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Thanks Sheena, I figure that is what I am going to do as we already have a couple of cues based on what comes automatically out of my mouth. But by understanding the different SG cues, it will help me know the kind of turns/actions/whatever that I need to be thinking about and working on. What I end up calling the will come later but as a beginner I'm not yet sure what different actions I should be working on at home.

Hi, I have been doing agility training with my dog at a dog club, run by volunteers. Most of the trainers seem to use terms such Ia la la (ie. going around the backside of a jump) digga, check and tis (I'm sure there are more) which I understand come from Susan Garrett. I am wondering if anyone can give me a run down on all the different cues and what they actually mean? It is always busy after class and I haven't yet found the opportunity to get someone to explain them to me properly, and even so I would need to write them down to remember them all at once which is difficult in the chaos of packing up etc. All Susan Garretts stuff seems to be pretty tightly locked down on the net, so despite my best searching efforts I can't find anything on the www. Can anyone help please? I would love to be able to work through it all in my head outside class. Thanks so much if you can help.

Thanks Tassie, that is very helpful. Also explains why it is referred to as a recall, which seemed odd until you know it is the ending of a skill.

I have been I doing obedience training with my dog and we have just progressed up a class. I have been given the instructions for what is covered in the next class which includes something called recall. This involves having your dog sitting in front of you, and then the steps for returning dog to the heel position. I want to start practising this at home as it will be 2 weeks until I can return to class. It sounds to me that the dog passes around behind your back and into the heel position on the left. But I can't find any videos online that depict this. Is anyone able to clarify this please so I don't practise wrong. Also because my dog is already accustomed to going behind me to get into heel position, so if I need to untrain this I would like to get started. Thanks. The instructions say Your dog will be sitting at heel. You will LEAVE your dog. Command dog to stay and step off with right foot. You are required to to be just in front of your dog's nose. (I assume I have turned around to face the dog as this is what we have done so far.) Gather up the lead in your right hand. The instructor will ask you to 'finish'. With the lead between your thumb and the palm of your right hand, command dog to heel. Take a step with your right foot forward and to the left of the dog, pass the lead around behind your back to your left hand and continue to guide your dog around to your left hand side. Once halfway around, bring your left foot into place next to the right at which time your dog should be in the heel position.

Just in some random online browsing I have come across brewers yeast being suggested as a supplement for anxious dogs. My kelpie cross is quite a timid dog with a few minor neurotic habits. None of these are overly concerning or anything that I would consider seeing my vet about but I am wondering if a supplement like this might potentially be of some benefit to her. If it is simply a nutritional supplement that would do her no harm I would see no issue with giving it a try. Does anyone give brewers yeast to their dog and in what format? Thanks

Thanks. Not what I wanted to hear. I will look into getting some assistance. We are in NSW, postcode 2474, any suggestions most welcome

Our pup (kelpie collie cross) is just on 6 months old and has suddenly started to growl and snap at us over food and toys. She has always been edgy around her food from day 1. We have a slow feeder bowl, because otherwise she inhales her kibble in seconds, and while she is eating I will walk up and drop a choice item (usually some sort of fresh meat) in her bowl. This has stopped her growling or snapping when someone approaches her, but her body language when eating remains pretty tense. She knows 'leave it' and 'drop it' and has become quite good at letting go of things she knows she shouldn't have (eg. socks) but the last couple of days out of the blue she has growled a couple of times at the kids when they have walked passed her when she was just lying on her mat with no food or toy. Tonight she had a kong and my son walked past and she growled at him even though he was a good few feet away and was showing no indication of coming nearer to her. Then later on she had picked up a bit of string or something similar and I approached her to take it off her and she snapped at me. I have done some googling and it seems that this is a pretty normal behaviour, but nonetheless it concerns me that she is suddenly starting to do this and I don't want it to escalate. The kids are already feeling a bit nervous about it. She was desexed last and the guarding behaviour has started since then. It seems rather far fetched but is there any possibility this has something to do with it? And regardless of how it began, how best should I start to deal with it? Help please

I have a 6 month old kelpie/collie. She absolutely loves to chase a ball, but prefers to play keep away than retrieve and when she does bring it back, she drops it far away from us. I really want to teach her because it is a great way for the whole family to be involved in exercising and at the moment there is no point sending the kids out to play fetch with her as they haven't the patience to wait her out, or encourage her to come back. I have started trying to teach it with back chaining but it seems to be back firing. I started by offering her a toy (one of many that she loves and will happily chase all over the house if thrown) and clicking her for holding it in her mouth for a second, thinking that once she could do that we could start cueing her to 'drop it', then go on from there. Despite doing this several times a day for a couple of weeks I have been unable to increase the duration that she holds the toy. I *think* what then happened was that she decided that *not* having the toy in her mouth was what I wanted so she has stopped taking the toy altogether. No matter how exciting I make it or what toy I use, she just refuses to take any interest in it. So my next thought was to give up on the 'hold' and actually start clicking and rewarding for the 'drop' and try and get her to drop it in a tub on the floor (with the plan to gradually wean her off needing the tub later on) . I thought this might make it clearer to her that the aim was to drop it somewhere specific rather than just pick it up and drop it again wherever she was (which she was quite good at doing). At the moment I am back at the stage of basically clicking her for just showing the slightest bit of interest in a toy, as she really prefers to ignore them altogether. I don't know that it is really going to work. Desperate for some help please. Where have I gone wrong and how can I fix it? Thank you

Thank you. I have been building duration. She will sit or lie down for easily up to a minute with me talking, singing and moving around in front of her before I say the release word. I haven't tried longer as I figure it is a bit boring at this age to ask her to maintain a position for too long. This is why I moved on to adding distance instead. I will start focusing on some more fun tricks and just short practise on the more boring skills for now.

Hi, I am coming up with a few problems in training my 12 week old kelpie/collie mix. I am using the positive reinforcement clicker method and she is picking up behaviours well I think. My question is, What do you do when you have clicked and the behaviour changes before you treat. Eg. sometimes when I have just clicked a response (eg. a sit) she moves from that position while waiting for the treat. So she may slide (tiled floor) into a down, or stand up. I have already clicked, so feel I am obligated to follow up with the treat, but do I lure back into the correct position first? As I am also building duration into the sit, I may click her for remaining in the sit while I am across the room, but after the click she stands up before I can get back to her with the treat. Even with luring her back where she was I feel like I am rewarding the wrong thing. Secondly, sometimes she just doesn't seem to get what I want. Even when it is something she knows well like a sit or down which we have been practising for 3 weeks. She will wimper, look pathetic and lie down, or offer something like a high 5 or roll over. I am just walking away and stopping the session when this happens in case she is bored or just not in the mood, after all I recognise that she is only a baby, but I am curious if this is normal behaviour and what I can change in my methods to help her. Would love some advice. Thanks

We have a new puppy in the family. She is a kelpie/collie cross (9 1/2 weeks) so we are fully expecting and prepared for her to be a handful. Our previous dog was a springer spaniel and she was both super smart and super calm, which meant she was quick to learn new behaviours, but had very few behaviours we needed to put a stop to. This pup is clearly going to be a different kettle of fish altogether. We have had her a little over a week and she is settled in, sleeps well in her crate, is coming along nicely with learning sit, down, go to your mat and a release cue. She waits for her food and is learning drop it for toys, So the first problem we are encountering so far is digging in the garden. I'm pretty sure this is our own fault. Obviously with a new pup we have been spending quite a bit of time outdoors with her to keep her busy and for frequent wee stops. This has led to a fair bit of weeding being done while she is occupied entertaining herself. I'm pretty sure she has picked up on the fact that we are pulling things out of the ground and has taken to doing it herself. As we have a garden bed that we recently turned over with a rotary hoe for planting, it is nice soft diggable dirt which probably doesn't help. We are not overly precious about the garden, but nonetheless don't really want to have what plants we do have dug up. Also there is the concern as she gets older and is sometimes left alone, I don't want digging to become a way of getting out. So, I would welcome your suggestions please for curbing this behaviour? Thanks

I used Advantix on my dog for fleas 10 days ago. She now has fleas again. Is it safe to use another dose now?

Thank you everyone. I had no idea the pack recommendations were so over the top. Wish I had asked on here before now. Yes, RC medium once a day and rarely much in the way of treats. So I will stop worrying about quantities and just stick with what she is on for now. One more thing - we feed at night. Does it matter? Is it in anyway better to feed in the morning? Thanks again for the advice.

I have a 2 year desexed female springer. She is fed Royal Canin. Thing is, I thought she was getting a bit too round about 6 months ago, so I reduced the amount she was getting. According to the pack, a 20kg dog (about what I think she ought to weigh) should get 233g which equates to 2 of the scoops I use. So I reduced her 1 1/2 scoops which is about 175g. The pack tells me this is the amount to feed a 14kg dog. She gets as much exercise as I can manage. Most days we walk roughly an hour. 2 or 3 times a week I take her out on the bike, so she covers a bit more distance than usual but at a much faster speed. Some of the days she has an off leash walk. When she had her vaccination a couple of weeks ago the vet said she was a bit fat - lacking a bit of a waist. We weighed her and she was 22.4kg. I have reduced her food again so she is now only getting one scoop. But this is only 130g which according to the pack is LESS than the amount to feed an 11kg dog. This seems like not very much food and my concern is that even once the weight comes off, I am still going to have to feed her signifcantly less than the recommended amount which seems odd. Perhaps there is a better brand I could be feeding her? Initially I was feeding Advance, but she went off it, so I changed. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks

Yeah, I get that moving the crate back is the easy solution and I am willing to do this temporarily, but having a large dog crate in this room no longer suits me as I don't have space for it any more and I would much prefer it to remain in it's new position. Is there any training solution I can implement?