Kavik

I use a rubber squeaky that Kaos loves. I also use it for agility for the same reasom Vickie does - to reward in a direction away from me. I have heard tennis balls wear dogs teeth down. Kaos will not yet tug outside the home reliably, so if I want the reward to come from me at the moment I use food. With Diesel I sometimes use the squeaky that Kaos likes and sometimes use a wubba. Diesel won't tug either, he also prefers to chase, though sometimes I can get him to chase me and grab the toy while it's in my hand. Not necessarily ideal for obedience but at the moment I am releasing and then throwing after an exercise, or releasing to the toy or food on the ground. My next dog will tug though darn it

What is it about his weaving that makes you think his style needs improvement? Speed? Accuracy? Independence? Entries? Rhythm?

I also thought the style chosen was due to the size of the dog. Not sure if you can change it? He is only a little dog!

Here's a video I found showing different types of serpentine handling

If you run courses/compete with your dog you do have a handling system Handling system is basically your decision how and where you handle your dog, how and where you execute your crosses etc. You see, I still often ask other people for ideas on this while walking the course :rolleyes: I certainly could not tell you general handling rules as set out in GD system or others, as I have not developed these yet. Within the same handling system there are always few possibilities about how the run the same course. GD could do RC or FC for the same obstacle and it could still be consistent with his system. So asking the people how they run the course doesn't mean you don't have a handling system. Handling system is more the understanding you have with your dog. Seems like you are not aware of it but I am sure your dog is Of course I have some handling ideas in place, but I would not say it is a system atm. Have not really done much serp or threadle handling, so not sure how I will tackle those yet.

If you run courses/compete with your dog you do have a handling system Handling system is basically your decision how and where you handle your dog, how and where you execute your crosses etc. You see, I still often ask other people for ideas on this while walking the course :rolleyes: I certainly could not tell you general handling rules as set out in GD system or others, as I have not developed these yet.

I assume there will be a difference, hopefully one you can see when watching their run, otherwise what is the point of saying there is a difference? I don't have a handling system as yet, just trying to understand what other people do and why, and why people choose to do things differently.

OK found an interesting comparison there and

I am still trying to understand the differences between handling systems Does anyone have clips of sequences/trials etc where someone handles in GD system and someone handles differently so I could see the difference?

We had a successful session this morning I was able to put the target plate on the ground right next to the raised plank and he did 2o2o with nose touch! Heidii - I have found both raising the plank and using a target plate has helped a lot. Raising the plank helps to give more defined boundaries to the dog, and having the target plate gives the dog something to drive to and something to do at the end. I have also found keeping sessions very short and fast helps. I do 2 on each side and that's it. One with me behind so he has to drive ahead of me and one with me running and continuing so he has to hold position while I go ahead on each side. I do one click and treat where he has to hold position and then when he offers nose touch again I release forward with verbal release and throw food. The nose touch behaviour is not difficult to get if your dog has a grasp of the clicker and can target something else already (such as your hand). I will try to get video sometime when I can con my OH to help me.

Well you got laffi tugging in the end - I guess that means there is hope for Kaos tugging I mainly use his favourite squeaky toy at training and trials anyway - he always loves that. Problem is he won't look at the tug if he thinks he will get the squeaky toy

Kaos likes the real sheepy tugs though he will only tug at home and not when we are out on walks or training .

This looks impressive!

I tried BARF with Diesel. I had a hard time keeping weight on him, and seemed to need to feed him a huge amount of food! I pulped the vegies once a week, but I felt it was very time consuming (took an hour or so). I also found with the organ meats and sardines etc that it was getting rather expensive. And it didn't help his skin condition.

Unless I am actually training or passing another dog etc I let the dogs do what they like as long as they don't pull or stop longer than it takes to get to the end of the lead and they are not allowed to tangle me up so generally stay on the left side. Since I want precision attention heeling when I do heel, I don't do it for the whole walk as there is no way they could concentrate for that long and it is hard work and not a 'walk'.

yeah - its just frustrating when you go backwards for a while!

Bummer just tried it then and as I suspected he put one foot on the ground and the other foot still on the raised plank. I waited him out and he is still confused and now being really slow about it Maybe stairs?

Heidii - do a search of my name on youtube... I have an embarassing version of me teaching contacts on there I'm pretty sure :D. I can't post the link though as I can't get onto youtube. ETA - unlike Kavik - I have the touch plate right at the BASE of the contact as this gets them to shift their weight onto their rear as opposed to landing hard on their front I also then graduated from stairs to a contact plank (puppy see-saw) which was raised on phone books, then placed the plank on the stairs, which gave me a good angle! Hmm might try at the base of the contact. I was just worried that wouldn't give him enough space to put his front feet on the ground and that he would just nose touch with all four feet on the board. Maybe now he understands what I want it might not be an issue.

I got him used to touching the target plate on the gound first, once that was down pat (and I could restrain him and let him go and he would go straight to the target plate and nose touch) I put it in front of the board and let him do it himself. I didn't give a command (I am using 'Spot' - heard someone from training use that and it made sense here ) until he was doing it well - until I could restrain him on either side and let him go and he would go along the board and stop in 2o2o position with a nose touch and stay in position until released. I did a click/treat and reward at the target plate and then a verbal "Yes" release and reward forward by throwing the food. I only have a video of my previous method - will get OH to video this one sometime.

I found the nose touch really easy to teach but Kaos has a pretty good foundation with nose touches on other things already. Once the nose touch was reliable (multiple nose touches before click and treat) I then put the target plate on the ground far enough away from the plank (that I raised on a brick) that he would have to do 2o2o to do the nose touch. I am finding this a better method than the one I used before (I shaped the 2o2o with a clicker) as he is more definite of his job and position and will happily drive to the 2o2o positioin regardless of whether I am behind, beside or in front of him. He likes nose touches and finds them rewarding :D

Canine Fun Sports are fantastic I go when I can but it is difficult for me as it is in the middle of the day during the week, so can only do it when someone can look after bub. Small classes, and top instruction.

I joined up mid/late last year, and have never been asked to do any obedience I wouldn't have gone if I did as like you I joined to do agility not obedience. I assume your dogs can do the little obedience needed for agility - sit, stay, recall, drop

And I enjoy reading about Midol's success I try not to be offensive as that never helps anyone.

True that not everyone mentions how to use the other tools, however you can get help with how to use these other tools at a club or through a trainer, while ecollars are not allowed to be used by ANKC affiliated clubs (nor are prongs) and I know only very few private trainers who use them. None of these tools use -R the way an ecollar does and none uses electricity or needs to find the working level. I did mention that I thought they are fine if used under instruction. I guess I am just getting frustrated by Midol always saying ecollars as first port of call for most problems regardless of what else the person has tried/done with the dog and regardless of the expertise of the handler/owner.

You should be OK then. I was supposed to be able to weave too - have now got that down pat but didn't yet when I went to intermediate. We can't do seesaw yet either - have just gotten one for Christmas, so can now start training it at home. When they did a class that involved a lot of weaving, I asked if I could go and practice weaving on my own outside the class using the stick in the ground poles they have, and that was OK. Once I could do a 3 pole entry, I asked to do that instead of a whole row of weaves in class, which was also OK. You just have to ask if you want to do something different, and hope they are OK with it