kelpiechick

Not necessarily, it's just the fact that they fold instead of me having to take them apart that is appealing. Croydon sounds good at this stage...I'll PM you before then Jess, cheers! Murray was looking at doing the hinge bit with metal rather than plastic, but thought that it would almost be more trouble than it's worth. Plus he has a huge backlog of orders atm, so don't think he will be doing anything with it in the near future unfortunately. (Have been asking him for some winged jumps at club for the last 2 years, LOL) Adrian makes a fairly portable poly jump too, only thing that comes off are the two small supports at the end and the crossbar, the rest all stays together . Not sure how much he charges though. I was lucky enough to win one in a raffle at a trial so happy to bring it along to a trial somewhere if anyone wants to see it. We use them for training classes at Bulla and they are fine, just not trialling standard. I have a couple of them now in a bag that 'live' in my car permanently and don't take up too much space. Alternately Murray makes good metal 'feet - cross with some spikes sticking up that the poly pipe fits on tightly, therefore free standing - these are pretty cost effective and also don't take up too much space.

The 2 leads I bought are different sizes (one for Ivy and one for 'da boyz') and also different lengths so the longest one may have been around 1.6 to 1.7. I'm hoping I can make up some long ones too - but now I am obsessing about the braid as I want it perfect The other thing is that the quality of the fleece here is nowhere near as good as in the US - I usually work with the more expensive stuff here but it's still not as good as OS. So the braids with Aussie fleece don't turn out as firm as with the US fleece in general. I like the firm fleece myself, but I have an order for a lead and a tug toy atm as the dog they are intended for is not a crazy tugger and didn't like the 'hardness' of the Rush to Tug ones. Sure they won't bother yours though, or mine either. The chocolate thing is a dilemma - I would probably get the Jaffa and then get the Iced Choc to go I feel your pain with the training thing, as you know ! Unfortunately I have found that doing anything resembling training on public ground attracts an audience like a magnet - you know my story about Tilz weaving in front of the local high school kids. Lucky here in that our local showgrounds are pretty much deserted - but you know my advice anyway girl - hire that digger and then you won't have to leave your own backyard as much, except for proofing !

Agreed, it was a toss up for a while though. Just got some beautiful leads and toys from Rush to Tug last week and was very happy with the quality of her work. Her braiding is the absolute tightest I have ever seen and puts mine to shame (off to practice some more) I'm fussy as I make my own too but wanted to have a look at some other designs to get some more 'inspiration' and these certainly hit the spot. Plus I'm weird in that I make dog toys, collars and leads but like to have something made by others for my own dogs. Probably because I'm a shop a holic and making my own doesn't scratch that itch. So I would definitely recommend Rush to Tug for an OS splurge. Jess - my 'new collection' is coming soon LOL -and will be experimenting with making much longer leads too - as soon as I finish reports. (The martingales from Rush to Tug were about 1.5 metres as an estimation as I'm too lazy to find a tape measure - I had them with me at Knox as a couple of people asked for a look, but you couldn't have been there at the time - will bring them along next time we catch up)

Option 1 - B, which was the 2 tunnels and worked out at around $121 each, now all sold out.

They are the same as what you would see at most competitions, in Vic. anyway. Yellow with orange on the inside and competition standard. I have 2 that have been sitting outside in all weather , one for the last 5 years, and it's still in good condidtion.

I am so NOT a watching movies person but this one is worth seeing - and not just for the talking dog either. I agree he was cute tho'. Hate animation stuff too but this was so good it almost made me cry. Great movie and definitely not just for kids.

With apologies to the OP for going OT in this thread ...... Greytmate, was it the cranky ACD that gave it away? I think he is pretty memorable to a lot of people down there. He is now 10 and still going strong as is my old boy who is now 15. OK, digging into my memory bank and I think I know who you are too (K?) but I don't recognise any of your lovely dogs in your siggie.

I was a member at Northern for 10 years (nothing to do with the club that I'm not a member any more, just no longer do obedience) Like any club run by volunteers there will always be a mixture in the type of training you get, but in general my experience was positive. There are some really good instructors there who are very helpful and people are friendly. Plus there are also a couple with some good knowledge of dog behaviour as well - I got way more help from one instructor there with my fear aggressive ACD than I did from the so called professional behaviourist I consulted. Training methods also seem to have evolved quite a bit from the time I started with my first dog and there is now more of what I would call a mixture or a balance. There are some good positive trainers down there (mixed in with the correction chain brigade plus those who favour a combination of methods) and most are fairly open as to how you reward your dog, as opposed to some clubs I've been to where the instructor just about has a hissy fit if there is a piece of food or God forbid - a toy- in sight. It's fine to use a flat collar, food rewards, etc. but they also accept haltis(if you know how to use one correctly) and correction collars as well- flat collars only in puppy class of course. You also have Keilor Obedience fairly near by. I don't have personal experience with them but know a lot of people who do and they come very highly recommended. They use positive methods only I believe. My advice would be go along without your puppy have a look at both clubs and talk to some people there before you make a decision. Both train Sunday mornings, Northern at Aberfeldie Park , can't remember the name of Keilor ground (Davies reserve??) but it's right alongside the Calder freeway, near Fullarton Rd in Niddrie.

Website for agility is here

Apologies if this has already been posted but can't see it anywhere. The author is making this available as a free download from here The book has some good ideas about using play in agility training even if you're not a clicker trainer. It's going to be available to download bit by bit each month as it's quite a long book. So worthwhile having a look if you don't already know about it- of course my luck is that I already bought it.

Now that I have found myself saying 'give dat to da mama' when I take the toy out of my young dog's mouth I know that I have truly made it as a SG junkie !

If she's such a nutcase they may very well know of her already. Not sure what council you are in but I have a friend who is a ranger for one of the outer Melb. north councils and she has a whole list of 'nutbags' in our area known and 'keeping an eye on'- and unfortunately this woman is not alone, there seem to be a whole bunch of 'em. Scary stuff. I no longer walk my dogs in many places at all. They get a good walk any time we are out doing something agility related, walk around a couple of 'open space' areas in town where I have good visibility of anyone coming way, way in advance, walk around the local reservoir park - onlead and I have never seen anyone flount this regulation there yet or put the dogs in the car and drive 3 hours to a very quiet beach. I can't walk them around where I live as I am sick and tired of being rushed by other dogs not restrained on their properties. People seem to think that laws don't apply to them out of the city - and the joke was that one of the reasons we moved out of Melb. was to have more space to walk. I hope your girl gets over her awful experience soon- and you too.

Sounds like Silvia Trkman ? (from Slovenia) Try or here

Not all this seminar is geared toward 'handling' - the first few days here are very much slanted toward training in which case it shouldn't really matter which system you are using for the most part. It's easy to forget this when OS presenters come - since handling systems seem to have become the flavour of the month lately, we often look to see which system they are advocating first before we decide to go or not. (me included) When Greg and Laura were here at the start of last year, Laura's foundation seminar was the best I have ever been to - and at least 80% (if not more) would have benefited APHS handlers as well, as it focused on games, reinforcement and training techniques. Plus I have done a seminar with someone who is definitely not a Derrett handler and still got heaps out of it. The actual handling techniques are only one part of the bigger picture. Looking forward to seeing Zee at her first workshop - Ivy is staying 'in the closet' for a bit longer. ;)

If you want 'truly' (by Aust. standards anyway as our dog-friendly is so crap compared to OS) dog friendly and not just 'dogs allowed in car' type accommodation, the closest I can think of would be the caravan park at Craigieburn/Somerton - Apollo Gardens. They have a website so you can google them. Would be about a 15 to 20 minute drive from there. Most of the stuff around the airport wouldn't be too dog friendly I would imagine. In the other direction you have Sunbury but not sure what's there at all. There is a small motel at Bulla but don't know anything about them either.

You don't The three month thing that Vic does lets you know what clubs are holding what but that is all, no contact details....nothing. I only consider entering the ones in the gazette because it's too much of a hassel trying to track down schedules that aren't printed. It's annoying but it's the clubs that are losing out from all the entry money lost. I can't speak for obedience, but in the past ALL the agility schedules were posted on Pam's Vic. Agility site so there was no reason to look for them in the gazette and I believe most triallers just went straight to the website which had all the information you wanted. This was a great thing because anyone could access the website, including 'interstaters'. As Natsu Chan said, I believe trial secretaries were used to sending their schedules to Pam for inclusion as I have never known one to be missing from the site. I believe (have heard from several people but it is hearsay) that she is intending to set up another site but not sure how long it will be? For agility, there is an interim site which has all the same information as before so at least we're not missing out on finding out about anything. But not sure if there is one for obedience as it's not my thing - sounds as if there is not at the moment?????

In Victoria the majority of clubs (speaking agility anyway) have moved away from listing in the gazette as I believe it is quite costly. Most triallers are used to just being able to go to the website to find whatever they need. I know I don't bother looking for schedules in gazette any more and would assume many others are the same. Not sure how other states do it, but would be interested to hear.

Unfortunately you are exactly right ! I know it wasn't easy for Vic. agility before just getting all the 'same state' schedules sent to her to post, so can only imagine what a nightmare it would be trying to get them from everywhere. But I love the idea as a concept - and I imagine it would be pretty handy for obedience as well.

Australia wide agility schedules, divided into states. How awesome would that be Stuff the obedience !

True, we don't have as many as the US, but there are 2 indoor venues in Melbourne, one in an equestrian area on sand/sawdust or something similar and another on artificial grass.

Phone the vet clinic at Laverton and find out if Robyn Jackson is taking the puppy classes there. She's great.

But puts a different slant on for some who might never have considered that before I guess. In some ways it's like being a beginner at obedience, you tell your dog to sit, dog doesn't comply so what do many do- repeat the command louder. I also didn't get the impression from the segment that it was going to be the statisticians from Deakin Uni. who were going to offer a ' train the trainer' program, thank goodness ;) (as was suggested in a previous post) Adopting some differences in a training program shouldn't be something that is more time consuming for the trainer - should be a way of working 'smarter' to get the results rather than additional time taken to train. (sorry, don't like that description of smarter, but can't think of another way to say it) One of the things that Solomon spoke of during the interview was the foundation training that his young pups receive before they are on sheep and I would think that this would be an important training area that is still overlooked in some cases that can make a big difference. I know the breeders of my kelpies have spoken about how they place much more emphasis on this than compared to say 10 -15 years ago and have still had many comments from other farmers who don't understand that with the foundation in place off stock, the learning on stock (where they are building on things already taught) comes quicker and therefore the later start doesn't matter. 4Kelpies, you are bang on the money unfortunately with your descriptions of how some treat their dogs. (Luckily it is only some, as I said before there are some great working dog handlers and trainers out there too) I could also add some matching kelpie stories to your list. After seeing firsthand how one 'considered one of the top' Victorian breeder treats his own dogs I bought mine elsewhere -although this was the 'breeder you have to buy from' according to many others. And I'm sure many know the story of what happened to the 'top price' dog from Casterton a few years ago too. And data collection and training methods aside, did anyone else actually enjoy watching the program from the point of view of admiring a good trainer with lovely dogs and seeing the great relationship that obviously existed between him and his dogs? I hope my baby BC works for me like that some day.

Which is exactly what the report was saying. Unfortunately not all will want to accept training and guidance, which you can also say about any dog owner, it's certainly not limited to farmers. I don't think anyone's denying there are some awesome trainers out there working dogs on stock, both young and old. Not really sure what will become of the data collected and how much it will be used to inform teaching, providing services, etc. Would be interesting to see a follow up down the track.

I don't think the segment was necessarily 'pointing the finger' at particular training tools but more at an 'incorrect' application of tools and methods. One of the points they were raising was that there were some working dog owners who were applying a whole range of 'punishment' techniques for particular behaviours when the dog had not been trained to fully understand what was wanted to begin with. (although the trainer believed they had been) The segment was also highlighting the need for 'train the trainer' type activities and a better understanding of learning theory in some cases. It was interesting to see the emphasis also being put on more foundation training rather than the 'here's your sheep and off you go' method. I enjoyed listening to Ivan Solomon and thought he had some really good stuff to contribute. Plus I loved watching him work his dogs and seeing the relationship he obviously has with them. (Even willing to forgive his kelpie comments !)

In a lot of ways I don't like offering advice on a forum without a first hand view of the problem (which is why I don't often do it) but from your comment above it really sounds to me as if he doesn't 100% understand his 'job' at the end. Not to mention how to use his weight correctly either. An independent contact performance is just that - dog needs no assistance from you pointing to offer correct behaviour and can in fact move/drive (eventually) to the required postion without you even being in the picture - send, run by, recall, lateral distance, etc. As DC said, you should be doing nothing to indicate/lure the behaviour. If you don't have this as yet, then there is no way I would be using a time out as 'punishment' - you may end up punishing a behaviour that your dog has not as yet learned correctly which is extremely unfair. Did you go straight to equipment, modified or not, after teaching on the flat? You should be able to get good, hard multiple touches on a target plate on the ground before moving on. If you have a set of steps (only need one or two) available to you, then move the 'target touching' to the end of the steps. (this also helps with weight back) Only when your dog can offer you the correct behaviour on the end of the steps, without you pointing or moving in any way, would you then move on to backchaining end of equipment. Are you asking for multiple nose touches? It doesn't really matter, but this is a great way when first learning to be able to reward multiple times (almost machine gunning) for one repetition of moving down steps before releasing. Otherwise you have the process of nose touch, reward, release - only one reward each time which makes learning process much slower as it takes longer to build your value for the end position. For me, I also found it worked fading the target intermittently, which I started on the steps. So once he was offering me behaviour at the end, I then took away the target for one repetition, rewarded highly when I got behaviour I wanted, then put target back again. That way I didn't need to use target on equipment for very long at all, as he had a pretty solid understanding of what I wanted before ever asking the behaviour around equipment. You also need to have an extremely clear picture in your mind of what you want your ideal contact performance to look like in every way. This is something that I have found is not always easy to do although it does get a bit easier with every dog. Have a look at other contact performances you like, whether from websites or youtube or trials (Crazy Maesy would be a good choice for 2020 ) When Elicia Calhoun was here, she said that she puts her dogs physically in the end position and then photographs it so she says she always has a 'reference point' to look back on. Then writes out step by step how she will acheive this 'end result', dates it, and signs it like a contract. If she makes any changes along the way, then she initials and dates it again. You need to set your dog up for success in as many ways as you can and break the training down into really tiny steps along the way. I'm not much of a time out person myself, although I do think they can be effective IF you are sure your dog is 'blowing you off' rather than your training or handling being at fault. Trouble is, I don't believe most of the time dogs 'blow us off' on purpose- (altough I'm not saying it never happens) the complex, human thought process some seem to attribute to dogs is amazing. But only you can make that call - just make sure that if you do choose a timeout you are 100% certain it's not an understanding issue. You also cannot assume that your dog will generalise from dogwalk to a frame - very different pieces of equipment from a dog's point of view. Just saw that you are from WA in which case I totally agree with Ness - you have some amazing trainers and handlers in your own state and I would definitely be relying on their help first. I would love the opportunity to be able to train with a couple of those people, that's for sure.