krustie22

awwww missed em! anyone else cleaning out their closet? ;)

my main reason for wanting to train the tug as a reward is mainly so i have something i can throw rather than food. when training weaves using 2x2 method, i tried throwing food along the reward line, and she would eat it, then sniff where it was for a while. with the toy, she would drive to the toy, drive back and have a game...which in turn rev'd her up for the next turn. i now dont throw any treats as i dont want her rewarding off the ground for food. i also used tug to get her rev'd up for our agility runs on friday. the first one i used food, which she is nuts for, and i didnt see the effect in the end...it was pretty bad lol. the next 2 runs i used the tug before the runs, and we smashed it! :D i agree with above, you can never have too many reinforcers!! i think most good trainers would like the dog to 1. tug in the presence of food, and 2. take a food treat in the presence of toys...you wont always have food on you to reward your dog, but you can ALWAYS play ;)

whiteboard! great idea! could jot down what to work on morning and night each day! LOVE it! now where are my car keys...off to get a whiteboard! BBL

i have trouble with this too, and will be curious to see what people suggest. when i am talking to her and encouraging her, she will stay perky and focused, but if i am not doing that, she starts to sniff and move away...

I had one on Saturday as well all I kept thinking was - stay with me Lot, stay with me Lot!! I have a bit of a question for the gurus :D I really need to work on Lotties drops - at the trial on Sat, during both rounds Lottie missed a drop - she just stood there looking at me, and the ones she got weren't as nice and snappy as I would like. I got the clicker out today, and really worked on nice sharp drops, to reinforce them again, but is there anything I should be trying?? my suggestion would be to be fussy about the criteria you reward. if she drops slow, dont reward, dont mention it, just reset and try again...only reward on the ones where she drops quick, and when she does drop quick, make it a jackpot treat then have a play! the next time she drops should be even quicker! if she wont drop fast at all, rev her up, get her excited, throw a couple of treats for her to chase and run back to you, then ask her and see if she is quicker. these both worked for us, and now i can hear kudas chest thud the ground when she drops hehehe

Yep they work really well for that thanks! have ordered one! my girl suffered this weekend at the park, and i hate the thought of her suffering like that at a trial!

would you recommend to cool a black dog in between agility runs?

Hi all, I am looking for a Novice Pairs partner for Kuda the Staffy x Kelpie. Kuda competed VERY successfully at her 1st trial Friday night at Metro. She is able to do all obstacles, is very focused and runs well. She will not however tolerate other dogs leaping around her & in her face, so needs to run with another dog who is quite focused on the owner. If interested, please post here, or PM me! entries close this friday!

oooooh! that makes sense! haha i have SOOO much to learn about this sport still

Wow! If this is true won't that add so much time to trials? Each height change would require a (slight) course change/adjustment?!

your last run was awesome! ur girl had such a pretty smile at the end! hehe congrats on your obedience achievement!

LOL thanks BM and Dju, ill see how i go! have a fair bit to say after our first trial last night ;)

what are the rules on listing items for sale here? if we could have a thread in the training area for second hand training books and dvds i would seriously be in heaven!

Thanks ptolomy! the night certainly exceeded our goals! i am stoked with my girl, she has earnt a relaxing day followed by a swim in the cool this arvo ;) hehe we still have plenty to learn, but it gave us a great indication on strengths/weaknesses etc! we will probably do one more trial this year, then train our butts off ready to come out faster and more confident for 2012

thanks guys! :D it certainly blew our modest little goals out of the water! huge confidence booster for both kuda and me! :D no vids tho! next time! lol i didnt want to have my OH or anyone else kuda knows too close to the ring as we are still working on a command where she can go play with them, but until i release her she stays with the mama (if she goes to them she just gets ignored by them, and when she comes back to me, it is jackpot time! hehe! it worked really well last night, so will definitely keep strengthening that and hopefully next time i will be confident enough for OH to stand there and film us our very first run was open jumpers and she went past the first tunnel (my fault, i was in the wrong position, even tho i was ignoring the exclusion zone just since it was our VERY FIRST run hehe, i was so nervous i forgot everything i planned LOL) she took the next lot of obstacles well, but then went and had a sniff! i called her back, and finished it off with such enthusiasm! LOL both goals achieved! i personally made it to every obstacle, in order! and kudas goal achieved as she speed through, tongue out and tail wagging! :D she had the biggest staffy grin when we had our little "party" at the finish line our next run was ages after, and was novice strategic pairs! i had never even seen this run before and was soooooooooooo worried! HAHA our partner had one more Q to get for her title, so i said yes to entering! LOL i warned her not to get her hopes up...anyway, we got set up, and both dogs flew through! they both listened, and didnt go chasing the other dog/handler!! :D (thank goodness we didnt have to correct anything LOL) we were stoked to find out we got a Q :D our last run of the night was really late, but worth the wait ;) novice jumpers! we had a great little lead out with a push into the first tunnel. she was so enthusuatic! LOL luckily it was a free flowing course, and i stood in the middle and directed her out over the jumps, then into the 2 tunnels again, then i did a really, really badly timed front cross and cut her off from the jump, but she still managed to take it, just clipping it. i thought the bar had knocked, but the bugger stayed up! LOL the tunnel and last jump were right in her line, and since i am so slow, i sent her with a super fun "GO OOON" and she bolted through the last tunnel and over the finish! i came puffing up behind and we had our squeals and play while i leashed her then went out and got congratulated by everyone! we had our 2nd Q of the night! YAY! lol i am so grateful for the dial up the distance DVD as our "GO ON" cue was the hero of the night! it still seems so surreal! i still cant believe we got first in both strategic pairs, and in novice jumping! what an awesome night! :D it was only a small fund raising trial, but it was nice to be surrounded by like minded doggy people, and our fellow clubbers at our training turf :D it certainly was an awesome start to our trialing career HEHEHE

just want to share my little brag! we had our first ever agility trial tonight! We got a Q in both novice jumpers and novice strategic pairs AND we got first place in both!! granted it was only a small fundraising trial, but it was still an awesome night! :D

OMG! so proud of my super dog kuda! she made her mama so proud tonight! our goals were for me to not get lost, and for kuda to have fun, and stay motivated.... weeeeeeell...our first run was open jumpers, and we decided to just run it and have fun...that we did, got a DQ but still had fun... then we got a Q AND 1ST PLACE in strategic pairs and a Q AND 1ST PLACE IN NOVICE JUMPING!!! couldnt be happier! :D

thanks everyone! :D T minus 5 hours to go! def going to try and get someone to film it! :D wuffles, good luck on monday! i bet you are as excited as i am!

refusal is a fault, 3 refusals and its a DQ i think. ive seen a lot of variation on what is a refusal tho sometimes it is obvious, ie dog in front of weaves, then quickly darts round...other times i dont think the dog has even seen them, and followed handler and it has been called refusal, while other times it would have been "play on" so to speak. i guess it would be down to interpretation of the rule? pays to watch the judges and get to know them a little i guess FHRP thanks! that helps a lot!!!! tho we wont be correcting anything tonight...it is about FUN and MOTIVATION! hehehe

LOL i dont think you will have a problem offloading them here! ;)

ask the victorian councils...they apparently know how to spot a pitty?!?! ;)

thanks! 12 hours to go!

oooooooooh this time tomorrow we will have finished our first agility trial! super excited! our goals are: ME: to make it around the course without getting lost ( ) KUDA: to run with me and have a ball! the trial is at our training grounds, so i know her confidence will be good there. this is why i am making this our first one! if she misses anything im not going to stop/resend/correct her. id rather spend the first couple of trials making sure her confidence and motivation are super high!!! :D well, i will see you back here this time tomorrow to let you know how we went!

this vid helped me understand it a bit better! That kind of helped, but the dog is only ever on her left, I am assuming becasue she says outside circle and inside cirle both ways she means to have them on the left and the right side. If not, doing it only on the left makes no sense to me what so ever. i think in another vid she says she doesnt show the other side as they are still trying to get it right! but yeah, inside and outside circles on both the left and right. you can start to add figure 8s and front crosses etc as well as accel and decel work.