Kavik

Hi JoeK He is definitely not the wrong dog for the job :D He has plenty of drive and reasonably good nerves. Certainly the best dog I have owned so far! There is definitely a technique to utilising tug for sports to get the best performance out of your dog. I am still working out how to use the technique correctly. I am sure the fault lies with me and how I have taught tugging with my dog. For a start he won't bring the tug back and either plays keep away or decides to chew/destroy it. That is the first thing I have to fix, along with my body language/energy when tugging with him (that is going to be the hardest bit). Then I need to work out how to get him tugging around food and his favourite toy. If even a world class competitor such as Susan Garrett experiences these issues with her dogs (and has a term for it! and program on how to work through it) - and her dogs are certainly high drive and good nerves to get to the level they do - than I cannot complain too much when as a first time competitor and first time trying to use tugging I also struggle with it. ETA: and dogs can have a preference for certain toys and may prefer a different toy to a tug and may tug when there is only the tug but not when there is their favourite oy

Well done Chloe and Peppi!

I will address what I think is the important part of your post. Using drive (such as tug which everyone in sports tries to utilise) is a more complicated process than I originally thought it would be. I thought - cool, get a dog with good drive, start tugging when a puppy, and I should have a nice tugging dog! Right? Unfortunately for some people no. It turns out getting them to engage in tug (or other game) in all environments and distractions is not as easy as them simply having a lot of drive. A lot has to do with how you approach it, how you play the game with them, and how you can get them to do it in the face of other distractions including other rewards (either other rewards you carry such as food or other toys, and external or environmental rewards). This is where I am having problems. My dog has plenty of drive, and likes to tug in the comfortable environment of the yard. But outside the yard, he won't tug. He prefers other rewards I carry at that time, and sometimes (like at trials at the moment ) is also seeking out external environmental rewards rather than work with me. It is something I am going to address now! Have been trying to work on it for ages, but it has come to a head recently so I will be getting some help to work through it. While it is frustrating as we were doing so well and now have to go back to some basics, at least it will mean I will know how to approach the issue properly for my next dog and so can get the issue sorted when the dog is much younger (and the important thing I have learned is that many people go through this - Susan Garrett calls them don't wanna don't hafta moments). ETA: I think this is probably my biggest hurdle in working with my dogs (all of them). Including poor Diesel who I know has the ability in there somewhere. If I can get help to work through this, and figure out how to do it with other dogs than I can see my relationship with them will improve so much and our performance will reflect that.

None of my family are handy in that way unfortunately (all professor types) and I wanted one that I knew was competition specifications (though not sure what I am going to do about the weesaw )

I can PM you the name of the person if you like I think they are still making equipment. Contact equipment is not cheap though (I got my parents to get it as a birthday and christmas present :D )

Thanks guys KTB I got my seesaw from an agility competitor who also makes equipment.

Way to go Vickie!

Does anyone know where I can get the yellow lightweight competition agility tunnels?

sheena is right - after they get correct entry, if they pop out they get a fault and you are not allowed to put them in again anywhere, or you get disqualified. Like sheena, this means that I will disqualify myself and do the weaves properly if my dog pops out.

Any of those breeds is going to need more training and mental stimulation than just puppy school.

I do both. Mostly just to be able to go to more competitions and get more experience) , since I only go to ones within Sydney (1hr15 mins is generally my limit from home with a bub) Agility dogs has pointed out most of the differences (equipment - now to be more extreme with the weesaw in ANKC!, a couple of rules eg what happens if you miss a weave pole). I haven't seen people use aversives in agility regardless of code. Titles in ADAA are complicated - I have quite a few quallie cards but no idea whether it makes a title or not! whereas I have both my novice jumping and agility in ANKC. Your ANKC titles will go on your dog's ANKC pedigree but ADAA ones will not (or ADAC - another agility organisation)

I think maybe you are going too fast and raising your criteria too fast. Also she is only a 6 month old puppy, maybe you are trying to do too many new things at once? Maybe give the door trick a break for a while and try to get one of the others a bit more solid. I am sure the other behaviours need to be proofed, so maybe do that for a while and come back to the door later when she has a better idea of how not to give up in shaping. For getting stronger pushes (I am doing this for Treibball) I am holding the ball (I use one of the big fit balls) in between my legs/against my legs and clicking for stronger pushes that way, and rewarding low to push the ball.

Do you like Malinois? Being brown and lighter built, they would have a more people friendly appearance than a GSD. They are my top pick for a large active agile dog for high level training.

The Corsos I have met have been nice dogs

I handle Garrett/Derrett as my club primarily trains this way, and there are more resources out there (DVDs/seminars/books etc) for them, but the topics in Vickie's seminar look really interesting and look to get me thinking about my and my dog's performance and how we train, and we have a few obstacles which could definitely be quicker! So I will keep an eye on the dates and decide

You can enter your level in Jumping and Agility - so would be Novice for both. You can also enter the Open events if you wish (have a distance handling challenge and set at around Excellent level, open to all dogs)

Hi Tejas and welcome to the world of the Kelpie Rescue dogs don't generally have much obedience training, but Kelpies are intelligent dogs that love to learn so once you find your feet and a good trainer/training class you will have lots of fun teaching her new things. What you decide to teach her is up to you. Obedience is of course very useful - recall, sit drop, walking without pulling. Tricks are a lot of fun and can also be useful for obedience and agility, and you can do these in a small amount of time at home. Agility is an awesome sport which Kelpies love - an obstacle course which you direct your dog around. If you let us know what you would like to train your dog in and your location in VIC we can suggest some trainers for you.

At the moment I am thinking Schipperke :D but need to research a couple of others that also look good for when I can no longer handle a Kelpie (luckily that is a long way off yet!)

Yay Vickie! Where can I find the details for the workshop?

I was also thinking Dobe - are they good in the heat?

voted

Do you have to do both heelwork to music and freestyle?

Zoe is really bad with movement under her feet too. I can get her to push the seesaw down with her front feet and then hop on but I can't get her to stay on if I lift it up and drop it (elevator part of the game) which I can do with Kaos. One other way you could try (but will be difficult at a club) is to have two tables of different heights under the seesaw, so the drop is only very small to start with. With Zoe I got down to one table (haven't had the seesaw out in a while, also she is now nearly 12 years, so I don't know how much more I will try to do with her). A wobble board that is square may be a good idea, so it looks nothing like a plank or piece of agility equipment, and you can work on shaping him to be on it and to make it move and stay on it.

Bull breeds are not my thing, but I can appreciate them (OH loves bull breeds). Met one that would have been AWESOME for sports when working at a dog daycare, and I loved playing with it (was a bit much for its owner though ).

Do you find it hard with different contact behaviours on different equipment? For simplicity I have 2o2o on everything. Kaos is big enough that I don't worry about the seesaw flipping up, he is also not speedy enough on it to be a problem there.