Seita

Well it sounds like she won't take very long to finish that title off!!

Woo Hoo LP!!!! That's a fantastic score! How many more for her title?? I wish we had HIT in QLD but most clubs don't do them, only special trials normally have them.

another one here who uses two bar jumps and just drops the sheet/towel over one of the bars. I am far too lazy to make a solid jump and they tend to be a bit bulky which means I would probably never put it up or very rarely. The bars are nice and easy to move around and you can pack them in the back of the car easily and take them down to a park to train with!!! You can be a bit fancier and use a peice of white canvas/other strong material with a bar sewn into the bottom so that it doesn't flap around too much and pretty much looks solid.

My first chance to post this year and it's a good one!!! After a bit of a mad year - 6 months off at the start of the year for a litter, came back out for the state trials where we had some bad luck and then came in season and then a tick we finally made it back out again last night and did it in style. My beautiful girl Ella got her best score EVER in obedience (beat our best score by 1 point!) with a 196 in Open! I know that this girl is more than capable of a 200 and after last night's performance I know that she is definitely on track for that magic score!!! I am still a very happy owner today and soo proud of my girl... she also won the ring which was the icing on the cake!

yes once i got my brain into working mode, i remembered what i was taught when doing dumbell many years ago so i know putting that into play , exactly what you have mentioned. Im only working with the 3 articles for know,and gradually building to the proper on the floor bizzo. Luckily he is young so got plenty of time, he is 4yrs old Good luck with your scent discrimination training. LOL it took me a while to get my brain into gear too!!

OT - mrsD you might see my little puppy at VIP at some point. His name is Rave and he's Ella's son. Aparently he's doing pretty well down there!! Awww, how old is he & what class is he doing? Who's his owner? I'll keep an eye out for him, but Im only usually down there Tuesday night & Sunday mornings for DWD training, so if he's in a class on another night of the week I may not see him until we have the christmas party. His owner is Leonie and he's about 7/8 months old. I think she does puppy gym with him on Tuesday nights from memory. He's the sexiest black and white border collie puppy around!!!

Hey blitza I was thinking about your chewing problem... could you go back to basics and get the dog to hold the wood article calmly and then reward him for holding it with a calm mouth and then gradually extend this to picking it up calmly, going out a fetching it calmly to eventually adding it back to the pile of scent articles??/ I think I might need to do similar with Ella to stop the chewing and chomping if it becomes too much of a problem. She isn't excessive most of the time, she does have her bad chewing days though.

LOL I would tell you if I knew! You should see some of my woods! There is a reason why I have training sets and competition sets... seeing as we aren't ready to compete yet the competition sets are still in mint condition until she learns to stop destroying the articles!!! why do they need wood, poor dogs total confusion no confusion with my dog, she chews all the articles even the leathers have teeth marks! It doesn't stop her bringing them back though! Have you thrown the article a long way from you and made it a game (this can be done after she has worked the pile and brought back the right one as the throw could be the game for her) ? Or when she has the right article, have you called her to you to get a quicker responce to come and get her reward? Just some ideas for you to think about Oh she brings them back alright, and quickly to be rewarded with her super awesome tug! She just chomps on them on the way!

LOL I would tell you if I knew! You should see some of my woods! There is a reason why I have training sets and competition sets... seeing as we aren't ready to compete yet the competition sets are still in mint condition until she learns to stop destroying the articles!!! why do they need wood, poor dogs total confusion no confusion with my dog, she chews all the articles even the leathers have teeth marks! It doesn't stop her bringing them back though!

LOL I would tell you if I knew! You should see some of my woods! There is a reason why I have training sets and competition sets... seeing as we aren't ready to compete yet the competition sets are still in mint condition until she learns to stop destroying the articles!!!

OT - mrsD you might see my little puppy at VIP at some point. His name is Rave and he's Ella's son. Aparently he's doing pretty well down there!!

LOL on that note I have had a judge forget to tell me that the exercise was finished. I stood there with Ella sitting at heel watching the judge waiting, he asks me what I'm waiting for and I said for you to tell me that the exercise is finished. He laughed and said it was finished!

I'm doing my first trial next month at Southern Obedience Dog Club and will be entering my GSP Bella and my parent's Dobermann Tyler (I will be handling him as well for them)! Thank you for posting all those tips! and the next one, especially the first question as my little Bella is a perfect description of a major distraction and tend to not focus at time, so at least I now know how to avoid losing points on the heeling as some you have mention is what I have been doing! Tyler is the opposite of Bella, very switched on! But he gallops and then jumps on me on an off lead recall! So funny! But got 30 days to fine tune both of these babies for their first CCD trials! So excited! I'd take my Min Pin Clancy for the trial, but he is too immature for it! Everything is a game to him! lol With 2 weeks of obedience training at the club out due to Clancy's show, gotta start putting in some work at home! Don't be in too much of a hurry to stop Tyler from rushing to you on a recall, believe me you want to keep that level of excitement and don't want to risk ruining his recall! My girl used to do this as well and the advice I was given was to ask the dog to sit when it was about a metre or so from me so she had time to stop before crashing into me!!!

gotta love the variety in judging between the different states! At our state trials recently I trialled under a NSW judge on the first day and noticed that he didn't ping people for looking at their dogs in the heel work which under QLD judges you usually get docked for big time!!

We had the South Australian judges at the States/Nationals last weekend and if you were heeling and you called you dog up usings its name - it was exercise finished ouch that's harsh!!

Q1 - better to say heel but avoid it if you can as you will be docked points. You can try saying a firmer command when you heel off or ask her to stand or drop to try and get her attention. If she's really not focussed the judge may end the exercise or ask if you want to stop the exercise. Q2 - you start with your dog sitting at heel. The judge will say the next exercise is the recall please remove your lead. You hand the lead over and the judge asks if you are ready for the exercise. The judge will ask you to heel forward and then ask you to halt. They will then ask you to leave your dog and will tell you to about turn when you are about 10m away. The judge will then ask you to call your dog, once it's in front of you and sitting the judge will ask you to return to your dog.

things to remember: - use a full length lead - you can use a flat or correction collar but you can't correct your dog in the ring - keep your lead loose in heeling as most judges will dock you points every time the lead goes tight - you need to wear your number when in the ring so don't forget your arm band or a saftey pin - bring a chair! Trust me I still forget this on occaisions - a crate or mat for your dog to be in or on - wait until the judge tells you to do something. Don't move forward until the judge says forward and don't praise your dog until after the judge has said exercise finished - if you do a wrong turn in the heel work don't correct yourself, the judge will redirect you - focus on giving clear signals, plenty of people get nervous (me included) and give terrible signals which the dog doesn't understand - Something I did when I started trialling again last year (break of about 4/5 years) was drop my hands after the recall signal so that they hit my legs and made a noise. I didn't realise I was doing it and was told after that this would normally be classed as a second command and that I should avoid doing it in future - You can only say heel after moving off from a stationary position not while you are moving - You can praise your dog and give it pats between exercises - There is no correct side to the start peg no matter what anyone tries to tell you, stand on which ever side you like - Keep an eye on your ring so you don't miss your call - I went through a phase of missing mine, which is not the end of the world in obedience but it does piss the stewards off! - Tell the judge that you are new to trialling and they will usually check to make sure you understand the exercise and don't be afraid to ask questions before the exercise or even after the exercise - For later levels, something that a new trialler at my club just discovered if you drop the dumbbell don't pick it up! If the dog picks it up you won't fail the exercise you'll just loose some points. She picked it up thinking she'd already blown the excerise only to be told that if the dog had of picked it back up she would have passed and got a qually that day! And above all else, you take the best dog home at the end of the day so don't get too disheartened if you don't get the qually! GOODLUCK!!!

Where abouts on the southside are you? Southside dog obedience club is at Runcorn and I train there and I know they run puppy classes, they accepts pups once they've had all their vaccs. In the meantime if your pup hasn't had all it's vaccs try doing a puppy preschool at a vet or a private puppy preschool like VIP.

Depends on the club. TECHNICALLY the answer would be no as it's after closing date but if the club hasn't printed the catalogues yet they might let you go up a class. I know when I've been a trial secretary I have allowed people to move up to the next class if I hadn't already printed the catalogues which I never did until about 2 days before the trial anyway. I guess you should just phone the club and see what they say. You can still compete in the novice class you've entered if they don't let you go up because you entered it before you got your title.

I will recommend VIP dog training at Yatala. I know a few people who go there and from what I can tell they have a very balanced approach to training and come well recommended.

I phoned Bowhill and asked and the answer from the owner was yes. I don't know about the other two as I haven't called them. I don't think that many will list it on their websites as most people won't know what they are anyway. I just phoned around until I found a kennel that accepted them.

ISH!! She brings the correct one back all the time now, I can't remember the last time she brought the wrong one back. She just picks up random articles still and then puts them down and eventually brings the right one back. I find that the more often I practise this (say once every day or two) she does it less but if it's been a while (say a week) she will do more of the picking up and putting down thing. I anticipate that if I just keep practising it she will eventually stop picking up articles while she is searching and only pick up the right one once... otherwise we're going to get a lot of substantials when we start trialling!!!

Long time no see MrsD!! I know - last time I saw you I think Ella & Jonty were still in baby puppy class, weren't they? They most certainly were! Only 3 years ago!!

Long time no see MrsD!!

For those interested, two more Brisbane kennels that will accept titre tests for parvo, hep and distemper. Beenleigh Pet Motel and The Pines Pet Resort at Elimbah (near Caboolture). Where were you when I last asked this question a few months ago and about a year and a half ago as well and go no suggestions!?! :p I've seriously been looking for a kennel for almost 2 years and this is the first time I've found a kennel that accepts them!