dasha

It is more stressful for the people than the dogs so try not to worry too much. Approx 95% of the dogs that arrive and do quarantine sail through and have no issues from it at all. Of the other 5%, it is mainly issues like fussy eaters (being a labrador this shouldn't be a problem!!!) or dogs that already have health issues and the trip stresses their BODY and can cause the illnesses to deteriorate. This is mainly in things like heart conditions, diabetics, epileptics. Normal happy healthy dogs generally come through it all ok.

I MAY have seen a similar one at Vineyard world for Pets. But couldn't be sure thats where. THey do have a range of bedding and well priced items.

I think it would depend also on what kind of trialling you are talking about Agility I would say not a safe option..... Obedience.......... maybe, if it doesn't have an effect on your training and cues. Otherwise a few more months isn't really the end of the world if thats what the alternative is. If a walking frame is going to be a permanent fixture, then go ahead and train and trial with it. As someone that has had a few injuries that can affect the hobbies and sports we like to do............ bear in mind, you only get the 2 legs we were born with.............. Best to get it right to be able to live with it for the rest of your life, than rush for a trial and be in pain forever. There is dog trials on nearly every week, and they are on every year............. Food for thought There is a older man that does sheep dog trials and he has a walking frame, or sometimes one of those motorised scooters, I say good on him for still sticking at it when he is 80 odd......... but then he isn't going to improve in the health stakes so he may as well give it best shot while he can still get around and drive to the trials. Also bear in mind that crutches and frames are mobility aid......... to assist you in being able to do necessary movements ie getting to bathroom, bedroom and basic functions. They are not designed or recommended so that one can do their best to move around as much as possible and try to do everything normally. I would imagine you are supposed to be resting the ankle to allow swelling, bruising, pain to settle down. Doctors don't like it when you return in 6 weeks saying it hasn't healed or it was strained when you slipped in a hole in the paddock when you were supposed to be resting it. You don't get bonus points for being the person to achieve the most while using a walking frame or crutches. If you really want the dog to trial, maybe ask someone else to trial her while you are out of action.

No link yet as it still needs to go to industry.......... But it is in the pipeline

By the time you are returning, the quarantine stay will be less providing you have done the Rabies RNATT testing more that 180 days before they come. The airline fees are high as live animals coming into Oz are flown as Cargo. No excess baggage option etc. They are freight. There is currently a review in regards to reducing quarantine time down to maybe 12 days but it just means all the testing and paperwork needs to be done well in advance. Flights are charged on weight. Then there is shippers fees, blood testing, vet checks, Permit fees, other AQIS fees where applicable.

No idea, My family is not animal interested do it could be interesting for them to home 7 dogs and 3 horses and 2 cats and some birds. I think if something would happen to me now, the 2 older kelpies would stay at home with mum and dad. They are easy and just need a bit of food and some pats a day. My brothers aren't interested in have Border Collies in the suburbs so I think that One of my bitches and her pup could get sold to another sheep dog trialling person, they are always keen to buy them when I have them at trials. The other bitch and her 2 pups would be harder as they are higher drive and would drive people crazy unless they are in a working/sport home. I would like to think that friends would step in and take them and find homes for them as appropriate as I am sure they would. Cats could stay. Folks would prob ask the neighbours about how to go about selling the horses.

The NSW championship sheepdog trials are currently on in Molong (just out from Orange) and will be on til Fri. Is a good thing to go and watch all the top dogs around doing their stuff. Very tough sheep so far. But is good.

But the separation is caused by the kennel clubs. 2 tone Kelpies generally will not place in a show............... but if you see a working Kelpie in a working role, they are predominately 2 tone colours. Why can't a poodle enter a retrieving trial......... after all they were originally a retrieving dog. But the kennel clubs limited breeds to what they think should still be ABLE to contest a trial. If a genuine working border collie had a bath and was taken to a show ring, it would be laughed off as its ears are offset, its stop not pronounced enough, its coat too short, to white blah blah, but that same dog just mustered a paddock of stock and helped farmer joe draft them off then put them all back out to the paddock, but is not eligible to be able to contest a working breed of dog breed judging class. I even heard that the ANKC was looking to divide the classes of herding................. one for ANKC registered dogs and one for the sporting/working lines dogs.......... cause they keep beating the ANKC ones. Not sure how true it is........... but it is pretty sad if that happens. So unfortunately there will always be a divide. I agree in some breeds, the divide is not as large as others but in some breeds there will be a massive one. I read posts on here with people admiring the drive of the working line cocker doing a job, or how impressive the working line shepherd is at something, and the performance of the field lab at crufts. That is great and it was an awesome job, but why does it make people go googley eyed.............. because these traits that are so great to watch in action, are becoming lost. I think in breeds where the true original job had lost its place in society, a test will be designed to try and save some resemblance of history and it will be designed to suit the dogs of today. In roles where a dog still is used ie hunting, stock work, stock protection etc there will be a great variance within the breed because people are breeding for function over looks.

I haven't read all the replies but sometimes I think it would be good to have to test a breed with a function for the function for what they are intended. However in a practical sense, there probably already is way that certain breeds are bred to maintain their original function. It just falls apart when kennel clubs want to get involved and do things arse about and design a test that would suit kennel club dogs rather than test the dogs against a real thing. Then they want to introduce titles etc to make it more appealing for people that otherwise would not have bothered. That is why in many of the sporting and working breeds, there is a show strain and working strain of dog and dogs that do a job but have no real consistency in looks, colour, build..... These are the dogs that have passed the function test and are still used to do the job. Field labs are totally different to show labs, Spaniels, Most of the herding breeds fall into the same category. Sled dogs are a different looking type to show huskies.......... The list goes on.

Welcome back. Loved the video, so good to watch. Look forward to hearing the stories and adventures of "Crufts"

DId people not actually read the article. It states they are for assistance dogs. It was planned and organised as part of the inmate program for them to look after the mother then pups before the pups go to other prisons to be raised. Assistance dogs used Goldens and Labs and crosses of the 2 so maybe the paper is the one getting the actual breed wrong but really the rest of the story looks pretty straight forward. No need to read more into it and make out that there is accidents and stupid people breeding dogs in jail.

Surely the Aussie dog that was unwell would have shown some signs prior to actually going in the ring. Why didn't they put the reserve dog in? Isn't that why they take one?

3 in the team and 1 reserve as I understand it.

Chip or no chip the dog should go to the pound. Any rescue groups or good intentioned public can get it from there. I would be so pissed if my dog got out because I was away for the weekend, get back on Sun afternoon and the dog is in another state.................. Would certainly look bad for the person or rescue group rehoming a dog before it had its allowed legal time to be re united with it s owner. I won't lose sleep over it don't worry............ won't be my problem if the proverbial hits the fan.

Hopefully you find the owner with a chip then. The pound is the best place for him. It is where people will be directed to look for their dog if they start calling around. Having a dog "cared for" entirely out of its local area is simply a stupid idea and results in the chances of the actual owner being found reduced to nearly zero if he is not chipped. It is the good intentions that often end up with the bad results. Plenty of people would like a"free" Aussie shep but doesn't mean you should have someone else's. Scan him for a chip in the morning and then either let the pound collect him from vet or take him to pound on monday. If he gets impounded and the owners find him, they will then be encouraged to collar and tag him in case he gets out again in the future. If you are worried that his owner can't be found from the pound, you can always put your name down for first option to adopt him after his time is up.

Cut the end out of a pot plant pot and put it over his head so it sits behind his head and in front of the shoulders maybe. It will stop him being able to bend his neck around. Attach it with a collar and if you think he will try and kick i toff with his back legs, maybe strap it around behind his shoulders too. Just an idea

That photo isn't about promoting the PIAA or anything. It could have been Steve Irwin holding up the dead cat because its about the conservation of native wildlife not a promotional exercise for PIAA. The fuss is made purely because certain people want to make political statements and try to influence the general population that the subject is in the wrong............... Its a lot like our politicians, in order to make them seem better is to find fault with someone else. Conservation has an ugly part - controlling/eradicating populations is sometimes involved. Not pretty but someone has to do it. This image with the cat substituted for a cane toad or fox or rabbit would have been brushed off as common practice and a necessary job. Things become emotional once people can make a link between the species being killed and one that lives with them. The photos was taken in the context of a training exercise where Steve has been employed BY THE GOVERNMENT to train dogs to assist in the care of the feral cat population IN THE KIMBERLY'S. This is not happening in the local park where Fluffy from the petshop jumped the back fence and caught a pigeon and had a litter of kittens because it was sold undesexed. This is multigeneration FERAL cats that have probably never seen humans for decades and are creating havoc with their excellent hunting adaptations in killing the native animals. These are not a result of pet shops selling kittens to people in the cities. Good on him for not being too scared to let people see what he does. He also sources dogs from pounds and rescue shelters to train for jobs and the ones he takes are more than likely the ones that would have been too hard to rehome so really, there is no perfect world and good on him for trying to do something with his dog training skills, resources and experience that can hopefully help our country in more ways than one.

So cute. I had forgot how small Fly was a pup. So cute. What good memories you will have

I wouldn't think there would be penalties but if you are going to pay the money, you may need to use it so you can learn the effective/safe/correct way to use it and therefore you will better equipped to be able to teach others that do use it. You may end up helping someone that will only use one

I think it depends on what the reason is for you doing the course. If it is to learn a lot maybe one is better than the other, if it is to get a qualification for your resume, then maybe another one would be better. I have seen a few people that have done the NDTF course and really was disappointed in the results. A girl from work did it (she is already pretty good with dogs/horses etc) and she said for her it was a very expensive piece of paper and if she knew then what she knows now, she would have spent that money on her overseas trip she was trying to decide between. So it really is horses for courses.

I think it is interesting the whole idea of a contract. I can see why some breeders would do it but I also feel that at some point when screening the potential purchasers, you need to be happy with who you chose and actually place a little trust in your choice. I feel that breeders that say everything will be/must be desexed no matter give the impression that they are the best dog people ever and no-one could possible be as good a home as them and the potential purchasers are merely an outlet to offload their product. Personally I would not buy a dog that came with a contract. If I had friends that were looking for a dog, I would not recommend then to go to anyone that sells dogs on a contract. To be honest I think that breeders that have the high and mighty attitude actually perpetuate the problem they are so afraid of as it pushes people to buy from someone that will let them own the dog and make decisions about their own dog. I feel that once I have bought it, it is mine and I should be the one to make decisions about if/when it gets desexed. I don't put any contracts on the puppies I sold but all of them have gone to good homes and are doing well, and if these dogs are doing so well, good on the person for wanting to breed it on and create more generations of good dogs.

Sounds like Nova will be ok. At least it appears to be something soft so her insides won't be scraped and bruised on its way through. Then when she feels fine, she will be looking for more stuff to eat.

Sounds like she has it all under control then. I had a 12.5 year old dog just have a partial bowel resection due to a bone stuck in there. She was just a little quieter than normal and had vomited the day before. Her recovery was fine. SHe just had to eat soft food for a few weeks and had antibiotics and pain relief for a few days. On the way out of the door of the vets, she raced into their tea room to the bin and grabbed a whole BBQ chicken carcass out of the bin and started wolfing it down before we got to her. We got most of it back but it was a bit of a laugh. Soft food hey She was fine and has not looked back and she is an older dog.

Exactly. I think this type of set up is only practical in a validation style test. This is just a way to test the dogs odour recognition and response hopefully without getting cues from the person giving the reward. It is not really a good way to teach a dog the odours. I think it MAY have a practical purpose perhaps if you were training dogs to search for holes in walls or along retaining walls for possible hidden stuff (drugs) as they then can practice searching up higher and encourage them to lift their noses.

Maybe some of the older style ones we have are like that. The ones we seem to get these days are a lot smaller in size. And very compact. In fact not really very lab looking in some cases LOL.