Agility Dogs

I think it is less about getting your dog to slow down and more about making sure they totally understand the exercise. I have the same problem, so I feel your pain.

Yep, our breeder told us to desex our girl early (before her first season) to help avoid girl/girl trouble. So far so good.

You are right. Passes from any level (except elementary) count towards your AAD title - must be Jumping or Agility as you have said. Games only count towards Games titles and you MAAD title. (yes, jumplers is a game). Hope that helps. Thanks for the info....one of my passes is Comb-Starters, Agility, can that be used towards to AAD Title Yep, starters is always the Combined Program (all dogs jumping the lower 'regular' height). All 4 of my cards for both dogs' AAD titles came from starters. :D

LOL. I think the goal is to have a more rounded dog achieving titles - hence the mix of agility and jumpers in the titles. I guess its what I 'grew up' with so I've never known any different. (At least not until I started doing ANKC trials.) The upside is that there are different titles like Team Dog, Games Dog and Jumping Dog to complement the 'normal' ones.

You are right. Passes from any level (except elementary) count towards your AAD title - must be Jumping or Agility as you have said. Games only count towards Games titles and you MAAD title. (yes, jumplers is a game). Hope that helps.

Sorry to go off topic, but why did the dog need 2 weeks of NSAIDS after an xray? Was there something more lurking?

I always find, "Oh, by the way you might want to keep an eye on your dogs, mine have been coughing a bit lately" tends to get the desired result......... We have one idiot who lives behind us who thinks it is OK for his Lab to wander in and out of people's yards and can't understand why my boy HATES this dog. He has twice wandered into our garage when CK was tethered in there and spends much of his days barking at my dogs over the fence. As my Dad would say, 'You can't put brains in statues.' I've found the best thing I can do is to remain calm and upbeat while we walk away. This gives the right message to my dogs and usually the people get the message if I just completely ignore them. CK doesn't like dogs in his face and well belt any dog (esp off lead) that gets too close to us - unless I tell him not to and I don't have eyes in the back of my head, getting cranky at the owners just inflames the situation.

My boys last (and only) X-ray was $250 - no sedation. We had another pup xrayed while under general (being desexed) and that was about the same. (Different vet.) I guess it depends on the xray that is being taken and the vet + any sedation required.

Her Royal Wooness (Wikki) came to us in Brisbane from Perth at 12 weeks. She didn't really want to come out of her crate when she arrived at the airport, but once we got over that hurdle she set about her job of world domination and has not since taken a backward step - quite a confident young lady for a BC. Although I'm not a breeder I wouldn't (and won't) hesitate to bring our next pup over from the same kennel. (Our breeder would have preferred her to come a little younger.)

The easiest way is to seperate them. Changing those rules won't confuse Jed. He may object/complain initially, but you make the rules so he just has to suck it up. If you want them to co-exist then you should probably refer to an experiences behavioural professional - no doubt you will get recommendations from others. FTR - My BC's and cats are never left unsupervised and ANY nastiness or sideways look from either cats or dogs is cause for seperation. The cats are just too small and precious to risk an altercation.

These are from our back yard.

Anyone who says that dogs don't experience emotion needs to watch this. Maybe not in the same way that we do, but that dog is confused, afraid and saddened.

I do see EVERY little thing that my dogs do tht is not normal - my vet thinks I am a freak because of a couple of the things that I have picked up on. (NOT a freak for taking them in unnecessarily, but for how closely they are monitored.) I don't worry about anything happening to them while we are out - I do worry about them annoying the neighbours (even though we've had neighbours for 2 years who only last week realised we had dogs. LOL. I figure that as long as I look after them as well as I can there isn't too much point in worrying as I can only manage what happens as it happens. I don't EVER want them to get hurt, but on the flip side they are sporting dogs so it will happen. Anyone who was to steal them (and good luck trying with 2 of the 3) would bring them back after a day or two so no worries there either. All in all they are my mates and I care about them, but don't worry continually, although in times gone by I was probably verging on that.

YES, YES and YES......... Table was the difference between 1st and 4th......

Very infrequently. I can't remember the last time one of my dogs did one in an ADAA trial.

A friend of mine did a LOT of research after her dog went missing last year. This is the one she has settled on - I would trust her decision and am considering one (each) for our dogs.

A friend of mine did a LOT of research after her dog went missing last year. This is the one she has settled on - I would trust her decision and am considering one (each) for our dogs.

I have to agree with others who have said they would not keep a puppy like this alive. I'm making assumptions in saying this - the dog is not pain free. The dog is not able to function normally (needs to be toiletted). IFF that is the case then I would be giving the poor little thing its wings. We did just that with a young BC who the vets told us would be on pain management for the remainder of his life after an op to correct severe OCD. I would do it again if faced with the same decision. So, no, I don't find this inspirational.

I have two adult dogs who have been brought up in a reasonably similar manner. The girl is super tolerant, but once she has had enough she will tell another dog off. The boy is not at all tolerant - he will belt another dog for what he sees as a trangression of his rights. (Unless I tell him not too.) As others have said, I'm far happier as a handler (and so is my boy) now that I have come to the conclusion that if another dog is rude to him he doesn't have to grin an bear it. The only down side to this (and why I try an avoid situations where he is on the receiving end) is that at some point he might come across a dog that doesn't appreciate his point of view and wants to make a point of it.

1. Do you ever use punishment in agility training? And if so, what type?Yes, I do. If my girl decides to jump off a contact she gets a time out in a sit before she is allowed to continue. If she decides to do it a second time she walks off the course at heel and goes into her crate. This is a dog that is at advanced/masters standard and understands contact behaviour, but has been allowed to get away with jumping off contacts and now pushes the boundaries. Effectively this is probably removal of reward (the next jump), but in essence it is also a punishment. For a younger, green dog I do not use punishment - my job is to make sure I don't ask for something that is not understood - foundations need to be in place BEFORE moving to the next phase. (Note to self - repeat 28 times every morning before training puppy.) 2. Do you follow a similar reinforcement schedule as in obedience (continuous - intermittent - random)...or do you reinforce the behaviour every single time?I don't do obedience formally, but start with a continuous schedule and then move to an intermittent schedule. 3. What are the best training techniques (flooding, luring, guiding, mimicry, targeting, shaping etc) to teach a dog to weave?I like the 2 x 2 method and use shaping to achieve it. I will be able to comment on a time frame in about 2 months time when I start with my youngster who has NO CLUE what weave poles are. (Other than a chew toy when they are left in the back yard......... )

Had a great night at agility tonight. Xena was flying, although we had a couple of little arguments about contats and she walked off one course at heel. CK just keeps getting better and better. No cards for him, although he did get his part of the team event right. This is Xena's Open B jumping run.

We go every year to play flyball and to be honest I see fewer problems at this event than I do at a regular dog park. Some dogs are a little reactive and there are some idiot owners with not much clue about what their dogs are doing (I did say I went to play flyball...... ), but over all the dogs are over awed and well behaved. Personally I wouldn't be going if I didn't have a reason, but I don't get out of bed without a reason so that's nothing to go by. In previous years though we have been involved in the RSPCA's demonstrations walking to and from the flyball ring (with one reactive dog) and have not had any problems. Like anything a little care goes a long way. ETA - don't forget, only a small proportion of the RSPCA's people are directly involved with or could be expected to understand dog behaviour. Just because they wear a blue and green shirt doesn't mean they have the first clue about dogs. Even though it is the MPW the day is still about all the RSPCA's depts.

or their butt :rolleyes: Just means you aren't running hard enough.........

I probably think of it more as 'keep the connection with your dog' IMO this is the key in agility. It's not necessary to be looking at them all the time, just when you really need a connection. (when you are asking them to change direction. Even if you aren't looking at them though you SHOULD be able to turn and see their nose at any given point.

This morning's effort........they work in sequence