Kavik

If I walk Diesel by himself and let him off lead, he will plod along, might occasionally trot but certainly will not often run. In order to get an animated trot out of him I have to pretty much make myself exhausted in the process. I don't see that as fun or productive and I don't see the point in persisting in spending so much time training a dog that obviously does not want to do it. It's not fair on him or me. I now normally walk him with Kaos if I want him to run as he will follow Kaos. My others are a dream to train in comparison, even Zoe who is 11 now and not as active as she was when younger lights up more about a training session than Diesel does. ETA: and because of the aggression issues I had with Zoe, I went through a period of trying various techniques with her and despite the inconsistencies (by all rights she should have the least interest considering some of the stuff I have tried!) she is still willing and loves to work.

Agree with this So basically, those of us who don't have a high drive dog should just give up without even trying to get the best out of our dogs? Why even bother in the first place? Gee, I've wasted a lot of my time, then. Competing is not just about winning (I know, I can't believe I just said that either). I am more than happy not to win when I compete as long as my dog goes out and does the best work she is capable of doing. That is still a win for me. That is not what I said. UNSUITABLE animal is the main point I got here. If neither one is enjoying it and it is frustrating, and the level of performance is not going to get to a point where you can compete, and the dog would rather lay around the house and is not a problem, then I don't see the point in doing it. If you are enjoying it and doing well, then the dog is suitable The dog needs to have enough drive to do the task. I think of my dog who also has allergies and is uncomfortable - there is the odd moment when he works well (and he can certainly do all the exercises) but most of the time he is not interested/not comfortable and gives a poor performance.

That was a really interesting part of the seminar. She suggested this is how I could get Kaos to tug in different environments and when I have other rewards (that he prefers to the tug). I'm not sure I am that patient or persistent though Would love to hear more about how she does this or suggest people do this.

I don't see the point of training an unsuitable animal as it's hard enough to train a suitable one to achieve good results. I can't see exceptional trainer's that have the experience to extract the dog's potential wasting their time training something to a mediocre level when they could train a suitable animal with a greater potential to win and use their time more wisely. Often novice trainers think they will learn something training an unsuitable dog which is true, they learn rather quickly to avoid training unsuitable dogs in the future Highly driven dogs are the easiest to train for the highest level of achievements. Agree with this

Although my low drive allergy dog is extremely frustrating for training, he doesn't really get that excited about much, he is very easy to live with and very tolerant of other dogs and kids etc so he is great to take out to family gatherings/BBQs/social dog days out where my high drive competition dog who is much more fun and satisfying to train is more work in those environments. If only he didn't have allergies he would be a really lovely relaxing pet dog

The vets I've worked for had a truck come out and collect animals that had been euthanased. Until they were collected they were placed in a freezer.

There are lots of great exercises on Susan Garrett's Success With One jump DVD

Buzz was an extremely 'High' dog with a ton of speed and drive, but with difficulty with control and focus. Very different kettle of fish to trying to compete with a dog who would rather sit or lie there than do anything much less run around!

I have one dog with low drive, and allergies. I found it extremely frustrating to try and train him for competition, as he was not interested for very long and his performance was lacklustre. While he enjoys short stints of fun training, I did not feel I could get him to sustain his concentration and work his best for long enough to go to a trial and while in the ring, he did not enjoy either the work or the rewards enough to do so and is much happier just hanging around. I think if I was really dedicated and had perservered we could have achieved a CCD title, but since my other dogs have high drive and enjoy working, I did not enjoy working with my low drive dog nearly as much, it was not nearly as much fun or as rewarding. I don't know if you would be able to win with a low drive dog - you'd need to be a very good trainer to get the best out of the dog.

I'm not interested in breeding. My interests lie in behaviour/training/performance. I am more than happy to let others do the breeding.

I don't have water in their crates as they just tend to spill it, so that means they don't have water overnight.

I would love it if Kaos saw tugs as rewarding as his thrown toy! However, I am pretty sure that if I throw his favourite toy and then try to throw the tug, that he won't even look at the tug because he just wants the other toy He will play with the tug if it is the only toy I have and we are in the yard (not the park or anywhere else) and play enthusiasticaly - I can get him to do tricks or obedience commands for the tug well too. I really didn't do a good enough job generalising his tug to other environments though Oh well, something to do better with the next dog! While I would love it if he would tug, it is not the end of the world. Placing his thrown toy in a bait bag and having that at the end of the course seems to work well, even if it is not as efficient at a trial for rewarding (he gets a treat right away, then we go and find a quiet space where I can throw his toy instead of being able to tug right away). He runs fast and happy and will send ahead to his bait bag at the end of a run whcih is the important bit.

I throw the toy (not a tug) for individual obstacle or short exercises (eg weaves, sending over jumps) but place the toy on the ground in a bait bag for longer sequences/courses and then when I get to the bag I throw the toy. I practice a lot of sending to the toy in the bait bag on the flat and then throwing it when I get there so he drives well to the bag. The bag is so that he does not self reward Unfortunately I still can't get Kaos to tug outside of the backyard. And like corvus's dog he is much better at tugging if it is in my hand but much slower to go and send to a tug on the ground, while he will send super fast to his thrown toy on the ground.

It could be a number of things, including allergies. My GSD has allergies , that is no fun and I hope in your case it is something simpler. They can be allergic to anything from food to something in the environment including grass and pollens. Some plants that can irritate dogs include Wandering Dew/Jew - do you have any of that in your yard?

I did a scent detection course with NDTF - they also now include a module of it in their Cert III course. If you want to find out more about it, Steve Austin was happy to have me go and watch him train some dogs (after I'd met him through the course) and K9Pro held an SAR seminar with SARDA which I attended which was amazing! We took turns being the 'lost' person.

They are also baiting for foxes with 1080 in: Excelsior Reserve and Bidjigal Reserve from Monday March 7th to Sunday March 27th

If he is scratching every box in the hope of getting a reward, maybe he doesn't fully understand what is wanted and doesn't have a good enough association with the target odour, or you are moving too fast. Is he actually working (using his nose) to search? I wouldn't use a verbal correction. Eventually with scent detection you have to trust the dog as you will not know where the target odour is, so it is important to be able to read your dog's body language to pick up subtle clues as to when he picks up the target odour and to know when he is really using his nose and when he is just guessing/trying everything to see what works.

Odd angle for them to come at the issue from. It is a gorgeous Afghan Hound!

I would love to see more focus on foundation work and relationship building. I know most first time people are in a hurry to get to the 'sexy' stuff and it is hard to get them to understand the importance of foundation work, but it really makes things so much easier later on. And you can make foundation work fun! I really enjoy revving Kaos up and sending him to his toy, doing perch work and balancing on logs when we go to the park, and back up is such a cool and useful trick that can impress friends.

If you can only have one dog inside, it would make more sense to have the Pointer inside as the Belgian is coated and will be fine outside with a decent kennel. Personally I worry more about my dogs in the heat than the cold, but they all have double coats.

Great pics I would love to get out and see more sheep work.

Me too for sure! ;)

Double post

How big is Banjo and how old? Dutch Shepherds are similar in size to a Belgian Shepherd, so quite a bit bigger than a Kelpie! If Banjo is only Kelpie size he could be something like a Kelpie X Staffy, as a Staffy could give the brindle colouring.

Mine got what I think might have been a marsupial rat a couple of days ago Saw scuffling and commotion outside, but it was pretty much dead by the time I got there and yelled at the dogs to leave it alone, and it died a couple of minutes later. Zoe is my hunter. Interestingly Kaos was off wandering around doing something else while this was going on.