Seita

I agree! Me too!!

I too move my dog from it's position after a stay. I come back after the sit stay, praise her in position and then heel forward about turn and wait behind the marker for the judge to tell us to take up position for the drop stay. I also don't ask my dog to sit while waiting to take up position for the sit stay, have her standing at my side until the judge asks us to take up position, and I do the same before the drop stay. At this stage my girl has never blown a sit stay (it's the drop stay that we have the occaisional problem with ) so I don't know what I would do but I think I would withdraw and put her away and then try again later.

I agree about the stays I think this is super idea! I was just talking to someone at a trial on the weekend who won't trial as they don't trust other dogs near theirs. Her dog is rock solid on his stays but has space issues and would probably have a go at one of those friendly dogs who break their stays to go say hi to the dog next door. She won't trial him because of this problem in the lower classes where these dogs are usually found. I think your suggestions to space the dogs out more and have them on lead in CCD is a really good idea! The language thing is also a good idea, I am one of those triallers who use a different language. I have never had a judge refuse but it would be nice not to have to ask permission before starting and explaining why I use a different language. Things I would like to see different... I think at this stage Novice is too easy, especially compared to the old rules with two stand stays and two lots of heel work. I think they should add another exercise to Novice so that the exercises aren't worth such a ridiculous amount of points! I think they could do something like the distance control AND the retrieve rather than make them optional as both exercises are valuable for later levels and that would break up the points a bit better. I think that the broadjump should be scrapped from Open, it's a pain to train, has no real value, isn't used in any other levels and honesly when would you use this in everyday life!?! The other exercise that I think is a bit pointless is the speak on command option in UD. I have never seen some one do it and when food refusal or directed retrieve are soo much easier to train for I don't see the point of offering it. Sure it's fun to train but I would never use it in competition as it's too easy for the dog to move forward or bark twice. I don't mind that they offer it but I think it's a bit pointless seeing as very few triallers use it!

My first two dogs were both club trained... the first was using some very very harsh and outdated methods. The next dog was put through the classes but I did do a lot of my own thing and would do bits and pieces rather than a whole class. Neither of these dogs were exceptional trialling dogs, the second one I would consider a good trialling dog but not a top scoring dog. My current trialling dog was trained completely away from a club. I didn't join a club in Brissy until she was at trialling level and I needed to do a bit more proofing around dogs, and utelise a judge and ring run outs. She would have been about 20 months old before I ever went near a club with her. Now, I do go to club most weeks to work on UD/Open stuff plus do a bit of work around others. Our trialling class is very relaxed, we do a short amount of heeling - not more than a standard heel pattern. Then we break up and everyone works on their own exercises, we help each other out when needed and usually end the class with group stays at UD level plus a sit stay for those in Open. I enjoy going along to this class as I can work with the equipment I don't have at home (solid jump , box and ud jumps for example), practise some stays, work with other triallers who might notice something I'm doing poorly or I might help them out the same way. With my next dog I will again do most of his training away from club but as he gets better I will probably start bringing him to club and work him off to the side of a class on the things he is good at and confident doing with distractions. I will probably never put him in a class until he is capable of a trial run out and then only for short bursts as I've done with my other girl. I don't think you can train a top trialling dog through a normal obedience club's classes, I'm sure there are clubs out there that are aimed more at triallers but there aren't any in brissy that I know of. So I will continue to train my dogs away from clubs using training buddies and only really do a large amount of work with them in a club environment when I want to proof stays, other dogs and the presence of a judge.

agreed here on no rush. My girl was 2 before she entered the ring, there was no way she would have been ready earlier and I would have held her back even longer if I thought she wasn't ready.

Ewww I did this once and only once many many years ago! I was not allowed in the kitchen (nor did I want to go in there) for sometime after that incident. I am intending to make some sardine treats (Much like the tuna brownies someone else mentioned) which will hopefully be less smelly and messy!

I agree!! The lectures were even worse - best 2 hours sleep I would get all week!

As long as she doesn't end up in the negative scores! I think my first boy did this once, he failed terribly (in Novice) and then relieved himself twice so I think we ended up with a score below 50 points and that was only because he was rock solid on his stays!!! I watched a round in open recently where the dog ended up with 12 points in total at the end, if it had fouled just think how terrible the owner would have felt!

I have one from when I was studying I.T. I had my Java text book open on the floor face down and my dog asleep with her head resting on the cover as if she'd fallen asleep studying it!

The recall is offlead too lol DERR!!!! It's been a while since I went through CCD! :D

Looks about right. Try this link: ANKC RULES and click the link for the obedience rules and that should really help explain some of your questions and how it all runs! As for the heel work, most judges will do one sit, one stand and one drop in each of the three paces (slow, normal and fast) plus a few extra sits in the figure of eight. But you might encounter some judges that shorten or lengthen their heel patterns a bit. Everything in CCD is on lead except for the stays where you will be standing in front of your dog facing from a couple of meters away.

I like starting pups on fetch - especially with different materials (leather, wood, metal, cloth, plastic etc) walking on a lead giving you attention games like find the toy/treat recalls getting pup out and about to see the world, lots of new and strange places and noises (once old enough or in a safe manner like the car or in your arms until fully vaccinated)

Because I enjoy it, I enjoy the challenge, I like winning and I like doing well. I like the challenge of improving weaknesses and trying to outdo my previous attempts. I don't mind if I don't win on the day (although it is always super nice) what I do care about is that we (dog and I) did our best on that day. I used to trial just for fun and wasn't too competitive about it or worried about doing well, but with each dog after that first dog I've aimed to do better, get further and achieve more! Edit to add - I don't think my dogs would care what we did as long as I did something with them so I really trial for me and my satisfaction and enjoyment. I know that sounds selfish but it's a hobby for me and I know that my dogs would be just as happy about going for a bush walk or doing herding or playing fetch at the park as they are doing a trial. But that said if I clearly had a dog that didn't enjoy something I would not be selfish enough to force them to do that activity.

Here's a bit of an encouraging story! My first trialling dog was not a purebred so technically in qld they couldn't be trialed. However our clubs up in north qld used to run trials for the non-pedigrees at the same time as "real" trials, using the same judge and the same rules etc the only thing that was different is they weren't recognised by the cccq. That aside this dog was terrible, and my handling and training was shocking. We never managed a pass despite doing over 20 trials in the years that we competed. Our highest score was 145 and I don't even want to go as far as our lowest! Needless to say I gave up trialling him after those two years! My next dog I got through CD (no CCD in those days) and had her doing well in Open but unfortunatly she died before finishing that open title, but she would have gone all the way to her OC eventually. Now much current dog has gone through CCD, CD and CDX all within in six months and is now in training for UD and I expect to have her out in UD next year and aim to complete her OC by the end of next year. I know she can do it! As for getting disheartened, yes with Buddy my first dog I was often disheartened but was also disallusioned and hoped that at the next trial he would put it together for me. But in hindsight he didn't have it together and I never had him completely ready for trialling. I learnt soo much from him and am thankful that I had a challenging dog to start with as my training and handling has gotten soo much better with each dog after him.

Try get hold of a rule book from your club and read it over and over again, there are lots of little things that you just don't learn in class like when you are allowed to use a dog's name and when you can say heel etc. If possible try to get along to a trial before you enter one and watch what happens. You should be able to buy a book of entry forms from you canine council and then keep photocopies of them so you don't have to keep buying them! Check your canine council's monthly magazine (depending on the state) and look for trials you might want to enter and make note of the closing date. What happens on the day. First off you collect your number and catalogue and get vetted (check that your dog is not on heat and that it seems healthy and moves freely). This usually takes place in the hour before the trial starts. Then check out where your ring is, after vetting has finished check for absentees (will usually be listed on the score board outside the ring) and take note if these affect where you come in the judging. Make sure you give your dog plenty of time to go to the toilet before entering the ring and warm your dog up if it needs it. Every dog is different and you might have to do a bit of trial and error in the next few trials to see how much warm up your dog needs before going into the ring. Make sure you are at your ring before the dog before you is finished and that the stewards know that you are there. When you enter the ring mention to the judge that this is your first trial and they will usually talk you through what's going to happen. Most of all try not to be too nervous, be confident in your dog and have fun! OH and if possible get someone at your club to give you a mock run out at training so you can practice what is going to happen just to get a feel for it. ETA: Bring a chair, a pen (to write down scores), a mat/crate for your dog, a water bowl and leash and collar. If you reward your dog with treats or toys don't forget to bring those but remember to leave them at your chair as you can't take them into the ring.

I have a hose attachment thingy for my shower head so the Borders get bathed in the shower although I am thinking a small table in there would be even better as I hate the bending down! But I am definitely going to invest in a blow dryer to really get that loose hair out! I think I can live without the hydrobath but I can no longer live without a dryer!

Having trained at both clubs I personally preffer Southside. The classes are bigger than Brisbane but I feel that the instructors in general have better experience and knowledge.

Hay Labrat! Good luck on your journey into trialling it can be very rewarding and of course incredibly frustrating at times!! Yes a NRM is a no reward marker - it's a neutral word that the dog learns to mean "you didn't get it so you won't get a reward but try again". In my dogs' world their nrm is "whoops" and if my dog then corrects herself and gets it right she gets a "yes" which means she will be getting paid. You can use any words you like.

K9: Not always, depends on many variables but loosing drive doesn't go hand in hand with using an e collar, unless you want it to. K9: You absolutely can, done it guzillions of times. K9: Advantage is that you can use stim for longer period of time. K9: I do find that people say the word "drive" and being too unspecific, big corrections increase drive, that's drive is avoidance... K9: Your not trying to stop something so I wouldn't go for the correction just yet. I haven't seen your dog in a while but I would guess it looks something like. Your heeling along & she maintains eye contact, you stop & she increases focus & crouches to an almost sit & as time passes, her bum slowly touches the ground. Does it look like that? YES YES YES!!! That's exactly what it looks like! But since I started giving her the nrm and stepped away from her as soon as she start crouching and didn't have her bum on the ground immediately she's gotten a lot faster on getting her bum down. Shall definitely shoot you an email!

I don't think you understand the use of an ecollar properly. An ecollar used on a low stim is in my opinion far kinder to a dog than some of the horredous, bordering on animal cruelty, corrections on check chains I've seen administered by top triallers for things as miniscule as a slow sit. But yes, enough of the ecollar discussion please!!! I am in no financial position to get one at this stage and it would be overkill to get one for this mere problem so will be fixing my problem the old fashioned way either way. The good news is that since I cracked down on the slow sits a week or two ago they have improved drastically and in a few more weeks I might be brave enough to say that I have resolved the slow sit problem that we were having. Now onto the next hurdle... pick up a dumbbell cleanly and for goodness sake stop mouthing it!!! LOL

What on earth are you guys going to do with all that food!?!?!?! You have a 20kg weight limit on the plane!!! :D

Ptolomy - shhhh!!! She has never blown a stay in the last 2 years of training and then two weekends in a row she blows all the down stays I just don't get it. Last weekend and Saturday were because of the ants... she gets sooo nervous about ants that she just can't stay still. But today's stuff up was unexplainable, she was fidgeting and stressing and I can't work out what was bothering her it was just unusual and strange. I think she's feeling off at the moment... she might be just about to come in season as there are other strange signs that she doesn't normally do. But yes this weekend there hasn't been much evidence of those dredded slow sits!!!

I know someone who used to set up the obedience ring and then trial in that same ring afterwards and the dog had no trouble what so ever in finding the seek back... I think dogs tend to follow the hottest scent? I use the same UD articles all the time so they are sure to all smell like me but she still manages to find the right one. And same with seek back, I do it my backyard and I've probably walked over that yard soo many times but she still finds the seekback!

Oh dear what have I started!?! I'm not about to go out and buy an ecollar just to fix sits, I think that's overkill in a big way. I have wanted to get one for some time to sort out some other issues (not trialling issues - chasing the postie issues ). However I was thinking of possible ways to correct the problem at hand and if I was going to get an ecollar then why not use that. As an update we had reasonable good sits again today at today's trial, we had two but I think they were a footwork issue as I stopped quite suddenly on a funny angle going around the figure of eight. But the rest were good and she got her first ever perfect score for a recall - usually loses points for a slow sit at the start and a sloppy finish so I was pretty happy. At this stage adjusting when I am using the nrm and ensuring my foot work is spot on seems to be doing the job but I think it will take a bit longer to correct the issue. I appreciate all the responses and if you keep them coming I'm sure others will benefit from the advice!

Congrats again Ptolomy!!! I got to see most of this round (from behind the donut van while doing groups with my dog) and it looked really really good!!! Good luck for today and I'll be seeing you shortly!