Tassie

Rory says - way to go bro!

That's great murve. Well done to you and Orlando. I have Border Collies - my 9 year old AAgility and Tracking girl did her ET )if freezing wind and sleet squalls ) 5 years ago. The training yesterday was good for Rory I think - he won a nice 15 point Dog Challenge/Runner up Breed today at a Group 5 show.

Good luck for tomorrow murve. Hope the misty rain is just overnight, and clears nto a nice day tomorow. I finally had a chance to get the bike out this afternoon - 4 km with both dogs, then put Kirra back in the car, and did another 5 with Rory - so 10 all up for him. Varying speeds, and did some grass (for me). Averaged about 11 kph. Didn't want him too tired - opr me - have to groom bath and dry him now for a show tomorrow LOL.

Amen to that persephone! We know that people on here share our love for our dogs and feel our pain as well as sharing our happiness in the happy times.

Good luck guys - run well, have fun!! :D

It's all ness's fault I tell you - but those food containers with the freezer lids could be really, really handy - and could make a nice present for a friend who has everything, including a birthday coming up Now I'm going to step away from the computer, load the bike up, wake the dogs us, rug up, and go for a training ride before grooming and bathing and drying lil big man Rory for a show tomorrow. :D

OSS - that is such a good way of putting things. Thank you. Good thoughts and strength to everyone having to make these hard decisions.

Oh my goodness SF - how sad. Yes, it will be a difficult conversation for all of you, especially in those circumstance. My lovely vet was in tears when he couldn't save my previoius BC Fergus when at 6 he died of an accidental poisoning. The next time he saw me in the waiting room he gave me a big hug, and it was tears all round. Love my vet. Just one more thing for you to consider - when I lost a beautiful BC fairly suddnely (from hemolytic anemia), I found it really helpful that I'd already decided that I was going to have him cremated. (I did that for my old Jess, and for Fergus too.) It's worth having though ahead of time what you want to do - one less hard decision to have to make on the spot. Can I say Oscar is lucky to have such lovely caring and thoughtful humans, just as you are lucky to have had him in your lives. You will have lovely memories to treasure.

SF - I've only had to make the decision for older animals, and goodness knows that was hard enough - can only imagine your situation. You've had some great advice - and agree with the quality of life - good times/bad times analysis. I found that helpful. A couple more things to consider. A very wise vet on another forum, when going through this same decision for her heart dog, said that she had never had a client say to her that they had acted too early, but had many who regretted that they had left the decision a little late. I've never had a baby, but I know from watching friends with theirs, and now their grandchildren, that tiny people are very, very time-consuming - and so maybe it's worth considering whether if Oscar is still going and still needing lots of your attention and support, you will be able to give him what he needs when baby arrives. I feel sure that as you love your little man so much, you will make the right decision for him - however much it pains you - and you know that youj have lots of cybersupport on this forum .

Interesting train of thought Vickie. What sorts of fine tuning are you doing? (Especially interested since without gear of my own except weaves and a few jumps, and rarely getting to club training - only opporuntiy to do longer sequence - I need some inspiration :D ) (My dogs have too many commitments LOL

Aaaaaw! too cute

It's interesting isn't it. Rory doesn't so much drink as take on water - lots of noisy lapping. Kirra (and some of her relatives, I discovered), drinks very daintily from the very back of the water bowl, using her chin as much as her tongue.

I'm trying to work something up to If my friends could see me now.

RV made me do it She found another website that does them with cheaper shipping and it wasn't any cheaper to go in together as they charge 25% of the cost of the total order for shipping, or a minimum of $20. So I ordered one a fortnight ago with half a dozen dummies. http://www.cabelas.com ;) I still need more stuff So happy to do a group order later in the year I need some canvas dummies and a proper duck sized dokken. ETA - Toby is no longer allowed to play with the dokken after I noticed a few teeth marks... I'm happy to order another dokken and a few more dummies if we do a group order. I bought the Pintail which is one of the largest ones. Plus a couple of white dummies, couple of orange dummies to practice blinds, and a couple of black/white dummies for good measure All plastic, but want some more canvas ones, too. Had to sneak in here and say that my little (big) Winpara boy Rory doesn't need a dokken - he fouind his own the other day and brought it to me. There was an unwell silver gull on the shore of the little bay next to the school where I work and on our lunchtime walk, he proudly appeared with the rather surprised gull in his mouth. Carried it really softly, and gave it to me when asked LOL - well, actually, I asked him to put it on the ground. Couldn't see any injuries, but it was acting a bit drunk, as were a couple of others. Conclusion from Parks and Wildlife was that they had eaten something weird, and to just leave them to take their chances. Maybe it's a pity that BC's can't do retrieving tests

I don't think it can have been very long before 1989, Natsu Chan, as I started trialling in 1991, and I don't think it had been long gone. Some of the FOOs people would know - Noeline or one of the Dawns.

Little brag for my agility girl Kirra today - she struggled a bit, but got through her Track & Search Test 1 with a good. Strangely, she tracked better on the hard surfaces - gravel paths - than in the longer grass. We'd been working harder on that I guess.

Gotta luv days like that. :D

FWIW RS, my lovely vet explained to me that he might use sedation for a 'medical' xray - but for hip and elbow scoring he uses GA as he needs to do a lot of positioning which he's not comfortable doing under sedation. And I know how you'll be feeling - I was panicking when Rory had his scoring done - especially because that was (kind of) optional - I mean - rather than a procedure like Ruby's to assist diagnosis. Wishing you and Ruby the very best. (Oh, and Rory was absolutely fine when I picked him up in the afternoon!

Colour me seriously jealous. I was lucky enough to go to Sue's Camp Tailwaggers workshop - great learning experience.

Adding congrats for TSD and Ziggy - awesome!

Ptolomy, the main issue is that he doesn't reliably get it yet that he's not allowed to move from his position to go to another dog. He's fine with Kirra, and with my friend's BC that he knows well and respects, but I just haven't been able to do enough consistent work with him in situations with less well known dogs. He has gone to a girl (to flirt) twice, and there's always a risk in my mind that he'll go to a male to posture or worse. Dropping out of a sit has also happened once or twice, although I think that is pretty much fixed for the moment - and that's not a mjaor crime in my book, since it's less likely to affect another dog.

Thanks for that biker girl. And yes, it was a pity - especially people who live closer than me LOL. Will definitely pass on your best wishes to Lynne and Chloe. Lynne was so pleased that people were commenting on the improvments in her work and Chloe's. Chloe did beautiful sit stays at training on Thursday evening - including a 3 minute one when the other dogs were in a down - she absolutely nailed it - fingers crossed she can do it again tomorrow.

Yay about the DB. Toby is looking happy RV - and I smiled to see James 'helping' - Kirra always wants to help too - so she gets shut inside. OK gurus - need to do some serious work on proofing Rory's stays against other dogs. All I can think of is grabbing any opportunity I can, and just starting off very small - on lead and close, and trying to build up. I'm thinking I should be getting him to focus on me - yes? or no? It's going to be hard, since we often only get the chance to practise with other dogs (other than Kirra and my friend's dog) once a week.

OK - you guys have shamed me into it. Finally got organised to put the bike on the car this morning and go do some training using a bike path and closed off road along a river foreshore in the northern suburbs - nice - but quite a lot is along a main highway, and being alongside the river, the wind was freezing this morning - and I couldn't find my gloves. Only showers though, not rain. Anyway, did about 5 km loop - with both dogs - bit of grass, mosly concrete and bitumen, then put 9 yo Kirra back in the car (to her disgust - could hear the tantrum as I rode away ) and did another 6 with Rory, including quite a bit of gravel. He did really nicely today - starts to break into a canter at about 13.5 kph,, but otherwise gaiting effortlessly, bless him. Problem I have is just finding time to train - in between his obedience and showing commitments, Kirra's agility commitments - and I have to do some Track & Search training with her, and Tracking with him. Hmmm - maybe my dogs are over-committed - but hey, we're all enjoying it. :D

:D OSS - yes - think I might have to lift my game a bit, and try to match my beautiful boy LOL.