ness

Hmmmm Ptolomy or caffy probably have better ideas then me - I would suggest maybe luring a few but only a small handful to show her what you want. Not that I can speak though as Ness's RAT are pretty average and not for want of trying to fix them.

Hmm caffy when I last tried food bowls - Kenz raced out to the bowl, got there, pounced on the bowl and tried returning with that . So your advice in response to this would be............ Interesting on the lumping bit - I should relay this and the consequence is I am going to go and do more shaping on DB pick ups. I had Kenz out in the yard tonight and thought we would do some training. I started off with having her find her wooden article in amongst the flower pots I had down. She was giving me a very lovely retrieve with a wonderful present. I thought well its been a while since we have done much DB work so I raced inside grabbed the DB and took it back out. Set her up, threw the DB she did a lovely retrieve and presented fine. Second time produced a similar response however this time, not sure it it was anticipation of the reward or the fact I might have delayed the taking of it marginally more then I did the first time but the DB ended up on the ground. Suffice to say Kenzie had no idea about picking it up when it was at my feet. So we then had a quick reminder session about picking the thing up and handing it to me and making sure it ends up in my safe (or not so safe ) hands. Will definitely be putting a session of shaping her to pick it up into my training plan for the next little while. Nothing to fault with the rest of it but just feel that little bit of the puzzle is missing and I suspect it will come back to bite when I least want it to if I don't address it now.

Are you working it through in slow pace. At what point does she start to lag. Maybe you need to break it down further so 1/4 turn at a time? Have you done much right about turn work on the spot and if so does she still lag then?

Yes I had that very conversation in the back of my mind too Ptolomy . I am just convinced she won't understand food bowls. Maybe I need to take a step back and do ball the ballaholic version which is 3 identical balls , but the problem is there isn't a lack of reward if they get the wrong one. Hmmm thinking outside the square would it work if I placed a ball inside the bowl . Interesting I just did 2 gloves outside in the yard and she was about 90% to the correct glove when the gloves were split less than a couple of meters. She has a lovely concept of run straight. I can call her back to me at the park if she has lost track of the ball (like gone off to chase Ness or something), put her into heel and she will take direction out and run straight to the ball at varying distances even if she can't see the ball she will race out until she hits it. I can throw the gloves out and heel around and then have her halt, put my hand alongside her face and she will race out to the glove. So I think she has a good understanding of taking direction but as Susan Garetts last blog post suggests would I bet $5 on it - nope . Actually interesting blog post if anybody else hasn't seen it - http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/12/...-challenge.html While the context is agility related it is just as relevant to obedience . Ness would have me broke if I applied that to some of her work and whoever was watching and keeping score would be a millionare ;) . Oh and yes you know me I LUMP bigtime ;) .

TSD - yes I know what Sue says but what she says and what is reality don't make ends meet . Kenz is getting better on the whole food reward idea but still goes enough is enough bring out the REAL reward . Its a work in progress. She is better then when Sue was over though . Sue suggested at the time Kenz was much more toy motivated then food so keep using that ;) . At the time she asked if I had ever conditions a toy to the clicker or bridge work - my answer was nope never have so she had me click and then offer the toy and of course Kenz took the toy as a reward. She said I was lucky as most dogs would have just held out for the food. My concern was more the missing the basics (or rather having taught the basics using a toy rather than a food bowl) and not having the experience to know whether that was a correct move. She has a truckload better "lock on" to the glove then Ness does even now. Have just been outside doing a session - her broken COP has resolved, her recall presents which have been shitty as anything are not only straight from any angle but back to being close, I worked some about turns on the spot and some fast into slow pace transitions (yes I am cruel ;) ) now if only I could get around this OMG scary person shutdown thing she might see the inside of a trial ring this year.

My day 2 photo - Birdie Stealth :D

Has any body got any thoughts in teaching gloves to retrieve driven dogs rather than food drive dogs. I just took 2 gloves out to try and the park with Kenzie and she is dead on with her marking and she picked it up like she had been doing it her entire life. I have done lots of marking with her ball and setting her up and having her take direction. She was even doing some very lovely presents. I haven't added the about turn into it as we need to work on that element separately. I was just having her take direction. I worry about skipping through the basics in case it comes back to bite me. I know what I did with Ness but she is purely food driven and couldn't care less about the actual retrieve. So if you didn't reward with food for an incorrect glove she realized she had made a mistake.

I remember a Christmas function at my mother's aunts place two years ago. To cut a long story short - we showed up and within 10 minutes I was in the car on my way home again to collect her :D . She was very upset that we hadn't bought Ness with us.

like bedazzledx2 caffy :D .

I use a generic command of "go" with my older girl and Kenz seems to have picked up on the same cue LOL. I am not so fussy about having an informal/formal retrieve word as there is too much context in a formal retrieve that indicates that is what is required. However I also don't allow balls or toys thrown at my feet when we do an informal retrieve - the only element that isn't the same is I seldom ask for a sit in front with an informal retrieve. Also body language plays a huge part as my "picture" to the dog when I want a formal present is tons different to me sitting on the ground or standing causually at the park. Even my obsessive compulsive retrieving midget who will throw all 14kg of BC in my lap on a normal play retrieve has yet to try the same trick when retrieving a DB.

I am still sitting here looking for inspiration on how to use this pink alien toy which arrived before Christmas .

Thought I would have another article session today - interesting I used food to reward rather than a toy and my fetching default behavior was replaced with sniffing. We did both wood and metal separately and definitely were getting some sessions where she was sniffing all articles and returning with the scented article .

Hahah it probably fits into 2009 just - well done again Dova. Might see you out this year with Kenz if she gets her act together.

Well done Dova and Pebbles .

Just had a text message from Ptolomy - not good news I am afraid - poor dog had organ failure and has been pts . She was only such a young dog as well - life is way to short and just plain cruel sometimes. My thoughts are with them all at this moment. Bit lost for words. Makes you appreciate every single day our guys walk on the planet. Off to go and give my two an extra cuddle. RIP little one .

Sorry use to using photobucket but thought I'd switch to flickr - Where do I find the image tag in flickr???

My January 1 shot : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ness_bc/4231755889/

Well done Zug Zug - hopefully I can get my baby out there this year. Will have to see how we get on though. The cool change was lovely once it came through - my two got a lovely run at the park .

The older dogs or dogs with injuries seem to enjoy it. There was a 13 year old BC entered in the trial in Sydney and they got a pass in freestyle. Ness is 9 and she got a pass in freestyle too. I thought it was a nice introduction to the trial ring for my youngster which was my reason for doing it.

As did I and the situation is sounding pretty grim . Please lets hope for a New Years Eve miracle - I know I'll be thinking of them both tonight and have everything crossed.

Ditto Ptolomy - I hope all your guys are fine, please tell us its not one of yours .

Yeah go on its lots of fun Tiggy ;) . Might see me over west with at least my baby next year for a trial .

Have just seen the forecast for tomorrow - hope you guys all manage to stay cool out there - 41 isn't going to be pleasant until at least 9 or 10pm when hopefully its cooled a bit.

Funny thing though is Ness grabbed but hers was a more indiscriminate grab (if that makes sense) most of the time Kenzie grabs and she is grabbing a correct article (and that includes when she has had to go over the other articles to find the correct one). Will keep at it and see what happens its not been that many sessions yet. We have had a few sessions where she has deliberately only returned with the scented one despite having a good sniff at incorrect ones when I started a while ago using wood so will just see what happens.

Fair enough - and here I was thinking I'd get one exercise finished just like how it should for a trial rather than a million half started exercise - it appears not. Not sure why I am bothering not like she will get in a ring anyway ever.