Ptolomy

They were doing flyball at K9 on a Tuesday night. Contact Cindy Didsman (get her phone number from the Canine Association) and she might be able to tell you if it is still running.

Hi there - its exciting biting the bullet and making the decision to enter for the first time. Goodonya. Is this your first dog you have trialled? Are you entering CCD or novice? My only concern is that if Zach is having a few problems at training when you take away the food that this will actually be worse in a trial ring because you will be soooooooo nervous it will be like your heart is beating so loud, your mouth is so dry you go to give a verbal signal and nothing will come out and the dog will wonder what the hell has happened to you. I think everybody that has trialled can relate to this. Just wondering if you have played any heeling games like the hansel and gretel game where you throw the food and then reward the dog for coming back into heel position by throwing another piece of food?

My thoughts - you will know when Ness is ready to retire from obedience and agility - every session will be like pulling teeth - you will go through all your tricks on how to get her motivated and none of them will work and no matter what you try you will get the same result you now get on walks. From what I know this is the same dog that whinges to do things, forces you to take her out and drives you nuts during the day. Maybe she needs to be retired from walks! I know I would get board walking for 1 1/2 hours each day My old girl will be 11 in December. She is still doing obedience. I did retire her from UDX in December last year - but brought her out of retirement in June this year when I put her through a UDX training session and she didn't miss a beat. 4 week later she got her first UDX pass with 192. Every day I drive into our K9 grounds and who should start squealling with excitment - yep the 10 year old. When I say who wants to go training, who is first lined up at the door - you guessed it - the old girl. While training now is mainly maintenance and is kept very short and sweet - she still enjoys every minute of it. Like you I asked this same question "when will I know she is ready for retirement" and the consensus was - she will let me know. Not sure when that will be - but we take each day as it comes and as you know she is spoilt rotten and being an over protective mum I will be the first to recognise the signs.

Thanks for posting the results. I know Ros is bringing the winner of open agility, masters agility and excellent jumping to WA for the Perth Royal which starts on Saturday.

The duck dog was entered in his first retrieving trial earlier in the year - but was injured at the State agility champs - so never actually made the start line. The injury took ages to get over - by which time the retrieving season was almost over and I don't like the thought of letting him run where possible wrigglies are. So it is on the list of things to do for next year - by which time he will hopefully have the letters Ob Ch in front of his name. Blaize munches the birds, knowing my luck Beans would eat the birds and be allergic to them and Lexi would be brilliant as she has inherited her dads retrieving drive. We have photos of her carrying a pidgeon at 8 weeks of age, so I will do some work with her over the summer, but on ovals! You probably don't know but I have also tried tracking with the old girl and thought I might one day win lotto so I could retire from work and give this a shot. Wishful thinking eh

Ness thats where you need the phone a friend option Have to say in terms of obedience we are lucky to have some of the best gurus in Australia at our fingertips. Also our agility dogs and handlers are holding their own too. Not to forget Maggie and Guinness who last weekend earnt their Retrieving CH title - not many of those out there. Yep WA is a great place to live!

Its funny when I started in obedience over 10 years ago most people waited until they achieved their novice title before training open exercises and then would wait for their CDX title before beginning UD training. Now days dogs are introduced to UD exercises at a young age (my 3 year old was taught scent at 7 months of age), just the basics of go and find the one that smells like me - so once he had his CDX it didn't take long to add the finishing touches to his UD exercises and to enter his first trial. The young dogs seem to thrive on learning new things in an informal environment.

Make sure you are looking at the post you are going around and not the dog when you are doing the figure 8. This turns your shoulder - and generally stops the dog from lagging.

I do more than one discipline with my kids and don't have a problem. However each discipline becomes easier after you have attempted it the first time - you seem to work out the best way to do things and to train for them so you are wiser, more skilled and more confident when you attempt it with your next dog.

Have to ask - why don't you think it works as well on your Aussie?? I have been looking at them on the net - anybody recommend what size is best to get for a medium sized dog?

My kids get a lot of goat - mainly because one of the kids is allergic to beef and lamb. You can also get goat bones. I can buy it from a pet food shop who specialise in meats for allergic dogs so they sell things like emu, roo, horse, camel and of course goat. It comes in 1kg packs which are preservative free and they cost $3. Goat bones are $1 each.

Well done Staffylover on your titles last night. Onto excellent you go.......

Are your vet about Cartrophen injections for the arthritis. They start off as a series of 4 injections 1 every week and then they have one every few months. It has certainly helped my kids.

Gosnells obedience is on a Sunday morning. Southern River train at K9 Cnr Ranford and Warton Roads on a Monday night, agility is on a Thursday night.

A super human - I WISH! I guess I am super organised and I think it proves that when you take your dogs training you don't have to flog things - I can drive to K9, train all 5 dogs and be back home in under an hour. I think I also tend to plan sessions - so when I go training I know what I want to achieve in the session and if they go pearshaped what I am going to do about it. Ness - you forgot to add the fact that my appointments for this week include..... Blaize to the vet Tuesday for eye injury, Beans to dermatologist tonight, Blaize to vet for review Saturday, Scoota to vet for accupunture Monday, Lara for bowen therapy Tuesday and me....well I can have my nervous breakdown on Friday just in time for the Royal show! Beans only need 12 more points for her Ch title then we are out of there. Scoota need 2 more legs for his OC Lara needs 2 more legs for her UDX So there is a light at the end of the tunnel.............

We use Zyrtec which is a human anti-histamine - 1 tablet daily - but you will have to trial them and see which works best.

My Kids are: OC Lara UD ADM JDM Ch Novadel Blazin Trails (imp NZ - Blaize) UD ADM JDM ADO JDO GD SD Ptolomy Choc Chip (Scoota - Chocolate litter) UD ADM JDM ADO JDO SPX GD SD Ptolomy Jelebean Classic (Beans - Classic Litter) AD JD SPD Ptolomy Classic Style (Chevy - Classic Litter) Fionavar Adrenaline Rush (Sexy Lexi) Hmm still working on the front end titles to compensate for uneveness of the back end!

Hey Showdog - do you see Tracey for your Bowen Treatment?????

My dog is allergic to fleas and is under a dermatologist who put her on 1/4 Capstar tablet every day. The dog weighs 14kg and I buy the tablets for large dogs from the supermarket which is usually much cheaper than getting them from the vet. You find them in the pet food section.

I have performance dogs and if they injured themselves they would be going to somebody more specialized than a vet, since all vets will do is give you an anti-inflammatory and tell you to rest the dog. Yes my dog has pulled the muscle in front of the rear drivers side hind leg, which affected him sitting - he sat like he was being lazy and tended to slump over to one side. Ended up having trigger therapy and it took ages to heal. Good luck

http://ravencypher.blogspot.com/ Is the link to the agility dog undergoing chemo. Simone has kept a very good record of all the dogs treatment and her test results. You will just have to wade your way through all the other bits and pieces. To see the dog, apart from her chewed tail (the dog also has allergies) you wouldn't know she had lymphoma.

There is currently a well known BC in WA who is under going chemo for lymphoma and she is still doing agility and mixing with the top place getters in masters. I know the price was between $5000 and $10000 and they couldn't guarantee the outcome.

We were lucky - the first antihistamine we tried worked! We also use Pyoderm S and Malaseb shampoo and need to bath twice a week. We have had the allergy testing done and didn't get a lot of change out of $1000 - but do have a list of things as long as our arm that we are allergic to. We are now on the desensitization injections every 3rd day.

My dog has allergies and is under a dermatologst and is on 1 x Zyrtec (human anti-histamine) per day. The dog weighs 14kg. I would be avoiding steroids if possible and initially trying to find the cause rather than jumping in and just treating the symptoms.

Just a small word of warning about the fish oil capsules. My 2 year old duck dog is now suffering from the highest level mercury levels they have ever seen in a dog - because of the human grade fish oil capsules that you buy from a pharmacy Not all fish oil capsules are the same and yes she was on large quantities because of allergies 3000mg per day, but most fish oil capsules aren't tested for mercury or arsenic, and if they claim to test, I have asked to see data and none has been forthcoming. We are now on liquid fish oil that is guaranteed arsenic and mercury free and that you can only get through a vet!