The Spotted Devil

WDL - that deserves a brag on your part too!!! Congratulations Rumour - can't have been an easy environment for his first comp either Thanks Tassie and kathq - dunno about the handler. You'd reckon walking a course would HELP wouldn't you :laugh:

Ziggy ran so well yesterday but I did my absolute best to deny us any pass cards :laugh: An awful series of ring clashes that saw me walking and running courses one after the other didn't help either. At one point I drew breath long enough to see every ring set up for 600mm dogs and we were due to run in all of them! We bolted from Masters Jumping to the Open Jumping ring and, with no opportunity to walk the course, had to ask the amused onlookers what the distance challenge was when I was at the start line. As I lead out I had the chance to locate the first 6 jumps but that was it. So we ran the course whilst I madly looked ahead for numbers. Thank goodness Zig was on fire - nailed the distance challenge and was really responsive. Not only did he run clear but we got 2nd place!!! I'm never walking courses again

Oh the little darling :laugh: Hope she heals quickly with good news to boot!

I'm more than happy to talk you into a Dally (or a working Springer) :laugh: I do agility and obedience with Ziggy and his coat is gorgeous with no care whatsoever. In fact I can't remember the last time I washed him! My young ESS does retrieving and is training up for agility and obedience - smaller than the breeds you are looking at but the coat is very manageable and she is a whole lot of fun! Very happy to recommend the breeders of my chalk and cheese pair as well.

Agree with this too - I've actually started smiling and laughing as a NRM......it keeps my body language really "soft" and Ziggy thinks it's a great lark to try again. It also helps you to not take it all too seriously!

RV that's a great pic! I'm just impressed that she stops when there's a bunny around. Em would be off like a shot! Now what's all this about too cold, too early and creepy wildlife! That's half the adventure of retrieving trialling :laugh:

woodbyne is this your Dally? I will await your reply before boring you with mine!

Nice work Strauss and Ptolomy Rooster and feather duster and all that eh? :laugh: I reckon the little buggers just like messing with our heads :D

So much easier with cats (if you have the right equipment) or male dogs like mine that love to lift their leg! Good luck Lhok - I, too, hope it's something simple. And kudos to you for picking up on the water intake. 9/10ths of being a good owner is being observant I reckon :) x

Just lovely pics FHRP! Had Em out for the first time in ages this morning.....she did a couple of quarter wagon wheel drills with a real Spring in her step (I've realised that doing 12 dummies bores her silly) and remembered the handling we had been working on before she came into season. One or two other things need tightening up again but that's training for you!

Great to hear he's going so well Sue - perhaps you could post some videos to give us all a schnozzie fix :D Yes, Ziggy's brain has been in a hormone cloud this week :laugh: But it is all settling down again so we can resume "normal" programming!

Wahoo! Awesome wuffles - what a lovely score to boot We had a nice return to trialling today....Ziggy has been a little neglected with Em's retrieving trialling lately! We had our first foray into Masters Agility and came away with 2 nice quallies. It was a rather warm day and Zig has been rather distracted by Em being in season so I was really pleased with him - both 1st place 600 height and 4th/13th place overall. His best run was the last one - but silly handler stuffed him up on the LAST jump! The groans of despair outside the ring were audible :laugh: Great dog and all that!

Lhok personally I would take a urine sample and at least just drop that off to the vet. A noticeable increase in water intake should be checked out. Could be something quite treatable but the sooner you know what is going on the better. Doesn't mean you need to worry though :) x There's a number of tests the vet can run in house on a urine sample too....pH, sugars, protein etc. so I have found the cost to be very reasonable. Just had a urinalysis done for one of my cats who is recovering from a UTI. For $26 it was really worth it to know the results were all clear. I was considering a diet change if pH was high, for example, but all is fine.

Also, my Dally is a HUGE marker. I think it's also a bit of a sress relief. So I incorporate it in his reward system rather than punishing him for it. He's good now but my approach at training when he was young and silly was to get him out of his crate, give him 100% of my focus (this is critical) train for a few minutes, reinforce with food, then walk him away to an area (on lead) and give him a release word to sniff and pee. Sounds bizarre but it's really worked. He's very focused in the ring and understands how to get his rewards. Premack principle. Be wary of punishing him for sniffing/peeing as it can make them more anxious and disconnected from you. ETA: I agree with the others re food. Whilst I do tend to remove pressure around food they are all more than capable of exhibiting self control. When the cat shoots in to steal Ziggy's food he just stares at me until I remove him instead of growling.

I've seen some that are active - great little agility dogs! I guess that's the nice thing about looking for a mature dog from a decent breeder or rescue - you can find the right fit without going through the puppy phase. On of my Burmese cats is a retired breeding girl (we have her daughter from her first litter) - one of the best things that ever happened to our household, she runs the place with an iron paw :laugh:

I guess it's about weighing up the pros and cons. What is your feeding set up sheena? The novel environment in combination with sexual maturity might be throwing him. I am actually SUPER cautious when feeding - each dog is in a room or outside or in a crate by themselves. Completely out of sight of each other. One of my cats is food obsessed so I take him out of the equation too as he can be really annoying! I've always thought that prevention is easier than the cure. Both dogs feel comfortable that they don't have to defend themselves and have no problem with me approaching.

My elderly in-laws adopted a beautiful adult ex-show Sheltie several years ago. He is just perfect for them - daily walks but happy to follow them around the house the rest of the time.

Dalmatians are born white if that helps join the dots :)

You have your experience and I have mine :)

I would probably steer clear of most of the Gundog breeds - mine certainly keeps me on my toes! I do agree with HW about socializing with cats. Both my dogs are pretty intense and the ESS is obsessed with birds and bunnies. However they have both grown up with cats and they would never dream of chasing our cats....except Dizzy and that's because he encourages zoomies and rather savage wrestling. He's not your average cat ;) ETA: I would disagree about a Beagle. Wonderful merry little hounds but can be very active and do better in a pack. They will also follow their nose and disappear into the distance if you aren't careful!

I agree with much of what you've said :) Just wasn't sure if you'd picked up the back story as it got a bit lost!

I'm aware of several articles on bloat but the difficulty is, of course, that the studies tend to show correlations only. It's a great and necessary place to start but it would be helpful to get hold of some experimental data. I will have to see what I can find.

Then lets ban the breeding of all dogs. Let's only let the irresponsible puppy farmers breed dogs. Obviously they do it better than registered breeders. The point still is and always SHOULD be: "Why breed from two dogs who you know/or will increase the likelihood to produce problems" when it the chances can be lessened with a little thought or research. Why increase the risk of putting the "problem" there in the first place?? Mystiqueview, I *think* the two dogs you are speaking of were mated, dumped and then rescued with the puppies subsequently re-homed. I suspect there was very little thought or research involved.

No worries LizT :) The mode of inheritance in Dalmatians is not clear although it is definitely pigment related. I know of one breeder in particular who consistently breeds from bilateral hearing dogs and has had incredibly good BAER results that even astounded the vet. I think they have had one unilaterally deaf pup over a number of litters, which would do perfectly well in a pet home. So it annoyed the hell out of me when I saw a Dally breeder in the UK on the PDE docco talking about her wonderful show/breeding dog who was unilaterally deaf. It doesn't help the breed in any way, shape or form.

Is this position changes. Sit, drop stand?? I have issues with this as well. Sasha has lately decided that she wants to move forward. So annoying when she creeps forward. We can do it on a step, and at home or on the oval but the min we go to school to practice she keeps creeping foward. Any tips?? We have comp day this sunday, we are in primary companion but I don'[t know if I will do comp day this time round. Might just do primary companion for another semester and then go onto secondary companion. I would like her position changes to be much more cleaner. She use to be ok with it but in this class she just keeps creeping forward. One idea is to have a reward plate behind the dog as they creep forward because we so often reward them from hand. I also toss a cube of cheese over their head. This is a video of Zig and I training for change of position - just keeping it light and fun. So fun, in fact, that he anticipates and self rewards at the beginning of the clip :laugh: