ness

Has anybody ever had Clive Makepeace as a judge - or any of you Victorian's seen him put a dog through UD before.

Seita - I think I did a combination with Kenz who wasn't that interested in food. I'd use food occasionally at home and just do a few repetitions and get verbals on things quickly and then use a tug reward. You could also teach a hand target rewarding with tug and then use that to teach the position. Seemed to work for her and she really was a struggle to get to eat much at all.

Ness tracks her seekback both ways. But mostly she just tracks it straight back from me and only go to the start peg if she gets stuck and can't find it.

LP I had a short bit of 15mm PVC pipe with a screw in the bottom of it that I used for ages as my start peg with very little hassle. I used that as it fitted in my bumbag when I'd go to the park to train. It was probably only about as long as a seekback if a fraction longer. We have always had cones at training.

Bugger Ptolomy - would love to see some Cider video . Nice work Tiggy .

I have posted previously what I was shown and Ness has a very reliable seekback and was doing full length patterns inside a fortnight. LP I have used an assorted variety of things for start pegs but mostly I just use a cone. I haven't had to many issues with variation in the peg. Basically what I was told to do was drop it at the start peg and heel off like Seita. I would then very quickly add a left turn or a right turn. Making sure I went both directions equally. Then I quickly kept adding turns and eventually got out to a full length pattern and then started dropping it behind my back. Only at that point did I then start varying where I was dropping the article. I will use a similar method when I teach Kenzie . Ness has only ever missed 1 seekback in her life and that would be both training and trialling and she was once the only dog to find the seekback in the ring.

RubyStar - I have 2 of Steve's (K9Pros) rolled leather tugs - one soft and one firm. http://www.k9pro.com.au/products.php?produ...led-Leather-Tug If you have ever seen a rolled leather seekback article they are essentially the same softness as that but on a larger scale. Kenz loves them and they are her main training toy these days. They go pretty slimy though after a session so I end up tossing them in front of a heater to dry before we do our next session :D .

Agree about the training with somebody else helping motivation. Also great for helping with distraction type stuff too :D .

Interesting kathq she is running fine obedience and agility under lights and agility during the day but the two times she has badly misjudged the jumps have both been daytime trials. I honestly thought after the first trial it might be the end of her trialling days but then she came out and handled the agility fine the following weekend so obviously she can judge jumps enough just isn't coping with them when it comes to obedience.

RubyStar the ones I got from kollarsbykathryn have bunny fur .

Question for anybody who is interested in answering when do you make a decision that a problem might not be a training problem but a physical limitation and make a decision to retire the dog. My latest problem seems to have arisen in the past couple of weeks. Previously Ness has had no issue with doing her directed jumping but now she is making an all to regular habit of crashing the jumps. She isn't acting or moving like she is sore and after the other weekend when I ran her in agility quite happily and she kept all the bars up I am convinced its not soreness related. My suspicion is she is having trouble correctly judging the distance out of the box to the jump. Any body got any thoughts on this? We have another trial this weekend but at our current success rate we aren't even getting past seekback so it might be a non-issue anyway.

sas I was also after something that didn't end up costing more than the price of the tunnel.

Hi Vickie, I have used mine with Kenz who is relatively fast. I just need to come up with a better way of pegging it down but I thought for the price if you don't want something you leave out permanently then I think they are fine.

Sorry I missed the heelwork part of the seekback Rivsky. Suddenly discovered there was no battery left in the camera and had to race back and get the spare one.

Well done Smisch.

I use a 36" vari when I fly mine so thats the size you will probably need for yours DSO.

Yep I agree Rivsky - come pick me up at training for rewarding Ness to cheaply . Looking forward to seeing you out at training ;) . And yes Zum worked very well too .

Well I have decided Ness is definitely a witch. Mock Trial today and I treated it exactly like a normal trial. No treats on me and just one to warm her up as I would normally. Did a seekback and she was fine with the present so I jackpotted to a container I had given to a friend standing outside the ring. That screwed up my sendaway though because she is so use to me cueing her as we heel back up the ring. Ah well interesting to see she can manage a seekback fine so bugger it if I know what has gone so wrong the past 3 trials. Rivsky was also there and Riv did some lovely work in UD considering they have never really strung any of it together in a mock trial setting before today. Good stuff. He has a ton of potential and was working very very well ;).

Well done Ptolomy, Beans, Scoota (and GSP Emmy). Well done also to Caffy and Alex . Go the red dogs.

why do you need to pick RubyStar you could always take them both .

Yep I just checked - Wed 8 September UD, Thur 9 September Open, Fri 10 September Novice and CCD. Agility on the 4th and Jumping on the 3rd.

I think its Wed/Thur/Fri but don't quote me. Wed was UD, Thur Open, Fri Novice/CCD.

I have done four separate occasions times (one novice, 3 open and twice in UD) and not passed on any occasion. Have only ever once completed the exercises and got through to stays - still brings back some sad memories that night because its the first time she has ever broken a stay and to think she was sitting in third place behind 2 absolutely awesome WA dogs to have blown it still hurts a little :cool: . Even worse this year they have dumped the obedience at the end of the show so the grounds will be a disaster. When we trialled last year it was on night 2 and the ring had huge chunks of dried liver on the ground.

The 3 times I have flown with dogs I have used Virgin but Kenz came over Qantas when she flew unaccompanied.

Will have to catch up ValleyCBR :cool: .