Mas1981

She is gorgeous! I have a soft spot for damalations ;)

Had a terrible time at training class today, before class ( and during) Mason was zooming on his lead and ended up running into my knee with his head b4 class even began - my knee is now a lovely shade of blue ;) Then during heelwork he was charging and trying to get me to go towards every other dog, I eventually went and sat under a tree while everyone else did heelwork as he was very disruptive. The rest of his work was ok but I cannot stand it when he acts so crazy days like this I wonder why I should bother taking him to class.

Labsrule Mason was also terrified of the vacuum cleaner at first but he outgrew that and now play bows to it and wants it to play The only thing he is scared of now is bobtails, I know when one is in the yard as he makes this low growling sound and he runs around like mad and his legs shake.

They are multi-talented

Congrats, great to see another Retrieving brag!! Good luck in getting the NRD! Congrats! Went to watch a retrieving trial yesterday ( the Restricted class) and it was awesome, those dogs are really trained well! I hope to do retrieving one day, will start training for it a bit now, and then try and get into it next year when Mason is a bit more reliable off lead.

I have to laugh Tiggy - I emailed Strauss's breeder yesterday, she lives in Norway and I was complaining about how cold it was in the mornings here 1 degree Brrrrrr. She came back with.... a good laugh now... Thinking about our - 32 degrees last winter, and three hole months without once the temometer showing + degrees. :-D I wrote back and said I promise not to complain again I could never live there My dogs are currently on the lounge wrapped up in wool blankets with the reverse cycle heating on ;) I could also never live somewhere like that, where I am originally from there is no winter, lowest it gets at night is 7 or 8 degrees, when we moved we froze our butts off the first winter but now we are better prepared! Strauss certainly wont feel the cold here then took Mason to the park this morning as I am off to watch the retrieving in Northam shortly and he was running on frozen grass, kept wondering why he was zooming, crazy dog even lay down and rolled in it, lucky he had his coat on but its only polar fleece.

:cool: Thank you for this, I might take him to see the derm guy and see what he has to say about his skin. I find a lot of conflicting advice on here. But I guess it just proves that all dogs are different. Yes, go to the Dermatologist!!! I have spent $2000 at the vet treating my 19mth GSD for "possible" food allergy, "possible" flea allergy and "possible" contact allergy........... and the list goes on . We now go to a Dermatologist and no, we're still working out what's causing her allergy, but we do know it's not food, flea's or contact allergy. She has an atopic dermatitis which seems to have settled at the moment, however if/when it starts again (seasonal ???) we are going for the skin test and hopefully vaccine. When I think of the money I have spent with my vet trying to guess what's causing her allergy I think a Dermatolgist is money well spent That is true, I spent loads at the vet for various things not realising his recurrent ear infections were also part of his allergies!

Not to be rude but if you dont want to add mince or anything to their kibble and you dont want to change their kibble again, then what were you thinking of doing, genuine question?

I suppose its like us humans, we all have a different skin type, for my dog his skin dries out very quickly which makes sense if you think about his skin barrier not working properly as all the moisture escapes quite easily

Malaseb can also cause dry flakey skin in allergic dogs! We got told not to use it by our derm, we use QV wash.

i don't mind rons only because you don't have to have a guide but you do have a time limit :S nice bush tracks needed a bit of pruning last time but we hve walked, trotted, cantered galloped and even jumped some of the horses at rons had a great time, especially wehn my husband fell off and the horse bolted after the reins snapped rofl never forget the look on his face Lol my husband knew my horse for years and he still would not get on him, his nephews were good polo players and used to take him riding on the farm, they would bolt off at a gallop and of course hubbys horse would follow and he fell off, never ridden again since :D

I agree with what everyone else has said regarding the kibble and elimination diet, the other problem is that they dont list all their ingredients so you may think you are only feeding fish protein but anything else could also be in there. The other thing I always wonder about with kibble is cross contamination, do they use the same machines to make all flavours of kibble or do they have specific machines to only do fish, one only to do the lamb?? I went down that same road you are on, I tried EP Holistic Select Sardine salmon and Anchoy and I tried the Hills ZD, saw no diff on the EP and the Hills gave my dogs the runs so he could not stay on it for 8 weeks, I finally got tired of going back and forth to the vet and letting her keep guessing what was wrong with my dog, I found a new vet and he sent me to a dermatologist. We are now on a roo and sweet potato diet only, my dog is scratching less and he is looking so much better, way shinier and more active, no more dog breath etc. You dog is very young, my advice to you is to go to a dermatologist because they are specialists for a reason, sad as it is most dogs allergies tend to just get worse and worse with age. My dog had no symptoms until he was around 8 months old, at 12months they were worse and now at 14months I battle to keep them under control. To answer your question we have been on roo and potato for 2 weeks now and I can see an improvement, with my dog its hard to tell though as the derm is 100% sure he is atopic as grass sets him off, his paws go red, his face swells, he scratches, he just has a bad ear infection at the moment so I have to wait to allergy test him until he is off the meds.

Maybe we should organise a group ride

I had 2 ridgebacks x's while living at home with my parents, I tried to do the right thing etc by taking them to trainings ( this was 10+ yrs ago) the one was sooo not interested in anything and she never even graduated from pet classes, the other one was much more into it and learnt loads of tricks etc over the years but would stress out if she was separated from her sister so I never continued with higher classes etc. I felt like I let her down as she was smart and could have maybe competed but U hated stressing her out by separating them. Then last year my hubby and I got a lab pup, and he is so so different to train, he wants to please us and he always tries to do the right thing, he is very high energy in the mornings and this is when I train him. I have a fluffy tug lead that he LOVES and he only gets it when we are training, he also only gets treats if he does a trick or we are training. He has access to other toys though 24 7 but it doesnt matter as he WILL work for his special tug.

Bugger that the times clash but the offer is open for another time My guys get sent to Boot Camp with Kathy Griff who used to be near me but is now down in Oakford She has Australian Shepherds as well Oh and just because I had a brilliant ride on her today and I love her so much I decided I need to post a photos of my "bitza" pony ;) Your pony is lovely Mirawee, my old boy has to be PTS next week, he is around 27 or 28 now...

Me too ST!! BTW ST Mason is now seeing the dermatologist, should be having allergy tests in July we are just battling an ear infection for now

I was finding that my 14 month old lab was not growing anymore on kibble but now that he has been on Raw for a month his chest has filled out, his coat is really shiny and his breath is also better. He is looking awesome even though he has been on an elimination diet now for almost 2 weeks of roo and sweet potato he still looks super!

Hmm although a Vizsla is on my wish list I really have to be honest and say that I don't really know their exercise requirements. being a gun dog, I would guess they would be similar. I find with tollers - while yes they do need exercise every day - they also need mental stimulation. Mason has a Vizsla buddy across the road, even my energetic lab cannot keep up with him, he is very very active, he is also one of the best trained dogs I have ever seen, not obedience wise or anything but he really really listens to his owner off lead. I think he is really smart too.

Awwwww happy birthday Cider! ;) Gee time flies doesn't it! Hard to believe she was this little and fluffy! I thinks she pulled off the fluffy look really well, what a cute pup!

Cider

Its a hard one, some people say use a NRM and some people say dont, like this morning for instance Mason worked very well and I did not have to use a NRM, his heeling was really really good he was energetic and enthusiastic and he did everything else well too. Then there are some days when he is just SO not paying attention, like a kid with ADHD, when he gets like that all he wants to do is sniff the floor. I am trying now 2 change my training tactics a bit with him, trying to make everything into one big fun game because thats when he works his best! Last night I taught a new trick and a new game and he loved it, I was sending him between his crate and a chair he lays on in the dining room and he was so excited and happy to play this When is your next special group training lesson??? Not sure actually..... look Mason is not as bad as he was and he heels way better now than he did, I just need to work out how long I should be asking him to heel for etc..

So for now I just feed and reward with tug his attention while heeling. When he sort of 'tunes' out, do I just leave him to go and do his own thing or do I just quickly ask him to do something else, say for eg we are heeling he tunes out, do I maybe then call him and ask him for a drop or some spins etc? When is your next special group training lesson??? Not sure actually..... look Mason is not as bad as he was and he heels way better now than he did, I just need to work out how long I should be asking him to heel for etc..

Gail is a good instructor so you should have fun I now need to take a yearling down to Oakford on Saturday around the middle of the day so it would depend on when your lesson is :D Silly girl was meant to go tomorrow but has a swollen knee today so will give her a couple of days to recover (and if it still isn't ok a different yearling will go to "boot camp") Mirawee what type of horses do you breed?

What is a NRM? When is your next special group training lesson??? Not sure actually..... look Mason is not as bad as he was and he heels way better now than he did, I just need to work out how long I should be asking him to heel for etc..

When is your next special group training lesson??? Not sure actually..... look Mason is not as bad as he was and he heels way better now than he did, I just need to work out how long I should be asking him to heel for etc..