leopuppy04

This weekend was our second ever Most Versatile Australian Shepherd competition in Victoria.In order for your dog to compete in this event, they must compete in conformation (against the standard, so eligible even if desexed), herding obedience and/or agility over the two days, and in order to qualify for the MVA they require two passes in AT LEAST two disciplines (with agility and jumping counting as the same discipline). Any additional passes gained in the same discipline (eg: 2 passes in herding, 2 passes in obedience or 2 passes in agility/jumping) just counts as 'extra points' toward your score (I think 5-10 pts). Naturally the higher levels are more difficult to gain a pass in, and this is highlighted in the averaging of the scores, where your higher levels will gain a higher aggregate score. There were 5 dogs entered in total - S &D Brimacombe - Ch Rozate Red Storm Rising PT K Canavan and K Dourley - Gr Ch rozate The Serpents Lair CCD LP - Ellagant Full O Mischief CDX ADX JDX SPD HT Dova - Rozate Dare to Dream CD HSAs LP - Ch Ellagant Full of Antics CD AD JDX HT It was very difficult conditions thanks to the lovely weather (read: pouring with rain all weekend!) we had for the event. Needless to say on the Saturday afternoon, the conditions so bad that we had to move the obedience from outside to inside! Most of our dogs had never worked inside on these grounds before, much less with rain pelting down, so full credit goes to Keeper (Kerrie and Kate's boy) who pulled off a lovely novice pass (193) and HIT for the day! It really was such difficult conditions, as my two so clearly pointed out yesterday!! My two who had NEVER worked inside before unfortunately didn't gain a pass. Kinta had a bout of bad luck seeings as the same grounds (inside no less, so really visible!) had been used as a show ring ALL day on Saturday and therefore when she went to retrieve the d/b over the jump, found some bait on the floor and got distracted. Being the only mistake she made, I was devastated Leo gave me a reasonably good UD round, especially considering the conditions but missed my first signal to the box (you could barely hear yourself think thanks to all the rain!) and did a p oo while doing the scent discrim as he REFUSED to toilet in the rain (no matter how many times I took him out!) . How embarassment!! The rest of his work was great and he found his seekback by actually scenting it and not just looking at it on the concrete Herding this morning was completed in the rain - Everyone did so well and it's just lovely to see our dogs doing what they were bred to do! My two picked up a pass at the herding test level, although I don't think it can be called 'neat' haha! Agility thank goodness was still able to go ahead seeing as even with all that rain the grounds were still suitable, and thankfully the rain held off until the completion of our agility events. We were off to a flying start with 3 passes in the first 3 runs of the day, and a few more to follow! I am pleased to say that Leo picked up two passes here - one in Masters Agility and one in Masters jumping. All in all - two dogs qualified for the MVA (needing 2 passes in at least 2 different disciplines to qualify), although this certainly shouldn't discount from all the hard work the other dogs and their handlers put in with their dogs just to get to this level Runner up MVA was: Kate and Kerrie's Gr Ch Rozate The Serpents Lair CCD - only further credit that he is not just a pretty face ;-)! MVA for 2010 was my own Leo - Ellagant Full O Mischief CDX ADX JDX SPD HT! I couldn't be more proud of him, or surprised as I thought after he blew the obedience on Sunday we were out of the running (albeit it was UD!). As for Kinta - well she worked her little guts out and I fell in the ring in her MJ course, but alas she was a one fault wonder all weekend I guess she wanted to let her big brother take home the glory for a change I can't tell you how PROUD I am of my boy! If there was one prestigious event I wanted to win, this would be it, seeing as I love competing in each and every one of these events, so I'm just so proud we were able to do it ALL in one weekend!!!!

at the milkbar fora feed happy mischa

congrats snopaws :cheer: my brag is that on the Friday and Sunday my baby got both baby in groups On all THREE days of the shows my neuter boy Leo picked up neuter in show :D

me either Laffi! Which is why I thought I would be safe fostering these little kiddies

All their homes will be found by work once they are old enough to go to adoptions. So not looking for homes per se

haha - that pattern was done at random by the puppers themselves :D yup - mum will be getting a haricut in a little while

Well I'm fostering a litter of pups for work, so I have a fun few weeks ahead. Mum is a little shih Tzu x I'm guessing, but no idea what the pups are just yet. all are doing well, although unfortunately the bubs were born at work while I was away on the weekend rather than in the comfort of my own home :D Ah well = here are some pics for you :D red girl red boy black girl1 black boy black girl 2 mum and bubs anyone who have any ideas on names - would love suggestions :D

Yay and mr Leo did it again today Thanks to BBJ formall her help handling my girls! So glad Sara behaved for you!!!

No fair all you WAers with these amazing trainers! Ptolomy - I'd love to hear more about this 'prancy UK heelwork'

Chapter 1 if at first you don't suceed with dog number 1 - get another dog and start again Cider is dog number 6 for me - so I have had a few attempts - so hang in there Haven't watched it yet, but no doubt it will be amazing Right... so I've trained two up for obedience and have baby dogs 3 and 4 to try again on.... You say I need to keep going until number 6 :D

Leo - lets see - he doesn't have his UD title yet, but given I didn't enter him again until later in the year, I'm ok with that. I'm really happy with his work, so hopefully it's not far off . We now have 4 (I think...) passes towards his ADM and 1 towards his JDM which isn't bad, considering he hasn't been doing much JDM classes. Haven't entered him in JDO, so hard to get a title if you don't enter! I'm really pleased with how his agility is going though as I think he's gotten faster and more consistent - all because I myself cleaned up my act as a handler. Oh and the agility backyard helps! Kinta - She has polished off her Ch, JDX and AD titles She also has 2 legs towards her CDX title and with a few trials left for the year, hopefully she can polish off that last one before the year is out. No matter though as I'm not in a real rush and wouldn't be pushing her toward UD anytime soon. Zara - well she's started foundation agility with my dad and is going really well. I like he conformation a little better now, though she is just a late maturer. She's still just enjoying being a silly puppy

Just had a great training session with a friend tonight. Leo did a blinder UD run through - best he's done for a little while. Sooo confident with his scent works and his presenting of the articles was flawless. Glad to see our training at home is paying off NOW - if he could just perform like that at a trial I'd be grinning from ear to ear . Ness I thought of you and wondered if I could just tape this round and submit it to a judge for scoring whether or not that would equate to a pass Kinta also did a lovely open run through though I didn't do much with her. She was plain jumping out of her skin to work, so hopefully we can bottle that up and she can work well for me for our Most Versatile Aussie comp in a couple of weekends time... lets just hope the stay gods are shining down on us then as they seem to have gone on sabattical lately . Bummer with only one pass to go! Tahli waited patiently for her turn (hmmm... define patient.... does trying to get out of the car and join in the fun equate to patient?!) but she gave me a lovely round of tug games and circle work Go the little blue pup! For those of you that train dogs who don't live with you - how do you find that? I'm thinking of pulling Zara out to do some obedience trialing with her. I think she should get her CD - CDX quite nicely, although not sure how everyone finds handling a dog they may only get to train with 1-2 times per week.... how do you get around that??

What they mean is that they get their dogs from 'registered' breeders - meaning registered with the PIAA (Pet Industry Association of Australia). doesn't mean much, AFAIK they are still not required to health test or worry about who they put to whom etc. Most PIAA breeders are still puppy farmers.... they have hundreds of dogs and churn out litter after litter... but they are your 'class A' puppy farms, as opposed to the class B puppy farms which PP are claiming that they don't support (so dogs kept in cages, eating food off their own feaces etc etc). I honestly feel sorry for uneducated people about where to get dogs, because the same terms are used for each breeder and it must be SO confusing for them when they are trying to do the right thing . Some people even call themselves "registered" breeders because they are registered with the council (and you usually only need to register with the council because you have 20 or more entire breeding b!tches.... go figure who they might be )

:D I think Leo's attention was more based on the "OMG mum remembered I was here and has left that pesky puppy in the crate for a change" I wanted to practice a seekback with him on new grounds - what a good kid.... did it no problem .

Well done Smoothie Girl!!!!! I wasn't entered and thought I would come down for a watch. Came 1hr after the trial started and you were all pretty much finished - only stays left in the Open/ UD rings!!! :D I think there were NO passes in any of the Open/ UD rings!!!! What SG has failed to say is that the ground conditions were awful and I would say that 90% of the dogs failed to sit/drop etc or hold their stays - yes even the experienced dogs!!! so many people who normally score highly on their heeling (extremely highly actually) failed their heelwork from lack of doing a position or poor heelwork so SG - be proud of your girl. I didn't see her work, but to score such a lovely mark in such conditions is pretty amazing :D WOW PTOLOMY!!!!! Huge congrats on your results!! that's amazing!!!! And well done Terra nik!!1 I wish we had neuter shows down here . Leo is very jealous!!!

Comments like this scare me though as a future competitor. I can't guarantee that my dog won't break and go jump on another, even though she's never done it before in training. She's not a robot... I definitely understand where people are coming from with serial breakers and dogs that are obviously not ready. But sometimes it really is innocent. Accidents happen wuffles. Kinta broke her stay at the ROYAL to socialise with another dog - I was mortified!!!! she's NEVER done that before! I think though that you need to be aware that this might happen and train for it, whereas some people will put their dog in again and again (as you said, serial breakers) or have just NOT trained stays, expecting their dog to stay put.... then they come over and posture/ parade all around your dog etc, which is extremely stressful. You definitely can't train for every situation, but having your dog as ready as you can get them I think is the best you can do and all anyone would expect :D

Tell ness that Leo would have voted +1 with her!!

don't be silly Wuffles. I remember getting passes on 82 etc, so just because you don't make hte 85 doesn't mean that the dog doesn't work well - but it's quite common to score well in CCD if your dog works well :D. I find all the people I trial with are really nice to newbies. We encourage them to do well - we've all been there before and had our dogs work terribly as it just wasn't their day . I think everyone should be encouraged to have a go, although sometimes people really do put their dogs in before they are ready for it Ava will be fine - she's an Aussie

Couldn't agree with you more Seita! There are some lovely working CCD dogs, and they won't be affected by the new rules. I think it we make it a little more challenging then people won't just enter 'just to see how they go'. I also like the inclusion in the rules about the constant tightening of the lead etc. How many dogs to you see that only turn when the lead tells them their owner is going somewhere! To me - heeling should be like dancing - a perfect synchrony of handler and dog working together... at least thats what I am for... whether we get there or not....... Oooh that does make it a little harder. Poor Scoota - he mustn't have pushed hard enough for his rules! Just make sure you TELL him that his rule change didn't get in Ptolomy - otherwise he might want to continue to stand :D. At least he FINDS the box and doesn't go out and do the jump on the way out What did Ness request?! Couldn't agree more bedazzled!!! Good triaining at the start and you reap the rewards at the end of it all Now.... back to remind Kinta what a stay means..... LOL

Hey Huski - we are still plugging away at it but I'm pretty happy with how Leo is progressing and Kinta too although she hasn't started anything formal just yet. for around the house and hide and seek I've used a seekback article. For in the park, we've been playing track forward games and I've been using an old sock that smells like me This was more for ME than for her, as it made me play the game in a much more informal manner I think that because of all the difficulties I had with Leo, I carried around a fair bit of baggage with it and I wanted tobe pretty sure I wouldn't be worried about what Kinta was doing etc. Once I start formally teaching Kinta the exercise I will use a seekback article etc.

oohhhhhhh - that's ok then! I was going to say - that's a bit harsh if you miss ONE sit or ONE drop or ONE stand you fail!!!

YEOCH! Miss one position means that you fail??? Did I read that right? That's really tight! Other than that and the increase in distance for the stays (although tbh I don't think it makes that much difference to the dogs!) I think the change of rules is pretty good. I like the fact that you can now get OC from both classes, although would have been disappointed if you could only get it from UDX seeing as it's hard to interchange between the two classes and I LOVE UD . I think for those with older dogs, being able to get your Gr OC or OC from UDX is a great idea :D. My prayers weren't answered of aboloshing stays all together.... *sigh* Maybe next time

wow - haven't been in here for a little while, but everyone's done so well!!! Huge congrats to Bedazzled on her excellent performance with her awesome Aussie, Xena with her great results with Gaby and to Sieta for her UD TITLE!!! WOOT WOOT!!! sorry if I missed others... as I said - haven't really been in here lately

Why the assumption that it's either alpha roll and choke your dog until it gives up, or food and cuddles? Who here is saying that dogs shouldn't learn the rules? Why the insinuation that if you use food or praise with aggressive dogs you aren't also able to implementing boundaries or rules? I have no problem with giving corrections, using tools like prongs or e-collars etc or giving dog boundaries but some of the things Cesar does makes me feel quite ill. Besides, many people would not be strong enough to choke or alpha roll a 50kg aggressive newfie until it gave up (or just plain ran out of breath). ETA: I find it amusing that anyone who doesn't 110% support Cesar is lumped into the new age food and cuddles, never ever punish your dog crowd. Lol me too huski!!

Agree with huski. Some of his stuff is fine - common sense stuff... But the rest of it is downright scary. I've seen him get bitten countless times, wrestle a dog to the ground to stop it's dog aggression and also strangle a dog (with the use of the lead) to deal with aggression issues. He makes me sick to my stomach. Worse part is that pet owners try his methods. If you have to put a "do not try this at home" disclaimer then maybe rethink your methods.... Oh and not everything is centered around dominance..... light chasing is not a dog being dominant as long as a mound of other stuff he says. BL is also right.... He's set the dog training world back 50years... he reminds me of trainers who used to say that digging holes was 'dominance' and would fill it with water and then shove their dogs head in it.... http://drsophiayin.com/philosophy/dominance/ more reason as to why I don't like Cesar....