poodlefan

Weaving horsey style

That Cavvy's got the same hairdo as BMP's Magic

As long as you use a gold, it stands out fine. All our training is at night under lights and that's what we've got. There's lots of pics on the net of turquoise and gold contact equipment - looks good!

I thought about that. Do you think the dogs learn that it is about touching the colour, or do you think they learn it's about touching a certain spot (ie taking distance into account from their pov)? Definitely spot, not colour. However I'd be concerned about them seeing the edges of the contact against grass, rather than knowing where to position themselves.

Seal agility

Pig obedience.. the solid jump

Rabbit agility

Check it out agiliteers - cat agility

What's the world coming to? I know. I'll have to win Tatts and start my own club with all pink and purple equipment. It will match my gazebo. ;) My A frame is due for a recoat and now I'm really tempted to make it pink Pale pink with hot pink contacts

Thanks for that. I haven't decided yet regards to colours. I was going to make the 'contact' colour, red. I figured that when we're running at night times, the red contrast to a light colour would show up easier under the flood lights. I'd recommend against red Erny. Dogs are meant to be red/green colour blind and it wont' give a good contrast with grass, especially at night. Ditto darker oranges. Pink would be better. Or mauve.

What's the world coming to? :mad ;) I know. I'll have to win Tatts and start my own club with all pink and purple equipment. It will match my gazebo.

Our club has always used ordinary external paint laced liberally with builders sand. We all had a good laugh when our shed got broken into and they knocked off the paint - they got a little extra in those cans. ANKC rules require equipment to be painted in light colours. Most contact gear is white with yellow contact areas, although for years our baby see saw's contacts bore an uncanny resemblance to the purple of my study walls. My club wouldn't let me do it pink. ;) You can get special rubber stuff to put on (looks a bit like rubber kitty litter) but it wears off.

8 hours in a run will give him more access to room, sunshine and fresh air than 8 hours in a laundry. I honestly can't see how he'd have any sort of decent muscle condition confined to such a small area every day. You can always put in a dog door that gives access inside and outside. Padlock your gates and you should be fine. The only thing I'd do is be sure he cannot access the front fenceline or be seen from the street. How old is your pup. An hour of exercise in the dog park sounds a bit much to me.

Comfortis? Proban? There are a few oral ones.

I'd be choosing only big dogs he's has a positive experience with before and that won't be OTT. Don't set him up to test for the reaction... give him experiences that are unlikely to produce it. Personally I don't allow my little guys to socialise with any large dogs whose owners I don't know and trust to have some common sense and some control over their dogs.

Doors! If I don't want Howard to get something, he's kept on the other side of a door from it.

My guess is Bails wanted someone to suggest that health issues were never a concern for pups from registered purebred dog breeders. Of course, that's an assurance that could not be given. Health issues can be managed to minimise them for the most part. Without a clear genetic cause and a test to find it, no one can give absolute guarantees. ;)

A Permoxin rinse would be my recommendation.

Bails, as Dr Hedberg's article outlines, there is no "HD gene"... a number of genes play a role. I'm really sorry to hear about your girl's HD and her breeder's cool response to you. Not that it will make you feel any better, but two of my friends have dogs with HD and their dogs are probably not purebred and are not from registered breeders. What has your vet said about managing HD. Has your girl been hipscored?

Has never happened to me. Maybe because I own a table breed? ;)

Current SBT litter listings: No of litters advertised: 89 No of litters advertising blue pups: 25 No of breeders with Blu or Blue in their prefix: 14 No of blue pup advertisements from parents with no titles: 19 So over 28% of litter ads have blue pups. Over 50% of those breeders have that colour in their prefix 76% of the blue litters appear to be from untitled dogs. Not that anyone who "has" to have a blue Stafford is going to give a damn. But the fact is that its the "blue or bust" attitude that's fuelling this.

Everyone has preferences RS. I like the yellows too. But buying a dog when a less common colour becomes your primary requirement means waiting or compromise. What I object to is when a fashionable colour becomes the primary goal of breeders who breed to fill that demand. And that's because they compromise on breed quality to do it. In essence they cash in on breed reputation established by others but do nothing to contribute to maintaining or improving it. When that colour can have health implications or is a breed fault, its downright unethical IMO.

Interesting that in poodles, silver is a dilute of brown. There have been some highly regarded and established breeders take on producing quality in a colour before. I know in the USA a long time poodle person took on reviving white Miniatures and there's someone here doing it too. However they're doing it for the breed and to preserve a colour, not to profit from it. And they do a hell of a lot more thinking than mating colour to colour to produce it. The challenge in poodles is to get clear colour without losing dark pigment. You don't tend to get that by simply mating white to white for generation after generation.

What's being discussed here is why many many poodle folk are wary of allowing particolours to upgraded from a disqualifying fault in the standards. There are already folk advertising "rare" phantom markings (and they ain't rare at all) for $$$$ and people falling for it. Imagine the circus if partis get back in. Most poodle folk admire a good one but worry about what might happen to the standard of dogs if flashy markings become fashionable.

Sandgrubber: In some cases, Sandgrubber, cynicism is justified. Outside of your breed, blue Staffords are a case in point. Twice or even three times the price of another coloured SBT for a blue.. no imports involved either. People are paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars extra for a colour. Not a better quality dog, just colour. We all know there are breeders out there whose dogs never darken a show ring and who are making money hand over fist by riding the wave of popularity generated by people who often don't understand that by insisting on a particular colour, they are compromising on almost all other aspects of their pup. Some of those breeders are listed here.. no titles on the dogs, pups advertised with colour as the prominent feature and some damned ordinary dogs used to produce the pups. There will always be exceptional breeders who choose to focus on developing and improving a particular feature of a breed. The trick is trying to steer puppy buyers away from the profiteers and towards the pioneers. The penalty is, as you suggest, long waiting times. And some folk just won't wait.