Kavik

I thought BARF was supposed to be cheap? One of the selling points people say is that it is cheaper than using kibble. There is no way mine cost $20 a day to feed on kibble and chicken frames!

Thanks, wasn't sure if you could walk the course if you weren't entered (thought I read in the rules you had to be entered? but maybe I didn't read properly) ETA: Just checked the rules and it states that you can only walk the course if you are entered in that class unless you get permission from the judge.

Have you ruled out a urinary tract infection by vet trip?

Some types of comps will let you walk the course (handlers only, no dogs, so you can see where the course goes, and know where to direct the dog) even if you don't have a dog entered, so you can see what a course generally looks like, and where it goes, and what sort of handling you need to be able to do. I know ADAC and ADAA allow this, I don't think ANKC does.

What that means is that jumps and tunnels can be used a number of times in the course, but the contact obstacles, spread, table and weaves will only be used once. So there may be several jumps and tunnels, or you may do the same jumps and tunnels more than once. The course is numbered, and you do it sequentially. There is a penalty for taking the wrong obstacle. Vickie, I think she means running a course, not setting a course out.

Every time I have seen Rex he has been well behaved He and Diesel like each other (though Rex does try to hump Diesel )

It was at a K9 Force seminar

Thank you for the examples I think part of the problem I have is that I am unsure about their use and maybe Diesel realised I was worried though he did hide in a crate and jumped every time a fly came near him (I think he thought the collar was a fly bite).

What sort of dog would that be appropriate for? Are there some temperaments that would not be suited to this? Zoe is also skittish and a bit nervy, not sure how she would go with an ecollar. Diesel was really freaked out by it and he has a much more solid temperament.

Thanks for starting this thread - I have been trying to figure this out too

These are some ideas I posted in the Breeds for Agility thread ********************* There are some things you can do for agility when your dog is young, which involve no equipment. Teaching the dog to follow your hand as you move, on both sides Send aways to food or toys Getting the dog to focus ahead and not on you Shaping a touch and touching a target (useful for contacts) Good recall Start line stays Coming to the hand presented Sit and Sit/Stay Drop and Drop/Stay With minimal equipment Susan Garrett's One Jump DVD has heaps of good ideas for one or no jumps as well Contact behaviour on a board running along a raised board Wide board with ball underneath to help with getting the dog used to movement for the seesaw

Remember that Zoe is 9 now so I'm past the worst of it. The worst was when she was younger and I still had hopes and dreams of competing, and was taking her to classes, where she would be aggressive I would come home from class and do this Now that I know she won't compete, and have younger, more social dogs to compete with, I don't worry about her so much. She has taught me a lot though! I started the Click to Calm as sort of an experiment to see if it would make any difference. At that point, it certainly couldn't hurt!

I think for me what really helped with the Click to Calm stuff is how I approached it - it helped me to approach it as a clicker training exercise (click for looking at me) rather than a dog aggression fixing exercise, so I was able to relax and be more objective and try to mark the positive behaviour rather than waiting for the negative behaviour and pouncing on that.

Yes, managing is the best we'll be able to do - she is 9 yrs old! If I'd gotten professional help and maybe started the click to calm stuff as soon as the problem started at 6 months that would be different, and maybe we could have competed like I wanted to, but at this stage it is very ingrained and I still have to be on my toes. She is weird though, I have boarded her with Diesel's breeders several times, and she can go in with their GSDs and not be aggro with them. (Probably because they don't really care and don't react to her. Why I got Diesel from them)

My experience with working dogs is that they are gutses but I find it easy to get weight off (once when Zoe was boarded with Diesel's breeder she came back fat! But less food and more exercise and she was trim in no time).

As aggressive behaviour can be dangerous to deal with, your best bet is to see a behaviourist (not sure if you have already done this?) Have you done much focus work with her? I wish I had seen someone about Zoe. Zoe is still aggressive towards other dogs, and I never let her meet other dogs. However she has improved so that if I pull into a driveway and give a dog distance, I can have her sitting while the other dog passes. Ideally she will sit there and look at me, we do get the odd growl, which she will stop if I tell her No. What I have found helpful is some exercises outlined in "Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog" by Emma Parsons. Basically modified attention exercises with the clicker. Probably the most difficult thing for me (in general with clicker training, and especially here) is letting the dog actually make the choice. Here it is the choice to look at you instead of something else. Instead of putting a piece of food in front of her nose to distract her (what I had done before) I let her make the choice of whether to look at me or the dog, and when she looks at me she gets a click and treat. She is then able to look away from me, at the dog, and then look at me again for another click/treat with no aggression! I started this with the dog on the other side of the road (assuming dog knows look at you = click to begin with) so it was far enough away that there was no way anything could happen and I could relax and let her make the choice without worrying about the other dog approaching. By letting her look at the other dog, then look at me etc she is slowly learning to deal with the other dog being there and that it is OK for it to be there without her getting aggressive. She will still get aggressive if another dog is too close, we don't see it or I don't stop to do the clicker work, so by no means cured, but certainly better and nicer to walk (I make sure I only walk where there is a way for me to give other dogs space).

The dog daycare I worked at was great for experience! Especially reading body language and seeing how dogs act in a group. Also did some prey drive work with the dogs that had good prey drive (there was a lovely Lab who would have been a great detector dog I think!).

I'm hoping I have more luck with tracking than obedience with Diesel So far he does really enjoy it, now just to see if I can get him to be precise enough.

I am going to try tracking with Diesel. I am going to teach the down for the article. I'm also only new at this, maybe we can compare notes

Are you using the dog ate my homework excuse Midol? :rolleyes:

Where in Sydney are you/would you like to go? There is: Western Suburbs - Tuesday evenings at Bressington Park, Homebush http://www.sinch.com.au/wsdtc/ Manly and Districts - Tuesday evenings at Allan Border Oval, Mosman and Thursday and Sunday mornings at Deep Creek Reserve Narrabeen http://www.northernbeachesdogtraining.com.au/times.htm Northern Suburbs - Saturdays at St Ives Showground http://www.nsdogtraining.org.au/training.html There is also training at Centennial Park Castle Hill Sutherland

Midol - in agility you often have to run the dog nude - with no collar on - no getting collar smart there

A very in depth analysis there Midol. Sounds like you are learning heaps

I think the nail clipping is an interesting point. I know how to clip nails but some of my dogs tolerate it better than others. I don't think I ever had a problem clipping Diesel's nails. Zoe resists a bit but I can do them without too many problems. Kaos though - very difficult to do! From the day I got him, he struggled and was very difficult to handle when doing his nails. He is getting a little better and if I am patient and only do a couple of nails in one sitting we can do them, but he will still at least once a session try to pull away and hide his front paws under his body. He is obviously not comfortable with it from his body language.

Kaos was happy to tug the day I got him home and other places when a baby but as he got older it got more difficult to get him to tug in places other than home. Not sure why.