Mrs Rusty Bucket

Ptolomy Maybe we should organise a dog comp in a winery region. McLaren Vale here we come (hic).

Hi Jigsaw You might do as well with ruff love and shaping success. I do like the online format though. Sometimes I like to see how it's done (or not done) as much as read the instructions. And get feed back and more ideas if it doesn't go according to instruction.

The FAQ I think the webinar recorded video will be available for 24 hours ie until 10am SA time tomorrow. Maybe longer cos they're allowing sign up next week too. SG is answering questions now. http://www.puppypeaks.com/fe/12953-live-webinar-june-23rd-830pm It was one big ad for puppy training / foundation training. But $200 Canadian seems good value for a 12 month access to training videos. Sign up for Founding members is available until 10am Saturday (Adelaide time) people who sign up now get something called the "puppy pyramid reference guide" Inner Circle members (recallers 2) should have an email that gives them access right now. Monthly payment option will be available from next week. If you don't sign up now or in the next 7 days - you probably can't sign up later.

The way I think of it - training should be much harder than what you do in the trial ring. So the trial elements seem relatively easy. You still have to pay attention to what you're doing now, and not stuff it up because you're thinking ahead about what you're going to do next instead of what you're doing now. So if I can't get it right in training, I think that trialing would be a waste of time. If training is seeming relatively easy - then it's time to give trialing a go ie to up the challenge.

Yup I signed up for the 8:30pm Toronto time / 10am Adelaide time one. From experience, it pays to have your computer all set up about 30 mins before and hit the refresh button lots and make sure the dog is exhausted and happy sleeping or she wants to help. sigh.

I think it's about focus / motiviation / drive ie if the dog is focussed on you in the face of all distractions, then the trial ring should not be a problem. if the dog is only focussed on the food you carry - you've got more work to do. The only way I can stop pre-comp stress is to be completely not bothered by the outcome. The more I want to "pass" the worse I do. If I put my attention and desire on doing each element as it is, assuming my dog can do it correctly and won't have problems with "traps", and don't worry about the pass/fail aspect, then I do better. Ie the more I can not-care about the outcome the better I do because I can just pay attention to what I'm doing right now. Which is hard in agility cos you have to look where you're going and remember when you need to get your dog's attention quickly and not crash, or go too slowly, and having trained a really good "wait", if you say "wait" when your dog is on the top of the scramble, you have to release her to get her down. Oops. So with trialing and training, it helps to get your dog excited about being with you, and her blood pumping before you start any exercise. For me that involves a bit of on lead running and tug (on the lead) and then she's pretty keen to be right on me all the way round. All I got to do now is explain that she doesn't need to herd me to go faster.

What this thread needs is a bad dog trainer...

Saw the two gorgeous great danes at Vic Park this morning after dog class. One is tan and the other is grey with spots. Only nasty thing was owner wouldn't pick up after the one that crapped. And the crap was huge and stinky and sloppy. I hate that.

A certain someone I know, has started using a fishing jacket for holding the food. Ie dog doesn't associate no treat bag with no treat. My dog loves a certain ordinary item that I depend on - as a treat but it's not food. I've seen other dog trainers use their hat and their lead as tug toys. I have an A+ reward treat that I only produce on completion of a sequence. And I may show it to dog before I start the sequence so she knows it is on offer. It wouldn't be too hard to have this stashed outside the ring. But a very high rate of re-inforcement for the dog paying attention to you, should help. And my dog does the down stay the whole time wagging her tail, because guess what we practice before she gets to hook into her dinner? And I don't take dinner to club or trials.

snuzzlebum You could try putting the dry ration in a squirrel dude or similar so the dog has to work all the food out to eat it. You also need to measure out how much food you're giving her and cut that back by 5% a week, until she starts to drop weight. A hungry dog is fine but like ish said, a ready supply of carrots or maybe a nylabone may help. And when the dog comes and tells you to give it more food, you need to find something else for it to do. My dog is pretty good at letting me know when the dude is empty but when her ration is done, I put the dude in the cupboard and she knows dinner time is over for today.

It may also help to train this GR on lead - how to greet people at the park. So when you get there, don't let him off lead, walk round and ask people if it's ok for them to say hello (warn them about the pee thing, ie not to let him out of their sight or yours). And get GR to sit for a pat, and you give him a treat for being good. And then take him away from the person and see how he reacts - ie does he still want to go back there. Only allow him to greet people with your permission eg "Go say hello". And then do a nice sit and wait for a pat. My dog does a nice crawl and roll over (wait for belly rub).

Sometimes it can be some sort of gut twist or telescoping. Both really bad tho I'm not sure if that would result in blood. maybe she swallowed a baby tooth and that caused problems going though - like bone splinters can. Mine does get a lot of mucous if she's eaten something spikey. And also after eating mystery sea creatures at the beach. (nope not puffer fish or fish).

Backchaining for re-inforcement - now how do we use that for our advantage (evil). My EH isn't that great at back chaining. Yet. She's got a couple worked out. Ie demand to be let out for potty then steal the warm spot on the bed, athough this morning - she opted for her own bed - I got a new one for her that has high sides and would be warmer. And the other thing she does is pretend she wants to go play with that dog there, bewdy I think, she'll do some running and sleep well when we get home. But as soon as I let her off - despite all her carry on greeting and play bowing at the other dog - she goes sniff - somewhere else. Leaving one or more disappointed dogs and me going I've been conned again.

On the weave training We're still on four poles because my evil hound isn't very reliable at finding the right entry when we move "around the arc" ie around the far side of the poles or up the line of the poles or away from the poles. She did some beautiful weaves this morning when I swapped the reward from tug to treat. Sigh. And then she figured out she could steal the treat without weaving and we had to quit that one.

I've seen whippets do the snap thing too. It's really strange but seems to be part of play and doesn't evolve into biting where I've seen it. I tend to see it as like clicking fingers for attention - here I am... All that clacking of teeth can't be all that good for them tho. Maybe pre-empt the jumping with a "sit" command or similar. The other dogs would count as a major distraction - which can be used for "proofing" your training eg the sits, drops and general manners - you train again in the presence of the distraction. It wouldnt hurt to surrepticiously "encourage" your room mate's dogs to sit instead of jumping on you too. I think you're doing really well. All you need now is patience and persistance.

Have you tried feeling around her tummy area to see if she finds it painful or has hard or lumpy bits (ie vet now)? maybe she ate a sock? Though that never seems to slow my dog down any. Bones do. Bone splinters result in most of the problems you describe - but you can see (or feel) the spikey bit in the poo.

I disagree with this. I believe that if dog's only option is to defend itself, that's fair. And if a dog believes its owner is being attacked, it's ok for the dog to defend the owner. Personally if somebody was trying to hurt me, I'd be really happy if my dog bit them.

It was a love bite, she still has her arm and the injuries were described as minor. Maybe the dog went for the policeman - which explains the readied tazar and she blocked it with her arm and the dog spat her out. That's the trouble with the news reports - we know something happened that involved an owner,their dog and a policeman but nothing more.

that cat has the wrong kind of flour on him. Roses don't make bread or glue very well. And they taste horrid, unless you are a possum or rosella.

Aussielover Use whatever reward works. Use the dog's favourite reward to make more convenient rewards "rewarding" ie if the dog loves tug you can use that to train it to like food, and vice versa. I've found with obedience training - food works best, with agility - tug toys for training handling skills and obstacles, and rawhide strips (at the end of a sequence), and food and targeting for contacts. Not that we've done much work on contacts, I just try to get her to slow down instead of leaping off the top. For herding - the reward is being allowed to chase the sheep some more. No food, no tug, and I have to keep my big mouth shut or evil hound goes back into obedience mode and appears at my leg, instead of chasing the sheep. She can't believe she's allowed to do that. So our last session was flat out or flat nothing.

I think the mice ate all the crickets around here. Monty is cute, even with face covered in glue. There is no way my dog would sit there while I take photos of her explaining the state of my ugg boots. Well done and love it.

Always read the fine print. So maybe you can tie a dog to a pole but it's still an offence if it bites someone. And if the dog escaped the tether, that's still an offence too - ie unsecured dog.

Not according to the act it isn't. Leash has to be attached to dog and held by the owner or responsible person.

She's made an announcement for an open to everyone webinar that will be shown in Oz around 10am Friday 24th june on the facebook page. I suspect it will be about plugging the puppy training online course. I wish I'd known what I know now when my dog was a puppy, but if she had been easy to train I wouldn't have bothered trying to find out more.

My dog's response to me ignoring her because I've been mesmerised by the computer is to put both her paws on my shoulder and bark in my ear. Never fails to get my attention. Doesn't always get her squirrel dude refilled, but I will let her outside. She also comes and pats me on the head when I'm in bed snoozing... she's not too gentle about it either. I really should do something about claw trimming.