ness

Nice work RS. Way to go Millie - is there any video??

and what about yours Ptolomy - so RS where was my txt message eh ;).

ROFL RubyStar you might be surprised re tracking - Ness had one training session and within 5 minutes she was tracking as though she had done it her entire life and at warp speed. Didn't take her long to realize the sooner she found the person at the end the sooner she got her treats .

Looks good RS . Are you pleased with it?

Hmm if it was Ness - shrug my shoulder and go ah well thats Ness for you. Normally we don't discover that until we get through seekback and the evil bitch decides presenting in front of me is an optional extra (a trick that is reserved just for trials). If it was Kenz - something is seriously wrong and I would be looking to find out what that thing is. If she is a little flat but not super flat I'll take Ness out in front of her and play with Ness a little and that normally fires Kenz up enough.

Hows the new car set up RS - when are you posting photos .

Way to go Ptolomy and Ch Strauss Mouse. Agree with bedazzledx2 - let the fun begin .

Bags I Scoota or Soggy Ptolomy - love working the red kids. Although I enjoyed working Brookie and Lara as well. Maybe I could just loan mine to Ptolomy and she can train them for me and return them trained .

Hmm I seem to have created a bad habit x 2. Ness does it over articles when we train and it can happen at the start peg as well but she doesn't do it over anything else unfortunately. Training this past week when I haven't trained her in a few weeks was really bad. Kenz has also started doing it when I run training sessions at home. Every time I am asking her to line up at heel she starts squealing. I am hoping it dies down when she is allowed to do more but don't really want to go reinforcing it in the meantime so its a little tough. Kenz has always barked a little during trick training - running around objects, jumping over things etc but this is different this is screaming and its never been an issue during heeling before. Thanks for the thoughts though bedazzledx2.

Hmm LP failing everything - hence my decision to retire the mega bitch Ness who can do it all perfectly in training. Then people remind me of the trials where she only failed one exercise or the trial where she missed out on a quallie by 1 bloody point and passed everything .

Have any of you experienced issues with dogs being "vocal" while training and what have you done if anything to overcome this.

Well done DSO and Jess (least you didn't let the BC side down this week eh ). Well done LP on Leo's Open round to.

Nik just think regardless of what happens you still take the best dog home with you when you finish and just take it as it comes. Its all suppose to be fun, the dog is trained, a trial is just about you going out and enjoying your dog - no sheep stations involved - so whats there to get nervous about. Take every opportunity as it comes and cherish and enjoy it because you never know when you may no longer be able to. So go out and give it your best shot and best of luck.

There is a trial down at West Beach (Agility Dog Club of SA) tomorrow so if you wanted to have a chat to the person down there rather than ring or email then you could do that. I am a member of ADCSA (Agility Dog Club of SA) and SAODC (South Australian Dog Obedience Club). ADCSA don't have an obedience requirement but at SAODC you must have completed grade 5 which is effectively CCD/Novice obedience standard - so stays/heeling/sits/drops/stands/stand for exam/recall. Not sure whereabouts you are but I know Beachwood school for dogs (train at Aldinga on a Saturday) have a fun agility class or do fun agility as a part of there classes. Thats a positive delta based training group. They are less geared to competition and more geared towards having fun and allowing dogs to do what they are capable of and would be more lifestyle based training. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beachwood-Dog-School/136002586420027

Yeah you can do agility without doing comps - one of my clubs has a fun stream for those that don't wish to trial and a more serious trialling stream. Which club were you looking at MadWoofer? A lot of the obedience/agility clubs require you to have passed a certain level of obedience before your able to do agility.

I had one that I was given which my older girl was never interested in so I had stashed it for ages and thought when my young BC was about 7 or 8 months she might want to play with it given she is super tug mad. Wasn't interested in it at all. Apparently tug is a game that you play with a human. Ended up selling it recently.

All of the above Kavik.

that is where we started - we have a good chiro vet that I have been using for years. He is the only one of the three that we have seen that thinks crate rest is a waste of time and that it can actually do more harm then good. I wasn't sure if that was just a cop out on my part though because both the specialist and the physio said crate rest. So the compromise was I thought I would follow through with the 3 weeks crate rest that the specialist suggested and then decide what to do. Still just as confused as ever and its been a very trying day with Kenz being thoroughly fed up with resting .

Steroid injection is the possibly the next step if resting her for 3 weeks doesn't work. It seems to a few disadvantages especially if the dog happens to do to much because it weakens the tendon. The specialist didn't think it was worth doing as a matter of course with Kenz because her pain response was only mild and its still a little inconclusive as to what is going on. So the plan was to leave her 3 weeks and then reintroduce exercise and see what happens effectively and if she is still bad take her back.

Have tried physio and acupuncture. No joint damage picked up on the xray (checked shoulders/elbows/paws) - a little degenerative change in her elbow on that side but not significant enough according to the specialist that it should be whats causing the lameness wear and tear more then anything (and she is on course of cartrophen injections anyway). Ultrasound did show some evidence to suggest a chronic healing lesion and more fluid around the right shoulder in comparison to the left. Got to love spending lots of money to be told we really aren't any closer to knowing what it is but its not xyz . I certainly agree crating a BC for 6-8 weeks is not practical. She is lucky I am home with her at the moment so for the most part she sleeps on the dog beds underneath my computer desk but mornings and late afternoon are the worst as she just wants to do stuff. She certainly isn't a couch potato BC. She has been gradually getting more stir crazy as time goes on. Physio treated trigger points in both front shoulders and her back on Monday - she was a bit of a mess . And the really hard part is we are now entering month 6 and still not really any the wiser - well ok we know a little about what its not just nothing about what it is.

Think I might just keep doing the occasional training round with Ness. She doesn't care if she trials or not its just about having fun. To her training is fun because I can reward her. Trials she ends up falling apart. She is one of these dogs that doesn't do the sitting around waiting at trials well and I think that is the huge difference between training and trials. Its not even about the fact I can reward but at training she is often on relatively early whereas at trials we normally have truckloads of UD dogs and she is normally on towards the end. She also prefers night time to day time. Oh well will keep doing the occasional training session when the weather isn't wet and I can always enter her in a trial down the track. As for Kenz's shoulder Natsu chan - hmmmm physio wants another 4 weeks crate rest when the specialist only had suggested another 1 week. I have a mega stir crazy BC who is not taking to resting at all well and I am pretty convinced there is no way possible I can manage another 4 weeks of her doing bugger all without her doing some serious damage to herself when my back is turned for more than a second. She is already just into week 3 and I am running into major problems with her being naughty. I can't lock her in a crate 24/7 it will drive her through the wall . Wish I could wake up tomorrow and for somebody to have waved a magic wand and for it to be all better. All the options facing us involve lots more crate rest and I don't know how we will cope. Never mind the dog coping I am not coping either.

A break or doing bugger all because Kenz is laid up and I feel guilty doing stuff with Ness and not Kenz .

Hugs RV .

Given Kenz is out of action I thought i would dust off Ness's obedience shoes and given it wasn't wet she could do a UD round at training tonight. Well blow me away she was well and truely on fire. Worked an absolute stunning round which would have qualified her at a trial. Bugger . She was absolutely buzzing and didn't miss a trick. Hmmm so the question is do I bring her out of retirement or not .

its not two that are conflicting its three - GAH - and I trust all of them which is the hard part. They all have a good case to put I just don't know where to turn and I want to do whatever is right without prolonging anything more then I have to . Yep have googled and read scientific papers to death . The real problem is the diagnosis is still a little hit and miss because Kenz's pain response was so mild and inconsistent. If somebody had said to me its definitely xyz and do this as a starting point I might have been ok but as it stands I just want to wake up tomorrow and for her to be better. We are now into 6 months of dealing with this and thats 6 months when I should have been out having fun with my little girl and that just sucks . And just when you think your two thirds done with resting her and you can start to get back on with your life only to have it suggested that your not even one third done I just feel rotten.