abbies_mumma

I love the suitcase trick. Its so cute when she sticks her nose out!

1. How were you first introduced to clicker training? (Examples: on this message board, Internet, in a training class, etc) Dog's Life magazine (Australian) 2. Why did you decide to continue to incorporate the clicker in your training as time went on? After reading about it I decided it would provide a clearer marker for correct behaviours as oppose to "good girl" etc. 3. When training a new behavior, how frequently do you incorporate the clicker into your training? A. Always B. Usually C. Sometimes D. Occasionally I've mainly used the clicker for teaching tricks but do also use it for other behaviours. 4. Have you ever taken a training class that was a specific clicker class? No, not many around here. 5. Have you ever taken another type of training class where clicker instruction was incorporated into the curriculum? (Example: Rally, Agility, Freestyle, CGC, Obedience) If yes, what was the topic of the class? No.

I feed raw and find Abbie does really well on it. The only annoying thing is remembering to get bones etc out of the freezer! Sometimes Abbie ends up getting an ice pole if I forget! I used to feed supercoat but Abbie did tons of poos while on that, hence my switching her to raw.

Even if you are not getting to run lots of times I'm sure you would still get to watch others, which can be very valuable.

Been away for a while and just saw this thread. So sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing your beautiful Red Dog with us.

Welcome to the boards! Your pup looks very cute.

Oh no! Poor River. I hope she keeps getting better.

Welcome to the boards! I'm also from Australia (melbourne).

What an amazing achievement!! Well done Roseanne and Drifter!

YAY for Hoku!!! Sounds like he did really well. Good luck for the next demo.

Abbie loves my dad best. In fact out of family she loves me last. It's so unfair...I walk her, feed her, groom her, train her and she still will always go to my dad if there is a choice!

Did you switch the foods gradually? It might be just the switch and her body is getting used to the new food.

Teach him tricks and basic obedience. Even if he's been already taught basic obed. you can still refine the behaviours. You can also teach him things like fetching a ball up the hallway but don't do any jumping until he's much older. If you are interested in doing agility then there are plenty of foundation exercises you can teach you pup with no equipment. Have fun.

Nup! Abbie couldn't care less about me. She's off chewing mums felt slippers!

Lovely pics!

Thanks everyone. Getting a Q gives me hope- even if its only one... In our first trial she was actually better behaved. The reason we did not Q was because I made mistakes (got lost, could have called cues earlier...). Now I have improved (a bit) as a handler and I'm saying the cues earlier and using more body language but Abbie has become trial wise. At home walking her she comes 95% of the time and will give me focus when training. Same goes for the backyard. I try to take her to different parks and environments to practice focus. I also call her randomly at home and at the park and reward lots for immediate and fast recalls. We also play lots of focus games. She also never runs off at dog club. She has a great recall and focus outside the ring, at home, at the dog park anywhere but trials! This is my routine before we go into the ring: 1. Take Abbie out of crate for a walk to go 'toilies'. 2. Play some tug and do some recalls and play. 3. I get a handful of special treats and ask her for tricks and stuff and do some heeling and focus just outside the ring. 4. In the marshalling area I ask her for focus and also stretch and massage her a bit. This trial I didn't do any lead outs (I did at our first trial) so I could try and keep the connection- if you know what I mean. She usually got half way through a course then decides shes had enough of doing what I say and trots off. Its not like she's running off to someone like my dad but she just runs anywhere and sometimes takes obstacles on the way. So if anyone has any tips for focus and control, I REALLY need them! ETA: if she loses focus I call her back and finish the course (even if not in the right order) and reward for the last thing she did. We play tug after a run and she gets treats when she goes back in her crate. I also should make it clear that I'm not blaming Abbie. I'm the one who needs help to train her! Thanks

Great pics. Lark is very cute- gotta love a tri! and I just adore Phoebes spots!

Well done!! That's an awesome job. She's really fast too.

Well I thought I'd just have a small brag.....so here goes..... Today we had another agility trial. It was NADAC and Abbie was reasonably (*cough* ) well behaved. She had a run where she got distracted and just trotted around doing what ever she liked Our first run was jumpers and she was going really well but a few jumps from the end she started getting nippy and growling (playfully) at me so I pulled out. She hasn't done this before in a trial, I guess she was just excited. Anyway, after that we had novice agility and we Q'd!! YAY We also tried hoopers for the first time. She would have Q'd but she stopped to sniff something and followed the smell through a hoop !!! LOL anyway we finished off with two 1st's (edit:both novice agility just got my results) and a 4th (hoopers)....and a Q! Here's a video with some clips of our runs...Abbie's NADAC trial ok brag over...we really need to work on focus!! ETA: The related videos on my vid are Dazzle ones! how cool!

its the same here...

Awesome!! I've been waiting to hear another Dazzle brag!!! YAYAYAY GO DAZZLE

Great photos! Lovely green grass

Here we don't have a licence but we have to register our animals with the council. I think its about $20 for a desexed female.

Lovely pictures.

Oh no! Poor Solo. Hope he's feeling better soon!