Kavik

Jess summed it up so well! I love learning about how to train the obstacles and how to improve our performance and the different handling involved. I love seeing my dog's confidence and mine improve with each competition we do. I love seeing how our training measures up in competition - the challenge of trying to get it right on the day the first time, and seeing how we go in comparison to others. I am getting better at dealing with my competition nerves :D and that is good for me. I love the social side, seeing and cheering on my friends and watching some AWESOME runs and dogs. It is great that our hard work is now paying off and it is rewarding when I get compliments about my dog's performance. My dog, being a working breed, loves to do any kind of work, he would certainly much rather be training or competing than on the couch (though he is happy to do that at the end of the day afterwards!)

Tarmons I know of at least one Malinois breeder who imports dogs with IPO titles as well as other working titles, so I find it hard to believe that Malinois people would say that.

I am thinking of starting up I instruct classes (and have in the past as well) on a volunteer and sometimes paid basis in agility and obedience. I did the NDTF course I go to as many seminars as I can from both local and overseas instructors on many topics I read as many books, and watch as many DVDs as I can I train and compete with my own dogs, have now titled my dog in Jumping and Agility I plan to offer all of what I can from the beginning

I didn't mean it to sound like big vs small Just that it is not always the big dog's fault if small ones are being chased. I don't like Diesel chasing as I worry about the smaller dog getting accidentally hurt (Diesel is 30kg and while gentle is not that um agile lol). Now that he is getting older he is not as interested in playing with other dogs and I do more training and recall work with him so he mostly ignores them or goes for a sniff unless the other dog is really exciting and he can't help himself

It is not always the big dogs at fault with the chasing. When I used to take Diesel to the dog park, there were a few small dogs, one in particular (a JRT) who would deliberately come up and jump on the big dogs faces and run and try to get them to chase. They were really persistent and didn't leave the other dogs alone. I was always worried, even though my boy is pretty good and gentle, he does like the odd chase, and these guys were so little! At that point I couldn't call him off in the middle of the chase. His recall is much better now and I also don't go to that park much anymore.

I guess I just didn't picture you as the type to be able to do this. I don't think I could do it.

I had Bondi Vet on in the background, not really paying attention, and saw the start of the segment about the Golden Retriever who was gagging. When they showed the owner I suddenly payed more attention - it was my doctor! I had no idea he had a dog :D even though I'm sure I have mentioned I am crazy about dogs ;) So I had to watch the rest of the segment to see how it panned out (tick paralysis, dog OK now). He is a really nice guy, very gentle and quiet, and good with my son. Now he is a celebrity as well

For the "C" section the dog has to be purebred and one of the breeds eligible for Schutzhund under FCI rules. Ridgebacks are not one of the breeds eligible. Some clubs allow people to train and compete in the obedience and tracking sections with other breeds, you'd have to ask though.

OK maybe he is a little funny looking. It's not his fault Poor Diesel

Hey man, don't look at me - they all think my GSD is funny looking and I am not a member of GSD club.

To recap from what I can understand Apparently GSD clubs are trying to do something about the situation, but nobody can say what for sure. Other breed clubs have only just heard about it from this thread, and posts on breed specific boards about it are not drawing discussion.

Volunteer instructors are there to help a group of people teach their dogs specific behaviours. A dog with aggression problems is going to make an instructor's work very difficult if not impossible. You can't spend the whole session with just the one dog to help them deal with the problem, and it would be very disruptive to the rest of the class to have the dog reacting throughout the class. Much better to get one on one instruction from someone who knows a lot about dealing with aggressive dogs then when this has been implemented and strategies in place and the dog has improved to take it to classes if that is what the owner wants to do.

Sorry corvus but I had to and and about your post. Couldn't believe that the bunny lover guru of the forum would consider that!

Shine's A-Frame is looking very nice

I'm pretty sure they do set them up for a 'win' if they don't find anything for real

And Flyball is only recently ANKC recognised too I think?

Yes that seems like the ultimate challenge. I have seen a Basenji trained by a police dog handler to indicate on TNT - Primer Cord - C-4 - Ammonium Nitrate- Black and smokeless powders and different form of water gels but I did not notice whether this dog had the level of training to perform a nice heel. That would be cool to see. ;) It is a hound with a good nose on it, so it's kind of beside the point, though, isn't it? I think that sounds very impressive corvus - scent detection isn't all about the nose, it is about the motivation. Most dogs of all breeds have a good enough nose to do scent work, not all have the right drive/nerves/motivation etc. In the scent detection course I did (where Steve Austin was one of the main speakers) I was told that Beagles are not chosen for scent work in airports because of their scenting ability alone, but because of their non-threatening and friendly image and size.

Not sure how this became a thread on Cesar While obviously he is very talented at dealing with difficult dogs, he does do some very risky training which puts him in the firing line to be bitten. I have no doubt he is prepared to be bitten (and has been I'm sure), but most people would not be prepared to and if they were bitten the dog would be an instant PTS. I'm not entirely confident that his clients can use the same methods he does, because they are not him and do not have the same confidence, timing or understanding of dog training and behaviour. It makes more sense to me to use less confrontational methods. To the OP, I suggest finding a behaviourist who is experienced with dealing with inter-dog and pack issues.

Scent detection work is his specialty, nobody can deny his expertise there. No boarding and training place that I know of, that claims to get results in a number of weeks, uses purely positive methods for training obedience. Your best bet for using positive methods is to train the dog yourself, with either the assistance of a trainer or a club.

That is impressive and very good work with the training! However, I doubt she would starve herself in an emergency. While my dogs wait for my command to eat at home, I know they eat fine in kennels when I go away, and I haven't told them my release word. It is a different environment for a start, and dogs don't generalise well, they know the difference. I'm sure hunger would override training unless you were VERY strict with it and used aversives etc and trained with lots of distractions/variables/time.

TerraNik Training hasn't been cancelled at PICSI much lately - I go all the time We had a bad run at the start of the year but it has been pretty good apart from that. ADC trains Thrusday nights.

I watched the DVD but haven't tried it out yet.

Yep agility training tonight

Yes from my experience there is a big drop out rate at clubs. Both obedience and agility.

I am tossing up a Mally next time, but I do like the size of the Kelpies. Current thinking is another Kelpie and then maybe a Mally if I want to go bigger. I have heard they are high maintenance That doesn't bother me, it is more the size + drive. I know I can do Kelpie crazy, not yet sure if I can do Malinois crazy