Kavik

I use cheese as treats and have put them in my mouth and spit them for the dog to catch for heeling in the past Not that difficult, and even my uncoordinated GSD learned how to catch them.

I agree a herb is a good choice - easy to get ahold of and you know it is only one target odour not a possible composite of odours (which is the problem with shoes). I used mint.

ahaa so nothing here is to ever be relied upon to be consistent? The op doesnt really care if the dog mouths the dumbell, retrieves straight or brings it back to her hand at all? Remember these methods were born from necessity of both performance and reliability. Aversives can be useful when you've already stuffed up what you've been trying to train or you're just not getting the parameters to stick. Again not pushing anything on anyone, just a suggestion that may be useful to look at from an educated perspective. Yes they were born from nessecity back in the days when if your dog didn't get the bird you wasted a good bullet and a good duck and threw your earnings and dinner away and possibly went hungry. Now.. we train for pleasure, it would not give me any pleasure to teach with this method. I have witnessed with e-Collar training, even worn one and felt the jolt, I have decided this method is not one I could use, but I can see why other people do. I am educated enough to know I could not use these methods, I am much too soft and would rather retire my dog from the sport then resort to a method that I was not comfortable with and confronted by. The top two obedience dogs in WA have been trained through 2Q methods and never had a positive punishment, they reliably score high at trials and are competitve all around Australia, who says you need positive punishment to produce consistency? Actually the ear pinch and ecollar are using negative reinforcement :p I don't feel comfortable with it either.

I have tried to scratch under the chin, as soon as my hand is near his mouth he drops whatever he is holding What about getting progressively close to his mouth first? So bring your hand/s up then take them away, etc and then give release command? Then next time get closer and closer til you are able to stroke under chin/pat head/touch dumbell bars without him spitting it out until told? I pat then touch tumbell, then progress to trying to pull the dumbell and I want him to resist and keep holding it til I tell him to release.

Have you tried stroking him under the chin while he holds the dumbell? I tried that and then progressed to stroking/patting his head and also touching the dumbell to help stop a mouthing problem with my GSD.

Mine get fed every day. They are fed in the evening so if I am training or competing (I use food rewards) they don't get fed until after that.

It is fine to get another dog because you want to get another dog (for you), but it doesn't sound like your dog is that interested in another dog for a playmate, so I wouldn't get another dog if that is your primary reason for doing so. I find that adults are usually pretty accepting of pups coming into the household, sometimes it may take a while though if they are used to being the only dog.

Kavik, I had a GSD who had skin problems and she stunk. I put her on Lamb & Rice for about six weeks and she came good. She was fed Nutro Lamb & Rice the rest of her life and we never had any problems. You may have already tried this solution but if you havnt its worth a try. I have tried pretty much everything diet related that I can think of As he is getting older his skin is getting worse Being pregnant at the moment I am noticing the smell even more! Ick! Unfortunately it makes me not want to spend much time with him.

My GSD has skin problems and he reeks! Not very nice to have in the house. That combined with the shedding (seriously I get a whole dog's worth of hair off him every week, despite him missing hair from skin problems) is making me not very keen on getting another one.

Same. If it is dog aggro, it WILL attack your dog, could injure or even kill a puppy not to mention any psychological issues that may arise. I would stay far away from any dog that is known to be not friendly with other dogs.

I feed and give bones separately - no need to feed them together as others have said it is likely to be a point of tension even if the dogs get along (or one dog will steal the other dog's bone/food and they won't get the right amount). With the playing - you may need to be careful with your dog's play style as it could get him into trouble with another dog, and as mentioned before Whippets have quite thin skin and can be easily injured.

I have them either in the other section of the yard behind a fence (if training in good weather) or crated (if raining and I am doing something inside or outside under cover). If outside and behind a fence sometimes one of the ones not being trained will bark or squeal.

From what I've read dogs don't react to the venom in spiders as badly as people do, so should be OK.

If it was a specialist/emergency clinic with vets and nurses there 24 hrs a day, it will be more expensive than staying at your local vet for treatment. They are more expensive.

I'm pretty sure the Sporting Register is only available to herding breeds which are registered by an external registry that is recognised as such by the ANKC (WKC, Koolie club I think, one for BCs and one other one)

I've had one agility trial where the broad jump was at quite a nasty angle for the 600 dogs (was easier for the smaller dogs due to less planks, so less of an angle and more space/time to adjust), coming from a very fast section, going towards the finish. It was our only fault and otherwise would have been our first Open Jumping pass I have been wondering about the best way to teach approaching the broad jump - not much time is spent on that at training.

Cardboard box has always worked for me if I don't have a crate handy

I'm not really fussed about the sex of the next dog. Depends partly on which dogs I have here and what I think will fit in best with them. My female doesn't like other dogs and gets on better with males, my males would be fine with either, so if the female is still around (she is 11 years old atm) will probably be a male, otherwise not sure. Males also have the advantage of not coming in season if I wanted to leave the dog entire until it is fully grown, which I would like to do next time to give optimal development for sports.

Of course different breeds have different behavioural traits. That is what makes them different from one another, otherwise we could all just get a generic dog for whatever task we need to do. Since they were bred for different tasks and were selected for different temperament traits as well as appearance, it is ridiculous to say that they don't have a tendency to different behaviours. Edit cause not having a good spelling day!

Great shots How cool is it when they go on the backs of the sheep!

Traps

There are several good ways to teach weaving, much depends on your preference, how much drive your dog has, and you and your dog's experience with shaping. 1) Slanted poles like you have been doing work well for teaching footwork and the concept of weaving. I like to combine this methoI like to combine this method with one that teaches independent entries (such as a 2 or 3 pole method which uses some shaping) 2) channel method - make a channel with offset poles so the dog runs through the middle and bring them closer together as the dog gets the idea of how to weave - similar idea to slanted poles. I like to combine this method with one that teaches independent entries (such as a 2 or 3 pole method which uses some shaping) 3) Susan Garrett's 2x2 method (sorry skip, it is NOT 4x4 but 2x2) - requires a good grasp of shaping to work well and works best with high drive dogs, great for teaching independent entries. A method I want to try out with my next dog. 4) 3 pole method which uses a combination of luring and shaping - great for teaching independent entries 5) use of barriers/guides

I use Aloveen for the Kelpies, and Malaseb for the GSD with skin problems.

Well done Dasha!

Great shot!