Weasels

:laugh: I love the ending :p Yay I stalked it!

I was thinking almost the same thing, except if you are posting on a public forum why do you care whether people are logged in as anonymous, onymous or guests? Either way the end result is going to be a bunch of random eyeballs on your thread.

Could you summarise what this trainers approach/ methodology is so we could better answer your question? I for one don't have a great net connection so watching youtube videos is a PITA.

'cos I'm a ninja. So are guest users better or worse than anonymous users?

Ness I was picturing more of a going-back-in-time scenario, to when I didn't know any better :p

Wow, if I had a chance to pick a new research topic I would love this :) I hope they find a great student. On a side note, good to see you again Corvus :)

Thanks DogsAndTheMob, I have been looking through those links on & off yesterday and they seem really sensible :) I'll store them away and keep reading. I've been experimenting with what works in different situations, I think I'm slowly building a plan for different scenarios (e.g. at the park, at training, on-leash). Thank godness I have forgiving dogs to let me do all these experiments on them :p

that all makes perfect sense, thank you :) I often get indecisive at herding training about whether I should insist on a command or move on with the situation, but lately because my dogs are getting a bit too pushy I've been erring on the side of insisting. I've also started clicker training a "stop" on our morning walks at various distances away to try to reduce the necessity of repeating when we are on sheep :) (I do practice flanking with Weez sometimes around my other dog who he is quite obsessed with )

I get a fair bit of conflicting information about repeating commands. The traditional wisdom being 'never repeat a command', which makes sense in theory but doesn't always work out in real life. I have also had it put to me that a dog listening to its instincts isn't necessarily processing what you say the first time and repeating is necessary for these kinds of working dogs (which seems to be the case with top herders training their BCs who repeat commands all the time). So I'm interested in what people in here do in training, why, and what kind of temperament your strategy works on. It's poll time! Thanks :)

As soon as I read this thread I knew that, despite never having seen a scotty in my life, that one would show up somewhere. And sure enough, today on my drive home from the beach I passed a man walking a little black scotty dog :laugh:

Awwwwwwww little red pup! I don't even have a TV antenna but I'd be tempted to get one just to watch that little fuzzy ball of gorgeousness

My boy was like this too, I could put treats on his tongue and he wouldn't react! It was just a matter of building up more slowly to highly distracting environments, like others said. I also taught a couple of quick-reaction cues - "catch!" was a good one because he would snap his head around, get a treat, then go right back to what he was doing. Win-win from his perspective. Then I built up the duration of attention to me and the imminent treat. I have a sneaking suspicion that the value of treats can be increased through conditioning by pairing them with praise & a happy owner, but I haven't really read up on this I too have a dog where what is rewarding to him varies with time and place, so I have to get creative :) Treats in one pocket, a toy in another, and a leash in-hand to control Premack rewards ('do what I ask and then you can go do that other thing you want to do'). He's a work in progress, but we've made big improvements in his responsiveness this way. Edit - here's a nice short article explaining Premack rewards: http://www.teachingdogobedience.com/2009/01/premacks-principle.html

Fantastic photos and lovely subjects :) I just hope you haven't jinxed them with the names given how well the human Tesla and Edison got along! :D

I'm not sure we even have any advanced dogs competing at the moment. We only had 1 intermediate run this morning & the rest were started or tests. I'm not aware of any crossover between ANKC & yard/ 3-sheep here either

Awww so many Shepherd licks! :D Fantastic :) I love how Rakim manages to squeeze out the others through sheer exuberance :laugh:

Thanks Janba :) I won't lie, our two were 50% of the dogs entered :laugh: - but I wasn't sure if either were going to pass on sheep so it was a happy surprise that the foxdog did :)

Sorry - High in Trial not instinct They did one sheep & one duck run for HSA each.

ANKC herding in WA is pretty small, I only know of 2-3 people that are up to the level of training driving. We have a lot of rural over here, so most ppl would be doing the working dog trials I'd imagine. -- We had our first trial of the year today :) Our kelps got 3 passes out of 4 entries in started A, The foxdog got HIT on sheep & Weez got HIT on ducks (hooray for small trials! :laugh: ) Unfortunately Weez failed on sheep at the pen, but it was a good day all around and we got some experience. to Sherlot for the feedback & encouragement :)

He's right at the age where he's growing into his adult behaviour, so it's not unusual for things to be changing from when he was a pup :) I know with my boy he grew much more aloof with other dogs around 12-15 months old, he still plays with some dogs but he doesn't love everyone the way he did when he was younger.

Agree it doesn't sound like dominant behaviour, but it could be a herding instinct? What you described sound like the stalking process of a sheepdog. BCs are breed to stop something that is running away unexpectedly or to move something that is refusing to move, which can be a dangerous instinct around kids. It's also normal for not all dogs to get along. If you can find some common thread in the dogs he doesn't like it can help you manage it. But agree with Sandra a professional trainer can help you diagnose & work with the issue with the kids.

The seeds contain a low dose of cyanide, so not too many. But one should be fine :)

Never! :p

I thought you might :laugh: they are on every month until about October I think :)

You are keen CC :laugh: This herding trial is at Mandurah, they alternate between there and Bedfordale :)

Argh I did but I was at work lurking on my phone and couldn't reply! Hang on.....