Agility Dogs

With ADAA the dog has to drop on the table & the weave poles are closer together. We are going out to the ADAA Grand Prix at Tamworth in October. Any other DOLERS going Should be a real good 4 day weekend in a huge new indoor equestrian arena. Because my dog is 510 she wil have to jump higher at 550 & there will be wings on the jumps. So a few challenges to work on beforehand. At present she will drop automatically on the table in practice & at training, but no way will she drop in a trial Yep - we will be there. The Grand Prix is always a great weekend. Nice and relaxed, but heaps on at the same time. Both my guys jump 550 - one is 475mm and the other is 540mm. (Make sure your dog is registered in the Regular Programme if you want them to jump 550 in the intermediate and open events. Otherwise they will be jumping 650mm.) See you there! Yep....we have her down as Regular. This is our first time & have put in for "everything eligble"....how will I recognize you....dogs names maybe I'll be the one with 2.5 BC's - all black and white. CK and Xena are my dogs who will be running. Wikki is the little thing that looks like a bear cub at the moment. I'll be in BAD clothing - bright yellow and blue. AFAIK I will be the only guy from our club so I shouldn't be too hard to spot. If all else fails just ask someone to point out Tony from the BAD club and they are likely to know who you are talking about.

With ADAA the dog has to drop on the table & the weave poles are closer together. We are going out to the ADAA Grand Prix at Tamworth in October. Any other DOLERS going Should be a real good 4 day weekend in a huge new indoor equestrian arena. Because my dog is 510 she wil have to jump higher at 550 & there will be wings on the jumps. So a few challenges to work on beforehand. At present she will drop automatically on the table in practice & at training, but no way will she drop in a trial ;) Yep - we will be there. The Grand Prix is always a great weekend. Nice and relaxed, but heaps on at the same time. Both my guys jump 550 - one is 475mm and the other is 540mm. (Make sure your dog is registered in the Regular Programme if you want them to jump 550 in the intermediate and open events. Otherwise they will be jumping 650mm.) See you there!

WOW. sounds fantastic! Good luck.

For me - I 'knew' I needed to get another dog when my girl was nine months old - for a whole host of reasons. In hind sight most of those reasons were WRONG. I have just got my third with both the other dogs being about 4 years old. This is the right time. The difference is that now both the older dogs are well trained and performing exactly how I want them to in most of the things we do. There are no questions being asked of our pack structure and they acknowledge me as the leader. They are established in their order and understand their place in the world. When I got our second dog that was not the case. There were questions being asked (I didn't know that at the time), Xena was an awesome little dog, but she was still not where I wanted her to be. The two young dogs had to sort out what their own pack order was - too many niggles etc. Now with the new dog the two older dogs are helping to train her to live by our rules. There are still no questions in the household and because the older dogs are trained they are not missing out on anything. (They are still training EVERY day, just not with the same intensity needed for a younger dog.) I can understand you wanting another dog, but personally there will always be at least 3.5 to 4 years between my dogs from now on. I wouldn't get another dog until you current pup is at least 2. At 9 months you still have more fun and games to come and another dog will just make it all the more dificult. This mightn't be what you want to hear, but it is my experience. Hope it helps.

yep, there are two clubs. The obedience club is on the main road just near the brick works - they train week nights. (not sure which ones). The Agility Dog Club of Qld trains on a Sunday afternoon/evening and is largely a reward based/clicker style of training. The basic course focusses on relationship with your dog rather than technical obedience skills and does led into agility. I instruct there and train most weeks as well. Cheers Tony

I think this depends on the sport and the dog. We have a number of dogs at flyball who love to race and love to win. My boy in particular looks over to the other lane to see if he has beaten the other dog! It is very funny to watch - he will try harder and harder until he beats the other dog, then he celebrates. I am not joking! Interestingly he lopes at training and gets beaten by dogs that are a full second slower than he is. When he sees orange bunting though it is GAME ON. I'm sure there are other sports where the dogs are similar, but aside from this I don't think the dogs have a preference between competition and training - competition is more a human thing IMO. ETA - I compete because I love to test my dogs and our relationship against others. It takes our relationship to a whole new level and tests its limits then gives us something to work on at training which strengthens it further. It is also a good ego boost - titles are a great way to satisfy human needs.

My two girls are besotted by me. Xena sits and stares at me for hours at a time if we are not working- on our trip to canberra last year she lay there and stared at me for the entire trip (14 hours). Wikki is becoming just as intense at only 4 months! CK loves his whole family, but his true heart dog is Xena first and foremost (oops - won't let that happen again), but then a friend from agility and our first vet nurse when he came to live with us is his heart human person.

If you want to start training your dogs with a club you could consider the Agility Dog Club of Queensland. They offer a basic obedience course to begin with and then if you like it you can move agility classes. The way they teach is more about the relationship you have with your dogs than it is about the technical side of obedience. If you think your pups are really out of control a qualified behaviourist might be a better bet, but if you feel you can get them to work with you then you might consider this. Their website is http://www.adcq.com.au/ Cheers

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This is why I won't let my dogs run/play with dogs they don't know well and haven't been introduced to slowly over time. I cringe when I watch some of the dogs play after training at some clubs. I spend too much time working with them to risk having them injured because of a dog that they don't understand or a dog that doesn't understand them. They know each other and do play roughly together (for BC's), but I think it is different with dogs they are not playing with all the time. (Sits back and counts Chiro/Physio bills.) ETA - in answer to the original question. I get asked all the time when people see me playing with my dogs. If I think I can help and it is not an aggression/household issue then I'll offer some sort of ideas. If I think I'm out of my depth (usually this is the case) I'll say I don't know their breed or something similar and suggest they get qualified help.

BCC has a limit of 2 dogs without an extra permit. If you want to keep 3 or 4 dogs you have two legal options. 1. Apply to be allowed to keep an extra 2 companion animals - for this permit they MUST be desexed before the permit will be granted. You also need adequate fencing, be disposing of waste effectively, cannot live on a small (< about 450m I think) block - that's about it. 2. Apply for a 'breeders or show dog' permit. This has exactly the same conditions as the first permit except that (obviously) dogs don't have to be desexed and you need to 'keep records' of dogs that come and go from your property. Other than that the costs and conditions are all the same. You don't have to be a CCCQ member to get the 'breeders' permit, although it does get you a discount for registering entire dogs. You can apply for the permit before getting your third or fourth dog and the permit is for any 3 or 4 dogs - they no longer specify the dogs you can keep. The permit costs aabout $180 a year (plus individual dog registration and a $40 application fee) and involves an annual property inspection. For a complaint to jeapordise the permit it must relate specifically to the number of dogs eg: Amount of waste in the yard etc. Noise is not related to the number of dogs apparently, but is dealt with as it would be for a person with 2 dogs. I chose to get the second permit because I don't want to have to sterilise my dogs as a matter of course if I see good reason to keep them entire. FTR - my two older dogs are desexed and by puppy bitch will be before too much longer. I would keep a dog entire until maturity if I were to get another boy puppy.

After my first two (who love their crates and go in when asked) I promised my next one would be a crate games graduate. We are just about there - she drives nicely in and out of her crate, we are just starting on the last phase.

What you say is so true. The minute people realise they have done something wrong they get ready for a blast. I get it here - not in retail, but it is a high pressure sales environment (the pressure is on our staff, not on our customers). If they make a mistake their customers are rarely understanding or even polite. Old story - more flies with honey than with vinegar. People don't go out of their way to annoy others - for the most part. Why get all up tight when something goes wrong..... Good on you!

Another alternative is Proban tablets. I use these from September through until April and then top that up with a Homeopathic (don't remember the name) treatment during the cooler months. We came home from a trip down south last year to a well known tick area and I pulled 16 ticks off the two dogs - all crawlies were dead. Dogs were fine. I don't use collars because they are a good game for my dogs - steal each other's collars. Spot ons scare my boy so I won't use them either. As others have said - daily checks are the best way to go. I found one on my girl two years ago 4 days before she was due to go on her meds for the year so nothing is fool proof. ETA - it is the tick stop you mentioned in your first post. Rowan, owner of animal options likes it, but recommends a chemical treatment to go with it if you ask him...........he reckons they'd be OK with just the tick stop, but says it is still a risk.

I agree Vickie - some puppies just aren't ready. With Wikki I'm lucky - it's almost like she was born to work, but we are still really focussed on play with heaps of drive/balanced with self control. She is just as excited, focussed and interested regardless of whether it is circle work (like heel work only on both sides) or flat out tugging or playing crate games. If she were a different type of pup I'd be inclined to work differently and just focus on play with some rules. There is no way any dog should be allowed to live without rules until they are 2 months - let alone 2 years. Perhaps what the vet meant was that they should let the puppy play and enjoy puppy hood and avoid formal obedience until the age of 2?

I have a very similar story. We have Petplan insurance and they have been brilliant! Jedi has a chronic condition, but they will cover him for life. This year alone they have saved us just shy of $2,000 (that is taking into account the cost of the insurance and the excess). This is in no way a dig at you, but both these stories are another one of the reasons I don't have pet insurance. For everyone with a good story like this there are a heap of others paying for it. Call me a gambler.

I feel you pain as well. Only difference is I ASKED for a puppy like that. (I think confident and drivey were my words.) That's exactly what I got. She is the naughties little dog in the world, but we love her for it and know that in time all the grief will pay off.

CK's would have to be the music from the Mr Whippy/Ice cream van. I'm sure that is all that goes on in his head sometimes.

Very cool! FHRP.

I've just cancelled my insurance because a lot of the treatments I choose and how I choose to work with my dogs is not covered. (I don't vaccinate - I titre test, I use homeopathics etc etc etc) I figure at $130 a month (3 dogs) it won't take long to add up. Even if we do have a disaster I am in the lucky position to be able to afford fixing the puppies. At some point the insurance companies start making money. I wonder if it is 3 dogs. LOL. Maybe I just need more dogs to reach critical mass.

I was wondering how I was going to do that for the puppy!

CK's run from the weekend. I was wrapped!! I really feel like Xena stole a CK suit. Now I just have to get him to run like this on ADAA courses.

We had a good day out. Mr CK was very happy in all his runs and got his first Q in ADX with a great run, if you discount the way I handled him on a truly evil dog walk approach - I didn't want him hurting himself and I didn't think he had the understanding to do it without some serious baby sitting so I made it messy, but safe. He even got his weavers 3 times out of 3. (I think he likes the slightly wider ANKC weavers.) Xena ran really well, but I have to go back to working on contacts and insisting on criteria. ADO - one fault. AD - One fault. JDO - Q with a very nice run. Not talking about JDX. No bars down from her for the whole day though.....

I agree - there is stupidity all around us - not just limited to small or large breed owners. Although, I have to say that large breed owners with aggressive dogs seem to be more aware of the problem. Dumbest comment of all time was from a small breed owner. As she let her rat mutt run straight into my two BC's unimpressed faces - 'oh, that's why I've got a small dog, at least I can control him'. WTF - I had two strong dogs under control if a little stressed by the fact that a barking and snapping little rat had dragged its owner across the street and into their faces. If my dogs were under control in a similar manner to what hers was she would no longer have that little dog and mine would have been declared dangerous a long time ago. If that is true of small dogs, I find big dog owners seem to be less aware of when their dogs are 'just playing' and causing other dogs to stress about the situation they find themselves in. Before I knew any better I let a Goldie who 'just wanted to play' jump all over CK and hurt him. It took me two years to get CK to a point where he would let a retriever type dog near him with getting defensive. I think there are great owners of all types of dog, but there are also idiots - it just seems that the idiots always have different dogs to what you do. Although I do see some people with working breeds who should not be allowed to have them!!

Ah yes, they were the days. Feral, out of control border collie that did EXACTLY as it pleased and me without ANY clue of how to change things. Latest addition to the pack is not quite so (un)lucky and has not been allowed to put a foot wrong and is doing very nicely.