The Spotted Devil

I do a lot of road trips with my dogs - often on my own - so I've had lockable crates built into the rear of the X-trail - I can safely leave the dogs in the car with the rear door open. I also drape the car in silver shade (attached by magnets) if I can't find shade and the dogs stay cool. I know that few would bother with that set up but gee it makes things easier.

Stop enabling Panto :laugh:

Yeah I do like these :) thanks. I wonder how easy they are to put up and take down? I want something ultra easy as I'll have 3 of them. I have thought about getting them each their own camp chairs but the height off the ground makes them unsuitable, the rotti can't jump at all and the boxer jumps on them with such great exuberance that they tip over. Looks like they'd stack pretty well anyway - not sure I'd both folding them up if I had a van/motorhome. The ones in the second link do look nice!

Agreed - not uncommon in baby bitch puppies especially.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want it banned etc, I just won't be taking my clowns. They're too big to scoop up if there's trouble, its a totally foreign environment with other dogs in the same boat and I don't want to put them at risk as close to bomb proof as I think they are. Its not worth jeopardising that for us. Everyone else is welcome to go for gold, haha. I would take mine either but pet stores seem to make it work I wonder why bunnings can't Weekends are different though don - it gets pretty crazy in my local Bunnings especially if the weather is nice. I take my pup to the pet store mid-week when it's quiet and I can train and socialise her appropriately.

How is she going to make 30k on the litter? What is her secret? Is she selling Tibetan Mastiffs to the Chinese at $10,000 a puppy?? I'm curious about that as well. 30K on one litter? I don't think so..... I imagine that Panlu has simply multiplied the purchase price ($3K) by the expected number of puppies for the breed (10). Unfortunately Mother Nature ain't quite so kind. A caesarian for 2 puppies costs nearly as much as for a large litter so it's quite possible the breeder has sunk quite a bit of money into the breeding program already. If it's a rare breed I'd be thinking of importing semen costs....$10K is not unheard of.

Well said blinky :)

Just on this, dog ownership rates in Australia are amongst the highest in the world - certainly in Europe I saw a lot of really well bred, beautifully behaved dogs in public places but I wonder if that reflects on the general population of dog owners. I wonder if dog ownership in general and the associated responsibilities are taken more seriously. I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than take my dogs to Bunnings - there goes my quiet browsing time with every kid wanting to pat the Dalmatian :laugh: ETA: Certainly not going to be jumping to conclusions on this one. The only way to know the whole story is to be privy to all reports - I've witnessed this in a legal case and all the news reports were way off.

3 dogs and 2 cats, it's just not worth it for me. Particularly when it doesn't cover any costs associated with breeding...which probably costs me the most! If I had insured all of my animals over the last 9 years I'd be out in front undoubtedly.

Don't fall for it like Mr TSD did :laugh: Try Vet-n-pet online too. Super quick delivery and good prices.

I'm still playing Susan Garret Recaller games with my 9 year old Dalmatian and teaching new ones to my Spaniels. I never rest on my laurels when it comes to recalls. My current challenge is water with the baby who just adores it - very excited to have a plan in place now.

Urine Off. Black spray bottle. Only brand I will use.

Yes but if you want to try it out someone will shoot for you :) ETA: Depends on the state - eg Vic yes WA no

Good luck with puppies! I train triples all the time and I just make it about the concepts. Practising marking or lining or handling is done separately eg place known blind pile, walk out with dog to say 100-150m, leave dog in sit, walk out, throw double mark either side of blind, walk back to dog, pick up blind then marks or vice versa.

AG CH 600 Yarrowfell High Society CD ADM ADO JDM JDO2 ET Ziggy is 9 and is still as fit as a fiddle and as keen as mustard but I am easing him off in terms of agility as I'd like to keep him that way...he does plenty of free running, a bit of shaping, a bit of agility training and just a few games and the odd Open/Masters. I would like to get him back in the obedience ring - he did a perfect Open round at the Dalmatian Nationals only to blow his stays so I'd love to work on that. Wrangham Cathy Earnshaw JDM RRD Em is really blossoming...this year was a real confidence boost in terms of Jumping (fastest 400 height dog at the State Trial) and Retrieving (now has 6 Qs towards her AARD) - oh and she had her first litter of four stunning and talented pups which is an achievement in itself! In 2016 I'd like to continue down the same training path...start running her in agility and finish off her AARD. Thornfield Empower Ginny is just nuts. In the best way possible. I'm just looking forward to growing her understanding of agility and retrieving foundations. Maybe we'll trial next year, maybe not. In the meantime, if she learns to snuggle on the couch with me for more than 5 minutes I think that will be an achievement :laugh: Oh, and my HUGE goal for 2016 is to develop an AWESOME recall out of water for both the Spaniels. Ginny is a disaster in the making (loves, loves, loves swimming!) and Em is unreliable when she is hunting for her own pleasure rather than working with me.

Most of us train on our own and do a similar thing aussielover. Yes, I have a Bumper Boy but it's not really suited to a day out at the local oval! I would work on teaching your dog that sit means sit until you say otherwise - I can run and do star jumps and I expect my dogs to hold position. It's actually really good training for the excitement of the trial environment. The other thing on my To Do list is to teach Em to run back to a target mat so I don't have to walk so far! With regards to a double rise, once you are ready to test understanding you can use a black or orange dummy (or wrap your white dummies up) or you can use slightly heavier cover or you can drive to your training ground, leave your dog in the car and set up your run. I hope that helps :) ETA: If you use a hand held dummy thrower please do not do it from your dog's side as it only teaches them to look at YOU rather than out in front. You will still need to do a lot of walking.

Hi Eyolf Great to hear! The VGC are running a follow up to the beginners day in November - we didn't think it fair to always run beginners days and nothing in between for dogs who are almost ready or are just beginning to trial. I do a lot of impulse control AWAY from retrieving...crate games, sitting to go through the door, sit to tug etc etc. My 6 month old is pretty good at this and it is starting to translate to retrieving. You can then put a very light tab on the collar and release the dog as soon as they demonstrate steadiness. Make sure you have someone who will immediately pick up the dummy and NOT allow the dog to pick it up if they break.

Oh gilly

Poor girl. Hugs to you all xxx

Sorry to hear GB I would generally say don't miss an AB dose because it makes the course less effective. Did the vet say they needed to be given with food?

It's also about empowering owners to problem solve and indentify issues - lots of good dog trainers out there. Not so many who can train both dogs and people.

Sorry sandgrubber but your definition of correction vs punishment is as sound as Wiki and is based on human interpretation and emotion. I think it's more helpful to use the language of learning theory. Effective positive punishment decreases the likelihood of a behaviour occurring again. It may cause fear. It may cause chronic stress if pushed too far. If it didn't change the behaviour it's simply abuse. A correction is when you fix a spelling mistake. Everyone thinks their dog knows when it's being "corrected" or punished for doing something wrong. I can assure you that's very rare because human timing, criteria and perception are generally quite woeful.

The modern collars are much milder - but as someone who studies stress and behaviour in livestock and companion animals, aversion learning only works when the animal can identify, control and modify its behaviour to avoid the consequence. Otherwise you just get learned helplessness and/or a chronic stress response. It's not dependent on the punisher per se but on the animal's ability to control the environment. I see it often enough unfortunately. Ok, interesting. Is that kind of like letting the dog make a move towards said object, get a shock & then move away, learning that moving away from the snake/object makes the shock stop? Yes but the criteria need to be crystal clear and you don't continuously shock the dog until it moves away - which is where the vast majority of humans fail to get it right! Is it ok if the dog stops? If it turns sideways? If it turns away?

The modern collars are much milder - but as someone who studies stress and behaviour in livestock and companion animals, aversion learning only works when the animal can identify, control and modify its behaviour to avoid the consequence. Otherwise you just get learned helplessness and/or a chronic stress response. It's not dependent on the punisher per se but on the animal's ability to control the environment. I see it often enough unfortunately.

They are so pretty in full flight! I remember a lady who did agility with her Salukis. Bless her but they would put up with the whole silly idea for a certain amount of time and then break out into massive zoomies at top speed around the ring :laugh: And obviously you do get much more variation when you're not selecting for that ability either. I remember being worried about how to pick working ability in my first Springer and was given the sage advice "as long as it doesn't have two heads you'll be fine!"