Tassie

Well done to you and Luuka!

Happy birthday, Miss Daisy! I've enjoyed following your development - and your mum is to be congratulated for finding the key to your talents. Love that happy heeling photo.

+1 Poodlefan wrote - As usual I agree with PF. You need to discuss this with Breeder B. It would help if you had a mentor in the show world - that would influence a breeder's decision, I would think - it did in my case. But having said that, it is an interesting point that Big D raises - although for me, it's a green flag that a breeder (who health tests and publicises scores) advertises pet/performance pups on LR.

;) Lots of woohooos this weekend - especially to Miss Ella - how exciting. And good on my Ness - especially under some difficulties. And that certainly scored one for the ob dogs, Scoota. ;)

Unbelievably after the snow down to 200 metres we had in southern Tasmania yesterday, a friend lost her Lab x poodle to a snake bite this morning, on a walking track up the hill from the dog beach at Kingston, for those in the Hobart area. It is a fairly dry hillside, somewhat warm and protected, and always a likely place for snakes - but not the day after those snowfalls, for goodness sake. The dog was transported to the vet as soon as possible - but not easy because the track is well away from roads. The vet was called ahead and warned, but even that was not enough to save the dog - who would have weighed about 35 kg. The snake must have been loaded with venom. I feel so sad for my friend - she's an older lady, and she and her dog had done some lovely work in obedience and agility, getting titles in both. So - please, please be careful in any possibly snaky areas - even if it's been really cold. Run free Molly - you'll find some of your friends from dog club there to meet you. ETfix typos

Any age after they are covered by their vaccinations, also great for older dogs in their senior years as they don't have to go beyond a walk. Just gate-crashing to add that they can't compete before 6 months of age, and personally, I like to leave it a bit longer than that so that they have the physical, and more importantly, the mental maturity. (Back in the early days, they had to have their CD title - crazy, but gives you an idea of the sort of age you'd be looking at.) And it's a great game for the dogs (even if my agility girl thinks it needs to be done at warp speed - less than desirable.

FAN-tastic

I've made this recipe a couple of times lately - using sardines rather than tuna (although I have made a tuna version in the past). And I am no cook . tuna fudge 2 cans of tuna (do not drain) or 15 oz can of salmon undrained 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups flour 1/4C parm. cheese 1 TBSP garlic( reduce for less smelly treats) mix all together and put in a greased 9×9 pan bake at 350 for 20 mins cut into small sizes for training. It make a lot but it freezes well. Easy to make, you can cut it into whatever sizes you want (while it's warm), cooking it a little shorter time leaves it a bit softer, a bit longer, and it's a bit crunchier. My BCs and some of their friends highly recommend these LOL

Delta Dog Safe in Tas has the program starting to extend to pre-Kinder now - a lot of schools have early learning centres where under4s attend with parents. I've done a couple of sessions, and it's great to be able to get to the parents as well. For this program, we don't use real dogs - we have a big stuffed Dalmatan for the kids to meet - and I have my old Pekingese pyjama dog (remember those, older DOLers ) who sits in his crate to demonstrate the dogs we don't go near.

For my BCs as an in-between dampener I use Plush Puppy Reviveacoat - diluted to instructions. Just a light spray - but it seems to help the pin brush and the rotating tooth comb I use to go through the coat really well - including the tail - and I like the smell! On my two it doesn't seem to dull the coat at all or to attract dirt.

Thanks Aidan - I was partly tongue in cheek - but of course, you could measure some of the brain chemistry - though whether the animals would 'enjoy' that is also an interesting question. I remember hearing a talk from Peta Clarke about the eye openers of training free flight birds - who could just fly off if they weren't 'enjoying' their training.

I'll be interested in seeing them develop a 'scientific' way of working this out??

Fingers and paws crossed here too for a good result for you and your dear old girl. You've both earned it. (Been following your story over the years )

What a wonderful story - and love the way you've written it Jed.

I just got a new bike (to replace the K Mart special I used for Kirra and Fergus's ET), and today was the first time Rory (almost 2 year old BC) got to gait with the bike. I'm happy to say he was brilliant - a little silly at first - we started off on a friend's flat driveway on a 5 acre block , with him off the lead, then tried with him on lead. Then the friends and I drove with 3 BCs to a park where we could ride on the road through the park - only did the 1 lap, and fairly slowly as it was Rory's first time and the girl BCs hadn't run with the bike for a while. The few cars on that road go slowly, and we actually stop with the dogs while they go past. I did use their tracking harnesses (as I did in the ET), although I think they would have been fine on flat collars - I just wanted to spread the load more evenly for Rory in case he went silly, but I just held the lead in my hand. Rory took to it like a duck to water - gaited beautifully on a loose lead and didn't get in front of the bike - I just had to explain to him that stopping for a marking wee was not part of the deal . Now I need to just make sure that he's still good when I add Kirra into the mix - friend's husband rode with her today In Tasmania, it is illegal to ride with a dog on a public road, so we need to find things like forest paths, or shared footpaths which are signed for bikes and pedestrians.

I got one of the ones in the first link (after talking with ness) - I've only used it (on my show BC) a few times, but happy with it so far. And agree with ness - the sellers were good to deal with, and prompt and efficient. Would have liked one of these Hurricane H2 at bottom of page (my mentor has one which has had heavy use for years on BCs and Goldens) - but it's twice the price, and as it happened, there wasn't one available in the time frame I needed.)

and the reason I took up drinking And you've got to love the look on Beans' face - looking at the camera saying "who do you think you're laughing at?"

Apart from the advantages of the vet (or pound for that matter) knowing that the dog is desexed - and therefore owned - at least at some stage, it's an advantage to have the tattoo in a desexed bitch's ear if you do performance disciplines - all you have to do at most trials is show the tattoo at vetting. My agility girl's tatt is way down in her ear, though, so I have to work to show it - glad it's there though, as her chip doesn't show up on some scanners. We tried two the other day - one found and read the chip - the you-beaut one didn't - go figure.

Check the other threads on this supplier - but my advice - lodge a claim with the NSW Office of Fair Trading - I did, and got a refund thanks to them - fabulous service from a Government agency.

Fran - I'm assuming what TN is suggesting is the 'fold-back' down from a stand - elbow bend in a bow then bum goes down -gets a nice square and fast drop. When you're luring that, you have to go slowly - use hugh value lickable food, but dog doesn't get the food until at least you get an elbow bend. If dog wriggles away - too bad, so sad, food goes away, dog stands and start again. I quite like to start this one in a corner, so dog can't keep backing It's one I will quite often shape up - reward approximations if necessary - a little elbow bend, then wait for a bit more, then a bit more, reward elbows flat, then wait the dog out. It's a rare dog who won't go on to give you the full down by that stage IME. This is how I teach the people in my puppy class. Oh, and good that you're feeling comfortable about doing your own variations in class.

another vote here for the red wine/vid watching option - you drink the wine, dogs watch the videos. Love the T shirts. I have one which says "Dog needs younger handler" - and another quite complicated one which says "Yes, I know that was my fault" - and around the edges are little stick drawings with speech bubbles of the sortws of things your 'friends' will tell you after a crappy run. Got them from here - couple of years ago now but great service, and the shirts are good quality. The owner is an agility competitor in the US.

Yes - per online vet advice from a Brisbane vet - at least short term. I was getting ready to visit a high tick danger area, and this was their advice - have done it a few times now with no ill effects. But you still need to do a daily physical tick check.

Great job Brookie and Scoota - and their humans of course. And way to go Nessie girl - feral is good!!!!! Nice work ness!

Super well done, Seita - 1 down 2 to go. And commiserations kathq - but good that you can take positives away. And you have now joined the legion of UD handlers who have spoken in signals - take comfort - from my experience, that's a mistake you only make once .

Super well done! It's a buzz, isn't it.