Lablover

I think we're up to injury # 5 by my reckoning on two dogs. Interested in other people's experiences.

What breed of dogs? Are the dew claws routinely trimmed? Are they close to body? Front dews only?

How were your dogs dew claws injured?

Interested..as I have had so many debates on this subject.

Saucer eyes, I call it devil eyes. The dogs who love it, are possessed. Hey like their owners.

Kath,

Just a thought, (your OH is obviously hiding- behind trees???), have thrower in plain sight and the retrieve easy to find. Must be successful.

I would not worry about too much obedience ie straight delivery. Lots of drills to come yet.

Well managed step 2 in the training program this weekend. Got OH to throw dummies for us. Was a challenge to get Coco to look out for the dummies as her whole life has been focus on mum always and ignore anything else happening but we managed quite well I think using the command "watch".

Ended our session with four retrieves of 30 metres with OH out of sight and just the dummy coming into view. Know she was looking as the ears would suddenly prick up and she would go straight to it no searching around for it. have been blending obedience with this training so she knows it is work and not games so that we will still get lovely fronts/presents with no mouthing.

Step 3 - lengthen the distance of retrieve. Do I add water yet?

Hi Kath,

We have our human throwers vocalise- a cue - hey hey hey, so help the dog focus. Flat throws are important at shorter distances. Not a high arc which the dog may not follow retrieving object.

If there is any doubt of the dog "marking" the object rethrow. How old is Coco?

Water - another topic. Be careful.

It will be interesting to see how popular the new format will be. We are having a break from retrieving training as Em is losing teeth left, right and centre! Lots of fun obedience work however ;)

Maybe it would be prudent to add dogs ages. Dogs at Em's age/mouth maturity we use paint rollers.

Great you are having obedience fun, I expected nothing less. You rock.

Yes good point LL - Em has just gone 5 months - mouth seems a bit tender today but it's not stopping her using Zig as a teething ring ;)

An obedience training video of Em in the training thread for you LL

Still have a virus - not able to watch youtubes.

Just a quick reminder - no rush to return the loan crates. You may find you do not need them as Em grows up.

Can you sit on the soft crate yourself SP? Just.... how strong is it? Darling Em looks very comfortable.

It will be interesting to see how popular the new format will be. We are having a break from retrieving training as Em is losing teeth left, right and centre! Lots of fun obedience work however

Maybe it would be prudent to add dogs ages. Dogs at Em's age/mouth maturity we use paint rollers.

Great you are having obedience fun, I expected nothing less. You rock.

The topic started by Snook about her mum's little dog got me thinking about Vet receptionists. Some are great and some are downright awful. It brings me back to the time when my mini schnauzer Benson, who was all of 6 months at the time had trouble passing urine. At first, whilst we were out walking he was squatting constantly, and I thought he had a lot to pass. After a wile, I realised that he couldn't go, so when I came home, I rang my vet. Couldn't get past the b****y receptionist who told me surgery hours for morning consults were over and I could come in late afternoon because they were pretty much booked out. I wanted to talk to the vet and she wouldn't put me through. So, I packed my boy in the car and off I went to the surgery. It turned out that he couldn't pass urine because of a stone blocking his urethra and had to have a catheter inserted. I blew my stack at the receptionist and so did the vet. Had I waited for the late afternoon who knows what may have eventuated. As it turned out, my pup had a porto systemic shunt.

After that episode, I was given the vet's mobile and home number if I needed. Sometimes the vets themselves just don't how the receptionists deal with the patients.

BTW, for interest, did the vet advise that mini schnauzer's are predisposed to this problem?

I wonder how many other responses/signals we miss out on because we don't hear them, or rather listen for them?

Corvus, unfortunately due to a computer problem I cannot access youtubes.

Nevertheless jigsaw and others, enjoyed your responses. We mere humans can only dream of reading body language as well as our canines. I greatly enjoy watching various dogs at different endeavours.

Opposite to ie clicker trainer.

Pardon?

A word (or whatever) can function as a secondary punisher.

I used a particular whistle "tone".

"tschh". I tried making the noise on her morning walk with a small leash CORRECTION when she pulled and she was instantly falling back into heel position and giving me her attention.

Opposite to ie clicker trainer.

Although he does love his soft toys I find that he is still more motivated by food. I am going to start from scratch with the training. I am going to teach him the active response of scratching and change the containers I am yang to something which is easier for him to scratch on. So today I got a clear Plastic lid and placed some food under it and within only a few repetitions he was scratching his heart out trying to get to the food. So i think I will continue this for another day or so and then work in associating tea bags into it.

I think I am unsure on which order to do things. Do I start incorporating in the tea bags now, or do I start to move to containers which are not see through (I'm thinking of using lunch boxes so I can wash them easily if any target odour gets on non target boxes) and get him scratching those and then slowly incorporate tea bags?

Also when it comes to incorporating tea bags I'm not sure what's the best way to go about it. Is it best to put a whole heap of tea bags with the food and slowly removing the food, or have the tea bags in one hand or on ground and when he is interested in them reward him? Then move to hiding them around the house/yard and when he finds them rewarding him?

Sorry about all the questions...just such a newbie to all this stuff

Just a thought, you are not contaminating the cold or hot containers are you?

Even, the least interest - an accident sniff - I would initially reward.

Will the test be around high level distractions, diversions etc. Sorry to read of his CCL injury.

I have loved reading through this thread! I used to be involved in Retrieving (Hi LL, pleased to read you are on way to recovery, must catch up next time I am down) I trialled originally a Golden Retriever many moons ago....and a wonderful Lab boy and tried to convince my 2nd Lab boy that Retrieving was fun but he really was not didn't seem to enjoy it..........then other stuff got in the way and now I am almost gundogless for the 1st time in well over 25 yrs.

I do have 2 wonderfull Whippets but would really love just one more Labbie in my lifetime!

Good luck to you all, enjoy yourselves and your dogs, it really is a wonderful sport/pastime lifestyle!

Annie

I am OK. Some days wonderful, some days woeful. My appetite certainly has not suffered.

Would be fun to catch up when you are next down South.

Where do you live, you might be able to have a lend of one of my labs.

Camped in the car, good for you. You are one tough cookie.

I had surgery for lung cancer at the end of July. The dog who competed in WA was kindly, veeery veery kindly, taken over and trained by GT.

I have been to the US previoulsy, watching training, weekend field trials, hunt tests, and an amateur national. Also spent 14 weeks touring when I was younger.

You sound like you would be a perfect retriever trial devotee.

Sounds like you're making a good recovery Hope you remain in good health

Now that is dedication to your sport!! Good for you

I'm not sure who GT is

Thankyou, now back to training questions. Retrieving training is the best!!!

Sorry to hear you have had health issues.

I have been lucky so far. Thankyou. (clear margins, no lymph node involvement, chemo adjunctive therapy). Very lucky!!!!

When I first diagnosed, I nearly had a spade out, in one of our paddocks digging ME SELF a hole. ha ha.

Rubystar, re Western Australia - my US import came second in the WA retrieving championship, a couple of months ago.

Interesting! So were you over here or someone else was handling for you? I didn't make it to the WA State trial this year as I had obedience on that weekend But I went along to several trials this year to watch and help out. Had an absolute blast when I went away for a long weekend of retrieving trials with Ruby, we camped out in my car Ruby just came along for a bit of practice and for the company. I learnt a lot by helping out both days. Being gun steward was daunting at first, but by the end it was great fun. I'm hoping to make it to more trials next year to help out (as I don't think trialling will be on the cards this next season :p).

Also can't believe you went to the States for their competitions, that is great

Camped in the car, good for you. You are one tough cookie.

I had surgery for lung cancer at the end of July. The dog who competed in WA was kindly, veeery veery kindly, taken over and trained by GT.

I have been to the US previoulsy, watching training, weekend field trials, hunt tests, and an amateur national. Also spent 14 weeks touring when I was younger.

You sound like you would be a perfect retriever trial devotee.

but I'll do a few things differently...

Wouldn't we all! Hey I may be making life difficult for you but WHAT would you do differently?

Vizslas, not so much

Hey FHRP, during the first US retriever seminar I organised, a Vizsla was selected for the no no drill, exercise across branches.

The US professional trainer bought it up during a well attended dinner in Vicksburg. He thought the Vizsla awesome ( - which he WAS! - with the a great confident attitude)

So your next pup is going to be a Vizsla??

Now that's an idea...pity my last US trip also included "sniffing" around for LABRADOR NOT VIZSLA ha ha, semen to import.

Tell Mr Lablover that I enjoyed his explanation Glad you posted it.

Such a great result for Yank and his temp handler.

Just played around some more with Em's puppy retrieve - she seems to have the hang of it but I'm sure she'll make a liar out of me as soon as someone is watching

Will do, see you in a couple of days. YOU WILL NOT NEED much help. Certainly not theory wise.

Hope your well on the road to recovery.

Seriously who else would organise an overseas trip only two days after finishing chemo.

I will be back next year to the happy world of trialling and ............travelling!!

Vizslas, not so much

Hey FHRP, during the first US retriever seminar I organised, a Vizsla was selected for the no no drill, exercise across branches.

The US professional trainer bought it up during a well attended dinner in Vicksburg. He thought the Vizsla awesome ( - which he WAS! - with the a great confident attitude)

Congratulations on your 2nd Place in WA........and very good of you to offer the Job to another Handler.

Thanks Lyn. So kind of GT to take Yank on for me.

Trying to find whistle information.

My husband has a PHD in acoustics.

One night I mentioned whistles to him. Below is what he added for my diary. Needless to say, I rarely initiate dog related topics with him any longer. As mentioned in other threads, theory tends to hurt my tiny brain! (I use a black mega whistle BTW).

WE all know that dogs can hear higher frequency sound than we can, hence the silent whistle. However for dog training at a distance higher frequencies do not travel as far as low freqencies.

The same way we know light bends through the prism, the high frequencies bend at a different angle than low frequencies. This is a called a refractive index.

The speed of sound is temperature dependent therefore affected by temperature and wind gradients ie a refractive index.

If you in a clear open field/paddock were there is no wind whatsoever, the temperature at your feet is probably 2 to 3 degrees hotter than at your chest, in other words a temperature gradient or refractive indea. This causes the sound waves to bend upwards. However the low frequencies do not respond the same as high frequencies, just like light. The high frequencies bend upwards and disappear and the lower frequencies keep progressing. The lower frequencies virtually ignore the temperature gradient. If I play a sound of high frequency and you are 150 metres away you may not hear it, but if I play the same INTENSITY low frequency at say 500 hertz you will.

If there is a wind then upwind does the same as the temperature gradient - you will still hear the low frequency but not the high frequency. If you are downwind then the sound rays get bent the other way, downwards, so you will hear them all. They bounce.

This is why on a clear cold night you can hear a long way because the temperature gradient is reversed (because the ground is cold) just as they do over water.

An example of this is if you are close to a shotgun you will hear a big crack (the high frequencies dominant the low frequencies) but if you are a distance away all you hear is the "boom" which is the lower frequencies because the higher frequencies have bent upwards.

Although dogs have a higher frequency range than humans for distance work because of temperature, wind conditions the low frequency whistle may be better than the higher, as the sound reaches.

Dogs just the same as humans loose their high frequency hearing due to the genetics of the ear as they age etc.

Also if you are in heavy cover high frequencies are scattered by trees, leaves etc far more than low frequencies that bend around and continue