End Of The Year

[MrsD]

We've only been back in training in the second half of this year with my 2 new dogs.

Jonty has gone through to to top class at club at just 8 months old - next year we'll be hoping for our CCD, CD & possibly get him in the ring in Open & see how he goes.

I've only had Jarrah 3 weeks, & he has already gone into Class 2 after only 1 week at club, next year we'll be aiming for CCD, CD & similarly seeing if we can get him in Open, depending on how his training is going. Also hoping to get him into some canine freestyle as well as he is seriously the fastest learner I have ever had the pleasure to own.

Both dogs will also probably get some agility training (although not any trials unless MrD is prepared to run them) & run in lurecoursing (assuming that Jarrah runs, Jonty is a natural ). May see about doing some herding with both of them as well.

Probably the biggest achievement (although I didnt have to do anything for it really ) was Jonty winning Baby puppy in Show at the Qld Sheltie Show.

I'll let MrD tell you what his achievements with Ebony were .

[helen]

Looks like heaps of good results, here are mine:

Bella (Ch Wameika Dentelle CD GD AD JD S-NCC O-NAC O-NJC) - She got about 12 agility qualies, 1 title (GD). I worked out she is sitting on about a 50% pass rate with some near misses so is doing extremely well. Next year will be aiming for 3 Xs (CDX, ADX, JDX) and starting tracking.

Tilly - (Ch Riverreed Hearts Nmotion) - I entered her at the NADAC Nationals, her first agility trial - just to see how she will act at a trial as her training is limited. She qualified in 2 out of 3 events, novice jumpers and novice changes (distance challenge), I nearly fell over backwards. She also got a runner up in specialty show, the 2nd specialty champ show in australia. She now qualifys to train locally with her qualies so look out!!!

Chazer - Ch Rivamist First Offence - Started tracking training at the end of May. around 2 months later he got his TQT handled by Brittanygirl. I handled her girl Morgan and passed TQT and test 1. We are patiently waiting for tracking season again.

Edited to add - how could I forget, Bella made an appearance in the Puppys and Dogs annual magazine with this photo taken by Wendy Mitchell Photography

Edited December 11, 2006 by helen

[Guest Clover]

what is it that you have achieved the most with your dog/s this year??? What are your aims for next year????? What are you most proud of your teamwork with your dog this year?

Ohh boy where to start...

Clover: At 8 years young and 5 years of playing Flyball she finally got her FM (Flyball Master) title. At 8 years she 'nearly' ran a PB time at flyball, her PB is 5.45 (About 3 years ago) and about 7 months ago she ran a 5.54 seconds... not bad for an older chooka :p.

Elvis: Also gained his FM earlier this year aswell.. after competing for about 18 months at the time. He has also improved greatly with a lot of confidence building with team mates and training, before he could hardly run a full comp without some major freak out's and then not run again for the rest of the day... now he is running full comps and if he does get scared of something we can getting him focussed and running again .

Tinny: Tinny has only been with us 11 months, she went from being a full time working sheep dog to being a reliable Flyball dog in that time. She currently has her FDX (Flyball Dog Excellent) title and is well on the way to her FDCh. This was a dog who came to us as only being a foster, not ever having a collar or lead on in her life and who could not retrieve balls .

Elvis and Tinny's acheivements would not have happened without the support and training tips of a few good friends.. so thanks guys . Ohhh and Clover's near PB running for her Aunty LilBailey .

Next year i am hoping for Clover's novice Ob title. Getting the BCs into herding again (First time with Tinny and i as a team). And get Elvis in to Agility and possibly trialing eventually. And for the dogs to be happy with whatever we do together.

Santa Paws will definitely be visiting my guys this year ;).

[boxagirl]

This year we lost Barkly which caused a BIG step backwards in Bondi's training and mentality. She wasn;t the same for quite awhile, ajusting to being an only dog. But she is getting over it (still hates being alone-will be getting another dog in 07 so its no big deal). Bondi started agility and surprised me with how much she ignored the other dogs and concentrated on the equipment (I expected her to be soo nervous around new equipment and dogs, but she surprised me). Due to lack of transportation I couldn't continue agility, but seeing that she picked it up quickly and enjoyed it, we will be starting next year once I get my licence She has come along way in obedience and can now do offlead heeling around distractions! She can do all the exercises required for CD, but isn't consistant-so trialing will be interesting She has gotten over her fear of new places and now I can take her anywhere with me (we even went into a shop that allows dogs- she NEVER could have done this before, she used to be scared of big new buildings.)

She has settled down alot and become alot more affectionate aswell

Aims for next year is to get CCD and start trialling in agility (and get my new puppy and start showing and training him :p )

[Pippi]

I was wondering - what is it that you have achieved the most with your dog/s this year??? What are your aims for next year????? What are you most proud of your teamwork with your dog this year?

I started agility with Pippi (at 12 mths) this year. I was hoping that both of us would simply learn to have some idea of what we were supposed to do and hopefully be able to negotiate at least a few obstacles in sequence - well to hell with that, I am so proud of my baby girl. Last month she entered her first agility trial, managing a first place and her first leg towards her AD. We achieved more than I had imagined. Next year we will be working towards gaining her AD and trying to become a better team.

Even though we have a lot more work to do, it is her focus on me and willingness to work for me that I am proudest of.

[MissMonaro]

Gosh...its been an up and down year for us this year.

We got into showing seriously this year. Have had some good results there. BOB at the ekka and our first show title at 13 months of age with our Bull Terrier Miniature.

Earlier in the year though we had to PTS our old dog aged 15 1/2.

My daughter has progressed really well with her handling skills and got up to class 4 at obedience with her lab, and has been learning and doing okay in the showring with her

.....although sadly her dog did not pass her health testing and has been desexed and will be leaving us on Saturday for her new family life. (will be another sad moment)

But my daughter has also handled dogs for other ppl, so good for the experience she has gained.

I achieved CCD title with my obedience lab - I'm still having nerve problems but we got there, and hope next year after she has her final litter that I can continue on with more obedience titles.

Also want to work on getting my other labs CCD title as well - but we'll see how that goes as we also want to concentrate on the showring a fair bit too.

I guess our aim for next year, apart from me to progress more in obedience, is to finally get one of our labs titled in the showring.

[stacey and douglas]

Nalu has learned that I am where the fun comes from. I should say I have learned how to talk to my dog rather then push around the field. She is having more fun training now. Its nice when you make it through a tuff section in your training and a whole new world opens up. Good stuff

[smisch]

I guess so, I meannwe haven't achieved titles yet but then again I have only had jock 11months and snoopy about 18 so to be competing is pretty good and snoopy was pretty messed up at first, he's changed so much

[squeak]

My big achievement this year was getting a dog... and manage to not totally mess her up yet!!!!!!!!!!

Stormy came from the RSPCA in June when she was 12 months old. Very nice nature, but absolutely no manners - she was a jumping, mouthing lunatic at times. We've managed to teach her that is not the "way of the humans", but she still gets to have a heap of fun.

Stormy has learnt to:

- walk to heel on a loose lead

- sit, drop, come, leave and mooove!

We've made it into Class 2 at dog school. Not bad for a dog who an instructor told me should definitely be on a halti (we're still happily using a martingale, thank you).

But I guess that my biggest achievement is after putting a heap of work into her training at home, being told by an instructor who took Class 1 at obedience one week, that "we were too advanced for Class 1", and couldn't work out why we hadn't been graded t Class 2!

And another one of our big achievements is Stormy starting to listen to me and me just beginning to understand her language.

Edited December 11, 2006 by squeak

[FHRP]

We got to play in the new agility events this year, so what would have been a pretty dry year in titles turned out to be very succesful!

Flynn - at nearly 9, his efforts in agility this year are his biggest achievements. He gained the new Open titles, becoming ACT's first dog to gain any of the new titles when he got his JDO in 6 runs. He also gained his novice titles in all the new games and went straight through to his GDX title without a fault. For the 4th year in a row he was again selected to be a member of the ACT team at the Agility Nationals. I strongly suspect this was his last year on the team.

Rogan - Rogan's results a retrieving trials would be his biggest achievements for this year, considering the novice handler/trainer he's having to contend with! We competed in Restricted stakes this year and at his first trial he managed a 2nd place!! He consistently finished trials and at our last trial in August he managed to win one!! He was the highest placing Vizsla in the Australia wide Retrieving dog of the Year comp. (only 3 V's in it from over 200 placed dogs). On the agility front I think our team work is improving, even with the lack of training and trialing. Rogan gained each of the Open and Novice games titles also in agility.

Herbie continued his companion pony efforts at trials

Next year!! Hoefully bringing home a new pup and starting the field work adventure!!! I'd love to get Flynn through his Masters Gamblers title and X's in the other games. Rogan I hope to get his X's in the games and continue our retrieving adventure.

[DagBoy]

I'll let MrD tell you what his achievements with Ebony were .

I guess our (mine and Ebony's) biggest achievement has been starting obedience training and managing to get to class three at the club (it feels more like my achievement than Ebony's - it certainly was not the dog holding us back). I think it helps a lot that I live with the world's harshest critic, so when I come in off the field thinking I had a good session, MrsD will "gently" point out my errors.

I also acted as steward at our club trial (which was easy as it just involved doing exactly as MrsD told me - something I have been practising for years).

Next year I hope to do at least some of the following:

Ebony through CCD and possibly CD

Ebony or Jarrah to an endurance title (if I can find the time to get fit enough)

Agility - especially if MrsD trains Jarrah and I can just take him in the ring and get all the glory

I sort fo like the idea of doing the dogggy dancing thing too - I loved the Richard Curtis seminar we went to. I just have my doubts about finding a suitable set of moves and piece of music for a clumsy uncoordinated boofhead (and Ebony is not much better).

Cheers,

DagBoy

[jaybeece]

Biggest achievement of the year has been to teach my boy to walk past dogs in the street without going feral at them. I don't remember the last time he got worked up over one and that's a HUGE success as we've struggled with that since he was 6 months old.

He also ignored a dog (golden retriever-his most hated breed) at the shops the other day. Normally he'd fixate on it, then get worked up until I have to redirect him. We sat 4 metres from it for about 5 minutes and not once did he show a single sign of reacting to it or even being uncomfortable, he just sat and enjoyed an ear rub. I have never been able to do that before. We also had a lady walking 4 small dogs walk right past and he didn't batt an eyelid at them.

He's also responding very well to hand signals- he's got sit, heel and drop perfect now which is a great party trick! He'll be 2 years old in February and I'm hoping that by then we'll have made more progress so he can start going back to dog school on a more regular basis. He was blazing up the classes earlier this year so I know he's got a truck load of potential, I just need to help him learn how to deal with the other dogs bettter.

I'm very proud of my big brown monster 2007 is shaping up to be a great year for him.

EDIT: Thinking back, we've actually achieved a whole lot more than just the above. At the start of the year he would barely heel, wouldn't sit reliably, chased the cats, wouldn't recall well, jumped on people, etc, etc. He now heels perfectly (I'll post a video some day), sits instead of jumping, comes when called every time and has been adopted by one of the cats. It's been a loooong year

Edited December 11, 2006 by jaybeece

[Seita]

Well having only just got back into dogs this year its been a quiet year in regards to titles and things like that. I picked up a foster dog with a truck load of bad habits at easter and just last week was able to take her out to a bbq with lots of other ppl around and she behaved herself beautifully! She no longer drags me down the street on walks and she comes when called. Next year I hope to find her a new home which will have a little more time for her.

I also got my long awaited border collie puppy (it's been two years since I lost my last girl) around july. She has started be trained for obedience comps and I hope to have her novice title and have her in or through open by the end of next year. She has also started showing and managed a baby puppy of breed at her first show but I've only managed to take her to one other show since then. Next year I hope to show her a little more often and see how she goes.

[MrsD]

I think it helps a lot that I live with the world's harshest critic, so when I come in off the field thinking I had a good session, MrsD will "gently" point out my errors.

Oooh, Im not that bad .......... am I?!?!?!

There is nothing wrong with aiming for perfection :p ;) .

Yeah I forgot to mention, the Richard Curtis seminar wasnt an achievement - but was definitely the highlight of the year :rofl: .

[MolassesLass]

2006 was probably my least dog-focussed year I can ever remember. We really didn't do much, but there was some small stuff.

Frisbee

Molly: Canine Freestyle Rookie Team of the Year, Howl-O-Ween Flying Disc Dogs Championships Open Winner, QLD Canine Disc State Championships Open Second, Brisbane Canine Disc Championships Open Equal Second

Kara: FDA Title

Duke: Catch percentage up around 60% now

Me: Threw 30m+ for the first time in a comp.! (I need to consistently be throwing 30m+ for the next title)

Showing

Kara: Had some nice minor placings/awards

Duke: 25 points collected from minimal showing, including beating a bitch who had gone BOB at a pointscore 2 weeks before

Big Plans for 2007

Molly

- CD obedience title

- FDE frisbee title

- maybe AD/JD agility titles

Kara

- CCD & maybe CD obedience titles

- FDE frisbee title

- maybe AD/JD agility titles

Duke

- Aust CH title

- maybe CCD obedience title

- maybe FDA frisbee title

[jesomil]

My aim for this year was to enter my dog in his first trial.

I wasnt sure if i could manage it with also having a baby earlier in the year and it being a sport i have never competed in, but we did it, and got placings !!

I am so proud of my dog. He is great. We plan to start regularly trialling next year and who knows what will happen.

[Kelpie-i]

Well with being busy running a business etc, my only achievements with my boy for this year have been...

Teaching him basic manners, especially around other dogs!

Entering him in his first trial (no placings but he completed the course)

Next year my aim is to beat Jesomil's dog at Welshpool...

[jesomil]

no way !!!

[SueM]

My big achievment was getting myself into gear and taking Harvey to dog obedience and having him go into Class 2 after 2 classes, the instructor thinks he will be good enough to compete next year, he does have a habit of putting other dogs off in class though I am sure they all think he is a rat :D

Edited December 15, 2006 by varicool

[Staranais]

Big achievement this year - putting a CGC on my formerly untrained and extremely dog aggressive stafford (now he's still dog aggressive, just better trained :D).

Aims for next year are to complete the distance course we're doing with K9force (hopefully therefore improving his offleash reliability round other dogs), and pass the first level of the SAR course we started doing this year!

Edited December 14, 2006 by Amhailte