Agility Dogs

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH. I'm still waiting since 17/11. NOT HAPPY JAN. I contacted CR on 10/12 and they told me to wait until 23/12. Then on 23/12 they graciously supplied me with my tracking number.......which told me that it had been delivered to the post office on 5/12. So......Australia Post tell me that it sat there for too long (didn't ever leave there, but it had been there) and 'would have been' returned to sender and that I'd have to lodge a request to have USPS investigate. NO, I can't check with the processing centre as they don't talk to the public there. I asked CR if they could resend the package as they said they would in their first email back to me, but apparently they've forgotten to answer that part of my request.....so far. FAIL CLEAN RUN. FAIL AUSTRALIA POST.

Cool. Thanks!

It's a bugga that they have taken it off the market, but at least I'll now have all three on the one regime. (My boy's liver doesn't process Proban or its ingredients well.) For all three of them we will use a tick collar (changed more often than recommended) and Advantix (be careful of the cats - deadly for them as well.). Then we have a homeopathic remedy that goes in their water to help build up an immunity to the tick poison and another bunch of homeopathic remedies that I use if I find a tick on them. (I've found two this year - one dead, the other not in a good way, but used the homeopathic stuff any way.) Still to find one on the Advantix/Collar dog though so I'm not sure how effective that regime is.

Our 3 sleep in their crates in their 'own' room. Although recently we had to crate Xena for a couple of days and had a crate downstairs for her. She has decided to 'move in' down there. If we can't find them after about 9pm we know where to look!

Awesome. Thanks and much appreciated.

With Proban being discountinued we are just about out of our stock so the dogs will have to go onto another tick preventative. (I've pulled 2 dead Paralysis ticks off the girls this year.) I know you aren't mean to mix other methods with Proban, but can anyone give me an idea of how long I should wait after the Proban runs out until I move to the spot-on/collar? Logic suggests 2 days since that is how often the Proban is taken, but I wondered if there was any other thoughts? Cheers Tony

I went to play this morning's 'smoked ya' game and had to stop. I had 3 dogs squealing with delight!! 6:30am is a little too early for that methinks! Will get back to it later in the day and put two of them away as well!

Totally disagree - got the same crap when I first got a purebred cat. If I hadn't got a purebred cat of my chosen breed I wouldn't have got one at all. Me not getting a purebred would not have saved one cat. And we also have had purebred dogs of a breed we love from rescue - if we had not rescued the breed we wanted we would not have taken a rescue. That is again our choice. Not everyone thinks all dogs/cats are the same - not surprising as they aren't. Not everyone wants a rescue that is their choice - preaching at them, trying to guilt them into taking responsibility for other peoples negligence will only lose people who were perhaps considering rescue. Errrm.......did you read my entire post or did you just choose to quote me totally out of context to get a bite?

It's a shame, but technically what they are saying is true. That's not to say that a puppy that I don't buy from a breeder isn't going to end up the same way if I don't buy it though. I've given up feeling the need to take responsibility for other people's crap behaviour and attitudes. I know a lot of animals are in really bad situations, but just like I can't help every child that needs it I can't help every dog that is in a bad way. My interest is not in rescuing dogs, it is in training dogs, the best I can do with the time I have is to make sure I look after my dogs and encourage others who I meet to do the same. There a zealots in every walk of life and area of interest. They are best ignored.

'flyball machiene' Ist that french?

I have to agree here, I couldn't imagine crating a puppy/dog for that long! Can the puppy go outside when you're gone for that long? Or be in a laundry or similar area? To each their own. I'm quite comfortable crating dogs for that length of time if I can't avoid it. I don't do it as a matter of course, but I know people who do - especially in summer with dogs who are prone to self harm in storms. Just out of curiousity, why do you see a difference between crating a dog over night and crating them during the day?

That sounds fine, but at the same time I wouldn't be afraid of crating for 7 hours. All of mine can/do spend that amount of time in their crates at various times for various reasons. As long as you have crate trained effectviely and make sure that they are toileted before going in there it shouldn't be a problem.

PM Bull Arab. He will be able to put you in touch with the 'right' people. Cheers

Ignoring them until they settle and then appearing is a good start. If they start up again then you just go back inside. It's a game if it's your choice - you carry on, I go away. you sit quietly then I'll progress to patting, playing, whatever has the value attached. As others have said it personally doesn't bother me if they want to carry on and be stupid when I get home. (In fact one of our neighbours once said to me that the only time they carry on during the day is when it gets dark. They start up which makes the light come on and then they stop again. The light isn't automatic. They start up because they hear me in the house. They stop when I come outside and ask them to do something. ) In fact I USE the stupidity to train with. If they can maintain any criteria or do anything I'm asking when they are in that state then it makes it pretty easy to get it when they are in any other state of mind.

We can take responsibility for making the dog ring ready by exposing her in small doses, over time, to those aspects of dog shows that are difficult. We can go to training classes and work at appropriate distances. We can learn about stress and fear, and create a plan that allows the dog to build confidence in herself and in her handler. We can improve our relationship. Uh huh - I don't think we can be reminded of this enough. I was spoiled by my first dog. She is amazing - driven despite my early attempts at 'training', happy to work hard all day long, eager to please. The perfect beginners dog. Then my boy came along. He is beautiful, an awesome dog to live with and has a sense of humour (for a BC) BUT.....because I had no point of reference I just expected that all black and white dogs would perform in the same manner and set about treating him in the same way. It took me 3 years of disappointment and frustration to understand that I had gone about it all wrong - I had to work with the dog I had, not the dog I wanted. Now after 2 more years of just living the joy with CK he is going to turn out to be even more amazing than Xena has been in his own way. We'll never achieve the results in the ring that Xena and I have, but what we have achieved is so much more special. I now have a confident, drivey, exciting dog who LOVES what we do and gives 110% every time we go out - whether it is to frisbee, flyball, agility or just for a run in the bush. He really always has, I just haven't recognised it. It took me a long time to realise what SG was trying to say in this video - I think Aidan's link sums it up very nicely.

I'm the first to say that I'm not a fan of off leash areas, but I think the beach is about as good as it gets if there has to be one. There is plenty of space to get away if you need to and the dogs don't feel quite so restricted/hemmed in. I know what you are saying though - it only takes one to spoil the day for everyone.

What makes you assume that my training goal is specifically or solely aimed at competition? If you want to train specifically to win competition then fine. The dog in that video was not trained specifically or solely for competition. It doens't matter what you are aiming for, shouldn't you always want to get the best out of your dog? Even more than that if having a dog isn't about having fun then what is it about?

Not if the dog has something more fun to do. This statement shows that you don't really know what reward based methods and clicker training is all about. This is very common with "traditional" trainers, they think that clicker training means the dog is free to do whatever it wants at all times and you just click and capture it whenever it happens to do something right. So for the record, that's not how it works.

Sorry to go OT but .............. Sadly, there are clubs today who still train this way. Happiest day of my (relatively short) dog training was the first time I returned to my dog and she didn't cringe. I'm not convinced that the behaviours we achieved with correction based training were any more reliable than the behaviours we have achieved with rewards based training. My job is to make sure that my dogs don't get the opportunity to rehearse undesirable behaviours. If they do then I have not controlled the environment adequately or have pushed the dog too far too soon.

We had a GREAT morning this morning. Instead of going down to the park we went on our 'bush walk'. It is through a series of tracks that run through a big area of bushland. Most people let their dogs wander off lead (I don't trust my 3 not to rev each other up too much so they are on lead.) so it is really good for distraction training. Instead of just walking the 4 or so km's through the bush we stopped 4 time and played the hand touch game and push back and jam on the bush tracks. It was really good fun to have the dogs working in a very different enviroment. Wikki is continuing to improve (and is the focus of doing the course), but CK is just amazing. I've seen a MASSIVE improvement in him. Tugging like a demon in an enviroment that in the past has been cause for a total lack of focus and more than a little fear at times. Loving this!!

Interesting week one of Recallers. In review....... 1. My dog training is crap. I am lazy, I need to focus on foundations of dog training far more. Not foundation skills of the dogs, my skills - doing the simple stuff right and not cutting corners and making sure I pay 110% attention to my dog. 2. When I do focus on this the performance of the dogs is significantly better than what it has been. 3. My dogs value me far more than they do OH , but we are working on that. 4. Only very high level distractions are an issue and even then it depends on the game. 5. I need to have more fun with our training and not be so serious about it. 6. I should practice mechanics of rewarding sans dogs. All in all I think the course is going to be VERY valuable as a reminder, but also to give me a really cool structure to build Wikki's drive. Roll on Week 2.

If it were 1 dog? 2 dogs? 3 dogs? You wouldn't rule out a breeder because one of their dogs had a health issue, would you? Aesthetics I'm not really concerned about - something that affects the health of the dog is more my concern.

Hypothetically if you really liked the way a particular breeder's dogs worked (regardless of the discipline - just think of what you do with your dogs), but you knew that some of the dogs had problems that may or may not be a result of their breeding would you still consider bringing one into your home? Looking at it another way - at what point do risks start to outweigh outstanding performance? How many dogs or what % of dogs from a particular breers starts to constitute a problem to be avoided rather than bad luck?