wuffles

Awww, it's cute, but it kind of makes me feel bad because Ava is very soft and does the same thing! The squinting and the slinking away. Even if she's not the one in trouble!

We used to say the same thing about Ava! She was either fast asleep or go, go, go. She has calmed down a lot now. She hasn't been for a walk today but is happily snoozing in her crate. What a good girl... I don't remember exactly what age... probably around 6 or 7 months I think? She has always been good about not stealing things that aren't hers and since we've left her crate open, she's slept under our bed all night. These days she even lets us sleep in which is nice ;) We are off to the coast for a few days tomorrow, dogs coming with us. Hopefully the weather clears up a bit. Will be nice just to do nothing for a few days...

Oh I am sorry to hear about Asha Paula, she had such a lovely long life with you. RIP Asha

Off to do an airport run now but just wanted to let those of you that came to my hens party that Kellie had her baby yesterday, on his due date! They have named him Kye, out of hospital already, mum and bub doing well and planning on coming to the wedding still

Thanks guys It's all going to plan so far (touch wood), just a few loose ends to tie up. One of my bridesmaids stayed here last night and we are picking up a bunch of people from the airport tonight. Starting to get busy!! Just want it all to happen now.

The RSPCA in Canberra hasn't run a recall clinic for at least two years that I know of (I have contacted them about it and check their website regularly). I do think specific clinics are a brilliant idea and would love to see the dog clubs offer those. Loose leash walking and recall would be great. I even think a tricks class would be popular - and that could take them out of the 'regular' obedience syllabus so that only people who are interested in them have to teach them. I'm instructing my first beginner's class at the moment and it's a lot harder than I expected. The hardest thing to tackle has been the range in different experiences, breeds and previous training. And when I was in a beginner's class myself, this was also a problem... how to cater for the first time dog owner with a stubborn malamute, as well as an experienced owner with a border collie, in the same one hour class? Anyway, not sure how relevant that is, but I think it's a big part of people dropping out...

11 weeks still seems pretty young to me. My girl came to us at 12 weeks and I didn't move the crate out of our bedroom until about 16 weeks. Putting a big soft bed in there also helped

Video fresh off the camera for you guys... .

HAHA how happy does Elbie look? I'd take a welcome picture too if my monsters weren't fast asleep.

Aussie Aussie Aussie :love: Let me know if you need any info about Aussies. I'm not really an expert, of course, but I've met a few and I think Ava is typical of her breed in most ways so I do know a bit about them!

OMG Little G is just toooo cute! I bet it's hard to get angry at that precious face when she chews things

Satch has been working on a hole in the backyard for a while now. And today he is demonstrating what it's for (as well as, I suspect, what he does all day while we're at work): (excuse the disgustingly dirty window I was too scared to open the door at first in case he moved) I love how he squishes his whole body into the hole He's got the right idea though; I went and felt the dirt and it's nice and cool.

My two think the colder the better! Walkies in -5 degrees? AWESOME!!! When we were fostering a greyhound she wore a soft Weatherbeeta coat almost constantly, I only took it off to 'air her out' so to speak She had a crate and bed with polar fleece blankies which she snuggled into at night.

Oh what a cheeky little girl She doesn't look like she's too far behind her brother and sister at all! I love how she tries to eat the Apple logo off the computer

How have you been teaching her? What is her motivation to work with you?

The first thing I'd do is teach her what the heel position means, and make that position super rewarding. Heeling is different to loose leash walking so make sure the dog understands the difference. I recently went back to the basics with my girl's heeling and was starting with just getting into position, then taking one step, two steps, and only building that up once her positioning and attitude were what I wanted. I do agree with the posters above, your usual obedience class won't get brilliant heeling. I haven't done training in drive but would like to. I am getting nice heeling from my girl but it takes a lot of work and patience and making it FUN.

I uploaded a video ... the filming is pretty bad, I need a wide angle video camera so I apologise But you can kind of get the gist. I do 4 lots of random steps just in a big circle then at the end do a little bit of heeling with positions and different paces.

And seeing as I have nowhere else to post this, I just did some training with Ava at the oval and was very happy with not only her technical work but her attitude as well! I've got her heeling slightly further forward than she was previously and she is very enthusiastic and happy during the heelwork, whereas previously she was acting a bit bored. We are now up to 50 steps of heeling, no food on me, total attention and then a release to a food container. So proud of my little girl and maybe we will be ready for the trial in March after all

Ava would love for you to come and pat her Lottie is a beautiful girl. Her and Ava have met twice and got along really well. Sorry to hear you've been under the weather, Wizzle Not toooooo long to go now.

Princess Ava has realised that pillows are super comfortable and has chosen the ones on her couch to be her throne She's not even allowed on the couch, but obviously that rule isn't enforced too strictly, especially with that cute little white face...

kyliegirl, I think sometimes you just have to take the good bits out of puppy school/obedience school and do your best to ignore the others. I already knew how to train a dog when I got Ava, but I took her to puppy preschool for socialisation, learning how to focus around other dogs, meeting new people and learning that training is fun. They gave some advice that I thought was ridiculous (and even dangerous) and we could already do all the exercises so I didn't exactly learn much But I still looked forward to it every week as I love training and I love spending time with my dog Now that I'm in our obedience trialling class it's easier because we have a lot of freedom to work with the class, or away from the class, or make suggestions on exercises, etc. I often pull out of the heeling exercises after about 15 seconds because I am not into 'paddock bashing', and no-one minds. There are still things that really annoy me, and I do still get frustrated sometimes, so I understand where you're coming from I must say though the clicker thing would bug me and I would be speaking up about it, probably getting myself into trouble in the process ;)

kyliegirl: Echo is looking so handsome! I am helping teach a beginner's obedience class at our club, 6-9 month old puppies, and we have two dobes! One is a BIG strong boy and one is a cute little girl koalathebear and Clastic: Thanks for the off lead play this morning, both Ava and I had lots of fun! Ava snoozed when we got home but played with her toy a bit this afternoon. She's had her dinner and has now taken herself off to bed (under our bed) ;)

To some degree this is club dependent. Our club expects you to be able to call your dog up when it is offlead in a training paddock with other onlead dogs about 20 metres away. A dog that takes a couple of calls will pass. A dog that completely blows its handler off to do its own thing or that won't leave the onlead dogs alone will fail. Thanks for clarifying I was imagining a test where dogs would have to stay with the handler while multiple dogs were running all over the place! (Although that's obviously the control to aim for!)

Free running. What you need is to proof a recall under distraction. It's not like you can't use motivators to get her back. Zoomies are pretty normal as dogs start to get aroused by the training. But a dog that won't recall when its the only one offlead is not a dog that's going to have a lot of success when there are multiple dogs training offlead on equipment. It's also a safety issue and a major irritant to other handlers who have to leash their dogs or stop training while the distracted dog ignores its handler. Ta, makes sense I have done a lot of work with her so she does have good recall when free running, and wouldn't be the one to start the zoomies or run around by herself. I was just unsure how much control is expected in the beginner's class, never having been to one and all

Newbie question alert! Where should dogs learn the control needed to start agility if they can't even get into the beginner's class? Most obedience classes don't do off leash work (except for recalls and stays). My girl works well off leash in general but if another dog gets the zoomies I can't guarantee she won't join in (although she wouldn't be the one starting it). I suspect she'd be fine if I was working with her on agility obstacles with other dogs running nearby, but couldn't test that or improve it if I couldn't get into the class