airbear

Oh. Duh. I get now what the OP means about what to teach first LOL! OK, on that I have no opinion. I am a running contacts gal, and while Rex does have a stop on the DW, I've never used it in a trial. We are not fans of stopping. Except for the table. That is his favourite obstacle! For me (and this is only my experience where dataset is n=1), I did not have to do very many reps to get a dogwalk. We did 15 sessions, with maybe 10-12 efforts per session, to get a full-height RDW. It happened over a month or so, and we took breaks when it rained, when we had to get ready for sheepdog trials, and IIRC, when the hockey playoffs started. But I have heard the other side of hundreds of reps a week, so yeah, I would be leery if I had to do those kinds of numbers. Also, we rarely practice the dogwalk and it hasn't fallen apart, as people warned me it would.

When I started (2003 maybe?), the frame was 6'3" for all dogs, from the tiny to the tall. I remember watching little yorkie mixes bravely climb that mountain of a frame, slat by slat. Thankfully, the AAC changed the height for the minis the next year (I think it went to 5'6") and a few years after for the open dogs too. I really don't remember any good running frames when it was 6'3". I think the angle would be too steep. Now when the frame gets really low, like 5 feet, we start to have some other problems.

I teach the teeter first, as I have this weird thing that if I start with the dogwalk, and then introduce the teeter, the dog is going to think I lied to him about the running thing LOL! I also find the teeter quite easy and straightforward to teach so I have started with that for my last two dogs, while I mull over how to teach the dogwalk. And this isn't a book but I really enjoyed this DVD from Silvia Trkman. There aren't courses, per se, but lots of fun foundation things that you can do with your new agility dog.

I put together a compilation of some of Rex's a-frames. As I mentioned earlier, we never trained a running a-frame, it's just something that came for free with training a running DW. I can't say we have any criteria, as he just seems to hit once and fall into the yellow. It's very low impact - I can barely hear him load on the obstacle. I don't think this technique would work if the frame were higher. When I started agility, the frame was 6'3". The angle would have been too steep, IMO, to just fall into the yellow. Even the small height change between championship and performance frames affects Rex's hits. I'm not really sure what the heights are (maybe 5'10" and 5'6"?) but the slightly higher frame definitely produces a higher hit (that's still tolerably within the yellow).

Thanks! My dog is going to be 9 in May, and he's been competing for 6 years. He has qualified for Cynosport for 4 years, AAC Nationals for 3, and actually isn't a bad agility dog except for this. I think we're at the point in our career where we just laugh, because what border collie WHO IS AFRAID OF NOTHING EXCEPT FOR THE SOUND OF WIND ON A VIDEO balks at going in a tunnel? As far as we can tell, it's because he doesn't want to lose sight of my knee, because then what would he bark at?

I don't know that anyone is offended. I know I wasn't, I was just having a discussion. That's what these boards are for. Kristine often offers a view that is different than mine when it comes to training, and we have a discussion about it. I learn stuff. I don't know if she learns anything from me but at least I hope she's not worse off for having been in a discussion.

I totally get that classes aren't a perfect fit. I am the only one in my class NOT really doing AAC, but that's ok. The a-frame is a different height, the spread jumps are a little different, but I can work through it. I am trialling, after all. And our teacher, whom I adore, regularly emails the class, begging for ideas that people want to work on in class, whether it be gambles or hard weave entries or discriminations, or what have you. No one wants to work on what I need, which is tunnel commitment (stop laughing) so I work on that at home, or at the other end of the barn where there's equipment set up for practice. My teacher uses a motion system and that's what she teaches. If you come from another stream of thought, you're welcome in the class, but the type of advice that she can give you to help with handling choices might not jive with your system, and really, if you are from a system that, say, uses a lot of verbal to override motion, then why wouldn't you find an instructor who teaches that? Most of what she sets up are international-style sequences (think OMD or stuff from the FCIs or European Open). I personally don't like all the twisty spinny stuff, but I do it, and we're actually ok at it. If you were doing NADAC, where you are never going to have to push to a backside or threadle, then you won't like these sequences. And while I don't like the spinning, and in a trial, I likely will do a post to a rear over a Jaako to a blind, I will try it the way she suggests, because that's why I'm taking the class. Rex has more USDAA Fancy Jumpers than regular Jumpers, because I have inadvertently been assimilated to the twisty spinny club (and we really suck at jumpers without weaves).

I guess I, and others, were responding to this, specifically : I very often let my instructor know that I need to work on something different from the group, and I have a reasonable expectation to be accommodated since I am trialing and I need to work on my own team's particular weaknesses, and challenges, and I need to work on what I need to work on. Now that you've watered it down to "most of the time", you do what the class is doing, it seems less provocative. Carry on, then.

I guess I assumed higher level classes are for handling, and that my instructor sets up challenges that we can expect to face in trials. If I wanted to work on specific skills, like gambles or an obstacle performance, I'd do it on my own time. For me, class is about trying the challenges your instructor has set up. I don't do anything different for the class the week before Cynosport than I do at class when my next trial is months away. And re: the yelling, that is actually something I like. I don't think of it as yelling, per se. My dog is a barker, and my instructor does raise her voice to give me instruction (ex. cue and go! arm up! face your dog! your other left!). At seminars, it's not uncommon for some of the instructors (very high level ones) to run along side you, barking out instruction. I love it and my dog loves it because it makes me a better handler. YMMV.

sorry, double post.

For the front foot behaviour, I'm doing sort of a modified version of Dawn Weaver's RDW methodology. I will see if I can find some video that represents what we're doing. Right now, it's super random. :-)

For me, the hardest thing was to get in my mind what a running stride versus a collection stride looks like. For my dog, who has a very hitchy gait, his extension stride might appear to be a collection stride for someone used to a long-strided dog. His default stride pattern for a straight approach and straight exit is 5 strides. If he gets a bad load or if there's a turn coming up, he could chip in 2 or more strides. Once, he did a 4 stride dogwalk. Once. It was magnificent. My friend's dog is a regular 4 strider and, in rare occasions, a 3 strider. It's pretty spectacular. Here's a video showing, in slow motion, the difference between collecting (in this case, for a flip off the dogwalk) and extension (straight exits). You can see the rear leg split (although he is a front foot hitter) on the straights. Edited to add: OMG, this is so true! I know people who went to a very dark place over where their dog's feet were or weren't. We joke (but I'm kinda serious) that you should have to pass a psychological test before attempting a RDW. Also, it's not the easiest thing to train. If you had trouble shaping 2x2s, then you are really not going to have a lot of fun trying to shape a RDW! And some dogs aren't going to tolerate the process. I know that Wick would have bit me and then pissed on the dogwalk if I asked her to offer me all that Rex did. She wanted to know exactly what she needed to do to earn her toy. None of that shaping crap for her!

For Rex, his criteria is that he must run. This sounds kind of vague, but I rewarded running the obstacle, and not doing a collection stride. If you watch their back legs, they should remain split. If they're together, they're going to leap. For the beginning, that's all I wanted. I didn't really care if he made the contact, but since he is so short-strided, if he's running, he is deep in the yellow. My new dog has the stride of Secretariat, so he could very well be in extension and still miss the yellow. He is learning a front foot behaviour. We used a Manners Minder, which Rex loves. If he was right, he got paid. This relationship was very clear to Rex right from the beginning as he is incredibly food-motivated. Not sure what you mean. We ran on a plank for a session, then went to a lower DW and raised it when he achieved about 80% success at that height. For me, and YMMV, this has not required a lot of maintenance. The week before a trial, I might run a few (like, 5) dogwalks in a little sequence. Mostly work on turns, or really hard weavepole entrances from the DW, that kind of thing. But for us, it has not required much maintenance. I would say Rex's DW is probably 80% successful. For the first couple of years, he was closer to 95% consistent, but we're getting a little sloppy LOL! I find a lot of his success is predicated on the approach to the DW, so that he can get a good stride pattern. If it's from a weird approach, then he could have a problem finding his stride. Oh well. It's still really fun! OTOH, his a-frame, which I literally never trained, as it tends to be a gift with purchase of the RDW, is about 99% successful. I can almost name the few times that he missed his frame. And now that he's in performance with a lower frame, I doubt that he'll ever miss one. It truly is gorgeous, fast, and he barely touches the obstacle (so easy on his body). I love love LOVED teaching the RDW, and moreover, Rex loves running the DW. He is not a fast dog, so running the contacts keeps him moving on course. Plus it's super fun to run all the things! From a training point of view, it was a fascinating puzzle for me to figure out how to convey to Rex what I was looking for. This was all done through shaping, though I did use a NRM when he understood his criteria. I made a video diary of his RDW training. I may be bias, but I think my dog might be the cutest dog in the world. Baby poodle!!

On January 4, Wick crossed gently into the next world. She had spent a great weekend at an agility trial and the next morning, she told me that it was time for her to move on. I believe she is running fast and loud on the other side. I believe she has found Bear, and that they are playing ball in a field filled with critters. Wick was my first border collie, my first girl dog, and a kick-ass athlete. Her agility career was interrupted in the prime of her life, when I found herding. I would bust her out for the BC Regionals, which would be her first and often only trial of that year, and she would rock it. She qualified for nationals a lot, and ran in 4 of them. Her first trial was in 2002, and her last in 2015. Every run was an adrenaline rush as she was fast, loud and a tunnel suck. She had more drive than was useful, and it literally poured out of her. She could be a difficult dog, as her drive was tempered by her fear of things. Certain noises, such as teeters banging, smoke alarms, and the range hood fan, would cause her to run for a safety spot. Ceiling fans worried her, people thumping on the floor above us would cause her to pace. Once she was worried, she could not be bribed with food - it would fall out of her mouth. Because of her, I learned about spooky dogs, I learned how to keep her safe and below her threshold. It took 18 months to get her to go over a teeter. She was in Masters Jumpers before she ever ran a standard course. She never liked the teeter but she did it because I asked her to. She earned her Agility Trial Championships on a teeter gamble. Because I asked her to. We're not big on alphabet soup, but hers is impressive. ATChC Wick Bronze Award of Merit Bronze Versatility Award EXJ Silver EXST Silver EXS Bronze AAD EAC EGC EJC TG-E S-TN-E FDCH As she got older, she learned to tolerate almost everything except the evil smoke alarm. Her last Halloween, instead of hiding in a closet, she lay on the couch with me, growling with irritation at the sounds. She heard them alright, she had just decided after all these years that they were stupid. She loved road trips and she went on a lot of them. She probably travelled over 150,000 km with me in all of our various dog vehicles. She liked hotels, and really liked room service. I am glad she was able to enjoy one last road trip her last weekend on earth. She ran around, tugged on her toy, chased a ball, and bit Rex on the ass. It was a good weekend. Wick was a little feral pregnant stray who was pulled from a rural shelter in Washington by the PNW border collie rescue and fostered in Vancouver. While she started life a little rough, she lived it as the proper queen of Collie Nation. I am so grateful that she lived such a long and healthy life, and that I was lucky enough to be her person. Our house is quieter now.

I have been having occasional problems with 'busy dog' syndrome, where my guys frantically throw every behaviour to get a click. In particular, Rex has been having trouble putting two front paws on the pods, which should not be a very difficult task. He was frantically pawing the pods like he's a Hollywood trick horse, or perhaps a top-notch soccer player. Someone on Facebook posted this article on duration, and since I started clicking much faster and not waiting for a perfect effort, he has really picked up what I wanted. Really well-written article!

I'm with Pam. I have working bred dogs who trial in USBCHA Open (well, one is retired but you know what I mean) and I do not consider myself a working home as the only work I do is as a technology project manager (and the dogs are not good at PM work). I have no sheep, goats, cows, or poultry. I am a sport home, or a trialling home, but definitely not a work home. I am also not a trailer. To loop back to the original post, if the label comes up in discussion about a free puppy, I assume that the criteria for what is a working home will be significantly looser than mine.

Ha ha! At least you have some sort of criteria. We just run and hope for the best.

Oh yikes, I sure wouldn't do that! The two in the video I posted are best buds and if I thought either wasn't having fun, I wouldn't do this trick. They do other tricks together, but more as a synchronized routine than interactive. It's pretty cute. These, btw, are my Open sheepdogs. If only their peers knew how they spent their downtime!

Our trick in progress is getting one dog to hug the other. Sometimes we make progress, and then we regress to general punching and choking. As long as the two dogs don't mind it, we'll keep plugging away. Is anyone else working on multi-dog tricks?

Google uses several factors, such as browser location, geo information, and device type (mobile vs. desktop), to produce your results list. If you've done some searches for, say, ABCA and high volume, Google remembers that and weights it so that your results list for the search term will return pages that have your search term AND high volume AND ABCA. For someone else, they will not see those terms in their result list.

But I bought my agility dog as a started sheepdog, from a fellow who runs 1,000 ewes, and this dog didn't start doing agility until after his nursery year ended (he ran at the USBCHA finals and made the short go). Should he lose his breeding status because I did agility with him? That seems odd. My youngest dog was also bought as a trained dog. He's from Bruce and Linda Fogt, out of Linda's good bitch, Jill. He qualified for the USBCHA nursery finals twice (and ran with me in 2015), and now is starting his agility career. He also has run in his first USBCHA Open trial. If he earns an agility championship, you think he should lose his breeding status? Many, though certainly not all, agility border collies these days come from working breeders who also will sell to qualified sport and pet homes. Where I am (in the pacific north west) there are some surprisingly well-bred dogs competing in agility. When people ask me where to get a border collie for agility, I first suggest rescue, but if they want to purchase a pup, then I give them the names of some working folks whose dogs I admire. Not all who compete in dog sports are doing so with purpose-bred sporter collies.

My open sheep dog (USBCHA Open) has earned an agility trial championship in one venue (AAC) and is closing in on another in USDAA.

I have the Booster Bath (first one in your article) and I love it. If you're bathing big dogs, and they can't or won't jump into the tub, you might want to invest in a ramp or steps or something.

I don't think anyone is questioning whether it's doable. What is being questioned is the level of effort that would be required and is that level of effort something that would add value to the majority of the ABCA membership. The current ABCA database is on a computer in the office of the administrator. To make the simple goat page you've referenced, you will need to expose the database to the public facing internet. A couple ways of doing that are using a web service to the database server (which has some level of security and access issues), or creating a copy of the database (to be updated at regular intervals) and importing to a MySQL database which will reside on a web server and interact with the web page through data calls. There are other ways to do it too. These are the ones that first come to my mind. Then you need to decide what that goat page is going to look like. What fields are able to be queried? Who can access this page? Is it for members only? Does it need a login? If a login is required, do they need to be unique? How do you communicate to the membership what their login is. Can you reset your password? Etc. etc. Some have mentioned Teun van den dool's border collie database, which is very cool! He explains on this page that all he had to do was Easy peasy! And that was just the data import. So at the end of the day, it comes down to balancing the needs, wants and desires of the membership with the goals and directives of the registry, while acknowledging that there are limited resources. And as an aside, my interactions with the ABCA office have been excellent. I have done an owner transfer, using good old printer and paper and snail mail, and received my ownership papers in 10 days. Then I decided that my dog had one too many R's in his name, so I did a name change, and again received my ownership papers back (minus one R) in under two weeks.

The preface that strikes fear and loathing in the hearts of every IT person: "All you have to do is ..." usually followed by something that isn't remotely simple to do, if even technically feasible.