ness

Nice one Bully - I still have to recruit a camera person for the morning .

I just got the trial catalogue and I have a suspicion my two could clash so should be interesting . I love being in two places at the same time. ETA. And yep Ness will be in Rose's open agility and thats the one that will probably clash with Kenz :D .

Our stewards usually get lunch and petrol money or a gift of some description - that seems pretty standard across the clubs although been a while since I last stewarded. Yep we do have electronic timing gear but depending on how many sets and how many rings are running not all rings will have electronic timing gear and usually the ring that does would be the jumping ring. I bit of politeness and respectfulness for the dog in the ring especially with novice dogs never goes astray and to some people it doesn't occur to them. We have a lot of really new novice dogs at the moment (all in their first couple of trials or even there first) and its just nice to have one less thing to worry about. Especially since its hard enough knowing how a novice dog will react to anything - even the most unflappable dog can be unpredictable. And as I said vested interest the agility trial the person is talking about is my club trial and also my youngsters first. ETA. I do pity the steward in our ring though because I suspect there might be a few bars needing to be picked up at the end of our run .

Some do so hence a warning .

hey us SA competitors don't push our stewards around to hard but if your in the jumping ring and I place my dog in a stay and remove the lead and make every effort to avoid having a steward stand over my dog in the process and inadvertently spooking her at her first trial I might be pushy :D . Sorry my open and masters dog might cope with stewards hitting her in the face with a lead but but sure my novice baby dog would. That would be the biggest gripe I have had with a steward in a trial (and just for the record it actually wasn't agility but an obedience trial and we were doing articles and the bloody steward had the lead dangling from around his neck).

Just do as the judge advises and try and stay out of the way. I can't remember what SAODC do with leads some clubs will have a spot where the lead is placed (some clubs have a pole with a hand on it) at the end of the course otherwise they are placed somewhere near the exit gate. You may also be asked to make sure the next dog is ready to go in. A word of warning because people are usually running multiple dogs in multiple rings judges try and stay in consecutive number order but its not always possible or feasible so you might also have to make sure the judge knows which dog is entering the ring.

Sounds like Toller heaven Ptolomy . Just like being at home .

Yep Winpara takes some great photos. The other one that comes to mind is Tim (yourdogphotos). http://www.yourdogphotos.com/

Well done Bedazzled and Ptolomy and an absolute devastating BUGGA about Scoota's sit in Open . Sounds like some fantastic work by both boys and also sounds like your having a fantastic time away . Look forward to hearing the goss when you return.

nah forget me guys I was just there to catch the non DOL members , but will help if needed.

Not only did she win Open but Utility and Winner of Winners - suspect there will be plenty of celebrating in Sydney tonight. Scoota went down in the sit stay in Open - Bugga. Congratulations to both of them though. There boys never fail them and they both deserve every success their way.

Word via the grapevine is that Bedazzledx2 and Brooklyn won Open Obedience at the Sydney Royal - go Brooklyn .

ETA. List of names deleted.

I did a mock open round with Kenz tonight minus a DOR. She did a lovely ROF/ROH though and her heelwork is seriously nice although we did have to have words tonight when she thought she could drive me around the heel pattern rather than me controlling her .

Ooops KPM I didn't know I was sending out bank details I just thought I was doing the non-DOL people. Do you want me to PM the DOL people too .

Hmmm that could be very interesting .

I am happy to organise some cold BBQ chicken type platters with salad if people are keen on that as well. ETA. I think what I am leaning towards is those that wish to contribute money towards lunch are welcome to do that but it will have to be collected prior to the event (and we will work out an amount). Those that wish to bring a plate are welcome to do that. It should work out about the same either way so long as we have enough .

SecretKei I was meaning tea/coffee/sugar that we could send your OH out to get from a supermarket on Friday ;) :D .

I have to say interesting observation with out of sight stays - my older girl struggled to do an out of sight stay at the park (I think she always thought I was going to leave) but seems to understand the drill in a "formal" situation so we would only ever practice them at training with other dogs in the picture.

The reason for dropping it at the start peg is to encourage the dog to go all the way back to the peg - at least that is what I remember the reasoning was.

Seita are you dropping the article in front of her and then heeling off (and are you always dropping it at the start peg to start with). What I did with Ness was drop it at my feet then heel half a dozen paces then about turn and send her. Then I repeated that but added a left turn with a few steps about turn and halt. Then repeated that but did the mirror image so I'd do a right turn. Always dropping the article at my feet. Next step and you can try it the next time you do it is to put another turn in - so after leaving the start post you will be doing 2 turns before about turning and sending her to find it. I suggest you keep putting the seekback in the same spot each time. Don't flog it and probably no more than 4 seekbacks per session. <That last paragraph was taken from an email from Ptolomy>. Then I progressed to dropping the article behind me but still having it at the start peg. Once your doing full length seekbacks with multiple turns I then had no issue varying where the seekback article was placed. I think I inititally dropped it in front of my feet as we were heeling so she could mark where it was if she wanted. I also always dropped it in the first straight bit of heelwork. Then I went to dropping it just after the first turn. All of this took about a fortnight before we were doing full length reliable seekbacks.

but as I said we can't just live on pizza but if some people want to contribute to pizza that is fine. I am also happy for those that want to contribute money towards food to do that but what I don't want to be left with is having to organise it all on the day. Not speaking for others but I am happy to arrange the food (and think Kelpiepupmum and SecretKei aren't adverse to picking up supplies) so long as none of us are left paying for it all. Hmm does that complicate it for everybody or simplify it.

I think we need more than just pizza though whatever way we look at it.

I am thinking a combination would work. The other thought is do people want to provide their own drinks, do people want tea/coffee/water/juice provided and bring own soft drinks or do people want to put in towards soft drink as well.

Ok hopefully everybody who is coming to the workshop received an email from Alison about possible lunch arrangements. Ideally it would be easier to organise through here so lets keep discussions in this thread. If I pick up any non-DOL members then I'll direct them here.