Seita

My current girl was trained in both from baby puppy. I have always been an obedience person but decided to try something different with this girl. Depending on the breed there are some differences in training but if you train different commands and teach the dog what you want then you shouldn't have a problem. For example, my girl is glued to my leg staring up at me during heel work, for showing she is running at a gait looking straight ahead usually just in front of me - I use two different commands for these exercises and don't have any problems with her getting confused.

K9: Ease up, you wil end up in MY Naughty corner... Who me? *bats eyelashes* K9: careful teasing BC4ME, she has no mercy, just look how she names her dogs.... lol.. mmmm... yes indeed. Poor Chook! K9: Oh? did I mention I am bringing one of MY dogs? All I can say is "BRING IT ON STEVE!"

couldn't you just get a generic recharger with the right plug? My innotek electric containment system's charger died recently and rather than get a genuine innotek one to replace it I headed off to Jaycar and picked up a generic one that had the right plug for around $20-$40.

Wow, my dog has never ever even so much as batten an eye lid at those markers on the ground. I don't think she even sees them!

Uh oh, this is going to be another one of those chatty workshops... 'specially if BC4ME comes along - she's a trouble maker that one! ;) LOL At this rate I'm going to have the best behaved dog there seeing as you all think your dogs are naughty!

If you have access to a secure open area it is good to let pups self exercise by letting them offlead or on a long line if that's not possible and let them run around at their own pace and sniff etc everything. I would avoid dog parks and high dog traffic areas until after 2nd vaccination but 2 weeks after that vacc (approx 14 weeks) you can take her pretty much anywhere. A quite park that doesn't have a lot of people/dogs going through it is a good spot if using a long line - great way to train recalls too. School grounds are also good for letting puppy off lead as they are usually fenced and the oval is often a distance from the gate.

I think one lot of worming tablets is a good idea, also the food that pup is currently on is a good idea. I know someone who recieved a puppy with a blackdog collar and lead set and a toy, which is a nice idea but I think the lead and collar is a bit of overkill. If I ever breed a litter my puppy pack will have photos of the parents and a bit of info (like a mini resume) of each parent. A couple of printed out photos of the puppy plus a CD of other photos and/or videos (if I take any). Basic training and raising a puppy info and tips (such as toilet training, fear periods etc), feeding info, basic grooming instructions and vet/health instructions. I will also provide one or two worming treatments, a couple of days worth of food (I feed raw so this would depend on what the new owners are planning to feed) and a toy that the puppy is familiar with. I just rehomed a pup that didn't work out as a show dog and he was sent to his new home with a folder and cd containing all of the above, plus his bed that he had while he was here (I had no need for it) and food for a day or two (a couple of frozen chicken frames in his case). He was already on monthy worming/flea treatments so I treated him for all of this before he left so his new owner would have a month before it was due again. I also gave some training articles that I think are helpful and useful. I also gave his new owner a demo on how to groom, trim nails, trim excess hair on feet etc and showed her all the tools that I use and recommend plus the shampoos/product that I use. His new owner was stoked at all of this info!

Depending on the nature of the problem some trainers like k9force will do consults long distance. But this would depend on the problem, if it's agression based I doubt that any good trainer would do program without first seeing the dog.

In Qld they do the COP straight out from the start peg the same as the SFE. I have had a few judges do it across the ring instead but most have done it in the same spot as the SFE in all levels.

Hand's up, already replied to the email to book my spot!! Steve - Ella will be available for a demo if required.

sorry I can't help myself! Do you mean desensitising?

Well done!!! It's a great feeling when you use your drive work outside of training and it works! I remember the first time I did this same thing with Ella. She was in the front yard and the postie came down the street and she took off after him. I yelled out "komm" (her drive command) and she hit the brakes and came bolting back to me! I was soo thrilled, so I know exactly how you feel!

It depends on the size of the dog really! I have friends who use buckets part filled with concrete for their GSD, whereas for my Border Collies a brick or two in the bottom of the bucket has usually been enough. And having a couple of water buckets is always a good idea too!

That's such a shame that you met someone who was rude at your first trial. I know most people at trials are very supportive and helpful and can't understand why people have to be mean. Although sometimes people can be discouraging without meaning to, I know someone who started trialling this year and was told by many people at her club that she should expect to fail her first trial and that she shouldn't worry too much about trying to quallies for her first couple of trials. These people were trying to be nice to her and didn't really think about how it might make her feel when she clearly had a good working dog. Take everything you get told in obedience with a grain of salt - listen, take it on board and then decide for yourself what you want to believe and what you don't need to worry about! You will find alot of people in trialling though that will blame everything and anything for why their dog blew this or that. I hear it at virtually every trial and it always amuses me, because 95% of the time the reason a dog stuffs up is because of our lack or training/proofing or our poor handling, very rarely is it the fault of another dog or some external reason! Good on you for giving it a go and stick with it! I hope she heals soon for you!

I try to progress quickly to having the food/toy off me. I don't see any probs with having something in a bait bag or pockets because ultimately it has got to end up off your body. The sooner the dog learns that you hold the key to getting that reward regardless of where it is the better. I train my dogs to look at me for their reward, not at my pocket or bait bag and once they have learnt the exercise I try to move the reward to the ground or somewhere nearby so I can quickly reward but not have it on me. The dogs learn really quickly that I control the reward and that they will get the reward when I say so but I can vary where that reward comes from, this way I never have a problem in the trial rings.

She is still mouthing the other articles as she sniffs them but is not picking them up as much as she was. She usually finds the right article pretty quickly but then goes and checks everything else first before bringing the right one back. I'm about to go out and do another session now, we haven't done one for a few days (letting the articles air out a bit) so we'll see how we go.

Hi Seita, As time goes on she will get better with it.. What ever you do, do not growl at this learning stage.. ignore it, cause when she is more confident in what she is doing she will stop grabbing every one. (this only my opinion other might have a different view on it) Have fun in UD, I sometime wish that I was back doing UD instead of UDX.... grrrrrrrrr multiple retrieves is my noghtmare... I can't point straight to something that I can't see, so why should my boy go straight... Thanks Kallistar, That was my thinking too that as she gets more confident at it she will do less of the grabbing. I don't tell dogs off when they are learning so I had no intention of using an actual correction but I was wondering if there was a way to discourage it.... ... now that I think about it when I was training her to encourage her to actually use her nose rather than just retrieve it was suggested to use random other items amoungst the articles to make it harder to simply grab something. Maybe I could go back to adding some cans and stuff to the pile of articles and see if that makes her use her nose more and then phase them out... Feel free to give me some opinions!! Hi Sieta, If you throw the article, does she go and retrieve it? If you throw a "hot" (scented) article not far from a cold article does she find it and bring it back confidently? Don't make things too hard for her otherwise she will pack her bags and leave home LOL. Once she is retrieving your Hot items with confedience then maybe add few things for distractions. Also JMO don't do the seekback and then the Scent descrim exercises.. scent work can be taxing for a "green" dog BABY STEPS.. She works a full set of articles without any problems. Its just when she is working, while sniffing the articles she picks them up and then puts them back down. She doesn't bring them back to me, she just picks them up and puts them back down until she finds the right one which she brings back to me. I might try to video her doing this so you can see what I mean! I assume she will stop picking them up as she gets more confident but at the same time am worried that she'll form a habit of doing it.

Hi Seita, As time goes on she will get better with it.. What ever you do, do not growl at this learning stage.. ignore it, cause when she is more confident in what she is doing she will stop grabbing every one. (this only my opinion other might have a different view on it) Have fun in UD, I sometime wish that I was back doing UD instead of UDX.... grrrrrrrrr multiple retrieves is my noghtmare... I can't point straight to something that I can't see, so why should my boy go straight... Thanks Kallistar, That was my thinking too that as she gets more confident at it she will do less of the grabbing. I don't tell dogs off when they are learning so I had no intention of using an actual correction but I was wondering if there was a way to discourage it.... ... now that I think about it when I was training her to encourage her to actually use her nose rather than just retrieve it was suggested to use random other items amoungst the articles to make it harder to simply grab something. Maybe I could go back to adding some cans and stuff to the pile of articles and see if that makes her use her nose more and then phase them out... Feel free to give me some opinions!! :D

Go figure, every session I've done since I posted this she's got the leather with no issues whatsoever!! But I do have another question about scent discrimination after having a good read of the rules yesterday. I know you get penalised for every incorrect article that a dog picks up and currently Ella tends to grab at virtually every single one until she gets the right one. I know she is inexperienced and I find that the more I train this the less she does it. Especially in the same session, the first one she will go for every article on there and then by the time I send her out for the last one she doesn't tend to grab as much. My question is with practice do you think (from your experiences) that she will depend more on her nose and stop with the grabbing of articles? She doesn't bring them back she just picks them up and drops them again and most of the time only brings the right ones back. But obviously I want her to stop picking them up as she'll run out of points super quick if she keeps doing this. Is there any way I can discourage her from doing this or should I just wait and let her figure it out?

My girl is like this. So when people come over she either gets put in a stay, in her crate or is on a leash and everyone is told to ignore her until she is calm and then she is only allowed pats if she has all feet on the ground. When out for a walk I usually don't allow strange people to pat my dogs as I want the dogs to ignore people when we walk passed them. Although if I am feeling friendly I sometimes do allow it but again only if the dog has it's feet on the ground and is remaining calm.

I have trialled 3 dogs in agility and not one have I ever used any form of motivating toy etc at the start line. I've always had rock solid start line stays and really fast keen runs. I haven't trialled in a few years now but I can't see why it would be any different to 5-10 years ago when nobody did much in the way of 'razzing' a dog up before a run. I may have on occasions used exciting voice tones to stir a dog up a bit but most of the time my guys have been excited to just DO agility!

I'm pretty sure the vet hospital at UQ does it too.

Thanks for the tip with the leather dont think it is a problem yet but I need all the help I can get. Nope not me at the Ekka. Was at the state trials though, was the only GSP there. Had a not so succesful weekend there as we were still working out exactly what was needed in the Open ring. My mission was to control her youthful enthusiasm long enough to actually qualie which we managed a couple of weeks ago. Saw your boy work there and was in awe, walked away saying to myself "one day".... Sounds very similar to my state trials experience!! I guess I will see you in the UD ring in the next year or so then!

Problem with e-collars is that you need to be there all the time to issue a correction. The beauty of the radio fences is once you've trained the dog to avoid the flags (they mark where the correction will start) the dog usually steers clear of the fence. The way the innotek fences work is that at a set distance from the wire the collar emits a beep as a warning to tell the dog that if they don't move away from the fence then they will get a correction. If the dog doesn't move or goes closer it will start getting the stim from the collar. The innotek collars don't increase in stim intensity but they are fitted with a sensor that notices when the dog is headed for the fence at speed and will start giving the stim ahead of that. There may be other electronic fence systems that do increase in intensity but I am unaware of them. Chances are that when you used the ecollar the dog was in a high state of drive and committed to going over the fence hence the lack of correction. The radio fence works as a barrier to the main fence so the dog can't quite get to the fence without recieving the stim so it doesn't get the chance to commit to going over the fence. I highly recommend this sort of system but I would speak to someone like Steve at K9force about what would best suit your situation and your dog. I know some people who have used a proper electric fence (livestock type) with a lot of success - this set up is especially good if you want to keep things out of your yard as well as in it! I believe they are around the same cost as the radio fence to set up but you just need to be careful and everyone and thing will get zapped by that sort of fence! I hope you find something that will suit you soon. It can be soo stressful when you have a dog that escapes and I speak from experience here. I tried everything with physical fencing which is why I resorted to the electronic sort of fencing in the end.

Nekhbet - in my case I started with metal, then wood and then leather. I start with only the same type of article, so with leather there was only 2 out there, progressed to 3, 4 etc then other articles. I never progressed to the next stage until I acheived a certain level of accuracy which in my case was 100%, if she could do 10 or 20 in a row (over a few sessions usually) then I would move to the next level. She had realy only started doubting herself on the leather at club training where I walk in on the leather leash. At home I don't use a leash at all and she doesn't seem to have the problem, but at the same time I haven't been training this very much of late so it could just be lack of practice that has caused this doubting. I might try to do a few more regular sessions both at home and out in public limiting it just to leathers to proof her on them a bit better.