ness

Coolies . I am actually looking forward to hopefully catching up with Sue when she is over for Nationals in a few weeks time. And yep I had heard she is taking Diva with her to the seminar. And if anybody is up to a challenge Ann has a new gorgeous BC called "Switch" who needs puppy kidnapping but nobody tell her I said so

Ooooh I am so jealous - its just to far away from Adelaide - would love to go. We expect lots of reports in after you get back . Say Hi to Sue for me and have a great time. I met her last year and had a chance to watch her run her fantastic BC Nifty in Agility and also got to see her great Lab Diva in action in the obedience ring. She should remember me since I think she has responded to countless email questions that I have posted to various lists . Enjoy!!!

Oh by the way the success I am having with Ness also goes to show how valuable videoing and just even emailing each other can be. Sure its not quite as good as having face to face contact with somebody but what I have trained with Ness in UD so far is all going on what I have been shown (the few sessions I had in Perth) but mostly on emails. I even got through being able to teach Ness to scent just going on what was emailed back and forth with regards to how to train. My monthly videos go back to WA and get criticised and then I try and make the appropriate corrections - mostly they are to what I am doing more so then anything the dog is doing wrong. .

Hmm JulesP if you read what I had in my post regarding what I include when I plan (apart from the actual exercise). I also suggested that you need a plan of what you are going to do if the session goes pear shaped (or a plan B). That can include doing something really short that the dog is good at to end on a positive or I have been been known to scrap it entirely and finish up with a good game. So long as you then go back and readdress why things went pearshaped before starting out the next session and don't get into the habit of having to many bad sessions in a row everything is fine. Yep dogs sometimes have an off day and yep I can't see the point in pushing something if she clearly isn't interested. Having said that though there aren't many times I get her out now and can't get her to give 100% in a training session so I guess whatever I learnt in WA is working!!! As an aside I took her out to the club on Tuesday night (mostly because I had to renew membership for agility which is on a different night) but I took the opportunity to put her through a select few UD exercises in the ring. We just did the seekback, sendaway and directed jumping. She also did a retrieve over the jump (just because I haven't done one since October and wanted to see how she went). Her retrieve was brilliant. She had a few problems with her seekback (but probably wouldn't have if we had waited her out to find it - she went and tracked but got her way back to me and then the judge had me walk back a few paces along the track - set her up and send her again) - I know from training occassionally she comes back and tracks away from me back to the start but other than that the rest went very well. She left me the entire length of the ring and took herself back to the start peg (different from what we use in training) but she did it with confidence. Of all the things that could go wrong they didn't!!! . Her sendaways were all spot on as was her directed jumping. Not bad going since she hasn't ever really done one outside of our training and we have only been training since end of October (well actually sendaways and seekback only since the end of December/Early January). Shows that consistency does work . She was switched on and focused.

Nah I already said suggested you move to Adelaide didn't I . We are having our own little training group. Agility/Obedience with a bit of canine freestyle thrown in for good measure.

One more thing which is highly recommended is to at least video one training session every now and then (one a week would be ideal but that presumes you are training every day or nearly every day and have access to somebody to film them that often). Filming should be more frequent if your not having as much success in training what you want to train or things keep falling apart or your not making forward progress. At the moment I have been able to film about 1 session every month and its so much easier to pick up on stuff when you can sit down and watch it afterwards. Subtle things that you don't even know you are doing. Its also a great record to see how far you have come when you look back on it.

MUCH more specific. You need to have worked out: - what level the dog is currently at - what you are wanting to train - how many repetitions you want to train (and what you want to achieve in each of those repetitions) - how you are going to train it - what you are going to reinforce (or correct if you want to take that path) - method of reinforcement (or correction - same again if you want to use that in training) - what are you going to do if your training isn't going the way you want (in other words if the session goes pear-shaped)

Yep Shoey, Totally agree with sidoney. That is precisely what I am now doing. Along with making notes (or in my case sending emails back to people) with the outcome and then making modifications to what I am training. Easier when you have somebody to help you and suggest what you need to do. Especially when you don't really know what you need to do in order to achieve the final goal which in our case is now a UD title.

Hmm Shoey, Can I suggest a 3 week trip to do some dog training over in Western Australia with the top gurus over there - well it worked for Ness and I. And then all you need to maintain it is the threat that they will come over and confiscate your dog if you don't .

Glad you had a good time. I am sure you will do fine there .

Thanks Vickie, Ness is my learning dog and we don't get a lot of advice regarding handling where we train. Its mostly a case of run the courses or set up sequences if we want to practice something. We have a lot of input into what we train just not much help. I guess we also have mostly very driven dogs or those who couldn't really give a stuff. Those that are driven thrive on anything and those who couldn't really give a stuff seem to just potter along not really getting anywhere but don't think there owners really are that fussed. Ness falls in the middle and yep it frustrates me that I can't make time with her which is why I continue to work long and hard at it. She has only now just become very reliable on jumping on the table in agility - no idea what happened on that but we have had no table refusals since the new rules so now I have been working at everything else because there is hope. Also she does have 3 masters jumping passes so its not totally out of the relm that she could get her masters title.

Hey Vickie, Thanks for that. Some interesting points raised. Given what you said about me being more comfortable with rear crosses would it surprise you to say I usually only ever do front crosses (admittedly not very good ones) because if I try and rear cross I lose any forward momentum and she is likely to pull off the obstacle. Same with tunnels and anything. She always needs me right there although she did some really nice gambles on Monday with strong tunnel sends so obviously doesn't always need me there. If I get to far ahead of her on the course she will switch off. I think she has a very late committement point to an obstacle. In that with a jump she basically has to be nearly over it before she is committed to completing it otherwise she drops momentum and will pull off the bar. We do a lot of practice just driving over straight lines of jumps to build drive - or have done with some success in the past. Not tried any of that leading hand exercise stuff - are there any good explanations available on the web or dvds or books - any recommendations. She won't hold a lead out anymore which is why I usually don't. Also occasionally when I have tried a lead out she won't come off the start line. Thanks again though - I'll have another look at what you had to say and I am sure there will be more that springs to mind from it . I will say though we had our first bit of luck last night. I had just 2 jumps set up at right angles (lower then her normal jump height) and for the first time I was able to get her driving over the jumps with enthusiasm and then using a tuggy or a thrown ball to reward rather than having to use food. She isn't a highly toy driven dog but we have been working steadily and she is getting better. Still very much when the environment is right but its better.

Ok here are some more recent as in 2006 and 2007 Jumping Rounds: (Will upload some agility tomorrow) 2007 Mid 2006 = clear but with 3 time faults

Hey Vickie, Thanks for that - some of that is pretty old video now. Back to one of her first novice passes. Mostly 2002-2004. I have some more recent footage. In fact I have one round from Monday's trial which I would love some thoughts on if your happy for me to send it. Some of your comments are still very valid even now. One thing though is my handling has improved a fair amount I feel - just looking back at the old video I have obviously improved. Runs hang together a lot more then they use to. Are you happy if I upload some more for some comments? Ness

I don't know though she regularly gets time faults in Masters Jumping over here in SA but actually ran 4 masters courses in WA last October and was under time by quite a few seconds. So if she isn't slow then what can I do to help make time.

Oh she is leopuppy she is slow .

I did another version without the crap herding footage and a bit more agility in it . I did it because I constantly bag her about how slow she runs when in reality I know she isn't as bad as I think. Testament to that was her two third places in Novice Gamblers at the trial on Monday (only needed 1 for her title). She nailed every contact and every weaver in all her runs. Ran a stunning Excellent Agility round but for a tunnel/dogwalk discrimination at the second to last obstacle. Before then I would have said she was 100% dogwalk without fail, I can stand in the middle of a Snooker course and send her for the dogwalk without taking anything else (now the stats are back at 90% after the little bugger decided to go through the tunnel not once but 4 times) - oh well always the next trial. Her obedience well our aim is to be trialling in UD by September/October - far in advance of my timeline which was sometime in 2008. Just a gentle bit of prodding. A huge crowd in Western Australian have all believed in Ness the entire time while I have have stuggled with it and now I guess I am finally seeing what they have seen and starting to have a little more confidence in my girl. Now lets just hope for a fraction more speed - Nationals seems like a good time to find it .

This discussion was raised at a training group in October. Thoughts being in light of the new UDX positions in motion exercise that just so that they weren't teaching puppy people anything that would conflict later if they wanted to trial that they would teach them as a Sit, Drop, Stand until given an extra command (i.e. as default stays). So no more stay or wait.

Here are two videos I made the other day - (sorry the sound track is the same) Obedience/Agility/Herding (alright the herding is a bit lame - it was her first go and yep she isn't very good). Photo Video - Puppy to 6 years

Way to go Leo!!!!

Try Jenny Ireland she has the book "Click to win" listed on her website. http://www.petsinthemaking.com/shopping/c003.htm Bonus is she is in Adelaide.

LOL you and me both I am giving up on everything

Yeah gotta love all this retraining don't yah. Hell though I have spent only 2 months retraining a 2o/2o contact for agility and for the first time in a trial she didn't miss contacts at the trial .

The answer is teach a kick back stand leopuppy . ETA If you go look at my sendaway video up at youtube you will see Ness do a kick back stand from a sit. Then silly me gets her to walk forward to set her up :D

One more thing leopuppy which may help with creeping. Toss the reward behind the dog and release him to get it. Or if you can trust him leave a container of food or a toy behind him. If there is a chance that he will be released backwards rather than to you he might creep less.