Tassie

I really like Moe Strenfel's Foundation DVDs - and the old standby, Greg Derrett's Agility Foundation VHS . I do have the latest Puppy Foundation set from Clean Run, but haven't gone through it yet .

Pf and RSG :D

Now you know why this retired old lady is still working - and then for me, add accommodation, petrol etc. if I want to trial or go to seminars interstate - and show stuff like expensive grooming stuff, show trolley ...... . But hey - I could be wasting it on the pokies, or riotous living - this has got to be much better for me :p .

@ Bracken Border Collie thread This is the one - photos and general BC chat

:p Wow - the bar just gets lifted higher and higher this year. Super well done, especially to Ptolomy and Seita - and bedazzled. And welcome to JDM AD and Xena.

Stay safe everyone. Don't know which is worse - but I think fire - it's such a scary, fast and unpredictable thing.

Good baby! Bracken, I love the name of your older dog - Gwyn - great name - and is that her in your avatar - impressive paw wave. Hop over to the BC thread in Breed subforums in General and tell us a bit about your dogs.

Go you good Queenslanders! And especially well done on Lomani's ADM - great achievement.

Sound like really good progress.

OH that's a pain - literally. Kirra had 6 weeks off a few years ago when she sprained a toe. Was worth taking the time though, as she's had no trouble since - fingers crossed!!

Seita and JulesP - I just stick to puppy class - lots of fun, and they're usually pretty keen to listen and try things. :D . And I just love seeing how the pups respond so quickly to our focus exercises in particular.

Vicki - I get the look, but when Kirra gets really frustrated with my crap handling, she bites me - one judge said ... "hmmm well that probably did asist the dog - made her feel better anyway" :D

:D Another one lifting the bar really high to start 2011 - go FHRP and the gundogs :D

Tell Tony another crazy BC lady - this time from Tasmania - says "Hi" and "well done!"

Nice! Well done

Apollo Gardens is great - - but you'll have to be quick - they're closing in the middle of the year sometime . It's an easy drop down on to the ring road and out to Greensborough.

Impressive, sheena! Agility - almost nothing. Need to get into it. Obedience - building up duration focussed heeling with Rory - going quite nicely (fingers crossed) and playing with a few other things. Most successful is retrieving. We have a nice formal db retrieve (not really quite sure how that happened ), although he does gallop a bit like a rocking horse coming in cos he's so proud of himself . Even my db throwing has got a bit better (although it seized up in a really strong wind in a ring run out last night ). We've also been playing with the metal article - just retrieving at this stage - and baby seekbacks. . HTM - a bit of training with Kirra - including a couple of new new moves. Tracking - nothing yet. Our dog club has been running summer classes so I've been instructing puppy class - we don't like people with new puppies to miss out :D - but full training doesn't start till next weekend. To do list - top of the list - stays - although SFE is coming along - he's good when it's just me now - but gets excited with other people.

Waaaay cute - thanks for sharing. My 14 year old cat loves her two Border Collies - talks special talk to them, and washes them - and loves them to wash her - tilts her head to get the bits washed that she wants. She will hold a BC head in her paws so she can wash it better.

RV you're doing wonders with the Toby man - the biking might actually be giving him confidence (the way agility can for some dogs) - or maybe it was just the pikelet :D Well done, anyway.

Lovely armahani - you must be thrilled with how they're turning out.

I grew up with dogs, but then for a long time as an adult wasn't in a situation where I could have one. So I was a very mature age entrant ... :D My first dog - Kelpie/BC cross - called Jess, as many B/W sheepdogs were then, after the bitch in Footrot Flats - led me to my local training club - old style paddock bashing - but I liked the idea of competitive obedience. In those days in Tas you had to have a pure-bred dog to compete , so after flirting with the idea of a Golden, decided they were just a tad big, and got my first BC. Sam was a big boy, and I made lots of mistakes with him - but he forgave me. We got up to UD - got one UD pass ;) ;) - and also got TD with him. Agility came on the scene, and I played with it with a friend and her Goldens - but in those days he would have had to jump 760 at the back of the big triple spread - too much for him, so we didn't get to compete until the jump heights came down by which time he was about 12. He still had fun though. By this time I was instructing as well, at the local dog club. I still am instructing, though I've changed clubs to go to a club with a more open and motviation-oriented philosophy. When Sam died unexpectedly, I got a BC from a breeder whose dogs I admired - one in particular was a great show and performance dog. My girl is a granddaughter of that dog - and her mum is an obedience/tracking/herding dog. I also got a boy with some performance background. Those two have led me into a wonderful world of agility, tracking and a little bit of dances with dogs. And Kirra led me to working on a friend's sheep farm for a while, after we'd learnt to work sheep reasonably competently. (I had retired from teaching at that stage.) As I realised I wanted to travel to compete and to go to some great dog training seminars and camps, I went back to work as a Library Technician in my previous school - to earn pin money to support our expensive habits. :D That means no time for sheep but still enjoying our other sports. SHould add that obedience is not Kirra's thing - she doesn't believe in it ;) . When Fergus died from an accidental poisoning, I had to get another boy BC for me and for Kirra, and was lucky enough to get my gorgeous Rory boy from WA. I was buying him as a performance prospect - solid background there - but in fact he was show quality, so I've been able to dip a toe into another aspect of the dog world while he was growing up. Now he's 2 and a third, and has his Ch (good boy) we're now going to work seriously on his various sports. Coming into the dog sports world at a mature age :D it wouldn't have made sense for me to be looking for one of the really high drive performance dogs - they're really not my style. My guys are pets first and foremost, so I like them to be fairly chilled and easy to live with, but at the same time, be happy to fire up and enjoy doing stuff. I've been incredibly lucky with my dogs, and am thankful to their breeders - and thankful for all the good friends we've made. Balanced - hmm - well I did say yes, but .... maybe not so much

There'll be some very happy folk down here in the apple isle if it gets the go-ahead ...

;) Wow - you guys have all set the bar pretty high for the start of this year. Nothing for us till March RV - - I thinks that's a super brag - what an achievement!

;) RS - yep - that's the one - except that Sam didn't even bother to look embarrassed - and of course, as a dog competing in UD, he had a very polished performance (You'd think I could have trained him out of it by then, wouldn't you. )

Looks like the one I got last year, sheena. I only used it for the first time the other day - just checking it out - on a couple of Rory's nails. Was actually easier to clip him, cos he's good. Might try it on wriggling Kirra, who hates the nail clipping. I started to get a burning smell pretty quickly from the nail - so mindful of the warnings on DOL, just did a tiny bit on each nail. So no real help to you I'm afraid. ;)