RiverStar-Aura

Anything to tire the brain is best for not building stamina -- I learned this the hard way. As a puppy, Zeus was very hard to tire so I'd take him to the dog park for hours and hours letting him run failing to realise this only served to build stamina, not wear him out. It wasn't until I started serious obedience training with him that I realised what a highly intelligent dog he is and he's thrived from learning. He's part beagle so he loves tracking games and it actually wasn't until last night that he'd been truly tested. We were playing fetch with his duck when he decided he'd take it for zoomies around the park. Five minutes later he comes back without the duck and I'm thinking "great. There goes another $15 duck" so I asked him "where's the duck?" (his search command) and he actually went and sought it out and comes back with if grinning. I was so proud of him!! You could invent your own hide and seek/tracking games too with your dog. It's the most fun game ever!!!

I'm so sorry to hear about Hamlet. He was such a cutie!!!! RIP handsome boy and may the love of Pers shine on for you forever until you meet again.

That's not reassuring news If her girl can't be saved it'll break her heart. She gets so attached to all her animals and it nearly kills her every time she loses a rat. This has hit her so hard

My friend's dog has been X-rayed and it turns out the dear girl has a tumour on her lung. She's heading up to a specialist on Monday so I have my fingers crossed for a good result.

Would Archie's breeder be willing to take him back whilst you're on holidays?

I'm laughing over the comments. Such an uproar about the bats needing culling and the government doing nothing. Why the panic? This is only the 3rd reported case of the virus so it's obviously not all that common. I do feel sorry for the boy's family, but he was bitten/scratched two and a half months ago -- it should've been treated by a doctor at time of injury.

Wanting to wish your gorgeous Charlie and very happy belated Birthday!!! He's the sweetest little man and may he stick around for a long time yet! :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE W

Just been googling a few different grinder brands and came across this Ryobi Grinder. Even though it's corded, it looks as though the grinder attachment part is retractable so it pulls out away from the device. Might be handy.

Not really, because if you do dremel too far and see blood, it's usually still a layer or so away and not actually open to the air yet because the dremel doesn't move that quickly. If you do hit the quick and get actual blood, it doesn't actually bleed like when you cut it. Not sure of the reason! Maybe something to do with the heat from the dremel? Thanks for the info. I'll definitely look into buying a dremmel then because as I said, Kirah's black nails are a nightmare. Zeus's also might benefit from a grinder too because even though his are a nice length, the nails always seem to be splitting and cracking near the base.

:laugh: Don. Your guys don't know what they're missing. The other day my two had a piece of New York Sirloin to share -- that's a $10 plus cut of steak and they loved every minute of it! Spoiled much?

Can you still dremmel the dog's nails too far? As in make them bleed like when you cut the quick? Kirah has black nails and even though she's always running on bricks outside, her front nails still seem quite long and I'm reluctant to trim them any shorter for fear of hitting the quick.

I like using the Schmackos Beef Liver treats because I love the shape they're cut into. From what I can tell there are no additives, just beef liver so it's just like the Love 'Em Liver Treat. Because the Schmackos ones are perfect rectangles, I find them much easier to snap into tiny squares for Kirah's training treats.

It's the skateboarders fault of course. But of course! It's moments like these we need mister rolls eye back -- and some Minties wouldn't go astray either :laugh:

The dog might not be able to bite, but if he's lunging at skateboarders, what happens when/if a skateboarder comes off their board into oncoming traffic because the dog has lunged at them? The dog hasn't done the damage but was the cause. A muzzle wouldn't stop this situation from happening. Or even if the skateboarder comes off his board when travelling at high speed?

A pill would be fantastic as I was reading the Advantix insert and it says the product is effective after bathing with soap free shampoo, however for maximum protection it's best if the dog is not washed within 14 days of application. So does that mean I can *never* wash my dogs as it's applied fortnightly for ticks?

I've been really disappointed that I haven't been able to find Poochie's pedigree certificate because I would've loved to have tracked her breeder down and see if they're still breeding. Poochie was such an amazing dog that I would've loved to have tracked her breeder down and enquire after another of her dogs but alas, papers get lost after 16 odd years and a house move. Edited: I also would've loved to have seen the dogs in her pedigree line to see if her and Kirah share any common ancestry. Aussies aren't very common so I would imagine the gene pool to be limited -- then again I could be completely wrong too!

I really hope your customer is taking in all the advice you're collecting for him. With all the problems with dogs in the media as of late, he'll need to work extra hard. I hope that even though he's fighting the dangerous dog conviction that he starts abiding by its ruling -- ie putting the muzzle on his dog rather than holding it or carrying it with him. This is not just for his protection but for the protection of others around him. Anything can happen -- just because he always keeps his dog leashed doesn't mean it can't break free and hurt someone or another dog. Please don't post photos here on his behalf, regardless of whether you have his permission or not. Someone could come onto this forum, recognise his dog and report it referencing everything you've described in this thread -- the fact that he's injured, resulting in death, another dog could be cause for him to be destroyed. The forum is free so you could always tell him about it and he can join and post on his own accord.

I'm not understanding how your customer couldn't afford the $200 for his sick elderly dog but can scrape together $1500 for boot camp for the current dog. Colour me confused.

I haven't looked into the Aussie Terrier lines too much but from books I've read about the breed, it would seem there are records somewhere. In one particular book it lists important breeders in developing the breed and standards since Australia was first formed. I find it highly interesting especially since one of the main pioneers of the breed, Pat Conner, is still breeding. It definitely helps having such a reletively young breed as compared to say the likes of the Greyhound or even Saluki.

I'm in Illawarra south so the north of Sydney is a bit of a hike. Thanks for the offer though!! :D What club do you train at? I may know someone who goes to that club and could get the tunnel to you that way - when you trial you get to know people from all over :D I train at the Good Dog Agility Club in Warilla. It's run by Elsina Meyer.

You don't need to love all your dogs (or children) the same!!! I have my favourites, too! When I am training, with two dogs, the dog that is not working goes in a crate. When I used to go to clubs, I would work the same exercise by quickly rotating the dogs for each turn. When I took gear out to the local park, I would work one for ten minutes, then swap. Now that I have everything in my "back yard", I have a small pen up at the agility field. Cheers, I've actually been looking into crates. My guys are outside dogs so I've never really had the need for one but because of wanting to do agility, I've looked into it as they seem really handy. As I only have a small car (Hyundai Getz) I'm thinking of a soft crate rather than the wire/cage type ones. Need to research brands and things further. I guess it's more that I feel bad for 'leaving Zeus out of it' because I know he thrives off my attention too. He's much more keen on training than Kirah and really enjoys it so I find it hard to ignore that zest for learning and focus on Kirah who's much more 'what's in it for me?'. Clicker training Kirah actually sounds like a fantastic idea -- she might even be responsive to it. Zeus loved the clicker but I had no need for it because he's too smart for his own good!! For treats I use hotdogs cut up into such tiny pieces otherwise Kirah chews them. She'd chew water if she could!! She's very food motivated but I have a hard time getting her tricks to 'click'. She knows roll over but only if I entice her into the roll with a hand signal low to the ground. I'll see how clicker training her goes. For the time being in terms of crates, I section off my backyard with a puppy pen (use it as a fence). Would this be a suitable set-up if I work with Kirah whilst Zeus is on the other side or would being able to see me training irritate him? I guess he can always have his turkey wing to munch on whilst I'm working with Kirah.

Oh wow that's fantastic work!! Kaos was so distracted in that early video -- he's come through in leaps and bounds. Truly aspiring work Kavik!! Thanks for sharing :D Kaos is a gorgeous boy BTW!!

Thanks for that. There's a particular brand of toy duck that sends Zeus absolutely bonkers for and will fetch for hours -- he'll only quit when *I* get tired of throwing it! Sometimes he'll tug at it but not often. It just seems that this particular agility group really focuses on playing tug, but when I've watched them training, they do mostly appear to throw the toy and have the dog go after it. I have plenty of games I play with zeus -- it's just a matter of teaching my brother! I'm so glad I asked about tunnels here -- never would've thought to use a box!! I do know from having boxes in the backyard in the past that my idiot terrier Kirah is scared of them. She's so neurotic that I had her and Zeus at the beach on Saturday and she charged up to my beach bag and started barking at it. Where's eye rolly man when you need him?! I've always seem people practising circle work at the local off leash park and it looked boring IMO. Zeus and Kirah will follow me wherever I go but not staying at my heels though. I'll give it a go and see how it works out. I think I expect too much of Kirah in regards to the sit stay. This is the first time I've ever had two dogs and I've found training them both separately VERY challenging. Zeus being the older of the two, is *so* used to coming everywhere with me that when I leave him behind he whines and tries to let me know I've forgotten him. I've ended up feeling really bad that I've neglected Kirah's training because she really needs strict one-on-one time and I really hate leaving Zeus behind. How have you all managed two dogs? Is it just a matter of me sucking it up and taking Kirah out alone in order to get this stay happening? She's just so frustrating to train because of her stubbornness. I end up getting so frustrated with the poor girl because she keeps shuffling her feet when she sits. As soon as I bring the food closer to her mouth to reward her sitting still, she'll start shuffling on the spot. In her basic training course late last year (it was about getting back to basics so it was ideal for us), I had to kneel on the ground to feed her the treats in order to stop her shuffling. I'm just so used to Zeus understanding what I want in under 5 minutes that I unfairly expect the same of her. It frustrates me that she's so slow at learning and I feel bad because I think maybe it's something I've done -- or not done -- in regards to early training. I know I haven't bonded with her as closely as I'd hoped I would because even though I love her to death, she's not Zeus, or even Poochie, my first Aussie. I feel that my lack of bonding with her has also effected her development because she's so clingy towards me and is so obviously *my* dog, that I feel bad because I'm not *her* mum -- I'm Zeus's mum first. I don't know ... She sh*ts me to tears but I love her so much at the same time. It's just a different love to what I feel with Zeus. We just share this connection. I really don't know if I'm even making sense. I'm in Illawarra south so the north of Sydney is a bit of a hike. Thanks for the offer though!! :D

That's what I told my friend to do. Book her into the vet ASAP. Turns out since Friday she's done nothing and has only now (after midnight here) posted on FB that something's not right with her dog and she'll call the vet first thing in the morning. I would've been on the phone to the vet as soon as my dog collapsed. I guess there are different levels of concern

Oh also, any pointers on how to get Zeus more interested in tug-o-war? He's a beagle x so not so much of a tugger as he is into fetching and seeking. I can get him to tug a little bit, but he's not as ferocious as Kirah (a feral terrier). He's more of a people pleaser dog and will do things because it makes me happy and is highly food motivated. Zeus is a gorgeous boy to train and smart as a button too -- he'll learn things in about 3 to 5 minutes.