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Ten facts about Spencer. 1. Spencer is naughty. I caught him chewing a hole in his bed after his photoshoot. Two years he's had that bed without incident...he probably thought the bed was trying to steal the limelight. 2. Spencer is a stormchaser. He thinks it's his job to 'protect' the house from big bad thunderstorms. When he hears thunder he runs to the window and does his most threatening growls and barks. 3. Spencer doesn't give many kisses. Unlike some dogs, he doesn't lick people very often. This makes his kisses very special. Sometimes when I'm rubbing his ears or chest he bobs his head down and licks my hand. 4. Spencer doesn't like rude dogs. There was a dog at training once who didn't like Border Collies. He took an instant dislike to Spencer and started growling and barking at him. Spence quite deliberately turned his back on the dog and leaned against the trainer's leg. 5. Spencer humours me when I want to play silly games. I like to play hide and seek with Spence. If I hide in a really obvious place, like under a blanket in the middle of the room, he will sniff around and pretend to look all around the room before jumping on me. 6. Spencer doesn't like things which he thinks 'aren't right'. He will bark at things he thinks don't belong. Offending objects include: sky-writing planes (normal ones without the strange cloud are fine), a car that had little flowers and ladybugs painted all over it, and a very overweight woman who walked up our driveway (never barked at a person before or since). 7. Spencer has a love/hate relationship with water. He hates baths, but loves to chase and bite at water from the hose. He looks like he reeaaally wants to swim when we take him to rivers etc, but he's scared. He once launched himself off a rock into a swimming hole and then panicked and swam straight back to shore and refused to go in again. 8. Spencer is a serial killer. He killed his very best friend (a stuffed cow called Cow) when he was young. After Cow died he cried for three days. But he has since become a serial killer. His MO is always the same. He 'befriends' the victim, and then when he feels he's fooled everyone he makes a small incision and slowly pulls the victim's guts out. 9. Spencer will sing for his supper. When it's dinner time I ask Spencer to "sing me a song!", and he will wooo and ro-o-o-o. Sometimes he doesn't feel like singing though and just says "get stuffed". 10. Spencer has terrible posture. He never sits up straight. It's not unusual for his to have an elbow sticking out awkwardly.

Aaahh I just wanna squash em! They look a little sad in some of those pics though...you obviously don't hug them enough

Huh? If it's 'common ground' why aren't you allowed to use it? You're not breaking any laws; you have your dog on a lead and are trying to teach her to behave nicely for godssake! I don't get it. I would be questioning whoever told you that...

Thanks for the comments guys! LP: I used my Nikon D60 with Sigma 18-200mm lens. Exif for tiger pic: 98mm, f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 1600 Bellatrix: Yeh I love tigers too! It was a little disappointing yesterday cos they weren't very active when I was there - had to keep going back to see if they were up yet! This one was pacing up and down the fence line cos it could see/hear a keeper on the other side. Leo01: Yeh that wombat was very cute. He was the only one awake and he just sat there for awhile looking very sleepy and then shuffled back down his burrow

Thanks JS! The second Mandrill and the third Tiger are my faves too I was using my Sigma 18-200mm, mostly around the 200mm mark I think.

Here are a few shots I took at Melbourne Zoo today

You can use lenses that don't have a built in AF motor, but it just means you have to focus manually

Yep I have Sigma and Tamron lenses for my Nikon. Very happy with them too

Before I knew better I sometimes fed my dog Pedigree Homestyle. It's different to 'normal' canned food cos it looks more like a stew with pieces of pasta and veges and meat and stuff in gravy rather than a big tin can shaped blob of meat in jelly. Maybe try some of that for the fussy dogs? If you do decided to get it, make sure you get the one that says HOMESTYLE, otherwise you will just end up with the big meat/jelly blob

*snort!* *choke!* *splutter!* ;) That's insanely good!

Get a Nikon, we're sadly outnumbered here I'm a photography newbie and I have a D60. I like it, it's small for a DSLR, and I've found it really easy to use. The display is really easy to read and understand too. It has a nifty little graphic where you can see how changing the aperture opens and closes the...um hole thing in the lens (yes, technical) lol. I found that pretty useful in figuring out DOF and stuff when I first started.

Got my box today...no idea what to do! Well I have one half-formed wacky idea for the portrait brief, but I don't know if I can pull it off..

How do you train recall Vickie?

So the dog was described as a both a pitbull AND a rottweiler. Nice one. Kill two breeds with one stone...

lol this happened to a dog at work earlier this year. Standing there holding an ice-pack to a little dog's doodle...not exactly a career highlight!

K9 Kompany classes aren't really aimed at training your dog to a trialling level. It's more about just having fun teaching your dog new things and interacting with other dogs and people. I trained there for ages with Spence. We enjoyed the agility and tricks classes especially. They have lots of cool props they use for the tricks class. And there aren't 'levels' or 'grades' either. There's basic obedience and then you can go on to do whatever class you want to do. And you just work at your individual dog's level. So there might be really experienced dogs/handlers and young dogs/novice owners in the same class.

First attempt last night = FAIL lol Second attempt was a bit better.. I definitely learnt a lot though.. the main thing being that I need a tripod!

It took me a little while to teach this to Spencer. I tried sticking a bit of masking tape on his snout, but he didn't care. I even tried an old hair scrunchie around his muzzle..not too fussed about that either. So finally I discovered that blowing gently on his nose triggered the paw swipe. The end result is pretty damn cute!

Hmm..maybe my BCxKelpie is actually a pug in disguise. When I get the nail clippers out all hell breaks loose...dog struggles, growls and makes "i'm being murdered" noises, treats go flying, there is swearing..all that and I MIGHT manage to clip ONE nail.

I give my dog several treats in quick succession while giving verbal praise. I think this method allows the dog to actually register the fact that it's getting more than one treat.

Oops...that first one is actually Jethro! Yep they're babies. And they're actually girls, but I reeaaally wanted to call them Leroy and Jethro and it's not like they're gonna know lol