I'm new on this forum and already am asking for some help! I am "owned" by a loveable and intelligent, yet quirky australian shepherd/border collie cross.
I'm looking to spend some money on dog training books and dvds and am looking for some recommendations.
Zoe
is now 2 years old and we regularly attend training classes and have dabbled in
the competitive style of obedience (CanKC), rally obedience, beginning
agility, and a bit of clicker training. Her basic obedience is fairly
solid - we've done a lot of groundwork training in focus and attention,
stays, recalls all building distance/duration/distraction especially
over the last few months, and I am basically looking for a direction in
which to advance Zoe's skill repertoire. We are at the point where she
has excellent attention in distracting environments - such as
stand-stays near a playground, sit & down stays for several minutes
at 50-100 feet with people and other dogs in sight, and offleash
heeling outside. She loves to work and thrives on learning so she is a thrill to teach. Right now we are about to begin another 8 week session of more advanced
obedience classes continuing to build better response with distractions.
Agility
classes will resume mid-May and we'll be working on our own agility
training - I have jumps and weaves that will come out of the shed - once
the snow melts and we have our yard back! Basically I want some
material (books, dvds) to supplement what we'll be learning in our
classes.
I'm also looking for maybe a book about clicker
shaping for tricks or for more advance obedience exercises (send outs, retrieves, etc). We used clicker last year to work on some agility
stuff - contact training, automatic downs on the table, etc. So, at
this point I'm looking for a book of ideas, or a step by step guide to training specific
behaviours beyond basic obedience commands - versus a beginner or clicker-philosophy book.
I'm
open-minded when it comes to specific methods. I personally do use an
aversive (e-collar), previously used leash corrections and a head
collar (halti) when I was first teaching her how walk on a loose lead,
etc, so I am not opposed to "mixed methods" as in not-pure-positive. On
the other hand, when it comes to things that are supposed to be fun for
the two of us, that don't have to do with manners and everyday
expectations, things I don't consider necessary every-day behaviours
(such as straight sits, for example, or perfect-attentive heeling) I
tend towards positive reinforcement style of training. So basically, I
just use what works for me and my dog as the situation requires 
.
Knowing that there are a wide variety of "dog people" here, who have
many different experiences training their dogs, I'm looking to see what
you guys stand behind. Anything you guys have to suggest I will happily
look into
Thanks!!