dlmckay

Sounds like fear aggression. In a nutshell, watch her with new dogs and BEFORE she starts the bark thing, call her to you - use a tidbit or toy if you have to. Reward her for coming back to you under her own steam. If she has already done the bark/snap, call her back, tug on the lead if necessary and then take a few steps back so that she is returning to you under her own steam, then reward when she's walked quite a bit away from the other dog. The idea is that she makes a decision to return to you and not attack the other dog. Your voice command over-riding her desire to jump in and be aggressive because she's frightened. You are a rock to her, a safe place, nothing bad happens when she stays with mum. I've used this with Raven and its super effective. If she greets a dog and then she becomes scared, I see her hackles go up, I call her and she comes away instantly - saves a lot of hassle!

I actually think it was quite sensible of you to kennel Jed. An unknown dog and an unpredictable child? It's what I would have done. Um, I wonder about the not running with other dogs until a year old? Perhaps not 10 mile hikes up Ben Nevis, but I don't think the odd romp in the park will hurt. I know that dogs' joints don't fully firm up until they're around 18months but I never heard of one doing damage through just running??

I never taught Tui to turn as such, simply encouraged her like mad to be super efficient on the box - meaning to catch the ball, not fumble it on the ground and to return as quick as she could. As a result, she has this wonderful action that I'll try to catch on video the next time there's a tournament (winter atm and grounds are very boggy). She runs to the box and throws both paws on the pedal - whilst still moving forward, she catches the ball and once the ball is caught, she flings her back legs to the side, so that she is almost turning in midair around the ball and jumping the box sideways. Then she returns as fast as she can. I'm so proud of my baby girl. It's an amazing motion to watch...

I've just noticed that you have different flyboxes to us here in NZ... we have a catapult style box... and this is yours (sorry, nicked the picture from gooster) How does the English variety work then? Ours works by the dog hitting the green pedal on the front. You have to do quite a lot of training on a covered box to stop the dog from running around the back and nicking the ball out of the holder!

This is a picture of an Intermediate course... the picture's not too great, but the tunnels are giving a bend to the course...

Agility items we use are the rigid tunnel, six weave poles (which are hard! - dogs don't like to weave alone!!), and occasionally you'll find an A-Frame, but set only a foot above the ground. Because the dogs run so fast (a good dog will complete in around 10-12 seconds), you need to have equipment that won't move too much. The skill is in getting a dog to complete the course without you which may have curves in it and without mistakes like a knocked rail.

Hello, thought you might be interested in seeing what we do here in NZ... flygility... Flygility is a dog sport that mixes elements of agility and flyball. As in flyball the dog is sent to fetch a ball from a flyball machine and returns the ball to the handler. Courses can be longer than in Flyball, 30m from start line to the box, and use agility obstacles. In New Zealand, the sport is administered by New Zealand Flygility Dog Association. My dogs love it... it's very exhiliarating too - jumps are the same as in agility, but set a little lower and the course must be completed correctly - no bars knocked or obstacles missed. The standards are Elementary, Beginners, Intermediate, Senior and Open courses. Single dogs compete in this in a standard knockout tournament. In Elementary, you can run with your dog and the course is always a straight one. In Beginners, you must remain behind the start line and your dog must run alone up the course to the box, trigger it, catch the ball and return along the course correctly. In Intermediate, the course can have a curve in it and at Senior and Open levels, there can be two curves, so that the course looks like an S... What do you think?

Only if you pay the shipping - Tui's flight to NZ cost me £1,200 Oh, and those with broadband, might enjoy seeing this... Raven running a starters flygility course... a bit grainy, but you get the idea... she's the dog running closest to the camera...

Hey hey! Made it finally!! Was waiting until nearly midnight my time before I gave up and went to bed So, my name is Diana and I'm an addict - whoops, sorry, habit... you understand... I'm ex-UK, now live in New Zealand, brought my dog and three cats with me.... um... discovered agility and the wonderful flygility - which is sooo much better than flyball... And here are my dogs... Tui is the little black girl and Raven is an ex-pound puppy - possibly GSDxHuntaway And we enjoy doing this in our spare time... and we win these...