~*Shell*~

So essentially you continue making noise while the dog is performing the behaviour you want from it? So if you're trying to teach a drop and the dog goes down into a bow but stands back up, you would make noise from the time the dog starts going down till he starts coming back up? I've never heard of it before - how does it stand as opposed to marking something with a clicker? I've found that I've never needed anything other than the clicker to teach Zero a behaviour.

I'm in the city on saturday night for a creative conference. I have an idea that I want to try but it'll take a whole heap of planning because of the conference.

The bokeh challenge is being judged by Chris Bray - I'm sure he won't mind if you do it during the day for a different effect. He is going to be looking at hundreds of entries so having something a little different to everyone else might be good... I think it's easier to do bokeh at night which is why they recommend it but he did say it's experimental so I'm guessing the idea is that you play around with it.

I was going to say - I'm sure cannibalgoldfish will have something to say about them!! ;) Gorgeous dogs but typical spitzies! You're in for a challenge if you decide that they're the breed for you!

Poor Satch - maybe the bath was tastey? ;) I went around the side of the trailer to answer my phone and suddenly I'm getting dripped on by a big wet sibe who has his head stuck out the window... of course, my first reaction was to pull out the camera and get a photo. Poor Zero - I'm a mean mummy.

Lol - cute doggie!! Love the towel around the face! This is Zero in the bath: He's not the biggest fan so decided to try and escape out the window: Unfortunately, it wasn't the best idea - this is how high up the window was: Poor sad doggie had to stay in the bath! :D

I haven't even looked at the bokeh photo yet! Good to see someone's getting a head start!

I think they've recently changed that rule - I was stewarding at a trial (metro sydney) last weekend and the judge allowed the people who NQed to complete another exercise. There weren't that many entries though - I think we had about 20 in our open ring.

You attach the bokeh hood straight onto the lens - you need to switch it to manual focus though because the lens may try to focus on the hood rather than on what you want to focus on and it can be done at any focal length but it's better if you use a lens over 50mm because it doesn't work particularly well with a wide angle lens. I'm not sure if you can use it with a point and shoot - i would think that you would need a camera that manually focuses and I'm not sure if your camera does it. ETA: If i was you, i would try and see what happens!

That bokeh video by Chris Bray is great - I think most of it is about going out and getting some practice in though!

Awwwww - that rash vest is to die for and he looks so happy wearing it!

I got mine today too - I'm going to carry it everywhere with me for a couple of days and see what I can think of...

I'm still waiting on mine too - I know people who registered after me who have theirs already which is annoying...

I always take my disinfectant with me - our local one has an automatic spray cleaner that comes on 2 minutes after the timer runs out (so you have 2 minutes to get your dog out) that apparently has a cleaning agent in it but I like to make sure with my own cleaner. Of course, none of this will be a problem when i get my own hydrobath!

Bahahahaha - those are worth the wait!

With matts, I would suggest getting a professional to help you but in the absence of that, run into a good petshop and look for a tool called a matt splitter. Make sure you have hold of the hair between the matt and the skin so you don't pull the dog's skin around too much or you'll hurt the dog. You can break the matt up into smaller knots and work on them with a slicker brush to untangle them. If you can't get a matt out that way, you can cut it out but make sure you only cut what you can see or you could cut the dog - if you have a set of clippers, use those but if not, use a pair of scissors. Be very very careful if you use scissors though!! If the matt is all the way to the skin, don't try to deal with it yourself. Call the groomer back and tell them and see what they can do.

This photo is in this year's calendar... Holy crap Mick! Sasha is HUGE! Do you mind if I have a play around with a couple of your photos? I don't have much time to take photos at the moment so I'm always looking for shots to have a play around with while I try to teach myself photoshop.

I was told what they were this morning - I'm excited about it though I don't have a huge amount of ideas yet...

Don't say that CM!! Hmmm i really want to know what's in the box though....

Kivi is a very easy going dog and dogs will allow puppies to get away with things they would not let an adult dog get away with. For example - when Zero first met the then I think 12 week old Ahsoka, he growled at her because she was jumping on him and so she turned around and barked at him and that was the end of it. He went and lay down and when she wanted to play with him, he would let her. The 14 month old Ahsoka barks at Zero and she gets a loud, grumbly bark back off him or a "woo woo" from him if it's at a distance and if she doesn't quieten down, he will go and stand right next to her with his head up and tail curled tightly over his body in a very dominant stance. For this he gets an "arrrr" from me because he knows he's allowed to tell her off verbally but posturing is something I don't allow. Even in his most dog aggressive state, Zero would not go after puppies - I've heard that it's hardwired into their brain to not physically hurt puppies (obviously there are exceptions to this with dogs who have learned certain behaviours) though I haven't read any research on it yet - and even now, I can trust that he won't do anything more than a growl to tell them that their behaviour isn't wanted. Again, I can only use Zero as an example because Danika never did anything like what Zero does but Zero having the last word never gets me anywhere - if i start letting up on the rules in any way at home, he starts pushing the boundaries more and with a big dog who has a lot of force behind him, that can mean a lot of problems. Usually his grumblings over something start at a bark, or a whine and then become something more. For example, he knows he's not allowed up on the couch till he's invited and when he gets told to get down, he has to. For a while he would get off to couch reluctantly and then turn around and whine at me, that became a bark and then that became him not getting off the couch when he was told. Luckily I had the trump card for that and was able to get him off quite easily when i wanted to so he quickly learnt that behaving meant time on the couch, not behaving meant he stayed on the floor. I'm sure there are a lot of dogs that will grumble and it won't go any further than that but it's not something I can let Zero get away with because it leads to other problems at home. BTW - I will get back you about your PM, I just haven't had time to read it properly yet.

I'm so sorry for your loss RL. RIP Bella - you'll have some great dogs for company on the other side

I'm registered!

I'm pretty sure he only has like 4 facial expressions... 1) Crazy happy smile (last photo) 2) Cheeky "i'm about to do something naughty" or "i've just done something naughty and i don't think you've realised yet" smile (photo on the rock) 3) "You have food and I want it" drool face (aka the "Lestat is my brother from another mother" face) 4) Serious face. (every other photo)

Meh - I'll start with these:

I saw that today! Why do I not have a spare $1700?!? Oh, that's right - i'm saving to buy the $2000 lens I want