ness

Well done to the WA sheltie crowd and of course well done to Sandi and Deb but that goes without saying. Sounds like they are having plenty of fun celebrating tonight and thank goodness the top open dog isn't till Monday so they have tomorrow to recover .

Ptolomy certainly had a very good day - Go Scoota and Ptolomy . 2nd in UD Dogs with a 198 (and Brooklyn Scoota's travelling companion finished 3rd with a 196, 2nd in CDX Dogs and a masters jumping pass (and possibly a place :D ). Go WA dogs ;) .

I say go for it Dova - nothing to lose and its not like she isn't physically and mentally up to it. If she enjoys it I say why not. Realistically CCD is not really that much to ask of a dog. Plenty of trials coming up in September/October .

Para Districts have had the odd one.

Well a bit of common sense prevails and I am sure milzi09 could pick the appropriate time. Its pretty easily to see when people are relaxed and open to questions or not. Towards the end of a trial when some of the rings are starting to wind up or when stays have been completed and people are sitting around waiting around for presentation i.e. lunch time is always a good time. I am always happy to answer questions as long as its not the 3 second before I go in the ring or until my dog is back in her crate after we have finished.

Also worth while paying a visit to a trial and observing and then asking questions of people at the trial when appropriate. And if you can find a training buddy that is always useful too .

Good luck biker girl our first UD went better then I thought its been the rest that haven't . As for Ptolomy yes you really do need to work out when your entering miss Beans in UD as it sounds like she is going to be wonderful .

JulesP I know with Ness I just did it around lots of things - trees at the park, anything so it would generalise and it did help when she went on sheep the second time as first time she didn't really want to leave me. Obviously no long term results and we never continued. We are just back from our walk at the park and my little Kenzie ratbag decided a couple of ducks in the creek needed moving. Hmm she was chest deep in water staring at them and they obligued and move on to the bank . Obviously that evil eye is intimidating .

I think they should remove all the additional padding to the exercises. So finishes, heeling up before exercises like recalls, dumbbell retrieves etc.

Ah yep got that dvd .

Fair enough JulesP I know Piper suggested the sending around table bit for Ness before we went for a lesson and I guess I have inadvertantly taught Kenzie something similar. Just wasn't sure what would happen given she has more natural herding ability then Ness or at least its been fostered at a younger age then Ness's was.

My worry would be that Kenzie circles her cones very tightly and takes a very direct line but also very fast and actually accelerates her self around the cone (or jump if I play with 2 jumps). Not sure what that would translate on stock as from my very basic understanding is that you want a calm outrun and not have the dog bust straight up the middle. My only experience with attempting to teach directions off stock was with Ness who likes to rush stock anyway so it never really came to much other than a training exercise teaching her to circle objects for the hell of it.

Yeah am trialling on Sunday . Nah your not really horrible I am just jealous your going herding. Oh well.

Oh figure 8's around cones . Can do that and Kenzie just works herself up at the mere thought of playing it . And Dova stop bragging about going herding tomorrow otherwise your just asking for it .

Cast around rubbish bins???????

Your horrible Dova .

Er yep I would agree with that Rivsky . Although I am guilty of it as well and I think most people are . As Sue guru said when she was over - people find rewarding their dogs reinforcing for them as well as being reinforcing for the dog. Although I am not completely sure the dog would have entirely linked the non-performance of the sit stay in the ring with not having got a reward - well ok maybe that part is alright but its the next bit I am not sure of and that is the dog then didn't break a stay in the ring after.

I vote for the removal of the stand for exam from each of the levels .

I still think a UD title log book style would be a nice addition to the rules . Suppose we could make that across all levels though . You must pass at least every exercise a certain number of times but you don't need to pass them all on any one given day. Actually I just had a money making scheme for the judges maybe they you could for an extra $50 reattempt any one exercise .

Oh yes fantastic idea Rivsky . Maybe it could become an optional exercise .

Hmm nope I think just having the drop stay would be highly unfair as my dog nails the sit stay but likes to sit up in the drop stay. Why should you guys all get it easy, by just removing the sit.

I vote for can we just have a stay but it doesn't matter what position the dog is in .

Congrats on your CD pass today Bully .

And what about your brags Rivsky - master River did very well himself yesterday but I won't spoil them . As for today Tassie - hmm I am actually pretty chuffed with her work in UD today, no pass but she worked nicely considering we had been out all day yesterday. The judge complimented me on how much she had improved since last time she had judged us in UD (hmmmm if I remember correctly it was a bit of a disaster although I think it was Open actually and we got half a dozen paces into the heel pattern and I withdrew her ) and that she was really not a bad little worker and that I had done well with her. The scores would suggest otherwise but it really wasn't to bad at all. We got through a UD heel pattern with no missed positions which has always been a bit of a bug bear for me - she can heel well enough but her scores are let down with lots of missed positions. Any way I was thinking maybe the reason I was so proud of her round today was that I walked in with very few expectations of a pass and she really did work nicely.

What I have done with my younger dog to hopefully avoid this issue but also I seem to do it with my older girl now it that the sit or drop becomes a default "stay" command. So the dog must remain in that position until given another command or released. Not a quick fix but I am finding it useful for a number of things. It also means that the dog doesn't merge the concept of "stay" as any behavior so long as I don't move. My stay/wait is now a semi-informal command which I will use if I don't care what position the dog stays in so long as it stays there. Sit means sit until you hear another command, drop means drop until you hear another command, stand means stand until you hear another command .... I find they do generalise across the particular positions but it seems to avoid confusion for the dog. I know you participate in agility so will use this as an example of where it can be useful. I was teaching a table wait the other night. Got her to offer a drop on the table but then the "stay" behavior was automatic since she knows drop means drop unless told otherwise. Same for teaching obedience behaviors like the drop on recall in open - drop means drop until you hear another command. Way way way down the obedience track it can be also useful for the positions in motion in UDX .