Agility Dogs

Karen at Redlands is great. :) It's not quite as formal as I understand QAJDC to be, but everyone I know who goes there has a heap of fun. We've got a few members who train at both BAD and Redlands.

But great idea - you are more than welcome. I won't be there, but someone will no doubt come and talk to you! LOL. Just introduce yourself and the guys will look after you.

But great idea - you are more than welcome. I won't be there, but someone will no doubt come and talk to you! LOL. Just introduce yourself and the guys will look after you.

Just thought I'd share this. The problem - I haven't done a lot of jump grids with Wikki so her jumping can sometimes be a little suspect. She tends to take off early for jump and often brings it down as a result. The solution - including a jump bump with some pool noodle upright work. This way we get around the issue of lack of drive/confusion, but are helping her understand where to take off from. The 'jump bump' is placed about 5' in front of the jump to show her where she needs to take off from. ie: It's just a bit too far to take off behind so she has to pattern to taking off in front of it. It becomes a 'stride' regulator. We are doing this in the hope that because she will be knocking fewer bars she will become more confident and as a result speed up like she does every time something 'clicks'

You should be very proud of the job you are doing with that young man of yours. He is AWESOME. Once we can teach him the rules of the game there'll be no stopping him!

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Yep to what the others have said. Although my dogs do agility they are all 'obedient' and could easily compete at the lower to intermediate levels of obedience. We will do a lot of the exercises as part of our agility foundations. I think it is just a shame that so many of the Qld clubs are yet to adopt the more recently developed techniques that focus on relationship rather than force and domination. I'm NOT getting into an argument about what sort of training is better per se - there is a time/place/reason for a wide variety of options, I'm just talking about how I like to see dogs working in sporting pursuits. I know it isn't the stereotypical working to avoid a correction that I see way too much of in some quarters.

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I love watching dogs do agility, it looks like they're having so much fun :D Some of the courses look complicated though, how long does it take you to learn them? :) It is the hilight of both our weeks!! Pretty much exactly what Tassie said. I've been playing for about 5 or 6 years now and still learn something every weekend. I found it REALLY hard to remember courses when I first started, but it gets easier. But even the best still get lost sometimes! (not that I'm the best, but this was a bit of an embarassing moment at the world championships last year!)

hehehehe. Back tonight for more fun! This just made me smile.

And her 1/2 brother on the same course. :)

Wikki - beautiful little girl. She's improving every time we go out.

Great work Leah!!

Great work Leah!!

It is Barb. :) I've been soooooo tempted to enter her in the ADAA GP, but I've managed to stay strong. She's still getting stronger so I'll wait until next year to do ANKC (500 instead of 400) or any big ADAA events where she has to run a lot of classes. With a lot of luck I'll have her back running 550 at ADAA at some point, but if not I'm not at all concerned. I'm just happy to have my girl back and happy - she is WAY harder to live with when she is like this, but it's worth every bit of annoyance. When I think back to the sad little girl who couldn't even jump up onto a foot stool 18 months ago the 'pushy' factor is not really relevant. (I do kind of like having a dog that drives like she does too just quietly.)

Just had to share. We had a great weekend and I was super happy with all the dogs, but this one........ Is just fantastic. Xena has been injured on and off for almost the last 2 years. It seems that we might just be at the end of a VERY long road. This is her 3rd trial back and her work load has increased at each one. Still not back to full schedules, and won't ever be back to where we were, but to see her running like this just makes me smile. :D

Fantastic!

Sorry, that makes me smile ... that you have such a high opinion of joe/josephine public . So many first time puppy buyers buy a mixed breed, and would have little knowledge of what they may need to provide . pedigree dogs are also often purchased before research is done , and often, too because uncle or stepmum had so & so a breed & they looked wonderful .. If looks were not almost a priority in selling dogs - we would maybe have lots of medium coat, beige dogs , who all looked a similar shape , but with differing temperaments ..(a HUGE quantum leap , and facetious , sorry ... :D ) Looks are so important , as they also are the first thing which produce that warm fuzzy feeling Dogs/puppies with a shorter muzzle , pudgy legs ,.eyes innocent and 'pleading' & a bit 'buggy' .. & that baby pup fuzz...they are the ones who get the maternal feelings going , to bash down sensible reasoning ;) Can you blame people ?,.I don't .It is not THE responsible way to go about buying a pet ...but it is probably the most common. Well said. My first BC was bought for exactly those reasons - looked like the dog we had as a kid, not from a reputable place. Not quite spur of the moment, but not far off it. Since then I have had two more (this time pedigree) dogs come to live with me. Both from very good breeders. Neither are the temperament I want. (Far too calm..... ) I think the more people know the more they are able to make informed decisions - I can't blame anyone for doing things the way their family did when they were a kid. I liked the survey - would be interesting to see what sort of responses it comes up with. Rationally I know the dog in the pic is most likely not like my responses, but they reflect the way it made me feel about it.

Plenty of things....... *DRIVE, DRIVE AND MORE DRIVE - Can he drive to a 'dead' toy. Does he know to accelerate as hard as he can when you are running - not just run with you? *BALANCE - can he walk on things that move and is he comfortable doing it? *TOY/FOOD balance - will he swap between food and toys. (or between two toys for that matter.) Self control - can he make good decisions when in a state of arousal? (Susan Garrett has an excellent 'It's your choice' game for this. These are a few of the things that I'd be starting with.

It took Wikki one really cold night to get used to hers. She just hated it - did the cardboard cut out thing. Then one night we were camping in -2 deg temps and guess what - she's never complained about her coat again. :) (She even wears a back on track at agility without complaint.)

Just from the local pet supplies store. I think it is a Pet Barn. We are a week in and it seems to be some of the best money I've ever spent. :) I'm not sure about dogs that get reward from barking itself, but for our situation it has definitely broken the behaviour.

I have exactly this problem. When I'm home I can control the situation 100%. When I'm not home I know the dogs used to fence fight. BUT it got to the point that I could not leave my dogs out in the back yard without them getting barked at and getting annoyed myself. So......I contained my dogs to a small area at the back of our house. Which worked pretty well, but...... Saturday morning was the last straw. I let my boy out of his crate and before he was even off the back deck the dog up the back was barking at the noise. So I went and bought on of those noisy things that are set off by barking. No more problem. My dogs lounged in the back yard all weekend and the two dogs (one over the back and one to the side) have stopped their barking. I'm not convinced that the device would stop problem barking as such, but as an interruptor to behaviour it works a treat. Good luck solving the issue - I know how frustrating it can be!

I was lucky enough to get my perfect dog first cab off the rank. Xena is drivey, cheeky, gorgeous, sweet, biddable and can relax (OK, maybe that last one is more nurture than nature). I've spent the last 4 years looking for another Xena. I don't think I'll ever find another girl like her, but the cool thing is that my other dogs are just another kind of perfect. Xena just happened to be the first.

Ooooooh........cool. Something new to argue over. What does 'better' mean! IMO if a dog can cope with the methods that it's handler chooses to use, the methods are suitable in the environment they are being used in, achieve the desired results and the dog is happy in its work then it can't be a bad thing. (FTR, the agility clubs I choose to train at do not allow P+, that doesn't mean I don't use it away from the club when it is appropriate - like at sheep herding.)

Love everyone's ideas. My biggest bug bear with demos at these things is not seeing happy, engaged dogs. We have one demo troup from a well known training school up here and every time I see them the dogs just look stressed and miserable. Obedient, yes, but happy to be there and keen to work - not on your life. Just worth bearing in mind when choosing dogs/groups to do demos.