canine fun sports

Yes, Pace is my younger, black and white girl. I did not have her from a pup, so do not have quite the same bond with her - she is easily distracted with what is happening around her, due to her working gundog sense of smell. She has a very stable lead out, and responds well to changes in direction, but is not as "connected" with me. She is more focused if I start the run with her. Cheers,

Every new owner of one of my puppies is given "Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson. I could not recommend it more highly for anyone wanting to train a dog (and that should mean anyone who owns a dog!)

HI Sheena, In NSW you will see Ashley Roach do a very exaggerated slingshot start with "Joey" and I will do a bit of a slingshot with Pace, if running with the dog suits the course. A few other people use slingshots as well. A judge will allow it, so long as you do not go over the start line - the start line, although it is marked by two posts (usually the electronic timers) does extend in a straight line accross the course - so if you go past the start line, then cross back over to do your slingshot it would be the same as returning to your dog to reposition it. This is penalised with a DQ. If you take your dog over the startline, even if it is not attempting the jump, because you have gone past the refusal plane, I would consider that the timer should have been started and a refusal earnt. To do a lingshot, it is usually easier to just start out to the side, rather thanwith your back to the course. Cheers,

I probably keep my puppies more exercised than most, but it has a lot to do with the type of exercise, as much as the amount of exercise. Some basic principles: Build up the amount of exercise gradually. Free running in the park, on grass or through the bush is much healthier for bones and joints than pounding pavements. With puppies, do not do any "concussive" exercise, such as jumping down from a height or go over big jumps, especially toward the end of an exercise period when the pup's muscles are already tired. Repetitive exercise, for example, trotting long distance, especially on hard surfaces, is not healthy exercise for pups. It is better for them to be changing gait, changing direction, changing the surface that they run on. Young pups should not jump anything over hock height, although jumping over the occasional log on a bush walk is not going to be a problem. Pups should be kept lean - you should be able to feel their back ribs quite easily and they should have a good waist and tuck up. strong muscle helps protect the joints and ligaments, and tired muscle cannot do this as well Movement in the joints during exercise helps keep the joints lubricated and healthy So, from this, we can conclude that pups should get a moderate amount of exercise, but build it up gradually, keep the pup slim and do not have them taking too many flying leaps, especially when they are tired. My young pup, at just over 3 months of age, does charge around all day trying to keep up with the big dogs in the 2 acre home yard and on runs up to the dam, but there is no forced exercise - she chooses how much she wants to do. And she is kept slim. And the amount of running around she does has gradually built up. You can see my general advice on bringing up German Shorthaired Pointers on the website http://caninefunsports.com.au/fenrik%20puppy%20info/puppy%20advice.htm and most of it is also applicable to labs.

That is, of course, assuming you have a 400 dog! :laugh:

I may be a little late coming in on this topic, but as a vet I have had to answer this question for a lot of people. Be honest (as many have said) but also let the kids grieve in their own way - give them some choices on how to remember their pet. If you have photos, they may like to do a little scrap book, others may want to plant a tree (pick a hardy one), others may want a little ceremony or little memorial. Let them know that they may feel sad when they think of him at a later time, and it was fine to cry then if they liked. Equally, let them know that if they try to remember the nice things about their pet, it might make them feel happy. Grieving is a very individual process, so help the kids find the best way for themselves to grieve and keep the happy memories of their relationship with their pet (and, in the future, their friends and relations.) Hope this helps

Swimming, or if your dog does not use his hindquarters well when swimming, wading through water that is about half-way up his chest. Sand walking. Lots of free running. Some extra quick sprints. I used to put my dogs on a sit stay at one end of the foot ball field, walk to the other end and then call them. We would do it 3 to 5 times. They had already been for their run, so giving them these sprints when they were already a little tired really added to their fitness. I do not do a lot of repetitive jumping with my dogs, and when I do longer training sessions, I might start at full height (after warm up) when their muscles are working well and protecting the joints well, but later in the session, I will lower the jump height. If doing tight twisty stuff, and your dog is prone to a sore backm then make sure they warm up well. Cheers,

You need to develop a way to reward your dog away from you. There are several althernatives. 1. Teach the dog to go and fetch their tug toy 2. Use a target - dog has to run to target and touch, then gets his treat (preferable through the treat out to him otherwise the dog will still be interested in coming back to you because that is where the primary reinforcer comes from. 3. Use food in a container - he will run to the container, then you have to go over and open it for him. You should then let the dog eat a limited amount from the container, do not take it out and give it from your hand. Soft pouches work well for this. 4. My preferred method is to teach my dog to retrieve a toy You should always reward the dog where you want the behaviour to happen. So if you are rewarding distance work, you should be rewarding away from you. Cheers,

If your own vet has prescribed you Surolan, another vet can phone through to your own vet to get the OK to dispense the Surolan. If your own vet is happy to OK the dispensing of the drug, they can sell you some without you taking the dog in. Your own vet would probably OK the purchase of the Surolan if they have seen you recently for the ear problem. Cheers,

I actually saw most of that run - it looked pretty impressive for a first trial effort. You and Mindy were working like a good team. Well done. Cheers,

I would call it a tab lead. We attach it to the collar of beginner dogs, so that handlers can grab hold of them fairly easily, but they are short enough so the dog does not get caught up in it. Some have a knot at the end, but when I had them made for students, I used to have them make with the D-ring on them so people could then clip their full length lead to it. Clean Run (USA agility webiste) now make a coiled elastic version which is much better, so we do not use them much any more. I suspect you will have to have it made especially. A lady called Hannah Moore made ours. I can give you contact details if you want to email me privately. Or, depending on what size you have, I probably have a couple left somewhere in one of my draws. Cheers,

A Boomerang tag is a flat tag that threads onto the collar, so it doesn't dangle. Less dangerous than the D-ring on a collar, but if you say no fixtures are allowed then I guess these are disallowed as well. Technically, it would not be allowed, but I doubt if a judge would notice it. The name and phone numbered collar is totally legal, so I would go with that. Cheers,

I am not sure what a boomerang tag is but no fixtures are allowed on the collar at all. A flat collar with a D-ring to attach the lead. If you are concerned about your dog running off as a safety issue, the trial grounds tomorrow are fully fenced, so although it might be irritating that, in her excitement, she forgets to listen to you (I have gundogs - it happens to me all the time) it will not be unsafe. (I am assuming that sinced your address says NSW, your trial is at Manly) Good luck, and may you come home with a "virgin quallie". They are rare. (Quallie at your first trial) Whatever happens, make it fun. Cheers,

No-one is too old for agility, because no-one is too old to have fun. That applies to both humans and dogs. Cheers,

Firstly, Jess, let me apologise if you felt i was criticising your personal handling style / abilities / experience. My intension is to make comment on the general use of arms when handling, and your description of your dropped shoulder is just one example. My point is that if you are using your arms and hands to positively drive at the obstacle you want the dog to do (and use verbal support) your shoulder will not drop (which resembles the start of a shoulder pull) so you do not give your dog an extra turning cue. This gives you a lot more opportunity to position yourself for the next handling sequence. Therefore, I would want to teach my dogs that my arms and hands are VERY important in telling them where to go. They can give infomration about direction, distance and speed. I would never want to do anything to decrease their importance. Cheers,

Good thinking, but it's also not a bad idea to proof for it as well. Moving your arms in a given way can be a hard habit to break, especially when running courses. As an example, I had a friend pick me up for dropping my shoulder when committing Darcy to tunnels so I can get to where I need to be, occasionally resulting in her dropping the bar before. I try to remember not to drop it while walking the course, but I'm human and I sometimes forget. So I've also done some deliberate proof work at home by rewarding her for keeping the bar up when I do drop my shoulder. I would prefer to use a handling system where, by purposely keeping my arm (and verbals) directing the dog, over a jump or toward the tunnel, would allow me to break away very early with my movement to my next obstacle. This way, the dog not only knows that he has to do the tunnel, but he already knows which direction he has to turn when he comes out of the tunnel. (See Linda Mecklenberg books and DVD's) I would laso like to think that if I turn away from the tunnel or jump early, my dog would not learn to blow off my body language - he will turn with me. Imagine if I am trying to turn my dog at the last moment (either because of a previous mistake, or because I am tryng to line up the next obstacle in a certain way) and my dog thought - this is one of those time she does not mean it. I do not want my dog to ever ignore any of my communications. I do not want to lost the "power" to communicate with my dog by teaching him there are times he can ignore a shoulder pull, or times they can igmore my hand and arm movements. It is the combination of all those signals that tells the dog exactly where I want them to go. If I do not get the balance of my signals rightwhen I communicate with my dog, then that is my problem. Training and teamwork is devloping those communication skills. Cheers,

I would like to add something in here. Arms and hands are an extremely valuable tools for communicating with your dog. And yes, your arm does mean what you train it to mean. But remember, training goes on both intentionally and unintentionally. My dog knows that when I extend my arm that something good is likely to happen ahead. This is because, in life, as well as in agility training, I throw balls and treats ahead of me for my dog to get. I use this signal in agility becasue it has already been trained in "life". Similarly, when my hands are close to me, there is a good chance I have a food treat in them for my dog, so when my hands are close to me, they are watching me very closely, and likely to be coming in toward me. My dogs also know that when I am running flat out then it is fun to run to try to beat me - so when I am running flat out, the position of my hands (in life, and in agility) is less important. Some people do move there arm in and out to indicate each jump. These dogs have learnt to ignore arm movements, so in my eyes, these handlers have foregone one very valuable communication method. Others have not realised how sensitive their dog is to hand movement (perhpas because they have not realised that they have unintentionally taught their dogs to watch their hands.) So, if handlers move their hands while the dog is negotiating the jump, the dog will move his focus, which usually means they turn their head. The only way to counterbalance this movement, when the dog is in the air, is to extend the opposite back leg. This is what brings down the bar. So, if you want to communicate a direction change to a dog by using arms, then do it before he finishes his take-off (when his back legs are still on the ground) or wait until he lands.

I think the original post was more about wanting to discuss at what point and under what circumstances should it be reported, or what it the best way to deal with it? I have outlined above how I would make a judgement on such an incident, but have added that under some situation I might deal with the incident by talking to the owner, or would in other circumstances, report it to an official. In Vickie's initial post, however, although whe was on dogsNSW grounds, she was not at an event. The owner may, or may not have been a member of DogsNSW, may or may not have been 'tresspassing" on DogsNSW grounds (I am assuming that members of Dogs NSW are the only ones who have permission to exercise their dogs there??) and she was not even sure to whom it should be reported. I do think one useful suggestion has been to use your mobilie phone's camera so that if you do decide to report it (in any situation) you have evidence. (PS - Correct me if I am wrong about your initial post, Vickie - I do not want to be accused of putting words in your mouth!!!) Cheers,

You would need to know the dogs. People are often surprised at how many of my dogs go into the one crate - and they do that even when the door is not shut. We often cannot find Sparkle becasue Sporty is lying on top of her - she could move is she wanted to, but chooses not to. But I would never expect Rabbit to have to crowd in with another dog. A nice example of why (sometimes) it is difficult to define cruelty. Cheers,

Yes, I would agree, it is often not cut & dried. However I consider there was nothing mild about that woman beating the crap out of her GSD and I cannot think of any reasonable excuse for such actions. And I suspect that, if as described, it would not have a "favourable scoring" on my 4 questions, either. If we want to talk about specifics, in this situations, guess the point then becomes, how do we report it and to whom? I gather this all happened, not at a DogsNSW event, but at the DogsNSW grounds. Since you do not know the person involved (an assumption) it is probably inappropriate to go and talk to the person, although, perhaps calling out to them that you thought their action was unnecessary might just interrupt their undesired behaviour. (Dog training principals!) You could report it to the office. I am sure DogsNSW would be able to take some sort of action, especially if the owner was a DogsNSW owner. If they are not, perhaps they were tresapssing??? I suspect, however, that the people would be long gone before you could come back with some-one from the office (unless you had the office phone number on speed dial of your mobile phone?) It would be difficult to identify some-one, except by taking a car rego number, but since DogsNSW do not have a record of people's car rego, that would probably not help in identifying some-one. I know I would want to explain to the the German Shepherd owner that their actions, if anything, will increase the likelihood of repeat aggressive behaviour. But I suspect that the owner of the German Shepherd would be likely to have high levels of adrenalin, and would not be too responsive to anything an outsider would say. In the ideal world, let some-one who can do something about it know about the situation. In the real world, there was probably very little that could have been done effectively. Cheers,

Hi Vickie, Once again, I think that is is difficult to give a clear dividing line between mistreatment and correction. The two examples that will closely resemble incidents that we have talked about, but they are my semi-fictitious versions are: 1. some-one who was very frustrated by a dog's behaviour losing their cool and shoving / slapping their dog but not "beating it up". This incident was reported. 2. some-one who was very displeased with their dog's performance in the ring showing their displeasure to such an extreme with their voice and body language (but no actual physical contact) and the dog crawled out of the ring on its belly. This owner did it twice on the one day. Even though there was no physical contact, I felt the that the second dog had a much worse time of it. And yet, no-one thought to report that. Well, I did, but I did not think it would go anywhere. Rest assured, though, if it had happened in my ring, the handler would have received a warning. And a second offence would be a disqualification for the day. That said, I have been in a similar situation myself where I have tried to 'neutrally" escort my dog from the ring without a lead. She pulled away from me so I accidentally yanked her by the scruff of her neck so she screamed. I was mortified. But I was horrified when I was later unofficially accused (anonamously bad-mouthed on the internet, actually) for mistreating my dog. So, from the outside, sometimes these things look worse than they actually are. I learnt from this incident. If i want to stop my dog's fun in the ring, I simply stop still and request the steward brings me a lead so I can quietly walk the dog out on lead. These are all ethical dilemmas that we need to sort out in our own heads, and because not everyone agrees with what is correct, it will be difficult to arbitrate on any single incident. Once again, there are a couple of things I would look at before deciding on any action: 1. Was the dog actually doing something "wrong" at the time of the correction / mistreatment, or was the correction / mistreatment too late? 2. How severe was the correction / mistreatment? 3. I usually like to look at the dog's reaction to such a correction / mistreatment. Is the dog still submissive, dejected, unhappy after the correction / mistreatment or did he bounce back with an attitude of "oh, you don't want me to do that, what can I do now, instead? In other words, what is the relationship the dog has with the person? 4. Is a "correction" the most appropriate response for the misbehaviour? eg if a dog has snapped at another dog becasue it is nervous, then a physical correction is only going to make the dog more nervous in the future. Withdrawal of the dog from a threatening situation is a far more appropriate response in this case. So, Vickie, there is nothing cut and dried about it. And, of course this is all relative. We do not like to see any dog being abused, ever, but I think on a scale of 1 to 10, what we have been talking about is on the milder side. Cheers,

Hi Vickie, and all, My comments are mainly related to aggressive dog incidents. I have seen incidents that I feel, in retrospect, I should have reported. The retrospectivity comes when you see the dog reoffend. And these dogs do often reoffend. Many years back Rabbit was bitten by a dog that had been in previous incidents and had not been reported. Becasue I was directly involved I had no hesitation in reporting this episode. My dog required several sutures to repair the bite wound. I am, however, reluctant to report an incident in which I am not directly involved. I think it is up to the person involved and if they do not regard it as a serious enough case, then I guess that contributes to my hesitation. But I have seen this from both sides of the story. I have been on the Dogs NSW aggressive dogs working party, and I have seen dogs reported and suspended for what I consider to be minor incidents that were really just a dog's way of comminication. No skin was broken, and no stitches were needed. I would like to see clearer guidelines on what is an aggressive dog. Was there provocation (from the dog's point of view)? Was the so-called aggression just dog language for saying "bu%g*r off, this is my patch of ground", or "Stop staring at me - you look like you are going to attack me" (said to the keplie who was really just saying "you look like a sheep - I want to herd you.") I have had a couple of incidents with my own dogs that might have been interpretted as aggressive dog incidents. They mainly had to do about territory, and guarding of food - it was actually some-one else's food and I did not know it was there. The sorts of things I would consider as serious enough to report are 1. when skin is broken, especially if a vet visit or sutures are required. 2. when the dog that was attacked was not looking toward the dog that attacked (or looking at something the attacking dog considered to be its own property - eg food) 3. when the dog that attacks leaves some other activity to make the attack. How these reports are dealt with, the knowledge of the people involved, and how to standardise these procedures is another topic altogether, and probably does need clearer guidelines from Dogs NSW. There are clear instructions on how the reporting should be done, but the decisions are largely left to people who have next to no training in dog aggression. It is simply the trial or show committee, and although they usually have lots of experience with dogs in general, they may know very little about aggression. With regards to the mistreatment of dogs by humans, this once again is all relative. I know of the incident that Vickie was asked to report on, although I did not witness it myself. However, at the same trial, I saw one very experienced handler show such displeasure in his dog's performance that it skulked from the ring on both occasions. The handler, at the time, did not even raise a finger but the body language and verbal reprimands had the dog crawling. This could not be reported, and yet, the dog was far more upset about what happened than in the incident that ended up being reported. When it comes to these sorts of incidents, I often think the matter is better dealt with privately, with a few quiet words from some-one the person respects. And this is probably why many people do not report. Either they do not want to be seen as the bad guy, or they may feel that official reportage is not the best way to deal with it. But each case must be judged individually. Cheers

Talk to them at AQIS. I found them fantastic when bring my girl in from Germany. Also, get onto a good dog transport company. They will look after all this for you. Cheers,

I doubt this statement. The dogs respond to a compbination of cues, and I do not think they are likely to understand a black and white "you should always do this and never do that". They live with us and learn our inconsitent body language just hanging around with us. Dogs flip away from us occasionally when we mean them to turn toward us because they have learnt that if they do not get out of the way, we smetimes tread on them as we walk toward them. Life is when the "inconsistent cues" are learnt. Life has taught different things to different dogs, so that is why no one particulr set of cues will work with every dog. I like a hndling system that evelops what my dog already knows, rather than trying to superimpose a new set of rules on them. My dogs know my hand signals becasue that is the way I offer treats to them, or throw toys for them. They follow my movement because they know they are racing me to somewhere, They follow where my shoulders and feet are facing becasue they know I will trip over them, tread on their feet or knock them on the head if they don't. My 6 week old puppies are getting lots of those lessons at the moment. Cheers, Le

You're talking taking the back of a jump instead of the front? Then yes he does, it's referred to as driving to the refusal plane of a jump as opposed to the active plane. No, I am not talking about sending the dog around the jump. I mean that I take the jump in one direction (or tyre, or whatever) then signal the dog to turn one handred and eight degrees and take the jump in the opposite direction. This would not be seen in normal agility because there must be a minimum of 2 to 4 metres between obstaces (depending on the size of the dog) It is, however, a very useful manoeuvre to score extra points in gamblers. I am talking ANKC rules here, not ADAA. Cheers, Iedited to correct spelling)