Oh yes I can guarantee that will be next, never quite right is it...

Hi, I'm new to site and am very interested in training my boy to do trials. He's a 4 1/2 month old dobe and wondered if any of you had any 'basic' training tips. He picks things up very quickly and I know he can not do any of the jumping etc until he is older butwhat about the other stuff. What ages did you start training - He already can sit, stay, down, speak although obviously his attention span is still really low. So many questions ! any advice is really appreciated

I did jumps with Boris and when we went to train FR, I was also terrified about that palisade. Michel Valladon said that it was the easiest of all jumps. I was first suspicious, but he was right, Boris (62 cm terv) had no troubles with 230 cm. At work he climbed 260 concrete wall up. Then I didn't let him jump down, just guided him on lower spot...

First thing in all jumps I try to teach the dog to jump sort of an arch. I start with young dog with a hurdle 40 cm high and twice as wide putting some planks both sides of fence. Co-handler holds the dog and I move dumbell up so that dog points the jump up, not straight forward. This way I made Boris jump hurdle 160 cm high.



This one is 140, but you can see, how he streches himself over the fence. After that 4.5 meter long jump wasn't a problem either.

And after that he escaped every kennels also...

J

nice piccie Jenni

Many Tervs I know jump with hind legs tucked.

Wys
x

I started training for working trials quite late compared to many - I think my BSD was about 18 months although I'd have to think about it and work it out to be sure.

A friend of mine has a dobe, and she did everything perfectly except the scale because a trainer at a club told her to push her dog over the scale (idiot!) and the dog landed on its head and so although amazing at everything else just would not do the scale, so she decided to stop training in the end.

There aren't many in trials. I do think (and other triallists may disagree) that the scale is harder for the squarer built, leggier breeds such as BSD, Dobe etc. Not to say they can't do it, as they can, but what in my view they can't do so easily is cat climb down the far side of the scale, which is considered the best way of scaling down.

I also think it's a bit harder for them to scale up in the first place, but again it's my opinion.

I do wish they'd change it to A frame but suggest that and you are not popular

My advice would be to remember that a lot of working trials is based on retrieving, so get your Dobe happy to retrieve, never tell off for grabbing or taking stuff but encourage search and retrieve. I got a 20/20 for our first ever competition search square, and part of this training was clicker and part using toys outside, encouraging with play training.

He sounds great

This sounds just the sort of thing my GR would be interested in but I know absolutely nothing at all about trials.

Can you point me in the direction as to what it entails and the different areas involved. He is 14 months old at the moment. Someone in an earlier post was saying about a trainer in Kent which is where we live.

I really don't have a clue what trials are but our dog just loves searching for toys etc that we throw in the woods.

Any info would be much appreciated.

Hi all my Gem ( working lab ) is 7 mths old and i would like to get to know more about working trials, I live in Norfolk and dont know any where that does that locally. I also dont now how to start or what exactly working trials is, it just that I like the little i do know.

Snap Gaz - reading this has been really interesting and it sounds just the sort of thing I would love to do - if I actually knew what I would be doing

Working Trials is amazing. I competed in 2005 with my 10" Jack Russell. She loved it. She only had to scale 3ft, do a 4ft long jump and clear jump of 18". At the last trial we did, she got 2nd in CD - NQ broke stay at 5 minutes and because of several inches of snow, she failed the square!!!

I've only stopped because of lack of land to track!!!

If you have the chance to have a go, do so, it is the most wonderful thing to walk behind your dog whilst it's tracking!!!!!

Steph.