Mas1981

My lab cuddles to us the whole night even in summer and I can tell you for sure that he isnt cold lol

I know what fighting dogs are like so I can sympathise. I had to ridgeback bitches from the same litter. Firstly I wouldnt feed them in sight of one another , feed one inside or outside etc mine used to fight a lot over food but the serious fights were trigged by who knows what. Unfortunatly you cannot pick one to be the leader they have to sort it out for themselves and I had a dog that was submissive for years until she decided to put her foot down one day and they had the hugest fight ever and then roles were reversed. If you are with the dogs on your own it will be very hard to seperate them by yourself ,sometimes mine would stop fighting on their own or if i yelled but more often then not we had to spray water in the ones face before she would let go of the other dog. And not just spray it so that she was wet,basically spray her so hard that she had to let go to come up for air, sounds cruel but it was the only way. I would suggest getting some professional help though

Hi there, What area do you live in? If you let us know where you stay we can recommend clubs that are near to you.

DOnt worry about it taking over your life Katie as long as it makes you happy, when I was involved in horses I would go to school all day and be with my horse until around 06h30pm, then when I started work i worked all day and was with the horse till around 8pm and then obviously on weekends I would spend the morning or afternoon at stables. Its amazing that my poor husband put up with me!

Yip it is very costly thats for sure and because I am still supporting my old pony on the other side of the world for his retirement days there is no money for another horse. I have also tried to ride and look after other peoples horses but its so hard especially when you have a different opinion to the owner on what is right for the horse. I am a natural freak with horses I dont believe in shoes and bits and stuff so its hard to find someone with the same mindset to let me help with their horse lol. I also feel useless at training my dog Rosie I think its because in riding you had riding lessons and even if they were in a group its a very small group. With dogs its at a club with a couple of people and never individual. Its hard to see your mistakes when you train on your own as well whereas with horses when you ride you are usually at a club and people all tell each other what they are doing wrong. And also when I first started riding I felt like I had no clue what to do but after about 5 years I felt more confident so hey maybe in 5 years I will have a clue about dog training!

Something most people do not realise with Rescue Remedy and Emergency Essence - just one dose is not how you are meant to take it (or your animals for that matter). For anxiety, you should take a dose every 15 minutes or so for an hour and then reduce the dosage as you feel it's effects (ie less anxiety). If you take say - 4 doses in an hour and you honestly feel no different, then no it's not working and it's not for you. Another thing to keep in mind is that if Rescue Remedy doesn't work for you, try Emergency Essence. They are similar but different. I have had far more success with Emergency Essence on my anxious Goldie than I ever did with Rescue Remedy Yip I have taken it as per the directions, I used to do it for a few days before flying

The time just flies though, I honestly dont even know when I would have the time to ride now, maybe If i didnt have Mason I would have the time lol

I remember taking Rescue for horse shows as a teenager, also didnt seem to help me but i get really nervy for competitions Havent ridden now for nearly 2 years, I cant believe it :D

I dont find that its strong enough for me but the only time I have tried it in the last few years was for flying I havent had to compete in anything so not sure how good it is for competition nerves Flying is one of my huge fears I am soo afraid.

Yes, I cant help on the thurs or fri as I am also working but I will volunteer for one of the weekend days, my club doesnt expect us to be there the whole day though Just had a thought, it will have to be Sunday though as I have tracking on a saturday and the last thing I will want to do is drive for an hour to Southern River.

I'll be there Friday and Saturday. I'm stewarding Friday night. Candice, do you wanna give stewarding a go with me? They are short on help I hear. You can ask to be something easy like lead steward or backup timer. Let me know and I will pass on your details. I am not 100% sure I am going to make it down there, I hope too but the week is still young lol. I have to come down to the agility the last weekend of April, my club has a ring and I am going to help out for a couple of hours that weekend

Anyone competing on Friday night?

Finished working at 1, am in bed with my laptop, Mason and the cat are also on the bed

Would love to come watch but I have tracking on a sat morning

Actually I could take him and I live closer .... Living closer ain't gonna matter when she's dead I'm not about to fight for Mason, but my home is open for him if he ever needed it, it's all I'm saying! Thanks guys, at least he would have somewhere to go, but hopefully OH and I will be around for the rest of his life ( which I hope is long, hope he makes it to 20...)

Jenna could end up thrown over the pound fence on the way home on Friday, might mean a slight detour but if today was anything to go by I may have blown my dough entering her in the States and National. Hope your reading this Jenna! Throw her over my fence thanks... Hey does that mean you would be willing to adopt her if anything ever happened to me? My son sidestepped this question pretty quickly when I asked him. I wonder why! I often wonder what would happen to my dog if something happened to hubby and I as we have no family over here to take Mason on, its a scary thought actually If Katie wont take her then I will :p

We were given lots of breaks to go and play etc, but for some reason Mason wouldnt even play with his tug or other toys today, guess he was just way too distracted for some reason, maybe the ball of hair in his ear has blocked it and he cant hear

I used to have days like this all the time with Daisy! If he is really unfocused like that I would take him out of class. Walk him away, ask for something simple, like a look or just a brief moment of focus and then reward for that. If you really can't get anything for him put him away on a tie out, in his crate/in the car or take him home. No point training when he's not switching on or willing to work and you are just getting frustrated. I should have maybe brought him home but it just seems rude to leave halfway through a class and I dont want to miss out on anything that they may learn.

Don't worry Candice, must be something in the air today. On the whole, today's trial was atrocious!! Only a handful of quallies across the board in the classes. Really was a weird day today for everyone Ruby was really flat even practicing outside the ring with treats, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good round. We got in the ring, she was away with the fairies, so I pulled her straight out. G and Mav got their CDX title today so yay for them ;) Was about the only success story today I thought Mason was over his,' put my head down and charge through class so that I can go where i want phase" I wonder if anyone has ever abandoned their dog at training before ??? :D One of the instructors said that the wind today was unsettling a lot of the dogs?? I get so disappointed when Mason gets on his own mission I almost think that we will never be able to compete because of his crazy streak lol

I found that a lot when I rode too, loads of woman and not many men until like you said they get up to the higher levels or competing.

We have quite a few men at tracking training ;)

We went to class today to do some obedience training and Mason's work in class was shocking I am very disappointed in him, he was charging ahead while we were meant to be heeling , no automatic sits at the halt, acted is if he had never seen the stand signal before and generally unfocused. Days like today I could really just give up with him because he knows his work he just gets so excited he cannot ( or wont I should say) focus on me at all! ;) I should have rather gone down to watch the trial today.

I will be honest I just dont like the way it looks, he has lovely shiny black fur everywhere and then his elbow is now white. I know what its from when I am in the kitchen and he has been put outside because he is begging he lays on the mat outside the door so that he can look in and see what I am doing instead of laying on his bed.

I feed my year old lab about 2 cups of EP Holistic Select dry food a day and about 250g raw mince either roo or beef, depending what I can get. He is quite active though so it all depends on your dog. What dry food are you feeding?

Are ridgebacks known to be fussy eaters? I had 2 at home with my parents, they still live with my mum actually and they also go off foods now and then?? The reason I ask is because Mandela went off eating any raw meat I offered him. In desperation (he had become too thin) I cooked him up some chicken and he ate it like no tomorrow. I've been cooking his meat (mostly chicken, but sometimes beef) and he is eating really, really well. It might not be something that lasts - he's done similar before when I've simply changed meat type or food formulas .... might eat it and go well on it for a period of months, then suddenly turn off it. I don't want him to only eat cooked meat for the rest of his life and I do aim to wean him back to raw and see how he goes (although I admit I'm enjoying watching his enthusiasm for his meals over these past few weeks, and to seeing him looking better and better as the days roll on), but if "cooked" is what does it, then that's what he'll get. He receives nutritional additives as well though. It's just that it struck me (as I was cooking one of his meals) that I had this thing in the back of my mind that someone had mentioned about temperature of the food being something to pay mind to. Have you ever dreamt something that actually felt real to the point it was difficult to tell it apart from reality? I've done that once before, but I ain't gonna tell you THAT story because it is REALLY bizarre, not to mention embarrassing . Yes, I do know what you mean abut dreaming something that is so vivid later on down the track you are so sure it actually happened! My Zola has suddenly decided she doesnt like raw meat at the moment as well!! She has eaten half cooked lamb mince for the last two night, with a bit of salmon and her kibble. She refused chicken wings and chunks of lamb meat - like they were festering bits of I dont know what ..........Crazy dog!! So tonight I have cooked her up some lamb mince with veges...........she is more into chunks of veges than meat. Hopefully she will consume that tomorrow night - dont know what Ill do if she refuses that. I also bought 3 tins of salmon today, while my sister laughed and said "You know she wont like it in two days".... Rat