RubyStar

I completed the sit stay challenge posted by Ptolomy: Ruby looked surprised by me sitting when I walked away, but stayed put. She was a bit distracted by birds flying overhead but otherwise did ok. Millie ran straight to me which I expected Second attempt she stayed put, but laid down half way through :D That was also expected.

Ah ok then, hearing the entire story makes it sound less shocking.

Natsu - I'm appalled that a dog can go and hump others in a group stay exercise and the judge nor stewards did anything about it and were basically giving you the "tough biccies" attitude? I'm obviously so new at this that anything can shock me. Seems I have a lot to learn about what is acceptable and what isn't...

Possible aggressions issues aside - ness/spotted devil, do you guys train your stays with walking another dog in close proximity of your dog in the stay to ensure they don't break if another dog breaks and approaches them? Or you don't train for this but then approach the situation if it arises with your best judgment at the time? I hope I'm making sense.

You make a very good point, squeak, one that I hadn't thought of. I think it has pros and cons, though I think the majority of dogs in the ring would be coming up for a "friendly chat" rather than picking a fight as I'm sure owners of dog aggressive dogs would be extra careful with putting their dogs in this situation up against other dogs. I could be wrong, though I'd be very interested to hear what the more experienced triallers think/do in this situation. I would like to think that if your dog is holding it's stay and another dog comes up to it if the judge or steward hasn't had a chance to grab the dog before it interferes, that you could attempt your stays again. But I know nothing

Excellent, that would be great, thanks I'll speak to you later in the week to see what time you're getting there. I did a ring runthrough last night with no treats (though she knew I had them) and without looking at her like I would in training, and just used the occasional "gooood girl" and she did so much better than Sat night It's the nerves I guess! I was doing everything possible to not poop myself literally!! I love your challenges, too, so I'd be up for some more challenges threads I'll try the sit stay tonight.

I did a 1 minute sit stay in a class tonight, she stayed put. While the others did their 3 minute down stay, I repeated the sit stay. Still stayed put :D But this time half way through just to make sure she didn't break, I casually walked back, gave her a gentle pat and "good stay" and returned back out front for the remaining 1.5 minute. There's no class next week due to public holiday so that was my final group stay practice before the Western Classic

My girl went to jump at the judge in both her practice runs a couple of weeks back while heeling - so glad she didn't do it in the real thing! However, saying that, she's gotten sooo much better with not jumping up at the judge as we enter the ring and line up at the starting peg. So she's slowly getting it I need to get someone to walk near us when I'm practicing heelwork.

I've had a tough time teaching my "everybody's my best friend" Labrador the SFE. Everytime someone would approach her, she'd go into wiggle overdrive and wiggle her way over to them or jump on them :rolleyes: While we're not 100% solid yet, we're getting a lot more success than we have in the past and the way I've done it is also put her in a stand, told her to stay, then throw food and toys around her and me jumping around her like a loon to try and distract her (omg can't believe I just admitted that one out loud ) then I'd release her to get the toy or food once she didn't move! Also have placed her in a stand stay next to playground equipment with kids mucking around and gotten her to stay with that distraction - I'd circle her and touch her and then release once she stayed. I'm just hoping it keeps up, it's been our hardest thing to conquer!!!

Am I the only one who would love to see a photo of toller coloured pants?! I would love to a see a photo of the toller coloured pants being worn next to a toller! Then we can be the judges of how coordinated this pair really looks

That's great news! Congrats!!

Would you have really wanted to risk it with me in there? I'm hoping I can eventually get Ruby out of CCD by the time Millie is ready, otherwise I'll be stuffed myself with who to use for the stays! I guess I could always chuck one in Novice, but I wanna get as much trial experience in CCD as I can (where you're probably expected to bugger up a bit ) before I go any further if that makes sense.

How do you mean?

It's something I may consider if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg She's had her hips x-rayed before, even after the ugly sit was solid, and they came back with no problems. I don't think she's sitting this way to relieve pressure or pain, I think she's just trained herself to sit this way to hold herself up on slippery tiles! I started teaching Ruby this but she doesn't always return to a straight sit, something I will do more work with as we only just started with it - as long as you definitely don't lose points by asking your dog for a nose touch when you're getting ready for the sit stay!

That's what I thought too, hence why I have trained some longer sit stays than the required 1 min CCD sit stay, but it didn't seem to matter in a trial situation Looks like I've got some work ahead of me!!

So what happens if your dog is so far doing a nice stay, then the dog next to you gets up and wanders over to your dog and gets in their face, causing your dog to break it's stay? (would you really stay put with something in your face??) Does anyone proof their stays in training to include getting another dog right in their face? How do I go about this?

That was my thinking too. If my dog is hot and bothered and is lacking concentration, if I failed the ring work then I would call it quits. But if my dog was focusing really well, especially with heelwork, and failed on something that couldn't be predicted, I'd be tempted to do the stays for practice (as it appears for me, it's the trial atmosphere my dog is failing her stays in!). But then again, I could always just practice those stays outside the ring. So to sum up, I dunno! But most likely wouldn't and just practice them outside the ring where we're at lower risk of failure and upsetting someone else's dog.

Another point that MAY be worth making is my girl has a funny sit. Always has, and probably always will. Her back legs slip out when sitting on our tiles and over the years, it has developed into her normal sit no matter where she is. This makes her lean a bit more forward than a dog sitting upright so she is closer to that inviting drop to the ground to get comfy Can a doggy chiro help this problem I'm wondering?!

See I wouldn't have known you could leave your dog just standing around until the very last second. They tell you to enter and set your dog up so I assume you need to do it right away. I've had least amount of experience trial style with stays.... obviously...

Raising my hand here, I was the novice trialler last night whose little monster dropped in her sit stay. I stayed for the down stay because the judge told me I could, otherwise I was all prepared to walk out. I will definitely excuse myself next time and take Ptolomy's advice of then practicing another sit stay outside the ring while the others are doing their down stays. It was for CCD, Ness, but you would have gotten that once I put my hand up As we've all heard before, such and such doesn't do it at home or in practice, which sounds like a cop out but really, when you're in your first "real" trial, how are you supposed to know if it's a common thing in trials or not, when all you have to call on is what happens in training?? The only other time she's done this was a couple of weeks ago at a practice trial where it was also a hot day and it had been a fair bit of time between individual exercises, so I think I have a case of a lazy Lab who really can't be stuffed staying sitting for a minute when she's hot and bothered. So does anyone think it would be a good idea over the next 2 weeks to wear her out a little in the late arvo heat (not the sun, but while it's still warm), then attempt a sit stay while it's still warm and she's a bit tired? I'm not sure how to rectify this problem when I can't find a chance to correct her in practice!

:p

I hope nothing fancy, I was going to wear my training shorts and a tshirt

Flip side of that is, I've seen judges start the conversation and keep it going a bit and I hope I don't get caught up at the start peg too long, I wanna get into it!

That chick was more entertaining than the dog

Know exactly what you want to teach and what you envision the outcome to be before you start teaching it... I'm finding this out the hard way ETA: Hope newcomers are allowed to answer this too