FHRP

Seems a few of us are interested, but no one has made one?!

Pockets, is that the biggest size the Reject Shop has? Doesn't look as effective as what I have, I was gong to check them out.

Doesn't slow mine down and water gets dribbled everywhere

buddy, what size do you have of the blue one? I have one of those for my hoover GSP in the jumbo size which holds 1.5L and even with four cups of kibble it doesn't get above the extra protuding side bits. I have the next one pictured in a medium (couldn't find a large) and three cups fills it over the protuding bits and yes, he does scoff that bit. edited to change size from large to jumbo

Has anyone had a Photo Diary made with their photos featuring? I mean a regular diary with your photographs on the cover and pages through the diary? If so, where from? I have found two sites online, the first being a UK company that I really like the look of their diary http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/calendars-and-diaries/photo-diaries and the second an Australain company that I am not keen on the calendar lay out (I need weekend days to be at least as big as week days) http://www.momento.com.au/pages/diaries I have put together Calendars for the past few years of friends dogs, but I'd like a diary this year!

Who knows!? I haven't done a thing since our last field trial, have had other things taking my time. No field work over Summer, that's for sure. Only retrieving will be water work. Maybe I'll just spend the Summer enjoying my dogs. I'm kind of over dog competitions at the moment.

Sounds great RallyValley! Polo's litter sister will not point planted birds either, and she's a very good field dog. I know Polo did (had to for the UG test) and I think he still would even after all the time he's had on wild game, but maybe not!! Keep up the updates, your training sounds very different to ours, very intersting to hear of other ways to do things (especially as I still know next to nothing ).

Thanks grumpette, I have stunning subjects to photograph

a different view, minus whippet

I expect photos

Personally for my competition dogs I like a 5ish year gap. I find by the time the dog is 5 they have good solid foundations and training becomes less intense and more about maintanence and the 10 year old dog is winding down his career. I therefore have the time to put into a new pup while still competing with my older dog/s. So, I have up to three dogs competing at times, but usually just two. I have seen people take on pup after pup and not really achieve all they could with any... I've also seen people trial multiple dogs with great success!

Come and visit the Training/Obedience/Dog Sports forum wantsapuppy and you can read all about DOL members dogs in all sorts of doggy sports http://www.dolforums.com.au/forum/9-training-obedience-dog-sports/ What is out there for dogs to do? Agility, Obedience, Tracking, Flyball, Lure Coursing, Herding, Retrieving, Field Trials, Rally-O, Dances With Dogs, Trieball and more! Some are ANKC competitive sports, some have several organisations, some are just gaining recognition as a competition and some are just for fun! Some are restricted to certain breeds, but many are available to all breeds and mixes. I currently do agility, obedience, retrieving, field trials, utility gundog work and a bit of showing with my boys. They keep me busy :D

Thanks espinay2 and lils mum. Yes, Bowral is Camelot Farms method. Where in Melbourne do you go Espinay?

Can anyone advise where to get a dog's semen assessed and potentially collected and stored in the Canberra area? Is Bowral Vet Hospital still the recommendation?

Yes, I have competed with dogs in the show ring as well as several dogs sports. The dog coped just fine, apart from perhaps finding showing a tad boring (as do I ;) ) Some people who show in conformation will tell you not to train your dog to sit as you want them to stand for the show ring. Dogs are smart enough to learn both :D Some of the best behaved and happy showy dogs I've seen in the show ring are ones that also train and compete in obedience or other dogs sports.

If you added xls to lils mum's original link you get a spreadsheet http://www.ava.com.au/sites/default/files/AVA_website/pdfs/Breed%20Averages%202009.xls It has data until 2009 which I think is more current that the .pdf file?

We get very few dedicated stewards at retreiving trials. It's not uncommon to solely rely on the competitors to steward for each other. Unfortunately even then it's often the same few people that work their butts off all day on every run while others do next to nothing. Usually a NSW trial holds all three stakes with two judges. The two stakes that have the one judge will steward for each other and the other stake is usually the largest so competitors will rotate around stewarding. Most often it's been the All Age Stake with a dedicated judge, and once a competitor is eliminated they don't do the following runs (unlike Novice & Restricted) so they can steward instead. Getting stewards for any dog sport is a struggle here. It's a nightmare in agility and we've tried different incentives such as petrol vouchers, cash, raffles etc. but nothing has really made it easier. I try to steward at least one day at our local trials if I'm not competing, but I must admit I'm past giving up an entire rare free weekend. If I'm trialing, I steward.

Me, me me please!!! All yours :D

I have half a tube of Optimmune that I no longer have use for. Being such an expensive product ( this last tube cost me $100) I was wondering if anyone one wanted it? Free of course and happy to post anywhere in Oz.

Congratulations on all the WA obedience results!

I'm another who's house and garden are a shambles I do several dog sports with mutliple dogs. I usually have a main focus though with each pup brought in and that's where the contentrated early training will go. With Rogan it was Agility, with Polo it was Retrieving. Elements of each dog sport can carry over into others, so that although you may not specifically be training for something else, you're still setting good foundations (stay, recall, focus etc.). Agility and obedience are easy to train at clubs or the local oval and relatively easy to fit in. Retrieving, field work, tracking and I would expect herding take more effort to find suitable grounds and more time to train so harder fitting them in. Although if you want to be highly competitive at any dog sport, they all take a lot of time of course. This year I have concentrated on Field work with my GSP and that is all I have trained with any of my dogs, although I've still trialed in other sports. I did drop training and some trials in other sports this winter due to time and to reduce any confusion for mainly me, but also the dog. Now that Field season is over it's on to UD trainng with Polo!!

Thanks for the compliments on the photos I look forward to seeing some from Livertreats of the WA Champs! Lablover, loved watching the young dogs you bred running at the State and Nationals, such keeness!!

Judy's dacebook page says: 1st Rt Ch Ellishea Katos Czarda Heather Ellis 2nd Rt Ch Kadnook Kwik Sand Bob Tawton 3rd Grand Rt Ch O Ch Altiquin Stern (imp Ireland) Maggie Hankinson 4th Rt Ch Altiquin Glory (imp Ireland) Maggie Hankinson 5th Rt Ch Featherhunt Joshua Judy Pannett no other finishers. There were 19 starters.

Try these Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Yes, that's my kind of camping, but not what you get on our trial sites!!! Unless you bring your own generator of course! A flushing loo is an absolute minimum for me...

Refusal rule for weaves Refusal rule: Attempting the Weaving Poles a dog runs past the first pole to the left of the Weaving Poles or past the second pole to the right of the Weaving Poles.