Dockdogs!

Emily

Emily

Location
Melbourne, Australia
I've just booked Ella and I in for a two day dockdiving workshop in September!

I called the lady and, after a 20min chat with the lady about all things +R and how her sole purpose in life is to ensure that people enjoy life with their dogs (she really was absolutely lovely and a breath of fresh air when it comes to dog training), I booked us in. Here's the itinerary:

20190815_180706.jpg
 
Emily

Emily

Location
Melbourne, Australia
kateincornwall said:
Oh wow , brilliant , I wish we had this facility near to us, looks grand fun x
Click to expand...
There are dockdogs clubs in Sydney and Brisbane but none in Melbourne. This is a one of workshop so I'm really pleased but also wish there were more options in Melbourne as I really think Ella will enjoy it.

Apparently we will have one trainer from the Sydney club and another one all the way from Canada! The best part is that it's completely force free (I'm fairly confident of this as I went into great detail about what she believed force free to mean and even discussed example scenarios - can't be too careful!).
 
Ashley

Ashley

Quinn loves dock diving! There is nothing close enough to us to do it consistently (not to mention winter). Have fun!
 
Emily

Emily

Location
Melbourne, Australia
DAY 1

We're both exhausted and we've got day 2 tomorrow!

The day started with registration and we all stood around for a while as everyone arrived. Ella was super excited so I put her in her harness but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to switch the the flat collar. Maybe she's finally decided to grow up?

The first session was a lot of standing around while we discussed the rules and the plans for the day. The instructor was fantastic, quite funny, completely +R but told us about his past, growing up on a cattle station where the dogs were raised in a very different way. We went around the group and introduced ourselves and had to give OTT applause every time someone spoke. He explained the background of, and how we would use premak and back chaining during the day and explained that the first task was the most important - ensuring that our dogs could settle while there was commotion (hence the applause and cheering). After this we had a short break so I popped Ella in her crate.
20190914_093524.jpg20190914_094120.jpg20190914_103132.jpg20190914_103556(0).jpg20190914_105616.jpg
 
Emily

Emily

Location
Melbourne, Australia
DAY 1 - part 2

After a break, we went back to the same place for about five minutes and then walked down to the paddock with the dam. The property owner is an Aussie Shepherd breeder so had some dogs in kennels that barked as we walked past. I couldn't believe that Ella heard the backing and immediately looked at me for reward. Don't you just love it when your training actually shows! 🙂

Down by the dam, Ella's excitement rose and it took a few minutes to get her to stop just watching the water 🙄. Luckily, most of the other gundog owners were having the same problem 😂.

This session was all about engagement, play and toys. I learnt so much in this session. It's not that I don't play with Ella, it's just he was able to show me techniques to increase the interest and engagement. At first it was a bit intimidating as he would have us demonstrate in front of the group and have people pick faults. But, it was such a friendly group and he basically made fun of us all so we all just had a laugh at the same time. This session was fun but hard work as you had to lift your enthusiasm level which was hard to keep doing. After this, we broke for lunch and then a few of us gundog people took ours for a free run together, where they all ended up in a bathtub 😂😂.
20190914_112748.jpg20190914_120955.jpg20190914_121433.jpg20190914_130310.jpg20190914_130311.jpg20190914_130324.jpg
 
Emily

Emily

Location
Melbourne, Australia
Day 1 - part 3

After lunch, we did a really tough session that was a lot more about our (human) technique than the dog. The main thing is that (as a right hander) you need to walk down a straight line on the right hand side of your dog, line yourself up side on with the toy in your right hand, release your dog and let go of the ball as your dog is passing so that the ball is just in front of their nose. Sounds easy? As it turns out, I'm 💩 at throwing 😂😂

Once we'd mastered this, we went back to the dam and one of the helpers (that competes in dockdiving) gave us a demonstration. It was explained that this showed the humans what we needed to do but also showed the dogs. Well. Ella was standing calmly beside me until the lady released her dog and threw the ball into the water. Ella absolutely flew forwards, strangling herself while very nearly pulling me over and continued to "gallop" on the spot towards the water. Oops. Quick refocus and lesson learnt. Anyway, we then took it in turns to have a go. And the girl didn't let me down 🥰. We were encouraged to keep the throws short and focus on the sit stay, wind up and release. We were able to have a few turns and we both absolutely loved it. I'm still throwing the ball a little early so it's hitting the water before she jumps so her jumps are short. But for our first try, I think we did well. She was absolutely spent when we got to the debrief at the end of the day. Such a fun day for us, can't wait for what's in store tomorrow 🙂
20190914_142817.jpg20190914_151018.jpg20190914_153806.jpg20190914_193307.jpgVideoCapture_20190914-193452.jpg20190914_160447.jpg

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top