Lin

Our herding training is very sporadic - get to a clinic about once every 2 yrs. I went in June or something and vowed then to enter an upcoming trial. Must get off my butt soon as my dog is 12 ys, going on 13! Still runs around like a mad thing but the clock is ticking!! ;) Go Elly!

I've put 4 ET titles on my dogs over the years. Easiest letters ever to get! My dogs are all kelpies and had a very high level of fitness to start with, so my special ET training was pretty minimal. My dogs were regularly accompanying me on 20 km rides out with the horse and I was a regular bike rider with them, travelling up to 40-50 km in a day. Needless to say, they could have gone around twice! I will second the advice given to gradually build up your dog's fitness over a good 6-8 weeks, especially if the dog's normal activity is limited to a spin around the park. Also, it is good idea to run them on different surfaces - our old ET track here in Perth was limestone which could be problematic for dogs used to running on grass. The rate at which the dogs are run during the test is 10 km/h, which is actually quite slow if you are on a bike. My bike had a speedometer thing attached which was quite handy in helping to regulate the pace. Don't speed up and then slow down as this will make the dog tired. Also make sure your dog is comfortable trotting along at the 10 km/h pace on lead, nothing like pulling a bike and handler along for 20 kms to really wear out a dog. Good luck with the ET. Oh and yeah, the obedience test is easy peasy so take advantage of the on-lead option! I did my first ET back in the days when the obedience test was off-lead and included a retrieve over the jump. You can imagine how disappointing it was to pass the endurance part and then have the dog run around the jump at the end!

One of my previous dogs lost a lot of weight over a short period of time and the vet diagnosed pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. The food Jedda was eating was not being digested properly and you could see the faeces were coated with a mucous membrane. This is different from pancreatitis, which is an inflammation of the pancreas (and very painful for the dog, I understand). It was trial and error to work out what diet worked and what didn't. Went back to scratch with a pretty bland diet and then started adding our usual ingredients until the sloppy poos started again. The vet also suggested I add a product called Thrive D to her diet - it was a powder, which from memory was supposed to replace the pancreatic enzymes that were dificient? Anyway the Thrive D worked a treat, and the weight regained. Hope your dog is diagnosed soon.

Oh my goodness, reading this thread has made me realise that I was a dog club junkie back in the 1980s'/1990's! I've been a member of all the clubs mentioned. Started at Perth in 1986, back when it was run by the Minty's (god bless their souls) and operated out of caravan in McCallam Park. Was there when they first started doing agility at Ashfield. I also went to Northern Suburbs for a while and was there at Midland when it started. Of course, I've also been a member of a club that was in Beechboro (not sure that still exists) and Cloverdale. Oh and one run by the Houstons up in Sawyers Valley! I still joing Midland every year but I only go once! My dogs are now 12 and 13yrs so training and trialling in obed/agility isn't high on the agenda. Although I am taking the 12 yo mad dog to a herding clinic tomorrow!