Kavik

Yes, kikopup has lots of great trick training videos!

Have you done any impulse control around food yet? Its Yer Choice is a good impulse control game to start with

What about using a flirt pole? That might help not only burn off some energy, but you could also then turn that into a game that you can use for focus on you or rewarding behaviour for training/sports. http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=1645&ParentCat=39 http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=915&ParentCat=39 There is also lure coursing - not sure if it is held where you are? Which is a lure (plastic bag) that is pulled along a wire along a course, and the dog chases it. And there is JRT racing - chasing a lure over a course which includes some low jumps.

Justine is also coming to Australia later this year!

I agree Kavik, its just that all of them are the same. Which i found a little odd Some breeds just do not do well at dog daycares. I would include Kelpies in that list. My dogs would not act the same in a dog daycare as they do at home, that's for sure. Your description showed they were overwhelmed by the environment - maybe they just don't like to be surrounded by strange dogs and all of that activity and stress all day long?

I actually found introducing puppies to be much easier than adult dogs with Zoe who was dog aggressive. Puppies are naturally more submissive to adults, and I found that they quickly learned to leave her alone. I was able to introduce a couple of adult dogs to her to, but it was more difficult and took longer before I was comfortable with them running together.

Wow that is a great result! Fantastic to hear that the new handling is working so well for you!

I wouldn't want my dog to learn to toilet in its crate! Even if is separated by a barrier. As dancinbcs said - instinct tells them to toilet far away from their sleeping spot, which is why crate training works so well for toilet training. With this they are teaching the dog to toilet right next to its bed!

I have worked at a dog daycare as well, and having done so, I think that the environment may not show all dogs at their best, or even what they are normally like. So I wouldn't base your opinions purely on what they are like there.

You can absolutely train 2x2 with food - try throwing cheese cubes. If you want to place the food use a bait plate so it's easy to see. That's a great idea TSD! I've been discouraged from throwing food through the poles because we were at the stage where Zeus first had to learn to drive through the poles on his own rather than being lured by way of tug or treat. I like the idea of placing a plate or Tupperware container down but wouldn't that be teaching Zeus to drive for the reward rather than him learning it's about the poles instead? Zeus and are are approaching week three of this course and he's at the stage where he's driving through the poles and then I throw the tug in a straight sight line as a reward. Because he's not interested in the tug (I've even got one that has a treat pouch stitched onto it), Zeus is starting to circle back to look to me to find a treat. It's hard because this is the only local club I've found who teach 2 x 2 weavers and it's a concept I struggle with when trying it on my own at home. I'm just getting more and more disappointed each class because they place such high emphasis on tugging and Zeus just isn't a tugging dog. The other dog in my class is an 18 month old Westie, who, being a terrier, loves his tugging and like my own Kirah, gets his feral on for the tug. I think I made it harder too because before class started last week, I had Zeus chasing me for his most favourite duck toy in the world and we were having this MAD game of tug with it. Then, we start class and Zeus gets his learning hat on and he's more about 'what's next?' or 'what do you want me to do now?' and he's suddenly all work and no play. I think I know which club you go to :) I have friends which also go to that club. You could also try a food box/food container which I suggested a few pages back. Bigger and heavier than a single piece of food, it would be easier to see for the dog and easier to accurately throw as well. You can either then race/run with the dog to the container and reward there or have the dog retrieve the container to you. If you see two ladies at the club, one with a Corgi and a Sheltie and the other with a fantastic b/w BC, approach them, tell them you know me through DOL (they are on DOL too but rarely visit) and ask about how to use a food box/food container as the lady with the Corgi is using one, and the other lady is her daughter who has been helping her mum with it. That club is probably the only one I know with such a big emphasis on tugging. I understand why - a lot of their stuff is SG based and she is very pro tugging for every dog (in order to train with her in her actual classes in Canada, your dog must tug). If you can't get the tugging going, or decide you don't want to, you may just need to be upfront with them about it, and let them know you have an alternative for those exercises.

Contacts seem to be one of the more tricky ones in my experience. I want my dog to race across the contact obstacle as fast as possible but then stop with front feet on the grass and back feet on the obstacle until released. Regardless of where I am and what I am doing. I have found it can be difficult to balance the control of the stop with the speed you want across the obstacle. If the dog gets rewarded a lot for the stop, or is a more worried type dog, they will slow down across the obstacle, rewarding only the release can lead to losing the stop. Even people with high drive dogs can encounter this problem. I did SG's contact course, and her dog certainly does not lack drive, and even she had some issues with this, especially with speed across the seesaw. And not everybody doing agility has super high drive dogs, so using things like tunnels to help speed them up can be a very useful tool.

That makes sense :) However it can be useful to use an exercise the dog enjoys to help build speed/enthusiasm for something else - such as tunnels or wraps around poles to help speed up contacts or two rows of jumps with a tunnel or even the humble speed circle/speed circuit.

But, huski, I assume your dog does have value for heel position? By shaping it and by rewarding that position, you are giving that position value = good things happen when I am in heel position.

Completely OT but tunnel/dogwalk discriminations are the downfall of many a team, me included at times :laugh: Yes, we have done that circle/vortex of fun at a couple of comps. Ideally you want the obstacles to have similar value and your handling to be clear as to which one you want them to take, but sometimes one or both are lacking :laugh: With the cue and run in the newer handling systems, sending to obstacles and commitment is going to become more important

With my young dog, I am doing Crate Games, and it is really proving to be an awesome tool for helping with self control and motivation and lightning quick response to his release cue. Now that I understand how the games work, it really is a lot of fun!

Actually I know some people who have to work to get their dogs to take food rewards but they love to tug! SG is one of them, with Swagger, and I have met a couple of people who said their dogs would spit food out if they tried to use it in agility! I'm so used to the other way around, would probably do my head in if I ever get a dog like that :laugh:

Here is an example of getting them to tug around food

With the first example, no it isn't, as you are just using food as the distraction, in the treat bag. They are not getting the food, but learning that they can tug even with food around. With the second example, I guess you could see it that way if you want to. Kaos's favourite reward is a ball, so that is what we use at the end of an agility run. I can have him tug on his lead before a run to rev him up, but use a ball at the end. In training, not a problem, ball in pocket, throw the ball at the end of the sequence! At trials it requires a bit more work. I have his ball in his treat bag, which I place at the exit to the ring, when we finish our run, we go to the treat bag, I give him his ball to hold, then we walk/run to an area where I can throw it for him a couple of times. I use tug with Kaos at home to work on one jump stuff, tunnel work, relationship building stuff, retrieve, and other fun things, but only use it at training or trials to rev him up for a run, a bit of fun. He was 5 when I started to teach him tug, so I never quite got to the point where I could use it at training/trials as a reward

So it sounds like your issue is tugging around food as she expects the food and then doesn't want to tug? What I did to help with this problem with Kaos, was to start small. I started with an empty treat bag on the ground at a distance away and got him to tug, then tugged closer to the treat bag until I could tug on the top of it, pick it up etc over several sessions. Then started the process again with the treat bag with treats in it, but closed so he couldn't self reward. Then I got to the point where I could tug and take a treat out of the treat bag and he would continue to tug. Another thing, which did work (which I did after the other one) is to have food in a bowl on the ground or chair etc, and if they won't tug, go further away until they will tug, and once they give you good tugging you can take the tug out, and run to the food. With both of these, distance is the key. With my young dog, I started tugging around food bowls the day I got him home, so that is not an issue. Although tugging right after he has had a food reward is still a work in progress. He is very motion sensitive though, so tugging around lots of people and other dogs, however . . . :laugh:

Also, if you want to use food but are looking for ways to be able to throw your reward, get the reward off you or make it more interactive, you can try a food container that you throw or place, then either have them retrieve the container to you and you reward with the food in it or race them to the container and reward there. Clean Run also have a big assortment of toys and containers for this such as http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=45&ParentCat=22 http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=778&ParentCat=22

My tips are: When deciding when to tug with your dog, choose a time of day when your dog is naturally excited. With my dogs this is in the morning, it may be when you get home from work etc Look at what your dog likes to put in their mouth. Do they like fluffy toys, things that crinkle (like water bottles, crinkled paper, toilet paper rolls), balls, etc. This is my young dog's favourite. We are working towards using less exciting toys at home, but at the moment this one is the bees knees that I use around distractions http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2938&ParentCat=29 Also, remember to keep it very short! One of my friends is currently using the chicken wing in a sock to help with tugging - and it seems to be working for her!

I've met a couple of Bichons that were awesome! One fellow that I used to walk wasn't that small either :laugh:

There is the odd blow up, mostly when arousal levels get higher. Amazingly, considering that Zoe was dog aggressive, they are almost all noise, with the odd tooth scrape, never had any serious injuries.

I would walk Jade separately. I know that adds a lot more time, but it really is easier to control a reactive dog if they are by themselves and then you are not worried about all 3 dogs together if something happens. Pick quiet routes where there are as few dogs as possible, pull into driveways or cross the road if there is another dog, to give Jade enough space so you can work with her to keep her under threshold. Know where her threshold is. Have you looked into "Look At That"? I found this helped me a lot with Zoe.

Zoe was eating dirt a lot too for the last several months of her life, maybe even a year. I asked the vet and they had no idea why.