Seita

Near Oxley there is only Brisbane obedience club who support use of check chains and train in an old fashioned sort of way so I wouldn't recommend them for your person's needs. If they are willing to travel they could go to VIP down at Yatala (probably 20-30 mins drive from Oxley).

I finally got motivated to start teaching Mack stuff today so we started teaching him how to fetch with his tug toy as a reward when he brought it back. He clued on pretty quickly. I might start playing with the find it game tomorrow. I've been pretty slack with his training considering I've had him for 5 weeks now!

Well how was it??? I soo wish I could have come!

Goodonya Seita - yep it will be the end of your article problem and dare I suggest it...... the start of your signals problem.... Good on you guys! We already have direct jumping and signals problems!!! LOL She was dropping in the box up until last night and she still on occaisons takes the wrong jump cos she's not paying attention to me. And she's been missing drops in signals a little bit by not quite going all the way down... and in her last trial she did a perfect signals exercise, she would have been on full marks and then right at the very end she forgot to sit after the finish! Across all 3 of our trials so far she has now managed to 0 in each exercise at least once!

Finally our articles are back on track!!! We finally progressed to a whole set again this afternoon with no uncertainty to be seen! Both the wood and metal articles were fresh but the leather had been heavily scented as we'd done a session with just leathers earlier. I'll take her out to club tonight with a fresh set of articles and see how she goes. I won't add other people's scents back into it just yet though. Hopefully this is the end of our article problems!!

I'm soo bummed that I won't be able to go! Have a great time for all of you who get to go!!

An update on our scent issues, I did a session with woods last night and we got back up to 3 articles. She has a few attempts at simply grabbing at articles without using her nose so i just ignored her until she went back out and started using her nose. She was starting to work nicely on the 3 articles last night but I didn't want to push it too far. This arvo we brought the metals out and very quickly got back up to 5 with no picking up and dropping happening at all. I then put 2 woods out again and she started to get a bit unsure and did the pick up and drop thing a few times but after maybe 3 goes she got it under control again and we got back up to 3 articles before I decided to call it a night. I think I'll work on woods again next session and when we've got woods sorted (no picking up and dropping etc at all even on first go) then I'll bring the leathers back into the game as those were causing some major probs the other day. I'm not marking a correct article until she is on her way back to me with it and then I'm doing it randomly. She's only tried to bring me the wrong article twice today and once yesterday and I've just been ignoring her completely

I'm entered but with the state of Ella's articles and our complete lack of training this last 2 weeks I don't think we'll bother going.

She very rarely picks up the wrong one (until this last week or two) and if she has worked really hard to find it and then picks up the wrong one I just send her again. But when she goes out and clearly doesn't sniff (which is what she was doing in our last session) and just grabs an article then I do give her a NRM. Seita - where exactly did you put the "yes" as she was picking it up perhaps???? when I was training it I would mark right article as soon as she indicated it, as she got better at it I'd wait til she'd picked it up. and I think this is where your problem originated as she has become unsure she is waiting for you to indicate yes that is the correct article hence why even when she finds the correct one she will pick it up and put it down and move onto the rest of the pack. You really need to go back to basics as if she doesn't know the exercise at all, but you should be able to build it up quite quickly, once she has learnt to find the article herself without your help and to trust her judgement. If you want to give her feedback make sure it is in different spots on her way back or when she has presented, or even after you have taken the article. I agree with Ptolomy which is why i asked if you verbally indicated the correct article in training. Remember also that slight movements such as a hand towards a pocket or a slight turn to throw a toy will become physical markers for your dog and also something she will look for when working the pile. I will go back to basics in a session tonight and see how we go. I really tried hard to mark randomly as she got better at finding the right article so she wouldn't rely on my mark. Do you guys mark the correct article in the early training stages? Or just let them figure it out and reward when they bring it back?

Ohhhh how exciting! How long does he need to be in quarantine for?

Seita - where exactly did you put the "yes" as she was picking it up perhaps???? when I was training it I would mark right article as soon as she indicated it, as she got better at it I'd wait til she'd picked it up.

Got any suggestions to help stop it again? She was doing so well on articles until last weekend when it all fell apart. I just did a really short session with 2 leathers and a couple of cans on the lounge room floor and she was using her nose most of the time but still did some grabbing. I tried to remove the cans but she resorted back to snatching immediately. Hopefully she remembers what she's supposed to do soon! Are you saying anything for correct or incorrect article? Did you verbally indicate the correct article when you initially taught SD? How did you teach SD?? Used the dogscouts methods and verbally marked the right article with a "yes". I still occasionally in training mark an article when she's picked it up and let her have the reward just to keep it random for her. I give her a NRM if she gets it wrong.

Got any suggestions to help stop it again? She was doing so well on articles until last weekend when it all fell apart. I just did a really short session with 2 leathers and a couple of cans on the lounge room floor and she was using her nose most of the time but still did some grabbing. I tried to remove the cans but she resorted back to snatching immediately. Hopefully she remembers what she's supposed to do soon!

Seita, any improvement??? Not really. I did some work with her the other night with only 2 articles out, when the metal was the scented one she had no trouble and I was able to get her back up to confidently doing a full set. But when I put 2 wood or 2 leather out she just started grabbing at whatever she saw first. So I've left it for a few days and will try again with her next week.

I'm sure on the legalities in NSW but I have one of these fences to keep my houdini dog in and it's fantastic. There is a fair bit of training involved to start with during which time the dog cannot be allowed to leave the yard unless on a lead or with a handler so the dogs learns the only way out of the yard is with someone. With my dog I found that with shorter fences (or no fences) it was still hard to keep her in with the e-fence as she could see a way out and if she was worked up enough (say for the postie) she would simple cop the shock the collar gave her and keep going. Although I know you can train a dog out of this, it's just a challenge. I think I'd be more inclined to look at getting the dog a pen so it has some space to wander around without being restrained with at least one (more if possible) trip out of the pen for a walk or a bit of fetch or something like that. Cost of an electronic containment system is approx $600-$800, you can get a run/pen for about the same, even less for some of them.

It seems my scent discrimination has falled off the wagon at the moment and I'm just after some advice on how best to get it back. What she's been doing for a while now is on the first article she goes out, picks it up then drops it and after that usually picks it up again and brings it back. By the second and third articles she's usually ok and isn't dropping it anymore. Sometimes she drops it more than once. However since the weekend she's been getting worse on all articles. In her first trial on Saturday she picked up and dropped the article about 5 times before bringing it back, she then had no trouble with the next two other than a bit of mouthing. But in the evening trial on Saturday, she picked up and dropped the first article 2 or 3 times and then grabbed the wrong article which she hasn't done in training in a VERY VERY long time. She then did the same thing on the second article. On the third article she picked it up once or twice before bringing it back but didn't grab a wrong article again. What I had been doing was just ignoring the picking up and putting down of the articles, passing it off as an inexperienced dog and assuming she'd do it less and less as she got more confident. However in my 2 training sessions since Saturday she's gone back to dropping every article multiple times again which to me seems like she's not confident that she's got it right. So should I go back to less articles and see if she starts bringing them back without dropping them? Or should I tell her she's got it right as soon as she picks the right one up? Or should I just let her keep picking them up and dropping them and hope she gets it out of her system? One judge has told me to tell her she's got it right when she grabs it, another judge has told me to just let her go and that she'll figure it out eventually. I'm undecided, I'm worried that if I start telling her she's got it right when she picks it up she'll then start waiting for me to tell her she's got it right all the time... and on the other hand if I just let her keep going then it'll be stuck and stay with us forever! Sorry about the longish post!

I'm not sure, she's been doing it in training as well. Do you mean the PM trial one? Cos she went crooked due to a mega lump of soil with a hole in top. I had to dodge it in both the seekback and the signals and I remember her going around it the first time in the evening trial. I just watched Daisy's round and was going to make a similar comment about how looooong their rounds are! At the 2009 Western Classic when we had a QLD judge for CCD, my heel pattern was really long and all these turns in fast pace Then Ruby's novice round at the Nationals with a VIC judge, her fast pace was just a very short straight bit at the very end with NO positions, so less tough than a CCD round! I would have expected you only start getting all paces and all positions and turns in Open, at least in WA? Well in QLD even in CCD most judges will give you one of every position in each pace. I can't remember having a shorter heel pattern ever in any level I've done. I was watching a NSW judge yesterday (I ended up under 2 QLD judges in the end) and they had a really really short fast pace, no turns just a straight line with a halt at the end I think, but I'd rather they shorten slow pace instead of fast pace! LOL

Seita - do you end up with bruises from where she bangs into you on a present. Is this something new or has she always done it? BM is a lovely judge :-) No bruises, she doesn't hit that hard but yes it is a new thing. She's only started it in the last 2 weeks about the same time she started dropping in the box instead of sitting. She used to slam into my legs on recalls when we first started trialling but hasn't done it in ages. I've got a bit of work to do on both sending to box and the way she presents back to me after the jump! I love Barbara too! She's a really nice judge. I walked into the ring last night and she goes "Hi I haven't seen you in the ring in ages!" and then at the end says she hoped to see me in the ring more often. I've only trialled under her once or twice before!!

And here's the video from the AM trial. I had to cut out the seekback as it took 5 minutes and I can't upload anything bigger than 10 minutes to youtube!

Ok video's of Ella's UD trials from yesterday: PM Trial: AM video didnt' upload.... need to shorten it!

That's Awsome! What are the dimensions?

Welcome to UD Seita - where every exercise breaks and you put it back together again only to have a different one break the next trial. Things that have never been a problem in the past come and bite you on the backside Good luck tomorrow - hoping you pass and get one of those pretty pink cards. Did you get todays rounds on video? I haven't checked the camera. I got the first round on video but I think my memory card was full again part way through the second round. I need to put a bigger one in there as it only fits one UD round plus a little bit on there at the moment!

well home from a double trial today. No pretty pink cards for us but some really nice work from Ella! In the morning trial she didn't get her seekback but the wind was insane, we have all kinds of things going flying and the scent was blown all over the place that the poor girl tracked most of the pattern in the middle of the ring next door! Everything else in that trial was really nice.... ran out of points on one article due her picking it up and dropping a few too man times and she ended up with 2nd place! Evening trial she got full marks for seekback but then blew 2 articles, just got confused and stressed I think and lost confidence on them and started grabbing at the wrong ones but I can't work out why as she's been soo good on them for ages now. Then she gave me a really sensational signals exercise all up to the very end where she forgot to sit after the finish at the end so a 0 there sadly. But aside from the articles I was stoked with how she went!!!

Fair enough, I haven't trialled under Linda before, she's a really lovely lady though. I've been pinged by a few judges up here for looking at my dog back in CCD and CD... I got out of the habit quick smart after that! I do know a few judges who probably will overlook someone looking at their dog if it's working really well but I think most judges up here are of the same opinion about watching your dog. It always intrigues me when there are such big differences between judging styles across the different states. I like trialling under interstate judges just for something different... you never know what they are going to do cos you have no idea about their judging styles! I'm trialling under NSW judges tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it!

You'd be stuffed under pretty much any Qld judge then! I haven't trialled under a single one yet that won't ping you for looking at your dog!