Malinois

Emily

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#41
LOL @ Backup, bahaha. I imagine him talking to himself the whole time, going, "Doing a good job? Yep, doing a good job. Good job, Backup? Yep, very good job. Carrying the Wubba? Yep, got the Wubba. GOOD JOB, BACKUP!!!"
 

Emily

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#42
I did end up getting one I'd be doing alot of obedience and perhaps agility with him to begin with, then schutzhund aiming towards Rally-O and French Ring eventually.
If you train for competitive OB and Agility in any serious capacity, Rally-O is an after thought. You'll already have all the skills you need for it from OB, except for reading the signs. ;) It's meant to be easier than OB and an pleasant crossover from agility. Sorry, also OT, just a tid bit for you. You may find it's the very first sport you compete in, since you can talk to the dog during it and it's more forgiving then OB. :)
 
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#43
If you train for competitive OB and Agility in any serious capacity, Rally-O is an after thought. You'll already have all the skills you need for it from OB, except for reading the signs. ;) It's meant to be easier than OB and an pleasant crossover from agility. Sorry, also OT, just a tid bit for you. You may find it's the very first sport you compete in, since you can talk to the dog during it and it's more forgiving then OB. :)
You read my mind. The quote "then schutzhund aiming towards Rally-O and French Ring eventually" cracked me up.

IPO alone is a huge undertaking. I'd love to see the expressions on a group of IPO enthusiasts when you tell them that you're there as a stepping stone to Rally-O. :yikes:

Stephy, I'd recommend going out to watch an IPO or ring training session, if you can find a group nearby that will let you. That will give you best insight to Mal behaviour.

Emily, I can totally hear Backup saying the same thing as he carries his items on the walk, lol.
 

Emily

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#44
You read my mind. The quote "then schutzhund aiming towards Rally-O and French Ring eventually" cracked me up.

IPO alone is a huge undertaking. I'd love to see the expressions on a group of IPO enthusiasts when you tell them that you're there as a stepping stone to Rally-O. :yikes:
LOL yeah. :D
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#45
Yup, here too on the Rally-O. ;) Honestly the look on most Sch faces when you say this sport and that (soft sport) is rather priceless, I should know, I get it a lot. Lol

We are convinced Backup knows two words and yells them all the time: FUN & BANANA!!!
 

monkeys23

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#46
Oh Backup LOL!

I love the description of Harry as Brock Sampson from Venture Bros Aimee. I totally almost spit my coffee, haha!

I agree, it seems it would be silly to aim for RAlly after doing IPO. Rally is fun though... it is just really really easy for Lily and I after all the IPO style OB. I think we're definitely working on being crisper and cleaner with it than most Rally people would be, as I wanted to retrain a bunch of things because mostly I had been working on my own so much. I have to say I'm not anywhere near as interested in it, but its been useful nonetheless. :)

I plan to do just French Ring and maybe herding when I get a Mal. I would have to travel to do any trialing, but honestly I find the exercises more interesting personally than IPO. Not to say I don't really like IPO too. ;)

I admire dedicated agility people and its fun to watch, but honestly it just doesn't do it for me.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#49
^^ that!

I took a job at an agility facility and planned to focus my obedience.

I'm hooked and look forward to training and trialing(someday when I'm not broke from paying for classes for my masters). It's too much fun, really!

It can be hard on the dog to train both agility and bitesport though simultaneously so I do think picking will help as a pup at least.
 

Sit Stay

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#50
LOL @ Backup, bahaha. I imagine him talking to himself the whole time, going, "Doing a good job? Yep, doing a good job. Good job, Backup? Yep, very good job. Carrying the Wubba? Yep, got the Wubba. GOOD JOB, BACKUP!!!"
This made me laugh soooo hard because it's absolutely true! Hahaha I'm never going to be able to watch a Backup video the same way now.
 

Aleron

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#51
It can be hard on the dog to train both agility and bitesport though simultaneously so I do think picking will help as a pup at least.
What do you find difficult about training in both?

IME bite sports tend to become all consuming for people seriously involved in them. And it's sort of hard to be casually involved in them. You can certainly dabble in Rally or even to some degree agility but one does not generally dabble in bite sports. I think bite sports are awesome but going to the local club for awhile with Jagger made it obvious that if I really wanted to pursue bite sports, I'd probably have to give up the other stuff.
 
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#52
The local group here is quite abit aways from where I'm located in the city - and from what I've heard it's mostly just GSD's, handfuls of Bouvier's, A giant schnauzer or two and a couple Mal's - I'd visit when I have time and observe for sure - but schutzhund would be something I'd do with him for sure. I'm very thorough - once I take something up I see it through no matter what lol; so myself and my (perhaps) future malinois would be extremely occupied all the time.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#53
Largely it's the time commitment. Next it's the amount of learning that can be harder on a novice dog and handler.

Small things can supposedly come into play too, such as back jumping is frowned upon in agility at a foundation level but the dog must immediately return over the jump in IPO, the Aframe is higher and I have heard it can interfere with their striding techniques plus it can confuse their contact process (from what has been warned to me), also for my boy it was a world rocker when I asked him to park it (heel position on the right) and while it's better he learns it we have run into some frustration of him trying to offer the wrong heeling during bitework to cheat nearer to the helper. My TD is convinced training B to turn left and right has encouraged his spinning which makes tie back bite building a headache but since he never spins in the blind I don't pay much attention to it. I did get talked to at his first trial because his default when confused is to go into a hold and bark on me and that's not exactly smiled upon at agility. Like I said, little things, no big deal for experienced handlers but they can be troublesome and added headaches.

Over all it's not a bad thing to be a jack of all trades but it appears to help the dog and handler to have a main focus until they've mastered it if they want to go far.

Of course here I am with two ipo/agility/akc obed dogs that started in flyball, compete in dock dogs, have dappled in lure coursing, nose work, and I'm considering trying my hand at Rally with Sloan this fall. That said I do believe Backup is a dog who'd benefit from a much narrower, stringent training schedule, however he's stuck with a dappler owner for now.
 
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#54
Indeed, So that's why like I said - I'll see where I am in about one and a half to two years from now schedule, lifestyle wise etc before I jump into a commitment. Time shouldn't be a huge issue - but I would definitely want to "dabble" in as much as possible; then we can see what works best for the both of us, what we both enjoy and do well at then maybe narrow down to focus on that as you said. Schutzhund does seem daunting...but, I'm up for the challenge - it'll most probably be quite abit of a fumble for both of us to begin with...but it'll be an interesting journey if we do go that route for sure...

Alas, I'm not even sure about a Malinois - second dog might go a completely different route; all speculation and ideas only at this point. but great things mentioned here for me to consider =)

Wow you've got an impressive pair! Just wondering, what do Backup and Sloan seem to enjoy themselves the most? I don't mean what are they best at - I mean is there one thing over another that they seem to have more fun doing/be more enthusiastic about or do they pretty much just like everything equally?
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#55
Sloan loves to fight. LOL It is by far her favorite thing in the world. She loves bitework but she doesn't love that she's required to only bite the sleeve, she'd prefer faces, stomachs, and thighs. After that she loves her ball and she loves to jump and swim and chase.

Backup loves to tug. Anything, everything, tug tug tug, possess possess possess. He's a swimming freak too but really pretty much Backup is a simple dog, object in mouth and he's a happy boy.
 

Laurelin

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#56
I am the opposite. Competitive and really precise obedience bores me to tears. I like the idea of bite sports.... until you get to heeling patterns and the obedience. The actual bite part looks fun though. The last trial I was at had obedience and I watched for a few minutes before heading back to the agility ring.

Even rally classes are too slow and dull for me. I've done a few but quit to have enough money for agility right now. My dogs seemed to find it not as fun either. They kept seeming to think 'Okay, now when do we get to the fun part where we can be crazy!?' I'm an agility person.
 
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#57
I am the opposite. Competitive and really precise obedience bores me to tears. I like the idea of bite sports.... until you get to heeling patterns and the obedience. The actual bite part looks fun though. The last trial I was at had obedience and I watched for a few minutes before heading back to the agility ring.

Even rally classes are too slow and dull for me. I've done a few but quit to have enough money for agility right now. My dogs seemed to find it not as fun either. They kept seeming to think 'Okay, now when do we get to the fun part where we can be crazy!?' I'm an agility person.
Haha, I feel the same way, even though I love training obed on my own for fun. French Ring isn't as bad, it's not as focused on obedience, the heeling is really short, and I think the position changes at a distance are pretty cool. I would actually consider IPO except I honestly cannot handle the thought of those long heeling patterns and the loooooooong down, lol.

I think I'll always do agility though, even with my future ring dog. It's the only sport where we get to run fast and play too! Running courses is such a blast.
 

Laurelin

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#58
My dogs were adding on to their rally routine, especially Summer. 'But wouldn't this be more fun if I added a spin here and then played dead when you told me to down/stay?' Mia took the jump at full agility speed too. I know I know... we should train harder. :p At least I find it more amusing when they improvise.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#59
The ability to hold the dogs focus that long under the spotlight is hard. It's not for everyone though for sure. I stress so, so much worse with obed. When I walk into an agility ring I need about 5 seconds to collect my nerves and then we just go, we just have fun.
 

stardogs

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#60
I stress so, so much worse with obed. When I walk into an agility ring I need about 5 seconds to collect my nerves and then we just go, we just have fun.
That! The obedience precision I actually love - nothing quite like watching a gorgeous in sync heeling team - but omg do I stress about it in trial! Long downs suck for my nerves too....
 

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