menacebear

After a very enjoyable flyball comp in albury on the weekend I came home with renewed vigour to get Bundy up and running so that I have more than just Bear to run. Prior to Monday Bundy was only doing 2 jump recalls and fetching a ball over 2 jumps and now he is doing a full 4 jump recall and did a full flyball run with the ball in front of the box! I will start training him on the box once all this is cemented in his big boofa head but for now I am just so happy with how quick he picked it up. And to make the day even better Leroy, our 6 month old jrt x that we have only had 5 weeks started doing 4 jump recalls also after around 5 minutes of training. He took to it like a duck to water. And Belle my BC was doing full runs. She's a bit of a ditz and we have been training her for awhile now so for her to actually do it was great and a great reward for my OH who is training her. I got the ball Mum! And I can even carry it over the jumps Little Leroy doing a recall from the box So excited!! Belle's turn

OH and I are obviously crazy. Stark raving loonies. We are back up to 8 dogs again after rescuing a little guy some well meaning people had brought from a pet store. What a shame their dog hated him on site and they decided it was best he moved on within 24 hours Leroy is ment to be a JRT pup but I'm more inclined to think he is a Parsons russell or fox terrier mix. He is 5 months old and was in the pet store from 8 weeks old to 18 weeks old. Lucky pup huh? Never seen sky or grass for 10 weeks. Poor little guy is a little overwhelmed sometimes but has fit right into our pack. I feed all my dogs raw food and at the moment Leroy is on 3/4 cup of Iams puppy food in the morning and a chicken wing in the evening. I have just bought our boxes of chicken carcass for the next week or so and want to feed him carcass if I can. We weigh all the dogs food individually and the big dogs all get around 2% of their body weight in raw. How much should I feed a puppy? I have never had a small breed dog before and have no real idea how much to feed him. Is it still 2% of body weight? Or 2% of adult weight? At what age can I get him onto straight raw food? These dogs are all so confusing!!! Leroy thinking all his luck has come at once, allowed on the couch at my brothers house. Trying to show the length of his body and nose-more parson like than jack like My brothers dog Dozer and Leroy My niece Holley and Leroy. She is in love

On sunday the 24th may my OH and I made the heartbreaking decision to have Jammi put to sleep. Jamaica had some aggression issues and unfortunatly we were unable to save him. He was 7 years old. Anyone who has run flyball in any state of Australia will probably remember Jamaica. It's not easy to forget a massive white dog run by a 6'4' handler in amongst all those border collies and working dogs. Jammi stood out like (and pardon my pun) dogs balls. If you'd never faced up against Jammi in the ring it was easy to underestimate him. After all who would think that a dog of his size, weighing in at 35kgs could possible be capable of such speed. And yet he could run down pretty much any dog there was. He ran consistantly in the low 4's even as he got older and stiffer. His best ever time was 4.1 seconds and he would carry these times over heights. The turn off the box and the return to my OH was amazing to watch, he literally flew. Jamaica helped 3 different clubs achieve division 1 victory. He was a true crowd pleaser, something different to watch. And then there was his tug. My OH is a big man but it was near impossible to get that tug of Jammi once he was locked on. Many a race was postponed as OH and Jammi fought it out in the back of the ring. He was magnificent though, a true star to watch and my OH's pride and joy. If not for Jamaica my OH and I would have probably never met. I first noticed him when I caught sight of Jammi at a competetion on day. I saw this massive white animal standing there on a team of border collies and followed the leash up to the lovely man on the end of it. I will be forever grateful to Jammi for bringing him to my attention and giving me something to perve on :D Although Jammi had his problems he was my OH's baby and the loss of him has hit us both hard. It was the worst choice we have ever had to make and one that will haunt us for a long time. We would have given anything for things to have worked out differently and it breaks our hearts that we were unable to save him. Although we did everythig possible for him the knowledge that we did the only responsible thing does not help when he is gone. I would give anything to give him another pat and let him know how much he was loved. It breaks my heart to see Flite, our border collie, sniff at the spot Jammi eats every morning. Flite was raised with him and knows he is gone. All the dogs broke into a mournful howl last night and as my OH said, they only ever do that when one of them is taken away. It's so hard not knowing if the right choice was made and if we have taken his life away before he was ready. I hope wherever he is he is warm and dry, he hated the rain. I hope he is dry, warm and pain free. I hope his spirit is at peace. Goodbye Jamaica-you were one of a kind and will never ever be forgotten. Run free at the bridge big boy. I pray we will meet again one day. We are so so sorry for what had to be done

Thank you to everyone for your kind replies. I know it was the only sane, sensible choice we could make in the circumstances and without a doubt the most responsible. If we had of not done it we would be basket cases everytime we came or left the house wondering if he had done something and wondering which dog was going to greet us, the kind loving happy dog or the one who wanted nothing to do with anyone. Unfortunatly it is also the choice which has caused us the most pain. My OH had no idea it was going to hit him so hard and has been devestated. Jammi was his first ever dog and we just didn't get long enough with him. It's funny that this is a dog who caused us so many problems, from boiling your blood when he vanished at the park to putting me in hospital with a infection from his bites and yet we still loved him and would have given anything for it to not have come to this. All our dogs are together in a very large dog run and we would seperate him from them when it came feeding time. Again you'd never know if you'd actually be able to get them out of the pen without him having a snap at one of them or at you. It would always depend on which mood he was in. We always said it that he would have to go if he attacked Menace or one of our 3 border collies. The fight with Bundy was almost able to be swept aside because Bundy is a young pup and may have done something to provoke him or jumped on him the wrong way. But even during that tiff Bundy tried to submit and leave the fight and Jammi just kept attacking him. My BRD Clifford, who is the sweetest, gentelest dog who yelps if you raise your voice, actually jumped in and got Jammi off Bundy. But then when he turned on Menace, who is 12 years old and whos back end is serverly giving way, not 5 minutes after this it was the last straw. He had menace by the throat and was trying to shake him. Thank god Menace is so big as he was unable to do any damage. My heart was in my throat when he got my baby. It would have been a terrible way for an old man to lose his life. Again Clifford proved his worth and took Jammi out, saving Menace's life in my opinion. I'd often told my OH that Jammi would take the choice out of our hands and he truely did it. I will be forever thankful to Clover who was able to come with me while I took him to the vet and had the unthinkable done. My OH was unable to come with us and I truely think if he had of been there we would have walked back out of that vet clinic witha heavily sedated dog dragging behind us. She gave me the strength to go through with it and now the memories will haunt her to. To see such a proud, powerful animal lying broken on the floor is enough to haunt the strongest of us. Thanks mate, your the best and after this I will love you for the longest time ever XXOO :D

Thank you so much for everyone who has replied. Unfortunatly things came to a head on sunday morning. Jamaica attacked my young pitty x Bundy and when that arguement was broken up he attacked my 12 year old Rotty x Menace. We made the heartbreaking decision to have him put to sleep. It is something that will always eat us up inside because he was still quiet young and there is so many what ifs. What if we had of penned him alone? What if we had of put him on sedatives? What if what if. But that is no life for a once champion flyball star so we made the only responsibe choice we could. And now we suffer the pain. In answer to a few questions in this thread- we had him checked from head to toe. I had full blood work analysis done on him and he had been xrayed. We found that he had developed arthritis in his spine and he only retired from flyball when it became a problem for him. My OH always insisted he wouldnt run him into the ground and that Jammi would retire with dignity and before his joints or back suffered too much. He still spent one on one time with OH, he still slept inside with the other dogs and he was still a much loved pet. No matter what we did it didn't help and he kept getting worse. If he was human I'd say he was mentally ill. Run free at the bride Jamaica, free from pain and the worries that plauged you through your life. We will be forever sorry for what we had to do. We love you

My OH has a american bulldog x who has always been food aggressive but now his aggression is getting out of hand. He is no longer only food aggressive, he now lunges at other dogs on the street and has a go at us when things don't go his way or he is told off. We are worried he is going to bite us, someone else or another dog. And he will bite, he has done it before and we take every precaution to not have it happen again but he is getting really bad. He is 7 years old and an ex flyball dog. He was my OH's first dog and although he is also scared shitless of him he's putting off what needs to be done. He says the dog ran his arse off for him at flyball and he doesn't want people thinking we have had him PTS just because he can't run anymore. We have to feed him inside a dog pen, all the other 7 dogs can eat together no problem and he used to be ok on the other side of the fence but now he is lunging at the fence and I'm worried what will happen if the gate to the pen doesn't hold one day. He is a big powerful dog but the other dogs aren't small either and would put up a hell of a fight. We do everything we can to avoid a bloodbath in the backyard. He can't be offleash anymore because his recall, which used to be fine, is now utter through crap. He seems to believe that he doesn't have to listen to or obey us. OH used to walk him on a check chain but now if he sees another dog he is lunging at them snapping and snarling (he never cared about dogs before, could cross nose to nose in flyball with any dog) so we have switched him to a halti to have some extra control over his head. He hates the halti and when OH went outside to put it on him today to go for a walk he was dancing out the way and lifting his lips at him. So he missed out on a walk totally. He HAS bitten OH and I before and if we were the type of people to give up he's be PTS already. Can anyone recommed a behaviourist in melbourne who can deal with BIG aggressive dogs? We want to see a behaviourist before we give up on him totally. We want to know that we have done everything possible for him. Apologies for any typos and if this doesnt make entire sense, it's pretty early!!

I think I will play it by ear with Bundy too. Might not take Bear as far now he's getting older, just enough to keep him good and fit but not wear out his joints. Bundy is a cross, can I do his ET with him? It's something I wouldn't mind giving a go

I've just started riding the bike and I have had Bear and Bundy gaiting beside it. Bear is a 7 year old rottweiler x GSD who is very fit and still runs flyball at a division 1 level. Bundy is a BRD who is around 16-17 months old. Both dogs are quite big so they just gait along beside the bike at a nice even speed. My question is how far roughly should I be going to begin with? Bear is in peak fitness but I worry a little because he is 7 now and is 2 large breeds mixed. Bundy looks like he is loving it and seems to want to go alot further than Bear (Bear likes to conserve his energy ) I want to take Bundy out for a run this afternoon but the lap I was going to take is probably a couple of KM's and I wasn't sure if this may be too far for his legs? Bundy is probably best described as a pitbull mix on steroids. LOL one of the rangers from work described him as a pitbull x quarter horse Does anyone else Bike to keep their dogs, and themselves, fit? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want injure either of them. Bear still runs flyball and I'm in the process of training Bundy up for it.

Thanks TerraNik He went well Shoey. At frankston they begin you in a first day class so you get the hang of their rules etc so it was mostly puppies and a fairly aggro little staffy cross. Bundy was really good. Focused on me (and our kabana) and the instructer commented that he won't be in the level 1 beginners class for long which is great I got a few comments on his size, the bugger is gonna be HUGE by the time you see him again!! Am rather proud of my BRD!

Well wish me luck. I've bitten the bullet and am off to join Bundy up at Frankston dog club. It's been awhile since I've trained in a club environment except for at flyball and it will be Bundys first introduction to formal training. Intital aim is to get him to a suitable level to be able to train for flyball. Once he's there though I'm hoping to continue on with him and see what he can do..... Shall be interesting to say the least. Gee I'm rather nervous :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Is that silly?? A little picture of my gorgeous man. Taken by the lovely Clover :rolleyes:

Hmmmm Frankston is a thought. I originally trained Bear with Frankston and competed in flyball with frankston when I started out but I have since changed to running him with the Croydon Rockets. I still live in frankston though. I normally have to work a fair few saturdays but I just got my roster for next month and I have some saturdays free so i might look at joining him up there. OH wants to some agility with Flite in the off season for flyball. Frankston still do agility don't they??

AWWWWW you guys are so sweet, no wonder Bundy is getting a big head! Yep his drop is rather enthusiastic. LOL wouldn't like to be under him when he hits the ground. So now it's a toss up between southern and rotty club. It's a shame that they both train on a wed night when I'm stuck on call. Still hopefully I can put off any strays for long enough to be able to train him.

The only thing is I can probably only get to one sunday training class per month and thats only if we aren't competing in flyball on the day. If people know there dog breeds he doesn't look like a pit it's only his eyes and nose colour that make the general public think he is a pit. I will be joinging him to Croydon anyway as I need to for flyball. All the croydon rockets already know him so just a case of letting other people get to know him I guess. I'll still be looking to do obedience elsewhere as well for his benefit, probably the rotty club.

I read on their site a while ago that they didn't train restricted or crosses. I wasn't sure if that was still the case. It's like a boarding kennel down the road from me refuses to take any bull breed in any form and i was worried that southern may have the same sort of theory. ETA:This is cut from the website for southern-"Obedience classes at Southern Obedience Dog Club are open to all breeds of dogs (except for Pit Bulls & Pit bull Crosses as per rulings) regardless of size and age, with handlers coming from all walks of life. All of our classes are open to all members and their dogs allowing all dogs"

Bundy isn't a pit bull terrier. However he is a big red dog with a red nose and yellow eyes. There is just as much chance that he could be crossed with a dogue or a viz as pitbull especially as he was originally adopted from an animal shelter. Just alot of unknowing people think he is a pitty. Mind you he is also around 3 times the size of a pitbull. I have seen other pitty crosses at Croydon and Bundy comes to pretty much every flyball comp with me so he is well known to all the flyballers.

I think southern had a restricted breed ban in place when i last checked their website? Will they let Bundy man train with them? I'm on call wed nights but can probably work around it. Kcc park is right in between work and home so that might be an idea. What time do both places train? Where do you guys train? I know I could probably be not lazy and google all this but I like to get peoples personal recomendations.

Hey Guys I'm looking around to see if I can find somewhere that trains during the week to do some obedience training with my boy Bundy. I live in Frankston but tend to work or flyball on most of my spare weekends. I run flyball with Croydon and Bundy will be running there once he is older too but to be able to train with tem he needs to have a min level 2 pass. I can train him elsewhere and then get him assessed. I'm quite confident that I can train him to this level on my own (I did with my other dogs) However I would like him to get out and about as he can focus on other dogs quite alot and that will be a problem with flyball. Any ideas?

We're working on playing tug at the moment cos I'd prefer him to run for a tug at flyball. He doesn't seem to like squeeky toys all that much so working our way through the toy collection to see if there is something that will thrill him. He does rather enjoy his food so I think I'll have to try to find out what his jack pot food is and do training with that. Naturally I think he'll work best for lots of hugs and loving from his girlfriend. He does rather love you very much

Hows about some weight pulling in our break Shoey? It's way too long to weight till sep/oct to catch up with you guys and sexy Eddie monster and Molly. The Mal club has a weight pulling comp on saturday 9th of may and another in july. Big flyball breaks are awful boring

LOL Yeah not that many muscles for you. Not a good look for a girl. Do ya think we can teach Bundy man how to be as smart as Eddie? Bundy is awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwfully laid back

Gee i think we might be there......Yep definatly there So looking forward to it. We're looking at some interstate comps as well to break up the big gap between comps.

OH MY GOD-what is that child eating monster doing off his leash!!! Seriously though, Eddie is looking fantastic. I enjoyed watching him work with you at ringwood the other week. I showed OH the clip of him working and he was impressed also, both with Eddies focus AND his big man muscles.

I'm lucky enough to get a staff discount so I don't have to pay for a consult fee. C5 vaccines cost me $13.75 each It cost me around $60 to get 4 dogs done plus cream for the border collie's eyes and my old vet used to charge around $80 PER vax so a massive difference for me. My OH had his 3 dogs done under my name also and his were only more expensive because he gets the proheart done at the same time. Still i think we only paid around $40 for the proheart for the biggest dog and he's 34 kg. They vet did tell me it would have been around $130 for the proheart alone for a normal customer.

Finally have had time to post. The other level that was raised was Creatinine i believe (it was directly under the Urea on the results) It was at a level of 25 and since the higger end level was 24.9 that also was only very mildly raised. The odd thing is that since starting him on a raw diet he has gained 3 kilos in the 3 weeks since his inital blood test. I have started him on a diet of Royal Canin early onset Renal and chicken carcass. He is having 2 cups of the renal food and 300g of carcass. I have decided to keep him on the chicken also as he has been gaining weight on it ans the protein level of carcass is quiet low. I also want him to get some enjoyment out his meals and would like to keep his teeth in good condition (the dry food is ridiculously small pieces) I'm going to try him on this diet for around 6 weeks and then i will get his urea level tested and see where \ it is at. If it is high then he will go straight onto plain renal food. At 11 years old, and a rotty x GSD, there is a good chance his hind legs will give out on him before his kidneys do so I will just try to do the best for him that i

The thing that led us towards running the test in the first place was unexplained weight loss coupled with incontinence(sp?) The vet told me that there is no way of repairing the damage that the kidneys have already recieved only that you can improve the kidney function with the lower protein diet. I'll be taking him back on wednsday for his next cartrophen injection so I will try to speak more to the vet about it then. The hardest part is that the vet clinic doesn't seem to know a great deal about raw diets so is unable to help me in that department.