SmoothieGirl

I'll be there too and its my home club so I'm hoping for half decent results. Melody, assuming my entries made it in the mail I'll be in the AM trial and ready to take on any jobs from about 2pm-ish after I pop Bronte home and get back to the club again.

Hi Kepala Crew Check this out - http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=206674 I'll be at the November Kepala meet if you want to donate anything at all and I'm happy to collect for Underdog. Have a great time in the sun tomorrow and I'll see ya all in a month. SG & Bronte

Bump bump goes the Elf.

Are they better form a nutritional perspective or just a personal preferance? 4Legs contain coconut which I'm allergic to so I've not used them before. My dog does not like cabinossi. We do use cheese and left-over roast occasionally but more for drive work than marker training The 4Legs roll doesn't have coconut in it. It cuts up nicely into cubes of whatever size you choose, holds its shape and is a lot less messy than the loose chunks. The rolls are a little harder to find, but some Coles and Safeways do sell them. Oh, they freeze too, so I've discovered. I cut the rolls into 200g sections, freeze them, then defrost and cube them as required. Whaaa-laaa, easy peazy.

I've seen a couple of friends put weight on their dogs using EcoPet rolls, but never used them myself, they saw good results though. I had to put about 5kg on my girl after she under went an elimination diet and then got knocked around by few weeks of sickness. I did it by significantly increasing the amount of dry food she was on (Royal Canin Sensitive, at the time) and made sure her meat source was either chicken wings, lamb or beef. I avoided roo etc, only because it was too lean, but normally roo is in her diet. I'd be adding some eggs a few times a week too. It took a good 6-8 weeks to get bring her up properly and now I'm just tryng to pinpoint her maintenance diet.

Iloveboundaries, by the way, there is a $15 charge per dog. Won't be there to meet you this month, but have a great time.

Ness, just a quick question. It sounds like instead of telling your dog to 'stay' you repeat the position command when you leave your dog, this is what I do. Is there something wrong with that? It sounds like you got pulled up for it? If its ok to do that, and seriously our choice of commands shouldn't be an issue, why would a judge think it ok to mention it. Just curious in case I need to change something I'm doing now. Thanks

Bugger, I can't make it again, its a close friends 40th bash. I would have loved meeting little Pap Flash, maybe next time you're in Melbourne.

Well done, Sue & Cindy. Beautiful day for it. We were supposed to be at Melton in CCD ring too, but I realised two days after the entries closed that I forgot to enter - doofus! Oh well, on to Eastern instead. Are you entering any others in the Melb region soon? If so, we might see you in the CCD ring, we are sitting on one pass also.

Hmm, just a thought, but only experience with white horses not dogs, but the blue shampoo might work. You can get it in horse stores, but you might be able to get it in some pet shops too. As I discovered at the Melb Show last week, they also use a similar blue shampoo on white chickens when they prepare them for showing. Just a tip though, I found on white/creamy horse tails that after a blue wash or two, you would be best to then use a normal shampoo to wash again, otherwise the coat can be left with a silver grey tinge. After the final wash in normal shampoo it would bring up the tails beautifully white or creamy, whatever the case may be. Good luck.

Ooooh - I'm intrigued Do share I have a brag! Just got an email this morning informing me that one of our puppies from Kinta "Ollie" aka Pawsitive Prime Suspect achieved his Flyball Dog title at his first comp on saturday So he's my first Pawsitive titled dog! Go Ollie!!! He's a very spoilt boy in a great home where they are also just starting in agility with him ;) Oh wow LP, you must be so chuffed. That is certainly a tick for your breeding program, nice and early on too.

Anniek, I'm be no means a photographer, but I get out that way occasionally. PM me and let me know what sort of shots you are after and I can let you know if my meager skills are up to the job. I could get out there this weekend if need be, on Sunday. If you are looking for action shots you may need a different person for the job, but if you are looking for stationery and pretty/handsome ones, I could probably manage that.

Congratulations, well on their way to a great cause - putting smiles on peoples faces.

Great site, sounds like I'll be using some of my bonus (well assuming I get one) to book you early next year for photos of Bronte and the new puppy, when he arrives.

Well done sas, great to see a Dane in the ring, he looks very impressive. We had a full coat Afghan and a Shiba Inu in our class yesterday, I love seeing the more uncommon breeds out there showing their stuff, its excellent PR. Congrats everyone, great results.

Bronte got her first pass at CCD today with 83!!! Need to get her motivated and more attentive in her heel work, but everything else was brilliant. She's a good little doggie.

Not raining in Spotswood DRock. Very overcast, but supposed to be overcast and cloudy and 19 I think.

Have fun everyone, shame we won't make it and I'm not happy about missing out on the Honey Joys, but looking foward to our second attempt at Bronte's CCD. AnimalMad I'm looking forward to meeting your Wheatens in Nov. I've never seen one in real life, so see you then!

Bayside is a big area, where abouts are you? We generally have training or a dog event on a Saturday, but if you are on the Western side, we may be able to meet occasionally. My girl loves loves other dogs, so no worries about any aggression with her.

Contact Cosmolo or Underdog Training. They offer this now and my girl gives it a big paws up.

Vickie I love your post! I enjoy the interaction with my dog, learning together, perfecting things, stuffing things up and having a laugh, spending quality time together and meeting/talking to other dog minded people which is completely different from my job. My little girl has an ever increasing work ethic and I can tell she enjoys what we do because: Herding - You just have to see her near sheep, she loves them. Her constant aim of getting them in a tight neat bunch and her bounce and speed of collecting up those that break away. If she's not in the paddock with them she has to be crated or she just barks and barks to say she wants back in with them. Obedience - We train most mornings, just for 5-15 mins and she seems to get a kick out of it. I mix it up and she gets right into it, especially now we are working consistently with remote rewards. At club while waiting for the stragglers to get to the line up or hand in our cards she will often bark at me basically trying to communicate her eagerness to 'get on with it.' Agility - We have only done one clinic so far and she was a natural. How do I know she likes it? Well when standing next to various obstacles listening to the instructor about the next obstacle she kept putting herself through the tunnel and over the apex. My first indication of this was the tug on the end of the lead and the dog in the tunnel or up near my head height looking at me. Why oh why would she do that if she didn't like it? As long as she enjoys it, we will keep doing it, but I think I would only ever persist in a discipline that a dog shows some enthusiasm for. If the next dog doesn't like something, I will just redirect the energies to other things it did like. Well apart from basic obedience, every dog should have that, I just might not aim for a CCD title. But hopefully this won't be the case and I'll add another canine workaholic to the family.

I remember when my mum came and helped me at the Summer Royal Horse Show one year. Totally non-horsey, but great at carrying buckets, brushes and following instructions. My palomino came third in his led class and won $12, she was so excited. The entry for that class alone was about $30, but she didn't care, she was jumping up and down saying "but he won money, real money, what a clever horse". God it made me laugh. Mums, gotta love 'em. Personally Melody, I wouldn't expect a prize as well as a sash/trophy if I placed, its not about that for me. But I do like the idea of toys for the dog, but I completely get that people have their own ideas about toys too.

Just an update on our goals for this year peoples: Last Sunday Bronte successfully qualified for her PT title with two lovely runs on the sheep. We are going to hold off trial level herding until next year to ensure that she has enough training under her (our) belt, rather than rush her. And tomorrow, barring the 'Great Flood of 2010' in Victoria (it just started raining in the last two minutes), we are going to compete in our first CCD class. She's a dream dog with an ever increasing work ethic and I'm a very proud and happy owner.

Don't you love how Dobermans are always kind the same shape from pup to adulthood. Little pups are sort of minature in proption adults, well apart from the handbag handles of extra skin.

Righto, now I know what a Belfast sink is, my cousin has one. Ummm, this dog is probably too big for one and that's before I consider any larger dogs in the future.