Seita

As huski touched on, that's the other reason I have two sets of commands so friends and family can't use my competition commands and let her get away with sloppy work. THe only downfall is that my parents are Swiss so German gets spoken at home... poor mum and dad have to remember that they can't use German commands on Ella!!!

Yep I have two sets of commands. I use english commands for everyday around the house out and about sort of stuff. I expect compliance and promptness but I don't expect high drive, super responsive work. For comps I used German commands which in Ella's language means that her drive reward (tug) will be presented later on. I expect very keen, alert and quick responses when I ask her to be in drive.

Townsville dog obedience club runs trials and classes and I know that there is an AADA club up that way too (it's called TOADS). If you look in the dogsports subforum there is a topic pinned which lists a number of agility clubs, I am pretty sure the AADA club in Townsville is listed in there... eta yep it is there here are the details: Townsville Outdoor Agility Dog Sports ( TOADS) email- [email protected] - [email protected] and the townsville obedience club's website: http://www.coct.com.au/

what about naming it after a state or city of america? Ohio (I like this Oh Hi Oh! LOL), or kentucky, or texas (tex for short), Dallas (although a bit of a girlie one), L.A. or Los, Cal (short for california) hmm my geography is not that great, I can't think of any more! Or famous americans... Fox (michael j fox), Parky (parkinson), Mike (Michael Jackson or Mike Tyson), Tyson, Reagan (Ronald Regan), Abe (Abraham Lincoln)... sorry brain isn't working anymore I can't come up with any more! Oh and Chuck gets my vote too (for Chuck Noris of course)!!!

As Huski said, if you keep him on a leash near you or tied to pole he'll be fine. Everyone will have their dogs crated or tethered so there is not chance he will have another dog run up to him.

Can someone give me some links to good sites with info on training for agility. I haven't really got any plans to compete with my current dog but I am curious about some of the terms that you guys toss around on here! Thanks!

Staranais beat me to it! I used shirely chongs method too!

Ness I see what you mean, I didn't realise that you could get them here but after a quick search a found 2 suppliers and the price difference is pretty huge! Ptolomy - I plan on stocking all sizes if I can

head's up guys, the Isqueak will hit Australian shores very soon - stay tuned!

drive reward in this case is a tug... she does everything at five hundred miles per hour regardless of what it is. Her run out to the dumbbell is just as quick as her return with it, it's just in her enthusisasm she tends to be a bit over the top and messy with the dumbbell. I think dogdude knows exactly what I'm talking about here and those were my sort of thoughts too... about lowering the drive but I also don't want to do that. Might shoot K9force an email and see what he can tell me! Ptolomy that was one of my thoughts as well... or placing the dumbbell on something raised or in something so she has to stop to pick it up rather than leap on it. Someone else suggested that I put the dumbbell in a corner and send her to it so she has to stop pick it up and turn around but once I move it out of the corner she goes back to her crazy messy retreive!

So after watching my crazy girl just about flip (literally) over her dumbbel during a retrieve at a Trial on the weekend I have decided that I need to do something about how she picks the thing up. Currently she bolts out to the dumbbell (or anything else that she might be retrieving) with loads and loads and loads of enthusiasm and pretty much hits it full on, she normally hits the breaks as she reaches the item and sometimes manages to scoop it up cleanly but most of the time she almost stumbles over it or ends up with a mouthful of dirt or grass!! I have had a few judges let out a bit of a chuckle as she just about falls over on the pickup! I think I want to tidy this up abit as it's a waste of points to keep being docked for being a bit messy... with UD on the horizion there is enough other places to lose points without worrying about messy retrieves so I want to do something about this now! I've seen a few dogs that run past the thing they are retrieving and turn around before picking the item up and bringing it back and I am thinking that this might be the best style of retrieve to teach Ella to do... so anyone got any good suggestions or advice on how to "re-style" the current retrieve?

another recommendation to see a Behaviourist asap. Jane Harper from dogs on track would be my recommendation as well. Her website: http://www.dogsontrack.com.au/

nothing at all to worry about! You can massage the base of the ear to try and bring it up (probably a bit late for this) if you want or see if you can find out how to tape his ear up (also possibly a bit late). My girl has slightly uneven ears - one is semi-erect facing forward and the other swings out to the side and sits a bit lower. Border collies often end up with all manner of ear sets and just because one ear doesn't come up fully doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the ear! ETA if you got him from a breeder they might be able to help you with taping the ear up if that's what you wanted to do.

LOL, I think Ella just felt she had to prove that she was consistent... she got the same score under the same judge as last week! Almost an identical run out to last week as well! Only one exercise different!

Congrats on your UD debut LP!!! Sounds like a pretty good shot at your first time in UD! I too have a brag! Ella again scored 196 and first place tonight... still trying to crack a perfect score for heelwork which I was hoping for tonight but that pesky one point still got docked for a stupid slow sit!! ;) Still a very happy owner tonight!

Goodluck for today!!

well with my Border Collie I really don't get people avoiding us... everyone wants to pat the cute dog! Grrr!!! I keep thinking about upgrading to a shep, mal or something like that just so people will avoid me but I can't bring myself to part with the bc's!! Maybe when I get to proofing stage of our UD work I might try the shopping centre carpark too! Not my local one though, too many weirdos there someone might try attack my dog rather than pat it!

When Ptolomy tells me she is ready ;) , which at the moment is when she learns to keep her back end in and stop heeling me in a crooked line ;) . Kenzie is a work in progress isn't she Sal She has a few bad habits that have cropped in that need fixing - no need to rush her. As one of the first people who helped me would say - three trials and you can be into open, three more and you are into UD - whats the rush That's my philosphy too! And it's what I did, 3 trials to CD, 3 trails to CDX and then 3 trials to UD... then 18 months of training and we're still not ready for UD!!! I am glad that I'm not the only one who feels silly out in public training their dog! I can't say I've worked in a shopping centre carpark before but I have worked in dog parks with loose dogs around, beside major roads on the footpath and at sports grounds so feel that I get enough distraction work in from those places. I just don't think I've ever had an audience before like I did this arvo! ;)

Thanks Erny... I used to do alot of work out in public last year when I was prepping Ella for competition but haven't done a lot this year and it got me thinking this afternoon! I'm not too worried about it but was curious what others thought! I think I got a round of applause this afternoon after a particularly nice change of positions!!

So I went out in search of a busy spot this afternoon to do some training with distractions. Found a great spot with kids playing footy, other kids running around a couple of people standing nearby and lots of people walking past. I start working with Ella and realise that everyone who walks past and the people standing nearby are all of course watching me... certainly felt a bit self concious and on my way home I wondered how other people feel when they are out training in public!? Do you like the attention, feel self concious like me, wonder what other people are thinking of you, feel like your showing off?

where abouts is BAD located?

I found alot of judges in CCD asked if I had any questions etc so I think it would be totally fine to mention that this is your first trial. Don't be afraid to ask if you aren't 100% sure what the judge wants etc.

Some clubs will do beginners agility, I am pretty sure Yatala does puppy gym which is beginners agility... I think one of the pups from my last litter does this there and he would be about 8 months old now!

Try VIP at Yatala for agility training or Southside (at runcorn) or Logan Dog Obedience clubs for more advanced obedience stuff, actually I think Logan does agility as well but I preffer Yatala's type of training for agility. If you want to compete in ANKC events you will need to become a member of the CCC(Q) and register your dog on the associate register... this don't need to be done until you are closer to being ready to compete. There are also a couple of AADA agility clubs around SE QLD if you want to AADA comps which are different to ANKC stuff but similar enough that you can train at a club associated with either organisation and still compete in both styles of comps easily. There is a thread pinned to the top of the dogsports forum about agility clubs in all states and the QLD ones listed are all AADA clubs. No issues at all with Jet being a small dog or a mixed breed, they have different heights for agility so regardless of the style of competition you do with him he will jump the appropriate height for his size. Mixed breeds all compete equally with Purebreds these days!

Nice work Zug Zug!