DeltaCharlie

My Cody was an outside only dog (mum doesn't allow dogs in the house) and he was 2 when I moved back out again. I gave him the choice but he rarely stayed in the house for more than 5mins and at night would cry at the door until I let him out, then he would happily curl up on the concrete and go to sleep. Delta started off as an outside dog as she preferred to be with Cody than in the house which my housemate preferred anyway. She was 5months old when I moved into my own place (Cody had died by this point) and thats when she started coming into the house. Charlie has always been allowed in the house too. If I go out for the night I leave them outside and they are quite happy to sleep out there. They spend the majority of their time outside and if I don't go to bed until 3am I'm not going to wake them to bring them in, I just leave them sleeping outside. Dogs are pretty adaptable, if you always have the dog outside then it will be happy enough out there (in my experience). My mother's dogs have never been inside and they are quite happy out there. Just make sure there is adequate shelter etc. One thing I must stress though is that you still spend as much time as possible with the pup. There is a difference between a dog that lives outside and a dog that is left outside. The dog still needs to be a part of the family and I suggest doing obedience/agility/flyball etc with your dog. Its a great way to improve your relationship as well as keep your dog happy and prevent some of the bored behaviours (digging, barking, etc) that can present in a dog that is "left outside".

Lilbailey: Are you staying at the caravan park or are you close enough to drive there on the day?

We have had 2 in the last month Then another 3 in August and Sept, its like Flyball overload in Sydney at the moment!

Was talking to my team last night and it seems that pretty much every travelling team is staying in the same caravan park. What a great way to all get drunk together So who is going? Im with PICSI (parramatta international canine sports inc) and we are green and black. We only have 1 team entered but about 9 dogs going (I also have Delta, our boxloader and ball shaggers are taking their dogs too)

Is that what it says? Like I said I haven't actually looked at it yet, will do when I get home. I assumed it was talking about overvaccinating, not avoiding vaccinations completely. If that is the case then no, I don't agree with it. My dogs get their puppy shots then nothing after that (so long as titre results are good)

Was just sent this and it can be cross posted as much as you want. It is cat-focussed but as far as I know completely relevant to dogs as well. I haven't actually looked at it yet... E-Book

Im assuming the steak is beef? Beef can cause skin irritations in dogs and should be avoided. I feed it to mine occasionally if that is the easiest bone to get hold of in a moment of "wtf am I going to feed the dogs tonight?" but if I feed it more than a few times in a row they start scratching all the time. I feed the offal as a separate meal. Each week I feed bones 2x, meat 4x, and organs 1x. I usually buy liver or kidneys from the supermarket and feed it to them as is. If they don't like the taste at first I mix it with some yoghurt, tuna, egg, mince, pretty much anything that they do like until they get used to the taste. Then you will find most start to love it

Most clubs/associations say 3 weeks after coughing has stopped. It can hang around in the system for weeks after the symptoms go away and they can still be contagious during this time.

I am really hoping that I don't jinx myself with this and Im finding every bit of wood to knock on as I type I have never had a flea problem on any of my dogs despite them being exposed fairly regularly. I'm trying to work out why this may be so that I can hopefully advise my mother and help her with her flea problem. Info on my dogs: - I don't use any sort of flea prevention (frontline etc) on my dogs for most of the year, I use it for tick prevention during high-tick season as my dogs go through the bush to go swimming. - My dogs are fed an entirely raw meat/bones/organs diet and until recently it was from a supplier that used no preservatives at all (I had about an hour to portion it and freeze it or it started to go brown). Info on exposure: - Many of the dogs that I bring in straight from the pound have fleas. I treat them immediately but there is still about 24hours that my dogs would be around them while they are still fleaish. - I take them to visit my sister's dogs all the time as my mum lives about a minute away from me. Both dogs are covered in fleas, my mother has fleabombed the place, tried every medication and spray available but cannot get rid of them. Despite the amount of time my dogs spend there they have never picked up any fleas. - They train 5 days a week and have comps etc where they meet all sorts of strange dogs, as well as running around the offleash area. - When Delta was about 16wks old my housemates mini foxies moved in. Both dogs were covered in fleas most of the time and Delta was around them 24/7 but she never got them. - Cody went with me to property-sit my aunts house a few years ago. Her dogs had fleas and Cody ran through the bush with them all day but never actually got any in the 3 weeks that we were there. Someone suggested to me that it could be the raw diet. That perhaps the fleas are attracted to the preservatives in processed food. No idea if that has any merit to it but that is the only real difference I can find between my dogs and my sister's (and housemate's for that matter). Anyone have any ideas?

My sister's pup was diagnosed (with xrays) at about 11months. She had been holding the leg up for a few weeks before they took her to a vet, thinking she had just sprained it The vet started the injections immediately as apparently after about 12months they are even less effective (I think its only 30% success to start with). She had sasha's blend every night and she immediately started using the leg. She is almost 4 now and doesn't have any sort of a limp, she runs around all day with my other sister's amstaff and she is great. The only time I have noticed it since the initial injections was when I took her to the million paws walk last year. I had completely forgotten about her leg to tell you the truth, thats how long it had been since she had any problem. After 5km of walking up and down hills in the mountains she was starting to limp though. She starts to get snappy after a long walk so my sister makes sure she doesn't do too much in one go. I would never do agility or anything with her as it would be too much stress on her joints. Other than that she leads a perfectly normal life and my sister doesn't give her anything extra (after the sashas blend ran out they stopped giving it to her). Oh and she is a boxer x border collie x something bigger than both breeds

Kathy Romer (delta society page) ran Delta's one at a vet in Blacktown. I was very happy with her and she really knew what she was talking about, unfortunately the actual class itself wasn't great as it was only Delta, my sister's Amstaff (who she played with regularly anyway) and a pom x malt who was too scared to come out of hiding. I lost my Cody while I was going there and she was a great support (as an added bonus ) She was actually the person who introduced me to the Association of pet dog trainers so is possibly listed on there too. She breeds dobes (or used to) and is involved in the obedience and schutz world so I imagine she would have a fair bit of experience with GSDs and could help with your problems. Have you spoken to the local vets about who runs theirs? I wouldn't have known that my vet actually got accredited trainers in unless I asked, I just assumed they did it themselves. Also according to that Kathy is located in North Sydney, without asking you don't know exactly where they travel to.

This is where I am lucky when it comes to agility etc. One of my clubs is PICSI (the club that brought Jean to Sydney) so they obviously accept titre results and have done for years. I am an instructor at my other club which gives me a little leeway- I don't have to pay anything for membership so my form doesn't need to pass through all the hands, I just fill out my updated info and file it away. I was prepared to begin a fight with a different, old-fashioned obedience club to accept titre testing but I now have flyball most sundays so I won't be joining it anyway. Good luck to all those trying to change the minds of their sporting clubs.

high value rewards dont have to be treats, they can be a good game of tug, a game of ball, a good belly rub. Different dogs like different things the key to reward training is having something which really motivates them, and not all dogs like food or as motivated by food. No I realise that which is why I train him with a tennis ball any chance I get. Unfortunately you cannot throw a tennis ball (even a centimetre) in the flyball ring and it isn't always practical to use fetch as a reward at obedience. We have lost a heat because someone dropped their lead on the ground (nothing can be thrown) and I got a warning (only because it was my first comp otherwise would have lost the heat) for accidently kicking a ball while I was running. Charlie isn't interested in tugging or pats when there are tennis balls around, I need something that he will accept as an alternative to the ball.

What is it like in the carpark? We have had people work with their dogs in the carpark without even bringing them onto the oval as they are so excited. You need to find the point where the owner still has some control over the dog and work on focus activities there. It may take weeks for this dog to get anywhere near working in the class unfortunately. The owner needs to start taking the dog to random local parks (if you can convince them ) and working on simple things there aswell so the dog is used to working in other environments. If they are feeling excluded from the class it may be the kick up the bum they need to put in some effort themselves. What are the other dogs like? It sounds like they are under control but they are probably still excited and bouncy which would be getting this pup even more worked up. I have actually put puppies into advanced classes in the past as the other dogs are calm and working so the pup calms down too.

What sport are we talking about? Is it food motivated? Toy? Will it focus on either? I would be working on simply getting the dogs attention and maintaining it for short and long periods of time. If the dog is not paying attention its unlikely to do anything else. At 4 months it is only a baby and they generally are incredibly excited. I started obedience with Delta at 4months but I did so much preparation with her at home and she went to training twice a week to watch while I trained Cody so she was used to being there. When I take foster puppies to training I train with raw chicken hearts- I go home with hands covered in blood but at least it keeps their attention on me. My last one had been going to agility/flyball training 5 days a week and had been to flyball comps etc but she was still really over the top with excitement during her first class. There is no way that she could have been taken out of the house any more than she was If it were me I would have them working nearby but not actually in the class to begin with. The dog doesn't need the added distraction of other dogs in close proximity, it needs to calm down a little. I would have them working on attention getting and basic things about 5m (or more if needed) away from the class. Allow them to join in for short periods but then move away again if the dog is losing focus. Not sure how long the class is but the attention span of this dog probably isn't long enough to last an entire class.

Actually you can control it. On another site I used to be a member of there where ads for oodles etc and the site owner emailed yahoo (the source of the ads) and requested that they no longer use those ads on the site. They agreed to it and we never saw another ad like that again.

My mum has had success with chicken wire along the bottom of the fence at a 45 degree angle (probably 2ft wide). My sister's dog can't stand on it to get a good push and because it is angled she would have to jump from 2ft away from the fence to be able to get over it. She tried once and went head first into the fence and hasnt attempted since, although it would be a 7ft jump at an unnatural angle for a dog.

My dogs seem to know the difference. The hand goes towards the dog for stay; the dog goes towards the hand for a touch. So for my dogs they are 2 different signals (one is a moving palm, one is stationary).

I have known a few dogs that do this. With those dogs it was pretty much a case of the dog having no rear-end awareness whatsoever. "Back legs? What do you mean I have back legs?" Not sure if that is the case here, its just what we found with these dogs. Lots of walking over ladders, perch work etc to increase rear end awareness helped the dogs to pay attention to their back legs and they walk much straighter now.

Charlie doesn't like working for food, he is getting better but would rather a tennis ball any day. Cant throw anything in the ring at flyball so I need to get SUPERDUPER treats for him. The only thing I have seen him choose over a tennis ball (much to my shock) was the "Kramer" brand chicken breast bites. They are crunchy though so not any good for quick treats. He will also work for "chunkers" or this tuna cake thing I bake for him (bake it in a cake tin then cut it into tiny bits). I can give you the recipe if you want. Every day treats for Delta are bits of kibble (they are a novelty to her and she goes nuts for them ) Training treats are similar to the ones you mentioned. I had a foster puppy a few months ago that I was taking to obedience. She was pretty excited about everything and I found the best way to keep her attention all night was to train with raw chicken hearts! By the end of the night my hands were covered in blood and gunk but it worked a charm

Depends on what association it is. ANKC is 600mm, ADAA is 550mm, not sure about NADAC.

I have alot of trouble with the shutting up part too! Although I can see my dogs thinking to themselves "of course Im going to take the tunnel right in front of me, where else do you expect me to go?" 9/10 my dogs know where to go before Ive even worked it out and telling them is pointless and probably distracting to them. Oh, and the commands I use A Frame (hup) Dog Walk (walkit) See Saw (onyaget) Broad (big one) Tyre, tunnel, chute, table, weaves are called by their own names Directional Out (work at a distance) Go (keep taking all the jumps in a line to the finish) Dogs name (come in close to me immediately, do not take any obstacles under any circumstances, your mummy mucked up and is in the wrong position :D)

I have a different command for pretty much everything, with the exception of jumps and spreads (broad is "bigone"), where I don't say anything, the dog just jumps if there is a jump there. I only use the commands when a discrimination is required (we are running towards 2 obstacles close together) or to let the dog know it is a seesaw not a dog walk (I say "onyaget" for seesaw and "walkit" for dog walk). With very inexperienced dogs I use commands for most things (I say more for Charlie than I would for Delta) but a few months ago our Chief Instructor got us to start running our courses silently. Only allowed to use a release word, tell a dog to go "out" if body language cant convey the distance, and name obstacles for a discrimination. The difference it has made is unbelievable. It forces the dogs to pay more attention to your body language, it means that when a command is given it has more of an effect, and you concentrate more on giving clear signals. I was pretty sceptical at first about not being able to call her for pull-throughs etc but Delta responded to my body perfectly every time. I prefer to have a completely different name for everything. You need to give the dog as much information as you possible can. Some people use "tunnel" for the chute as well, but I prefer to call it "chute". My dogs have trouble telling "tunnel" and "table" and "tyre" apart, I would hate to think of the confusion it would cause if they had the same command. Someone suggested using "teeter" for the seesaw as its easier to say, too many "t" words for my poor brain though I was saying "onyaget" during our foundation training (banging the board etc) and it just kinda stuck. You want things that will be easy for you to remember aswell.

What if the dog doesn't need a halti? Even if one would be useful to a dog (I used one with Charlie) I would never recommend using it for more than a few weeks. To me it is something that gives you enough control to teach the dog where it should be, it should never be used to force the dog into the right position. After a few weeks a dedicated handler should have a dog that at least has a reasonable idea of where it should be and thats when lots of praise and rewards are used to encourage the dog to stay in that position. I wouldn't spend money on something I'm only using for a few weeks. Where abouts are you located? Im sure there are plenty of members in here who could point you in the direction of a good training school.

You are doubling up on the flea medication. If you need the tick prevention I would use Advantix and Interceptor, if you dont need tick prevention then just use sentinel and ditch the advantix. I use interceptor because I also need something for ticks. Interceptor doesnt have the flea prevention stuff in it so that you can use it with another product like advantix, frontline etc.