Kavik

Dogs play with their teeth - if you watch dogs play they wrestle and use inhibited biting, lunging etc. You don't want them to learn it is OK to put their mouth on people and bite. You can still play games where they get excited and aroused (this is fun!), but if you use a toy in this interaction then they can use their teeth on the toy instead of on your skin. Also you can use these games to teach them how you would like them to behave, from fast recalls to reliable stays, by teaching them when to take the toy, when to release the toy, to bring the toy back to you. ETA: Also from my experience, Kelpies tend to like distance from their handler, teaching my dog to be comfortable close to me and to play close to me has taken a while. Maybe your dog is not comfortable being handled in such a rough manner, not all dogs like it. My GSD is also a very gentle soul and will back off if anybody tries to be rough with him, he is very quiet and will just avoid the situation, but Kelpies tend to be a bit fiery if pushed!

I'm in Illawarra south so the north of Sydney is a bit of a hike. Thanks for the offer though!! :D What club do you train at? I may know someone who goes to that club and could get the tunnel to you that way - when you trial you get to know people from all over :D I do circle work but I keep it short and fun - I do small circles and change direction often - Kaos likes it.

I remember being worried when I first got Kaos. Though I didn't play fight with him he would growl and try to bite me when I picked him up and when I did his nails and tried to full on attack his collar when I first put it on and he barked at my other dogs as soon as he saw them. I think he may not have been handled a whole lot by the breeder as he was not too keen on being handled initially. There are other interactive games you can play with a dog instead of play fighting - you can play tug, or fetch. That way teeth are not as close to your skin, and they learn the rules of the game and to look to you for guidance.

Thanks guys :)

Where are you RiverStar-Aura? I have a tunnel I am no longer using if you would like it ( only a little bit smaller than regulation size, but certainly big enough for practice. I got a regulation sized tunnel recently so no longer use this one). I am in Sydney's north.

I agree with Erny - I have found that making myself lots of FUN has improved my dog's focus a LOT. Depending on your funds - you could look into Susan Garrett's Recallers course. It is an online course with video and written instructions for 7 weeks of games you can play. Not only for recall training, it has a lot if fun games for relationship building, self control and focus too, and is a lot of fun! I did it in the last intake, Recallers 4 will open in a few weeks. I have started a topic on it here http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/246336-susan-garretts-recallers-4/ and has a link to my video. Lots more inspirational videos on it can be found on Susan's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/SusanGarrettDogAgility

For all of those people who said it wasn't worth teaching my dog to tug - watch this! :D I'm happy with it for my first attempt at video editing.

Video is done :D

I do circle work, spins and backup as the warmup with my dog. Restrained recalls are great (I get people to help me do them when I can!) but to make everyone in the class do them before you do any other exercises is going to take a lot of time. I would probably start with things that everybody can do at the same time.

The video competition is for people who have done Recallers before :) I'm editing my video at the moment!

I'm going to use Movie Maker too, but I've never used it before. Took some footage today, will have a look at that and decide whether to do another session and pick the best bits of both sessions :laugh: I don't video myself often (should do a lot more often but it makes me self conscious).

I'm just about to start my video. I have not ever done video editing before, going to be difficult to get it the way I want!

I think for the moment only those who have done Recallers 3 have gotten an email, about the video competition. The dates haven't been finalised yet, but she said it would be in a few weeks. I think for Recallers 3 the basic one was around $300 or $400 from memory.

To all Susan Garrett fans, Recallers 4 will open soon! I got an email yesterday as I have done Recallers 3 :) Anybody wanting to get an email about when registration opens can find information on http://www.brilliantrecalls.com/standby_pages/6380

I agree with you, Nekhbet. The general populous select particular parts of CM's manner and methods with dogs, and then prescribe them as a whole to what he is about. If they could recognise the foundation of what his attitude is towards dogs they would see that it is steeped in calmness and assertiveness, consistency and persistency, and taking a measure in what dogs need the most of in proper order (for a dog). That is not an attitude that can be branded only "CM" as it is one I amongst many other trainers had adopted before I (we) knew it of CM, but the great part of it was that CM put it up and out there via TV. FINALLY, someone (who made it to celebrity status) letting people know that the majority of behaviour problems come from how the PEOPLE are with their dogs, rather than the common and generally false recognition that it is about how the dogs are with their people. So in my books, kudos to CM for this. I don't know why people don't see that and instead continuously run him down for how he works with pretty serious dog problems (that were usually created by people, so he had a lot of undoing of the dog's 'people based beliefs' to undo to move forward in pretty quick time). Thanks Nekhbet :). Although I don't think SnT would have meant to exclude other trainers outside of the "positive only (so to speak)" realm. IMO when people say that they use CM methods, they usually mean the obvious visual dangerous methods that he employs that DOES get him bitten - you seen him get bitten on the show - purposely putting them over threshold and then stringing them up, 'tapping' them with his foot or hand in sensitive places, alpha rolls. They do not usually mean being calm and consistent as this is certainly not restricted to CM.

It varies - my dog's ears came up at around around 4 - 5 months.

What is it about Cesar's methods that you like and which ones do you employ? I think there are better ways to train a dog (and especially a puppy!). Why are your children telling her No several hundred times a day? For getting eye contact you can start with rewarding any looking at you and then narrow it to giving eye contact, getting excited helps too. What rewards are you using? What are her favourite things? Food? Toys? Ball? Tug?

Why do you want to use Cesar Milan techniques?

Awesome! Thanks :)

Do you think I could get away with the 60kg capacity or would I need the size and width of the 90kg capacity?

Thanks guys I will look into those ideas!

I have been carrying my collapsible metal crate around at training and trials and it is getting very heavy! Does anybody know of a good trolley or similar with wheels that would be good for transporting a large and a medium collapsible metal crate and could handle going on grass? And where could I get one?

I always thought they looked like GSDs with chopped off legs :laugh:

What we need is a bigger car for a start :laugh: I've been dreaming about my ideal 'dog car' for a while now :laugh:

First plan would be to get out early with all the animals. I have kids, so those would have to take priority if (god forbid!) we had to evacuate without the animals. All my dogs are crate trained, though the biggest crate won't really fit in the car, even folded, especially not with other stuff in an evacuation, so everyone would have to squish (would be a very squishy average sized car with 4 people and 3 dogs as well as folded crates and essentials!). Hopefully we never have to find out.