How We Got Started Competing In Dog Sports....

[ness]

A follow on from the question raised by RubyStar in the brags thread:

Rubystar asked: So ness, how did you get involved in dog sports with your brother's dog when you were initially scared of dogs? Did you get Ness as a pup and what age was she when you first started training her?

Ness was my first dog - she was bought at the age of 8 weeks to be the family dog. My brother was 14 and I had just finished end of first year uni so was 17.

I remember going to the pet store with mum to purchase dog food and saw a brochure for the local obedience club and went along from the time Ness was 4 months. We worked our way through the various classes getting through each level in a month (the minimum time required). I eventually made my way into the trialling classes and stumbled on a number of dog lists when she was around 14 months and the rest shall we say is history. I also signed her up for agility when she reached 12 months as that is what the club allowed and being a Border Collie I was asked if I wanted to go along to that as well.

Now what are we 10 years down the track, Ness has a huge collection of titles in both obedience and agility, I have now got dog number 2 and we are having a blast.

For a first dog Ness has done exceedingly well she passed both her novice and open titles in straight trials - no small feat considering I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and admittedly there was a few years between her novice and her open but none the less I am appreciating that its not an easy thing to do. She had both her CD (under the old novice rules!!! where the dogs had to complete twice the heel pattern and god knows how we managed that) and her JD before she was 2. She also went out to her first obedience trial, primarily as a friend was going long and wanted some company and came home with her highest ever score a 187 and second on count back. I seriously wonder what the judge was on that day because I find it very hard to believe now, knowing all I know.

So thats where I started out. Boy has it been an interesting journey so far and I am sure its going to continue into the future.

Edited November 7, 2010 by ness

[RallyValley]

When I was 14 I got this little guy from a pet shop (I know )

I knew enough to know Jack needed to go to puppy classes, so we did the local puppy obedience offered through the RSPCA and Jack was the star of the class. He was so quick to learn everything and would try his hardest just to please me. Plus he was such a little socialite. The instructor mentioned agility to me and made me a list of all the local dog clubs.

I did lots of work at home with him and when he was old enough me and Jack took the test to get into Perth's foundation agility class. We passed And our dog sport obsession began when I was 15 and he was just 1. However I obviously didn't have my licence and come year 11 my parents wanted me to concentrare on school so we had a break from agility. Once I was settled into Uni life I felt ready to go back to agility, however within a couple of weeks of making this decision my angel dog for the first and last time jumped over our front fence and ran across the road to say hi to another dog at peak hour and was hit by a car. RIP Jack

Toby was my next agility dog and at 9 weeks he broke his leg, and although he got to trialling and even trialled at nationals I had doubts about his soundness that were confirmed recently and he was retired. But it's just the start of out rally-o and tracking careers.

[Bully]

When Jessie (Bull Terrier) was almost 5 months old back in 1993 I was taking her for a walk near my partners place and stumbled across Woodville Dog Obedience Club. We joined and slowly (well she was there for a good time and not to learn ) made it through the classes to the trialling class. Along the way I became instructor, trial secretary (what's a trial?) and treasurer and eventually awarded life membership. I took the dog for training and they "trained" me

Jessie never got to trial. Those days were the old choke chain method of training and Jessie hated training and was bored by the time we got to the trialling class. Jessie loved agility, but in those days you needed a Prelim. pass in obedience to compete

Pele is my second Bull Terrier and we are now trialling in Open

[J...]

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I used to help my parents show cattle every year at Melbourne Show. Which is where I come across the Pal Superdogs agility demo team for the first time and was hooked from there on in - used to head out and watch every demo I could while I was at the show.

Fast forward to 2005 and I happened to come across an ad in the paper for a dog obedience club with agility. I didn't even have a dog at that stage, I'd grown up with working dogs but no way in hell was I going to get one of those to do agility with.

Late January 2006, I bought Darcy home as my first ever dog of my own and it went from there. We did some obedience until she was old enough to trial in agility and I'm still hooked today. I jump the fence occasionally to do obedience but agility is our first love. She's now CDX ADM JDM2 JDO GDX.

Zee came home with me in July 2009, she's a few months off competing yet but I can't to get her out there as well.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Jess.

[TerraNik]

I got my first dog when I was 11... Toby the Beagle. We attended OB classes (back in the check-chain era! ) As I was growing up I used to make him little jumps out of bricks and broomsticks and even managed to fashion my very first bar jump out of wood and nails It never went anywhere and I quickly became a teenager... you know how it goes.

This is my gorgeous Toby (at 5 months)

Then when Toby died and I felt that I was ready for another dog, we got Jedi. I had planned on doing obedience with him, but by the time he was about 10 weeks old I realised he was a freak of a puppy who picked things up immediately and that's when I really considered competing with him. Thankfully there were some great people on DOL (thanks guys!) who gave me some fantastic advice! And as Ness says - the rest is history!

Jedi now 2 yrs old and has 1 OB title (and 2 passes towards his next), 1 flyball title (only a few points away from his 2nd), an ET title, his herding instinct certificate and will be debuting in agility next year! He is a bit of an all-rounder! We now have two other dogs who are training in flyball, agility, herding and obedience - one of whom is my partner's who has also been bitten by the dog sport bug!

Edited November 7, 2010 by TerraNik

[xena98]

This is an interesting topic!

I got interested in training in 1980 when we had electives at primary school and I was training the family dog. I was interested in it and begged my mum and dad let me go to dog school with our neighbour and her dog. She wasnt very good and when she died and we got another puppy in 1984 she was a dobermanxcorgi and started trialling in 1986 I soon found out what AOC was and said I was going to do it but I got told that I wouldnt get it as my dog wasnt good. Well 8 years later we got our AOC title. To get your AOC title you needed your UD title and TDX title. We started doing agility when that started around 87 and got our AD title and did superdogs. I would say around that time I was hooked lol. Not long after that I met my ex and trained his Jack Russell Terrier and he got his CDX title and AD title. I than got a kelpie Milo and she got her OC and her AOC title plus JDX and ADX title (around that time noone really knew how to train a fast dog so we failed quite often lol) They all got there ET title as well. I than got Xena my coolie which has her AG CH and OC title and UDX title, she is basically retired now and so did Inka my border collie. I now have my baby coolie Gabby and she has done really well as she has got her OC title and is working her way through UDX and has her ADM JDM ADO JDO SPD SDX GDX title.

So as you can see I am hooked into both obedience and agility and have been doing for around ohh my god! 30 years. Doesnt time fly when your having fun lol

[ness]

must be about time for another one to train xena98 Edited November 7, 2010 by ness

[xena98]

Think I might have to wait for Gabby to grow up a little and settle a bit like the other girls. Having another Gabby in the house

[Tiggy]

Love this thread . I haven't started trialling my dogs yet but I'm working towards it . I didn't really know anything about dog sports until joining DOL. I can't think of a better hobby to get into .

[ness]

xena98 - Hmmm so it will be at least another 7 yeahs huh . Can't imagine Gabby EVER growing up. Edited November 7, 2010 by ness

[xena98]

Yep something like that might also have to wait till I move cause I dont think my mum could cope with another Gabby in the house

[huski]

I really wanted a third dog and worked on mum for about six months to get one, under the guise that it would be her dog and she could decide what breed we got etc (had it been my choice I would have got another Siberian).

So we got Daisy and at eight weeks she was a TERROR! I thought I had this dog training thing pretty down pat () and had taught her the basics, but she was a nightmare to live with and was a constant challenge. It was recommended we go to the local obedience club. I had NO idea what dog sports involved but I was keen to give it a go. I left the first night in tears as at five months of age Daisy was the naughtiest dog on the field, she barked at all the other dogs, growled at me when I tried to put her into heel position, didn't want any of the food I had and pulled me all over the place.

We persevered through classes but I knew she could give me more if I found a better way to train her, by the time she was two I got serious about training her for obedience competition and started doing drive work with her. We've only just started trialling. She would be a way better dog if she didn't have such a dud handler but I'm sure I will be better with the next dog LOL.

ETA: Oh and she's definitely not still mum's dog

Edited November 7, 2010 by huski

[kathq]

This is a great topic!

There were always dogs around when I was a kid but back in the early 80's I met my first red dobe and fell in love waited 4 years to be able to actually have one myself and in 88 Chloe came into our lives. There was an agreement with the OH with that big a dog I had to go to obedience classes and the rest is history

4 dobes with obedience titles later with moderate success at state level trialling the ruling about tail docking came out, my last dobe was reaching her teenage years and I had at long last reached the grown up children stage and finished uni so we looked around for another breed to suit us (me) for another tilt at the show/obedience ring. GSPs came into my life in the form of Pip and two years later her niece Coco.

Training styles have certainly changed across all those years and I hate to say it but I think if I knew then what I know now how much better would those dobes have been Still you live and learn and learning about training dogs is an ongoing thing so the girls now benefit from my experience then. As evidence of that Coco is my first dog to have seriously done any UD training let alone competing. Never let it be said I give up easily

To do what I want/would like to with Coco means it will be at least two or three years more before another puppy enters the house but I will always have dogs and go training and trialling

[JulesP]

My mum had always gone to dog school with the family dogs so naturally I just went with my first pup too. He was going pretty well, just about ready to compete. I had done a few club comps with him. Then I got my second pup and she was just brilliant to work with. I wanted to have puppies with her and as I didn't want to show her I decided to get some obedience titles instead and that was my start.

[mmoo]

I have been in involved in Obedince since 1995 when as a family we got beautiful borderX as an 8 week old puppy from AAPS here in VIC. I have always had dogs growing up, with Bess, I needed her trained as I had very young children at the time. We also zoomed through all levels of training, then one day I saw a man who was working his dog in the trialling ring, his name was Vic Thompson, and his dog was the same age as my Bess,( my poor first competitive obedince dog she needed a medal for what I put her through, correction chain era )Iwas hooked, 15 years and 5 dogs later I'm still trialling.Bess, Millie Large Munsterlander, Milton(god dog)Golden Retriever, Zizz Large

[mmoo]

Munsterlander, all have achieved their CDX and Millie her TD as well. Hopefully with Zizz I can finally get a dog titled in UD, without out side circumstances this time getting in the way.

[Mason_Gibbs]

I got my lab last year and after seeing Rubystar, Bedazzled and Ptolomy's dogs compete in obedience I decided that I would like to give it a go. My boy is 18 months old now and we have not entered a trial yet as he is not ready but I am hoping he will be sometime next year.

[Seita]

I was 10 and persuaded/coerced/argued etc my way into getting a puppy for my 11th birthday. We already had leo a 9 year old Ridgeback but there was no way he was going to be trained! LOL So Lilly entered the scene as an 8 week old from a local farm where their GSDXMastiff girl had had an affair with the ACD down the road! I wanted a dog like Lassie that did what it was told and was clever and obedient etc so off to dog school we went. Lilly was a superstar and flew threw the classes quickly but it wasn't meant to be and at 8 months she ventured onto the road and was hit by a car.

Next up was Buddy who came along pretty quickly after Lilly, he was a border collie/kelpie mix of a local dairy farm... and boy was he a pain! We progressed SLOWLY through obedience classes till we finally reached trialling classes and were able to start competeing. Back in those days here in QLD you weren't allowed to compete with a crossbred or non-papered dog but all the clubs up in far north QLD ran seperate comps at each trial just for the non-peds, there were quite a few of us doing it. Needless to say Buddy never gained a pass in obedience but agility on the other hand was his forte! He gained his AD and JD (JD was still a new comp when we started) easily and I think he got a few passes in either/both ADX and JDX before he was retired with a shoulder injury at 8 years old.

By the time Buddy was 3/4 I was kind of hooked on this dog sports thing and in came Seita (the girl in my avatar) my first pure border collie. In comparison to Buddy, Seita was a dream to train and own! She had little trouble getting her CD, AD, JD and ET and had begun trialling in Open but kept blowing something different at each trial. Her trialling career kind of ended when I moved to Brisbane for uni, and even though she tagged along with me I had no car and no means of joining a club. Tragically I lost her at 5 years old to a tick while on a holiday back up north with her.

Ella came along a few years after Seita had passed away and from day dot she was in preparations for becoming a competition dog. I had learnt alot about training with the previous dogs, both Lilly and Buddy were trained with check chains, Seita was trained with most praise and very little correction due to her soft nature... Ella was trained to be insane! With a tug toy of course! Ella stormed into the rings at just under 2 years old and flew through CCD, CD and CDX within 6 months and with straight passes. Then we had 18 months off while completeing our show title and training for UD and she hit the UD rings this year and has in the few short months we've been trialling completed her UD title and has come SOOOOO close to getting an OC twice now!

Needless to say I think I might be hooked!

[Tassie]

Interesting to read people's journeys.

Having grown up with family dogs as a kid, it was several decades without a dog before I had a house of my own with an anre and a quarter of land. First dog was Jess - KelpiexBC cross - lovely dog. I took her to the local dog training club because I thought it was a good thing to do. Little did I know where that would lead me. Got introduced to obedience trials, but in Tas in those days, you couldn't compete with a cross-bred (yeah - I know - don't get me started). So having thought I would have a Golden Retriever (my aunt used to breed them), decided that what I really wanted was a Border Collie.

Sam was my first pure-bred dog - a lovely big boy, who got his CD, CDX and one UD pass (but lots f fun trialling), and got TD. He was too big to compete in agility until he was an older dog and the heights came down, but we had fun playing arouind.

When Sam died unexpectedly at 12 and a half, I got 2 new BCs - Kirra my current bitch, and my poor goofy anxious boy Fergus ( :rolleyes: ). We did basic training at club, and played around doing some obedience trials. Kirra made it clear obedience was not for her - but she did like agility, thank you very much. They both did some tracking, and both got TD on the same day :D . Both got ET in the rain and sleet.

I did start doing some ANKC herding with Kirra, but we deviated into learning farm sheep work - and had the chance to do that for a while - magic.

Kirra has gone on to get ADM2 ADO3 JDM JDO4 GD SD SPDX in spite of my unfitness and clumsy handling ;) , and has also got her Tracking Champion title, and is now able to have fun doing Track and Search, which she really likes. Along with Rory, we are also dabbling in DWD.

When Fergus died as a result of an accidental poisoning 2 years ago, Kirra and I needed a new pup, and I was lucky enough that winpara had a boy who was just meant to be my boy, and so lil big man Rory came into our lives - and with a friend's help, I started to show him in conformation (to have fun while he was growing up ). At the same time, I was doing some much more scientific foundation training with him - thanks to the help I've got from various seminars - to say nothing of the WA gurus on here . Now that he has finished his show CH title, we can concentrate more on his 'proper' stuff.

For all of these almost 20 years, I have been instructing at local community dog clubs - and enjoying the transition to positive motivational training - so much more fun as a way to work with dogs.

What an amazing journey my dogs have taken me on - literally (as far as Queensland and WA) as well as in learning terms. And what a great bunch of pppeople we've met along the way - virtually, and IRL.

[leopuppy04]

Good topic to distract me Ness!!

I knew nothing about dog training and while I was at uni was chatting to a friend asking her what she was doing on the weekend etc. She told me she was heading down to 'dog club' which really confsed me as her dog was about 7yrs old so here I am thinking her dog must be really dumb to not know how to sit already given his age!!!! ;)

She invited me down one day and I decided to come along with her and was really interested in this whole new world I knew nothing about! I already knew about the Aussies and desperately wanted another dog, so I was stalking all the aussie owners down there (at the time there was only one!). I ended up going down with another friend and working her dog through some of the classes while she worked another one of hers. I begged and begged for another dog but alas, I wasn't allowed as our old Kelpie girl (approaching 13) was to be 'our last' dog until I moved out of home!!

When she suddenly died, it only took my mum a few weeks to decide that having another dog wasn't optional as I really wasn't coping without her :rolleyes:. So I started to hunt around for an Aussie who had fast replaced the previous breeds I was looking at - a BC or a Golden.

One look at Leo and I knew he was mine. I'm sure my breeder thought I was some young kid who would just take the dog to training and 'give these things a go' but never really eventuate into anything. I absolutely loved training Leo and poor sould put up with all the cr@p I put him through. He sailed through the classes and then I came into this obedience ring class and was taken through 1:1. NEedless to say it was horrible!!!! I shudder to think of it now!

But with the help of some great trainers, and some weekly meets with one friend in particular who taught me all about teaching behaviours for the obedience ring etc. Once we got started I was hooked. Leo's not a fabulous dog to watch (in my eyes) as I made so many mistakes with him, but we have our CDX, JDX, ADX, SPD and HT titles and are well on our way to our JDM and ADM titles as well as coming oh so close to some UD passes. He's really been a joy to train and I can't believe how much he's put up with and still manages to be the dog that he is!

Kinta came along 2 years later as I wanted to try 'showing'. She's been a dream to train and has really shown me what it can be like if you start off on the right foot. She has her Ch title, her AD JDX CD and HT titles and again is well on the way to her JDM/ADX and CDX titles. Not long now... I just need to enter trials . She's had a litter for us along the way and has just been a dream to trial. Gets better as she gets older, as per Leo!

Zara was next, and at 18mths knows squat. She's owned by my dad, but I'm thinking of pulling her out for obedience soon. One day. She's also having some fun training in Agility with my dad - shows a lot of promise, but is not terribly easy to train as she likes to run past jumps :D Absolutely no value for them!

Tahli is our little 5mth old baby and my next showing/ breeding/ performance dog. She's just running around like a nutty puppy at the moment, but I'm sure she'll really show me how much I know when it comes down to putting my theory into practice