stephenb

Welcome to QLD. I have met a few of the ADCQ members at ADAA competitions and at the QLD training camp and am sure that they will make you feel welcome.

The easiest way to check out locations and driving directions and times is to use google maps. www.maps.google.com.au Tivoli is about 10klms further from where you are.

I know of a couple of GSD's that have their masters titles but they are not a common breed in agility. The can look slow but because of their size they are travelling faster than they appear to. The bigger the dog (I have seen a Great Dane compete) the more care you must take to make sure that you teach it to jump correctly. They are not as agile as the small to medium size breeds. Plenty of practice at lower heights initially and concentrate on direction control rather than worry about jumping the full height.

The ANKC rules are here. ANKC Obedience Rules You can't enter Novice Class once you are eligible to apply for the title and you can not enter OPEN class until you have lodged an application for the Novice title.

The ANKC regulations are here. ANKC Agility Regulations The ADAA rules are here. ADAA rules Basically both rules specify a circumference of about 2500 mm at the exit.

I have never had a dog that was scared of storms or fireworks. We had a thunder storm in the middle of a trial once and only one dog out of 20 showed any real fear. What percentage of dogs do have an unreasonable fear of thunder?

You will be able to locate a list of clubs from this link. Dogs NSW Clubs

Thanks. The dogs are 360 and 500mm. I will have to remeasure Mysta to make sure he is enterred in the correct class when he gets measured down there. Yes, we are from Gladstone.

Lovely run from both dog and handler. Watched it ten times before I could pull myself away from it.

Thanks for the reply. I will go through it a bit later. Is there any problem being entered in both rings at the same time? We have heard plenty of good reports about this event and are certainly looking forward to it. We will probably be camping to make the most of the atmosphere.

My wife and I are entering our first ADAA trial at Bundaberg on New Year's Eve. We have never been to an ADAA trial before and are not sure what we should enter. I am finding the rule book a bit difficult to understand when it comes to what we are eligable to enter. To complicate things there are 2 rings being run and I have to find out if that is going to restrict what we enter. Both our dogs are registered on the IP register. Tracey's dog has it's JD and AD titles with CCCQ and mine has it's JD. We would like to do as many runs as is practicle on the weekend.

I don't think of it as fixing something. It is something new to teach. If you are not teaching anything at the moment then why not give it a go? If you keep the signals and commands distinct there should be no confusion.

Weird! How many jumps do you have? What other equipment do you have? At what pace do you train? What time of day do you train? How often do you train? Is the equipment out of reach when not training? How old is the dog? My wife has a BC and I have a Staff and boredom with agility is the least of our problems.

My staffy killed 5 chickens one night recently. We don't know how she got in but she was fast, silent and deadly. Security has been beefed up but there is no hope of training this one to leave them alone. One of his favourite games is to run around with the border collie and hang off the scruff of his neck (no aggression and no damage done).

I was never one to have pets because I am not disciplined enough to do all the work required. My wife owns all the pets. She just told me I could walk the dogs but not train them. Eventually, she gave one of her dogs to me to train as it was being pig headed (Staffy) and she needed to concentrate on the other for it's CDX title. I train mainly for agility which suits my dog's temperament and have made regulation sized jumps, collapsible tunnel and weave poles for training as home. One word of advice though. I constantly hear women at trials complaining about partners who do not support them in their chosen sport and some are plain obstructive. Make the most of his interest and keep him involved.

We had this problem at our club and we made a few simple changes. First, we moved the advanced classes back to the same time as the beginner classes. This allowed the beginners to see some of the more advanced work and allowed them to continue coming at the same time rather than later. Next we started to bring out a single piece of agility equipment for the advanced class to try out and have some fun. We don't actually run any agility classes but some of us do compete in agility. We are very pleased with the result of these changes and our advanced classes are much larger now and more people are continuing on to trialling.

Does anyone know where the herding trials at The Caves near Rockhampton are being held this weekend? It is not an ANKC event and I can't find any information.

Summa is a Staffy and is 360mm high and is allowed to jump either 300mm or 400mm at trial. I have put her over 600mm jumps and she doesn't have any difficulty.

Have a look though the CCCQ list of clubs and give them a call. http://www.cccq.org.au/documents/Affiliate...Spreadsheet.pdf There are the Rockhampton Kennel Club, Rockhampton Dog Obedience Club Inc, and some other smaller clubs in the Callide and Capricorn areas.

I have never trained a dog to use a door but have taught a few to do jumps and tunnels. The owners often say that their dog won't like it but ususally they are doing it within 10 minutes. Don't try to push your dog through the door. It only makes it a bad experience they don't want to repeat. It helps if you are able to call your dog reliably, even if it you have to have food in your hand. Play with the dog first having them come to you reguarly for a reward. When they are well into the game of come for a reward and excited about it, go onto the next stage. Have someone hold the dog near the door while you call them from the other side. If they refuse to come despite all coaxing, ignore them and leave them alone for at least 10 minutes. (No reward for not coming) You can repeat the cycle immediately but I would give it more time so that you can build their excitement again to maximum levels. Unless they have had a very bad experience in the past, most dogs learn to take jumps and go through hoops and tunnels quite happily.

I have a staff bitch which has the same sort of temperment. To get her ready for a training session I do a couple of minutes of jogging with her and throw in a lot of sudden turns and about turns. It also takes the edge off her exuberence. I basically put aside my obedience ambitions for a while and concentrated on jumpers and agility. This has improved her focus considerably and I will probably trial in obedience with her next year. I don't use food rewards too much because she tends to switch off if I run out or forget to take some with me. She loves a good rough praise up at the end of an exercise.

Thanks for the info. We might set up a practice course tonight and give it a go.

Thanks for the reply. From reading the rules it is not clear if the setup has the gamble obstacles amongst the PAP obstacles or in a seperate area and if the gamble obstacles tend to be in a flowing pattern while the PAP obstacles are not. The trial has been cancelled because the field is apparently still ankle deep in water and not expected to be useable by the weekend.

My wife is entered in her first Gamblers trial this weekend but we have never seen one run. I have read the rules and have a fair idea of how it is supposed to go but would like a copy of a typical novice course to look at. Can someone post a copy or a link?

I am pretty sure that it is only a 5 second pause with no position specified in the ANKC rules. ADAA rules may differ. I just have my dog stand on the table. The directed jump in obedience requires a sit in the box.