Mrs Rusty Bucket

My dog reacts badly to the eye of a camera lens. She also goes bunta - bark a lot at anything a bit unusual like a woman with a very flowing and brightly coloured sari that waves in the breeze. Or man she hasn't seen for ages - wearing a turban. Or man she sees often - wearing a hat she hasn't seen before. Or an umbrella on the beach. On tv she likes giraffes.

Brown and white? I'd go for tri colour though or black and tan - is close or ring them up and ask them.

Ah mornings Can start at 3:30am - with a very loud barking to let me know there is a cat crapping or fighting or whatever cats do in the front yard. I ignore temptation to let dog chase cat down street barking her head off at 3:30am. I ignore dog barking. 5:30am - magpies start up, dog asks to be let out. If she asks quietly and I find her sitting at the back door - I recognise signs of desperation - she's actually thought about what she is supposed to do to get out and done it. Dog goes out at high speed, does a quick cat patrol followed by an S&P. And then she comes back in and we both go back to bed - me in it and her on it. She only gets to be on my bed for morning sleep in cos otherwise I don't get any sleep at all and I do get cricks in my back and generally sore all over. In ideal world - we get up around 7am and go for walk at local oval or beach. In real world - we sleep in till 8:30am and go to local oval. We did make the beach this morning. And then I had to go out and she went back to bed (sofa). So I cop bouncing and sleeping in. She sometimes pats me on the head if I ignore her and she REALLY needs to go out.

My dog doesn't just glue to my leg, she actually grabs hold. Especially if we do fast pace. Does having spit marks on your thigh lose points? PS I think that guy has blue vein cheese in his pocket...

wow Mostly my dog removes things from the bin, not putting things there, and any sock she touches is not wearable again afterwards. But I think I could work on the back rub thing. Her claws might need a bit of a trim first.

I noticed a "registered breeder" selling puppies on adelaide gumtree. I figured she must be "registered" with the local council ie permission from them to breed dogs on her place or similar. I phoned up SACA who said that "registered breeders" with them - would have waiting lists and would not need to advertise in internet classifieds. The SACA lady said that all puppies in a litter had to be registered too even if it was "limited register". The gumtree ad had no breeder prefix and was fuzzy about what breed the dogs were (arguably cross breeds). A lot of people think they're getting a dog with "papers" or the parent dogs have "papers" and the "papers" turn out to be vet vaccination certificates, council rego, or something the breeder mocked up on their own computer.

My brother's staffy had a "phantom pregnacy" and got saggy tits as a result. She never had a litter, was desexed around 6 months. I don't think she even had a season. You just can't tell by looking at the outside.

Some dogs just aren't that interested in certain kinds of games. But you can transfer the value they have for one thing (eg food or balls) to something else, ie alternate between a food game or retrieve and tug, play tug (nicely), get a food treat. Work up from slow tug to fast enthusiastic tug but kill the game if he puts teeth on you. I know he doesn't mean to but there also needs to be incentive to encourage him to be more careful - and he can. Try a tug with a longer handle - like a horse rope lead. Or tie a rope to the tug to keep your hands out the way. But the methods you're trying to get him excited read a bit like "training in drive" to me. And for that, you focus first on finding what gets the dog excited, and work on from there to get him excited about being and working with you. So if tug is not it, start with what is, and work from there. So it might be chase the food or retrieve then a bit of tug, or obedience and then a bit more food...And if you can join the excitement with a trigger word - so much the better.

Out of those northern clubs, I only know about Para Districts. I belong to SAODC (South Parklands in the city). I like Para Districts. They seem to use mainly positive methods (haven't seen any negative ones, was at an agility mock trial so didn't notice if there were choke chains or not). Their volunteers are very helpful and friendly and encouraging. They've got a big area to train in with a fenced off dog park next to it. And plenty of car parking right next to the clubrooms.

What I do is catch the washing machine water from my washing machine - detergent and all - doesn't matter much between biozet or omo - although omo seems to be slightly more effective and water temp doesn't matter - it's usually cold. And I siphon that out onto my lawn. I have a bit of ag pipe with holes in it that I put the end of the hose in to stop it digging holes in the lawn with the water flow. And I leave it in one spot for at least five minutes, ten can be better. And it floods that patch of lawn and all the black beetles come to the surface gasping for air. And I stand over the flood (after about two minutes or so, and catch them, and kill them. Sometimes the magpies and wily wagtails come and help. No toxins other than the laundry detergent involved. It also discourages ants from building nests in the lawn. I don't think I'd use this on the vege patch but then again, maybe. Fresh water or shower water doesn't seem to be quite as effective but you still get some. If you're worried about alcalinity of the laundry water - put some amonium sulphate in. I found about half a kilo to a kilo was enough to neutralise the laundry water, and the lawn just loves it. So green. But it is mostly kikuyu.

Around here, I think carrying around a loaded poo bag is like a badge of honor. You advertise "I pick up after my dog", except I know one lady who puts her phone and car keys in her poo bag and doesn't pick up after her dog at Victoria Park. Very distinctive looking dog too. My dog won't crap on a footpath or verge of footpath unless she's unwell and can't hang on. Fortunately that's only happened once and it was garbage day, so I just added to someone's bin load. What I really hate is people who load up a plastic poo bag and then just leave it there on the ground WTF. Some have said - oh I'll pick it up on the way home - but they always forget. If you're not going to put the bag in the bin, and you're at the beach - just don't bother with the bag at all. And please - don't cover a soggy crap with leaves or lawn clippings on a playing field. At least if we can see it we've got a chance of cleaning it up, and it's got a chance of drying out before game time. Some people have got no brains at all.

I think every owner needs to know how to train their dog, and every dog should know basic manners like sitting to greet people, not jumping on them, and OMG - come when called!!!, and how to politely greet other dogs. The owners need to learn what is ok play and what is not and what to do about when it goes to hell. One dog class I heard of recently - the owner told me that the instructor said that it was the law in SA that every person walking the dog must carry at least two poo bags for picking up. I WISH that was the law... I've NEVER seen it enforced. Let alone the pick up after your dog law. So I think most obedience clubs and volunteer instructors could do with some extra skills in training newbie handlers and dogs and keeping everybody interested. And I think the classes could be split into those who want to do competition and those who just want their dog to walk nicely on the lead without pulling or attacking other dogs or jumping on people. That kind of stuff is covered in our classes but not really practiced. There are whole bunch of really useful methods that our club seems completely allergic to (during class) - like the use of reward toys / tug, clickers, and anything but a slip collar eg a front attach harness. When nothing much is happening in my class - I practice stuff with my dog. Early on it was focus stuff, and heel / sit work and recall. Now I practice that and some stay work and other things. I think if our club has any spare money they should spend it on some top dog trainer DVDs and share them round and run a dog club library of them. Sigh. I've been thinking about learning how to be an instructor. Apparently my club committee have decided it isn't necessary for me to be a (UDX) champion dog hander first - which is nice - because I think that while it would be nice - that good teachers and UDX champion handlers do not always overlap. Then again we have a few champion dog handlers in our club who won't teach because the club won't let them teach the skills or techniques they use to get their competition results. Go figure. If I was going to be instructor - I'd want to be encouraging front attach harness for the pullers and reaching the clicker techiques even if we only used "yes" in class - loads of clickers going at once can be annoying. Apparently the dogs can still tell which is their clicker. And I'd want to be doing loads of fun stuff. And I'd be encouraging people to practice indivdually if I was working with one dog. And stuffed if I'd be holding the good dogs back to the lowest standard - which may belong to someone who hasn't been doing any practice for that month. I know someone who got through the grades twice as fast by going to the morning class and getting a pass and then going to the evening class and getting a pass in the next grade up. Actually I did that too, well more like go to morning class and get a fail, and then go to the evening class and get a pass. Woo hoo. I did get into a bit of trouble with my dog because I tried to teach her stuff too fast, eg working on stays - working on distance - when we hadn't got time sorted etc. That was because a previous dog I'd trained - all that was easy, but my current dog is a bit "slow". Well not as willing to do ANYTHING all the time to please. But that's something I like about her. She's not ramming a soggy tennis ball in my lap right now, she's sleeping.

I spoke to someone at the park - there were two dogs that looked like puppy mill specials to me. The one with the cockerspaniel x poodle x beagle x cavalier (I think) said she had a cavalier before but it was sick from day one, and died at 2 years old and they blamed that on it being "purebred". The breeder did nothing to help them except listen when they explained their problems. I asked the owner if the vet had said any of the problems were genetic - and she didn't know. WTF? So now she was into bitzas - from - as best I could tell - puppy mills. Her new dog had a lovely friendly temperment but wasn't very obedient but lots of dogs are like that. And she said it hadn't cost her a cent at the vets. I said my bitsa had cost me loads - mostly extracting things she should not have eaten (the vomit treatment). I forgot to ask about vaccinations and worming and annual check ups. Sigh. I did try to explain about genetic testing - and asked if the original cav breeder had done any. She said they'd done "all the research" and the cav breeder seemed like "such a nice lady". Gawd - if I had a $ for every time I heard "she seemed like such a nice lady" and the person is running a puppy mill. Blech. I also asked her if she had told SACA / Dogs SA about the problems she'd had with her dog. Nope she had not. It was too traumatic to follow up (and prevent other people from having the same problem as her). I tried, I guess, but some people you cannot help.

We used to have a kelpie heeler cross that was super obedient. Would stay where you put her for ages (long enough to walk home from the shops, remember where you left her and go back for her). Only ate what she was permitted. Learned to leave the room before farting (until my brother untaught it by using it for a party trick for "out"). Her bad habit - demanding you give her something to do. So if you said you couldn't reach the tennis ball to throw for her, because you were in the hammock trying to read a book, she would dump the spit sodden thing in your lap. She also liked to accost strangers and demand they throw the most enormous log of wood she had fetched for them.

The main problem with climate change is not that it is happening - it does go in cycles. But how fast it is happening this time around. Ie the climate is changing too fast for most creatures to adapt. Possibly too fast for humans to adapt. We don't really know yet. It is certainly too fast for some humans to adapt as we get more wild storms, floods and droughts - more often than usual. So squillions of people are dying. The last time the climate changed this fast - the dinosaurs died out (mostly). Only the resourceful, adaptable, low energy critters survived. The best thing we could do to prevent or slow climate change is slow the human population growth eg get the pope to approve birth control would be a good start. The earth has finite resources and we cannot continue forever to pollute and take and burn everything, without learning to use what we have with renewable energy eg solar - is going to last a lot longer than coal, and recycling. Not all greenies are extremist. We can't eat without farmers, but more farmers could use Earth friendly methods. And more and more are finding it is profitable to do so. As for the Murray - you think what has already happened to dairy and fruit farmers in SA won't spread up stream - you'd be wrong. We need both ends of the basin working so that when crops fail in one area from storms then the other area can pick up the slack. But if you kill the southern end of the Murray Basin off (it was dead as far as Tailem Bend, and Barmera, and looking quite fetid round Berri / Remark), and the northern end gets hit by cyclones and there is a fuel price spike - what are we going to eat then?

My Evil Hound likes top spot too. When I went to pick her up, she didn't know which mummy to suck up to - me or her two top spot mums.

For you Huski Permission to stuff up from one of the very best. http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/10/...ere-for-anyway/

I guess it would definitely pay to have the discussion with the judge up front about your first trial. I already try to get our training done as it would be done for trails - at least from exercise start to exercise complete. And I know I won't be ready for a formal trial until we can do practice ones by the same rules as the actual trials. Ie no treats until we're done etc. That's the trouble - I found with piano practice - if I stopped every time I made a mistake and fixed it up - I'd never make it to the end of the piece. But practicing going all the way through - eventually the flow would work and I'd get to the end ok and be able to cope and continue if I did stuff up during a performance - not that I did many performances. Oh spastic fingers that couldn't span an octave killed off my concert pianist aspirations. I'm not robot like enough yet either - still loads of talking and watching the dog who watches me... Stopping that is going to take some getting used to. Maybe I'll just stick with agility for now - can yell and run as much as I like... The trouble with me - is I've got no idea what is going to happen until I'm in it, and then I want to have all possibities covered.

Hi Huski I think the difference between a mock trial and a "real" it counts trial... is the mock trial you can be completely blase about the outcome - ie don't care at all - ie what I said about having permission to do really badly. It makes it so much easier than when you really want to do well and get all tensed up about it. I get this problem with job interviews. The jobs I don't give a 5hit if I get or not - are the ones I do best interviews for. Actually same problem with talking to guys. I can't even be in the same space as a guy I have the hots for, but I can talk all day to the guy I'm not interested in. Argh. So try for blase - don't care about the outcome - ie permission to do really badly and concentrate on being relaxed and smooth do not think about doing your best or trying to get everything right. And dogs are pretty forgiving. I keep stepping on mine accidentally and she's still right here sucking up to me.

I watched one tiny dog in CCD trial - it bounced around the heel work like a yoyo on a rubber band I don't think it did one sit, one drop, or one stand (not still anyway). And then when it came around to the recall, the handler picked it up, put it in the sit postion, told it to stay - left her dog, marched towards the judge, and the dog gleefully took off and shot past both of them. Judge said "exercise finished" (not complete). I'd call that a classic example of "not ready" but maybe they could do all the work perfectly at training - I don't know. I wouldn't promise that my dog who can do all that is required for CCD on or off lead - at training - wouldn't do she liked in a trial. Oh the lure of possum poo. I think if I ever do decide to trial I will tell the judge that I'm doing everthing I'd do at training except give her treats - ie not let her get away with being naughty - just because it's a trial and you're not supposed to double signal or correct.

The only thing I could think would make that ok is if they're trying to teach the dog to deal with bad people. Because only bad people would do that. I got to meet some local police dog handlers and they don't use methods like that anymore. It's mostly rewards based training - with toys as much as possible. And I've seen the dogs working in the field and there's no corrections given. That dog never offered up a submit or stopped doing what it was doing except when the handler sat on it and it didn't have any choice. Given the handler was not wearing any protective gear, I think a full sized GSD could have done some serious damage if it wanted. I think picking a dog up by the collar and throwing it on the ground is a serious risk to its spine too. Maybe the USA society for prevention of cruelty to animals would be interested? But I also can't tell how old the video was. Even with the car in the picture. Methods like that were commonplace a long time ago.

Aussielover But clearly in that moment - she'd rather live at the park. What about random bribes ie sometimes she gets a treat for going back to the car and sometimes she doesn't. Apparently we work harder when we don't know if or when the reward is coming ie sometimes it comes soon and sometimes it takes a while - than if we know that every time or every second time or every 100 times we'll get something. Pokie programmers know this.

Every now and again I have to explain to my evil hound that blow flies are not to be confused with bees. She's getting there. I think once they hit the stomach acid, it pretty much takes care of any bad germs.

Congrats on finding the right vet. It's funny how we always hear - if you're not happy with the vet (or doctor) you've got, try a different one, and yet after three or four the same, some of us give up. My dog is almost the opposite - she seduces every vet and vet nurse she meets, just loves them to bits. But at the AWL reunion last week - she decided the massage lady was very scary. Maybe there was too much direct eye contact - who knows but she wanted to hide under the table so the scary lady couldn't touch her. She didn't bark or growl though so she got a bit of a massage anyway. It was an eye opener for me.

Huski I think you're just going to have to give yourself permission to completely butcher your first few trials, and just do it. Because that's the only way you will learn to deal with your nerves. They won't go away but you'll get better at ignoring them or putting them in an imaginary strong box in the corner of your mind and acting as if they weren't there. At least that's what Russ Harris suggests, also Toastmasters, Rostrum and most actors that have stage fright (is that all the good ones?). http://www.actmindfully.com.au/home My dog isn't yet reliable at training - so you're way ahead of me. And if you watch a few trials - even the great teams have bad days. You have to be ok with that.