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My dog wears a lead for her safety, despite her being quite reliable off-lead. Never mind the fact that its the law that dogs are on-lead unless in a designated OL area. Not everyone has the luxury of places to ride that are safe for an off-lead dog close at hand, even in rural Vic I have to throw the bike in the car and drive 15 mins to find somewhere safe that I can let her off lead and is suitable for bike riding. For the purposes of ET they have to get used to being on lead while beside the bike.

Well said Tarmons, and Thanks Noneybur for letting us know where the dog ended up - sounds like a great result!

Good question Shoemonster - wondered the same thing myself. :D Not just for UD, but it would be handy from a everyday point of view, simply for safety reasons. One of the best places for off-lead walks around here occasionally has campers and I'd prefer Darcy didn't pick up random leftover food and eat it ;) If its bones then she'll leave it on a "leave-it" command, but if its easy and quick to eat its gone before I get a chance! Your comment is interesting Ness - and I can see your point. However, speak on command is out for us cos Darcy basically doesn't bark. That leaves us with the glove exercise for UD - what is it in a nutshell? :D

:D BMP I'm speechless!! That's a terrible thing to say to anyone But you're right, we do it because its fun, if its not - well, time to find a new hobby Congratulations on your Masters Q Poodlefan

Kelpiechick - that is some of the best advice I reckon I'll ever get, especially the bit at the bottom from Paige Port - that bit just bought tears to my eyes because thats exactly what its about. It was exactly what I need to hear - a big to you!

Erny - It wasn't the jumping that caused the problem - 6 (jump) went straight into the tunnel, but was actually a call-off to go into the other end as 7. It wasn't a novice level course challenge, a fellow clubber believes it was closer to open/masters level challenge. Didn't help that the course setup was a bit rough and the tunnel was closer to 6 than it ever would be in a trial situation. I knew I was going to have problems with it - stupidly I persisted. She "normally" has an pretty good call-off even in the face of a tunnel, but as she starts to work a bit of distance I'm losing a bit of control on the brakes so to speak. Given she's so fast, I don't want to discourage her willingness to go a bit of distance As for the tyre - I had been jumping her at 400 mm for about two months given her age, her height class is 500 mm. We've been practising 500 mm level jumps at home for several weeks and every now and then she'll pull one down but its more cos I've cut a corner. The tyre being a little harder to jump through, and there being this big open space to go under it, well, who wouldn't? Maybe her understanding of what constitutes "good tyre behaviour" is different to mine I certainly appreciate your comments though - we have a great doggie muscle/chiro person locally and I have been thinking taking Darcy along for a regular session to make sure she's all okay and stays that way :D

In the past two weeks I've noticed Darcy getting a bit protective of her rewards/anticipated rewards. Both occasions there was no contact, started with a lifted lip and then when they continued to approach she lept at both dogs. 1st one she could she I was approaching with her usual 2 pigs ears after training when a small dog wandered too close. Darcy was tied, the small dog on-lead. The second was over a very high level reward of raw steak in a container that was a metre or so away when a bigger dog decided it smelt pretty good. Both dogs were off-lead. She's literally just hit 18 months, never ever seen the behaviour before. Would you be concerned about it? Would you correct the behaviour? (I didn't FWIW).

Thanks T(ad)pole :D I've thought about it quite a bit over the past day and I've started to see the good come out of it... I've realised that Darcy is starting to become more comfortable with distance work and I can control her quite well direction wise but I need an emergency brake, especially when it comes to the temptation of tunnels and super-tough call-offs! Going to talk to a few club members later on in the week and see what they think re: scratching. I'm not convinced going just for the experience of competing is a great idea at this stage.

Ah that sucks when that happens doesn't it - I'm quite paranoid about finding places where other people don't tend to go for that very reason Happy to have a fellow DOLer to wallow with :D When are you planning on doing your ET? I want to do it with Darcy, but no point training for it at the moment cos she's not 2 y.o until December and I don't think they hold them in the warmer months???

Darcy had a "let it drop and check it out first" policy for food treats as well. Unusual for a lab x So I used some really high value treats and fed her a few pieces so she knew what it was. Then if she dropped them or let them fall after that, I put my foot on them so she couldn't get them. You drop 'em you miss out :D After that it just clicked. Now she'll "catch" anything, tennis balls, treats etc. :D

And I'm still sulking about it... cos I stupidly persisted instead of putting Darcy back in the car, and it finished with her completely not listening (admitedly easy to do cos I've lost my voice :D ) and finishing on a bad note. Admittedly we did an ok obedience session afterwards, but nothing startling. We worked on some contacts, she offered her first ever seesaw 2o2o contact, without me even asking for it. We worked on big rewards for correct tyre performance (she's started to go under the tyre in the past week or so, possibly copying some other dogs who have done it???? ) but she scored gravy beef and plenty of praise for doing it correctly today. Then we got to the jumping course.... and things turned to sh*t!! On our last training session before our first jumping trial. Which is why I persisted.... on a course that was higher than novice rating. :D Such a fantastic confidence building session that it was, now I'm contemplating whether I pull out of jumping and just do gamblers for the trial experience, and wait til the next local trial in October... Should have just stayed in bed and got over my rotten cold Anyone want to share some sh*tty training stories and make me feel better Any advice welcome also

Congratulations!!!!

Greg Derretts "Agility Foundation Training" DVD Susan Garretts "Success with One Jump" DVD & book "Shaping Success" Clean Run magazine Like Greg Derretts 1st DVD because it covers a lot of groundwork stuff that really clicked in once I got onto running courses, I think it made a huge difference! Susan Garretts for the same reason, but you're adding in the jump as the next step and taking it a lot further. Shaping Success because everytime I pick it up and read it I learn more stuff that I either missed last read or wasn't up to. Clean Run has some excellent exercises in it if you've got the equipment, especially their "specials" for things like weavers and contacts! Which reminds me, I need to renew my subscription for CR!

Steph, if you're worried about the chain, you could always look at a Blackdog martingale/LS collar - theirs are all material as opposed to having the chain section like some do.... http://www.blackdog.net.au/collars.php

There is a dog obedience club at Portland, Nelson Park sounds familiar. I'm at the Warrnambool club, we meet up occasionally and do stuff with Portland, our last get together was a CCD workshop and some instructors training. Lovely people! Good luck with the move!

I've had the same problem with the same training method - tends to weave well first up (i.e will do the entire set off 12) but tends to be in such a hurry in later goes that she does the 1st two, skips a few here and there and then does the last two :D I'm sure I've missed something along the way - have gone back to a slight channel in order to make it a little more clear for her ;)

Just to clarify a little what I've said - And thats exactly it - ANY situation I wasn't comfortable with I'd be in there, judges instructions or not! This was merely a curiousity question... :p

Someone suggested a dry shampoo to me today - Darcy's a bit too "doggy" at the moment, and even though I use Aloveen I'd rather try and avoid bathing her too often. She has a bit of an itchy tendency unfortunately. I had a quick look in the local pet direct store and honestly I didn't like the look of the two they had for sale... I think I'd rather she stay smelling a bit doggy Just wondering if there was any particular brand that was good, or whether I'm just better off going with the Aloveen :p

I agree Cosmolo - that fight scared the crap out of me, thank dog the class was big and ended up split - that could've been my ring :p To top it off I heard a story from an experienced trialler that they returned from an out of sight stay to find a dog standing over theirs, yet no-one did anything about it. Took their dog a long time to get his confidence back after that incident. ;) Then LP's story as well.... My dog is pretty submissive and I would have no doubt heading in to get her out of a situation I wasn't comfortable with. Just wondering what the ramifications are of 1) not waiting for a judges directions or 2) disobeying them in order to protect your dog?

:p Mmmm the blue fuzzy dog might not be the only dog getting laughed at... Darcy has learnt a new trick in the last two days - did you know that its far easier & quicker to go under the tyre and jumps??

Your hypothetical question is interesting BW, its something I've thought about a lot, more for the reason that I wonder if I can protect my dog if another dog gets up from a stay and tries to have a go at her. Recently there was a dog fight in stays at a trial, dog 1 got in dog 2's face, D2 quite obviously tried to avoid the dominance display of D1 but it ended up in a dogfight. I know there was an official meeting afterwards but don't know what the results of that were, but it would only be a decision as to the dogs future participation in trials. I wouldn't think the VCA could dictate any more than this. FWIW I asked one of the competitors if they were given instructions at the start of the stays as to what to do if a dog breaks.. scarily they were given none. No attempt was made to remove D1 until it disintegrated into a fight. :p It really worries me that quite a few judges talk about the dog coming back to you, but deal with a dog interfering with another on a "deal with it when it happens" basis Sorry I can't be of more assistance

I haven't trialled yet (soon! :D ) but I am quite strict on start lines. Darce does a good start line, I'm really happy with it and she hasn't broken one for ages. If she was to break a startline at training, I'd take her off-course and she'd spend some time cooling her heels on the sidelines. Agility is very rewarding for her so I think she'd figure that one out pretty quick. I'd like to think I'd refuse the temptation of continuing the run if she did break a startline at a trial.

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement - so nice to know I'm not the only one :D Hi Pippi! I've entered at Warringal, both AM/PM Novice Jumping and also decided to have a fun run of Gamblers. We did some agility last week at class (we mostly do jumping) and she took to it really really well, so the Gamblers will just be a run. At least there's not too much to remember course-wise there and I can pick and choose what she can do (other than the gamble). Didn't want to do both agility and jumpers, given she will only *just* be 18 months, plus the thought of memorising two courses was just too scary. I have enough trouble with one Are you coming along to Warringal?

I've done 2 obedience trials - I did get a bit nervous (forgot to breathe for most of the first heeling pattern but I'm still alive! ). However, I've entered Darcy in her 1st agility trial and I swear just thinking about it makes nervous! Hate to think what I'm going to be like on the day :D How does everyone deal with trialling nerves?

I like the style of heeling on the video - looks very impressive without the crowding. Darcy did it for the length of the ring off-lead the other day after a pretty hectic agility session so was very happy with her!! But only ever for short periods of time, i.e training and competition. For everyday I expect loose lead walking on-lead, we also have a casual heel for walking down the street, and an off-lead heel which is stay within leads length - one of our walking spots has a blind corner, most of the time you can hear vehicles coming but I have her close by just in case!