RallyValley

Mine was $80, bloods were taking from a session with my vet/physio who did it at no extra charge, sent directly to path lab. Probably helps that I am in Perth though. :D

I connected to Toby instantly out of sympathy :p Poor little boy, had the biggest bloated wormy tummy, was ribby and on the car ride home I was picking fleas off him. :D The first thing I did when I got him home was give him a flea bath that the water ran red because of all the flea bites, then we wrapped him all towel and he was all shivery and cold so I had to cuddle him tight. My old girl Lilly I loved her but we didn't really bond that much, she always though I was a bit of a pest (we got her when I was 7) and only as she became an older dame and I learned to respect her boundries did she show that I was more then an annoyance and actually appreciated my company. RIP Lilly

I only have the one (for now) too RosieFT! Toby is going to be making a comeback in June Maybe Rosie and you can enter around the same time and everyone will be so busy laughing at Toby that they won't notice you. :p

A very simple explanation - associate dogs must be desexed, sports register dogs are registered with another registry (i.e Working Kelpie Council) and can compete in ANKC events but remain entire. :p

I'll be there. I'm on the "Working Party" They didn't give much notice!! Ptolomy I will be able to come down ifnumbers are needed. Not sure how much I will contribute though.

Go Ruby!!! She looks great :D Also Ness maybe silly question but why did you change your footwork? I am just learning the footwork now and it is such a PITA for an uncorrdinated person like me it is highly likely I will keep this footwork forever. ;)

Getting your heeling pace right is really difficult. You usually find most newbies walk too slow ;) and then some oldies (no names mentioned) walk like they are on a mission and there is absoultely no connection between them and the dog. Something inbetweenies is what you need to aim for If you have access to a metronome ( ) I had it set at 130 and found that to be pretty spot on.

Yesterday instead of going to group training (damn uni:o ) I went to the local school oval and did some training by myself. I figured out what seems like a major revalation to me!! I was walking too slow (I did say seems ). I got a metronome app on my iPhone and fixed up the speed by matching with a metronome - and - Toby was heeling much much better, better attention, less lagging. I have been working on the footwork for turns.. so maybe later in the week just straight lines will be a thing of the past Lottie looks so good Will have to try and do another video of Toby soon.

That is cheap! I thought it would be a ridiculous amount of money (normally blood tests are i think) but that's actually really good. Do you know whether all vets do the tests or would I need to go to a specific animal hospital or something? I think I will definitely got my dogs tested when they come up for their yearlies... which, convenitently is around the same time as each other. I don't think, however, that I wouldnt be able to not vaccinate them at all - I think I would just go insane with worry! :p No idea how you would get it done in NSW sorry.

ahaa so nothing here is to ever be relied upon to be consistent? The op doesnt really care if the dog mouths the dumbell, retrieves straight or brings it back to her hand at all? Remember these methods were born from necessity of both performance and reliability. Aversives can be useful when you've already stuffed up what you've been trying to train or you're just not getting the parameters to stick. Again not pushing anything on anyone, just a suggestion that may be useful to look at from an educated perspective. Yes they were born from nessecity back in the days when if your dog didn't get the bird you wasted a good bullet and a good duck and threw your earnings and dinner away and possibly went hungry. Now.. we train for pleasure, it would not give me any pleasure to teach with this method. I have witnessed with e-Collar training, even worn one and felt the jolt, I have decided this method is not one I could use, but I can see why other people do. I am educated enough to know I could not use these methods, I am much too soft and would rather retire my dog from the sport then resort to a method that I was not comfortable with and confronted by. The top two obedience dogs in WA have been trained through 2Q methods and never had a positive punishment, they reliably score high at trials and are competitve all around Australia, who says you need positive punishment to produce consistency? Actually the ear pinch and ecollar are using negative reinforcement I don't feel comfortable with it either. I have been reading this guy too much http://lumi-laddie-test-series.blogspot.com/ his terminology has got me a little confused . (Side note his Goldie won a JAM at his first field trial on Sunday and has never had a collar, or ear pinch, or toe pinch and plays tug, he trains his holds with a clicker :p )

ahaa so nothing here is to ever be relied upon to be consistent? The op doesnt really care if the dog mouths the dumbell, retrieves straight or brings it back to her hand at all? Remember these methods were born from necessity of both performance and reliability. Aversives can be useful when you've already stuffed up what you've been trying to train or you're just not getting the parameters to stick. Again not pushing anything on anyone, just a suggestion that may be useful to look at from an educated perspective. Yes they were born from nessecity back in the days when if your dog didn't get the bird you wasted a good bullet and a good duck and threw your earnings and dinner away and possibly went hungry. Now.. we train for pleasure, it would not give me any pleasure to teach with this method. I have witnessed with e-Collar training, even worn one and felt the jolt, I have decided this method is not one I could use, but I can see why other people do. I am educated enough to know I could not use these methods, I am much too soft and would rather retire my dog from the sport then resort to a method that I was not comfortable with and confronted by. The top two obedience dogs in WA have been trained through 2Q methods and never had a positive punishment, they reliably score high at trials and are competitve all around Australia, who says you need positive punishment to produce consistency?

The titre test has a buffer level, my boys results show he has enough antibody in his system to last another 12 months, possibly another 24, if they are low and close to a score deemed not protected the results will tell you to re-vaccinate. :p I will get him done again in 12 months to see, from memory it cost about $70.00.

Agree. Can't think of any trick I would want to ever teach a dog badly enough that I would want to delibrately cause the dog physical discomfort for.

Jealous I was hoping to make it this year but it's my dad's 50th so we are off to Albany over easter. Definately want to try make it next year, hoefully to cheer on Ruby and Rubystar who will be competing :D Taken from a recent post on the Australian Working Retriever Central forum: So jealous Vic Hope WA has one when I have a dog to do it with.

Mixed breeds are allowed but they must be desexed and associate registered. Just like formal obedience, both are run through ANKC, so will have the same eligability to compete.

Its just going to be mas, phoebe, ruby, millie and a friends chihuahua that i know of so far, small chance of Masons 2 brothers coming too. Mas, phoebe and the chihuhua are the most ' in your face' of the group i would say. There were a few painful loose dogs there the last time, the one charged mason, barked and growled at him when mason was minding own business but doubt it will be there again. Ah ok. Not sure how Toby will go with Mille, he is a bit phobic of brown retrievers . Will see how we are going and let you know Friday.

Mas will many dogs be there? I might come down and if there is a small select crowd it could be a good thing for Toby, he has been having a few little social outings lately and going really well, but if there is lots of dogs there I might steer clear.

Your more then welcome to have a session with Toby He is actually quite obliging, although he will be a bit timid at first. ;) If you post in the WA Dol thread maybe other DOLers would be interested. He is a little bit ugly though with his big bat ears ;)

0 points for reserve challenge, points are only ever awarded to best dog and best bitch (Challenge dog and bitch)

Well done Ptolomy, Bedazzled and Rubystar! My brag for the weekend... Toby was playing with my brothers stafford and he did a play bow!!!

For me this is the crux of the matter. I would never forgive myself if this happened to me so I make sure it never will. My dog never leaves my side, is well behaved, focuses on me and has amazing recall BUT she is never off leash unless it is an area that is fenced off and off leash is allowed and there are no other dogs around (because I do not trust their temperament). It only takes a nano second for an accident to happen and a dog is a living thing sometimes driven by it's own motivations. I will not ever put my dog at that level of risk because the ramifications are unthinkable for me. This. One day we forgot to close our front gate and our dog ran out across the road to greet another dog, it happened at peak time and he didn't have a chance. :D RIP Jack. This dog was perfectly behaved, never roamed or strayed, and had perfect recall 99% of the time. Now most days I see people walking along this busy road that we live on with dogs offleash! Sometimes they even have the dog like 6 or 7 meters ahead of them on the footpath! WHY?!? What does it prove? How lazy are you that you can't hold a leash? Why bother having a dog if you are too lazy to hold a potentially lifesaving handle, especially if your dog is 'perfect' it should make no difference then.

Yay Ptolomy! Cider looked beatiful. What was her score?

The best place down there is just up from Meelup, you park at Eagle Bay and follow the little bush track around to the point, there is a little cove with rocks all around and the water there is beatiful.

No, but I'm sure it was a relative I've not heard that, but I do know that my Vizsla wouldn't point planted pigeons when we were trying to get him ready for the UG test. A field trialer did suggest it was because he'd been retrieving them at Retrieving trials for several years already. He did go on to point wild quail, and then the caged birds in the UG. However, Polo was retrieving birds for a couple of years before I did any 'serious' pointing work with him. Thanks FHRP, it's some food for thought for me:thumbsup: I am really lucky in that once the weather cools down I will be going to field training sessions and field trials, so I will get to figure out what is going on before I get the pup :D

Was Em in Canberra? I was reading in a Brittany book that pointing/UG field trial dogs should not be taught to retrieve birds (bumpers yes but just not birds) until they are solid on the point, as to not confuse them.... thoughts FHRP?