leopuppy04

oh Arya - bad luck!!!!!! She sounds like quite a character! Yes the Rotti heeling was lovely - another Croydon member, and the handler had a really decisive limp too - said rottie ran straight into her knee so she wasn't walking right! Greta did excellent considering!!!! I am sure you'll get there in the end Arya and you'll fly through - you'll just leave a breeze behind :cool:

LOL - who was that? A new friend of mine gained his Novice title with his ACD yesterday so I was thrilled for him as well as a fellow croydon trialler who has had a tough run in CCD as the dog just keeps doing silly mistakes he NEVER does outside the ring. They achieved their first pass yesterday and also the 'highest scoring croydon CCD member' so I am completely chuffed for them! LOL dogdude- I can't blame anyone for Leo's errors except myself as I was a nervous wreck before we went in and I just wasn't thinking when I left him for the SFE :p. Thats life 'eh! At least I know that when his mum has her brain switched on we'll do well! I'm still proud of him none-the-less as he had to do a fig 8 around one of his very good doggy friends who always feeds him chicken (those of you who know Leo knows that he has NO manners ). Ness..... hmph! Not talking to you anymore! :cool: :D Ok - so heeling is now good.... on to work with the other stuff

ho hum.... all these promises of DOLers to go to croydon and I only saw Shoey, JulesP, Bloss and mmoo.... There were others, but I don't know their online names . Arya - how did you go? They had some lovely prizes but *sobs* I didn't get my share in them! Leo did some beautiful heeling but bombed out in the SFE and recall doing things he has never done before - he half came to me in the recall and stopped and also shook when I left him in the SFE so broke position ..... Ah well there is always next time.... and apparently his heeling was great even though I felt he was a million miles behind me! So - Leo is up for grabs - if anybody wants a pre-trained aussie - come and get 'im!

LOL capanash - would have been great to see your poodles - gotta love the seasons - they always come at the worst times

Its on at around 12ish I think! CROYDON & DODC Inc Open Obedience Trial Silcock Reserve, William Road, Croydon Vic Sunday 22 April 2007 Entries: Ms R McGroarty, 10 Pascoe Avenue, Croydon, Vic 3136 Ph: 9724 9131 Entries close: Sunday 8 April 2007 Judges: CCD: R Carlson Novice: J Begg, L McKay Open: R Buckley, W Gilmour Utility: G Parsons, M Deakes UDX: R Ashman Entry Fee: $10.00 Check In: 10.30am - 11.30am Start: 12.00noon Catering available on the grounds Permission to tape me - but you can only put it up if he did good ! Just kidding

hello petmezz! Are you back in Oz yet?

silcock reserve - James St Croydon. It is along the train line between croydon and Mooroolbark

yeah - WMR - he did go running in the pen so that may have been it, but I didn't see anything when I inspected. I think he hurt his shoulder or something - just a muscle sprain though as he has been 100% the past couple of days. I have a feeling the drought is affecting him coz all the grounds near us are soo hard and you can't stop him running at 100kms p/hr!! LOL!

Erin - heeling is like a dance more than anything else :-). It is a lot more complicated than we give it credit. We expect a dog to maintain position and focus the WHOLE time they are in heel... position being their shoulder in line with your left leg. No matter where you turn, if you stop, or how your pace changes, the dog must maintain this position.... all without you uttering another word . As you can see it is quite complex and one that we constantly need to be training even if your dog is good at it. As many have said - no pet owner wants their dog to do this... mainly they want nice LLW - which like Ness said IMO shouldn't have a cue.... and perhaps a 'close' or 'with me' which calls the dog into the vacininty of your left side... not as free as a LLW - ie: if you need your dog to be close coz you are walking through crowds. Make more sense?

LOL weisenjac - got your priorities straight then! Good luck to all competing (wagalot, TO if you do). I'll try and catch up with some of you :-).... can't tell you what i'll be wearing coz I don't choose that till the day .... but I will have a fuzzy blue dog *vbg*! And i'll be the one looking like she is about to throw up

i'm going and competing ! If I see ANY of you cheering outside my ring or teasing Leo with a bit of bait i'll hunt ya down !!!!!!

For the average pet owner? Not really. For the trialler - imperative.... BUT you can do more damage than good in a class situation. I'd keep a bit of heeling in there - our club basically just teaches the dog to 'come to heel'... like a return and then they build on that. IMO - do you know what would be a really good proposal? Keep the dogs together say until level 1-2. Then have a stream for 'potential triallers' and another stream for 'pet dogs'. That way the 'pet dog' group can learn more about 'manners' such as jumping up and 'staying' on a mat..... also some fun things like games, tricks etc. The 'potential triallers' group would be aimed for more experienced handlers at working on their dogs precision as well as a bit og games, tricks and manners.... but it would always be a more precise (and always smaller quantity of people) class. I like this idea and want to propose it to our club, as I feel that 'triallers' get bored when they put a new dog through the basics and 'pet owners' don't want to learn how to get their dog to heel, esp, if they think they'll never use it :p

WOW - from you LL - I feel very proud :eek:! Yep we have competed in CCD and have just recently got our title . Yes, will work on shortening stride - I notice I do that a lot. I also need to use a smaller step when I initially take off, coz it is HUGE!! LOL! Yep, have practiced without a dog also and got great tips from that :D. Haven't done it for a while though. RE limping: After a few days rest he seems to be as good as new today - no soreness or lameness at all. We will take it easy this week though :D. Thanks for the compliment also Helen! I still think we both have a loooong way to go :cool:

the thing is I think he has worked out that he *can* get over the fence, so now no matter what you put up he will find a way out - when there is a will there is a way. What if you just keep Loki inside? Must the dogs be together during the day? Are they ok seperate? Mine are rarely together during the day and no-one is home :D A dog run is best - even a non permanent fixture - I think Kra- Mar make some with roofs and they can be dismantled

Dunno how well this will suit you or not, but how about building a dog run for him so that you can keep him in that during the day?? Or keeping him inside during the day? How is he meeting dogs outside of your house?

ooh yeah - I forgot to add herding as i've only just been dabbling in it!! LOL! I love it so far, particularly because you are SO not in control! I find it fascinating, but can't say much about the relationship etc, as we've only done it a few times!

congrats guys! good luck with the next level of herding :D!

yep - you guessed it - i'm procrastinating from starting work :D naughty, naughty me! Just curious - for those that do multiple sports - is there one that you enjoy the most? Is there one that you get more of a kick out of than any others? Is there a particular reason you compete in a particular sport? Do you think that for you, there has been one sport that has built up your teamwork together, more than any other? ETA: for me? There isnt one that I enjoy MORE than the other, but I certianly do enjoy each for different reasons. I find that usually the one I enjoy the most is when the dog is enjoying whichever sport the most. And of course when we are succeeding (who doesn't) as you finally feel all of your little bits and pieces are coming together. there isn't any reason why I compete in a particular sport. Obedience - I love the teamwork and trust that it builds up in your dog and yourself. It's a different kind of teamwork than one that you build up in agility. I find obedience harder than agility in some aspects, and when I succeed and everything falls into place for obedience, I get a surge that I don't get in agility. Agility - I love again, the teamwork and trust that you build up. I honestly find that obedience and agility compliment each other. There are little bits and pieces from each that makes Leo a better agility dog IMO coz of obedience and a better obed. dog, because of agility (not saying you have to compete in both to be a superdog!). I get a huge adrenaline surge from completing a lovely agility course, but not the same feeling of self satisfaction.... don't ask me why! Tricks - I just teach 'em coz I love it and I love the end product. I find free shaping is a great way for me to learn about how a dog learns as well as the little types of things that your dog may be more inclined to offer. I love the enthusiasm that bursts out of them when learning tricks/ new things. I love the challenge of tackling complex tricks too.

Congrats to Vickie and Maverick too!!!! sorry completely forgot to add that !!!!! Vickie - fancy coming to Melbourne and helping me with my two !!! Sounds like you two had some great runs :D. Feels great doesn't it!

:D yay go ness!!! LOL - sleeping in eh?!!?! what partying too hard last night Shouldn't you be studying? oh and yes, i'm procrastinating!

Don't know if it has been asked before. But.... how did you get into dog sports? Did you get your dog specifically for a purpose? Have you since taken up sports that you had never considered doing prior to your dog? Has your 'obsession' in dog sports spurred on additional dogs that probably wouldn't have made it to your house otherwise? WHAT did you do in your life prior to dog obsession? :D My answers: My friend told me in 1st yr uni about how she took her 8yr old Maltxshit to dog school.... I was thinking, gawd must be 'thick as a brick' to still be going to school at 8 ! I went along with her one day and thought oooh agility/flyball looks pretty cool and look how smart those obed dogs are. I was already contemplating asking for dog #2 but this spurred me on a little. I then started researching all the sports and the aussies more until I became obsessed with the idea. When our last dog died, I got an Aussie with the thought in mind of competing at dog sports, but only lightly, so Leo was mainly a 'pet'..... I also wanted a 'laid back' dog as our last dog was a nutter! Yes! Initially I only was really interested in obed/agility - now it spans to herding, showing and breeding too! Yeah - I probably would never have been allowed Kinta if it wasn't for my dog sports, although, I did always want at least 2 dogs.... so she would have come along eventually. Maybe not quite so nutty though (although she is a LOT more controlled now ) I can't remember my prior life ..... no it consisted of me dreaming of owning multiple dogs.... but nothing much has changed really except that i'm home less and sit infront of the TV less

Thanks CTD! Actually - when my camera is on video mode, it WONT zoom!!!! Silly thing . Methinks my next investment will be a video camera..... honestly the things we buy for our dogs........ 1/2 my salary goes down that drain. Aside from the normal stuff I've bought a camera (to take cute doggy pics ) , looking into a new car (coz they don't fit in the current mini car ) and now a vid camera. dog # 3 will be very expensive as i'd have to buy it a new house :D!

Yeah - NESS ..... oh Ness where is your brag!?!?! C'mon its a big one! If you don't come in and say soon, i'll spill the beans for ya :D

trust me - there isn't too much between the ears! You blow and you can hear whistling ! But he is biddable! And consistent - which are 2 very helpful traits !!! LOL - hey even if he was a dud obedience/ agility dog, he'd still get away with it coz he is cute enough too! I was watching brock today -he looks good!!!

Nope Jules - your 100% correct coz EVERYBODY tells me to do that ... problem is that when I get nervous the stride either gets too short or far too long ;) Too much for me to think about! I was watching my vids from Nov last year and my drop signal was a lot smaller - I might go back to that as my body language seems to be more confident too! But i'm pleased to see a little improvement in him too -nowhere near as much gawking - I squirm when I watch his first vid . His turns also seem a little tighter, but could still do a little bit of work. LOL - maybe he isn't my dud obedience dog after all!!! LOL.... perhaps just a dud agility dog - Need to get a vid of that so that you can nitpick that too ;)