Agility Dogs

Generally agree with this. :) Dogs understand context and while I think it is important to be ultra consistent with puppies once you have the behaviour the are able to generalise pretty well. Unless you are chasing the final .5% between you and the world champion I think that doing a variety of things with our dogs is important. Even then I think that dogs need more than one outlet.

This. There are always circumstances that we can't forsee. Some of them have a greater impact than others. I don't want to think that I will ever have to give up one or more of my dogs, but if I'm ever in that situation I hope to have the support of the people around me and not their judgement.

:) I've always been sceptical of RC, but after seeing the 2 and 3 seconds they saved the dogs in the States I've started to come around. Will get some video of our progress over the weekend.

Do you mind if I ask...Did you ask a 2o2o right from the beginning of her DW & AF experience? Or did you put the position on later once she was running them? Thanks, I have seen a few people use stride regulators. Hope it all goes well :) we've always done a stop. i've been slack at maintaining criteria in the ring I have to admit. Training is perfect, if slow.

They stay in the same place through the process. Ideally you want 2 up and 2 down (strides.)

How much ground work did you find you needed to do? By that I mean how long have you had to spend teaching her what the stride regulators mean and how to actually accelerate along the plank rather than slow down given that she previously had a stopped contact? That is the one hold up I have in my mind. If I do decide to retrain Charlie I want to do it properly which means accelerating down the down ramps etc rather than just running through them. He isn't a dog that accelelerates easily, he prefers to just maintain a pace, so I am not sure how well he will go given he is used to decelerating down the ramp if that makes sense? Are you introducing turns off the contact before you put her on full height or are you going to teach that later? Sorry if I am being a pain but just curious to know how other people do it :) As far as judging goes, so long as you are watching the contact zone rather than the dog you should be able to get a fair distance from it. A lot of people get caught up with watching the dog rather than just looking for anything to strike the contact zone. You see it in flyball too, when judging close crossovers you should be looking at the ground where the dogs meet rather than the dogs themselves, otherwise it is inaccurate as they are moving too bloody fast :laugh: the contact zone (and grass for flyball) don't move so they are the objects to fix your gaze on :) With Woo I've done a fair big of plank running so she gets the accel thing. The first few reps we lured with a thrown toy from a restrain and them moved quickly to 'go' from restrain to get her driving ahead with the toy following closely and ending up in front. So......she gets to run a plank quickly. She gets to drive forward and not look back for the reward as it comes. I've just added those into the jump bump scenario. (We've done a LOT of that over the last few weeks.) So far so good. DW has a lot more ground/flat work attached so I haven't gone there yet. (As in haven't asked what process to use.) By contrast Xena who has a history of jumping off, but has recently been 'fixed' of that had a LOT of confusion about whether to run or not. She thought we were tricking her. (I've decided not to go running with her for the reasons I mentioned earlier.)

I had made the same deal, BUT.....with this dog we are struggling to get the drive I want and figure that running is going to be easier to keep her 'up' than the stop/start of a 2o2o. We are using a jump bump/stride regulator and at low heights were getting GREAT results in the first session. Now to work position and slowly increase heights. Worst that can happen is that I have to go back to 2o2o that she has already. With a drivey dog like yours (or even my older girl) I will stick with 2o2o and a quick release. DW is a whole other story - that is staying 2o2o for the time being. ETA - she understand the stride regulator really well - I've done a lot of work with it lately so it seems that transferring it to the AF has been quite easy for her to get. With this dog once something sticks it doesn't come undone/break down, but it has to be 100% or she will show you her confusion. Oh - and as for judges.......I've seen a scary number of them who think they can judge contacts from the other side of the ring. Personally I need to move my sorry butt and get in there to see for sure.

Sooooooo excited. We started teaching running A-frame last night to Wikki and CK. Will be interesting to see how it progresses. Hopefully it will be along the lines of ready for the ADAA GP in a few weeks. :)

http://en-epilepsybc.weebly.com/ Epilepsy is a major issue in some of the more well known ISDS lines of the border collie. Some top level competitors seem willing to take the risk that their pup won't have it, despite knowing there are instances of it in a particular line of dogs. There is a growing movement dedicated to publicising the problem and encouraging people to breed away from it. ETA - this is more a UK and increasingly US problem. The condition does not seem as prevalent in our Aussie dogs or the lines we have in Australia.

I've got one of these. Works really well for a short while as it surprises them, then they got used to it and ignored it. Trick is to just have it on every now and again so it keeps surprising them. Won't stop an entrenched barking habit though.

Big thumbs up for these! I've just replaced the cover on one after about 5 years of CONSTANT - like every weekend and a couple of times during the week constant use. Although like others have said, I've also had one for about 1.5 weeks because I thought my baby puppy was ready for a soft crate. At 3.5 she has just made the move back into it and stopped trying to escape. EEEK.

My guys are locked in the back yard with access to a large under cover deck area and the entire garden, but are fenced about 20m back from the street with lots in their way to stop them barking at passers by. If we have an injury or an issue between the dogs they have their own runs and the yard has two seperated areas that can be gated from each other on top of that if it is necessary. We are at work for 10 or 11 hours so until next time I have a puppy they'll be like this and are far happier. Puppy will most likely take up residence in one of the runs. We had a friend's 10 w.o. pup stay with us a while back and he was fine in the run beside my younger (and quieter) dog.

NICE!!!

In some cases we are ignorant. People who buy from pet shops are not all impulsive. In some cases they have no idea of how the pedigree world works and once they have done the rounds of rescue and not found the dog that they want they go to a pet shop - if they are none the wiser about all the issues that are spoken about on this forum. I'll put my hand up and admit to being one of these people. When I got my first two BC puppies from the same pet shop I had no idea about any of this, I just knew that I had been to the RSPCA and they didn't have any border collies so I went to a petshop that had advertised them. 5 months later with only one puppy I started to learn. 7 years and two pedigree dogs later I now have a fair understanding of where dogs come form and how of to find the one you want.

We had a great day out on Saturday. All three dogs did some great stuff. This is the run that I was most happy with though - for 3 reasons. It was a pretty cool run, but also it was amazing to see my old girl back in action and loving it so much, and finally it is the first run she's had without any hesitation at all - no stutter steps at all. GO GIRLY. It's now almost 2 years since her first injury and to finally have her back is just amazing.

ROFLMAO. I'm guessing you spent the weekend with Cathy!? Susan's new system is about deciding what works for you and your communication system - its' going to be different for everyone. That's what is going to make it hard I'm thinking. ETA - was talking to Cath tonight. Susan has different cues to what her instructors do simply because she doesn't move like they do. So....... Check check check - take the jump, turn tight and come back on the plane that you approached on. nananananana - round the back of the jump and stay in collection because we are going to turn again. lalalalalalala - round the back of the jump and take it in extension. Her trainers just use lalalalala, but they are also 23 and 26 y.o. with athletic backgrounds and can get to where the dog needs them to be to give them the physical cue for where to next. :)

I found that with CK adding verbals in for tight turns REALLY helped solve this problem. So..... 'check check check' means take the jump and turn tight. So rather than him guessing (cos I had muddied the water somewhere along the line) he now knows for sure that I want him to take the jump. Also - I like using the Pool Noodle upright in this stuff now. I find once you've built value for them it really helps with drive in the other part of the game. :)

She's got amazing connection with her dog. To me it looks a lot like what many of the Euro/US guys are moving towards - lots of blinds and very much a motion based system that focusses on pre cuing turns and accel rather than the ability to run to position and show decel like Greg's system does. Like any system as long as you are consistent with your cues and stay connected with the dog you are going to do well. Personally I think the introduction of blinds into a system, especially when creating a turn (like after the a-frame) with them opens up lots of questions unless you have the time and dog training ability and timing on course to get it right. :)

I'm thinking about getting a pup from the US, no real problems with this. Surely you'd want to go and spend some time with your pup early on? I get why people might have an issue, but can't imagine not seeing my puppy in the flesh before 9 or 10 months. ON a side track.....what about importing semen.

NOOOOOOOO........I find it far easier to run a dog than to sit and not comment/coach/criticise now that my OH has started to play with the puppies. :) So proud of them both!!

YES YES AND YES........ Some of the best agility dogs I see (including one of mine) are BYB/Pet shop dogs that owners got as their first dog. Once in the dog world not too many people I know opt for a second from those sources. Some rescue, but many seem to prefer the more predictable temperament and generally superior structure that comes with a dog from a known background. My pet shop girl lives alongside my two pedigree dogs and gets no better or worse treatment than they do.

All my lead clips get a spray with WD40 or similar once a month or so. They seem to hold up fine.

thanks, we get different stories from the locals there some say they get a lot others say they don't? They are very regional. At home I've never had one. Near my brother's place I get them almost every time I take the dogs for a walk - we live 20 mins apart. From what I've been told they can also vary in how much they affect a dog from area to area. ETA - we walk through the bush in both areas.

Hard to tell from the original post, but I've had a dog with serious aggression issues from a very young age and while we worked through them he was PTS for health issues in the end. From that experience I'd far rather a breeder cull (easy to say, I know) than pass on dogs that are not fit for a pet home. One of my dogs needs management around others, but there is a big difference between a dog that needs a little looking after and one that is just a nightmare to live with.