Mrs Rusty Bucket

Hi all I just got back from my epic trip to the East to see Susan Garrett... This is my likes/dislikes list... http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...p;#entry4863418] book wise - anything published in the last two years I won't have (apart from Paul McGreevy "Modern Dogs" which I won). Tragic, I know. I don't have any Don Watson and want all of it. I also like wine, but have far too much of it already. And specific taste. But Mitchells Peppertree Shiraz is always good, Eden Valley Riesling (Judd? something), Maclaren vale - Hugh Hamilton, Kangarilla Road... etc I'm about to go on epic trip West (my sister is getting married), so won't be posting much until December.

If you want to do the Susan Garrett stuff, you must start with Crate games or none of the rest of it will make sense, and you need to do the body awareness stuff (walking over ladder, and backing up and doggy body awareness tricks and wobble cushions etc) before you start on jumps and poles. SG recommends - apart from her stuff, the Susan Salo foundation jumping set - eg how to teach your dog to jump, and the Greg Derrett foundation skills and handling stuff (Great dog shame about the handler). With SG's most recent dog, she didn't go near agility equiment with it until it was about 14 months old. Before that she was teaching it stuff like recall, a really good start line (no moving), crate games, ie how to drive fast from A to B, recall, and tug and nose targetting, and relationship building, and proofing all of that in as many different environments as possible. The Derrett stuff teaches how to build relationship and teach the dog tug, and good start line wait and recall and then the handling - ie how you move in a consistent way to show the dog where you want it to go next, and then how to teach that to a dog. Cos that was me looking at all the SG stuff and wondering how the dog knows where she wants it to go. It's not quite as straight forward as pointing at a jump and saying "over" - and what if you want the dog to jump the jump towards you instead of away from you - how do you point that? GD has the answers and explains them. Be patient and have fun.

I don't like people or joggers or other dogs or children etc etc surprising me so I keep a good eye out. I very rarely get surprised. In this situation - pounding the footpath - how did the handler and dog not notice? Though I admit my dog has missed seeing the cat just there, because she's too engrossed in the smell here. She's not going to notice a jogger either when that happens.

the skunk effect. Eek.

I find the everlast fun balls are ACD proof but not bull terrier proof. I have a rope through the middle of mine. My dog enjoys a bit of self flaggelation with it, and every now and again I put a bit of kibble or roast beef or whatever is going, into the middle. Wouldn't do a "rusk". The best thing for slow treat dispensing is a purple squirrel dude. Expensive but so far, un killed. And that's one up on a red kong. I just load it up with kibble. And EH picks it up by the head and throws it round the room so it makes kibble deposits from its opposite end. Almost as good as a possum. http://www.chinostreats.com.au/d161/squirrel-dude/ Note - link is to give you an idea what they look like - I've never shopped with that site.

ouch, pug hugger. I don't think I'm going to make this one but will hopefully make the december one. Dunno when the hell I'm going to do the secret santa thing - cos I'm away till the beginning of December, starting monday. Big trip to Susan Garrett seminar - so exicted. doing the self catering and camping thing, so better get the packing right, although I will pass a few shops when I visit friends in Canberra and Mudgee on the way. Have fun without us.

Well my dog doesn't shred her bed anymore unless she's really stressed or really wants attention. And while she shredded the newspaper - she didn't shred the bed-mat or anything else in there. So better the newspaper than the other stuff. They will grow out of it, promise. Like I said before - think it might be her teeth are sore. I reckon if you can get butcher's paper - it would be fairly safe for her to eat. Much less likely to cause obstruction than towel and not as toxic as coloured newspaper ink. Either that or build a nappy for the crate and put straw in there.

I googled the alkaline diet. So confusing. Depending which site you look up they have different lists of what is and isn't ok. Ie on one list - carrot is ok (alkaline), on another it's bad (acid). Same with a whole lot of food especially in the vegetable department. It doesn't have macadamias on the list. I guess I get something I'm willing to eat. I can't understand why Almonds would be on the "good" list. http://jstorplants.org/2010/07/26/cyanide-and-almonds/ they contain traces of cyanide - same as apricot pits. Actually I eat some, that I put in jam. Ie all foods in moderation but to excess you could be in trouble. Then again spinach seems to have traces of it too, but nobody says don't eat that. Maybe it's because almonds are much more work and expensive than spinach.

Not surprised Oil of cloves makes the mouth go numb. Shannon lush uses a couple of drops of it in a litre of water to kill mould and mildew. She uses 1/2 a teaspoon of lavender oil in water to repel dogs (from re-annointing carpet). That might work. She said that there is a huge difference between fresh lavender which dogs quite like, and lavender oil. I guess I must be part dog, because I like the smell of fresh, but find the smell of oil a bit hard to take. A couple of drops of eucalyptus oil or tee tree oil in a litre of water might also work - smells ferocious (vicks vapour rub?) and tastes horrible. A lot of it is - like the other stuff - toxic - ie will make you or the dog ill. Aloe vera is also pretty horrible tasting - even to a dog - but I don't know how you get the cactus juice into a spray. It's too gooey. edit - fingers not type what I meant. Naughty fingers.

Not my dog, but one walks at our morning oval... this is what I didn't know about it. a Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen is not a Basset x Griffon x Vendéen cross. And they also come in "Grand".

I didn't suggest newspaper because my dog really enjoys ripping up newspaper. It is so finely shredded after an hour or so of crate time that I can use it in the compost bin. And Belladonna's dog eats things she shreds. Mine will eat toilet rolls. She loves ripping them up but I have to ration, no more than one a day.

Frankston Back in the 80s it was bogan city (or whatever the Vic name was for them then). I do believe the new cheap suburbs are elsewhere now.

I admit when my dog was a puppy, she slept in a metal crate (secured with cable ties so it couldn't collapse). I've only just got a soft sided crate and haven't left her in it long enough for her to test eating it. When she was a puppy I put a cheap picnic blanket over the top of the crate and she ripped that up. And ripped up any newspaper I left in the crate. Go figure. You might want to have a discussion with the vet about this, but this technique stopped my dog from eating plastic pegs though that wasn't my intention when I did it. She chewed up a plastic peg, and I thought she'd swallowed some - and we'd just had massive problems (and small vet bills) associated with bits of peg not going through smoothly. So I make a salty like seawater solution, and fed her a tablespoon or two (she's 22kg, one tablespoon would probably have been enough), and she vomitted up everything she'd eaten recently - which didn't include peg. I found the missing bits of pegs - over there. Ah well. But she has not touched a peg since. At six months your puppy may be teething (replacing baby teeth with adult teeth), and that may be causing the chewing. Here's hoping a chew toy will help. Mine has a squirrel dude that is doing well. If she plays with it during the night, she wakes me up - which might be good for you to check no bedding is being eaten. A large rubber toy being tossed around the room in an attempt to get the remaining kibble out if it can be quite noisy.

Greg Derrett has a cat like that.

You could try flavouring the bedding with something taste - yuk. But that might make sleeping on it a bit dodgy. Possibly the safest thing for a dog to eat would be cotton, so consider having a cotton blanky or towel and doing what you can to discourage her from eating it, like having one in her day time area and giving her something else to do if she thinks about eating that. Even the cotton bath mat I have next to the kitchen sink has small holes in it where the chewmeister in my house has modified it. She's two years old now, and does it much less. But got a new bit of bedding last week from the net and first thing she did was chew a hole to get the stuffing out... I'd never spend big money on dog bedding.

I was thinking Kyalite pistachios... Cos I will be going through that way. Then salted or unsalted. Hmm, unsalted for her, and salted for me and all of us. There's going to be approximately 70 people including 16 handlers, but more than 16 dogs, cos some of the auditors (like me) are bringing dogs too. There's better pasties to be had than Balfours. I do beleive SA is the only place you can get hard ginger nut biscuits, or yoyos. I don't know why. I was planning to make a vegan version of something I call "Anzac slice" - mostly so I have munchies but I can share if raisins are not "acidic". You seriously can't get toffee almonds in WA? WTF? What I get most often from Charlesworth is Macadamia nuts. mmm. Again though, I like the salted ones best. I also like macadamia nut icecream but I don't know if there is a vegan (non dairy no egg) version. And getting it there might be difficult.

There is a whole website dedicated to guys who drive around in vans, offer women money to be filmed having sex with them. And there are plenty of women (mostly in the USA) who do it. Unbelievable. So maybe there are some pea brained men trying to start this up on Oz. I admit tonight I ran a whole block to get away from a bloke who seemed to be following me. He was coughing a lot but moving suprisingly quickly but I did lose him completely when I ran. I had dog with me - she really enjoyed herself, didn't notice the bloke. And I've been followed before, it is freaky when you loop back on where you were going ie back track so the direct line you were on, has reversed and reversed again etc - and you know they're following when they're still with you instead of taking the more direct line. That time, I found some people I knew out on the street and told them what was going on and sure enough the guy came right passed us - didn't get much choice at that point unless he wanted it to look really obvious. I don't know what they are thinking but Doris Day movies have much to answer for. I've done the cashew nut thing at flashers a couple of times. Makes them disappear really quickly. Nothing upsets a bloke more than a girl laughing at his dick.

I think it's much better to teach children how to behave with and around dogs, than to scare them so much they scream in fright every time they see a dog. Of course Staffygirl88's 2yo might not be stupid but I've seen plenty of stupid kids in action. Including my brother's kids, who grew up with an SBT. An SBT who was carefully trained to walk away if kids were annoying and not allowed to put teeth on a human. She will lick you to death given the opportunity. So when I take my puppy up for a bit of socialization, these kids are squealing and running away and coming back and giving her hugs, and I have to keep saying "this is a dog not a toy", but my dog was remarkably tolerant of all of it, no growling, the occasional yelp when the kids trod on her tail. I was less sure about her good manners than my brother was. Go figure. But I do keep reading stories in the paper that say "she's never done that before", "she was always so good with children, I don't know what went wrong" etc. Ie if people think their dog is going to hurt their child, they don't leave them alone together, but they think it will be all ok and they do leave them unsupervised and occasionally it goes to hell. Although personally - I think the kid usually has some input. Small children, up to large teenagers have limited understanding of the consequences of their actions ie the ability to consider another person's (or animal's) feelings or needs, or what might happen if they do this naughty thing. I grew up with a lab x bull terrier. We used to be able to ride it like a pony, pull bones out of its mouth, and go whumf on it's tummy. And it never growled at us or showed any sign of being upset. The postman - on the other hand, had to take a tennis ball out of the letter box and throw it for the dog before he could come safely in the gate with a parcel.

I watched Greg Derrett Foundation handling DVD this morning and tried a variation of the wait and ready steady go exercises this arvo at the park... Cos I get the fastest response from my evil hound (EH) when I run away from her. So I put her in a wait and say "go" or "come" and she ambles off... blah blah oh possum poo and I've lost her. So I played some tug with the lead, and then I put her in a wait, and then I walked off and back and said "go" and played some more tug... and then I put her in a wait, and went off and when I said "go" I ran away from her holding the lead where she could grab it when she caught up (reduces the risk of her grabbing a glute instead). And she powered away from the stand. And the second one, I did a bounce fake out and she started coming I said "oops" and she STOPPED - OMG she never what the f - wow. So I set her up again and got a good solid wait and did "go" and ran away and she's having SO MUCH FUN. Now if only we can get that to work at club training. I always knew her (second) favourite thing, is chasing me. And now I know how to use it. And all I got to do now, is figure out how to use her most favourite thing (me chasing her) to get her to do "go outs" or "go ons", ie run ahead of me and jump stuff.

Maybe he thought with his fancy car and licence plate bling he could "pick up" and was hoping you were interested and (he was) too stupid/stoned to get the message (from you). I am wondering what would have happened if you made the cashew nut sign with your pinky for "tiny dick" eg the bigger the car (engine) the smaller the cashew nut. I've done that to guys that were acting predatory - and they left in a hurry. edit for clarification

Hmm, I will have to invest in a better voice recorder. Not sure how many hours I get on my 2GB mp3 player. I am auditing / spectating. Certain people are demanding comprehensive notes. Maybe I should take computer too so I can type them up. Maybe the old notebook. It's smaller than my hefalump. I wonder if it still cranks up. Sigh. I didn't notice Susan picking on auditors in any of her dvds. Cathy says we have to help set up. I'm taking my dog. She wasn't far enough along with the "crate games", she might be now, is hard to tell. She likes being in her crate, she will go in voluntarily, but she's not like the dogs bolting in and out if their crates. I think I have to teach her to "play" better. I've been shopping for the trip. Bought a thing that I can connect mp3 player to for the car, because the old cassette player with a tail stopped working. Also bought a new crate (soft sided - was hoping I could get the metal one into it but can't - but the soft sided one would be snake and bug proof where as the metal one isn't. Bought a new tent too, the old one was over 25 years old and I'm not too sure how much fun it would have been if it rained - couldn't get a bunkhouse for Friday and Saturday nights but have one for the rest of the seminar. Still need to buy a new fry pan. And I picked up the car fridge from my brothers, and I have to get the luggage cage back in the car tomorrow. I really feel like I don't have enough days left to get everything done. And want to get a present for Susan but she's vegan, no alcohol (there goes the best from SA) and no caffiene (there goes the chocolate) and no softdrink and no acidic food so - no home made lemon cordial either. I'm thinking book. Except that's a PITA on the plane (weight restrictions), at least with something edible it could be all gone by time she needed to go home. Maybe it will have to be something electronic. Anyone bringing an SLR? Group photo? And I'm trying not to think about how early will have to get up. Be at registration by 7:45am for 8am start - which is really 7:30am Adelaide time, and I'd have to eat breakfast, walk the dog etc before that. Yikes. One good thing about camping/holidays, getting up at sparrowfart is much easier.

I found the missing moles. So the config on mine is One in the middle of the triangle under the bottom jaw One on each side of her face just above her top lip in a vague line between her eye and the first mole. and One on each side of the face between her eye and her ear but a little bit lower the straight line between. Those ones were very smooth but the whisker give them away. I figure they're all about navigation.

I can only find three moles, one on each side of the face and one under the chin. So unless we count the eyebrows, only got three moles. I got told that someone's spotty cross dog was boxer x because it "boxed" ie used its paws to wrestle when playing. Except my dog does that too, in fact these two dogs looked very similar and mine looks and acts ACDx. No sign of boxer. And I've been told that because mine has that groove along the top of the skull between her ears and because she does frog legs - she must be part staffy or pitbull or amstaff etc. I don't think so. Doesn't act very staffy. My brother has a pedigree staffy - I haven't counted her moles. My dog does have a "Bentley Mark" on her head.

i think some of the video on the Garrett/Curren website, shows Susan doing warm up and dog massage just outside the course boundary. Then inside the course boundary she sets the dog in a stand, gives it a quick feel, and sets off. The Agility course doesn't start until the dog crosses the start markers - which usually have automatic timing devices on them. Greg Derrett talks about playing with his dog (to build or regain drive and focus) during an agility run. I'm not sure how much of that is allowed. I think as long as you're between obstacles and not pushing the dog into doing jumps it might be ok. I'm not sure what the rules are about the dog jumping all over you during a course - I think I'd better find out. Though the rules (jump heights for starters) look different in the UK when Greg made his foundation DVD. But in Obedience - you're not supposed to touch the dog. It's ok for the dog to touch you, a lot of them lean on the handler's leg but not ok for the handler to pick the dog up and put it in a sit or stand etc. I'm not sure if the European / UK practice of swinging an arm along your left side and connecting with the dog's ear is ok or not in OZ. Eg this.

Staffygirl88 I think if you're planning on letting your boy feed your dog, the first time at least - you should put your dog on a lead, ideally have the lead loose but short enough that if the dog does decide to move forward there isn't enough slack for her to reach your boy. Have a read of the NILIF and TOT bits on this page, will help you get your dog to do what you tell her when you tell her to do it and also teach her some self control around meal time - though it reads like you're on the right track. http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages/Behavioural.html With Staffies being so powerful, if there is a misunderstanding about what is and isn't ok - the damage can be extreme, no second chances. So play it safe. Make sure the training is in place and reliable before you take risks with your child. At the moment if your puppy thinks it's ok to play tug with your boy's leg - I don't think they're ready to be unsupervised together. I found a squirty bottle water pistol was good for distracting my dog from doing what naughty thing she shouldn't - I just used to take it with me when I hang the washing out or whatever. And she'd behave. The range of it helps. Ie I don't have to catch her to send the message. And I don't actually have to get a direct hit either. The weird thing is she likes the water and the squirty bottle. I can use it to give her a drink or cool her off when she's hot.