MrsD

We've just come back from a week camping there Pax, we absolutely LOVE it there, we go there for a week every school holidays. Its quiet, right on the beach (which is offlead) & it's very dog & kid friendly. 5 paws from the dogs too, they have a ball when we go there . Here are my 3 on the beach on Friday

Noels, looking forward to seeing you again . As for places to stay near Coffs I vote for the North Beach caravan park at Mylestom .

Maybe because I have tried most of the "better quality" brands before & have found that the Optimum is actually better for my dogs than the others? Guess that means I "downgraded" to get a better result . And sorry if you get offended, but it is the "same old same old", if only every dog in the world could be fed according to a specific pointscore table published on a website what a wonderful world it would be. Unfortunately, they can't, like I & plenty of others have said so many times before, feed your dog what they do best on, not what everyone else thinks they should be fed on . Blossom, don't be sorry, you are only trying to find out information, try him on other foods & if you get a better result then stick to it, but don't let someone else bully you into changing brands because they say they know what's best for your dog .

My dogs all eat Optimum only apart from the occasional bone for their teeth & look fantastic. I took 2 of them to the vet last week for their annual checkup & she couldnt shutup about how healthy they were & how good they looked . Blossom, I read the same old same old on here all the time from the same people talking about how only 1 or 2 brands are "good" & the rest are rubbish - at the end of the day it depends on how your dog does on the food that is the most important thing, not what others say or think. People are always going on about corn & "supermarket" brands - my dogs on Optimum are the best they have ever looked, are healthy, have super shiny coats, are full of life & have small firm stools, but if I listened to everyone else I wouldnt have even tried it. I agree that Chum is less than the best, but don't be put off some of the other better brands (supermarket or otherwise) until you give them a try - you might be surprised .

Yep Tassie was there last year as well & I got to meet her as well as CTD. Pax I will keep an eye out for you, I will have Jarrah with me, not sure if I will take either of the other 2 (I took Jonty last year), but Jarrah's pretty easy to pick even amongst 40 dogs . For anyone who is coming, just make sure you check for ticks as I know they get them around there & my vets told me last week that they are rife this year because of the warmth & the early rain (I know you'd know about ticks Pax, I meant for anyone else who may be coming & doesnt know ).

I will be there Wed & Friday & Dagboy is joining us for the dinner & competition night on Friday evening .

In general, the more you do it, the more they get used to it & at least put up with it, even if they don't actively like it. Jonty hated it, now he puts up with being bathed & blowdried all the time, similarly Whisper is getting used to it as well, just keep doing it regularly & make sure you dont let them sook about it .

Advocate is only "the best" if you live in a tick free area .

Interceptor only does heartworm & intestinal worms, Sentinal Spectrum does heartworm, intestinal worms + flea larvae & eggs. We do Interceptor + Advantix for the 3 smaller dogs (who are inside regularly) & Sentinal Spectrum + Preventic tick collar for Ebony (who lives outside). ETA - the heartworm & intestinal worm part of SS & Interceptor are exactly the same ingredients, SS just has an extra ingredient to do flea larvae & eggs.

Name: Fidelis Whisper Your Name AKA Whisper Meaning: I chose the call name first just because I liked it, then made up a registered name from it. "Whisper Your Name" is the name of a jazz song I love by Harry Connick Jnr. sex: Female Date of birth: 8 June 2007 Age: not sure, somewhere about 15-16 weeks I think Colour: Black & White Breed: Border Collie Hobbies: Chewing - anything! Loves: Playing tug & chasing the other dogs Hate: Havent found anything much yet she hates although she wasn't terribly keen on her first bath! Whisper at 5 weeks with one of my sons At 10 weeks

Im pretty sure that carebear said that she went for lessons there ML, she may be able to help.

Jarrah, because he is an AR is just "Jarrah", although technically he should be Jarrah PT now & if I get one more pass at our last herding trial of the year will be Jarrah HSAs Jonty is Gavend Maximum Appeal Whisper is Fidelis Whisper Your Name I was lucky enough to be able to chose all of their names, both registered & call names .

Sorry I forgot about this thread ..... My local supplier has only recently started to stock Nutro, which is why I thought I would try it for Whisper. Hesa, to be honest I think that the bag may have got ripped on the way home, as I picked it up off the shelf in the store & didnt notice any rips in it then. It was right in the middle at the side (where the bag "bends" if you pick it up flat if that makes sense) & was both the outside & the plastic inside, so Im guessing it got ripped either when they put it in the car or when it got brought upstairs. I wasn't worried about the bag being ripped as such, only the fact that because it was ripped the food all got tipped into a large bin & mixed with Ebony's other food when it was taken out to the shed (cos otherwise the rats would have got to it). EFS

Thanx ML ;) . I've said it before but I'll say it again - thank you for letting me have him, he's such a special boy :D .

OK the scenario you just mentioned is completely different to what you first explained! You will loose points on various things when you do a recall & it sounds like you most definitely did enough things wrong that you would get an NQ score. The recall includes the positioning of the dog & the dog sitting in front correctly for a reason. If your dog fails those parts of the exercise then no, it shouldnt get a qualifying score because it has made enough mistakes to get less than half the points. If your dog had only failed to sit once it probably would have qualified but it didnt, part of the obedience rules state that dogs should not recieve qualifiing score or titles upon work of poor quality.

Im presuming you got a 0? Zero score in CCD for a dog that fails to remain in the sit position, does not come on the first command or a dog that anticipates the command to come. My guess is either that she lifted her bum after you left her & you didn't see it or she came before you gave the command - VERY easy to do if you are inexperienced & you wouldnt even know it, the dog will more likely move as soon as the hands or arms move rather than responding to the voice & that = an 0.

Haha, thank you, no he actually wasn't even there at the time, he missed out on seeing our run by about 5 mins, but Im sure he would be happy to tell a dirty joke anyway .

Thanx Mooper it worked , he did a much much better run today, stil not perfect but his concentration was much improved & we managed 88/100Q this week.

Hesa & Kristie, this was the Nutro puppy, is that the same one that you're talking about? (round rings with hole in the middle) Ebony's still eating it I only bought it a couple of weeks back, but taking it back was my next alternative, only problem was that the bag was ripped! Im just glad that she's eating it, it worked out alot easier. But I was really surprised when none of the others would touch it .

Similar to me then Helen, Jarrah is around 16kgs & is very active (read - he never stops ) & he gets around 2 1/2 cups per day. Jonty gets just over a cup. If you have tried both & your dogs do better on one than the other then that's great, I'd be sticking to it . But I think your maths is a bit out going on your prices, your half price bag of Pro-Plan is a similar price to a regular bag of Optimum ie $27 for 8 kgs. ETA - I feed the small & medium breed Optimum to my dogs, don't know if that makes a difference to how much you feed, Ebony the GSD gets the large breed but Im not sure how much she gets, guessing about 4 cups? (she's 30kgs). It's hard because we just have a scoop that we use, have never really measured by cups or taken notice of what's on the bag as Helen said :shug: . ETA 2 - just measured & Ebony does indeed get 4 cups of Optimum Large Breed (so for a 30kg dog).

Mate, chalk it up to experience & grow a thicker skin, there will always be someone ready to tell you that you can't succeed because the dog is the wrong breed, too excitable, too old, too young, too large, too small etc etc. That's their opinion & they are entitled to it, just let it roll off like water off a ducks back & get involved in what is really important which is training your dog! You know the best response is to prove her wrong .

Thanx Mooper, Riles & Jesomil, yes I am hard on myself & I probably shouldnt be, I tend to forget that I've only been doing herding for about 4 or 5 months & I don't appreciate how far I (& Jarrah) have really come.

Wow you must have a strange dog to choose to eat (any) dry food over fresh meat or chicken necks . The bag of Nutro I bought smelt horrible, that was the first thing I thought when I opened the bag, it smelt plasticy or something, anyway as I said none of my normally gutsy dogs would have anything to do with it, so it's been passed along. Jonty tried it as a pup (the standard Lamb & Rice one I think) & wouldnt eat it then either, but he has become alot less fussy as he's got older, but even he wouldnt touch it. Luckily Ebony is eating it (as I said, mixed with her normal Optimum) otherwise it would have ended up a very expensive exercise. I wont be trying it again.

Optimum is our food of choice for all our dogs now, we have tried them on lots of different ones & none even come close to Optimum for value or for results. Optimum vs Bonnie or Supercoat or Cobber - there is no contest for us. I used to think my dogs were heathy & had shiny coats etc too until I swapped . And as BL mentioned, you can buy it most cheaply in BigW, large bags (18kgs) are around $60, smaller bags (8kgs) are about $27 from memory.

A couple of weeks ago I very stupidly bought a 15kg bag of Nutro puppy for my BC puppy (who would eat anything I gave her) & she wouldnt touch it . No problem, I thought, I'll give it to Jarrah cos he is a garbage disposal unit, he'll eat anything, he wouldnt touch it either & neither would Jonty :) . It's now been palmed off onto Ebony the GSD, at least she is eating it mixed with her other food .