dasha

I replied No that the rules shouldn't be amended and that covers a range of reasons. 1.We are an english speaking nation 2. Like someone said, the judge needs to know what the commands are so that they can hear if commands are repeated or altered or encouragement are used. 3. The rules are written to be a guide for everyone participation in the comp to be on a level playing field. Training for any sport means being aware of the rules. If you want to compete, read the rules and train accordingly. These are just some of the things I can think of and are my opnion.

Yes I had a pup that I grew do dislike. She had a shocking attitude and I was really beginning to resent her and she made my blood boil. I sold her on at 6 months as I couldn't stand her anymore.

If you catch a train though to Rooty Hill you will have to walk (1/2 hr) as there is no taxi's from Rooty Hill. Not a nice walk at this time of year as it is extremely hot. It may be cheaper to maybe just organise a pet walker to come and do the visiting and exercise on your behalf. Then have the dog flown to you when his quarantine is done. There is about 3 different companies that regularly come to do visiting on behalf of owners and do a good job. They know how it all works and book the appointments. That would probably be less stressful too for the family and the dogs you will be bringing. How long is his expected Quarantine period. Where is he from?

Supposed to be in a bout 2 weeks. But not sure

Does anyone know anything about a sheep dog trial coming up in Taralga at all?

You get the open visiting hours for visits, You then get 2 extra 1/2 hour visits per week. These can be used as visiting OR Exercising OR grooming on any weekday morning.

Tues and Thurs afternoons between 1:30 and 3:30. This is just sitting in the kennel with him. After his first week, he can POSSIBLY get 2 1/2 hour exercise appointments depending on availability in the yards and the weather. Exercise WILL be cancelled if there has been any rain or if it is too hot. If they are cancelled you can spend that 1/2 hour appt again sitting in the kennel with him.

Will you not have a car to get around? Public transport there is pretty bad.

Thanks for that. Will need to check my work roster as I will unfortunately be back at work by then. That will be good timing. Give me a month to sharpen them up.

I used to compete mine in agility when she was free fed. She still worked for food or a toy or anything. She is a guts for food. (all mine are except the new one) People used to say I need to feed her more as she was too thin. I said she's got 20 kg food at home she can help herself to, she was just burning it up to quick. When she ate she would only be grabbing a few mouthfuls at a time then be off doing something.

For exercise though to tire then out you could just use the old tennis ball and raquet or one of those ball throwers. You can do that sitting down. If you are able to drive you could take then to a park somewhere. When I had crutches and plaster that is what I had to do. The tricks are good for bonding and mind activities though.

When is the Sofala trial on? I forgot about that one. I have a new dog and that would be a good one for her first go. Otherwise it will be the big one at Canberra for her but would rather know if she is ready before that one.

Give it a go. Most people are frindly and will offer you advice and encourage you. When you have a go, then you know what areas you need to work on for next time. Molong is in March. If you enter you could get 3 runs if you wanted. Encourage, Novice and Improver (if he has a good long cast) If he can cast EP oprn ground and pick up 3 sheep and deliver put him in it. You soon know what they can and can't do.

I used to free feed my working kelpie pup. The amount of food that she needed was too great to be able to give it to her in designated feed times. It actually made her less food possesive. There was plenty there, no need to guard it. She was free fed Advance active and even then people still said she was thin. Too much running and a high metabolism.and too busy to eat. I don't free feed now though as there is too many dogs and they are all gutses and one Border would prob bloat, and the others would just get fat as they are lazier now. Free feeding suits some dogs. If they are not bolters and are a good weight then I see no problem if that how people want to feed their dogs..Horses for courses. If a dog eats too much that it gets fat, then free feeding is not good for that dog. If a dog is a grazer then it is not likely to gorge or eat oo much so free feeding is fine for that dog. If a dog needed a GA in an emergency, just let the vet know it MAY have eaten something but if it is not a guts it prob didn't..as it was just doing something else that's why it had an accident. Just means a different anaesthetic may be used. Or they can make it spew first if it is not a life threatening thing.

Well if you are getting improvement you are going in the right direction. Even if you only improve 1% a day then that is 100 days to get a 100% improvement. Then work on the next thing. The most part is being able to control the dog against his instincts but at the same time, not overcommand him so he can't use his instinct. He needs to be allowed to use his instincts most of the time so you don't take it out of him and make him wait for commands.

Well if you are getting improvement you are going in the right direction. Even if you only improve 1% a day then that is 100 days to get a 100% improvement. Then work on the next thing. The most part is being able to control the dog against his instincts but at the same time, not overcommand him so he can't use his instinct. He needs to be allowed to use his instincts most of the time so you don't take it out of him and make him wait for commands.

The sheep that is looking through is the sheep you take the pressure off. That sheep then becomes the lead sheep over the obstacle. If one is looking through the obstacle and it looks like it will lead the others, you take the pressure off all the sheep. 1 step backwards is often enough. If the sheep is looking at dog it is under presssure, back 1 step out, releases pressure while still showing sheep that dog is strong enough to block without giving physical ground to sheep. Basically saying this exit is closed but the other is free for the taking and I won't hurt you if you turn away from me. Walking directly off is a little more unnatural for a strong heading dog or any strong working dog really. It is simply a command over instinct job in order to make it around the course in a time limit with minimal errors.. Arcing backwards is ok if the dog needs to hold the sheep up and you need to still walk that way. IE, you have left your delivery box heading to let out, naturally the sheep want to bolt back to mob. Dog needs to arc backwards in order to cover the whole front as well as give ground as you are walking the sheep onto him. But you are in fact just backing the dog off to allow the sheep the forward movement. The dog should not have the pressure of sheep forced on him. He is just allowing the space for the sheep to take then as the bubble reaches the dog, the dog opens the space again. Alot of top triallers will not train the dog to give this much ground in a young dog as you want to train the dog to hold and cover before training it to give ground to sheep walking onto him. If a dog is not totally confident in walking up on sheep and strong enough to hold them, it can cause the dog to lose power to sheep and then confidence. You should teach the sheep walking onto the dog as the dog is more mature otherwise if sheep test your dog and walk to the dog, the dog may then give ground out of lack of confidence and the sheep will read that as a weakness and then you may as well walk off as the sheep will run your dog over as soon as he tries to block at an obstacle. BTW I have seen Cole work and he is fine.

I have taught my dog a walk in then a walk out. Directly backaward. It is about being able to position your dog exactly where he need to be at any time. If you were working 3 sheep trial dogs you need precision to be able to place your dog anywhere if needed. A direct walkout is essential as it keeps the dog in a postion while maintaining pressure on stock otherwise by the time you have flanked backwards, averted eyed eyes and then allowed you dog to find flight zone, your sheep have left the mouth of the obstacle, you need to re collect them and try again. More often than not when working a 3 sheep trial you only need to work that lead sheep. The others follow. You need sides to position and cover to guide sheep along course. The dogs job is to balance them to the direction your shoulders are going. . YOUR body language is just as important. You will see triallers face the direction they are going. When you get to your handler circle you face the looking across the mouth of it for the dog to bring. Then as the sheep arrive to you you make a 1/4 turn to be facing the way the obstacle is going - the direction you want the sheep to go. Your dogs job is to maintain that direction and cover the mouth. When the sheep are through obstacle,you make another 1/4 turn to be facing the next direction, your dog covers and then when the sheep are on course and in postion,you then leave your hoop and proceed to next pen. You work the sheep not the dog. You spend 90% of the course watching your sheep to read what it is thinking and to see when the lead sheep may change. Are his ears flicking, is his head up, is he eating. If they are your dog is in wrong position. The dog needs to maintain pressure to keep sheep in forward motion at all times as well as not get fear or excitemnet into the sheep. You need a forward, back, left, right, stop, call off. If you are at an obstacle you need to apply pressure to the lead sheep or the one that is trying to bale. Sometimes you need that dog to ealk out in a straight line so that he doesn't flank and then give the other sheep a concern in tight quarters. Sometimes you need to inch in and then as the sheep responds to pressure the dog should back away at the increment that he came in. So an inch if needed just to release pressure to allow the sheep to turn. If you flank your dog out when there is that much pressure on your sheep gain the upper hand as the dog can appear weak. It needs a good solid walk up ready to hit if needed but know when to back away too. And it need to be precise enough to work any sheep you point him to. If he goes directly out, he is still in a position to cover those other sheep. He he flanks one way, he has left the space right open for the other side to nick off. The dog should flank when needed without being told as he will be reading all those sheep under pressure an position himself ready for the next one. Over commanding dogs diminishes the trust he will have in you as often handler error is what looses the sheep and then the dog thinks you know jack so will just not listen. A well bred working dog knows where he needs to be if you guide with your body then support with commands if needed. He can read the distance required and pressure needed, sometimes he just needs some extra oomph from you.

I ticked that the website isn't important to me. I pick working sheepdogs so I would rather pick a good dog than a good website. To be honest a lot of triallers don't even have an email address! Breed club poll was not relevant. Again as working dogs most of the Kelpies come registered with the Working Kelpie Council but Borders are mainly registered with The Sheepdog workers as the main registry. Funny enough the ANKC Border Collies prob wouldn't accept the working strains as they won't fit the ideal conformation (colour, ear set and coat length are the immediate concerns) so to me that breed registry is insignificant when it comes to actual dogs of the breed that can work. I said I would wait til 6 months. Depending on circumstances. If they could give a time the bitch would be bred and it was what I wanted I would only wait for 2 seasons. If it was longer I would go somewhere else

I have never used a barrier but have found that you need to make the position of heel the place to be rewarded with massive reward history. Then Ask a sit (easy one) while you are still. Repeat exercise while not in motion about 50 times with high rewards. Then without moving your feet ask for drop. Reward. I did everything stationary about 50 times first. Then take 1 step and ask for sit or drop and you will find the dog will be anticipating the drop or sit as that is when the reward comes. As soon as he drops or sits, reward. You need the dog to be wanting you to give a command and the heeling just becomes the bit in between rewards. As you will have only rewarded on heel position the dog should stay in heel to be able to do sit or drop when asked as that is the place to be. That is what I have found with my dog anyway and she was a dog that hated being close to me.

Oh.and don't just put a teabag in the container. Stuff it full with as many as you can fit in. You want the odour to jump out and hit him as soon as he is near it. You want to make it so he can't miss it.

Agreed. Slow down. If he is toy motivated, wrap the tea bags into a cloth of some description. then play fetch with that toy. Then start hiding it so he cannot see it and let him use his nose to find it. After a while he will associate that smell with his toy. Then start placing the teabag in the containers. The containers you are using will be better for a passive response. He won't be ablt to dig on an unstable surfave especially in the learing phase. So that is setting him uo for a fail on the response to start with. If you want a dig response, you need something larger and flatter so he can learn to dig on it and that it also supports his weight when he first starts to lean on it to dig. In the learning phase you cannot correct for any incorrect responses, so picking up the container with the teabag or with a non target cannot be corrected. You are still trying to teach him the odour recognition first, then work on different presentations. If he is food motivated it is best to teach a bridge (either a word or clicker). If you use a word make it a sharp friendly word like "Yes". Start be teaching him a bridge so that he is excited and then start introducing the odour. Hold the teabag and show it to him, the second he takes interes (either looking, nosing) bridge and feed.When he recognises that the teabag is what makes the bridge then move it around and put it places he can see it but NOT pick it up. Make it progrssivle harder. If you want to use those containers then you need to place them so he cannot pick them up. Maybe put them in a small box with the top of the box open at the start so he gets out of the habit of picking them up. Then start placing bag in 1st container. When he puts hi nose on it to sniff, bridge and feed and parise. When he then starts to look keen to get to container, you can then move it to the second container. Let him sniff the 1st one and then quickly get him to second container where odour is then when he sniffs that one bridge and feed. Have other containers empty at this stage. When you start to put non targets in put things of equal odour strength in as well. Put some bland ones in so as not to temp him to make a mistake. IE empty toilet roll, tissues, paddle pop sticks. Not food. If you chose passive response which would be better for the design of container he doesn't have to sit. He can stand and stare at it like a pointer if needed. It just has to be a clear change of behaviour. If he freezes and stares then that is a response. As long as it is readable. Milling around the container is not a response. Looking back and forth is not one either. If when he recognises the odour he doesn't leave the container and keeps it focus on it, that would be a good enough response. Just explain why you have trained that as his reponse.

Why don't they take him back to vet and tell them it hasn't improved despite the pain killer and would like it investigated further such as an x-ray. No good getting someone pushing and pulling blind if there is something spinal that may be futher damaged by pulling or pressing something the wrong way. I have used a fella called Drew Mottram that is in Sydney but does travel a lot as he mainly does horses. I have had him fix me over the years as well as horse and my dog that had a spinal injury and couldn't hardly walk. 2 treatments later she was much improved and didn't need her MRI and is now basically 99%. She had a vertebrae shifted upwards at one end during rough play we think. X-Ray showed how it was placed and made it easier to fix.

Just be aware that as MOST of the lookouts are part of the National Park, dogs are not allowed. There is signage at each lookout saying dogs are not allowed on the tracks etc must remain in cars. Same for cats. I just drove along there from Port Fairy back towards Melbourne and the dogs had to stay in the van while I looked around. This can be hot if you don't pick the right seasons. When you get to the 12 apostles there is a tourist car park etc there and so I went up a side road from there to let the dogs out for a quick pee, but it is next to the main road. I found there wasn't a lot of places to stop with the dogs and personally felt I would rather have not had the dogs. I couldn't avoid it though as I was driving back to Sydney from Port Fairy after the Supreme sheep dog trials. You don't actually drive through a lot of towns along the way. After Warnambool I think the next town was a few hours later and then Cape Otway. ( I would need to go and check which towns)

As Steve said. Try and cut out the dry food and try that. If he is now itchy all over to the point that he is scratching all over and can't sit still for more tha a few minutes without scratching that could be more than fleas. If he has been to bushland or parks he could have picked up a mange mite. My pup got that when she was about that age and was beside herself with scratching. I was paranoid she was going to be Atopic like the last dog I had as he started as being itchy from a young age too. She had a few red marks on her but not much and so vet did a skin scrape and found A mite. We treated her for 6 weeks and she was then great. You could always treat him with revolution every 2 weeks for 6 weeks and see if it helps. That will treat mange mites at that rate. It will also take care of the fleas. If that doesn't help it could then be environment or food. If you can eliminate one reason, when you go back to vet you will get your money worth. At the moment I don't think a dermatologist is the next step untill you have tried to eliminate the more basic causes. The local vet can help with that advice or Steve. Personally I would do the Revolution every 2 weeks for 6-8 weeks. That will rule out fleas and mites. Then try the foods. But it can take 6 or so weeks for the allergen to leave the body in some cases so a food trial will last for 6-8 weeks feeding ONLY certain foods to rule out the others. the more complex his diet, the harder it is to work out what may be causing it. If the allergy is a contact thing, he will be itchy where teh plant or whatever contacts him. So that will be more likely face (around eyes and mouth will get red and maybe a bit of hairloss), belly, inner thighs, inner ears will be hot or red, paws (pads will be red) Basically where the hair is thiner and things can contact the skin. Fleas are generally over the rump area. All over is more like food, mites, or something ingested.