Leah82

Welcome Max and we've all got a lot to learn. Lesson number 1 I've found is high value treats make all the difference, especially with the softer dogs. I think I got somewhere with Sarah tonight, we were playing a modification of the call once game. I would run her up onto the ottoman like a pause table and get her to stay, then I'd call her off, take her collar and give her a treat, then run back to the ottoman and repeat. Because we were making the game faster paced and more exciting she didn't really care about the collar grab :)

I'm really working on the collar grab game with Sarah, she will purposely back away if I go for the collar so it can be really difficult if I need to control her in an unsecured area. She is also incredibly soft but I find I don't need to pull on her neck, as long as I can get a good hold of the collar she will follow my lead pretty easily. She needs to learn that it's a good thing and trust that I would never do anything to harm her. From what I understand many of these core games lend themselves to games further on so it's probably a good idea to get the basics down at this early stage

It can get a bit confusing, especially when I'm reading about doing 20 recalls per session, 3 times a day, 7 days a week. That's pretty impossible when it's the middle of winter and you work full time. At the moment I'm just focusing on the games that are released each day and mixing them up so the dogs don't get bored, I'll get out to do some longer recalls on the weekend and probably focus on that more once the 8 weeks of games are up. For example last night when I got home I played a bit of tug with both the dogs, as I need that level of excitement to get a good tug. Then I did a bit of the CCG with Sarah and played IYC with both dogs while I was watching the crate games video (kibble on the couch next to me which got dispensed when they were making the right choice) After OH got home we played about a minute of call once with Collie then I moved onto crate games. Collie first followed by Sarah All in all it was probably took about an hour, although 30 mins was watching the crate games video. There was lots of little breaks as well.

It seems we have quite the Melbourne contingency in here so I'm going to put this out now. Is anyone interesting in catching up at some point over the course of the 9 weeks to play some games?

The Record Keeping Ebook is in the Ebook Library Also check out the Game day Schedule under the info menu. After the final critical core game is released today I'm guessing we'll have a few days to go over the games before new games start on Monday so you'll have a bit of catchup time. :) Welcome btw silentchild, I'm following you as well

Btw how is everyone going with their record keeping? I did a bit of searching for something that would suit me, I love using my iPhone for these things because I always have it with me I came across an app called My Wonderful Days. It's a bit like a diary app but you can create separate notes for each day and even attach smiley faces to the note :) Here's a screenshot of yesterday. If I click on the note it comes up with more detail, I just use the first line of the note to write the dogs name and the games that we did... Who can guess which dog did better yesterday?

You could use the car as it's own crate as well, it has all the criteria.

Yup, I have that as well, usually after Collie has taken a sharp turn into someone's shin... 'Um.. did I mention he's almost blind' Most of our exaggerators are clearly trying to make up for something, my dogs are described exactly how they are which is usually along the line of 'they've got their issues but we love them anyway' :p

turns out Collie is a natural with crate games I got him to yer in, yer out in about 10 minutes. He didn't go to leave once and I kept upping the distractions, even dropping bits of cheese outside the door, he didn't even flinch. Once we got to yer in, yer out he didn't even want to leave the crate, and when he did he turned around and went straight back in again :D We'll see what happens when we get to the car though and he knows he's going somewhere :p

I'm still working on the Collar Grab with Sarah, OH can't get near her if he's standing up and even if he's crouched down Collie has to be in the mix for Sarah to have the courage to go near him, she'll lick his nose (if offered) but if his hand goes to pat her she'll jump back. She's still very much a work in progress, I don't like to use her history as an excuse but it's definitely something I need to consider going forward to help overcome her issues. At the end of the day she's still learning how to learn, she didn't even know how to sit when I first got her at 7 years old

So cute, I love louis in the sheepskin, he looks so snuggly :D

I didn't read the FAQs until this morning so we kind of just ended the game and OH got Collie to do a couple of tricks. Next time though we'll get OH to have better treats and maybe move closer. Not sure why he didn't go, he's definitely a daddy's boy. I guess he just knows where the treats come from :p Edit: and I don't want to push Sarah into having a better relationship with OH, it is improving very slowly and I'm hoping recallers will help her confidence in general

I forgot to ad that I've been making Collie and Sarah sit before going through doors by just waiting for them to make the right choice. They have a bad habit of rushing through and nearly knocking people over in the process :p This morning I was letting them back inside after their morning toilet break (if it's too cold Sarah often forgoes going to the toilet and just waits in the kennel to be let back inside). Collie sat pretty quickly so I let him in and proceeded to wait for Sarah to figure it out. She was shivering and moving from side to side trying to figure it out, eventually she had an epiphany and walked up the stairs to the wet lawn and did a wee, then ran back to door expecting to be let straight in :p it only took a few more seconds before her bum touched the ground and she finally got let inside, had to laugh about her first choice though, it was a good one :D

Sarah's still on the collar grab game, I tried a bit of call once sans leash but she backs up as soon as I go for the collar. Might need to just leave her on a leash for the moment. Also she won't get close enough to the OH so it's a one person one dog game for the moment. We both played with Collie but as I've been doing the lions share of the training he decided to stick with me after a couple of calls back and forth :p . Plus OH decided to up the ante too quickly and hide behind a corner in a dark room. Come on man he's practically blind, he has his own portable visual barriers!

does everyone else only have access to the Collar Grab Game so far? I thought another game might be up by now but possibly it's a time zone issue and I just have to wait The collar grab game is great for Sarah, she doesn't like her collar being grabbed and generally either backs up or rushes forward if I need to grab her for anything, so we'll be spending a bit of time on this one. Also I've come across Natures Gift soft kibble to use as treats. I was about to get the Natures Gift 'Mini Treats' but after some investigating it's the same stuff as the normal kibble which of course is a lot cheaper :p

If you have a computer or laptop with a microphone you can download a program called audacity. You will be able to see spikes in noise when you review it. Also take note of the time you start the recording so you know when the noise is happening. Hopefully seeing as these neighbors have written a letter they're not planning to bait anytime soon. Also might be worth having a chat to your neighbors, not necessarily to find out who it was but see if you can gather more information and let people know you're serious about trying to resolve the issue.

Goodbye Cupcake! and good luck with your new family! Will we be getting many Cupcake updates do you think KTB?

Yes same with my Maddie being white. I'd get perfect shots of Stan...through the car window as he'd refuse to get out :laugh: Great photos Leah it looks like you all had a ball I must admit I was surprised how much Sarah loved it the first time we went last year. She requires lots of probing to go to toilet when it's wet outside. Yesterday she was doing the usual face rubbing along the ground after she's had a bath, except this time the ground was snow :laugh: Edit: and white dogs look awesome in the snow, like little polar bears

There's definitely a couple we want to get printed from yesterday, I put up more photos on my Collie and Sarah thread We haven't even got around to printing any of the wedding photos yet so I don't know when that's going to happen :p

I found this... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-18/desexing-dogs-compulsory-sa-code-of-conduct/5531612 Which led me to this.. http://www.tams.act.gov.au/city-services/pets/keeping_dogs_in_the_act#desexing No idea what kind of time frame they're looking at though, might be worth questioning your local member

I'm so sorry for your loss, I hope you're all coping ok seeing as it was so unexpected

I have to admit it's not as much fun when it's snowing the whole time as it's harder to keep things dry. I kept getting snowflakes down my jacket :p Next time we'll bring an umbrella to keep the snowflakes off the camera at least

nice... ABC report on the nationals http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-29/australias-most-agile-canines-fight-it-out-to-be/5558384?section=qld

well the snow wasn't very deep but it was enough for the dogs to have lots of fun :D It was pretty much snowing the whole time as well so it didn't take very long for the dogs to get very soggy but they didn't let that get them down pics here http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/252324-collie-and-sarah/page__view__findpost__p__6513906

Pics from the snow today!!