Leema

Thanks for posting.

Mine go, "Intruder intruder!" barking, and then give up when it keeps going. They're not nervous about it, just being their normal terrier selves.

And here's a picture of him to show his legs.

Thanks for this thread. A lot more positively focussed than some other material I've read about swimmers on the internet. One of the boys in my current litter is a bit swimmer. I've always had towels down, but mum is a bit of a mad-nester so often the puppies end up on the newspaper... Though they complain loudly about this, and I come and rectify the situation. (They prefer to be on bedding than newspaper. My puppies are 3 weeks old, and the difference has become obvious as two puppies are standing confidently, and walking well enough. Swimmer boy doesn't. I've added egg carton underneath their bedding so he has to use his legs more. He does use his hind legs a lot (he doesn't drag them behind him, and he actually powers off them quite well) - he just sticks his front legs off to the side. Will it be much use having him in a sling at this age? I've put him in one today and he actually didn't object! Do you think if I let him go with the mountainous terrain and the inspiration of his siblings play, this will be enough to get him walking? I've attached a picture of him (the darker dog on the left) playing with his brother (the redder dog on the right). You can see he does pick himself up off the ground a little bit.

I will take my hat off briefly if I'm just going in for class, but I will almost always wear a hat for group. I'm a red head. I burn in seconds. Wearing sunscreen is how I justify going in for class, but standing around for group in the sun is not going to wear for me. I will also wear long sleeves in summer for the same reason.

For ideas sake, I believe these were my preferences: LEEMA (which I got - "Lee" is my middle name, "MA" comes from "Matchstick", a nickname I had. This has long been my online identity.) LEEMAH (just different spelling) TWIO (from my first dog, who was called Wilwyn The Wait Is Over... First initials of his name.) TWID (long story, but related to TWIO) MACD (my first dog's pet name was "MacDogald") MACDOG (didn't really like this, but same as above) OVERALLS CHAIR Everyone always says to me, "What if you got Chair?!" I think that would be hilarious. And I actually really like Overalls... I think I'll name a dog that one day. I really didn't want anything breed specific. It is very conceivable that I will not only have border terriers forever-and-ever, so having a name that reflected me was more important. I also chose a neutral web address (leemakennels) instead of a breed specific one (leemaborders), even though it does sound a little commercialised.

http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20dogs/%20dog1/levels.html This is a link to the 'training levels'. Provides levels for your to accomplish and work through with your puppy. Fantastic content but also gives you something to aspire to.

I have flown Clover Adelaide to Canberra and back a couple of times. She also flew from Melbourne to Adelaide as a puppy. No dramas. I have flown both Qantas and VirginBlue, with the dog as extra baggage. In Adelaide, dogs are not permitted in the terminal, so you have to go to freight to pick them up. The Virgin Blue one is opposite the human-airport, while the Qantas area (Australian Air Express) is around the corner. Still walking distance but a bit further away.

I'd fly. My bitch flew from Melbourne to Adelaide at 8 weeks and has had numerous flights since. I think flying at a young age is a good socialisation experience and bodes well for the rest of the dog's life. There will be plenty of opportunities to socialise driving from 8 weeks to 14 weeks, but when else is the pup going to get the opportunity to fly?

Thanks for the update - glad things are going well. I also realised that I use "Fox" when I meant "Link" in my last post. Oops. I'm sure you worked it out, though.

How about... Sending her from a distance to the sponge. Will she go fast enough that the sponge moves as she targets it? You could then slowly reduce the distance, so the same enthusiasm occurs for a close proximity scrub.

I like flying duster's suggestion of keeping it low to the ground so that any fall isn't too daunting or off putting to the dog. You can slowly adjust the incline as you go. Instead of luring the dog up the ladder, I would shape the dog to go up the ladder. When using lures I think you can sometimes divert the dog's focus and they are more likely to encounter difficulty. (i.e. if the dog's concentrating on getting food they might not be concentrating on where their feet are). A rough shaping map would be, C&T: Looking at ladder Approaching ladder Touching ladder with foot Touching bottom rung of ladder with foot Touching bottom rung of ladder with two feet Touching next rung of ladder with two feet ... etc until touching 'comfortable height' rung of ladder with two feet Then, once at this level, hind legs touching bottom rung etc. Luring might work and I'd probably give it a shot to begin with, but I would just be concerned that the dog doesn't learn a good and safe manner to scale the ladder when it is concentrating on a food lure.

This is also a clicker method. We C&T dogs ignoring stuff, starting off with few distractions and gradually increasing. We C&T the shape of the leash - i.e. a loose leash.

Staranais - SAR goal would be very difficult, and I wouldn't know where to begin in training that. For me, a start peg with an article is such an obvious cue to my dog as to what I want her to do, so you have my admiration and best wishes. I actually haven't read anything about tracking except what the TDC of SA has given me. I have acknowledged the recommendations in this thread though.

Sounds like you have some problems finding things that are really reinforcing for Fox. Is he more confident at home? Perhaps you should start by making training at home very rewarding. You might be able to find a food Fox particularly likes (I find the "4 Legs" stuff good as a special training treat, or chicken hearts), or you could try perhaps fasting Fox for a day (or more) before training. In fact, I'd be inclined to only feed Fox during training sessions to increase the value of yourself and working with you. At home, I'd train interacting with you (e.g. a touch) and also you interacting with him - that would mean rewarding him for increasingly more physical/overwhelming interactions. I once did this with a dog that would act aggressively if you were to make any 'fast movements' toward the dog. I C&Ted first my hand going towards the dog, then actually touching the dog, and then slowly touching the dog in a more rough and overwhelming way (i.e. hand over the top of the dog, arm over the top of the dog, grab of coat, etc). This same process would work for Fox to let him understand that you touching him is actually good. You could also use the same process to C&T you looking at Fox or having direct body positioning towards him - so again, he associates you looking at him as a good thing. Re: The fly chasing game, you might find some value in "Control Unleashed". This book has several games that you could play ("Look at that" game and games about choosing to work). Hope that helps.

Does your dog know how to target your hand? (touch your hand) This would be the first thing I would try to teach, that touching you actually has rewards. Either a nose or foot bop on your hand would be a good start. Then you could train a shoulder touch to your left leg, in preparation for heelwork. If you have an open space that is at your disposal, and safe for your dog to be offlead, I would try to teach my dog that proximity to me is good. Especially if I've adopted a heelwork posture. This would mean simply taking yourself for a walk and C&T your dog for following you or being close to you. Reward the dog with food from your hand, to further draw the dog close to you (dogs gravitate to where their rewards are delivered). I realise both these descriptions are rather brief, so do let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on either.

You can train your dog to play tug by clicker training. I can provide a more detailed shaping map if you'd like, but basically you would C&T the dog for interacting with a tug toy and then eventually picking up and having some resistance to the item in its mouth. Initially, the dog will be doing this 'just' to get the treat. However, once you build this foundation your dog will 1) like the tug toy because he associates it with food and 2) may actually find enjoyment in tuggy itself.

I highly recommend the methodology recommended by Sue Ailsby, as described in her training levels: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20dogs/Leve.../TL15Leash.html Really, there is no better way for me to explain this, so I'll just leave it at that.

Sorry for my delayed response, but thank you for your replies. I will check them out.

I also have started trying to wear Clover out a bit before an official trial. Last trial, we went to the park (at 5am in the morning) and played ball for 30 minutes before going to the trial. Unfortunately, she still had to wait around for a couple of hours before her track but I do think this helped as well. It's hard to be fast when you're tired! That being said, I'm still a novice and Clover is only my first tracking dog... And things have been very easy training wise. So you should really take my suggestions cautiously. How long are the tracks you are doing with your girl at the moment?

I second talking to your new neighbours. As I'm sure you understand, the staffy your dog has an unfortunate encounter with is not a representation of all staffies. These dogs may be dog-social and lovely dogs, and all your fears unfounded.

Found this today. Found it very interesting to get a perspective from people who fight dogs, and overall this was a nice balanced piece. It's long and graphic. This is part 1 of 6 parts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzfa2Pe2zQ ETA: This documentary talks about the origins of the pit bull, the criminalisation of the sport, has interviews with two dog fighters, numerous interviews with pit bull owners, law enforcement agencies, etc. Talks about the inefficiency of BSL.

Clover is a fast one, too. She often overshoots corners, but in our last tracking trial, executed several impeccably! To try to get her to notice corners, I got my track layers to triple track the corners. The hope was that it'd be so strong that Clover couldn't NOT notice them and overshoot them. This seemed to work. We only did this a few times and it improved her corners a lot. I also got something she really likes and planned to lay them coming-up to a corner, and just after the corner, to slow her down. Clover 'really likes' bottle caps, and seems to sniff them out a mile away. She's not overly food motivated, otherwise I would've done the same thing with food. We never ended up executing this plan. (I could've done this same thing with articles, as we often play tuggy with articles as a reward for finding them, so this would've been a motivater for doing a corner - my concern was that the articles were too visual, while the bottle caps will hide in the grace.) For Clover, it was a combination of learning that corners do exist (hence triple tracking), and to pay attention ("it's good to pay attention because there are bottle caps when you do!").

I think part of the success in Chip is that <i>I</i> know what I'm doing now! It takes a little bit to recognise how to read a dog, full stop, and then to get into the specifics of reading your dog. My Clover is a very chaotic tracker. She zigzags at a million miles an hour, but manages to get it done anyway. About 500m in she calms down and actually tracks like a normal dog! It's been fun with Chip because he clearly tracks, with his nose to the ground. Clover has always just run in the direction and seems to get it right!

I just found this thread! Unfortunately, with puppies at the moment, I've had to put things partly on hold. I've been lucky enough to secure a couple of newies near me, so we've been laying tracks for one another and I'm helping getting their dogs into it. So, in a couple of weeks time, if the weather isn't deathly hot yet, we will be back into it! Chip is a natural. He does it because it's fun itself... Clover does it because she will get her tennis ball in the end. I am actually keeping Chip for another year because he is such a pro - I really want to get a tracking title on him before he continues his travel around the world. This season coming up, I've already put in my calendar all the Victorian tracking dates. I've calculated that if Clover passes all SA test, she can end up as a TCh at the end of the season. But, if she misses any, then we're going to do some tracks in Victoria! Happy to have found this thread! :rolleyes: