Kavik

I'm another that says the grey plastic traps with peanut butter

Wow that is a very interesting idea! I hadn't thought of it that way before! Thanks for sharing

Yep it is a German Spitz - they train at my club :D I'd think it would be easier for a smaller/lighter dog to deal with such a handicap than a larger heavier dog as it would put a lot of pressure on the remaining legs.

Whoops sorry just saw he chewed the couch, missed the outside bit, assumed the couch was inside Can you fence off access to the couch? I think preventing him from getting to the couch until he is old enough not to chew it would be easier than trying to figure out how to get him not to chew the couch when you are not there. And there is then no way he can destroy it.

Is he inside unsupervised when you aren't home? If so, what about having him either confined to a crate/pen/single room or outside when he is by himself so he can't get into trouble and destroy things? At least until he is older and less likely to destroy stuff.

What exactly is changing with the seesaw? Is it the angle/height, board length, rate of drop?

I like Boxers - they look like they enjoy life :D There was one at one of my agility clubs (I haven't been for a while so not sure if she is still there). Did obedience and agility, though her focus was more on obedience (lots of handler focus and eye contact). She was doing quite well, was a lovely enthusiastic dog.

The one of mine that is scared of thunder and fireworks gets locked up when they occur, no cuddling (she just wants to hide. Under the coffee table or bed works too)

That will certainly make things interesting for people doing ADAA as well as ANKC! More differences in equipment to deal with.

Sorry for your loss

I compete in agility with Kaos and we are doing well and have our Novice titles, have done obedience with Diesel with the aim to compete but with his health problems we didn't quite make it there.

In the new ANKC rules (which come in soon), the table height will be 400 for 400 and above dogs I believe. And 200 for 200 and 300 dogs? Really? Wow, I didn't know about that. Even when the table comes out at training (rarely) it is never a 600 table. Has never caused an issue for us - I think proofing table behaviour may be more important than height.

Completely agree with this! I had much more success in improving the behaviour and it was easier and less stressful with my dog aggro dog when I moved to a less populated area.

Whichever part of the day I can (with little kids) :D Evenings during the week, sometimes morning on weekends if we are going out in evening, otherwise afternoon/evening then too. When I only had the one child I did a walk in the morning with the pram as well. Once I sort out how to organise that with two, I will start it again.

What seems strange to me is the vet suggesting x-rays for HD and diagnosing a problem big enough to require surgery at a young age when the pup appears physically sound - not limping etc.

Susan Garrett is an agility trainer - she does not say she is a behaviourist

Different trainers have different skills and areas of expertise. For top level agility training I would go to Susan Garrett, for aggression problems I would go somewhere like Steve. Not any one trainer is the best for everything, it depends on what you want to achieve as well as your dog and the methods you prefer to use. There are brilliant trainers in all disciplines using a wide variety of methods.

I was so impressed with the Susan Garrett seminar :D She certainly shows that positive is NOT permissive. She does not use corrections but is very clear with her criteria and consequences and controlling the environment. I think it would be very difficult for the average person to do it the way she does as most people would find it very difficult to control their interactions with their dogs as much as she does or be as disciplined.

Well done! I have trained at 2 clubs at the same time with no problem. They are very different (one club was VERY small and I was instructing the beginners there as well as training my dog in the advanced class) and both flexible enough so I could train without confusing my dog. My dog jumps 600 in ANKC, 650 in ADAA (he measures 570) with no problem. Knocking bars does not have to do with the height of the dog - there are many reasons why a dog may drop a bar or not. I think it is harder on the larger, heavier dogs than a smaller, lighter dog.

Chicken and rice is what is usually recommended Small amounts at first.

It is just a lack of manners. Kelpies are active and often fairly driven dogs (food and prey) but that doesn't mean they can't behave in the presence of food.

I had my first night back at agility training since I had my baby 7 weeks ao. It was great to be back, I had so much fun! Luckily some club members were willing to help me as bubs was not as cooperative as I'd hoped she'd be and wanted to be held the whole time. At least strollers are good for holding bags etc! My accomplishment: I've been working on retraining Kaos's dogwalk contacts for a while now, thought it an ideal time when I'd have to have a break from training and competitions anyway. He would do 2o2o but it wasn't as crisp a performance as I wanted and sometimes he'd stop 4on instead. I did a lot of work with my contact training board to get the response I wanted, and after a few weeks at training before baby was born on just the end behaviour on the dogwalk (as I couldn't do much running anyway) and a refresher this week I decided to see how he'd go on the whole obstacle. I got a couple of really good performances! Still more work to be done - certainly more proofing and i think we might be able to get more speed - but a great improvement!

I would get an X-ray done and evaluated by someone who is experienced with hip displaysia.

Kelpies can be quite vocaL dogs and they are very agile - we were practicing balancing on rocks and trees on our walk yesterday.

My GSD is my most difficult dog to motivate too. But he has allergies so doesn't feel 100% He is also pretty cruisy and easy to live with and since I am not trying to train him for competition anymore I don't do a lot of training with him.