silentchild

Just saw this thread, I hope she is feeling better soon JulesP.

Aussies are very much wash and wear with their dirt repellent coats :laugh: so Breeze only gets a full shampoo bath once every few months, or on the occasion she decides to roll in something gross and stinky, which is quite often. :laugh: :laugh: Last year we managed to go a full year without a bath until she had a muddy playdate and was covered nose to tail in mud. It took me over an hour to get all the mud off! I try not to bath her too often as not to mess with natural coat oils. But she goes swimming / hydro every second week so that sort of counts with the water hose down after each session?? :laugh: She gets a brush every week and her nails trimmed once a week too, couldn't agree more with the importance of keeping them short, I will also touch her nails up if she has a sporting event the next day and she would be running or jumping more. Fur around the paws, ears and pants are trimmed generally every two weeks unless she has a demo or event on, then I will do that before the event also. I find grooming her very therapeutic for me. :D

Ooohh very excited to hear you've selected your pups to run on!! I bet I can guess which ones....tho I'm probably wrong. :laugh:

Stunning portraits!!

What are you feeding? I don't notice much mess from my dog, but she gets her RMBs out in the garden, and her raw mix in her dinner bowl which she licks until it shines lol.

LMFAO I guffawed aloud really loudly at that quote and Jiji bolted from my lap. Love Bob Bailey!

Omigosh she is adorable!

Is that beautiful girl your daughter? No, I don't have any children. That is Ebony. she is gorgeous isn't she and also an incredible girl. she is one of my puppy people. Not long in the dog world, but trains her current whippet daily and is now instructing at her club. We've become quite close friends over the past almost 12 months, she's even been away showing with me. I have enjoyed including her in much of the whole breeding/puppy process and she appreciates it very much. That's FANTASTIC!! There need to be more awesome dog people like you in the world! Anyone who encourages others who show interest in the dog world is amazing in my book!! Thanks mate. I have also encourage Eb to register her dog with ANKC, become a DV member herself, and now she has already gained a rally title in this short time, winning all 3 classes I think. She is now training in agility, flyball and obedience. she's been along to one of my herding trials as well. She is a real sponge for information and picks things up quickly. She is currently training her dog for it's ET this year, after learning about it through following me doing mine with Seven last year. I am really looking forward to seeing how she goes with our puppy :) I am very proud of Eb, she is awesome :) Starkehre is an incredible person and mentor, always super generous with her knowledge and wisdom. :D She helped me and taught me heaps when I was first starting out into the serious world of crazy dog stuff too. I owe her a lot and anyone would be lucky to have one of her pups. Gorgeous photos and videos, can't get over how fast they are growing!! Can't wait to blow raspberries on those little tum tums LOL. Wish I was a pup so I could play in that box. Bet you are so glad to be returning to a normal sleep schedule soon LOL.

Yes, I think so, unless you can contact one of them privately and ask if they would be willing to witness? The witness doesn't have to be an instructor, it can be anyone like a friend or family member and you might not even need the book for Novice if you pick tricks that are pretty obvious, ie. sit pretty. The facebook groups are great for support and coaching though.

Have fun!! I'm in the Heroic Spark teams. This has motivated me to get off my lazy behind and finally submit my Intermediate application. I've been putting it aside for over a year lol. Breeze is pretty much qualified for Advanced but I am so lazy it will take me another year to film and submit for that LOL.

Not restricted to kennel clubs at all and mutts are certainly very welcome. There are plenty of people with crossbreeds in the facebook groups. :) This isn't affiliated with the AKC in any way, so you'll be fine. You can always join a Spark team (facebook group - click on the 'online classes' link on the website) and get a feel for it. You don't have to post if you don't want to.

Mine digs and snorkels in water, but it seems to be a breed thing as pretty much her entire family from the same lines does it too. :laugh: Having a shallow water bowl fixes this but I allow her to go to China in her clam shell pool or puddles. :laugh: She doesn't dig couches but she does dig at me (and my doona) when I refuse to wake up on time, she's telling me I'll be late for work if I don't get up now! :laugh: (If that doesn't work she'll play bow and wuff at me, if that doesn't work too I've trained her to pull the covers off me. Sometimes I regret teaching her that when it's winter....) She has only one main go-to hole that she digs to China in the yard, she's a good girl and keeps it under the hedges so it's not an eye-sore, sometimes I will fill it back up so she can dig at it again, fills her with joy. :)

It's under 'witness instructions' in the booklet: My witness was their certified instructor so you don't have to buy the books, you can just use their instructors. The tricks are pretty self-explanatory so I don't think you really need it. Edit: They can't police whether or not your witness owns the book or not anyway?? Oh ok, so you sent the certified instructor your videos of you and Breeze doing the tricks? Or do you happen to have one locally? I don't find that all the tricks are self-explanatory, but I haven't googled any of them yet. Like 'Pedestal' and 'Volleyball' I could take a guess at what they mean, but I'd rather know exactly. It seems a bit dodgy otherwise :) I filmed our tricks and sent it, there are facebook groups for each level which is run by the instructors and you can post your videos there for them to give you feedback and assess too. If I remember right there was a document with a brief explanation of every trick, but it's been a while since I've bothered to look at it so I could be remembering wrong.

It's under 'witness instructions' in the booklet: My witness was their certified instructor so you don't have to buy the books, you can just use their instructors. The tricks are pretty self-explanatory so I don't think you really need it. Edit: They can't police whether or not your witness owns the book or not anyway??

Breeze has the Novice Trick Dog title, working towards Intermediate (have just been a bit lazy in filming it!), and I certainly didn't have to buy any of her books? I enjoy tricks and also agree anything that promotes positive dog owner interaction is ok in my books. :)

Oh gorgeous they are on grass now, how fast they grow!

You are killing me with the cute! Can't wait to see them investigating all their new equipment. And when they start actually zooming around like little speedy gonzales. Hurry up 4 weeks!

My desexed Aussie girl loves to dig but doesn't bury bones. She does like to bury toys though and then looks surprised when she 'rediscovers' it the next day. :laugh: Past dogs : My desexed Rottie bitch and intact Pomeranian bitch did not bury bones. My intact male crossbreed did bury bones, not often but every once in a blue moon. He didn't use to dig them back up tho, just sort of left them buried for ages...

OMG they've grown so much already!! Ughhh so cute little squirmies!!!

Yes, this, so much this. I did my first Royal last year, we were performing three times a day! As performers we were of the understanding that we had to be benched but not showcasing our dogs to the public during in-between times as the dogs rightfully had to rest for the next performance. Still, the members of the public who insisted I pull my tired, sleeping dog out of her crate so they could take a better look, or take a photo, despite my numerous polite but firm "Sorry but no, she is resting" was shocking. I heard people complaining about the fact our dogs were sleeping. When we walked to and from rings, or out to toilet, people would grab at my dog, pull on her fur, kids would jump on her, all without asking. I had a kid run away from his parents right up behind us and smack her hard on her bum, gave us both a fright and I was so furious. The public entitlement at the Royal is like no other, it is truly an exhausting time for both dogs and humans. I've also done Dog Lovers and that was also tiring but I could rotate my dog very often and give her plenty of rest. As we were actually showcasing there I don't mind answering questions and people are also generally a bit more polite and I can make contact as they come up for pats. Slightly bummed I'll be missing Dog Lovers this year. Edited because my brainfart remembered wrongly, it was 3 shows not 5, still exhausting! :laugh:

I had so much fun cuddling and schnuzzling and smooching these little wriggly cute soft gorilla babies. They are sooo soft and they make the most adorable sounds. I half wish they would stay this little forever!

Mine is very skilled in the art of Doga (aka Dog Yoga) :D. She is also psychic and knows exactly what I want when I just think it.

*melts into a puddle of gooey cuteness* :heart: When do the eyes start to open?

Great display!!! And Springers! :D Sorry, going off-topic here but TSD did you see the Adrian and Caroline Slater gundog display? I was thinking of Em and Muppet the entire time! :D Starts around 4:15:00 mark:

Ohhhhh that gorgeous milk bar!!! :love: :love: