Mas1981

I have a 14 month old lab, he is walked everyday for about 30-45 minutes and he has offlead time with the dog across the road at the local park, I take him to the beach and/or a different park 2x a week with my friends lab and they play for an hour or so and we try take them somewhere they can swim. On a sunday I take him to obedience training and I try do a bit of work with him each day, I am also trying to train him for retrieving at the moment.

There have been quite a few parvo cases reported here in Ellenbrook, most of them were all regular visitors to the local dogpark, Midland vet also had an article in the local paper about a parvo outbreak.

No worries, I enjoy our club and if you ask the instructor for extra help etc they are only too happy to give advise and help you. There is no class on sunday due to an agility trial, I am stewarding and its a lot of fun to watch.

Ahhh ST dont u wuv us anymore

Oh definitely!!!!!!!! If you haven't seen a dermatologist - get a referral. That was the single best thing we have done for Jedi since he got his allergies... Prior to that we were struggling big time! The dermatologist did all the testing for what he was allergic to and then gave us 3 options - steroids, immunotherapy or atopica. We chose immunotherapy with steroid assistance while we got started just to give him a better quality of life. Our backup was atopica, following by steroids. I will be forever thankful to our dermatologist - amazing results! I am so glad to hear you have ha good results with a derm, I am looking forward to out consult next week friday.

Have you seen a dermatologist? I have not used that drug as my dog has only started with his allergies but some others on here have uased it, I think there is another thread on here regarding allergies and there may be some info in there. My dog sees the derm next week friday and then I will know what the treatment plan for him will be.

Tyra I am feeding quite similar to what you do except my dog is fed pet meat as I cannot afford to feed him human grade and I also do the VAN and give him veges etc. I have only just started feeding this way, we were on kibble.

At this stage the SFE is the only thing that Mason does 100% correctly at the moment. For recalls he sits skew. Heelwork is a bit dodgy especially turns..... stays were good until last week

So any special tips on teaching a SFE? Cant help you there, for some reason Mason can do SFE really well, I did not do much to teach him i just ask him to stand and then tell him to stay and i used to stand next to him, then went out in front of him and went further and further as he got better. Also G showed me the food game and I use that, he will pretty much stand if I have the food in my hand tempting him but if i throw the food near him he moves still I though he would move for SFE as he had not been examined before except by Rubystar and he was a little brat that evening and moved the whole time, but he stood for G on saturday like a good kid.

My 'special' group is four of us in our club who really want to trial. We do everything that you would do in CCD i guess, heelwork, stand for exam, how to use jackpot , stand for exam, recall and a bunch of other stuff. Its fun but Mason is the most 'special' as he is youngest so has the most special needs No seriously he was not bad at all, he just has no self control.

I train Daisy so the leash being on or off doesn't matter :rofl: We do a lot of off leash training. I know! I don't think you need as high a score to pass as you would in a Novice trial normally. I could be wrong though (Seita or other QLDers will be able to correct me if I am!) I train offlead too but I can just imagine Mason running into another ring to greet someone elses dog during a trial, I dont trust him off lead if he can see other dogs!

You might find that stays progress can go backwards and forwards for many years! Ruby's stays were fine until a WEEK before our first CCD trial. She layed down 10 seconds into it, and I've struggled to recover from that problem since! In class again on sunday he was fine, think he was just hot and tired on saturday, but we will see what happens next time.

Well done!! That's brilliant RS. Out of sight stays are one area I know we will need to work on heaps! I am confident we will go straight into Novice from CCD but training for Open will take a while. I think I'll give Daisy a bit of a break if we get both our CCD and CD titles before the end of the year and will try for Open next year. Daisy has got the basics of the dumbell down pat and will retrieve it over the jump but it's not polished at all and we have tonnes of things to work on. I'm still struggling to get a CCD/Novice 1 minute trial scenario sit stay out of Ruby, she still likes to lay down on occasion if she's hot or bored. Especially the bored part, if she's got nothing to look at while she sits there then she leans down to eat the grass (her favourite pastime!) and that leads to her then forgetting what she's doing and lays down to have a good old munch. Down stays she loves, it means she's closer to the grass I had serious trouble in our saturday 'special' group class, there are 4 of us G has invited to train now and then on a saturday morning, Mason kept lying down, I would go back and make him sit, he sat for like 3 seconds and down he lays again!! Mason is the baby of the group so its important to me that he can do what the others do and his stays are normally excellent but on saturday he could not do it!!

Yes, CCD is the first one and it's on lead. CCD is optional, though, you can go straight into Novice (CD) if you wish, and that is offlead. Thats ok i would like to do the on lead one first thanks!!

Thanks RS :p I am really excited! I am 98797897987979798789638783264723 times less nervous than I was before Sunday - I'm so glad we did that mock trial as we did it under exact trial conditions and I feel way more confident now knowing we can definitely do it! ETA: LOL yes poor Daisy, she really is a star putting up with my nerves and handling I don't know how she does it!! My nerves are going to be shocking and the dogs pick up on it right away!!

Is CCD the first one and its on lead correct? I am useless with the class names etc, I dont know which one is which and in what order they are maybe I am so clueless as we are not going to be trialling for ages...

No we are not doing an elimination diet, we were given Hills ZD and told to feed that for 8 weeks but it made his tummy run and his butt itch like mad so we had to stop. I recon there is something in kibble which makes him itch but I cant figure out what it is, I gave him a brisket bone last week and lo and behold he scratched like mad for 3 days, I only fed roo and chicken this week and he is much better. I am seeing the dermatologist next week friday, we wont be doing the tests that day as he has only been off cortisone less than a week, he has to be off for 30 days I believe for them to test. The cortisone does not agree with my dog so lucky he can go without it with the new anti-histamines. Edited to say that we also only fed a fish kibble diet for 4 weeks and I saw no difference to him at all. He can only eat Holistic Select kibble, the rest make him ill.

My dog is crazy over any bones, I tend to only give him roo though but once we have done our elimination diet I may try some other 'game' type bones if i can get them. I dont like to give him beef he tends to itch on that.

Have you tried clicker training with your dog, if not I would give it a go, makes a big difference.

I think I will get another lab, the only reason I would like another one is so that I can compete with both and then Mason also has company when I am not home. I think he must get very lonely with only the cats for company HMMM and my next puppy will be........ another red head Yep I would hate the others to get lonely Lol, your dogs will never be lonely :D Would love one dog for obedience and agility and one for tracking and retrieving..... I will have to split myself in 2 to train all of that but hey it would be fun I think

I cant give my dog the 4legs it makes him scratch like mad. Can you not get roo bones?

Yeah Bunbury will be too far for you to come to the clubs in Perth on a weekly basis.

whereabouts in Perth? If you are looking for a club north of the river I would go to my club, it is one of the biggest clubs in Perth and we have a large group of successful members who compete in agility its Northern Suburbs dog club, agility class is on a wednesday night.

Hey MM what's the easiest way to get there from the Mitchell Freeway? Do you know where exactly they will hold the trial? I have a map but it looks huge! I don't want to get lost To be honest Amypie I have not come up the Mitchell to get there, but the easiest way for you to find where the trial is ( it will be on the soccer field where we train) is to park in the carpark on beach road, coming from Mitchell you will probably have to come off onto Reid and then turn right at Okely rd I think it is? then at the first lights go right and you will see the gap in the island to turn right across beach rd into the carpark, drive through the first carpark and you will see the road twists to the left ( there is also a clubhouse to your left) the trial will be on the right hand side soccer field ( I could be wrong and it could be on the left one but you will be able to see the rings when you drive in).

Do you want an obedience club in WA or SA? Valley I would love a big property no matter what breed of dogs I have, would love to have some sheep etc Amypie I think I would like a yellow male next time but hubby is keen on another black male