Freeman 101

Julie, you know what? I've had concerns about a lot of the unkindness that I see on these boards , and your comment just confirmed my feelings. In the future I'll take my comments, concerns, and questions elsewhere. Best of luck to all of you. Taryn and Freeman.

The best solution is to clean up the poop as soon as they poop. Practiced behavior becomes stronger behavior; if poop is cleaned up there would be no poop eating.

I 2nd "Really Reliable Recall" DVD. I've used this with all my dogs, and they have fabulous recalls.

Really good information by Ken Ramirez on how to move from primary to secondary reinforcers. I'm going to renew my Tawzer Dog membership so I can watch the entire 3 hour video! BTW, any CPDT's here? Tawzer Dog offers ceu's on many of their videos.

the entire article can be viewed at http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3408

Ah. I love this response by Ken Ramirez on clickertraining.com someone asks: "Is any dog capable of learning different concepts? What needs to be in place before a dog is ready to learn?" Ken responds: "In my opinion, yes, every dog is capable of learning concepts! However, you do have to wait for the right time in a dog's learning. Just as you would not ask a 3-year-old child to learn algebra (a child that age does not have the foundational math skills to learn something so complex), you would not teach young dogs concepts until they have the foundational skills to understand them. If I had to the basic or necessary foundational skills, they would be: Well-versed at clicker training (understand a marker signal) If you keep training fun, and make each step easy to achieve, then you can build your dog up to concept training. Possess a solid behavioral repertoire that mixes basic obedience with exercise behaviors Understand the idea of free shaping Introduced to creative games that teach thinking and problem-solving Understand and appreciate non-food reinforcers Introduced to and able to perform behavior chains Even then, the secrets to the success of any training plan are appropriate approximations and responding to your animal's needs. If you keep training fun, and make each step easy to achieve, then you can build your dog up to concept training"

Alligande, I'm reading the book as well, and I think his training was a bit sloppy. I suspect he wouldn't have gone as far in training with many other dogs. Kathy Sdao's DVD "Improve Your I-Cue- Learn the Science of Signals" gives very precise instructions on how to teach dogs to identify items by name. Ken Ramirez (Sheds Aquarium, Chicago), has done something similar with his little terrier mix. He didn't use treats for training this, but only because this little dog was very motivated by retrieving the objects. I haven't been able to find this video online. Kathy Sdao showed the video clip at her "I-Cue" seminar.

rushdoggie: I had never heard of Denise Fenzi, but after your comment I checked out her website and her Youtube videos. Really good stuff. Thanks for sharing. I really love some of her videos on heeling.

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Also, Silvia Trkman offers her videos on DVD. This is a skill she teaches in foundations, so it would be included on her foundations dvd. As I recall, she starts out having students doing it with just one jump, and then we kept increasing the number of jumps in a row that we were sending to the backside. It was quite challenging!

I learned to teach this from Silvia Trkman's foundations class. I stood near the front/edge of the jump and used my leg and hand to signal going around the jump. I would post a youtube video, but I confess that I have not figured out how to do this on this board. And you're correct. I used to never see these on course, and now it seems there is at least one per course. type in "Silvia Trkman Foundations" in a Youtube search. I'm sure you will find some good youtube videos showing how to teach this.

Sorry, for acronyms. By OCD I was referring to Osteochondritis Dissecans . And by LCP I meant Legg Calve Perthes Disease

But from what I've been observing, the contract is a benefit to the buyer. Several of my friends and I bought puppies around the same time. All of our puppies ended up with issues. My puppy had LCP, another friend's puppy had OCD, and another friend's puppy had OCD, hip dysplasia as well as a lot of other early health problems. This last puppy is a border collie and from working lines. There really wasn't a lot of cost difference in what I paid for my puppy vs what she paid for her's. The outcome of how we were treated was a vast difference. My puppy's breeder refunded me as well as offered me another puppy. I took the refund, and this allowed me to afford his hip surgery. I declined the new puppy, for now, because I wasn't ready to take on 2 puppies while rehabbing one. On the other hand, my friend with the working line border collie has incurred so much cost with her puppy. This is the first time I've ever purchased a dog, and I've learned a lot from it. For one, there are no guarantees when it comes to genetics. I also really appreciated a breeder who was willing to do more than what her contract assured, and it meant a lot to me to be part of a group who cares about his outcome. Sadly, my 'no contract friend' had none of this.

I'm just curious, but why would working line breeders not find it desirable to have contracts for their puppies? Up until my last puppy, I've rescued, so contracts were not an issue. My puppy is not a bc, and he did come with a contract. I'm not sure how enforceable the contract is, but I do think the contract sets the tone for the expectations. I did not purchase him on a breeding contract, so my contract stated that he had to be surgically sterilized within 12 months of signing the contract. It requires that I have both his knees and hips checked by a certain age. The contract guarantees the health of the puppy. The contract also set the tone for the expectations for the puppy's care, safety, and living environment.