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Sue Hogben Obedience Seminar Adelaide


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The rain god has to go on holiday for the weekend unless its after 7pm or before 8am in the morning :thumbsup: .

I hope someone will give us poor people who can't attend a run-down on the Sue Hogben workshops etc. after the weekend? :)

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Night one was awesome :thumbsup: . Can't believe Ness actually managed to offer a sit on top of a bit of cheese without trying to eat the cheese :thumbsup: . Although naughty me gets a slap on the wrist for forgetting something Ptolomy showed me when I was in WA :thumbsup: .

Edited by ness
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Night one was awesome :) . Can't believe Ness actually managed to offer a sit on top of a bit of cheese without trying to eat the cheese :laugh: .

She was very good :rofl: After Ness and Pele being the Champion Piglets at the DOL meet I was amazed :rofl: Well done!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully the rain god will be kind :rofl:

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Sitting here sulking - come on guys - you have to give us more than just she was very good........ :rofl:

Oh and Ness didn't eat the Cheese :) So perhaps scent discrimination with an open tin of tuna in the middle of the pack might not be beyond her :laugh:

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Having a brilliant time! If I'd just come across for the first seminar I would have gone home very satisified. As it is, another full day yesterday and another afternoon today and I have just got so many games I want to play with Zig :laugh: He's going to be one happy Dally when I start pulling out some new tricks from the bag :rofl:

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OK after yesterdays obedience trial .....I need Sue back - please pop her and her bags on the next plane back to WA :p

You have had her long enough!

How did you do? I'm back in next weekend... and didn't use our time off from trialling too wisely! :laugh:

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I went to Friday's forum and Sunday afternoon. Very inspiring for a learner like me. Lots of new ideas and some fun techniques to get my dog all excited again (she was getting a little bored).

I heard some rumblings after the first session that the demonstrations were mainly on pre-trained dogs, with some people a little unsure how it would all go with lower-drive, laid-back souls who didn't already 'know the ropes'.

I have an 11 year old bichon at home who fits this description perfectly. Never really enjoyed obedience training much. Tolerated the basics for my sake but has always preferred a nice pat on the couch. Very easy to live with, but much harder to motivate than my poodle cross. One of the rare souls who really does prefer a pat to a piece of food, unless it's really very very good food (metwurst can get his ears to prick up).

Anyway, I went out on Saturday morning and bought a clicker and came home and tried some stuff with both my dogs. As always, the poodle cross caught on extremely quickly (it's a worry - I think she's smarter than me). Life is a game again and she's delighted. She stuck very, very close to me in the park last night while I threw food all over the grass. We're having lots of fun with it. And her enjoyment is contagious - I'm having fun too.

The bichon takes life a lot more slowly, but he was clearly enjoying himself and did catch on. By the end of 5 mins last night (after Sunday's forum) he was finding heel position relatively quickly. Which for him is progress - all things are relative, aren't they? Mind you, when I pick up his lead to go for a walk he can bounce around like a puppy so there's more work to do to get that kind of response from him to training.

I loved it, and am very grateful to Brian and others for organising the forums. I'd never been exposed to clicker training and have no doubt it's going to help me greatly to keep my dog switched on to the right things. Brilliant - and amazing value for money for 2 such long forums packed with useful information.

One big scary thing she said - 'If your dog can't heel with eyes on you consistently for 5 minutes without reward you are not ring ready.'

Gulp! We've got some work to do.

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Yep the 5 minutes is a bit of a mind blower. I remember hearing from Sue a while ago about one of the WA people who had there dog trained to do 7 minutes of duration heelwork and thought nah I couldn't do that. I have to say its very hard to put the dog back in the car if they look away but I am sure its harder on the handler as like Sue mentioned handlers like rewarding there dog.

A lot of obedience training and getting good attitude in the ring is about finding rewards that the dog absolutely kills for. Food just makes it easier but as she mentioned you can pair rewards the dog finds valuable with rewards that are more convenient to you. Sometimes it takes a while to find out what the dog loves the most and the dogs do tend to pick on up the basics of an exercise very quickly.

Yesterday my baby couldn't stand on anything but a shitty lured hand signal from my part. I just haven't been able to sort it out (although I will admit I haven't really given it much effort). After a 5 minute session yesterday pairing the new verbal to the old signal, today I attempted it just before and she was standing 100% reliably on the verbal and within another 2-3 repetitions I had on a new improved hand signal which was also reliable (at least within that one particular session).

A lot of people have used food in training but I don't think a lot understand it correctly. It was nice to see the seminar finally happen and hopefully its the start of a trend and we can get her back in the future.

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It would be good if you could have Sue come over for a follow-up in 8 weeks time - just to go over what she originally told you and to correct all the mistakes/bad habits that have crept in in the meantime. :laugh:

I know after I have had a lesson I come away all enthused - its like a battery recharge :laugh:

As for the duration heelwork - hmm it me that gets bored not the dogs - and its not easy walking at a solid pace for 3,4,5,6 minutes say she puffing and panting with aching legs :thumbsup:

Edited by Ptolomy
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:thumbsup: I tried duration heelwork at the park with midget dog this morning but somebody was a bit way way way too up for that. We got two paces at extra slow pace and then she was like a coiled spring that went snap :laugh: .
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I arrived home late last night so was dying to try some games and ideas out with Ziggy today.....so much so that I completely missed an appointment I've had booked for weeks :laugh::thumbsup:

Anyway....I tried steady feet on the sit and was pleased with Zig - he caught on VERY quickly and it was difficult getting him to move. By the time we moved on to steady feet on the stand he was not going to be fooled. I will continue to proof this exercise with different treats/locations. We tried some rapid sits and drops - not too bad but could use some more work. Then we tried a little duration heeling and he was ok but looked a little confused as I have been supporting him with my voice. I switched to the 2 food game with heeling and that was a real hoot so I think I'll really focus on that for the next few days :laugh:

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