ish

Would someone who is going from Melbourne who is good with directions please PM me their mobile for when I get lost? I would be very greatful. I have to deliver a rescue dog to a lady who is meeting me out the front of "Pets at Home' in Narre Warren at 8am before I continue on to the workshop and there is a very good chance I will get horribly lost . The directions I have are as follows: Go through tunnel, keep going on Sth eastern Fwy. (dont go to warragul tho, vere left when it turns into Sth Gippsland Freeway) All the way to Princess Hwy exit, get off there, go left down Princess Hwy. Fountain gate shops are on your left a couple of kms down. (Melways ref 108 E4) Get back onto Princess Hwy, keep going leaving the shops behind - dont go back towards the freeway. That road becomes the main rd through berwick and Beaconsfield. (Melways map 131 - top right corner) Then the instructions from the email get me to LL's place right? If someone could confirm this for me it would be great thanks

Can anyone tell me if I need an etag? I'm still not sure on directions from Ballarat. When I go to KCC park I go along the ring road, over the westgate and through the tunnel - do I want to do that this time? Do I take the Cranbourne/Hastings turn off or whatever it is like I'm going to KCC? Sorry ;) I'm terrible with directions!

I'm happy to stay with the dogs and eat my lunch there along with anyone else who'd like to stay - but if thats being 'snobby' I'll come to the pub and leave Chili in the crate - I don't really mind. I would feel bad though eating my brought lunch at the pub, really can't afford to buy it ;) EFS

Just wanted to add - I'm bringing Chili but to save confusion on the day it is pronounced "Keeley" rather than "Chilli" ok? I've had instances where people have asked whats Keeley doing here, you said you were bringing Chilli ;) She's named after a motorbike rider, I'm not being difficult for the sake of it - its how he spells/pronounces his name!

Its from K9 Force - seen in this thread http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...emptation&st=15 but it was hard to find so here it is (hope thats ok K9) Triangle of Temptation. I use this program with every dog I train. It’s remarkably effective for gaining control with no force. I have used it with dogs for many years that have been trained to engage a man in combat & would not hesitate to attack me if it were not for this program. It works equally well on weak nerved or problem dogs... The best part about this program is that it gives confidence & obedience control with no conflict & it takes no time as you need to feed the dog anyway... The bases of this program is to have the dog look to you for guidance & permission to partake in anything you say that the dog can, including food, toys, game etc & the whole thing is a set up in which the dog gains success. To begin the program we must follow basic training principles, they are the learning phase, the correction phase & the distraction phase. Whilst few corrections if any are given by the handler to the dog, the corrections are given by negative punishment methods of withholding something the dog thought was his/hers. The key to starting is to have a food driven dog, if you don’t have a dog with a high food drive, miss the meal before you start or at least reduce it by ¾. Fasting is healthy for dogs. Now you have a dog that wants the food. Prepare the meal inside & this should be done after all higher members have eaten. Next back tie your dog with a flat buckle collar (non correctional collar) & rope to something solid in your yard. Make sure all other dogs are out of site, we are looking for as low a distraction as possible. Allow your dog to relax on the back tie, a few minutes is usually enough. Now bring out your dogs food & place it several metres in front of the dog, enough distance so the dog can see it but not so close as he can almost stretch to get it, most times about 5 – 8 metres is great. Now you will find our dog looking at the food, possibly trying to get to it, this is what you want. If the dog is going to hysterics, move the food further away. What it shows is that the dog thinks that he is entitled to the food, but that’s not the case. Approach your dog & stand at his right hand side. Pick up the leash & stand quietly whilst the dog gets all excited for the food. One of two things will happen, either the dog will go on & on & just stare at the food or he will sit down & look at you. If he doesn’t sit down, use the leash to guide the dog into a sit, call the dog by name. You want to see the dog look at you, when he/she does be quick to release the dog with an OK command & let the dog loose to eat the food, you should sound very happy. The next evening you will repeat the same. This exercise is very effective, as you need to feed your dogs anyway, so they may as well learn at the same time. You are looking to repeat this until when you place the food down, the dog looks at you & not the food. I can have most dogs do this in 2 – 4 days. Looking at you means the dog sees you as the person in charge; he has given up staring at the food as he knows that it’s you who say when he can have it, & he can only have it when you say so. The triangle is formed by drawing a line between you, the dog & the treasure. When you have a good sit stay, as that is what is being built here, you can remove the back tie & keep it in your hands, if the dog should break the stay, you begin again. Your looking to increase the time the dog has to stay sitting by 10 seconds per day until you get over three minutes. When three minutes has been gained & you will be certain you can go farther, start to increase the distance between you & the dog, whilst holding the tie out rope. You should increase this distance by increments of 1 metre. Up until you did this, the dog was viewing the food (treasure) as unobtainable, & you as unbeatable. Now by increasing the distance the dog will start to feel the food is obtainable & you just might be beat able. The long rope will teach the dog very quickly that you are not. The rule you need to remember is: Time before distance before distraction. This is essential for a marked improvement every day. When you find yourself able to wander inside while the food bowl sits there UN touched by the dog, you’re ready to add distraction. Allow a second dog now to eat from its own bowl perhaps, remain out of site for a period of time, and change the environment to outside the front gate perhaps. These are just some ways to add distraction. Build reliability into your dog by working it. When you’re at this level you will never have a dominance problem with your dog, you can’t have, he looks at you to make the big decisions, like when he can have his treasure. Feel free to substitute the food for another treasure, such as a treat, ball, toy or an open back door or front gate. The key is that this gives you control of all the treasures in life, each repetition is positively rewarded at the end by allowing the dog the treasure, when you say he can have it. Advanced moves can be easily trained such as recalling the dog past the food, from the food etc etc. ******************************************************* This article is copyright protected (2004) © and can not be used or distributed without K9 force consent. You are, however, allowed to distrubute this link to direct people to this site.

Triangle of Temptation

Come on Sparty - get in here and SPILL!!

Bugger bugger bugger We're out Why is it that I insist on being interested in the whole breeding thing and therefore need to have entire bitches who come into season THE DAY BEFORE AN OBEDIENCE TRIAL???? Just when we'd sorted the recalls out too. We'll see how we go, I might pop over with Indi to say hi and watch the rest of you. Good luck if I don't make it there.

OT but I was wondering if anyone else was planning to bring lunch? I've just had a killer vet bill and won't be able to afford much more than $2 worth of chips I can sit with the dogs and talk to them while everyone else goes out though - maybe they'll tell me all the goss about their owners

I'm very interested in these ideas. It would suit me and my dogs because they have to be seperated anyway and I do obedience work, games and exercise with them individually at the moment. I can see just how it would work because I have a 5 year old bitch who came to me at almost 3 years old from a breeder - she hadn't worked out suitable for showing/breeding so I took her on as an obedience dog. Coming from kennels where she had little attention, little socialisation and no toys. She thinks I am the world and she will do anything for me. She's not distracted ever by other dogs, toy etc and is by far my best obedience dog - the easiest to teach and the fastest to learn. She thrives on praise from me. Also - not as important, but with GSD specialty showing the dogs are supposed to respond to their owners, mine are always too busy looking at all the other dogs and trying to talk to the outside people, so to be their whole world, like the way I see other dogs reacting to their owners, would be handy in that situation too. I guess thats why my dogs have never lived up to the GSD breed standard of being aloof with strangers - they've been over socailised with them and have them as a high value thing. K9, would you mind answering these questions please? What happens if someone needs to handle one of your dogs short term, as in to go out the back for tests at the vets, family member feeds while your away for the night etc These people are 'nothings' to the dogs so they'd not be stressed about it or they would because their 'person' isn't there? You say ( i think ) that your dogs will play with other dogs, on occasion, but they don't see it as being as fun as being with you - have I got that right? So if your dogs are in a group of other friendly dogs who are starting games, your dogs might play along? Perhaps not your dogs in particular, who have work to do, but say for the average pet dog who had been through this program? Do your dogs ever tip their water buckets over and throw the bucket around for a game or dig through their beds for fun etc or do they truely look to you for everything? Is there a page on your website or another website that outline how to actually do this program with a new puppy? I am possibly keeping a puppy from a litter that is due this week and would like to attempt this program with him/her. Thanks

Heres all the info pnsdc http://www.bdoc.com.au/obedience_links/obe...005_details.htm I've changed my mind and only entered Tiger in the morning novice trial - that way we can still go to the DOL melbourne meet and I've decided that its too much to ask of Chili to put her in encouragment at the moment. Next time for sure.

In NSW breed survey lets you get away with 66cm for males (I think, but I'm not certain, that in Vic its still 65cm) and that would be the same showing wise. I haven't had anything to do with oversize dogs so I'm not sure if you would be disqualified or just put down the order further if your dog was too big.

I've got Tiger in novice and Chili in just the afternoon encouragement (thats bound to be a laugh!). Looking forward to it

Just wrote out a big reply and the stupid internet cracked it! Theres a proper measuring stick you can use, its shaped like an upside down F with the bottom bit sitting along the ground, the long part has the measurements marked on it and the last bit slides up and down to sit on the dogs shoulder to get the right height. If you know someone who shows or even at an obedience club (for measuring heights for jumping etc) they might be able to let you borrow theirs. For a rough idea, you could stand him against a wall and mark it, then measure the mark. According to the breed standard, he should be somewhere around 65cm tall to his shoulder. Try to stand him like a show dog for the measurement.

Height wise I'm pretty sure GSDs are fully grown at 12 months. Other changes like colour, generally maturity (like his face will look more grown up) and weigh will still keep changing until about 2 (could be longer or earlier depending on lines). I think usually they say GSDs are 'fully grown' at 2. Do you know how tall he is? Just looking at some of the breed survey certificates I have of stud dogs, they all weigh similar weights to Bear so I don't think he is that little.

Awww Al, I love you I don't know if it helps you at all, but I've found with Chili and Bayliss (who are the only 2 I'd had from brand new) that they seemed to stay the same once they hit about 12 months and didn't put on any weight until around 2 when they really filled out and matured. I struggled with Bayliss for so long trying to get some weight on him, he was very active and skinny, but once he hit 2, things changed and he filled out nicely. Chili has just turned 2 and I haven't weighed her for awhile but she looks as though she's bulked up a bit. Different lines would be different though I guess. If you do want to put some weight on him, do a search for satin balls - can't believe the difference its made with Indi after 2 weeks.

Anyone coming from the Ballarat area who would be interested in sharing the trip? I have 2 seperate dog cages in the car so doggy would be welcome too. Possibly not much room for a crate though. PM if interested.

I'll be taking Chili my 2 year old female GSD with me

WOOOHOOOOO I"m IN Can't wait!

Mana - black dog have 'heavy duty' training collars that don't have clips - I use these on my guys for training with no issues. I'm no good at explain how their work, but if you look on their page you'll see what i mean http://www.blackdog.net.au/collars.php They have a press stud - which isn't weight bearing - but is handy if you want to leave the collar on them briefly whilst in the car on the way to training etc, but they wouldn't be suitable as an everyday id holding collar. I've had one of the not heavy duty training collars (with the clip) and it took 5 years to break it, and it was primarily used for my male GSD so hopefully the heavy duty ones will last forever with the girls. (ps theres a guy on ebay selling them cheaper if you do decide to get them)

Thats great news fainty - thank you for being so responsible and best wishes for your girls recovery.

OOo looks like HEAPS of fun - you can count me in for the next one for sure. Worse case senenio - was there any dogs there mad keen to get the sheep or to bail them up against the fence in the paddock or anything? I brought Chili up with sheep, but one day she bailed up my pet lamb (he was frozen on the spot after being chased and Chili wouldn't let him move and was barking at him - didn't hurt him though) but since then I haven't trusted her. She's very full on and although she's a quick learner, I really don't know how she'd go. You'd need more than a rake to stop Chili getting to something she really wanted. Indi would love a go too I think, she's too gentle to hurt the sheepies :D She'd love to watch her Banjie work too.

another http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...hl=hand+rearing

Just searching DOL - not sure if you've already done that. heres something, just skimmed through, hope its helpful to you http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...hl=hand+rearing

The breeder of my GSDs feeds royal canin, and she has the show dogs and mums on energy and the others on the GSD food. I like the GSD one but recently won a bag of maxi junior at a show and my girls usually on supercoat puppy lost weight on it? They were raised on it during weaning. Last big bag of energy I bought was about $120, maxi junior is about $95 and the GSD is similar.