AGILITY KELPIES

Great To Be Back Trialling - See You In 2010 !

2009-11-21T22:30:00.013+11:00

So our favourite trial of the year has now been and gone - and as Atilla is determined to chalk up those never ending battle scars, our trialling year has now also been and gone.
At least Warrambool trial is usually a good note to end the year on and this year was no exception.

No prizes for guessing what the highlight for both kelpies was ............... here's a clue : it involved a ball and a beach. Just look at the anticipation from both of them.

Atilla waiting patiently for the ball to be thrown - preferably in the direction of the water.

And then trapping the ball between his feet so that Cruz can't get to it at all.

Cruz knows there's a ball around here somewhere, but is not quite sure where it went.

We stayed in different accommodation this time as our 'usual' B & B was sold - this new place was a great find, reasonably priced, only 15 mins drive to the trial ground and the dogs were allowed inside which is always a winner.

Atilla had a good day on Saturday with 3 Q's and another clear round in Masters Jumping that was one tenth of a second over time. Although I was really happy with his work and especially his focus I was disappointed with his lack of speed. Every now and then we have a day like this, but usually I can tell before he goes into the ring that he's distracted for some reason or other and our speed will probably suffer as a result. Although it's disappointing, especially compared to the speed he gives me at home and at training, I have learned not to worry about it too much and certainly not to dwell on it. But this time he was so revved up before he went in that it didn't make sense. I asked a couple of people to look at him in case he was carrying an injury, but both seemed to think that he was jumping fine and moving well - he just looked slower than usual between obstacles for some reason.

We had 2 Open Jumping passes, one with a nice 3rd place, and a Masters Agility pass with a 5th place out of 8 behind some pretty speedy dogs. I was especially happy with the distance work he did on the Open courses but still mystified as to why he wasn't working at his usual pace - we're not super speedy by any means but we don't usually struggle for time in Masters, even when he gets into one of his 'go slow' runs.

On Sunday morning L. went to lift him out of the car as he had parked in a spot where there was some broken glass and when he picked him up he let out a yelp. We looked all over and couldn't find anything until we turned him over and discovered that his grass allergy was back - but under his front legs this time (do dogs have armpits cos this is where it was) and it was back with a vengeance. Poor thing - it must have been absolutely killing him to run as he was red raw, no wonder he was slower than usual. So he got scratched (no pun intended!) for Sunday much to his disgust as he was still wanting to go into the ring.

By the time we got home late Sunday evening it had spread down his legs and on Monday it had gone all over his face. Although he often suffers from patches of grass allergy around this time of year, we think that there was some plant in the yard at the B & B we stayed at that may have set it off - both kelpies were out there for a bit on Friday when we first arrived and of course they stuck their noses into everything. Poor thing was so swollen he looked like a red balloon with slits for eyes. So he has spent close to the last 3 weeks as an indoor dog due to the unseasonal heat we have had - he would have burnt to a frazzle outside. Although he's all healed now, he still has no hair around his eyes and he looks like a panda. The hair is starting to grow back a bit more around his mouth and on his legs and paws but he's still a bit of a hideous sight at the moment, poor thing. So no more trialling for him for the rest of the year - which is nearly over anyway I might add.

Cruz once again exceeded my expectations - poor dog, do I have no faith in him as I always seem to be saying he has exceeded my expectations - note to self : get some higher expectations for Cruz ! He's a good boy.

I only ran him in jumping as I thought the overcrowding at Warrnambool might be a bit stressy for him. He ended up being first dog in the ring for every run so I didn't get to warm him up and get him focussed on me to the extent that I would have liked. Surprisingly enough, it didn't seem to bother him as much as I thought it would. We ended up with 2 more Excellent Jumping passes - only one more leg and he's in Masters with his big brother. Again I was very happy with his runs, although he's still got some juice in the tank and is not opening up and running as fast as he can consistently. There were some sections on each course where he sped up and we managed a 3rd place and a 4th place - he had his 600 butt well and truly kicked by manic border collies each time - they put down some cracking times so I wasn't too disappointed. Suddenly agility here has become inundated with a ton of 400 BC's - and they are proving very hard to beat. And on they march towards Masters - eek !

As I didn't run Atilla on Sunday, I decided to pull Cruz out too and go to the beach.

I have also decided not to enter Warringal with Cruz - may as well make it the end of the season with both dogs. On the one hand I would like to try to finish the last leg of Cruz's AD title - especially as he is now so close to JDX - but I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking of agility in terms of titles and I'm quite happy to take the long way round. He will finish it when he finishes it.

So now for training talk - stop reading at this point if you're not another mad agility tragic as it will bore you silly. I have made the decision that I am no longer going to ask for a stopped contact on the dogwalk for Atilla. I honestly think he was happier (and faster) last year when we were running them - I only cracked it and went back to 2on 2off after he happened to blow 2 contacts on 2 good runs at Nationals. If I am honest with myself I think that if it had been a 'lesser' trial it wouldn't have bothered me all that much - I would most likely have just pulled him out of trialling for a bit and worked more on getting a more reliable running contact. I hunted out my old touchboard and he's hitting it every time, although his speed has been compromised from stopping - probably cos I'm a crap trainer and haven't been able to make the criteria clear enough for him although lord knows I've certainly tried. Now that he has finished his Masters titles and I'm not interested in qualifying for Top Dog run off with him - I am realistic enough to know we don't enter anywhere enough trials to get anywhere near the top ten point scorers- I am going to try a few different things with him. I don't intend to compromise my handling system or cut corners with his criteria, but there's still some room there for a bit of experimentation.

Cruz's 2 on 2 off on the dogwalk is lovely most of the time - I did a way better job with him. But our A Frame is a disaster. After competing with the variance there is in A Frame height here, he has totally lost his confidence. He was almost sliding into position for a bit until he scraped his pads so now he's creeping down to position and I don't seem to be able to speed him up. Last week at training I started early releasing him (yes I know, bad trainer) and I couldn't believe how happy he was not to be stopping - on the other hand I would have trouble getting him not to stop on the dogwalk as the position is really ingrained. So I have decided to go with it and will play around with going back to a running A Frame for him over the break. I videod his performance and he's currently averaging 1.9 seconds without a stop - but his up side is pretty fast and the down side is where all the time is taken. Plus he's a '3 hit dog' and I want him to be able to get down in 2 considering his long legs. I am going to give Rachel Sander's box method a go this time as it's a way of regulating stride on the ground that makes a lot more sense to me than stride regulators on the actual A Frame do at this point.

I made my box (yes, PVC really is a girl's best friend) and have had 3 sessions on the ground so far, trying to teach him to jump into the box with all 4 feet touching. We are up to 60% accuracy so still have a bit to go. When he makes an error, so far it's the same one each time, which is totally jumping over the box when he's revved up for a toy.

Pretty typical for kelpies - all or nothing !

The thought of all the training (or retraining, which is worse) this is going to take scares me a bit, but I really want to give it a go so I will keep our results posted. Plus I figure that whatever I learn along the way with Cruz will also benefit Ivy when I make the decision as to what behaviour I will teach her on the A Frame. I have come to the conclusion that I suck at A Frame training and don't seem to be able to train a really good one no matter what the method. So far, 4 dogs out of 4 all have , or have had, sucky A Frames.

Cruz is also going back to circle running over the break - when you have a 5 month old puppy that runs way better (and I mean way better!) circles than your 3 year old kelpie... something needs to be done.

On The Road Again

2009-10-24T14:36:00.005+11:00

The most noteworthy things from the last few weeks have been :

1. The amount of rain we've actually had - it's looking green here for a change and I have things that I'm sure must be flowers growing in my garden, competing with masses of capeweed of course. Our tank is full and even the smaller dam has some water in it ,which the frogs are very happy about if the level of noise they make at night is anything to go on.

Mmmm - I can smell the lavendar now that the nights are getting warmer. I know my Grand mother would have called it a weed, but I'm a sucker for purple flowers in any shape or form.

2. And the most exciting thing of course... drumroll please ........... tah daa....... after 13 weeks with no car, I finally have wheels again. It's a used Honda Odyssey (which L. has dubbed the catholic mother's car ) and I am in love with it. Now I just have to organise getting some barriers built into the back so the dogs can travel safely and I will really feel that I am back to something resembling normality in regard to cars anyway.

The kelpies like it too - they have christened the back with a trip up and down the driveway, christened the front wheels as only kelpies truly can and have enjoyed me christening the CD player as well - with the "Sunny Cowgirls - Kelpie' of course !

And the best thing about having a car again is that I can actually enter some agility trials.

So after 3 and a half months off trialling, I ran 2 in 2 weekends to try and make up for lost time, something that I rarely do. We went to Sale a couple of weeks back - not a trial that I normally run as it is so far away and I don't like the grounds there at all. You could tell I had trial withdrawl when I ignored my dislike of the set up in general and sent off my entry for that one, plus it was confirmed when I got up at 3:30 am in order to get there in time- generally any trial that would see me up before 5am wouldn't get a look in as a day trip. Atilla had 6 runs and I think they were the 6 hardest courses I have ever run before - often you get one or two that everyone whinges about - what was the judge smoking ???? - and then the rest of the day makes up for it, but not this time. We did manage a Masters Jumping pass that I worked my butt off for so was pleased with that. Plus we revisited the never ending list of a ton of things to work on again, especially after so long off.

The next week was Ballarat and I entered Cruz this time. Atilla got 2 Masters runs just so he didn't sit around doing nothing, no quallies but I was really happy with the way he ran - certainly a lot more speed than the weekend before. Cruz was an absolute little star which I wasn't expecting after so long off, with 3 passes off 4 runs. He put in a lovely Novice Agility run for 1st place, then qualified on both Excellent Jumping courses, with a 2nd place on one run that I was delighted with - there are some extremely fast 500 dogs coming up through Excellent at the moment and poor 'stretch' has to jump 600 after missing out by literally a 'whisker'. Me having a mental blank right near the end of his 2nd jumping run pushed him just out of the placings as I forgot where the course went (um, the tunnel right in front of you !!!!!) and had to stop and look- and Cruz being such a good boy stopped to look with me, unlike Atilla who would have just continued on to the tunnel and said' get out of my way, I know where I'm going ,' in which this case he would have been right.

The last Novice Agility run saw some shut down resurface at the start line where he got up and walked past the tyre. I took him up the back to the dogwalk, around the half way point in the course, did a bit of collar restraining to rev him up, then went on from that point and of course he finished the last half of the course like a rocket... but again I was very happy with that. I was also very happy with the speed that he completed the weaves on both courses as this was the first time I think I pretty much got 'home speed' in a trial setting.

So lots of positive things from Cruz overall and lots of things that I now want to work on with him before next year's trialling season. Loads of serpentines and threadles seem to be the flavour of the month in Masters at the moment, so when he gets up there I want to be ready for them.

This weekend is Warrnambool trial - one of my favourites. Not necessarily my favourite in terms of the way the rings are set up -almost on top of one another with tents and gazebos right on ropes due to very limited space. A nightmare for trying to get in and out of rings for your runs, plus usually there are dogs in crates right at ringside going off their nuts when other dogs are running. I think Cruz is going to find that a bit challenging. I have only entered him in jumping this time. The inevitable clashes from running 2 dogs does my head in sometimes so after only getting 2 runs at Ballarat, this is mainly Atilla's turn. But this is still my favourite trial in terms of the atmosphere and location. (Someone described it as 'party trial' once which was a pretty good description.) Plus lots of runs along the beach, walks around the town, great pubs, great fish and chips and even 4 of my favourite judges....... so Q's or not, who cares, bring it on!

Another Frustrating Break from Trialling

2009-09-05T22:15:00.003+10:00

So once again another trial season with a big amount of 'non trialling' in the middle. Poor Atilla - at 6 years old he has yet to run a full season - usually due to him being injured, but all my fault this time.

At the end of July I had a car accident coming home from work. Luckily I wasn't injured but my car was a write off and the 'quest' to find a new one has been frustrating to say the least. I have always had a high opinion of my credit union when it came to having to borrow money, but all of a sudden there appears to be a ton of red tape if you are self employed. Although I'm not, L. is - the fact that he's not the one paying the loan back doesn't seem to make any difference to them. So after many weeks of jumping through hoops finding documentation for them, not to mention trying to juggle one car when you live in the sticks with no public transport it all adds up to a load of stress ......... I am about to buy any single car that I can afford at the moment which is not much - what do I care what I drive providing I can fit dogs in the back, the Number 1 condition for a good car in my opinion.

And of course the worst thing about not having a car is not being able to trial. Neither of the kelpies has trialled since July. Cruz ran at Sunbury and gave me three outstanding runs - very little sign of any stress and the most speed he's given me trialling yet. We had an error on both Novice agility courses - both were extremely tough courses for Novice. It was wet and slippery for both our runs - first one he was going so fast on one section of the course that he actually face planted after trying to turn tightly from a jump, got up and ran past the next jump before I could even react. I was over the moon with his speed - especially when I heard that in the judge's briefing for Excellent agility he cautioned the competitors about how slippery it was for the 'very fast kelpie' in Novice - yes!!!!!! Fancy being delighted that your dog face planted..... what a dreadful mother I am.

On the second Novice agilty run, we had a similar episode - on the run home, he was going so fast that he didn't see the weaves until he was almost on them, collected to try and make the entry and slid around into the wrong side. I take total blame for that one - just assumed he would make the entry in the rain with me running full blast ahead and not slowing down........ bad mother and bad handler. (And bad trainer - note to self: more weave training in the rain!)

We only ran one Excellent Jumping round - an extremely difficult course that he actually handled very well for a green dog. We missed a tunnel discrimination (there were 4 of them all up and he nailed the other 3) that in retrospect was totally my fault again.

Atilla ran at Berwick and gave me some pretty good work, although we suffered from major tunnel suck again on several of the Master's courses. He still managed another Master's agility pass so was pretty happy with that. He also had a lovely Master's Jumping run on a course that I didn't put much effort into walking as it clashed with Master's Agility and I thought I had more chance with that one. So after only walking what was a difficult course twice, he went out and ran beautifully - until I forgot the course at about obstacle 19 and stood there like an idiot while he continued on taking jumps - not the correct ones unfortunately.

So.... how boring you say....... who cares about trial reminiscences unless it's with your own dogs? True, but I am having withdrawl from trialling so need to live vicariously through past runs !

And just to complicate matters and add a bit more stress ......... I have a new puppy. (You can read all about her in 'Ivy's Blog' - this one is for the kelpies, after having to share stuff with her all of a sudden they at least need a blog that's just for them)
Atilla doesn't seem to mind her at all - even when she jumps all over him. Cruz is a bit more wary and prefers a quick 'hello' but then to keep his distance.
Time management is interesting - now I have to divide my time between all three of them when it comes to training - maybe it's just as well we are having a break from trialling.

I'm trying to keep part of my agility area clear for circle running with puppy at the moment, so have been working with the kelpies on things that don't need much space in regard to equipment. Good excuse for all those jump grids that I've been putting off and have spent some time planning out today ........ although listening to the weather outside at the moment, it won't be tomorrow ! Keep planning detailed training sessions like this and I could break the drought.

Just Because I Think She's Cute !

2009-07-31T11:17:00.009+10:00

A friend found her 4 month old BC intently studying up on the finer points of GD's handling system and sent me the photos. Couldn't resist putting a couple of BC's amongst the kelpies.

"What's this? I distinctly heard a BC bark coming from that funny box. Better lie down here on guard. Then I'll corner it when it finally comes out the back of the box and teach it to come into my lounge room uninvited. "

" Hang on a minute...... this is actually good stuff. I knew it - you're not supposed to just run around flapping your arms all over the place while you expect me to read your mind and know which jump I'm supposed to take. Mum ! Mum.... are you getting this? You have to have your body facing in the right direction......... MUM ! Get in here ! You need to see this right now - before too long I'll be finished with my foundation training and then I'm going to have to know all this. Where is that woman for goodness sake? I'm never going to remember all this. MUM !!!!!!!!!!!! ""I'm going in for a closer look now. This bloke actually seems to know what he's talking about ! Hope he gives me a run next time he comes to Australia. Yoooo Hoooo Greg - can you hear me? It's me, your new Number 1 Fan. Aw dammit - this threadle thingy is complicated.... should I be taking notes ? ""And he also has really cool tug toys and lets his dog play with them at the end - think I'm in luurve........ That is one lucky dog right there. "
"Hah ! Friggin' suck of a pup. Don't you just love the ones who always have to sit at the front of the classroom so they can cosy up to the teacher - NOT ! And it's always those common black and white ones too in my opinion. "

"Anyway, check this out. What makes you think you're even going to get a go at this agility thing when she has ME to work with. Look at this, brains and athleticism as well as beauty ! Eat ya heart out puppy............... You can kiss my furry butt any time."

And apologies to my friend who actually has spent a lot of time studying the finer points of all the GD DVD's - and doesn't run wildly around flapping her arms on an agility couse. (Well, no more than I do anyway!)

Working Those Weaves

2009-07-23T22:01:00.011+10:00

Over the past few weeks I have been working to proof the kelpies' weaves a bit more - especially Atilla's. Although his weave pole performance is usually pretty reliable, he occasionally pops out at a trial when we happen to get a set that are particularly 'bendy' - he's not very tolerant at being hit in the face by them. When this happens, he tends to weave slower to try and avoid touching them and this appears to throw his footwork 'off.' Due to the lack of bend in his wrist, his weave footwork is quite bizarre since returning to agility - especially when compared to before - and he doesn't cope well with any disruption to his rhythm.

So the first thing I did was to set up a really bodgy set of weave poles. I used a mixture of jump bars (these were too big so they rattled around on the holders) and electrical conduit (very bendy and great face slapping material). Then I put them in the roughest area of the yard, away from the usual training area and moved them really close to the cyclone fencing of the dog run so that he was almost weaving into a barrier.

There's actually grass in this area now, but when I first set this up, he was pretty much weaving on dirt. I started off using really high value rewards, both toy and food, and jackpotted him several times for staying in when the poles hit him in the face. Then I worked on running alongside for the first half of the poles and then gradually slowing down as he approached the end. This one was interesting - I had proofed running along the poles and stopping at various points before he completed them beforehand and he managed this really well - but when I ran alongside and slowed down toward the end, he actually popped out the first couple of times. So although I proofed stopping, I had assumed that slowing down was the same and had never really proofed this before. So Cruz also got the benefit of this lesson.

Then I brought out the big guns of distraction - a few bones scattered around the poles as they weaved (although I questioned this wisdom after almost twisting my ankle on one!) building up to the two old dogs actually chewing on the bones beside the weave poles as they weaved.

The 'distraction crew' thought this was the best agility training they had ever been involved in.

And I'm also pleased to report that both the kelpies passed this one with flying colours.

I've also been taking some 'stick in the ground' poles down to the local oval every now and again and sending them through these in between our circle running and kong throwing.
Overall I am pretty happy with their weave pole work - although Cruz's entries, trained with 2X2's, would leave Atilla's for dead. I am so impressed with these, and can't wait to actually teach a dog 'from scratch' using this method.

I found this exercise scrawled in one of my notebooks - no idea where I got it from though - and have been working this over the past week.

I really enjoyed running this as there were a lot of different combinations - we mainly focused on working the 'figure 8' using the weaves and the jump but mixing it up by including the tunnel every now and then. Neither kelpie had any problems with making the right hand weave entry (pictured on the left) but the left hand entry was a real problem for Atilla if I didn't babysit it. Cruz was amazing - he actually straightened himself up by going past the first pole and turning himself around (which we trained in the 2X2 sessions) but Atilla kept continuing on the angle after slicing the centre jump, made the entry every time, but could not bend around enough to get the second pole when he hit the entry at speed. He has a very limited understanding of collecting and bending around the poles compared to Cruz - which is totally my fault (at least on his 'good side') as I never taught him to do it. He still does the 'see poles run fast' from the channel method.

There have been some interesting weave pole challenges in a few of the Masters courses lately. This one was actually set by two very different judges - the rest of their courses were totally different but the weave entry was exactly the same.
On both courses the challenge was coming from the lower jump with a tight left hand entry to the weaves - and an off course jump staring you in the face. Atilla missed the first time and took the off course jump. This was a fast and flowing course for the most part and he got too far ahead of me before the weaves so I wasn't there to handle it. On the second course he had no trouble with it - but this was a tighter course with a lot of turns and I managed to be slightly in front of him before the jump so it was much easier to direct him this time.

The other interesting challenge - which I couldn't believe how many had trouble with it - was on an Excellent Gamblers course that we qualified on.

The weaves were at the beginning of the gamble, but because of the way the line was set up, your dog actually had to weave away from you. (Imagine the distance line going straight up for the rest of the gamble - couldn't figure out how to draw it . This is also showing the first 2 obstacles only in the gamble - the last two were a single bar jump and the broad jump, slightly offset after the tunnel ) I found it really surprising that most of the dogs running were Masters dogs but very few completed the weaves.

Hopefully our proofing sessions - which we will continue with - will help both kelpies understand their job and stop me stressing every time I see a set of bendy poles. The thing that's impressed me the most with Atilla's weaves lately is his improved confidence. Last week at training he went through the weaves so fast that he actually hit a pole really hard and pulled it out of the holder. This would have freaked him a couple of months back but it didn't bother him in the slightest - plus he got the mother of all jackpots for staying in. Weave on !

A Quick Update in Photos

2009-06-21T22:07:00.011+10:00

So what's been happening over the past few weeks ? (Mainly non-agility related)

RIP Ryobi ................................

L. found him dead in the loose box a couple of weeks back when he went to feed the horse. We think he died in his sleep, possibly from old age. I googled how long goats live (11 years on average) and we have had him for 6. He was a 'rescue goat' and we think he may have been 5 or 6 when we got him, so that would add up. After being head butted many times I didn't think I would miss the cranky old thing, but I actually do. And the kelpies sure miss moving him off the fence whenever he dared to come too close.

The oak trees gradually started to change colour and a seemingly permanent flock of cockatoos moved in to attack the acorns. Cruz chased them off whenever they landed, but Atilla was fascinated by them. If they flocked on the ground in a group, he stayed in 'watching and silently stalking' mode, but if they separated at all it obviously offended his kelpie herding instinct so he scattered them and then backed off waiting for them to return and the fun to start all over again.

Now Winter has moved in, the remaining leaves are starting to scatter all over the agility area and the mornings are freezing ........

....... but on the clear days the sunsets are still pretty spectacular.

Bosnich turned 10 - that can't be possible can it ? Although I can't imagine my life without kelpies any more, it still only seems like yesterday when we brought this little bundle of fluff home - and not a kelpie on the horizon at that stage.

And finally back to the kelpies ...... Atilla managed that last pass we needed for his Jumping Dog Masters title. For once we didn't suffer from 'last pass syndrome', after gaining our 6th leg, he finished his title at the very next trial on his first run of the day, then followed it up with another Masters agility pass for good measure.And what about Cruz you ask? He has had 6 weeks off trialling as I decided that I wasn't going to put him out there again until he gave me some more consistent speed at training - after all if he can't do it at training then he isn't going to do it under trial conditions. The strange thing about making that decision was that he immediately started giving me a lot more speed off the ground at training - even when stressed by other dogs in the class barking in line. (That's a huge turn off for him)

So last weekend I entered him in 2 runs only in the morning and both his runs were beyond any expectations I may have had. First run was Excellent Jumping (his first time) and he put in a beautiful fast run - only my sloppy handling costing us a pass - I was actually unprepared for the speed that he came around a pinwheel and didn't get to positional cue for a front cross as a result. Crossing out of position actually put me behind for the next bit and I got a 'run by' on that jump as I didn't cue him to turn soon enough. But I was delighted with his run.

Then on to Novice agility where he put in another lovely run and qualified to win the ring - coming in 10 seconds faster than the second placed dog even though I held him on his contacts and on the table for a bit. So I am a proud kelpie mum once again at the moment - although I am not under any illusions that trial conditions no longer distract him. We will continue to work on this by trying to practice in unfamiliar environments as much as we can.

After L. mowed the lawn this morning (yes, I actually have grass again) I was looking forward to a good training session with both kelpies this afternoon, but ended up spending most of it driving around helping to look for my neighbour's dog, which they eventually found. As he doesn't bother containing the dog on his property, it runs onto the road (OK, it's a dead end, but still gets some traffic) and chases joggers, cyclists, etc. and this time must have continued to follow a couple of cyclists down the road. I would have little sympathy for him - he sees the dog as a farm dog and not a pet in any way - if it wasn't for his new wife who loves the dog and has constant arguments with him about not securing fences and gates. She would dearly love the dog to be allowed inside but he's not having any part of that ....... so we have ganged up together and are going to work on him - starting with the fences and gate.

The Great Handling System Debate

2009-05-16T23:49:00.003+10:00

This topic seems to be the flavour of the month on many agility related forums at the moment - to the point where some have almost adopted an 'us and them' mentality.

Personally I don't care which handling system, if any, anyone chooses to adopt. I quite like the fact that on any one course you will see many different handling choices, some successful and some not. But what really pushes my buttons is the amount of people mouthing off about why a particular system sucks when in reality they know next to nothing about it, apart from a pack of misconceptions spread about by followers of the 'other system'

Sometimes I almost wish for a return of the 'good old days' when I didn't have a system, wasn't aware that I needed a system and in fact didn't even know what a system was - Yasser got along just fine without one when he was running in agility.
But as dog training further develops ,the bar is raised (no pun intended) and now we're all looking for those things that can make us consistent, faster and more competitive and training a system would probably be pretty high on the list in regard to achieving those things. Plus we're bombarded with information about systems in agility magazines, seminars, forums and even in general discussions around the ring so it's pretty hard to avoid. And never has any topic since politics and religion caused so much dissension between so called mature human beings. Pretty funny really, when all people are arguing about is basically a bunch of cues used to get around a course - albeit combined in different ways and given different priorities depending on which system you follow.

So after initially training Atilla with a whole bunch of different things that I picked up mainly from overseas presenters - some of which worked brilliantly and some that didn't- I have now jumped on the system bandwagon (well about 2 years ago to be exact) and am trying to adopt a more consistent system of handling.
These were the things I considered before I decided :

1. Will this system fit with how my dog works and my physical ability?

Funnily enough, I began training the Derrett system with Atilla when he was starting out, but was persuaded not to continue by many who told me that I wasn't fast enough to be in front of him all the time. This is a huge misconception about the Derrett system - in fact you could run a course using all rear crosses and still be handling within the system. But as time goes by and you get more experience and can work a little more lateral distance, it also becomes easier to be in front of your dog. In fact the only difficulty I have now is recognizing when it is feasible that I will be in front and when I probably will not, and planning my handling strategy accordingly. I still screw this up on occasion.

2. Will the handling system fit within the typical course design of the organisation I am trailling in?

This is probably the consideration that turns a lot of people away from running the Derrett system in Australia - or in Victoria anyway. Quite a number of judges set courses that are very difficult to handle without breaking the rules of the system. In fact it's even been suggested by some cynical people that they do this on purpose. I have decided to bite the bullet when it comes to this and if I genuinely can't find a way to get around that I am happy with, then I withdraw or make up my own course. At first I was scratching maybe one run every month, but as my course analysis skills gradually improve (about time, say the kelpies) then I find I am having to do this a lot less - only one run so far this year.

3. Does the system fit with my training philosophy?

Personally, I hate the idea of 'punishing' my dogs for dropping a bar and missing contacts - to me that's a training issue so if it happens then it's my fault and I need to do more training. As one system promotes this and the other doesn't, that was an easy choice to make.

4. Does this system make sense to me?

One makes total sense, even if I don't always execute it properly. The other confuses me, so in all likelihood if I am confused then my dogs will be too.

5. What support is available to help me train this system?

This one was also hard - especially when very few people you train with are familiar with what you are doing. But I am gradually building up a 'network' - and the internet, DVD's and seminars are wonderful things. Sometimes it's hard to have the courage to try things when you're not sure if you're doing it right, but if no one ever tried things out, then I guess systems wouldn't have been developed to begin with.

6. Do I really want to invest the time and effort to retrain into a system?

This one was also a big factor - it took a big commitment to decide to retrain, especially when Atilla had already had a year out of trialling due to injury. But I feel as if I owe it to both him and Cruz to be more consistent with my handling and to put the foundation into training positional cues with them. And kelpies definitely do better with things in black and white rather than shades of grey and the consistency of the Derrett system was the final deal clincher for me.

So that's my system of choice and the reasons why I chose it. For me it makes a whole lot of sense and gives me guidelines to choose between the different options available for handling a course. This is one area that I especially want to improve on this year, as I believe that at least 75% of the time when I don't Q it's because I made a bad decision on how to handle a section of the course.

So I guess different systems suit different people and whatever you choose has to 'sit right' with you and I don't have a problem with that - but I'm seriously considering bringing along my i-pod for future course walking so I can tune out the comments relating to which handling system gets the job done better.

I Confess - It's a Shameless Brag !

2009-04-16T10:07:00.005+10:00

Although I never wanted this blog to represent a blow by blow description of every trial result - I can't resist posting this one. (And I will make more of an effort to get back to documenting my training after this, I promise!)

Last week at Moorabbin Atilla finally got the last pass we needed for ADM - he also managed a Masters Jumping pass and an Open Jumping pass just for good measure. On the weekend just gone we had our Club trial and he clocked up another Masters Jumping pass so we are now almost there in regard to that title too.

It might not seem all that special - many dogs gain Masters titles - but for a dog that suffered a major injury 3 years ago - to the point where it did not seem he would ever return to agility - then missed a year of trialling, then put up with my overprotective handling for the whole of the next year until I learned to relax again, and still runs with minimal flexion in one wrist joint (which inhibits his turns in one direction quite a lot) well, it is very special to me.... and something that I thought may never happen. So I am very proud of my 'heart dog' at the moment.

And of course Cruz did not want to be outdone. On his second ever Novice Jumping run at Moorabbin he won the ring in the morning - he also had a lovely run in the afternoon where I deliberately ran wrong course as I didn't want him out of Novice all that quick.
That run was probably our fastest one so far. Moorabbin is a nice ground with very few distractions for an ADHD kelpie. (Look at that! What was that?, Who is that and why is he in the ring? etc.)

He then gained his last pass for his Jumping Dog title at our club trial on the weekend - although he didn't give me anywhere near full speed as L. and Atilla were standing right outside the ring for a distraction, which they certainly were.
But a giraffe like kelpie can run with one eye on me, one eye on them, and still come in 4th place on a course with 11 passes - and of course now that I know how much of a distraction L. is - he is banned from all future trials !

So I couldn't resist having a little brag and posting their photo - what smug looking kelpies don't you think ? And after getting rump steak, they should be very pleased about their respective titles too.

And unfortunately, as much as I am allowing myself a brag - well I still have a long list of things to be worked on over the next few months with both of them - not to mention my handling as well.

Some Valuable Agility Lessons - From a Kelpie

2009-03-14T21:10:00.000+11:00

I couldn't wait to get back to trialling again after the Summer break.
So much so that I drove 3 and a half hours to Warrnambool for 2 half day trials - 3 runs on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.
As I had a devil of a time trying to get accommodation (Warrnambool was obviously where it was all happening over the long weekend!) I didn't enter Cruz. At one stage it looked as if I may have been sharing accommodation with a number of other people and dogs and I didn't think it was fair to rock up with more than one dog. Anyway, we ended up getting a tent site for Saturday evening only - 2 people and 2 kelpies only just fit into a 6 person tent by the way. Obviously to get 6 people in you have to sleep in 2 layers. Luckily my 'old boys' are happy sleeping in the car.

I'm not sure if it was the long drive or the warm afternoon, but on Saturday I just couldn't get connected with Atilla. Our first run in Open Jumping wasn't too bad but thanks to another 'blonde moment' I ended up doing an extra circle of a pinwheel before the run home. (3 extra obstacles and we still made time!) I haven't forgotten a course in quite a while so that should have served as a warning for what was to come - two of the worst Masters runs we have had in a long time. I can't even remember agility, and Atilla got so fed up with me in jumping that eventually he took off and made up his own course. (Very frustrated 'kelpie-like' and rightly so!)

Sunday was a lot better, the connection returned and we had two good runs in Masters (on two beautiful courses that were very kelpie friendly) with just one small error each time. Later on when talking to a friend, he commented on what a wasted weekend it must have been to travel all that way without a pass.
Well if that was what I measured a successful agility weekend on, I would be disappointed a lot of the time!

There were so many things that I learned over the weekend that I have decided to list them here in the hope that recounting them makes me truly learn these lessons and benefit from them.

Firstly, this was the trial weekend for my new lead out procedure - no more looking back and running to position instead. It has been working well at training with both dogs but this was the first time I have done it in a trial situation. 5 runs, 5 lead outs held and none of the stress signs that I was sometimes seeing before - even when I went out to the 5th jump in Open Jumping and 'arm changed' to handle the serpentine in the distance test, which was at the start of the course. So a big tick for this one and I will definitely keep on doing it. Not sure why running to position appears to work compared to walking, just happy that so far it is!

I'm usually pretty relaxed running Atilla but when things came unstuck on Saturday I tensed up and handled accordingly. Although I would put verbal cues down near the bottom on the priority list of how I handle, for some reason when I tense up I become a lot more verbal.
I think kelpies really hate this. Not that I see the need to run totally silent (although I think this is an excellent training exercise to really get the focus on your body cues) but maybe shutting up a lot more and letting the kelpie actually get on with his job would have been a better handling strategy.
Something I am going to try and be a lot more aware of from now on.
I also noticed that the more verbals I used, the more he started to ignore me, so maybe being a little quieter would give an improved response to a verbal command when I do give one.

One of my favourite quotes ( can't remember the author or where I read it though) is written in the front of my training diary as a reminder:
'What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.'

This is a hard lesson to live and I don't think I have been able to totally hide my disappointment on other occasions when things haven't gone well, but this time I think I went closer to getting it right. After I left the trial on Saturday, I took Atilla to the beach - we still had 3 hours before L. was due down with the other dogs. This would have been the first time in ages when we got to run on the beach together, just the two of us, and it was a good 're-connecting' experience.
Atilla found a dog toy that had washed up - and of course a 'freebie found' is way better than any toy I could buy him. So for the better part of 2 hours, we ran played 'tug' and 'retrieve' with the toy. When we were both really tired, we walked along the sand for a couple of kms.
A happy kelpie face is a great pick me up so the disappointment of our runs was soon forgotten which I believe went a long way toward the much better performance on Sunday.
In the past I would have probably put him in the car, gone home, and stressed about all the errors I had made which is totally counter productive. Especially when no one else remembers or cares about your runs except you - including your dog!

Other things I learned on the weekend :
*There will always be some fallout as a reformed 'flicker'. (GD handlers know what I'm talking about) Accept it, continue with 'anti flick' training - which in all likelihood will never be 100% effective, and move on. Smile as your kelpie flips you the paw and disappears into the far end of the tunnel- you taught him to do it in the first place.

*I can actually have 2 good runs with L. standing right outside the ring. Apart from some initial head turning on the startline, Atilla didn't look at him once.

*Listen to everyone's advice, even if you don't take 99% of it on board - it's that other 1% that can sometimes make a difference.

*Sometimes very successful weekends, pass wise, mean that you don't learn all that much from your runs. So which weekends are really the most successful in the big picture?

Bed Etiquette - Sleeping with Kelpies

2009-02-22T22:34:00.000+11:00

I've just walked into the living room to hear L lecturing Cruz about 'bed etiquette.'

Our rules regarding sleeping arrangements have evolved as the number of dogs has evolved. Their first 12 months were spent crated at night, beginning in the laundry and then progressing to the bedroom.

No more than 2 dogs on the bed at night - this one has actually worked out well. Originally we had Yasser and Bosnich on the bed. By the time Atilla progressed to the crate in the bedroom stage, Yasser was too old and arthritic to get up on the bed any more and preferred his bed at the foot of ours. So Bosnich and Atilla had bed privileges.

Late last year, Bosnich decided that he too was having difficulty jumping up on the bed and would prefer to sleep with Yasser. So now the kelpies have the bed privilege - providing they get off immediately if I tell them to do so, which they both do. Just so they know they share our bed, rather than us sharing theirs !

Bed etiquette has never been raised as an issue with any of the dogs before Cruz - all of them prefer to curl up at your feet and don't move. Cruz on the other hand has no bed etiquette, as L is delighting in telling him.

No end of the bed for him - he's a snuggler through and through, whether the temperature is minus 2 or 35 plus. And he doesn't curl up in a ball like the others, he prefers to stretch his long lanky legs and giraffe like neck as far out as he possibly can, which is usually digging into my back, legs or head. And he doesn't keep still. It's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of the night with his butt on the pillow and his tail across your face. And if you happen to get up in the night you know he's going to be in your spot when you come back, looking up innocently with one eye - you don't really expect me to move do you?

And his reaction to the bed etiquette lecture ?

Victoria Burns - A Black Day

2009-02-10T22:50:00.001+11:00

This is the usual view from my verandah - something that I love to sit and look at most evenings with the kelpies by my side, as it gives me a feeling of peace. (Especially after a typical day at work. )This is Mount Disappointment, with Wandong just to the left of the picture and if you continue to travel to the right of the picture and face east instead of north, you can see the mountains of Kinglake in the distance. (You'll have to take my word for it)

The photo below is the view from the same spot last Saturday- one of the most tragic days in Victoria's history. The fire front travelled from Kilmore East, just above Wandong, right across Mount Disappointment to the foothills at Glenvale -only 5 minutes up the road from here. Once the smoke finally cleared in the evening when the cool change moved in, you could actually see the flames. It looked as if the whole of the mountain was on fire, which it probably was. Although I took some photos of the flames visible from our place, I couldn't bear to post them- in fact I ended up deleting them all except for this one, which is defintely the least sensational of the bunch.

From Glenvale, the fire moved across the back of Whittlesea to Humevale, eventually joining up with the fire at Kinglake - and judging by the number of international phone calls we've had the past couple of days, I think the whole world knows what happened after that.

My grandmother always used to say 'there but for the grace of God go I' and it pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment. We were put on ember alert mid afternoon and then upgraded to urgent threat later in the afternoon, but the direction that the wind was blowing meant that the fire front narrowly missed us for which we are thankful but also terrified that this was probably due only to chance.

Two former work colleagues lost their homes, and one also lost her favourite kelpie which I can't even bear to think about what that must be like. Another evacuated and returned home to find hers was the only home on the road standing - another instance of Russian roulette fire style.

Many dog breeders have lost properties and dogs - one lost every single one of their dogs which is so heartbreaking to hear about.

Such is the enormity of this tragedy that six degrees of separation goes out the window - I think just about everyone in Victoria knows someone who lost either property or family.

It makes me wonder how many of us living in semi rural areas actually have a realistic fire plan? Or think that we actually need one ? Coming as close as it did terrified me and we were never in any real danger - I can only imagine the horror of seeing a fire like that literally on your doorstep. Thoughts that I'm trying to push out of my mind now.
Our so called plan was originally to stay and fight if the fire got any closer, then when L came home from work he decided that I should go and take the dogs while he stayed. (Don't know if I could have lived with that or not?) The next day, after the relief turned to disbelief and shock from the amount of devastation and lives lost, we realised that if we had lost power, which is pretty likely in a bushfire, then we wouldn't have had any water to fight fire with anyway as the pump wouldn't have worked. So what dumb bunnies are we!
I think a generator is going on the latest 'wish list'. Plus a more serious attitude to actually developing a plan that is a bit more realistic. Most of us only think of the CFA once a year when making our annual resident's donation. An attitude that is probably going to change for a lot of people now.

My case was packed and ready to go at one stage and when I unpacked it later, I realised that just about every single thing in it was agility related. (What a tragic am I! )

So tonight I am thankful that I have still have my home (even though it's only property in the scheme of things), that my beautiful dogs and horse are safe - even the cranky goat, and all my friends and neighbours are also safe - we were a bit worried about one of them for a while.
I am so sad for all the lives lost that I am still numb all over- and I don't think I will ever feel the same about looking out over the mountains again.

And that makes me feel cheated, as selfish as that might seem - something that I loved has now lost the peaceful feeling that I always associated with it and I don't know if I will ever get that back again.

Time To Get Back to Training

2009-01-24T20:46:00.000+11:00

Atilla has finished his treatment for a strained hamstring - diagnosed during his muscle therapy session - we've had a month off jumping, well, pretty much a month off everything, so time to get back to work.

We're going to run very short sequences for the next couple of weeks, training no more than 4 times a week, and then start building up from there. I still want to continue with some shaping plus work on his fitness - and mine- on the days we're not specifically doing agilty training.

Today I chose a sequence from the new Greg Derrett DVD - which was actually taken from the middle of a course diagram, but I wanted to focus on something that incorporated the cloth tunnel/chute. The training exercise on the DVD focused on which way to turn your dog after the jump before the tunnel, so we worked it with a front cross and also with various lead outs.

I worked it with a diagonal front cross between 2 and 3, then a threadle from 4 to 5. Also worked it with a lead out pivot on the close side of 4, then a push through at 4, plus with a lead out pivot on the far side of 4, turning around the opposite side of the jump than before.

Also tried it running from the start and a rear cross between 2 and 3 which actually worked a lot better than I thought it would with Atilla. Didn't try that one with Cruz as our rear crosses still need a lot more work driving down a diagonal line. My fault entirely as I haven't devoted a lot of training time to rear cross work, something that I will rectify this year - in between the hundred other things I want to do with him.

I have really missed training, even though I think it has been good for both kelpies to have some time off.

I am so looking forward to the Greg Derrett seminar next week - although the very high temperatures forecast make me glad I didn't apply for a working spot this time.

Another Year .....for Training and the 'Old Man'

2009-01-08T16:50:00.000+11:00

Another year for Yasser, my lovely old man and honorary kelpie ! (We think there is a little bit of kelpie in there somewhere, along with the BC and ACD. ) This is his 14th Birthday portrait.

To celebrate I made the boys ice cream cone cakes - a doggy muffin jammed into the cone then covered with low fat cream cheese frosting, tiny bacon pieces and a blueberry on top, covered with finely planed doggy chocolate - gotta get those antioxidants. No complaints from the canine customers so I guess it was a winner. Plus I'm addicted to the microplaner grater thingy since I saw it on 'Jamie' - although I don't know what he would say about using it for doggy chocs.

Atilla is having a break from training at the moment, much to his disgust.

The end of trial season visit from the muscle therapist is happening next week. Since the end of the trialling year he has already had a few weeks off , so hopefully we will be able to ease back into training after that. I still feel that something is not quite right with him, so we will see.

We have been working inside with the clicker to sharpen up some of his tricks - now that I am doing this with both Tilla and Cruz at the same time, I can see a difference in their progress with both freeshaping and working through the clicker. (eg: the click does not end the behaviour- wait for your release cue) Cruz is way better at both these things which really makes me feel as if I didn't really use it to its best effect with Tilla in the beginning.

So nothing like a refresher course - for him and for me. And I think the clicker was almost invented for kelpies - they love the independence it gives them in trying out behaviours for themselves ........ plus the rewards for getting it right! Yes, another lightbulb moment.

I have also started retraining Cruz's weaves with Susan Garrett's 2X2 method - not that I wasn't happy with Cruz's weaves, but one thing that I have neglected with him is really working those difficult entries, so since this method is meant to train these I thought I would give it a go.

Day 6 so far and I am blown away by the results. We are on 4 poles, still slightly open even though I know he can weave straight poles - but the entries he is making are amazing. I know that a week ago he would have needed so much assistance from me to get them, but now he is doing it all by himself. I'm sure he thinks I'm losing my mind (I know L does!) as I am so excited by this that I am yelling 'yes, yes, yes' as he goes through the poles - note to self : Be silent next time. I am also impressed with his new found perserverance when he gets it wrong. I never used to let him fail at anything more than twice, and once we had two 'failures' I made the exercise easier. But this is one thing that Garrett now cautions against when teaching this method - let the dog work it out for himself without making it easier for him.

We had 5 'failures' in a row the other day - and it killed me not to help him out, but I didn't..... and then he got it right! As Elicia would say, 'Yeeeeee Harrrrr!!!!!!! ' Plus this is now also paying off in both his work and also his attitude. No shutting down and refusing to work, no frustration barking - which is also carrying over into the work we are doing inside using the clicker.

We should probably move to a location outside the yard now for a bit of proofing, so that may be a weekend project.

I have decided that once I get to the 'challenge' exercises, if he can still make the entries (eg: I've actually trained it properly!) then I will also retrain Atilla - who I thought had really good entries until I tried some of these with him.

One thing that I really wanted to do with Atilla over Summer was work on the cloth tunnel. He has never had any difficulty performing this before, although it's not my favourite piece of equipment. Personally I think it's an accident waiting to happen, especially with the design of many being used in Australia including those awful heavy canvas ones. Atilla got tangled in one on a Masters Agility run at Warrnambool in November. He has been tangled in chutes before and this has never caused him any problems, but in the following Masters Jumping run I got 3 refusals at it before he decided he would go in. That's never happened before, even back in Novice. Got it out at training the next week and he wouldn't go in either. So I brought one home from club for the summer break as it's the one piece of equipment that I don't own. Put it out on my agility area and as soon as I brought him in, he took off away from me and made straight for it, running through no problems and then looking at me like 'that was fun, let's do it again'. Several repetitions later, all fast and confident....... where was the problem again?

So after all the effort I made to get it home, it's now sitting in the bungalow gathering dust!

It will come out again in a couple of weeks so that I can design some sequences to run incorporating it for both dogs, just to make sure.

And I would still like to see it disappear from trials in the near future.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T11:22:00.000+11:00

From my kelpies to yours .............

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and lots of training success in 2009, whatever your training goals happen to be.

And do you really think either of them would wear a Christmas hat for me? Not on your life - thank goodness for photo editing programs !

Training Kelpies - Some Thoughts

2008-12-22T10:44:00.000+11:00

I joined a kelpie discussion list a few months back - which has been a largely disappointing experience I might add. The description of the group had the words 'training discussions' which I thought would be interesting, but have since discovered that the only type of 'training' that the moderators of the list deem to be acceptable is anything related to working livestock and if you dare mention the word 'agility' you are told in no uncertain terms that this list is for training - get thee to another list! The big implication being that working kelpies should be doing just that - working with livestock and nothing else, agility is the devil's playground.

No matter, but I find this a very narrow attitude for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I believe that any information shared about kelpies, whether relating to genetics, instinct, breeding lines, and even training for agility competition, promotes a better understanding of the breed in general - which is so important for working through training issues, not to mention living with them.

Secondly, understanding how kelpies work stock also gives some great insight into training by working with their natural drives for those of us who do other activities with our kelpies - which is the main reason why I am still a member of the list, albeit a lurker rather than a poster.

And every now and then , someone posts something a little more though provoking than usual which makes it worthwhile - after saving the following quote in my computer with the intention of giving full credit to its author- I have just realised that I forgot to copy the name of the original poster. Anyway, this post struck such a chord with me that I am going to quote it with apologies to the author and the assumption that you don't mind as it was contributed to a public forum to begin with.

'One of the things that I have noticed about Kelpies in general, is that they have a lot going on mentally. They are tuff yet can be extremely sensitive, they are intelligent and they are always thinking. A lot of this goes back to the fact that they were bred to cover thousands of acres and large flocks of sheep or large herds of cattle. They were bred to be intelligent enough to figure out how to get the job done even when no one is around. This can be both good and frustrating for us on small farms and trials because they like to think that they don't need us meddling in their business. But I have noticed that you can easily hurt their feelings if you are not careful. You just have to learn how to work these qualities to the best of our abilities. If something is not working take the time to think about it and figure out what it is you want and how to succeed at it. But when you do, the look on your Kelpie's face when the light goes on is unmistakable. Just don't forget to make a fuss over his/her success. Let them know they got it right and then quit on that for the time being. All 3 of mine thrive on attention and live to get that 'Good Dog!'

I don't think the author works dogs in agility, but if she/he did, I have no doubt that they would be successful as they seem to have a pretty good handle on the kelpie temperament - as it relates to my experience so far- and dog training in general.

The 'tough but sensitive' contradiction is hard for a lot of people to understand but for me it is a pretty accurate description.

They are bred to be tough in relation to the work they carry out and the conditions that they often work in - after all, no one wants a working dog that can't cut it and a good kelpie can do the work of many men on a big property, so I am told. I also have to admit that the first few times I saw Atilla work sheep I was dumbstruck at how hard he went in when it was necessary. Here was my 'soft' little kelpie pushing himself between the fence and the sheep to move them off with no hesitation and using a fair bit of force, but the same dog worked in an entirely different manner when put on ducks.

This has always been the one big difference that stood out for me compared to working my ACD on sheep. Again, I only make the observation from my own experience, but the ACD uses the same degree of force on sheep from start to finish whereas with the kelpies it is almost like watching a choreographed perfomance - go in hard, ease off, go in hard, ease off. They seem to have more of an innate understanding of when to use force, rather than just using it for the whole time because they can.

I have seen a lot of people ruin good kelpies,when training them for agility in particular, because they hone in on this 'tough' quality but ignore the 'sensitive' one. Kelpies are very good at trying you out (right from the moment you first bring them home) and a lot of people respond to this with the 'me human- you dog' mentality and resort to physical punishment and the like to exert their 'dominance'. Kelpies do not respond well to any sort of harsh treatment - not that I've ever been harsh with mine, but have witnessed plenty with others. They are ideal candidates for positive training techniques (mine are both clicker trained) and you just have to be patient, consistent and occasionally outsmart them to get the pecking order clearly defined. (Not that it's all that easy to outsmart them of course)
And they are always thinking - anticipating what you want next, which can be a double edged sword on an agility course. Running my old BC cross or ACD in agility used to have a little room for slight handler error - not so running kelpies. I find that my position or body signal only needs to be a tiny bit out and there's an off course or a run by. Which is only fair and spurs me on to be a better handler.

I really like Suzanne Clothier's description of 'relationship based training' (if you haven't read 'Bones Would Rain From the Sky do yourself a favour and get a copy) as this is what I think agility training is all about. If you take the time to develop a relationship with your kelpie - based on mutual respect rather than dominance and force- then you will get much better results.

The other part of the quote that I really like refers to using those kelpie qualities to the best of your ability. I agree with Susan Garrett - dog trainer extraordinaire! that you need to 'train the dog you want' - but to get there I believe you also need to work with what you've got, rather than 'fight' your dog every step of the way. And if something's not working, think outside the square to change the picture for your dog in order to set them up for success. So I am thinking of the end product that I want and then backchaining to work out the steps I will need to train to get there in a way that 'sits right' with both me and the kelpies and enhances rather than damages our relationship.

And yeah, that look of the light going on is priceless - Atilla has had quite a few lightbulb moments over the past 12 months.

So these comments may be way off base to some kelpie owners and breeders - after all I am still pretty much a novice kelpie owner even though I did grow up with them as a child. But these observations totally fit with my experience so far. Looking forward to learning more about them as our training journey progresses.

Cruz Finally Makes his Debut

2008-12-17T00:08:00.000+11:00

Well it took us until the last trial for the year but Cruz is finally no longer a trial virgin.
My training had reached the point where I needed to put him in a trial situation to see how he coped with all the distractions so that's what I did.
I only entered him in 2 runs for his first time - which I will probably continue to do for the next few trials as well.

First up was Novice Agility - a course with some extreme angles for Novice level, I honestly think I may have struggled to get Atilla around it clear.
Cruz showed a few stress signs at the start line which I expected may happen for his first time - plus I was actually nervous too which didn't help him. I don't get nervous running Atilla any more so it felt really strange to be so on edge.
We got through with 2 bars down which wasn't too bad for a first time, considering some of the angles. Plus I realised afterwards that it was the first full course he has run at 600 - bad trainer!

Novice Jumping we were first in the ring - but he appeared a little more relaxed at the startline compared to the first run. This time we were clear and won the ring which I certainly wasn't expecting to happen. So I am one proud kelpie mum at the moment.

Cruz with his first place trophy, sash and of course the most important part of the win - food!

Although more focussed than on his first run, he definitely didn't give me as much speed as he usually does but he has such a long stride that he still ran a reasonable time. I saw the 2nd and 3rd placed runs (BC and BC cross, both jumping 500) and they looked pretty fast to me so I was very surprised to clock up a faster time - but very happy about it ! And although it wasn't his fastest run , when I looked back at my trial diary and compared his time to Atilla's times in Novice, it was almost identical.

Plus he held both his startline stays - I went out 2 obstacles on the jumping course- and hit all his contacts and weaves in agility.

The only thing that I was really disappointed in was that he wouldn't tug with me before he went into the ring, which is unusual for him. The presence of the judge and timer in the ring didn't appear to bother him at all, I felt that the stress was more related to waiting outside for our turn.
So a lot more proofing with distractions and unfamiliar locations for us over the next few months.
And I need to experiment with finding the best warm up procedure for him to build focus. This is going to be more of a challenge than with Atilla - because he jumps 600 it is very likely that he will often be first dog in the ring which can make warming up difficult on occasion.

But I am very proud of my long, lanky boy who has now equalled Atilla's effort of qualifying and winning the ring at his first trial.

More Training .... and More Beach !

2008-11-27T21:31:00.000+11:00

I finally have a training routine that I am happy with and appears to be working. Based on 4 times a week at home, which does not include the times I train at club, this is what I am aiming for :
1X Jump Grids (from the Susan Salo DVD)
1X Double Box or 'related exercise' (from Greg Derrett DVD's)
1X Sequence from Clean Run or Dogsport or anywhere else where I happen to find a sequence
that I want to work
1X Speed exercise - maybe a speed circle or something else straightforward where the focus is
on opening out and really running.

In addition to this, we usually go out for a 2nd very brief training session on each day to focus on weaves or contacts. Both training sessions do not last much longer than 5 minutes.

Yesterday we worked on a spin off of the Power Paws 'W' pattern and this was a fun sequence to run. It looks a bit like this :

This is designed as an exercise to work weave entries. I also changed the order to incorporate a threadle between 3 and 4, and a send to the tunnel. There were quite a few other variations listed in the article, but at this stage I have only tried a couple of them. Nothing worse than long training sessions, so we might set it up again next week and try some others.

Atilla had no problems with the weaves as they are numbered here - I got a fast entry into 2 and then after 4 I front crossed for the weaves at 5. This was a harder entry but he made it easily - even though the first time he had a lot of speed and the first pole whacked him in the face ! Made sure that I rewarded after that set of weaves as I want him to stay in and weave fast, even if the poles hit him, this has been an area where we have had trouble in the past.

I also ran the exercise with Cruz and even though I thought it might be a little challenging for him, he had no difficulty with it. I did have to 'babysit' the weave entry at 5 a lot more than Atilla but for a pretty green dog, I was very happy with his performance.

The 'agility year' is winding down - last official training session tomorrow night and last trial the weekend after - although if it is too hot I won't run. I find that I am really flat in the heat and it rubs off on the dogs. Plus I worry about keeping them cool even under a gazebo.

We went to the beach again on Monday, Ocean Grove this time, and both kelpies had a ball.
Although I love living where I do, I would consider a move to be closer to the beach - it's such a great fitness thing for the kelpies to run along the sand, not to mention swimming. Plus it's good for me too. I seem to be able to walk much longer distances in a seaside environment.

Cruz checking out the rockpools and deciding that there was nothing in them to hold his interest.
The kelpies met another kelpie on the beach and even though I don't normally let them run around off lead with a strange dog, I made an exception this once. They ran and played together for ages - in the end the other owner had to put her dog back on lead to get them to stop playing and continue walking.

Atilla and Cruz chasing each other in and out of the water. Another exciting kelpie game.

Atilla posing amongst the seaweed - there was an incredible amount in places with some unbelievable colours.................. especially that shade of pink. Who says seaweed only comes in shades of brown and green ?

A Fun Weekend at Warrnambool

2008-11-05T14:37:00.000+11:00

After last year's disastrous weather at Warrnambool, eventually causing the cancellation of their trial, the 'agility gods' were definitely smiling on them this weekend.

The weather was perfect - even warm enough to run in short sleeves on Sunday but not warm enough to make the dogs uncomfortable. The predicted rain didn't eventuate apart from a few drops on Sunday around lunchtime.

The 'agility gods' were smiling on us too - we managed to come away with 4 qualifying scores and Cruz won the raffle on Sunday and scored a brand new dog bed.

There were some fast and challenging courses, especially in Masters, and I was very happy with the way we ran most of them. Atilla stayed focussed for most of the time, apart from an incidient with the cloth tunnel (which I'll describe in a later training related post) and was eager to work. I was especially pleased with his speed on many sections of the courses we ran.

Overall we earned a pass in Open Jumping (our first one as I don't run this event very often) and 2nd place behind another kelpie that is exceptionally fast, a pass in Masters Jumping (number 3) and 3rd place, a pass in Masters Agility and 4th place (number 6 - one more to go !) and a pass in Open Agility and 3rd place.

Although I have had 3 passes at the same trial a few times, I haven't had 4 since we were in Novice so I was very pleased with this result, plus I really enjoyed running most of the courses over the weekend, whether we qualified or not.

This is the trial ground in the foreground, with the neighbouring soccer ground behind. Pity I didn't think to take this with the agility equipment still set up as it would have made a much better shot.

All the dogs had an absolute blast at the beach. Atilla and Cruz got to have a good run along the sand on Friday after the long drive down. The beach was deserted as it was a bit cold by then, and they loved it ! They kept running way ahead of me, then waiting for me to catch up as if to say 'what's keeping you?', then taking off again.

They got to swim on Saturday and Sunday after the trial had finished each day - much to Bosnich's delight. He literally has to be dragged out of the water when there's swimming involved and if it were possible for a dog to sulk when we leave, then he most definitely would. As a 'non-kelpie', he sets the benchmark as far as swimming is concerned. Both the kelpies swim but not with the passion that Bozzie does - or should that be 'ACD mania' rather than passion ?
Even old man Yasser enjoyed his walk along the beach - at his own pace of course, which is way slower than the rest of them.

Warrnambool is one of my favourite places - located on the south-west coast of Victoria about 3 hours from Melbourne, and originally settled (I think) in the late 1840's as a maritime village - fishing, boating and related industries. I think I read something about sealing too but we won't talk about that ! There is a recreated maritime village set on the bay, but as they don't allow dogs I have never been in. Looks interesting though. The area is most famous for the legend of the mahogany ship- reputed to be buried deep beneath the sand dunes somewhere on the outskirts of Warrnambool. The following description comes from the Warrnambool Vic. Government tourist website:

'A Portuguese vessel fondly known by locals as the Mahogany Ship, reportedly ran aground off Warrnambool in the 1500's. This local legend is supported by the discovery of old Portuguese charts that depict Australia's southern coastline. It is believed these charts were drawn in the 1520's. '

There was a reported sighting of the ship's mast protuding from the sand dunes - although more than a hundred years ago I believe- but when a salvage party was organised the ship had disappeared and the coordinates of the sighting were not recorded by the person who believed they had found it. (You'd kick yourself wouldn't you?)

Anyway, it's a pretty cool legend whether true or not, and brings many tourists to the area in search of buried treasure, literally.

There are still a lot of old builings remaining in the town - I found this website which I really liked as it showed some of them as originals compared to how they look now.

http://www.warrnamboolcam.com/nownthen.htm

This is the view over Lake Pertobe, with the old breakwater in the distance, another reminder of the area's history. There is another good walking trail around parts of the lake that you can do with the dogs, accessed from the agility trial ground.

So overall a great weekend - can't wait for their next trial to roll around.

The Double Box Rules !

2008-10-25T22:24:00.000+11:00

I'm now halfway through revisiting Greg Derrett's double box exercises and I'm really enjoying working them - with both dogs.

I've also been pleasantly surprised by how tight both kelpies can actually turn when I cue them early enough - especially Cruz.

I ran Atilla at Ballarat last weekend - not a trial that I usually enter but I haven't run anywhere near as much as I planned to this year - again. And I need to enter more trials to really consolidate all the training we've done this year. I only entered him in 4 Masters runs as sometimes it gets to be a pain running from one ring to the other trying to fit Open in as well. We had 4 good runs overall, with a Q in Masters agility and 2nd in the ring, and one small handling error on each of the other runs causing an off course. I can live with that!

There were some challenging courses and I don't believe I would have been able to handle them as well without all the double box work we've been doing - on one Masters jumping course I think I counted 6 Front crosses that I put in - and the only place that I didn't get there in time and decided to rear cross instead was where I got the offcourse.

So we'll definitely be incorporating the double box into our training every week from now on. I can't wait until the Greg Derrett seminar where we will get to work on these with 'real live' guidance, instead of working from the DVD.

Plus I am trying to continue with jump grids every week too. I am really pleased with the way Cruz is putting in minimal strides between jumps when he is running confidently. If only I could get Atilla to do the same more consistently.

Beauty, Brains and an Angry Magpie

2008-09-28T23:32:00.000+10:00

So first for the beauty and brains - this is Cruz's litter sister Meg.
She is a fawn kelpie, a colour not as common as the red & tans and black & tans.
You can find more information about fawn kelpies here :

http://noonbarra.com/PROFILES/FAWN%20KELPIES.htm

Pretty stunning hey ! And brains as well - she is showing off her sashes for winning her class (CCD) at an Obedience trial in NSW. Just as well one member of the family is out there strutting their stuff as Cruz still hasn't made his agility debut. Thanks to me continually finding 'holes' I want to fix.

Poor Cruz, he'll be a veteran at this rate before he ever gets out there. So October is going to be my 'focus on Cruz's training month', Atilla has had the limelight for long enough.

We have magpies nesting everywhere at the moment and one has taken up residence in a tree in my agility area.
I was training Atilla this afternoon, we set up at the startline and he did 2 jumps, which put him in line with the magpie tree - every time he reached this point, the magpie came down and dive bombed him.

Normally he's happy to chase any magpie who dares to do this to him, but this one was either extra mean looking or the fact that he was trying to complete an agility run messed with his mind and he couldn't handle it.
Finally he freaked out and went into the tunnel and wouldn't come out.

I know it's mean to laugh at him, but I couldn't help it. Especially when a little kelpie face appeared at the end of tunnel and looked around to see if it was safe to continue - too funny !

And even funnier when I ran the same sequence with Cruz and the magpie ignored him - poor Atilla ! A dent in his kelpie ego I'm sure, let's hope the neighbouring sheep don't get to hear about it.

Kyneton, Malmsbury......and Greg Derrett !

2008-09-23T09:40:00.001+10:00

I've been taking the kelpies to Kyneton and Malmsbury quite a bit over the past few months. It's just under an hour's drive from here and there are lots of places where they can walk. It's such a pretty area with a ton of history - according to the internet there are more original bluestone buildings still standing in this area than anywhere else in Victoria - and if it was on the internet then it must be true !
Some photos from the Botanic Gardens in Malmsbury -

Don't they look so well behaved and obedient - as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths- not!

Views of the railway bridge taken from the gardens. A very modern V Line just went over but I was too slow to get it - would have made a great shot with the contrast between the train and bridge. I waited for a while, but no more trains.

Atilla in the gardens - eyeing off the geese and ducks in the lake - they didn't appear all that inclined to let themselves be herded though, much to his disgust.

The Malmsbury bakery cat. Loves to come and sit on a chair at the outside tables with you. Kelpies are not impressed by this at all but the cat is not phased. Gives you headbutts as a reminder to keep patting it if you happen to stop!

One of the examples of an old bluestone structure that the area is famous for. I got out of the car to take some photos of an old bridge and some interesting looking trees and just as I was getting back in I happened to look into the distance and saw this tower. The lighting wasn't great by this time but I just had to photograph it anyway. Something very eerie about it, the way it just rose up in the paddock behind all the gorse and whatever the red berries are plus it played havoc with the focus on my camera - it would appear perfect but when viewed back the foreground would be fine and the tower was a blur- freaked me out a little bit I must admit. Anyway, this was the best I could do.
Looked it up on my friend the internet and it is the oldest surviving stone windmill in Victoria, sans sails.
The bridge that I originally got out of the car to photograph. Probably the original 'Calder Highway' at one stage.
And yet another of the bluestone buildings that are all over the area.

And now for the really exciting news - Greg Derrett is coming to Victoria. My 'agility idol' in person, I am SO there ! I am going to start setting up his double box exercises again and working through them one at a time, watching the DVD in between each exercise to make sure I get them right. Cruz is ready for them too now so it will be interesting to compare both dogs - experienced and inexperienced- to see how they go.

Training is driving me crazy at the moment.
Due to a problem with the new lights at the oval where we train, we have had no club training for 4 weeks now, and this week is looking doubtful too. Cruz's debut seems to be getting pushed back further and further all the time. Maybe I should just 'bite the bullet' and put him out next month just to see what happens. Or maybe I should be patient, stop comparing them and not keep thinking 'Atilla had his novice titles by this stage' . I guess it will happen when it happens and I shouldn't be in a hurry.

ANKC V NADAC

2008-08-21T14:53:00.000+10:00

I don't run NADAC agility very often but last month I entered a trial on the following weekend from the ANKC trial at Sunbury.

Everyone seems to have their own thoughts about which 'flavour of agility' they prefer for varying reasons which has got me thinking about the differences between the two.

These were the jumping courses I ran in each venue, qualifying on both.

Sunbury Masters Jumping (ANKC) *6th place

Bacchus Marsh Open Jumping (NADAC) *1st place Quite a difference, as you can see- or at least you might have been able to see if I had used the larger numbers, so you will just have to take my word for it.

OK, we are running one level below at NADAC (Open is equivalent to Excellent) but I've seen Novice courses harder than that Open one - one side change for crying out loud and even that I did with a lead out pivot.

Although I don't like the twisting and turning of many ANKC courses, that NADAC course was not much of a challenge. I like the way NADAC offers lower jump heights - great for veteran dogs and dogs coming back from injury, but I can't say I really like too much else about it.

I especially dislike the way there is now no running order and you just line up. Two friends missed their jumping runs a couple of weeks back at a trial I went to watch. No-one called that the class was over, and one is a very new trialler. I felt so bad for her. OK, I know it's your responsibility to know when your height is coming up, but still. It also seems to promote a 'NADAC style' of handling that I hate - lots of running from behind, rear crosses on the landing side and opposite arms waving around in the air on rear crosses. Plus ridiculous distance for the sake of distance that's not buying you anything by handling in that way but is seen as the holy grail of NADAC for some reason. Call me strange, but I actually enjoy the buzz of running the course with my dog, not standing there and flapping my arms around while I yell 'out.'

I also feel way more stressed at NADAC trials than I do in any other venue - there's such a long list of what you can and cannot do, and it appears to change at the drop of a hat so I can't keep up.

But on the other hand, even though the courses are not very challenging (and they all seem to be variations on a theme from what I have seen) the ANKC courses can be ridiculously hard at times with all that turning and twisting.

So I definitely think there is a place for NADAC as well as ANKC, but at the moment it's not my venue of choice. I am grateful that there is another venue to compete in once my dogs are not able to handle the jump heights of ANKC any longer (NADAC veterans was wonderful for Yasser, although I did prefer it back then when it was ADAC) and also think it's great that there is a choice available - there's not in some states,

Maybe a hybrid between the two forms of agility would be perfect!

My Favourite Training Distraction - Sheep !

2008-08-07T21:53:00.001+10:00

The sheep are back on the land behind us. The old guy who owns them has several 2 acre blocks in the area - you can't build on anything less than 5 acres at the moment- and he rotates them around for a few weeks at a time.
The kelpies love watching him come down the road when he is moving them, he rings a bell and walks the sheep along the road with a .........wait for it....... Jack Russell Terrier ! Which surprisingly does pretty well. The kelpies are dying for a bit of active service of course, and run along the fence line barking as he goes past just to let him know they are available if the JRT doesn't cut it or disappears into the nearest rabbit burrow.
There are lambs at the moment too, which are pretty cute.

So every time I go out to train agility this week, I have woolly faces peering through the fence, which is great for proofing distractions.

Cruz does pretty well. He is aware of them, but happy to stay with me and work, especially if he thinks there may be food involved at the end. But it absolutely kills Atilla ! I have been using the sheep as a 'life reward' and releasing him to the fence to clear them off after he does what I want first...... Premack Principle rules ! This has turned into a pretty good game in his opinion and his agility work this week has been fast and motivated as a result. Now I just have to figure out a way I can get them to my next trial.......

A Good Night at Training

2008-07-14T13:52:00.001+10:00

I really enjoyed running this course at training on Friday evening. It was a small class for a change, only 5 of us, and Murray set up a fairly simple course, but still with some challenges- especially if you didn't handle your dog's path. Also a good course for working on speed. (What I would call a 'Tank of Oxygen Course,' especially when you run it, another dog runs and then you have to go again!)
There were some fast diagonal lines in this course - or what Elicia referred to as SFL's (straight friggin lines) when she was here.

I started with a lead out between 2 and 3 so I could be ahead of Atilla to indicate the path to the tunnel. Then a front cross between the tunnel and jump 5 set up a nice straight line to the seesaw. I also made sure I was still in front at this point so I could use a little shoulder pull but I don't think he even looked at the tunnel.

Good section for speed next. He surprised me with a pretty fast dogwalk performance which actually changed the way I handled the weave entry. I was planning on front crossing after the tunnel to handle the weaves on the right, but he was so quick off the walk and through the tunnel that I didn't get there. I then used a 'threadle arm' when he came out of the tunnel and then rear crossed the weaves once he was in. I thought that might be a bit messy but it actually worked really well so I stuck with it on the 2nd run through. As his weaves are pretty reliable I was also able to peel away from them for some more lateral distance so I could front cross at the end. This made a straight line to the tunnel at 12.

Being ahead after the tunnel made jumps 13 and 14 easy to indicate. On the first run through, I had an off course at the next bit. I honestly thought my movement and position would be enough to indicate the change of line to the tunnel, especially as I don't layer in the handling system I am using, but he took the tyre. (As did most of the dogs in class) On the next run through, I used a 'threadle arm' after jump 14 and he took the correct obstacle that time. Something else for me to remember : still need support on some discriminations, especially as it was a slight change of line.

I thought about front crossing after the tunnel for a better line to jump 16, but found that I was able to stay ahead on most of this course so decided I didn't need to. Handled both jumps on the left, then front crossed at the end of the A Frame for the run home. On the second run through I left out the front cross and rear crossed after 19 to pull him toward the broad. That also worked well.

So, an enjoyable training session and I was so pleased with the way Atilla worked. Now all I have to do is get the same speed happening consistently at a trial. We seem to have sections of 'all cylinders firing' but others where he drops off the pace a bit. After our 3 passes off 4 runs last weekend at Sunbury, I am going to throw caution to the wind and push for a bit more speed next time we trial and see what I get. Plus try harder to sharpen up my handling for him.

Cruz ran a full length Novice Jumping course at training on Sunday and went clear with no difficulties. Guess I'd better start thinking about entering him in a Jumping run to see how he does under a bit more pressure and to see what I still need to work on with him. After Nationals maybe.

Of Cakes and Contacts

2008-07-01T22:09:00.000+10:00

Okay Karen, this one's for you - Jack's photo has disappeared into the black hole of the alternate reality of my computer, so I have recreated for Cruz's second birthday.

Carrot, zucchini and peanut butter cake with low fat cream cheese frosting, hand made dog biscuits and of course the icing, 'smakos' and doggy choc sheep - mmmmmm !

Plus pupcakes for his 'brothers' and friends. Well, the friends didn't really get a look in thanks to the brothers, but the intent was there.And while I'm on the subject, here's one I made a few months back as an order for a dog's birthday party. Which annoyed mine as they got to 'look but not touch...... or taste !'

And now to the topic that is almost causing me sleepless nights - at least it would be if I wasn't so cosy with an electric blanket and two kelpies (oh, and there's a husband in there too somewhere I think) - CONTACT TRAINING , namely one A Frame.

This would have to be the piece of equipment that I have decided I hate training, as I have a clear picture in my head of how I want Cruz's performance to be, but achieving it is another story......... Cruz prefers messing with my mind instead.

We started with 2 on 2 off, as we are doing on the dogwalk, where he performs it brilliantly. This was fine until I started raising the A Frame close to full height and then he lost all speed and started creeping down to the position at the bottom . After a few weeks of this with no improvement I decided to train a running contact on the A Frame.

Began with a stride regulator at the top and a hoop at the bottom, got rid of the regulator early on as video analysis showed he was hitting the (almost) identical spot every time. Hooray - she says ! This will make it easy. (Fool!)

So a couple of weeks back we finally went to full height and it is a lovely running contact, fast and accurate. Am I a good trainer or what ? Well here comes the what ........... Cruz is getting faster and faster as his confidence grows, last week he began to fully extend and really run it, well that taught me something about running contacts.............a very long skinny kelpie when fully extended can actually get through the hoop at the bottom without touching the colour. Picture head down, fully extended with his back legs just above the colour and his front legs just off the end on the ground and you get the idea.

So my choices now are - put stride regulators back on to manipulate his stride, try to implement some sort of a board on the bottom of the contact for him to hit, or go back to a stopped contact. I don't feel I am experienced enough with stride regulators to do this successfully, plus by changing his stride I will need to go back to the months and months of muscle memory with loads of repetitions and even then there is no guarantee as I have just found out. The board has potential - and there are several DVD's in the pipeline using this method coming soon, but the problem is that his nose touch is so hard wired, every time he sees any sort of a board he wants to do 2o2o and nose touch - so I would need to break him of that habit first.

The problem with his stopped contact was that he never really got his weight back far enough as he does on the dogwalk, creating a slow performance which I also don't want.

So I am going to give Elicia's method (slide into a drop on board) a go. That way he can still nose touch if he wants, and then I can fade it. Began shaping the position on a touchboard last week and he has caught on to this very quickly. Put the board onto a lowered A Frame today for the first time, and he had no trouble with the position at all, so we will see what happens with this method. I am prepared to sacrifice a little of the speed I had with the running, but I don't want the 'creeping' down to the bottom.

I need to be patient this time and make sure I raise the A Frame one link at a time instead of rushing it. ('Patience is knowledge disguised' - Kay Laurence)

This whole training issue has also given me a better insight into how hard it is for people at club to train contacts with their dog when they don't know what they are doing. I think as Instructors we confuse them by all having our 'pet' ways of doing things. So they are told something different every week depending on who the instructor is plus they don't have access to equipment to train at home. I 'kinda' know what I 'm doing (at least I thought I did) and I have access to an adjustable A Frame at home, but I'm sure Cruz will tell you that I am still stuffing it up. So we need to get some consistency with the way we are teaching at club - something else for the next Instructor's meeting agenda.