Livertreats

You can do heel work to music then and what about all the people watching at normal obedience?

Sure do, MY guys know quite a few which I taught them a long time ago. Who would have thought they would come in handy for DWD.:D

""illusion"by Brenda Tilsley Gibson - a true story about a Flat Coated Retriever, sad but a great read.

It is amazing TSD how their intrest changes, almost like someone turning on a switch. Rebel is a calm boy (especially as he is a Flatcoat) but add a bird to the picture and it is a whole different dog, add the gun and its another level again. He is a very friendly boy, and thinks he has to say hello to everything and everybody, not sure what he thought about the Kangaroos, while he would have come across their scent at tracking he has not seen one before, hopefully he wont worry about them again.

http://i266.photobuc...atcoats/007.jpg Here is a photo from training today. What was suppose to be a straight forward mark turned into a test of handling skills. Just after I sent Rebel off for his first mark, 6 Kangaroo's decided to distract him by hopping through some trees about 200 metres away, must have caught his eye and he was off. Very naughty as he was not lisening to anything I was saying and as he disappeared behind some trees I thought shit, now I am going to have to go find him. Few more toots on the whistle and calling, and just as I was about to go up the hill after him, I gave a very loud "Rebel come". Next thing he appeared in front of the trees, so kept calling and whistling but had decided to stop him when he was between me and the dummy and cast him to get what he was originally sent for. I think his mind was still on the roos as it took a couple of gos to get his bum on the ground, back up by "good boy". Then we did a couple of casts and sure enough got the dummy.:D So some good came out of it as I was able to test out my handling skills in a completely different area, not really something I had planned for today. We did some more double marks etc and he was fine.

Looking good.

You should do it, best to entre while is in baby class and they dont expect them to stand like statues. Very easy and just watch the breed before you so you know what the judge is getting you to do. If I am not doing anything that day I can come and be the cheer squad and video if you want.

No pressure. Who's Flatcoat wonm thats just fabulous. We sure dont have many doing retrieving and its very encouraging to know we can keep up with the Labs. Hope they are going to come over for the National next year be great watching another Flatcoat work. Now been on the retriever forum to check which dog, CH Kellick Rhythm of Life, owned by one person and run by another. Breeder will be extremely pleased as well. Will be awhile before we are in AA, we still have heaps to learn and we are in no rush.

RS why not teach her to shake on command, that is what I have done with my guys, no thought of putting anything down to shake first. Guessing you have started by being in the water for her to deliver, say "no shaking" take the bird then tell her shake? That way then you can gradually work your way out of the water but still use "no shaking" etc.? Also I go do something most Friday's even if its on the oval at K9.

Wow Strauss did very well. Heaps of slow pace for CCD wasn't it and he handled it much better than the last trial.

That good, any time your free and want to come just say the word. Yipee just organised to get a friend to come and toss dummies for me tomorrow, save me walking quite so much.

Will do RS, only about 15 minutes from my place in the Armadale hills, just nice not having to drive for an hour. Yep your welcome to come on a Friday, but will warn you I like early, 8.30am is late for me. Dont like training when it starts to warm up. I will take some photo's tomorrow and see what you think.

Its always a good idea, not that I always remember either.

I would rather somewhere a bit more exciting than the K9 grounds and wont catch me in that long grass there are snakes in there as well. Actually I have been there a couple of times after a bit of rain and there does not seem to have the ponds as much, looks like they have done some repairs to let the water run off? Somewhere more exciting would be good but as it seems a lot of the RATG being held in the east are in conjunction with obedience trials, it just makes sense, even to just get the ball rolling and then maybe switch to somewhere more exciting! And yes, I wouldn't send my dogs into the bush at Canine either in the summer. Wouldn't send them anywhere remotely snakey in warm weather, regardless of where it is! The water runoff I guess is a bit better these days, but it still does flood a bit. I was joking about using the water there for the test I realised you were joking about the water on the grounds, I was just making a comment that when I have been there it has not been as bad as previous years. No idea if they are running them with obedience trials or not, guess it will depend when the judges are free and if they tie in with obedience trials. Someone told me when they were moving one of the sheds at K9 they found a few snakes in there, I wont let my dogs go in any of the bushy areas there any time. I am off to try Rebel at a new spot tomorrow, very light cover almost looks like it has been mowed but know it hasnt, with nice open area, logs for him to learn to jump over, rocks, and some trees but no thick bush, well not in the bit I am going to use. No water but thats ok, can go to the river for that later.

I would rather somewhere a bit more exciting than the K9 grounds and wont catch me in that long grass there are snakes in there as well. Actually I have been there a couple of times after a bit of rain and there does not seem to have the ponds as much, looks like they have done some repairs to let the water run off?

There are not many places around Perth with light cover and water that you dont have the general public attending. No idea where they would hold the trials, maybe Upper Swan area? It will be interesting to see how many people turn up and give it a go, will any flow onto retrieving - I would be surprised.

Thanks for clarifying. I was just going off what I am sure I had read in this thread and didn't actually go and look at the rules Saying that though, do you think clubs would opt for birds when dummies are acceptable? Less hassle to just make competitors bring their own dummies, and we all know the less organisation involved the better to get things off the ground! Edit: I'm not fussed either way, though. Just means I have to convince Millie to pick a bird up, not look at me with a look of horror that says "but mum, it's dead!" I am guessing that maybe they will go with dummies as they have problems getting enough birds for the retrieving trials and yes the club running it has to provide the birds.

The rules actually say that they can use either pigeons or dummies. Not sure why it has not started here, I am sure we now have judges who are authorised to judge it. Maybe the clubs have decided they have enough to do with the retrieving trials and have not applied to run RATG trials. I dont think they have to be run on ovals either, sure they said at the training day it can be in light cover which I think is more interesting for the dogs, also the use of birds as well.

I can relate to where you are coming from but its not only retrieving that have the problem. However, I hope that it will not be novice and restricted that get cancelled, I feel I do and have done more than my fair share of helping out at trials. Before I started retrieiving I helped at many retrieving trials, and since I started doing retrieving while I only did novice, I have stayed at every restricted trial and offered to help which is a lot more than others have done. How many times have handlers sat back and watched people struggle with the equipment/birds back to the trailer or to the next run. If we all did a little to help each time some of us would not be sick of helping out. I went to the last All Age trial to help, and a big thank you to Jean and Dave who let me go down with them, think if we could get a lift with people more would perhaps help out. Big test next year, when the State and National will be held two weekends in a row and I for one will not be camping out for 2 weekends, certainly will not be taking my 3 dogs to sit in the car all day. Will help out for 1 day each weekend.

You are welcome, I enjoyed doing the videoing (not sure about the stays bit ), any time, just ask. However I was a little worried about the blurry bits while waiting for your camera to focus after using the zoom, thought I had broken your camera. Good way to get your dogs to use their noses rather than looking for the scent article is to hide things in the dark, have to use their noses. My guys love this game.

What about the trouble I had getting him into position for the drop stays. I must remember that next time he comes to visit me for a treat, I will remind him of the heart failure he nearly gave me.

it sure was a fabulous round.

While I like to do everything, decided just not possible, so I do tracking and retrieving in the winter, and while we still train obedience save the trialling of that until summer. Hoping to add HWTM to our summer activities as well.

I have loaded a pile of photos from our State Championship Retrieving trial to photobucket, hopefully the link below will work ok. http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii248/flatcoats/State%20Championship%20Retrieving%20Trial/

I took a few photos over the weekend, nearly 400, but promise I will select some and put them up. Is it easier to link from Photobucket? There was some fabulous work done by the dogs over the two days. Very trying conditions yesterday, bucketing down with rain, strong winds which was trying its best to blow me off my seat while I juggled the umbrella to stop the camera from getting wet, but still managed some nice shots. Really enjoyed watch all the dogs over the two days.