really know there were private trainers around for competitive obedience. Goes to show I'm a newbie. I have found it very difficult to find more experienced people to train with. That may happen in the future but not without a lot of work from me.

Oh no... RIP Mozart and hugs to you Zug Zug

I agree - but I call that Contentment in my doggies. When I'm talking about 'happy', I guess I'm talking about that moment when you can see they're all enthusiastic and full of: "This is fun" vibes :D I guess there are different levels of happiness just like in humans... I don't mind if my pups aren't really crazy happy fun OMG the whole time, as long as they aren't unhappy. I don't want them lagging or refusing to do anything... which is why I train lots of obedience with Ava and not so much with Satch :D Edit: I have to say that Ava is one of the most animated dogs you'll see in the obedience trialling rings around here... yet most of the dogs that just plod around the ring after their owners seem like well adjusted, content dogs.

Interestingly, I think my dog has a similar level of enjoyment in both obedience and agility. In fact, she has slightly more value for obedience at the moment but that's probably because it's been so heavily reinforced whereas we haven't been doing agility that long. Working away from me is a bit stressful for her so heeling suits us perfectly :p I do take the point about certain things in obedience seeming pointless. I guess that's just in the way you interpret it and I agree, there's no point forcing something that you really don't think you'd enjoy. I also don't think that dogs need to be wagging their tails and panting to be happy. I can tell you that my dogs are perfectly happy when they are lying on soft beds at home, even though they look comatose

ebay

The problem is that our obedience instructors didn't give us much advice on how to practice at home except suggest we do more of the same as in class, which wasn't very fun. We are still in beginner agility we still haven't done thinngs like see-saw and some poeple haven;t done all the equipment yet. The intermediate classes sound more like how your classes are run. Do your instructors expect you to teach the dog a new piece of equipment yourself? Interesting to see how different clubs run things. I am defintiely going to try to get back into obedience though. You guys have motivated me to want to give it another shot Our classes are quite small, maybe that makes a difference. But we learnt most of the basic equipment in the first few weeks... the instructor would give a rundown of the equipment, commands, safety, etc. and would help people out until they got the hang of it. We haven't done seesaw either and have only just moved on to the full size dog walk. We also haven't done a full course. A few of our 'stations' are just jumps or a tunnel and a jump, and we do a walk through of each station before class with discussion on the best way to tackle it (eg. crosses, lead outs). Thank you for explaining about things that could be done better in obedience classes - I am teaching a class starting next week so it's useful to know things I should include! I will make sure to give extra games and such that they can do at home (although people tend to stare at me blankly when I suggest 'fun' things' )

I don't think this is necessarily the case... sure, I trained my heeling on leash in class for a year, but 90% of the time out of class I trained off leash. That one hour a week on leash wasn't really much to worry about! I did feel like I had to figure out a lot of stuff for myself in obedience classes (and still do) but we are trying to address that at my club. Our agility classes sound like they run differently to yours as well... we set up a bunch of obstacles or short sequences like 'stations' so we work independently most of the time (the instructor/s keep a watch over everyone, give advice when needed and answer questions if asked). I guess it depends on how you learn best and like to work...

We've had a sealed bottle of Mountain Dew taken off the bench. It was hidden away somewhere and later unsealed on the bedroom carpet while we were sound asleep. A whole house of floorboards to mess up and it had to be eaten in the one carpeted room. Took me a while to figure out why my feet felt sticky the next morning. Oh ours was sealed too. Ours was actually a pack of 12 mini bottles, all of which were scattered around the house. Most completely empty by the time I got home :p

Just putting this out there, hope this isn't too off topic. Is it mainly the heelwork that people find boring with obedience? The reason I ask is, that I think most of the other exercises are either really useful for everyday life (SFE, recall, stays), or 'fun' for the handler and dog (mainly higher level exercises like retrieves, sendaways, scent work). Do you think that different heeling rules like shorter patterns (like AKC), being able to talk to the dog, etc, would make a difference?

Oranges are better than open bottles of Coca Cola which have been stolen off the bench. I may or may not know this from experience.

My older boy does seem quite intuitive when it comes to actual injuries, will sniff cuts/bruises/sprains quite intently. My girl doesn't seem to care about injuries but she HATES hiccup and also crying. In both instances she tries to climb all over you and lick your face, gets quite worried and whinges.

One of mine ignores me, and the other tries to sit on my head. Is she trying to make sure I'm dead?

Interesting. My dogs bark at people walking past the house (not every person, but ones being particularly noisy or with dogs or on scooters) and they get plenty of mental and physical exercise. We've also put in the effort to train them not to bark at everything, and when we are home they are as quiet as mice. You can't assume that because someone's dogs bark, they are untrained and starved for affection. IMO barking at people walking past during the daytime is reasonable. Neighbourhoods are hardly silent places during the day, anyway - well mine sure ain't

Dogs also have to be 18 months old to compete. My dog is confident with all the equipment but I won't be competing for a fair while yet! That is my own personal preference though; I don't like to enter trials until I am confident that we are doing everything right

I think a lot of it ultimately comes down to personal preference. We tend to be a lot happier if we choose hobbies that we are naturally drawn to, so if you're not interested, you're not interested. No point forcing the matter. I actually enjoy watching obedience more than agility... that may change as we start trialling in agility. Great obedience dogs take my breath away, as do brilliant handlers.

:D Now the only problem is that sometimes in agility she runs straight into an obstacle because she's too busy looking at me

My girl is very social but her focus is on me 100% when we are training at club. I got in trouble from the instructors for this, but when we were starting out and she was very interested in playing with the other dogs, I rewarded her HEAPS and HEAPS just for paying attention to me. If we were 10m away from another dog, she looked at it then back at me, I would treat her and play a game - I needed her to know that I am more rewarding than those other dogs. In beginners class I was probably popping a treat in her mouth every 5 seconds - every single time she looked at me instead of something else. I only faded those rewards when she was offering attention for longer periods and started to lose interest in other dogs.

I don't find obedience boring at all, and neither does my dog. We also train in agility which is fun but for us there is a closer level of teamwork and bonding required in obedience which I love. I love heelwork... there is a lot of complexity to it and so many different training exercises and games needed to get it right. There is lots of stuff to concentrate on for the mere human like footwork and body language so that really makes me think and work to improve myself so that my dog can also improve. Heaps of ideas for heelwork... the perch/elephant game like huski posted; using the 2 food game to get enthusiasm (basically throwing food in one direction, then another, then finding heel position... then back to throwing food); circle work where you throw food into the centre of a circle and when they choose to come back and heel with you, throwing another piece of food; static heelwork with a very high reward rate for correct position; sending to food pots or jackpots; serpentines and figure of 8; using just commands or just voice; hand touches or simple tricks as rewards or to get the dog excited... I train heelwork in so many different ways. I get SO excited when we do something well. There is nothing like the feeling when you have been working on an exercise for months and all of a sudden it comes together and is done perfectly. It is awesome I do train at a club but that hour is just that - an hour. I even find enjoyment in getting my dog's attention while there are distractions... when she looks at me instead of the dog that's bounding over wanting to play, that's rewarding. Maybe I'm just weird, though I like having standards to work to and striving to get high scores in trials. Not to compete against other people but to test myself (my dog is brilliant and can do it all - it is definitely a test of MY ability rather than hers). I think that people tend to phase out rewards too quickly in obedience... we can't expect our dogs to work for nothing. When I'm teaching something new or working on precision I reward almost continuously for the right thing. And like huski said, randomising rewards is really important as well... if my dog lines up at the start peg then gets a reward 1 in 10 times just for doing that... she will always pat attention 'just in case' ;)

I think for novice handlers it is best to join a club. Personally I'd probably take him through the pet dog levels of obedience classes which will get him used to distractions, other dogs, etc while starting at a more basic level. It would be rare that a club would just let you go straight into a trialling class without going through the other levels first. Have a look on Youtube for CCD trials and go to a local trial to watch. This will help you know what standard you have to train to - the rules are important but IMO nothing can prepare you better than watching other people trial I think that some of the dogs that rarely get to train around distractions and other dogs really struggle at trials. They are definitely a distracting place (think dogs in the next ring doing retrieves and other exciting stuff).

I have been known to walk around the office, suddenly think to myself "HALT!" then make sure I stop with the right footwork. People must think I'm crazy!

Same as my two

Ava watches all kinds of things on TV, and will also look at pictures on my laptop. Once I had a picture of a dog taking up almost my whole laptop screen. Ava walked past, did a double take... stared at the picture for a few seconds... walked behind the laptop... came back and looked at it for another few seconds... then acted like she was frightened and left the room promptly Her favourite show to watch is Big Cat Diaries. She seems entranced by the big cats! She enjoys some sports, vet shows, and even tracks cartoon characters across the screen. I find it fascinating! Satchmo has no recognition of the TV at all. He will react to the sound of dogs or cats on the television, but will walk around the house trying to find where those pesky noisy animals are hiding No acknowledgement of pictures on the TV at all. I wonder if it has something to do with how 'switched on' dogs are to their surroundings. The dogs people have mentioned all sound like they are very alert in day to day life. Ava has to know exactly what is happening around her and as a result is always very alert and almost on edge. Satch is laidback and lives a slower paced life in general.