quicksilver

Thanks for the nice comments, folks! We don't get many clear rounds, but she has such a zest for life, and is always so happy at the end of a run, playing with her tuggy, that I find I just don't care so much these days about the eliminations.

I do get her to down sometimes, but most of the time these days I just let her run them. In training she does a mixture as well. She doesn't miss many contacts - since she started competing in January 2006 the total missed is still in single figures. Here's a recent film which includes a decent if somewhat leisurely dogwalk contact, a chaotic A-frame contact resulting from me turning her late, and a missed seesaw ... one of that total mentioned above, I blame the handler (me) who was panicking a little. http://vimeo.com/2000875 Don't laugh too much!

Yep, clicker/target with a down nose touch having been shaped beforehand: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HIjKgJkqyPI Use that 4-off position for the dogwalk and A-frame, a 4-on for the seesaw.

Merry (9 years old) and Bliss (4 years old) in competition here in England this summer: http://vimeo.com/1582263 And Bliss in training, doing ketschker turns (your 'flip' I think): http://vimeo.com/1800066 Enjoy!

Here are my videos of the International Agility at Crufts. Round 1 pt 1: Round 1 pt 2: Round 1 pt 3: Round 2 (selection): Enjoy!

Out of curiosity, could you let us know what his breeding is? His lines may well be good even if the breeder's breeding practices weren't.

1. How were you first introduced to clicker training? Read about it on the Internet, and a friend then showed me some basics. 2. Why did you decide to continue to incorporate the clicker in your training as time went on? Initially in order to work on contact behaviour in agility, then extended it to other areas. 3. When training a new behavior, how frequently do you incorporate the clicker into your training? B - Usually. I'm not nerdy in my use of it. 4. Have you ever taken a training class that was a specific clicker class? Yes, have attended 1 to 1 lessons, classes and workshops. 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? Yes - informal obedience and Agility. And I use clickers in the agility classes I teach.

I've used Anadune quite a bit over the years, but the BCDB at http://db.kennel.dk wins every time.

Saw it on TV here a year or so ago when it first came out. Not a patch on Year of the Working Sheepdog IMO, too cheesy. I didn't manage to stay the whole course watching Mist, whereas YotWS I can watch again and again. JMO.

I remember watching a programme on the BBC a couple of years ago following the experiences of a man (a doctor I think) who intentionally gave himself a tapeworm so he could see how it affected him, and how long it would eventually grow. Yum.

Coming to this thread rather late - but ignoring would probably most accurately be classed as an attempt at extinction of a behaviour, rather than using + or - reinforcement or punishment. Unfortunately (as already mentioned) if the behaviour is being reinforced elsewhere in the dog's environment, you ignoring it won't help much.

Could it possibly be something needing checking like anal glands?

Have a look at these One Jump Drills. There are other great training ideas on Agilitynerd as well. http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/course...JumpDrills.html

Brilliant - that's exactly what Merry has done on and off, maybe once a month or so, all his life with me. He did it at the vet's the other day and the vet said it was almost like a panic attack. Said nothing about reverse sneezing - will share that with him tomorrow.

One of Merry's nicknames as a youngster was 'Fartydrawers' as, whenever he went into a playbow, he'd do a little 'toot'. Happily he grew out of it and is mainly Merrylegs now.