Evening with Mary Ray at the SNEC - May 07.

During an evening with Mary Ray last night, she did demonstrations with her dogs, showing and telling us how she teaches her dogs heelwork to music. She also showed us how she teaches her dog to touch a target stick. All with the help of a clicker and some treats!

Here are some pictures:

Mary introducing the show:


....working with Rooney, her Lurcher:





A kid from the audience did some heelwork with one of her Collies, I think it may have been Taz:


....Working with Taz and Foxy, two of her Red Collies (don't ask me to work out which dog is which! ) and Levi, her Blue Merle Collie:







Gypsy, one of her Shetlies:




Here is Mary with her new addition, 6 month old Ozzy, cheeky, but ever so adorable, wee Sheltie:



The finale was her heelwork to music routine to the James Bond medley, with Foxy (I think!) the Red Collie and Levi, the Blue Merle Collie:

Looks like you had a great day but did you learn wnything lol!
Becky

I'd love to go to one of these!
How do you know when they're next on locally?

Oh yes, we learned how she teaches dogs the moves she does in heelwork to music/dancing with dogs.

To get the dog to run around her, or reverse around her, she uses a puppy pen and gradually expands it. She stands in the middle using the clicker and treats to encourage the dog to turn around. When the dog is comfortable turning round in the pen, she then moves round in the opposite direction to the dogs. Once the dog has mastered that, she then stands inside the pen on her own, and encourages the dog to trot or canter around the outside of the pen, therefore going round in a larger circle.

To get the dog to trot (front paws up at the front as the dog is walking), she first gets the dog to sit beside her, and encourages the dog using the clicker and treats to tilt it's head to either side. If the dog turns it's head to the right side as it's sitting, it's more likley to lift it's left paw off the ground as it's following the treat.

All of the above takes time and patience obviously!

Brilliant pics Nicola . Sorry I didn't get a chanch to meet you or Shona , I was sitting at the far end. My pics didn't come out well at all , it's time to buy a new , better digital camera. The show was fantastic , I'd recommend it to anyone . You can find out dates and venues on Mary Ray's website ( it's got a forum on it so not sure that I can post a link ). I bought some goodies off Mary's stall , a new clicker , a target stick and a book " Dog Tricks". My Mum bought Mary's "Dancing With Dogs" book and got it autographed for my Aunt's birthday. In the above pictures , Taz is the red collie with lots of white and Foxy has just a little .

A kid from the audience did some heelwork with one of her Collies, I think it may have been Taz:

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TAZ in above picture , FOXY in picture below .

....Working with Taz and Foxy, two of her Red Collies (don't ask me to work out which dog is which! ) and Levi, her Blue Merle Collie:

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image.

i new all the stuff already, as I use her methods in training, so have seen all this a few years ago, I went more really as there was 5 of my club members going so thought I would go for the night out more than the training,

Thanks, Missysmum. Alot of mine were a bit blurry 'cos of all the movement, I tried to put my camera in the 'sport' format, but I couldn't get it to work on that setting for some reason!

I was sitting at the very back row of the first block as you go in the door. Shona was sitting a couple of rows in front of me!

I wasn't really interested in clicker trainng until I knew about the way Mary uses the clicker. I bought a clicker, a target stick and the wee book 'Quick Start Clicker Training. I got my book signed aswell. (For myself! ). I'll give it a go anyway, nothing to lose!

I thought it was a very good show too, very informative. I hope to see you at some point, Missysmum!

My pics are so fuzzy it's hard to make out anything at all. Oh , and I asked at the start if it was ok to take photos and was told yes it is ! ( Future reference for anyone going to see her show , you ARE allowed ). Just my cheap crappy camera isn't up to the job . It's ok at close range but other than that , it's rubbish. I have played around with a clicker with Missy already and it's amazing what I can get her to do , where before she maybe didn't understand , with the clicker she gets it straight away. As soon as I got home last night , out came my new clicker and target stick. I used methods shown by Mary at the show, and within 15 minutes Missy knew how to touch the target stick with her nose , and also to "touch" ( left paw) and "tap" ( right paw) on the target stick . ( I got my book autographed too ).

Glad you all enjoyed it and thanks for the piccies Nicola.