Root Beer

Ding ding ding! That would be correct!

OK, a clue - I'm this guy's Person. And even though I came over to this forum to say "hi", you don't know us from herding.

Hi Deb, Jill, and Oscar! It's cool to see you on the Internet!

The hug thing has to depend on the dog. Even though it's a primate thing to do, some dogs love it. I know because one of mine adores hugs - from anyone or anything! The other two defintely prefer not to be hugged, although they tolerate it readily from us.

It's sad to know that this person would rather see my much loved dog dead than loved, trained, and taught to deal with living in the world. Interestingly, the one dog I have that isn't a rescue is the only one with issues. Go figure. Hearing about people like this really does strike an emotional cord. UGH!

Congrats to you! That's an excellent job that you did! The differences between AKC and APDT Rally are really interesting. In APDT, you would be NQ'ed for "luring" if you did that so blatantly. In APDT, you can reward at specified places on the course, but if the judge sees you pretending that you have food in your hand to get your dog to do anything, you either get a major points deduction, or you NQ, depending on how deliberate it looks or how much you do it. You really have to watch that your hand signals don't look like a "lure" in APDT Rally. We NQ'ed on that one time!

I hadn't thought of that. Not that I can recall, but I can't say for certain that it never happened. That would be a logical explaination - very logical.

WE'VE GOT IT!!! THANK YOU!!! And thank you and thank you! I know that was shouting, but it was very very happy shouting!! Granted, he doesn't have the behavior learned yet, but thanks to your replies, we have the key and it can happen now. Before when I tried putting him in front of me and kind of "walked into him", he either sat and refused to budge or would get spooked and run away. (Not a good result!) But I just tried putting two dining room chairs back to back with enough room for Speedy to go between, but not enough for him to turn around to move away. Then I called him to me and when he was in front of me between the chairs I walked toward him and said "BeepBeep!" and he DID IT!! He backed up!! No problems. He was enjoying himself. We did it several times with generous rewards with no "spooks" or confusion at all! I'm thinking he's comfortable walking between the chairs. He must have felt "cornered" next to a wall. We got to where he went back three steps and then we did some stuff that he's familiar with. There will be no problem practicing this until he knows what I mean and doesn't need the chairs anymore. And he has never had a problem "translating" a behavior done in front to heel position once he knows the behavior attached to the command. I really really really appreciate all of your input on this. Oh, and yes, it is for Rally-O. We still need to qualify in one more Level 1 course to get our Level 1 Title, so we have scads of time to get this down pat - the main thing is having a way to practice it without scaring him!!

It was the same at the Rally-O trial we competed at in March. In Level 1 (I didn't see much of the Level 2 and nor any of the Level 3 competition) all of the handlers were women. I don't know why, though.

He only has to go back three steps in total. I was just going back one or two when he got spooked.

Have any of you ever taught your Border Collie to walk backwards with you in heel position? I am having a tough time with this. It was suggested that we walk along a wall with dog in heel (the dog between oneself and the wall), place food on the dog's nose, and take a couple steps back. The dog should naturally back up with you. Speedy did it the first night it was introduced in class with no trouble. At home he got "spooked" by it and ran to hide under the table. I have never had a problem like this before with him. I really think the trouble is that he doesn't know what I want him to do and he's frustrated by it. I can't figure out any other way to communicate this to him. Have any of you ever taught this a different way?

Also, if you don't find exactly the right words, but you get the behavior, it might not matter so much if you don't use the exact same command. The important thing is to help your dog understand that she is doing what you want when she does it. When I taught Speedy the "stand" I used the command "stand up". He was doing great with it until, very suddenly, he stopped standing on that command and began to just scoot forward and sit again. I re-taught the behavior with a new word, "rise", and all is well now. It's nothing to him that I'm using a different cue. Once your dog is giving you the behavior that you are looking for and you reward/praise, etc., you will be connecting!!

I think you might need to take some extra time working on recall with your Border Collie. It might help to go out of your way to teach the Border Collie that coming to you when you call him is rewarding and fun. You could start this by getting some good treats that the dog loves (I would use real chicken) and put the dog on a short leash. Then, you turn and run from him calling, "(Dog's name) come!" in a very happy voice. Afer a few feet, you can turn toward the dog, have the dog sit in front of you and reward. After doing that every day for a about a week, you could do the same thing using a longer leash. Let the dog sniff a tree or something really interesting and then turn from the dog and run calling him. When he comes to you, reward and praise! After a while, you won't need to turn and run when you call anymore. In time, you can start to do the exercise in a small area with the dog off leash. Another thing you might do is teach your Border Collie to chase and retrieve a ball. There are a few obedience exercises that I could not teach my Border Collie using food - I had to use his ball! If you teach the dog to "come" to bring you the ball, he might be conditioned to come when called. Anyway, that's what I suggest!

I don't think so, athough you will have to do some adaptation, but (in APDT anyway), they allow for that. The best thing to do would be to get in touch with the folks offering the class, explain that your dog is blind and ask if they are willing to work with you. I know that in my class here they would - gladly. But it will probably depend on the trainer. If you decide to do Rally with Tex, I'm very interested to hear how it goes!!

I took a class for dealing with issues like this because Speedy has some fear issues with other dogs and children. What we learned basically is to re-condition our dogs to look to us when faced with a frightening situation. This is a step-by-step process that we are still working on - even a year after we finished the class! A few things that we did: 1) Reinforce basic obedience commands. This served two purposes - one was to deepen the bond between the dog and handler; the other is to provide a means of distraction when you become aware that the dog is about to become frightened. 2) Watch your dog and learn the signs that he is about to react to fear. There are all kinds of signs - the position of the ears and the position of the tail chiefly. Once you learn to recognize the signs, it will enable you to occupy your dog when you are able to avoid a situation. 3) Teach your dog an attention word. Ours is "watch". When I say, "Speedy, watch!" he stops what he is doing and looks up at me. This starts at home, in a situation with no distractions. I started by putting a bit of meat in my hand and moving it up to my eyes and said, "Speedy, watch". He learned to look up to my eyes when I say that. Gradually you do it amid distractions. 4) Slowly condition your dog to accept scary situations better. What we did in class to help with dog issues was this. A handler and dog were placed about 10 feet from the door. One of the class instructors would walk by with their dog (on leash) and as she did so, the handler fed and praised their dog. Gradually we moved closer and closer to the door. Speedy now does fine in the presence of other dogs as long as he has a few feet of space between him and the other dog. He has learned - over time - to look to me when he is frightened. Then I know to do my part and either remove him from the situation, or occupy him somehow to distract him from whatever is worrying him. 5) Learn not to tug on the leash when your dog faces something that he is afraid of. If the dog runs to the end of the leash, that's one thing. The dog knows how much room he has on leash. But tugging at the leash will cause the dog to react more aggressively. A halti might alleviate that problem, though. 6) Accept that your dog might never been the life of the dog party and you might need to keep some space between your dog and others. On the other hand, try to help your dog learn to cope wtih the presence of other dogs as best you can by reinforcement. 7) This is a hard one - the one I still struggle with the most - try to remain calm yourself when your dog flys off the handle. When Speedy would "act up", I would get upset both with the situation and with him. Then he would get more worked up. Nobody was in control and that made it worse for him. I always keep some chicken or something on hand when I take Speedy into a public situation. When he does get scared and begins to get snarly, I immediately put the food right on his nose and lure him around to face me. Then we back away together. There is no emotion involved and it helps him get back on an even keel. I wish you could take a class like I did - that's really the best scenario. A call to an animal behaviorist might be a good idea considering the situation you are in with the laws.

Well, Roz, I'm happy to elaborate!! I enjoy it so much that I could go on and on about it! I'll explain in pieces: 1) There are different signs that designate a "move". Some of them are directional: right turn, left turn, u-turn, turnabout, 270 degrree turn (in either direction), 350 degree turn (also in either direction). Some of them designate an obedience exercise like sit, sit-stay (you walk around the dog), down, down-stay (you walk around), sit-down-sit, sit front and then finish (there is one to the right and one to the left. Some have you heel around cones - in a weaving motion or around and around like a paper clip. That's just some of them, but you get the idea. As you go from level 1 to 2 to 3, the excercises get more challenging. (And more fun, in a way!) 2) The signs are placed on the floor in a course. The beginning level (Level 1) has about 16 or so signs in a course. 3) You take your dog from sign to sign in heel position and carry out the directions given on each sign. ~~~~~~~~~~ In competition you are judged on: keeping your dog with you and carrying out the directive on each sign. There is also a time limit, but you aren't judged on time like in agility. There are also rules regarding the leash. In level 1 you must have your dog on leash, but the leash has to be held loose. Choking up on the leash results in loss of points and jerking your dog around can result in a disqualification. The dog has to stay with you, but the heel position doesn't have to be perfect. After a while you kind of get your pace with your dog as you move from sign to sign. In APDT you can get extra points for demonstrating a good rapport with your dog and you can feed as a reward on designated exercises. Every dog/handler team that enters the ring starts with 200 points and you get deductions. The only points you can earn are the extra points (for good rapport), so the maximum score is either 204 or 205 (I can't recall if you can earn up to 4 or 5 extra points, but it's something like that). If you fail to carry out an exercise, or if you lose more than 30 points, or if you re-try an exercise too many times, you don't qualify. If I confused you, let me know!!

I looked around at your pictures of Bear on the site you have in your signature and I agree - I think Bear would love it!!

That's the one thing. When I've gone on line looking for the next place we will compete, I noticed that they all seem to be centered around New Jersey, Pa, and Maryland. That's good for us - we are very close to several of the venues. But not so good for most of the country! I hope they are looking to expand!

VERY cool!! Good for them!!

Speedy and I did go to Pawsabilities on Saturday and Sunday and we did complete in the Level 1 Rally-O (APDT). What a learning experience!! Wow!! It was a tough venue to compete in, especially never having done so before. There were a lot more distractions and noise than there would normally be (I hear) at such a competition. We failed to qualify for either course that we did on Saturday. Once because of serious distraction (I had to lure him with the food - you can use food to reward at certain places on the course, but you can't lure) and the second time because of inexperience on my part!! I re-did too much. And, it turned out, I didn't need to re-do anything at all!! Oppps!! LOL!! On Sundy we did much better!! We qualified for both courses that we did with really good scores!! The second course of that day was amid serious distraction again, but Speedy and I held it together and ended up doing better than I would have hoped!! We ended up with second place for that course!! I am definitely hooked now! It is way harder than it looks out there, but it is a very, very worthy challenge!! Best of all, I'm really proud of Speedy. It was a loud, stressful environment and he handled it like a pro!!

Thanks Joe Anne and Erica!! I will definitely let you know how it goes! Joe Anne, I encourage you to consider Rally O. I think that if I had done Rally O with Speedy before I tried Agility, we would have done much better with the Agility. No use harping on past mistakes, but it's definitely an activity worth considering! It really helps to get the basic obedience commands down pat (in a way that's 100% fun) and it helps both you and the dog with attention and rapport with one another! I'm no expert, but I can take a stab at any questions you might have!

We have been preparing to compete in an APDT Level 1 Rally O competition that is going to be held this coming weekend since before Christmas. Two weeks ago I didn't think we were going to be ready, but we really are!! Something clicked in that Border Collie brain of his a week ago and now he's doing splendidly!! Granted, there are no guarantees in these things, but regardless of how it goes in the ring this weekend, I feel good about the fact that we really are ready!!

That is a fun idea! I just might try that this spring with a few of Speedy's things. It will be interesting to see if he tries to stop and gather his other toys. He does that in the house on occasion since all of our dog toys tend to be scattered all over.

Sammie, our first, who is a mix and was our first introduction to Border Collies, came from the Hillside SPCA in Pennsylvania. Speedy, our purebred, came from a breeder in Pennsylvania. Maddie, our Border Collie/Lab mix, came from Angel Pet Services in Pennsylvania. We found her on Petfinder. It was a really good experience. We submitted an email to them expressing our interest and telling them about ourselves. We were invited to meet her, along with our two dogs. We spent an entire afternoon with her in a neutral area with her and then adopted her. I like to rescue, but my husband likes to get purebreds from breeders, so we kind of "split" and have a mix of them.

Something like that happened with Speedy. We were in the second to last week of our third agility class when the instructor decided to try to start getting the dogs used to noise. She had the folks outside the ring making noise, music blaring, and some other noises going. Speedy's brain snapped. He just went nuts on the course - jumping jumps at random, running through the tunnel constantly. I couldn't get his attention to save my life. Even after I took him out of the room he was insane. It was too much stimulation all at once. I decided to train somewhere else after that, but agility didn't work out for us. I hope it works out better for you since it sounds like you really want to continue with it.