megan_

I don't think you need to exhaust every other avenue first though - that means the dog needs to suffer for longer. I don't like medication either and Lucy is happy 99% of the time so we don't need it. However, if she spent her life on the edge I'd be happy to give her some respite.

Snook - we all panic in emergencies. I now practice the routine (both with and without Lucy) and try to make it a game. Cosmolo also advised me that, when I practice at home, to start introducing the "I'm tense" body language and voice. After all, in an emergency, you WILL be stressed and he'll know. If he thinks "oh, we're playing the u-turn and don't faff around game" and you're stressed he'll be used to it. I've also practiced getting out the spray and spraying it as I won't have time to fiddle around in an emergency. We had another good practice session today. I worked from home today and took the dogs to a private agility lesson for my lunch break. Both of them saw a horse for the first time, looked a bit and then ignored it. Lucy had a great session and was relaxed the whole time even though she was in a strange place and she'd never met the instructor before (she is more fearful of humans than dogs). She worked really well and was confident enough to take treats from a stranger. She even started offering different behaviour when Geraldine didn't give her the treat. It re-inforced a few things things: * I often underestimate her and baby sit her. She take longer than Fergus to learn things (she missed out on her critical puppy development) but she is a smart girl and a very good little worker. She can work for hours and still be enthusiastic. * She loves agility and it has helped build her confidence. If your dog lacks confidence I highly recommend it. * When she is tired physically and mentally she is more calm in tense situations. I know this is a statement of the bleeding obvious but often our reactive dogs don't do as much work because we can't take them everywhere, and the circle of reactivity continues. As we were leaving a BC ran up to us. Geraldine blocked him but he was about 1.5m away and Lucy was completely calm. She even turned her back on him and got in the car. I'm convinced she was just to tired to make a fuss, but every good interaction helps modify her behaviour. I also took Fergus - my happy go lucky boy - to the vet this morning and he went ballistic when a dog suddenly appeared from behind a car. WTF? A bit of LAT sorted it out but it reminded me that even "He's Friendly!" dogs aren't perfect all the time.

I don't know that it is agility that is causing the issue though - he could hurt himself zooming around? I've decided to rest him re: jumps, work on strengthening his hind quarters (we need to do this regardless of agility, he is an active dog so needs to be able to move freely) and see what the physio said. I worked from home today and we had a pre-booked private agility lesson set up during my lunch break. We went along and did no jumps, just focused on me building my handling skills and start stays with some targetting for 2o2o. I then trained Lucy in some jump sequences. When he saw the agility set-up he pulled like a steam train, he was so happy to be there (and he isn't the type of working dog that would be happy to work even if they were lame).

He does a lot of other exercise though, including lots of free play. He doesn't respond well to lots of drills. We used to train every day but after he got his first injury we scaled things back. But you have a point re: maybe not doing it enough.

CFS - we have an appt with a physio next Thursday - she's meant to be very good and specialises in dogs. His jump style has always been pretty natural - he seems to push off his hind legs and land smoothly. We don't do weavers or contacts that often (contacts once a week, weavers 1 - 2 times a week for a few minutes tops). He was keeping his head a bit high during the weaves so we're now working on that (not until his back is better though).

HW - I'll try to take some shots. I'm on my own so it might be "interesting" CFS - no tugging at the moment. He doesn't like to tug when he's sore. It is the lower back. We don't normally tug excessively as I like to keep it as a high value reward. Maybe once every few days, if that.

HW - we've had X-rays (and ray is the expert in this in Victoria as he does all the Penn hip scoring) and he has found nothing structurally wrong. It us a muscle issue. He is kept very lean but is a cross breed and to my completely untrained eye he isn't properly proportioned - he has the deep MS. Chest with skinny mini poodle legs. That said, ray hasn't said he is structurally unsound.

Thanks. Shell - He does seem to heal between bouts. We have a month off due to the training grounds being unavailable, so we're going to work on strengthening during that time. We've been working on the peanut - has anyone noticed a difference in their dogs after a few weeks? We do tracking and some obedience anyway. We do fun, positive obedience but both he and I don't enjoy it as much as agility. I know that OB can be fun, I just don't enjoy it as much as agility. I guess I'm being a little selfish here as I recently decided that I wasn't going to get a third dog and if I stop agility with Fergus it means I won't do it for 10+ years (because I plan on having my littlies live long, healthy lives). Agility is my hobby too, if that makes sense. ness - you're right, I don't actually need to make these decisions now. We can focus on strength and go from there. I guess I feel frustrated as I went to the state trial on Saturday to have a look and one of the trainers said that Fergus could easily do the agility and jumps courses. I feel like we've been stop-start for the whole year *reminds herself that we do this for fun*

Plenty of ethical, registered breeders don't advertise on DOL?

Fergus is a novice agility dog who has always LOVED agility. We both really enjoy the training. However, in the last year, he has injured his back three times. I have been seeing Ray Ferguson about this and he said given its recurring nature it is most probably a chronic (ie ongoing, but not bad) issue. We are now seeing a physio too. So my question is, if this was your dog, would you continue to do agility with him? A few points: * He is not lame AT ALL. The only reason I notice something is that, when his injury plays up, he doesn't jump with as much zeal and doesn't like to tug too much. He doesn't limp at all, displays no stiffness and still hoons around the garden like a maniac. The first time he was hurt he avoided jumps totally. If he doesn't want to jump I don't force it (after being told it was a motivational issue by some trainers, I now know this isn't the case). I don't believe the average pet owner would even know that something is wrong. * He normally loves agility and is really enthusiastic about it. I love it too. I'm a firm believer that every dog should have a job/sport to do and I must admit I'd be a bit heartbroken to give it up now that I'm finally getting it. I love working with him and I simply don't enjoy obedience as much . That said, I don't want to continue doing something that does him damage. I asked Ray what he'd do if Fergus was his dog and he said he'd continue with agility, with physio and massage to help him heal. I've also got a fitness peanut to help build strength in his back. If Ray said stop, I'd stop in a heartbeat, have a little cry and get over it.

Snook, I too am a card carrying member of the "put my dog in a situation that wasn't safe, cried afterwards" club. I hate the term "friendly dog" as it implies that the dog loves all dogs, including dogs that get right in its face and dogs that are 20 times the size of yours. All without proper introductions. My boy is easy going and very friendly but I wouldn't be happy with a Great Dane barreling up to him. Sometimes we have to remember that we're learning too and that mistakes are part of learning. At the end of the day all dogs left that park unhurt and you learnt that most dog owners don't have control of their dogs. I used to take Lucy to an off leash local park and we'd walk around the perimeter. It was a small park and the locals knew her and their dogs gave her space. It was perfect. Then it seems that every local yokel went out and got a dog over winter and the park was ruined. She has never set a paw in an off leash park again. I am VERY comfortable that I can control her but I don't trust other owners - the vast majority of dogs don't have anything that resembles a recall and most owners don't use it anyway. Their dog is friendly which apparently means it can do whatever it wants and your dog has to just take it. End of that rant! I subscribe to the "Dogs in Need of Space" blog and they have some great advice on dealing with approaching dogs (because even if you don't go to offleash parks, you'll have to deal with these). They also have some great advice on coping with a dog that has problems and the guilt and embarrassment involved. One thing that I've learnt is that, unless the dog is outwardly aggressive, I don't to the block and "NO/STOP/SIT" anymore as I find it escalates things. Lucy picks up by my tone that this isn't a good situation and reacts accordingly. Now I do the food drop (big handfuls of smelly, easy to spot food) and do the uturn while forcing a smile and a sing-song voice. This has worked for us so far. I also have a squeaky toy to throw if they're not interested in food. Of course this isn't going to stop a dog that is genuinely aggressive, but not much will. I really with pepper spray were legal here as I'd feel more comfortable if I had that as a back-up.

yes - a child whose ball goes over the gate won't be able to read the sign. My dogs are much smaller than a GSD but no one can get into my property without keys.

There should be some YouTube clips of this. Basically it involves your dog targetting an object (eg your hand, a disc) with a body part (their nose, their paw). I teach it via shaping and using markers. It is useful for agility and training behaviours you want. It is also good when you're practicing NILIF - touch my hand with your nose to get a pat etc.

Look at kikopup on YouTube for mentally stimulating exercises. You can also teach targetting which is great for agility foundations too.

I believe so. If people get bitten for entering the yard why not put a padlock on the gate to stop them?

He's an agility instructor. I stumbled across the details of the seminar (held in Melbourne and Perth in May next year) but now I can't find them! I have the organisers email if any one is interested though. ETA: Found it. Now we know where the boys from Bros landed up (just joking...) http://web3.foxinternet.net/pep-lill/munnings.html

As per the title, has anyone been to any of his seminars before? Anyone else going? $190/day seems like good value so I'm very tempted to go along.

Cocking the head to one side is actually a calming signal - dogs often do this when stressed as it is a way to give the "I'm trying, okay" signal to another dog or human. If she is only doing stuff in one location then I'd say she doesn't truly understand what you want. Remember that dogs aren't good at generalising. For example, if you teach your dog to sit when they have a leash on, then the dog will think that "leash on + the word sit = I must put my bum on the floor". You need to go to different locations and train as if the dog doesn't know anything. With and without the leash, indoors, outdoors, around people, dogs etc, so that the only thing in common is the word sit = bum on the floor. ETA: I agree with Kavik re: focusing on relationship building rather than learning lots of stuff. When you get this right then training is really easy.

The issue with them is as BC crazy has said, the dog can bark out of distress and it will keep on getting sprayed. Also, the smell lingers so they are punished even if they have stopped barking. Smart dogs can also become collar aware and only stop barking if it is on. It isn't something I'd leave on unsupervised either.

I don't know if they take on dogs that they don't know, but my dogs go to Cosmolo's house. She and her hubby are trainers so are experienced and they have a pack of very well behaved dogs. I can relax knowing they're being taken care of.

I agree. That said, even simple things can land up costing thousands. My boy had bad gastro a few weeks ago. He was dehydrated and couldn't even hold down water so he needed to be on a drip. It was Saturday afternoon and if he stayed at my normal vet he'd be left all alone from 3pm to 8am with no supervision. So off to hospital he went and I was $1300 poorer (I have insurance though). I wouldn't put my dog through extreme procedures but it costs about $1000 per night to have your dog in a hospital overnight in Melbourne on a drip, with no other treatment.

We had another "put our training into practice in real life" scenarios on Saturday morning. We went for a walk in the Fitzroy gardens at about 7.30am. It was beautiful and we followed the paths all around the park. We walked into a nice secluded spot when out of nowhere this guy started running towards us, arms flapping, ranting about the devil or something. I realised we must have stumbled onto a homeless guys territory so we did a very quick uturn, I gave them the "walk fast, no sniffing" command (quick! quick!) and we hightailed our way out of there. After a few minutes he stopped chasing us. The dogs stayed calm the whole time! I wasn't worried about my safety but I was worried that the dogs would go ballistic if a strange man ranted and raved at us. The upside is that I got a very good cardio workout! Lucy starts agility next week so I'm very excited about that. She is great off leash and is very work focused so I'm not worried about her seeking out other dogs. Hopefully there are no runners!

You just pitch up and ask at the office. They did mine that day. We're getting assessed to move to the next level next week, so a new class should start soon.

Who cares what breed he is? He is clearly very overweiht (vets are used to seeing fat dogs so that becomes the norm). Losing a few kilos will make him feel z lot better. If you don't want to cut down portions halve his meals and add cooked pumpkin to fill him up.

I agree with nekhnet- if he just had muscle wastage that would be different, but he's structurally unsound, which is entirely different. at least consult s specialist before any exercise.