plucked up the courage

and emailed an obedience club about 40 minutes away.

I've been wanting to do obedience with ziggie for a while but when he was younger we tried 2 clubs and both were horrible! The first one I went to for a while but there was to many dogs in the class and they weren't prepared to let me work on his problems ie. waits - he breaks them so I wanted to return to him every time to reinforce rather than have him break. The second one we tried came over at the end of the first class and said "sorry luv, on the phone we thought he was a collie, he ain't never gonna be any good, but your welcome to come along and train if ya like", I didn't bother!!!

I know he's not the perfect dog, he tends to bark whilst others are working, and he doesnt like other dogs in his space but these are things we've been working soooo hard on. I've explained all this to the email contact and asked if they think there club will be appropriate . Just waiting for a reply now. Depending on what they say i'll probably go along for a couple of weeks just to watch before I take him.

I'm not sure how my regular club is going to take this as I refused to train at the obedience section as the trainer just had a go at me all the time as I "should have been working him better after the experience i've had". I've done agility and flyball for ten years but never done obedience due to attitudes like that. I don't want to be being watched and criticised all the time while i'm struggling with ziggie - he's a difficult dog and yes he's been hard work and yes I know he's a git but he's MY GIT!!!!

I'm not sure if I even want to compete (never mind be good enough) but I think the extra training will be good for us.

A very nervous H xx


Meant to say - I just said " he trains in agility and flyball" in the hope that they won't presume we have a clue about obedience, because we don't!

ah hun you go for it! dont let them drag you down! the zigmeister will prove them wrong!

thanks china - hope so, can't believe how nervous I am about it, must admit a big part of it is to prove a point + he could be really good at it if I had a clue!

Go for it, you two must have what it takes cos both agility and flyball need clear communication and timing, you guys have got that - maybe ziggy might need to learn about patience but if he doesn't take there's always HTM (sorry my new pet project), zigs would be great at that!! He only has to walk into the ring, he's already stunning!!

aww thankyou mutthouse Your right about the patience (he ain't got any ) but we're working on it . He loves HTM - just a pity he feels he has to bark the whole time and I have no rhythm!!!!!

aww he will soon master it you go for it and enjoy yourself

thanks BM - still waiting for a reply - they'll proberbly tell us to get stuffed

Hope you find a good obedience club. Kelpies are usually a joy to train, but I must say some are just too smart for their handlers

never a truer word was spoken! I must say he's a joy to work and picks things up soooo easily - which is fine in agility and flyball and herding because I have a vague idea what i'm doing! His general behaviour (other than barking in the que ) is spot on. I know that he's never going to be perfect with other dogs because of the experiences he's had, other than that he's the perfect puplet - the issue we have with obedience is that it's me thats pants at it, I don't really know how to "fine-tune" everything. He could go into an obedience ring and do a round and possibly get placed (I did this with the older dog and he's soooo much better than she was, bless her!) but to be any good at it I need help with the training. Still if I don't hear anything back then i'll dump the idea and go back to the things I know! it's getting harder and harder to find a good club nowadays I can remember when I started with my lab training at 4 different clubs! I now belong to two - one of which is to far away to go to anywhere near regularly! and the other that i'm on the verge of leaving because they're a pack of muppets! I also go to a training group which is fantastic and made me realise how much i've not been enjoying club .
H xx

Come and train with me

If this club doesn't work out, and if a few pointers and some fine-tuning are all you really need, perhaps you could find an experienced ob competitor who would be willing to coach you? Most of the ob people I know are very generous with their time and their help