Ptolomy

Well the sit mat helped Strauss get his around the back finishes - they were really good tonight I am off to buy a few for others. At $2 a mat from Clarke Rubber - its money well spent. Anyway - tonight I brought out the toy box and emptied probably 25 toys/leads and bits and pieces around the area we were working. This is the first time Strauss has played this game and within 30 seconds he worked out that all the treats came from me and the more he ignored what was on the ground, the more rewards he got. I was getting some lovely work from him Cider - well she did this a long time ago - so we were playing open exercises in amongst the toys, db, DOR etc and was rewarding with food and her i-squeak. In the past when I have brought the i-squeak out she has refused to play db, but not tonight. Scoota - for the first time I did some UDX distraction work. Now he is funy to watch when I bring the toys out because he goes into overdrive and refuses to look at anything but me. Its was a fantastic session which we all enjoyed

Yee Har, yee har, whoopy dooo, :thumbsup: as she runs off jumping in the air and clicking her heals. Have just got our hip and elbow scores back :D x 2 :D Better than winning lotto

Next Retrieving (novice/restricted) is on 24th July and being held at Beverley, see you there? Where fingers crossed you will make it three wins from the last 3 starts. Well done on your last 2 trials

:thumbsup: Indy

No Scoota was never on Denosyl. He lost 1kg in 1 1/2 weeks - which raised alarm bells made worse by the fact that we couldn't get him to eat anything. Funny the vet gave me Hills low protein food and said mix it with vegemite and he wouldn't go near it.

CC - when Scoota had liver failure he went right off his food. We tried all sorts of things to get him to eat, made chicken broth, tried all sorts of fish, tinned food, bickies, yoghurt and in the end all he would eat was chicken necks - so thats what he got for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It took weeks for him to start eating different foods again, and 4 months down the track he is still on a low protein diet. I really feel for you. As an owner its so frustrating and I remember getting excited if he ate a spoonful of something new, which the next meal he would turn his nose up at. xx

Aussielover I can't tell you to vaccinate or not. The path lab had the same recommendations on my distemper results. My dog has a compromised immune system and the last thing I wanted to do was to overload it with another parvo vaccination just to up her distemper levels. Does your club check vaccination certificates when you renew your membership?

My allergy girl came back with parvo > 80 and distemper less than 5. Discussed it at length with specialists. You cannot get a distemper only vaccine, so your only choice if you choose to do something about it is a C3. We decided that reason for low distemper was because her immune system hadn't been challenged with the virus ( seen in remote aboriginal communities in WA) and since we did get a response, all be it low, I decided to retitre in 2 years.

Gees Rubystar your girls are getting quite an agility reputation - keep up the great work

RV - she is beautiful

Wow - so young, and it shows how strong her instinct must be - well done and good luck when you venture into the CCD ring.

WA using this method - I have taught my kids to bore holes into me and to completely ignore the person walking in, in anticipation of getting a treat. You need to build a foundation which is why we start with a sit in front - so if things go pearshaped it is not associated with the SFE

WA - You will have your work cut out for you but if she was mine and I thought it was worth the effort, I would be very carefully chosing who I asked for help, making sure they could follow instructions. My kids are all food motivated, so I would begin with a sit and I would be standing right in front of the dog with a truck load of food in my hand and I would ask my helper to walk in towards me and then about turn and walk away. How close this helper gets to me would depend on your dog. As the helper was walking in, I would be shovelling food in at a very high ratio, the same when the helper walks away. The handler is paying no attention to the dog is looking purely at me. From here I would be gradually slowing down the food input to the dog and gradually having the helper get closer to me until they could stand next to me without the dog backing away. From here I would repeat the process but with a new helper. I would then go back to the original helper and see if they could walk up and stand next to me without the dog reacting. Can your dog do this so far?

It made me smile....... This morning I decided to do 1 minute training in the driveway with each of the kids, so one by one I called them out the front, they had their turn and then went back inside. As you could image they were all sitting at the kitchen door eagerly hoping that when I opened the door that I would call their name and it would be their turn. 7 of them had had their go leaving just my old girl, who is 14 1/2 years old, has a tumour in her shoulder, is very lame, partly deaf and blind, who I couldn't see in the kitchen, but I decided to call her and if she came, then she could have a go out the front too. Well I called her and around the corner she hobbled, a big smile of her face, no sign of any deafness, she made her way through the kids standing at the door and you would have thought she had won lotto. Now its not easy trying to find things for this dog to do, but we started off with hand touches and boy were they good, sits and stands on a signal - wow, speak on command, a bit quiet but she hadn't forgotton and after all those years - I no longer had the feet movement happening and then we finished with a few more hand touches. It was priceless, her enthusiasm and her enjoyment of those 60 seconds. Bless you Lara

:rofl: Kathq - I think we have all said heel at the start of signals at some point in our trialling careers. Let me tell you - you wont ever do it again ;) I believe very shortly the planets will be aligned, the wind will be blowing in the right direction and you and Coco will both be firing on the same day

Cough cough..........

Beautiful A puppy with toller bits ;)

Thinking of you and your other kids Jules xx

Good luck tomorrow xena98 - I will send the towel fairy over express post! I think our boys are becoming more confident ;) The issue I now have is flat batteries - if he is flat I lose my distance control, but if he is up - we don't have a problem. I guess its the same as losing UD signals.

Cider was a nightmare - picked her up walked her around the airport for 30 minutes, put her in the crate in the car and within minutes - she was screaming her head off and had managed to roll the crate. So I pull over - and remove the crate from the back of the car and put it on the front seat which stopped the crate rolling again but it didn't stop the screaming. Hmm hindsight.....maybe I should have put her straight back on the plane and said return to sender

On one of the lists I am on - they have been talking about sit boards to help train a dog to sit straight, present straight, and to even do stays on. Have a look...... I tried it with Strauss last night using the lid off a plastic box. It does move around a bit - so I can see the advantages of using something wooden which doesn't move so easy. Any thoughts........

Hey Tiggy we saw Bear's GGfather on the weekend and I think I was to give you a message - something about you being welcome to have his dad...... I think he had been a biot of a naughty boy ;)

WE have arrived back home safe and sound, hmm although not sure about my liver (thank you Bedazzled ;) ) Yesterday we left where we were staying, drove 25 minutes to Vet Pets Direct a dog warehouse place to do some shopping ;) , then drove 30 minutes to where I babysit a flock of tollers each year. Scoota and Brooklyn were in their crates which were pushed up hard against the front seats. In front of their crates were our 2 humongous suitcases and 60+kg of dog food which we had won - so the poor boys could only see out the vents on the side of the crates. We were about 500m from the property and Scoots starts crying in his crate and as we kept driving the crying got louder (he is not a whinger) - he knew where he was, which is unreal since he has only been to this place 3 times and the last time was probably 18 months ago. This sort of thing amazes me . Amypie good to have you home

Well done Seita - congratulations on your win at the Nationals and your 4th OC pass - she will be an OBCH before you know it. Raising a glass here to....... Dual CH Brookie and OB Ch Scoota who have both had their last interstate trip. They are a credit to what can be done in the obedience world, Two magnificent dogs who have made their owners so proud in all that they have achieved..... To Brookie and Scoota...... Woo Hoo.........