Agility Dogs

Agree with what others have said. I won't take my boy to dog parks because he won't tolerate crap from other annoying dogs and tells them off. He has never hurt another dog and has never initiated anything, but other owners don't see it that way - their 'playful' dog that has just jumped all over my boy is the one that is on its back. Easier just to not put him in that situation. We have just introduced a puppy to our house. CK behaves exactly the same way with her - only she gets a little more latitude than an unknown dog. If she over steps the mark she is walloped and knows not to do it again. BUT if anyone or anything looks like it is a threat to 'his' puppy, look out. All part of the circle of life I guess.

Our 'garbage bin cat' is a nasty piece of work and behaved exactly as you describe for about 14 or 15 months when she first came to live with us. She has settled considerably, but still has her moments where she feels the need to take a piece out of someone or something. (Nursing badly scratched hand at present.) She LOVES her scratching post too. I think it has something to do with being removed too early - her mother was 'run over' or so the story goes. We got her at 7 weeks. The only animal she won't attack is our most mild mannered/submissive dog strangely enough. I think becasue they grew up together Xena might have got a couple of good ones in before Jazzy, the cat realised she could win the game.

Doesn't that just make your day when it happens?! I find it interesting to look at the 'type' of person who makes those comments. The ones who are engaged with their dog and look like they are enjoying themselves walking their dogs generally make nice comments or stop to watch. The ones who look like it is a chore to be out are the ones who are more likely to give the evil eye.

Here are the rat bags - all 4 of us. LOL. Note two of them sitting nice and relaxed, one with it's hand subtly through the other's collar. Wikki is a Winpara BC - 1/2 sister to Mr CK (Tag is Dad to both).

I guess these are the same people who can't work out why their dog runs off on them every time they let it off lead or won't come back reliably. I know I am pedantic with my dogs, but IMO I'm the one who has chosen to have drivey working dogs in a city situation so I need to be the one to make sure that they are under control. This means they don't live in a democracy and don't get to make decisions until I know they are the right ones......... Puppy definitely doesn't make right decisions yet - although is showing potential!

This is intersting. I answered for 4 border collies - 2 x 2 pedigree and 2 x pet shop. One boy from a pet shop (amongst his myriad of other behavioural and health problems) had OCD so bad that our vets felt he would be due for 2 ops in the first 18 months of his life and then ongoing pain management. We gave him his wings. Our little pet shop girl has some skin allergies, but we have them under control with diet and shampoo/soap choices. The two from breeders have to date been fine. (must be said one is only 15 weeks old - LOL.)

We are thinking about going away for a week or so early next year. I spoke with Leanne from Brisbane Pet Motel at Boondall on the weekend and she is happy to accept a titre test as proof of vacc. Might be worth a call.

I also think there is a difference between socialising a dog and allowing a dog to socialise............

That's the bizarre thing. I actually said to him that I was happy for his dogs to be there - just that mine wasn't allowed to play with them through the fence. Mine are allowed to play when they are not working, but if they are working then I don't want them running off with or without other dogs. (Not a good look in a flyball ring and I don't want to create bad habits early.) Until the dogs are 15 or 18 months old their sessions are only ever 2 or 3 minutes at the most any way. If there were not two other completely fenced areas right there and I hadn't chosen to go into one that was empty in it might have been a different story.

My thoughts exactly. Experience doesn't aquaint with knowledge either. I think provided a novice dog owner researches a breed, takes time to learn about what is required to keep it and is prepared to put effort in, then any breed might be suitable. I can think of people who've owned several dogs that I wouldn't recommend as dog owners for any breed. :D Totally agree with this. My first dog (Xena) is a REALLY high drive Border Collie who for many people, even those who have had 3 or 4 or 5 dogs would just be too much. I LOVE her and put the work in because of her needs and she has turned me into the dog nut I am now. I think it depends on the type of person, the time they have to commit and their general outlook on life. Some people should never own some breeds, some people will cope with whatever is thrown at them.

Some people just have no idea and take offence WAY too easily. Yesterday I had my 3 down at the field where we do agility - they are fenced softball fields that the club has access to at any time when they are not playing softball. General public shouldn't really be there, but it is an awesome, fenced space that you can run dogs without worrying about the whole dog park thing so no one worries too much when someone is on there - there are 3 fields, all fenced. There is a council dog park not more than 150m over the way if that is what you want. So........my 2 adult BC's tied to the fence intently watching 'their puppy' working with me, but had been swapping one dog to the next. Guy in the softball field next to us decides he wants to come over and watch, brining his cavvies (now outside 'his' fence and off lead) with him. Not a problem, good in fact, it gives my pup a distraction, which she gladly runs off to (remembering they are on the other side of a fence). I went and got the puppy and continued the game - puppy ran off again, same response from me, the guy says, 'but it's good socialisation for them'. I said - they are well socialised, but aren't allowed to play when they are working. Guy makes some sort of noise that suggests he was not impressed and wandered off with his two dogs. I wasn't cranky, I was totally neutral to both the guy with the dogs and my pup. Why would you get worked up when someone is clearly working their dogs and just wants to enforce the rules for their dogs? If you want to play in a dog park, go and play in one. Otherwise respect what others are doing. Rant over. (Or am I missing something.)

x2. All our dogs see Rowan and Jenny every couple of months.

That's a really good question, I wish I knew the answer for sure. I'm not convinced that it is totally about being proud or showing off the new skill as much as it might be the most recent and intense reward history. I know with greener dogs who have been drilled for a week on a piece of agility equipment it is common for them to seek out that piece of equipment on a course the following weekend and be proudly sitting at the end of it waiting for a reward. I wonder if that is something similar?

We've now had our 3rd dog (15 week old puppy) for almost 2 weeks. Although she came quite quickly and I hadn't planned on it for another 12 months or so I had been thinking about bringing another pup into the house for a little while so I wasn't completely unprepared. What has happened since she arrived HAS been a total surprise though. I thought Xena and the puppy would be best mates, and CK would be the one I would have to watch. Xena (bitch) is still miss independent, don't want to know about the other animals in the house, except occasionally on her terms. She now acknowledges the puppy, but is yet to engage in play with her. CK (dog) is the one who has surprised me. It is like he has grown up overnight. He has gone from being the puppy of the house who would look to Xena for support all the time to being top dog without question. He is disciplining the puppy when she needs it (although he won't do it in front of me again , we have an understanding that it is not his job to do that), he is also looking after 'his' puppy - eg: we have a very nasty cat who takes no crap from the dogs. CK is gently sliding between the cat and the puppy and pushing the cat out of the way if it looks like there will be a problem. He does the same if the puppy is starting to annoy Xena too much. He is also calmer when we walk past other dogs in the street - almost like he needs to be stronger. I know this is not a reflection of me because with the 3 dogs I have been more tense. As for the puppy she adores both the other dogs and is very respectful. The coolest bit though is that she has bonded more to me than the dogs. (Didn't want another dog bonding to it's kennel mate more than to me - oops.) I know I'm going to have to stay on top of things as the pup gets older (she is quite a pushy little dog and her mother's name is Miss Pushy Push), but for now I could not be more pleased with the way it is all panning out. Just thought I'd share for those who are thinking about it.

I've ticked 3 boxes for 2 dogs. CK came from a breeder here in Qld who was recommended to me by a friend at work and the BC Club of Qld also mentioned that she had a litter on the ground - meant to be. Our latest pup, Wikki, came not from that kennel, but has the same sire as CK so she is from the same oines if not the same breeder. Word of mouth/reputation of the breeder was also a good reason for me to go with this breeder. I would have been happy to have a pup from either person.

Woohoo! Congratulations Yeah I have some video of Jedi... He is still very much a beginner, but it was fun to give him a race! It's been an interesting road with Jedi - at his first flyball training session he did a full run without the ball... And I have spent the last 9 months convincing him that the name is flyBALL for a reason!!!!!! He FINALLY got it 3 weeks ago! He has the most beautiful box turns but I have just been focusing on him getting the ball... So now I just need to remind him of what he's supposed to do on the box. I only have photos of Ahsoka from the weekend... But this was her debut race back when she was doing 6.8 second runs.... She clocked a 5.6 second run on the weekend Too cute - I love seeing 'other breeds' running in flyball. (You don't need a BC to play flyball, you just have to be able to beat one......... ) I love BC's and am not likely to have another breed (unless I can convince OH to let me get a working Kelpie ), but I really love seeing dogs you wouldn't normally associate with a sport playing it and having fun!! AWESOME.

Absolutely, I tell anyone the dogs are in contact with (or at least did the one time they got it.) I also tell ADAA straight away so that they can advise their members that there were dogs at such and such a trial or at such and such training. Names are not mentioned. At the end of the day it is just like a cold so no one is really to blame unless they carelessly trek their dogs outside of the home when they know they are sick.

AWESOME WORK!! We had a dreadful weekend (or at least I did - the puppies were really good.). Xena got one card on Saturday night for Open Jumping which finished off our Aust Jumping Dog title (7 jumping Cards that have not been used for other titles). Then Xena and her mate got first in the pairs event and CK and his mate got second. Other than that I think we eliminated on just about everything - I was off with the fairies and kept making basic mistakes. Oh well, at least they were quick and we can go off to our CCCQ trial this weekend and do some remedial work on a couple of simpler courses. (

x2. I love the Susan Salo DVD's for this type of training - based in the horse world it actually teaches the dogs to jump and more importantly judge jumps.

True, unless you are my girl who gives her toys to any other dog who approaches - just in case. That said, this is exactly why I don't take my BC's to dog parks. They are VERY serious about their toys or in fact any work they might be doing - anyone who interrupts is in trouble. I wouldn't put too much stock in the dog park incident, but would also not be letting your pup play with toys around other dogs - they are a resource and will more than likely be guarded. I agree with others who have mentioned getting your dog checked again for any problems - they should not be curling their lip at you and it may be a sign of pain. But again agree that I would not be correcting the behaviour - better to know they are not happy and have a chance to redirect than not know, but have to bear the consequences.

SG does have a running contact on AF - when she was here last time she spoke about it briefly but wouldn't give too many details - wondering if she was possibly thinking about future DVD. Only thing she would disclose was that she taught an all 4 feet in the contact zone, so am guessing she used a method similar to Rachel Sander's box method- which has been released as a DVD since then so maybe that idea is not happening any more. She also stated that the only reason she taught a running contact to this particular dog was that she wanted to win worlds - and when you are talking .02 and times like this separating competitors she believed it may give her an edge. She said that she would not recommend it to anyone else as she didn't believe it was 100% reliable and indeed does not teach it to anyone else. Not sure if she is actually more actively promoting it now or not - will be interesting to see when she comes back this year. Doubt that SG (or most of the top trainers) would ever 'early' release on a contact - more likely to quick release which is not the same thing although it may look similar when watching. Tiggy, crate games are really good for teaching the focus forward so then it is in place before you ever get near equipment. I also do it with mine and their food bowl at dinner time - set them up like a start line and stand in various postions around the room and they need to look away from me at the bowl in front of them (not hard) before releasing them. Yep, happy to stand corrected. Have done a bit of homework and I was wrong. She is working with her younger dog to get the running aframe right, but is doing 2o2o on the other equipment. This comes from a VERY reliable source who is in contact with Susan frequently.

Agree, did not look pretty. I can only go on what LOH has told us at clinics - perhaps it was just not a good day.

GG - I would be teach with a target as suggested. Kavik - Susan doesn't use a running contact - the rule for the dog is consistently that the end of a contact is effectively a stay unless the dog is told otherwise. In that vid she will have done an early release for the a-frame (or the dog ran it - unlikely though) which may be why she used the nose touch for the other contacts.

Taught properly running contacts mean that the dog knows to drive for a spot at the bottom of the contact and then keep on going with no thought of a stop. Exactly as it sounds - they 'run' the contacts. How are you teaching your 2o2o contatcts at the moment?

Were they truly a running contact or were they super quick releases for a 2o2o? For a nationals you may find they were giving a release before the dog had assumed its contact position - at last that is what a US trainer told me they do at big comps a few years back. She said after a Nationals or large regional qualifying event she will then spend a few weeks reproofing the contacts and getting the dog to assume and hold position. The conversation came up as I was at the time trying to convnice trainers at my club to start training a contact behaviour and asked her id she had some videos to show of her dogs using it in comps, but the only videos she had brought with her were nationals videos where she released the dog before it stopped so did not show a solid contact behaviour. It has been a few years since I have done agility so someone like Vickie will probably be able to clarify/explain that better than me. I was going to make the same comment - the dogs may be running through their contacts, but his is because thye have been allowed to do it, not because they have been trained to always run. I know Linda Orton-Hill and Susan Garrett don't have running contacts, but they will release before their dogs stop if they are looking for super fast times.