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  1. BarkingM*d

    My Own Agility Class

    Personally, I would be doing control and handling exercises only with pups... leave the equipment for when they grow a bit. On the subject of safety can I suggest you either tether, or crate dogs that are not being worked - I can see a cocker? wondering around the equipment whilst another dog is...
  2. BarkingM*d

    Strategic Pairs...

    Does anyone compete in Agility games classes?? I've not seen any threads relating to games on the forum... Thought you might enjoy this photo my friend Sal took of Jack and Bob-the-kelpie getting carried away on a Strategic Pairs course and taking the A-frame together: :D
  3. BarkingM*d

    Agility Trials for Dummies

    Preparing for your dogs first agility trial: So you and your dog have put in all the hard work and you think you’re ready to enter your first Agility trial. It is a good idea to offer to steward at a trial before you run your dog. This will give you first hand experience of how a trial...
  4. BarkingM*d

    Red? Dumbell Advice!!!

    I got up to exactly the same stage with my last dog before I started having problems. I put the dumbell away for a while and used my fingers. My dogs have been used to having ears, mouth etc. examined by me since pups so are very relaxed with it. Armed with some extremely high reward treats...
  5. BarkingM*d

    Agility Tips

    For ANKC competition the width of the seesaw has to be between 300 and 330mm. The following links have the full specs for all equipment used in Australia. Agility rules: http://www.agilitydogclub.org/files/AgilityRules2006.pdf Agility games rules...
  6. BarkingM*d

    Puppy agility

    I think the weave poles are by far the hardest piece of equipment to train, and there are many methods out there, off the top of my head: Channel, 2x2, Clicker, Weave-o-matic, Lure, Wire/Chute.... My favorite methods are Channel, 2x2 and Clicker. Channel method is good for speed, and...
  7. BarkingM*d

    Puppy agility

    There are a number of clubs that offer puppy foundation courses, and they are basically about the pups gaining confidence and improving balance, as well as control exercises that will help with handling later on... all based on play and having fun. Following link is to a local club that runs...
  8. BarkingM*d

    "Find It"! Need some training tips/ideas.

    How much fun? Nice job multi-tasking the video camera and handling!
  9. BarkingM*d

    obedience training - retired dog????

    How long are your training sessions? When you are in the ring you are only asking the dog for 10 minutes attention, so when you're training keep things short and fun too. Also some dogs hate working in hot weather so now we're heading into summer that could be a factor too. You say you have...
  10. BarkingM*d

    "Find It"! Need some training tips/ideas.

    Yes, dogs are very smart! Well done... I'm impressed. It answers my question fairly conclusively. The fascinating thing about scent work is you are placing your trust in the dog because they are the only one in the team with the equipment to do the task. It would be an interesting to...
  11. BarkingM*d

    "Find It"! Need some training tips/ideas.

    Hi Julie, the things you have described all require scent work but are quite situational… Do you ask your dogs to discriminate in a formal setting? eg. have say a dove and dope hidden in an area and ask the dog to indicate one or other article depending on command? I thought generally where...
  12. BarkingM*d

    YES!!!! WE did it!! we did it!!!

    There is a really detailed description of the clicker method here: http://users.tpg.com.au/users/rloftus/weaving.htm BostonBanker: I've sent a pm with the Susan Garrett article.
  13. BarkingM*d

    One dog per family...

    That's not quite true... It's controlled by local government and varies from shire to shire. Most common in cities is to restrict to two dogs per household, (but additional dogs can be registered with a permit [you know how good these local council are at extracting money from you ;) ])...
  14. BarkingM*d

    YES!!!! WE did it!! we did it!!!

    Congrats.. I think weaving is one of the hardest bits of equipment to train. I have used the channel method with my dogs, but gone back to scratch and re-trained using the 2x2 to perfect entries and distance (it's great for a handler that doesn't know left from right :rolleyes:). I've got...
  15. BarkingM*d

    Courses!

    Attached are a couple of courses from earlier on in the year. These are from ANKC Open (our distance handling class), and Excellent (our intermediate class). The ANKC rules for Agility/Jumping can be found here, and our Games classes here if you're interested. I found the following site which...
  16. BarkingM*d

    "Find It"! Need some training tips/ideas.

    Large gum nuts (from a Marri tree). They're a nice size/shape, and blend into the ground so the dog has to use that nose. ;) As you are back chaining the exercise from the retrieve you have the association with the article (and your scent which is actually what you are asking the dog to use)...
  17. BarkingM*d

    Dogaholics Anonymous

    Actually it's in Birmingham and in March... (and we're going in 2008) :) :D
  18. BarkingM*d

    "Find It"! Need some training tips/ideas.

    If you are trying to teach some basic scent work, putting keys in a pile of toys (all with scent) and asking the dog to ignore his favourite toys and retrieve a bunch of keys is a neat trick, but I don't think is quite what you are after... You are close to describing an exercise we used to...
  19. BarkingM*d

    Shock Collar - when is it ok?

    At 8 weeks old... Play, Play and more PLAY! http://www.ridogguy.com/trainingsuppliesandbooks.html Is a good resource for positive training gun dogs. http://p211.ezboard.com/bgundogandbirddogforums Is a good gundog training forum.
  20. BarkingM*d

    Cropping ears at home.

    Neither the health nor the safety argument really works for me i'm afraid... Simple routine maintenance prevents ear infections for dog breeds with longer ears (even in warmer climates) and many protection/vermin breeds are not traditionally cropped with few problems...
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