Purpley

Hi there, Have been working on Bronsons flyball training at home, which is going well except for..... I put the ball at the end of the 4 jumps. He happily jumps over the 4 jumps, gets the ball and then turns, and runs back to me, not jumping the jumps. If I say over, he will jump the last jump (one closest to me) but thats all. I tried putting the jumps along the fence line to stop him from being able to run around them, and the little bugger just turned the other way. This afternoon when DS got home from school, I was getting him to grab him at the other end, and point him back over the jumps, which was working. Should I just keep this up until he gets the message??? Also, should I not praise him, or give low level praise, when he doesn't return over the jumps???

Bronson:Stalkingmoon High Octane Jorja:Wyowna Melting Moment

We are still beginners, but atleast he looks professional!!!!!

Yeah she is from Canberra. She does an excellent job.

LOL Ish, yep good colour choice I reckon OH also made me flyball jumps yesterday, so we are all set to take the flyball world by storm.

I ordered a flyball harness, made to measure from a lady on ebay, and I am super impressed at the quality and how it turned out. She also makes leads and you can get the names put on the leads also.

I recipe I use is out of The Barf Diet - Dr Billinghurst. I think its pretty much the same recipe that they use for the barf patties. I make the canine multimix patties.

I wouldn't cook pet mince from Lennards as it contains bones. Generally it is minced up carcasses and anything else that chuck in. I make my own Barf and it generally works out to be between $4-$4.50 a kilo. which includes human grade meat, raw meaty bones, fruit and veg, and supplements (kelp, flaxseed, fish oil, garlic etc) Edited cause: I can't bloody type today

I told them it was for the dogs - but then my butcher gives me presents for my dogs LOL. I follow the Dr Billinghurst menu, for the barf patties. So I use beef, raw meaty bones (minced), offal, fruit and veg, flaxseed, fish oil, whole eggs, garlic and kelp. It works out to be about $4.50kg or cheaper, depending on the price of fruit and veg. My butcher gives me ground up gravy beef, so not overly fatty. Maybe start by asking for that and see what the price will be.

Making your own will work out alot cheaper than the barf patties. Talk to your butcher and see whether he can do you a deal on meat etc. Mine was awesome, and even minces up the chicken carcasses, and offal for me. That way you know it is all human grade meat too.

We had an excellent day today aswell. Bronson was awesome, training was awesome. I am loving it. It certainly makes a huge difference when both trainer and dog are enjoying it.

Erny - I understand about the dropping on wet grass being important, and thats one thing I have thought about since. Now when the grass is wet, I have been taking him out to get him to drop and he has been fine with it. I think he could of felt threatened aswell, as there was 2 trainers standing over him, one telling me to pull his legs from underneath him etc. It was quite a threatening situation for him.

Going a bit off topic I realise ...... but I did this with my girl (since departed ..... miss her heaps still) who was also well versed in "drop" and very reliable. She too wouldn't complete the "drop" command and gave me a *look* and appeared to "cower" (of sorts) when I verbally corrected her. She completed the drop though. But what a heel I felt when I released and rewarded her only to find that there was one of those prickle weeds right underneath her belly where I'd made her drop. Boy, did I feel guilty. I should have trusted her more to know better. Sorry Kal. Erny - I am sure she knew that. Bronson also completed the drop, but the look was horrible. It was definately the wet grass cause when I took him over to the concrete he dropped straight away and was happy to do it. Staffords who think they are going to melt when they get wet ;) I am glad there are others out there that feel the same way, I don't feel so silly now. I reckon the dogs are the smarter ones in the combination, when it comes to training. Its a whole new world. Off to training at new club this morning, and I am so excited. So nice to feel like I 'want' to go, instead of I 'have' to go.

Was speaking to Shoemonster today and we were talking about the fact that we think that we hold back our dogs, or cause them to behave the way they do in training. My scenario is : **I take Bronson to training at a certain obedience club and he gets really funny, and won't do what i know he CAN do. Last week we were doing drops, now Bronson can drop both on voice command, and just hand signal, but he wouldn't do it. Yes, the grass was wet which was part of the reason, but he was cowering, like he thought I was going to hit him. I don't hit him ever, so it was quite upsetting to see him behave like this. Now at this training club a while a go one of the trainers really upset me and I ended up in tears. This happened a couple of times. **I have just started taking him to a new club and he is wonderful. Eager to learn, is enthusiastic and does everything perfectly. So I think its me. I am nervous at the first club because of what happened with the instructor, there is also people there that I know, and I guess I feel like I am being judged all the time. Second club, I feel comfortable at, no one to be judgemental. Its also a more relaxed club, not focused so much on trialling (which I don't want to do with Bronson). So after all that, I guess my question is: Do you think that in certain ways you hold your dog back??? I think that had I stayed at club #1, we wouldn't end up getting any further. So I think I do hold him back. Gosh what a ramble, hope that makes sense.

Here is the website for ADT (Australian Dog Training) http://www.australiandogtraining.com.au/

As Staff n toller said - Berwick Obedience is on saturday afternoons. And as Kristie said ADT Berwick is on sat mornings - I have just joined there, and I love it. I can not speak highly enough of the trainers, they are wonderful.

I haven't done the course, but have a friend that did. She loved it and said it was great. Really goes into the pshycological stuff, behavioural etc. She is now a trainer with ADT.

I guess it comes to responsible pet ownership. If you know your dog is trained for food refusal (in the true sense) then you would have a back up plan if something unforeseen happened.

Nah Sway asked about what happens if something happened to the person that knew the command word. I discussed it with a trainer and that was what she said. A dog that was taught food refusal properly would NOT under any circumstances take food unless given the command word. Which is what I will be teaching. I agree with your last paragraph. That it should be written down for other people to have, if something happened to you etc. I am guessing friends who are out with you and your dog would soon realise the word as they would hear you say it. So I think that what Sway is saying, would only really happen in extreme circumstances, and people that take it to the level where they are the only ones that know the word.

What happens if you in an accident and a friend needs to feed the dog, and they don't know the command? I asked someone about this today, and they said that a) a dog won't starve itself, and b) a dog is normally in 'work' mode when food refusal is enforced etc. She said that a dog would more than likely eat something on the ground if they had no lead on etc. She also said that dogs are natural scavengers and its hard to switch that off, when they are in 'free' mode.

It is true food refusal that we will be doing. Now to pick a word to use. Hmmmmm

Hi, I am starting to teach the dogs food refusal and I was wondering what word people use? I guess it has to be something that isn't commonly used, so that it cant be mistakenly said. When I say word - I mean the word that means they CAN eat the food - so when you reward them for leaving the food etc. So the 'eat' command??? Does that make sense

I would of said Anal Glands, or some sort of irritation - maybe from grass or a plant etc. Is it red around the anus?

1 tsp shouldnt have a huge effect on such a big dog, but the cod liver oil gives humans the runs. I agree with PR, try a tin of sardines or maybe fish oil capsule squeezed onto the food. Do it in the morning with breakfast to avoid you being up all night.

Black Dog used to make one, but I can't seem to find it on the website, sorry Pandii.