wuffles

Aussies' herding style is upright and loose-eyed and they can be very rough on stock and they transfer this to playing with other dogs... they are clowns. They love working but don't like it to be too serious. It has to be fun. Ava loves to play with herding dogs as they run and she loves to chase, but she has been told off by numerous BCs and kelpies for a range of things... for example... body slamming (her favourite activity, but a BIG NO NO for most other breeds), stealing a ball from their mouth, getting eye from a kelpie and taking it as a sign to run directly at it and jump on its head... and when she gets told off, she generally submits then goes... THAT WAS FUN, DO IT AGAIN!!! Edit: KA, 3 minutes.. that's a bit generous.. 30 seconds?

We pack our Kongs with Natures Gift tinned food and freeze them overnight. They get everything else out too easily... Satch's takes him about 30 minutes, Ava's takes her about 10 minutes. Ava will work away on treat toys until every last bit of kibble is gone, though, so that entertains her for a while. Max is soooo cute :D And if you put an Aussie in the mix, they'd run straight through the middle of the formation body slamming dogs as they went, thoroughly mortifying the BCs and kelpies. :thumbsup:

Many of the miniatures and toys I've seen on overseas websites don't even LOOK like Aussies and have distinct features from other smaller breeds My Aussie girl is an average sized female (just under 20 inches) and I wouldn't say she is big at all

Oh gosh. Ours hardly ever get called by their real names... Satchmo - Mo, Mo-mo, Mosey, Mo-man, Mo-monster, Stoopid, Night Fury (after the dragon on How to Train Your Dragon, the similarities are uncanny), Bubba... we also have one we call him at home that I can't even say on these forums Ava - Bean, Beanie (because she's always full of beans), Polar Bear, Little One, Wiggles. Then they get the unsavoury names that mimic illnesses they may have at the time... Itchy or Scratchy, Squirts, Limpy, Baldy

Well I am helping out in a beginners class this session so the pressure is on, don't worry, I definitely know that not all dogs behaved the same as BCs Satch may not be fun to train, but he has taught me an awful lot. I have some videos I took a while back that I will see if I can find and post. Basically it was a shaping exercise where you place a box on the floor and see what behaviours your dog offers, then shape something from that. I tried it with both of mine. Satch looked at the box a few times, got a click&treat. Then he just sat there. I pointed at the box, touched the box, moved the box, he just sat there. He came over and nuzzled my hand for treats. He wandered around, sniffed the ground. He lay down. Five minutes and no box-related behaviours later... Satchmo 1, wuffles 0. Ava looked at the box, C&T. She pawed at the box, C&T. She put her front paws in the box, C&T. She put all 4 paws in the box, C&T. I wonder why people choose working breeds for obedience

Hehe don't worry, I'm not really stressed. If I was I would actually be organising things instead of procrastinating You're right, Ava's heeling wasn't terrible. And her stays were awesome. I was just whinging

I missed this post! Thanks, but her heeling was pretty appalling I was just feeling a bit down because we have been working on heeling and she will do a whole pattern beautifully at times, but sometimes (like yesterday) she loses focus at the start and I can't get her back. I have no idea how to stop that happening and am scared it will happen in a trial. When I got home I set up some chairs and did some figure of 8 stuff... of course she was perfect. At least I got some good advice for my own body language so got to work on that a bit I think I've only ever done figure of 8 once in class before so it was a bit confronting to have a new instructor who didn't know that I'm a beginner who is working out a lot of stuff for myself KTB: Funny how we all do things differently I don't leave collars on mine but I do leave them with Kongs. I feed bones but mainly chicken and always supervised. Anyway... my wedding is in less than 3 weeks. OMG. I still have so much to organise

My very, very, very food motivated girl is similar and I would say that in my family, she is definitely the one I would trust less around food with humans. She hasn't demonstrated any aggression, but noticeably tenses when she thinks someone may take her food... her reaction is to eat whatever's left as fast as possible. I can grab things out of her mouth with no problem, and I regularly give her higher value items while she is eating, but I wouldn't be 100% confident about other people doing the same. She has a very soft and submissive personality and will share toys, beds, space with people and dogs very happily. She just loves her food.

NBT would mean Natural Bob Tail and On Hold would mean that they have been reserved by someone (often the pups who look like they may be show quality or have particular markings that someone wants may be on hold from an early age).

Sigh, my internet connection dropped and I lost my reply ;) For Satch, who is not particularly food motivated, I bring out the big guns. Usually BBQ chicken or leftover sausages or steak. For assessments I used to use raw meat which yes, was messy, but at least it held his attention for more than 10 seconds For Ava the Garbage Guts I generally use kibble She loves cheap supermarket kibble (don't worry, she gets better stuff for brekkie/dinner) so I use that. Sometimes I use devon/chicken/Natures Gift treats or whatever I can find that morning but she works just as well for kibble. betsy: I warn you that 4Paws roll STINKS after a few days, even if you freeze it and defrost

helen Ava didn't need Chazer's advice, she knew it all too well already...

First day of training for us too. Apart from Ava acting like she'd never heard the command "heel" before in her life, and me stuffing up some of my signals we did well. We did some stay distraction work where the instructor was doing things like crawling along the line of dogs and skipping past them with a cone on her head I saw Ava's tail wag when the lady was crawling in front of her so I gave her one extra stay command, otherwise she did so well! Yes And in other news, I saw KA's new haircut :D :D

5/52 "I'm bored of this game, give me the biscuits already..." week05 by wufflesx, on Flickr

Mine do this too but they actually ask to go outside, not to pee, but to lie in the sun! I have always thought it is kind of like 'defrosting' I know when I've been in air con for a few hours I feel like I should go outside and get back to a more normal temperature...

Regarding which training time is cooler, 9am vs 7pm... I can only get 9am vs 6pm as I'm using Gungahlin Weather, but here are some examples... 30/01 9am 21 6pm 31 31/01 9am 24 6pm 35 01/02 9am 27 6pm 35 02/02 9am 24 6pm 23 03/02 9am 20 6pm 31 In fact at 10pm on most days it was still hotter than at 9am I trained Satch on Thursday nights way back when, we had a few nights where only 2 or 3 people showed up because it was still 37 degrees or so Give me Sunday mornings any day.

Mine is not a barker at home but she is a from a barky breed, and she is a follower so will bark if incited by other dogs. I think I'll try agility first

:cry: :cry: Thankfully not many other people are at work yet to hear me laughing at the computer...

For people whose dogs bark at flyball, does it follow over into the rest of their lives? So... every time they are excited about something... do they bark? I am more worried about my own dog barking than the ones around us.

I'm not going to be there on Thursdays! I was there tonight but just for the beginners lecture, I saw Kuma through the door. I'm doing everything on Sundays... I read this thread allll the time but don't have the patience to sit and reply sometimes It is still my favourite though! Edit: Satch had the towel around his head to keep his ears out of the way... :cry: Or maybe the hydrobath guy thought it was cute... which it was

All these pictures remind me of this old picture of ours...

Apologies if this is off topic, but the main thing that puts me off flyball and sends me in the agility direction is the barking. Is the barking avoidable?? Are there teams out there that DON'T encourage barking?? I think it's an awesome sport so it's a pity the barking puts me off it so much.

Sure, some dogs pant more than others, it was just something I thought I'd add into the mix

I don't want to be rude but is he carrying any excess weight? The dogs I know that are overweight pant a LOT more than my two and at a much higher intensity... My Aussie does pant more than my other boy... she is a busy body and is always on the move. She usually does cool down quickly once she settles in a cool spot so sometimes I just have to encourage that (by withdrawing attention or sitting with her, whatever works).

Which one appeals more to you? Have you been to watch a flyball competition or agility trial? Most people I know clearly prefer one or the other Ultimately you are the one who has to have the motivation to keep it up so I think it's more important to choose a sport that interests you. Or you could even give both a go! I would also recommend taking your girl to obedience classes as soon a possible if that's where you want to head in the future :D There's not really a minimum age for obedience training (my girl has been attending since she was 16 weeks old). 9-12 months old can be an adolescent period so she may get better or may get worse during that time

Mine always alert me to those hit and run delivery guys. You know the ones, they write out the notice before they get out of the van, do a quick knock and dash back to their van as quickly as possible, before you can open the door. The dogs bark the second someone steps out of the van so I am always there to greet them Just thought of another one, Ava likes to carry things in her mouth so when I'm picking up the Kongs and toys in the yard when I get home, she always helps me. It's like having an extra hand.