helen

Hi have a dog who is being very picky at the moment due to being pregnant. I don't normally like tinned food but have been adding Advance chicken and rice tinned food with her biscuits and she is gulping it down. I have used sardines in the past too. I find with my dogs after a while they do like a change of food, as long as there is no medical reason why you can;t.

I would go to the camera store and have a play with them and see what you like. I intended to get a Nikon but when I went t the store and held the cameras and used them the Cannon felt much more comfortable so ended up with the Cannon as it is still a good camera.

Firstly I would use the manual, it is very helpful - may seem obvious but a lot of people do not refer to the manual at all. Another great book is this one, it covers many topics, composition etc as well as exposure and is a great book to start with, see the reviews - http://www.amazon.com/Betterphoto-Guide-Di...9838&sr=1-2 - It is also discounted (a lot) at the moment. I have this book and love it. Then take lots of photos and experiement Must go now and join Flickr LOL (actually joined about a month or so ago but never uploaded any photos) Ok, just uploaded a photo and this is my profile - http://www.flickr.com/photos/11077493@N02/ - who wants to be my flickr friend?

Sorry to hear about your poor pups, must be heartbreaking. What age have the other affected pups around the country been?

OK, another goal, to join Kirra in this endeavour - I can get around well enough for this one if nothing else LOL

I know someone who does do titre tests and finds they do have to re-vaccinate their dog every few years (normally every 3 years for them) so that is enough evidence to me to say that the vaccination does not last a life time. I vaccinate regularly (although I do stretch the 12 month out). I can imagine as less people vaccinate the things we vaccinate against will rear their ugly head more often which makes me more inclined to vaccinate regularly, particularly for me as my dogs are in contact with a lot of dogs, showing, agility, dog beach etc. After talking in length about the matter with a vet it seems the biggest problems occur where there is already a health problem that has not been picked up yet. When the dog is vaccinated the dog's immune system is concentrating on the new problem (vaccination) taking away from protecting against the already existing problem. I prefer monthly heartworm tablets though, at least you have a choice here. My vets have also stated they will not vaccinate a dog if they do not consider it healthy enough to tolerate the vaccination.

2007 my dogs got 5 titles, Bella got SPD, GD, ADX, JDX and became BISS Champ Wameika Dentelle SPD GD CD ADX JDX O-NCC S-NAC S-NJC. Tilly started agility in 2007 and got her SPD title becoming RuBISS Champ Riverreed Hearts Nmotion SPD. I did my knee after this so did obedience with her and we passed our beginners test and will continue on next year. 2008 - I have been out of action with knee problem for some time now so my only goal is to actually get in the ring LOL - would make my dogs happy too as they LOVE agility. Would especially love to start Chazer in agility as he is loving it and training really well, even though I cannot move quickly ATM

;) takes too long to open on my dial-up... like flickr .... Sometimes the site slows down a bit and if you try again 10 minutes later it is OK again.

Here is another site you might like, http://www.betterphoto.com

Must have been sore for a while poor girl, but not an area you study normally. Must have been a decent cut. Hopefully the antibotics will kick in soon

The first thing I would do is read the manual, something a lot of people don't necessarily do. It will tell you how to change settings to get the photo you want - in focus background -v- blurred background, movement frozen or blurred. Take lots of photos and experiment. Settings for taking photos of dogs can vary greatly. You might want to blur the background, many people do. A lot of the photos I take I want the background and have it fairly well in focus so depends what you want the photo to look like. Also for action shots you have the option of freezing action by using a faster shutter speed but sometimes a slower shutter speed can be used for some creative effects.

Too cute!!!!

All Ptolomy needs now is a Brittany :wink:

How awful, sorry to hear the bad news

Sorry to hear the bad news, he sounds like a special dog

rewarded pretty often and quickly at the start then progressed pretty quickly after that, maybe doing a few patterns with lots of fun praise and patting then feeding after particularly good work. Just work at his pace Have you ever done zig zag heeling. We did some in Helen's class at BDAG, for me it is a good way to improve heeling as the dog is starting to learn to follow your shoulders and has to watch you more. Also the other thing that I forgot helped (learnt off Gina) if the dog looses attention, don't encourage dog to watch then reward, simply stop the game and make the dog choose to participate

I did some work with this with Bella ages ago after the first Gina O'Keefe seminar here. Went back to beginning using clicker and a few steps at a time, but never using food as a lure only as a reward. The food was sometimes in my pocket, sometimes on the ground outside the ring, it can be hanging from trees or anywhere you can find. das he can already heel it should build up quickly once he starts going without the food. I also added more pats and verbal praise I am also a great believer in having cabana in my pocket before we go in the ring, doing a quick heeling warm up and by the time you get in the ring there will still be some cabana smell, even if there is no cabana. I still use it as a crutch with Bella for my own piece of mind even though she will work if I don't do this know LOL. After the pups we might even get back to open.

Congrats on the weekend results, and especially to Leopuppy doing show secretary as well, that is a huge job. The past few weeks I have finally been able to get Tilly to do rock solid stand for examinations, she used to back off as she can be wary of people she doesn't know. She passed her beginners obedience test today (in the heat) with a perfect stand for exam, we only lost 3 points on heeling, she was heeling a bit wide so somthing new to work on Maybe we will trial in the future, who knows

Retrieving the tissue out of the box is always a cute one, command is you sneezing. If you have a portable keyboard another cute one is to teach a nose touch so he plays the piano. Or another - make a sign with the word sit, the dog reads the sign and sits (hold the sign down for the dog to see, the dog learns to sit when you raise the sign, just like luring a puppy sit

I would not expect too much for the first few weeks as the pup will need time to settle in. To begin with I would just concentrate on teaching the pup its name, socialisation, lots of play, toilet training and handling and bite inhibition.

How sad, sorry to hear the terrible news

Golden rule - work on either distance or time, do not try and increase both at once. Also set it up so the dog is successful and take a step back if dog is not successful at what you are asking. Best and most simple way I have seen that works if the dog can sit - have dog in front of you and get the dog to sit, tell it stay with signal and before the dog moves step in to the dog and praise. Once the dog is good at this then you can increase distance slightly by taking a step backwards after telling the dog to stay, then before the dog moves step into the dog and praise. build up from there to a small distance and when that is very firm in the dogs mind then you could start building up time in small increments.

I would ask for your vet's advice and wouldn't let my own pup near the new one until full course has been given. The first shot is usually at 6-8 weeks and pups are normally still covered by mother's natural immunity. Possible that if pup is not immunised neither is mum and there may be no natural immunity

There is a book by Karen Pryor on clicker training for the showring. Clicker training is very effective if used properly, but in the showring I see people just clicking away for no reason except to make a noise to attract attention from the dog, the noise I am guessing eventually becomes a boring background noise for the dog, far less interesting than a squeaky toy. Although I have used the clicker a lot for training I have not used it much for the show ring, only a few times for Chazer who hates being held still. I think it's best use for the showring might be a softer or shy dog.

The SLR would be better for taking photos of you son, can blur backgrounds more when you want etc, but of course price is more and the camera is bulky and is not one that can fit into your handbag etc.