Weasels

Thanks CFS! I knew going in that luring wasn't the best way to go, but I was confident that I could build independence with her later since she is a very forgiving dog to train. I haven't taught my other dog weaves yet, it might be fun to try a different method with him :) (even though I'll probably never trial him in agility, he's more of a herding dog). I grabbed 4 poles out at training tonight and she went straight through them in both directions as long as I started her in the right spot, so we will work on her entries more. She has only started to 'get' the cue within the last week so we've still got a long way to go :)

Her entries aren't great, we're still in the very early stages so I can definitely work on that next. I'm still only starting her on my left at this stage so I will start by mixing that up and then move further out.

Thanks Agility Dogs! Alternating makes sense :) Moving them is kind of a PITA, but I might set up the proper poles at training tomorrow and see how she goes there :)

Going in a certain direction, so entering from the side near our shed she is good, but entering from the other end near the fence she is weaker. I started with luring so I am now just transitioning from this to her going out ahead to her toy, which she'll only do in one direction without ducking out early or skipping a pole. So I'm doing the 'oops start again' more and more, but if she misses it too much I go back to pointing her through for a run. I've changed them to 60cm now too :D

Hi agility brains, I have a stupid question for you. Sorry if it's been asked before I have 6 weave poles in my backyard I have been training my girl on as part of our afternoon play sessions. She has gotten quite good in one direction and will often go through independently, but in the other direction she needs more guidance and will try to miss weaves more often. My question is do you think I should work on solidfying the direction she goes well in so she really gets it, then work on generalising the other direction. Or practice in the other direction more to try to keep them both at the same level. Or doesn't it matter? Thanks!

He's got no way to know the rules except by picking up patterns. If he's allowed back in the bed at 1am, then clearly this must be within The Rules :D I only recently started letting my girl sleep on the bed, but the only rule is 'you're only allowed on the bed when I'm in bed'. She's picked this up better than i had hoped, to the extent that she will jump off the bed if I get up to go to the bathroom and wait on her own bed until I get back in. I feel bad disturbing her for such a short outing but it means that the rule is clear and simple for her to understand :) Also if I get up to let the dogs out in the middle of the night I won't look at them or talk to them, just open the door, wait, close the door and back to bed. That way there's no motivation for them to play at attention-seeking :)

Love it. Reminds me of this dog :D

This one is mine. Goes bazerko and generally loves to run a zoomie after a feed. Both of mine too! Doesn't matter what we feed them. OH, without having seen me feed them, will be able to tell they've had dinner because they get all keen for a game of tug or fetch

Poor Tilly I can sympathise Kja, I too have a scaredy-dog He will do the hide-when-called/run-to-the-other-side-of-the-room-and-stay-there thing with OH, plus at the park sometimes he will just freeze or go stand next to the car park until I go get him. Excluding medical problems, I'll write what I do with Weez. I can't make any great claims, since he still has good days and bad days, but at least if it isn't helpful you have empathy from me :) He is afraid of sudden noises, so if I make a noise e.g. flipping out a plastic bag and he flinches, I will then hold the object still, call him over and let him sniff, give him a pat, then let him go off, making as little fuss as possible. I have noticed the most recent thing that scared him (he tripped over the pool skimmer and it made a small crash) he went back on his own and sniffed it, decided it was nothing and trotted back and forth on that side of the pool again quite happily :) So proud. I mark and reward him investigating new things. This means bending the rules in other areas such as LLW and approaching strangers, but if he wants to investigate something new I will generally let him as long as it's safe and reward him for doing so. He is slowly getting closer and closer to other people when we are out on walks. I generally don't let him completely avoid things he's scared of, but I'll let him give them space. If he is unsure what to do I will put him in a heel and get him to focus on me with lots of treats to get past whatever the problem is, so he has an alternative behaviour. I've spent a lot of time rewarding him for hanging around close to me over the past year to make walking at heel a safe & comfortable place to be. Again I make no great claims to success in this area, but things I would try in the situations you described above would be: When she's sitting under her plant, I'd go out and sit next to her for a while, and try to feed her treats/a meal until she forgot she was scared in the first place. With the 'trouble' look, I'd go over to where she is and give her long slow pats or a massage, or try to engage in play. If I was able, I'd try to turn the jumping away into a game of chasey. With the startling, I'd pick up the object straight away, let her sniff, then put it back and try to call her into the office. If that didn't work, I'd leave it and try again tomorrow, perhaps leaving the office door open with something tempting just inside for her to think about getting in her own time. Sorry about the long reply, it breaks my heart to see Weez being scared but then it makes me so proud and happy to see him overcome his fears :) He's my little fuzzy rollercoaster :laugh:

IMHO excellent advice given already (as usual :) ), I just wanted to add that keep in mind you've got a GSD at the end of the leash. Although dog-savvy people might understand he is reacting out of excitement or fear, most people will just view it as a large aggressive dog, and might start freaking out and escalate the situation. As Megan said, working under threshold is very important, every time he reacts it is setting your progress back. Edit: also agree with TW that using a correction in this circumstance is risky; if the behaviour is fear-based it could be making it worse, and if it's excitement he probably won't even feel it. Another reason why professional assessment is so helpful in this situation :)

that Millie is all done with the surgery! Hope she recovers well, she seems like a trooper :)

For some reason sheepdogs bring out the helpfulness in me :laugh: I just really want them to succeed (and I know that can be a challenge sometimes!) Link: http://www.facebook.com/PawPrintsPetTraining The downside is they are a training company and not a club so they have eg. 8-week courses rather than week-in week-out training. The upside though is they are professional (and excellent IMHO) dog trainers rather than volunteers so they know thir stuff :) They are therefore more expensive tho (I pay $50/year at my club to do agility every week, I think it's a couple of hundred for an 8-week agility course). So joining a club down the track might be a good thing too. My boy is friendly Beez but I think we are about 80km apart! I'm waaaay South :laugh: WA DOL meets get organised sometimes though so that might be a good opportunity to socialise with some lovely dogs :) Edit: they may suggest an obedience class first, 6 months is very young and she won't be able to take any obstacles until she is 12 months. No harm in asking though!

I meant to reply in your other thread Beez, but Paw Prints Pet Training had an update on facebook yesterday that that will be starting puppy, companion dog and agility classes in Wangara soon. They didn't have any more details at this stage but if you enquire with them they might be able to tell you more :)

Sometimes people who are very good with dogs are also very bad with people. Hopefully that is all that is going on here :) Enjoy your trip!!

Congrats on the bub!! Some trainers specialise in new-baby households, might be worth an in-home consult if you run into trouble :) Off-lead reliability isn't necessarily a prerequisite for herding and agility (depending on your local club's rules), you can do foundation or small-yard work until they get the hang of it :) In fact in my case herding accelerated their training because being able to work sheep is such a high value reward for them, they learnt that as soon as they do what they're told they get to go herd! I imagine you'll be a bit too busy in the immediate future though :laugh:

I used the treat-dropping method too as a focus exercise for Weez (and also so both of us were less embarassed when I threw treats and he let them bounce off his face ) As for floor sweeping, I had a volunteer in the foxdog ;) She's quicker than I could ever be! Edit: I cue with "Weez catch!". It gets instant attention when all else fails.

Aidan honestly I wouldn't worry about it, the vast majority of dogs don't try to dominate. As long as you are calm, fair and consistent with your dogs, everything else is just a matter of teaching them how you expect them to behave. A whip is pretty close to a flirt pole, you'd just normally have something on the end they can chase and grab too. The whip sounds like a great toy tho! :) Edit: if you can use the whip or another toy to distract her every time she STARTS to get focussed on the shadows/birds, the behaviour should extinguish because she now has a more rewarding alternative behaviour (Chase the whip! Fun!). The real crux of this though is to recognise when she is getting locked in on something and interrupt her before she starts moving, because if she's anything like mine, once she's got her eye in she'll be totally deaf Everytime she goes off and chases her own thing it is reinforcing that ('bad') behaviour, so try not to let her as much as you can!

Ah cool sorry SLF I have genuinely met people though who have told me they have complete control over their dog just because it is submissive to them. Of course this is followed closely by them calling and being ignored by this same dog repeatedly. So I just wanted to clarify the point for people playing along at home :)

A lot of the clubs I've looked at are either 'no check chains' or 'check chains required & no clickers allowed'. Given that choice, I would go with the positive club every time. Sure if there was an open-minded club with good trainers that had an intelligent approach to aversives I would join, but not everyone has such a club nearby. So I'll err on the side of avoiding the yank & crank cowboys. This would send up big red flags for me

Mason_Gibbs goes to a NOR dog club - there's a thread with more info here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/228293-puppy-school-in-perth/ Beez I think some agility clubs will start you off on-lead and do heaps of focus work before you start learning the equipment, so if you can find one like this I would suggest just jumping into a club - then you can manage the distractions to your level and have a trainer there to help you out too! :) Weez was easily distracted when I started agility but now I can get him to sit and look me in the eye while another dog is pawing at him for attention :) (he still has other distraction issues :rolleyes: but being able to ignore other dogs I can 100% attribute to attending agility classes with him)

Sorry if this isn't what you meant SLF, but being a firm, calm leader to your dogs is absolutely NOT a substitute for training. It is an excellent thing to aspire to, but it will not mean your dog suddenly understands Human Rules like 100% recall etc. I've seen too many people get into trouble following this train of thought. Aidan You might need to get creative to motivate your girl. Maybe a flirt pole, or a rope on a string that you can get her to chase back to you to keep her focus. Like Kavik said, teach her in the house, then in the backyard, then in the front yard, etc. slowly building up higher distraction situations and setting your dog up for success each time. If you do 10 mins of training before your run, she might even be less inclined to make her own fun :) Also 'rewarding calm' is good, if she is lying calmly at some point you can just drop a bit of her dinner at her paws or give her some long slow pats so she starts to think calm=good. This I love, describes it perfectly :laugh:

:)

Beez which area of WA are you in? NOR/SOR/Perth? We might be able to recommend you a good local trainer :)

Hi all :) A friend of mine has a couple of pet-friendly places for rent in Rockingham. From my understanding they are units (2br I think) but both have a good size yard. If anyone knows anyone who might be interested let me know and I can find out some more info.

My thoughts too And in the nicest possible way Stitch, the dog being able to dig at the plants whenever he likes isn't teaching him not to either :p From a training perspective, the normal way to deal with this would be to create an area where he IS allowed to dig and make it more rewarding than digging around the plants. Burying toys, treats, whatever in the 'good' digging spot, and then perhaps also implementing Perephone's suggestions around the plants as a deterrent for added effect. Good luck :)