Seita

Not my first time, this was our 5th trial together but Ella is the first dog I've trained up to UD so I still feel very inexperienced in the ring!

Awesome work!!!! And in the rain too!!!! You must be so bloody proud! still grinning.... the giant glass of wine may be aiding the size of said grin! bummer Kath, Im sure your first leg won't be far away!!!!

Here's the linky to our trial from today!

WOOHOOOOOO :p :p Congratulations! Where were you trialling? In Toowoomba in the rain! LOL How did you go in Grafton?

We did it! We got our first UD leg today at our 5th trial in the pouring rain! She dropped in the box on the first sendaway so we lost 6 points there but only lost 1 or 2 points in most other exercises due to sloppiness (poor presents, slow finishes etc etc) but overall I'm happy with her work and know what I need to improve on!! She ended up with 181 and 2nd place, and the video is currently uploading! :p

I have a brag!!!! I'm soo excited!!! I went to Toowoomba in the pouring rain today without much hope of getting a Quallie but Ella had other plans and we got our first leg with 181 and 2nd place!!! :p

Here's my video from Saturday night!

I finally have a chance to report back on my results from last nights trial! Ella too bombed out, she shot past the box the first time (not sure where she was headed) and sat about 10m behind the box - lesson learnt, must train for shorter ring set ups as well! And as I expected we lost concentration in the signals and had a bit of sloppy work towards the end and then when i gave her the sit signal she just lay there and stared at me like she'd never seen the signal before in her life! Everything else was good but a little sloppy which I kind of expected due to my total lack of training over the last month or so! Got another trial next weekend, I'm sure she'll find something else creative to do wrong!

Cos I'm a competitive person and it's a good outlet for me! I love doing stuff with my dogs and I get to have a bit of competition to keep me happy. I know my dog/s would be just as happy being pets who gets a walk each day and love being cuddled etc. My dog LOVES to work but she would be just as happy playing fetch so trialling is all about me and what I want! If I had a dog who didn't like I wouldn't do it with them (I'd just get one who did ). I love that in obedience (and agility etc) you can be competitive but at the same time be supportive of others as it's not just about getting 1st place, it's about doing your best, improving, and of course getting those qually cards!

Another broken exercise - so far you have had seekback, box, scent and now signals - hate to tell you that just leaves GLOVES Best of luck tomorrow night. I figure if we break them all early on she'll get it out of her system and we'll be right! Actually our gloves did break, she had a love of glove 2 at one stage and then I never sent her to it so she developed an avoidance of it, if I sent her to 2 she'd look at it and then sort of go but surely you don't mean that one you never mean that one! But yes we've broken everything else so far and we've also managed a 0 in each exercise at least once in our 3 trials so far! LOL But I know how to fix my signals! TRAIN IT! I haven't done much with her in the last 2 months so it's all my fault!

no help here ptolomy, I have a not so occasionally clever one who sometimes thinks that she is supposed to drop in the box (not sure where she got the idea from) and who I desperately need to do more duration heel work with! LOL She works beautifully up until the change of positions in the signals and then she goes "hmm what's that over there... oh and look theres a dog in that ring doing something soo much more exciting". I can see us blowing a few quallies with our signals exercise cos she's not paying attention! We have our first trial in almost 2 months tomorrow night and based on last night's performance she could do quite well (except those bloody signals). Everything else seems to be in working order at this stage (keeping fingers and toes crossed here)!

There are two clubs in Brisbane and one on the gold coast that I'm aware of. The Brisbane Sporting Dog Club (google it for their website) definitely allow all breeds to train with them and I've been told the Gold coast club allows other breeds to train with them as well. The other club in Brisbane (can't remember their name) does not allow other breeds.

As far as I know the gold coast club and also the club that trains in Nundah in Brisbane both allow all breeds to train with them but I think there are restrictions on competition (particularly the bite work).

That's why I'm looking for recs as the friend who needs help is going to contact Bark Busters but so far I can't offer any alternative.

Well it's blowing an absolute gale up here in Brissy and I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to practice some scent work (especially seekback) seeing as at our last trial Ella had trouble finding her seekback due to the crazy winds we had that day. She certainly had to work hard to find it but she found it in less than a 90 seconds! Compared to her 5 minutes and then still not finding it at the last attempt in wind like this! Oh and I think I've finally fixed our scent discrimination problems, she is no longer dropping articles multiple times! She seems a lot more confident and if she gets a whiff of the right one she picks it up and brings it straight back! Now I just need to introduce other people's scents to the other articles again and we're all set for our next shot at the UD trial rings!

is there no one?

nope, just obedience at the moment. I used to do agility with my previous dogs but haven't got time to train it with my current dogs.

Can anyone recommend someone experienced with agression? I know someone who needs help but haven't got a clue who might be helpful up that way.

Ok did some more shaping with a box and also some rear end awareness training with Mack this afternoon and just for you Terranik I took some videos! playing around with shaping: Some rear end awareness training: After this one I flicked the basket up the other way to see what he'd do, he just put his front feet in the basket and stood there watching me! Next time I do some shaping I'll try and get him to offer some other behaviours!

*taps foot* Where is the video!? It was too dark to take one... I did think about it though! Maybe next session I'll do a quick video!

I'm so proud of Mack! I've done maybe 3 or 4 sessions with a phonebook just getting him to put his front feet on it consistently by shaping (a small amount of luring to start with but pure shaping after that). So he's been gradually getting the idea of offering behaviours, so I thought I'd see what he did if I got a cardboard box out today. He sniffed at it once or twice, then stuck his head in it. That quickly progressed to him sitting there beside the box tentatively putting 1 foot into the box while looking at me as if to ask "is this what you want". By the end of the session he was walking into the box and standing in it with all 4 feet! I think he's pretty much figured out this shaping thing, you can see him thinking "now how do I get her to give me that toy I want"! I can't wait to teach him a sendaway for UD!

The big red lines and arrows to point out how wide my dog is heeling also helps Wow all this new technology Steve!!! I didn't get any of this when I did the TID program with Ella! I feel like I missed out on something! Although Ella is perfect, we probably didn't need red lines and dots!

LOL If I sat down or lay down the only behaviour I'd get from Mack and (possibly Ella unless I gave her a command) would be "get mugged"! I've been doing exactly what you described with Mack with a phone book but have had to encourage and gently lure (by standing on the opposite side and encouraging him to investigate it) to get him to pay it any attention so I could actually reward him! I've done 2 sessions now and he's getting better at it but it'll probably take another session or two for him to really start offering behaviours.

Seita - I am not sure if you have done any shaping before with Mack or not - but you need to teach the dog to offer behaviours - so arm yourself with a clicker (or your yes word) and treats and start clicking for anything in normal everyday living to begin with, just so he gets the hang of offering you behaviours rather than sitting there watching you. I haven't done much shaping full stop ever. I lured most things for Ella but as Mack isn't overly food driven and it's a little challenging to lure with a tug toy I thought I'd try a bit of shaping. He was starting to get the hang of what I wanted last night (interaction with the phone book on the floor) after I semi lured him towards it. I don't think I'll do much free shaping either but shaping things like putting front feet on the book or at a later stage going to the box I will do plenty of with Mack I think. Mostly cos I've never done much shaping before so I'd like to play around with different methods to teach things. Has anyone ever shaped the heel position or front etc?

Just a question on Shaping for those who do this a lot. Do you watch your dog or do you look away a bit and watch using your peripherals? The thought crossed my mind as I started shaping this exact thing with Mack last night and the more I watched him the more he just chose to sit there and make eye contact with me! I think I'll need to lure him onto the book as he's just sooo focused on me that he doesn't notice the book! (not that I'm complaining!) :D