ness

Both my BC girls have 36" soft crates. I like them to have space especially when we are spending all day at a trial. They would be a lot smaller then your average lab - my youngster is 14kg and 45cm tall and my older one is 17kg and 46cm tall. They have the large brand K9 Royale ones. They could possibly both have got the M/L size but they wouldn't have had quite as much room especially my older girl. It also gives me the option of putting 2 dogs in one while at training if I don't want to take them both with me.

Go Soaks!!!!!!!!! Huski - Daisy sounds like she is coming along famously. Will have to watch the video when I get back to town on Tuesday as the net connection up here is a bit slow.

Our first trial is a few weeks off and I am still not sure what possessed me to enter but yes TSD we want video and I am sure Ziggy will do really well.

So does Ness huski - providing its leftover food at the local school :D ;) .

Interesting about the lapses in concentration - I think I am more talking about the head position being slightly wrapped as per Tassie's comment. I have seen dogs doing heelwork and hold position but who seem to be looking everywhere and anywhere. Kenz does crowd onto my leg a bit and I don't mind it. I raised the topic of head position with Rivsky the other day as I was commenting on one of her videos and saying I had a similar problem. Dog was in a nice heel position but the head wasn't where I wanted it.

Ok so here is a pre-Easter question for you all - I have just given you what I feel makes for my desired heeling performance - what criteria do other people feel they use to assess whether there dog is heeling to their desired standard. What final product are other people aiming to aspire to? What criteria do you have set in concrete and which are you prepared to be more flexible over with a particular dog.

Why not a Doberman? Maybe not the excessive head position but they can still look just as attentive. Great Dane doesn't have as far to look . I guess it depends how strict you are talking the UK style. To me the things like I like about the UK heelwork and my main criteria in training are the prancing totally devotated attentive heel position. I am not so concerned as to exactly how close to the leg the dog is working (which I realize is part of the "UK Style") but I see far to many dogs in the ring here sticky beaking while in heel position and to me that doesn't cut the mustard. I am not a stickler for a strict head position as they would be in the UK but looking up at the handler, obviously engaged and prancing along at heel are what I think makes for a nice heel pattern. To take the comment I got from a judge in training the other night with my youngster - she works better then 90% of the dogs currrently trialling in novice and yet I am still not happy enough to enter her for a number of reasons but the major factor for me is while she is technically heeling I occasionally get head checks to see what is happening and she stops kicking her front feet up. Yep I am fussy but I want a dog who prances around the ring and who doesn't look away.

Nope Ptolomy it was honestly a case of lumping and clouded judgement call . Tue night I used one of Ness's trial sets with her as that is all I had taken with me to club. These sets are pretty methodically aired and had not been used since goodness knows when. I used the same scented metal that I used with Ness and Kenz was much more settled before we played. I thought since we had no issue on Tue night I'd take a set out to agility training on Wed evening. Just to set the record straight - we have a small agility club so there are actually more dogs and distractions with classes in progress on a Tue night then on a Wed night. However few things - Kenz had run her agility runs so was very hyped up. 3 runs isn't really enough to take the edge off a BC baby and she was pretty high on adrenalin. Secondly I had grabbed one of my training sets to take along. My suspicision is that I haven't been exceedingly careful with the woods and quite probably they had a higher level of residual scent on them and I also worked Ness first. Although Ness had no issues with my articles but I still question whether the woods might not have been slightly contaminated. I guess I fell into the trap of taking it for granted because she has picked it up quickly. She actually has never used a heavily scented article. So think it was a case of to greater expectation. I think I am finding she needs to be in the right frame of mind to complete the exercise at the moment. If she is to fired up the brain isn't working and she loses the plot. Like when I quickly discovered at the park the other night that there was no way she could function in that circumstance but I shouldn't be surprised it took me a while for her to control herself enough to offer heelwork at the park with the ball available. Note to self don't place unrealistic expectations on baby dog just because you think she has the idea. Better to go slowly and make sure of it before pushing the boundaries and not throwing her off the deep end. My frame of mind probably didn't help the situation either as by that point I was feeling a bit sorry for myself as well.

I have to say I actually like the UK Style heelwork. In answer to huski's question - I have actually stopped using heavily scented articles with Kenz. I will just take an article and scent it as I would for Ness but also we are still doing a bit of toss and fetch before a session so I guess that also helps scent the article. I do know one thing both my two are going to start on some serious distraction training and I am going to put off avoiding what I should have started a long time ago. Starting with Ness's scent work - well starting with her article pick ups actually . Shamed into feeling guilty about not having done enough and will get started tonight.

Ness has never been a toy dog so tugging before we run won't work so can't even take the edge off her that way but I do agree I wasn't intend on fully retiring her but rather easing back on the demands. I am happy enough with the jumping but I am more worried about things like weaving and contacts. My plan is to just stick with jumping runs once she has her ado title.

I have temporarily broken Kenz's new party trick . Teach me to push it to hard. Last session she decided she would just bring me back woods . Hmmm ok so I have one dog with a wood fettish and the other dog with a leather fettish . Thats ok I think part of her issue is still related to where her brain is wired when we are training. I tried it after agility and I think she was still to toy focused to think clearly enough. Interesting my metal pick ups have also seriously deteriorated inside the last 12 hours as well. I have also seriously screwed my retrieves because she keeps wanting to drop the articles at the same point - and its the point that I was clicking her during one session. Any ideas on fixing this gurus?? ETA. Interesting on the pushing bit. Kenz use to push and dictate badly. Not sure what has changed but she is now still drivey but more into a proper position and less drivey against my leg. All I have been concentrating on is having her set up at heel or pivotting on the spot and holding heel and we haven't been doing a lot of heelwork at all.

- over having you guys tease me. Besides they don't want me I have to many qualifications and no experience in customer service .

Hmmmm want to take a guess who was screaming its my turn while I was training the other one - NOT the youngster . Even last night at obedience when Ness had already had her turn and it was Kenz's turn Ness was still barking that she was being left out.

Yep that was the reason for the break but also I was finding myself getting frustrated with her so it was easier to not train her and focus my energy on my little up and coming feral . As I said part of my worry is also first time dog owner bit. Ness is our first dog and I don't really know what to expect as they get older. Think she is telling me she isn't old yet .

Lablover the one we use is a vet/chiro so qualifications in both and I would trust his judgment. My concern was more because it was converse to what you would expect with an aging dog. If she had been like this her entire life I'd probably be less worried because her body I guess would be more use to it (and yeah probably have had more issues previously) but like I said its one thing for a youngster to throw themselves at something and get away with it but the way she is now throwing herself around is positively scary when its not how she has ever been before. Oh and as for the hurting herself in the yard - hmmm that is the other thing - she isn't really super active when we are out and about either. Mostly snoozes in the yard, or searches for food at the park. The only place she really runs is at the beach. So yes this agility attitude change is a bit of a surprise.

Ok I usually post questions relation to Kenzie and training but I am having a dilemma with Ness but not what you might think. Ness is 9.5 and been given a complete going over by the girls chiro and found to be fit and well. My issue is that since we have started back training this year and I spent Christmas focussing on Kenzie, Ness has come back a little too well. I have always described her as being moderately speedy and moderately driven. Enough to get around a masters jumping course with a fair time but only driven enough that she can't always make the tighter times. We are currently chasing 1 remaining ADO pass before I consider putting her into semi-retirement. Now she is throwing herself into things and running faster then ever. I worry that she is no longer having any regard for her well being and given that she is now older that she might be at a greater risk of doing injury. While its not a good thing for a young dog to throw themselves around they do recover reasonably quickly from their tumbles whereas the older they get my assumption is like humans the slower they will be to recover. I am trying to limit the amount of agility she is getting and that it creating a bit of a viscious circle - the less she trains the more feral she is the more I worry about her doing herself an injury. She is my first dog and obviously not properly ready to retire yet but I am wondering if anybody has any advice on what I might be doing differently. If she was use to being a speed demon and flying off obstacles I might be less worried but I am now in new territory with her both in the sense she is getting older but also the fact she has decided to switch up a gear.

Well amypie help me find a job and I'll move on over - will get you and RubyStar whipped into shape .

dunno our DogsSA grounds are pretty ordinary and I think most of the clubs would have nicer grounds then those used for the showing .

Tell me about it RubyStar = alright I might just need to jump on a plane but it will have to wait until mid May - few to many things to do here first ok.

Yep like KCC park in Vic. Unlike SA whos Dog grounds are used exclusively for showing and the occasional herding and earth dog trial, Dogs West grounds seem to have assorted obedience or agility on every night of the week.

K9 = DogsWest grounds. Ptolomy's local haunt . Sorry Ptolomy not really teasing you - much ;) .

MM - knowing Ptolomy I am sure chocolate features somewhere in their weekly "training schedule".

Don't go rubbing it in Ptolomy - am jealous of you guys ;) ;) . I am shocked to hear you say that Thur/Fri night is wine or Cider night - I thought every day was CIDER day now :D .

seems that way doesn't it JulesP. I know Ptolomy goes to K9 to train each night of the week and I think she catches up with assorted people depending on what night of the week it is. I also know they are deep into Royal show preparation so probably making an extra effort to all train although not like they really need an excuse . If they aren't down there doing obedience training they are all down there doing agility training :p .

Just thought I'd bump this - just over a month to go . Not sure how numbers are looking yet but if you can think of people outside of DOL who might want to attend then feel free to pass the details on to them.