Mrs Rusty Bucket

My dog likes to "fetch" shoes. If I'm paying attention, I praise her for fetching my slipper (ugg boot). If I'm not paying attention, she eats it. I've not yet managed to persuade her to fetch the pair but I'm sure we'll get there. Being pleased to see her "fetch my shoe", means she now always offers it to me before she decides to eat it - so I can only blame myself if I get hypnotised by the computer and ignore her gift.

My dog frequently lab tests toilet rolls. Especially when I forget to put them out of reach. And she doesn't care what brand they are. The cardboard centre is the best bit, but filling the back yard with tiny bits of white tissue is huge fun too. Not much labrador though. Mostly ACDx (like yours I think).

Some SBT swim like a brick. Ie they sink to the bottom and walk along like a submarine with legs. Never seen my brother move so fast, and get completely wet to save his submarine SBT who jumped in the dam chasing after all the swimming dogs. ACDx will swim out and steal tennis ball while Airdale and Kelpie x are arguing with each other over who gets to fetch the tennis ball... SBT submarine - never even gets near the tennis ball.

The best way to stop an ACD from chasing and nipping your ankles, is to stand still, not try to run faster. If you give a demanding ACD a treat, it will demand more treats from you. LOUDLY. It will not leave you alone because you gave it a treat. It is possible to train an ACD not to chase joggers, bicycles, cars. But you must have something it likes to chase more and the best treats in the world. ACD will chop flat webbing lead into pieces with less than three bites/cuts. ACD could pull sleds. So can staffies. In fact an SBT can pull a big esky with no wheels, full of beer and ice across a grass oval. Handy when you're packing up. Not so handy when you're trying to kick a footy without help from the dog.

Of the dogs on your list, In the masters agility and the utility dog, there were shelties doing very well. In short jump agility there were also minature poodles, minature schnauzers, cocker spaniel, jack russells, and a corgi x kelpie. But the ones doing the best and looking like they were having the most fun were the shelties. the poodle did most of what the owner asked and then a few other jumps not part of the course as well. Of course the smarter the dog you get, the more you have to work to keep its mind occupied, or it will find ways of occupying itself that you might not enjoy. PS this website does a good match you to a dog breed quiz - it is USA based so a standalone house rates as "big". http://dogtime.com/matchup/question/1

Corvus Your two sentences contradict. From a paragraph full of internal contradictions. It's all shades of grey - or black and yellow. Do we really still have a "wild" type which is separate from a "domestic" type? Natural selection in the wild will favour the dogs that are good at fending for themselves. A combination of natural and human guided selection in domestic situations - will help a dog type that wants to live with humans. Ie the ones that don't bite humans and are friendly are more likely to survive and breed domestically but these traits would not help dogs in the wild that have no help from human resources. The edge of civilization is not fixed - it's blurry. The "grey" area between domestic and wild is important. That is my point. There is no arbitary human defined line of separation.

Corvus The article suggested that hunters and domestics didn't interbreed. I disagreed with that. I've been to the pitlands in Central Australia. Every town has a squillion dogs attached. Some are pets and others are left to fend for themselves, and dingos are not far away as a dingo travels, very close really. Most of these town dogs have never seen a vet, let alone been desexed, so plenty of opportunity to breed with the dingos, though most likely the mixed dogs would stay with the town. I've seen some mixed dogs like that in the Kimberley. On the scale between Kelpie and Dingo - they looked and acted more like dingos (aloof not friendly) and there's plenty of both kinds of dogs out there too. And again, not much attention from vets.

I didn't mean that dingos were domestic, I meant that they were the "hunters" and were breeding with domestic dogs. Which they are. Ie explain to the dingos - as wild dogs - you're not meant to be breeding with the pet dogs - as described in the article. But there is a very very small gap between a dingo and a domestic dog. Just look at kelpies and ACD. Not to mention strange GSD looking dingos out there. What we really need to know is how close is Wolf DNA to malamute or husky DNA or those other wolf like varieties of dog. Is it as similar as Airdale DNA is to Poodle DNA? Or more distant. If you really want to get confused about the arbitary nature of defining species, read "the beak of the finch" by Johnanton Weiner. Those pesky finches can switch species in one season/generation based on availability (or lack of it) of resources. Nature is much more blurry than most text books would have you believe. http://www.amazon.com/dp/067973337X

Article has some good points and some daft ones. For starters, Australian Aboriginals never had bow and arrow, and yet dingos probably came to Australia with them. Dingos mostly live alone, except in places where there is plenty of food like Uluru, Fraser Island, town dumps, popular camp sites (ie places in the desert with permanent fresh water and a name on the map). No more mating with hunters. Explain that one to our dingos. Not sure about grey wolves, and ancestral links. Don't know how long it would take with selective breeding for friendliness to get a dog out of a grey wolf. There was a fox experiment, where foxes where selected for friendliness and it was very quick to get a tame fox. "Dog as we know it today". Yes, what is that. Dogs have many roles. Dogs can cross breed with wolves, so they're pretty closely related to wolves. Certain sled dog types look very similar to wolves. And they don't seem to have been chosen for their help hunting, more like their help with transportation. The worst thing about wolves and dogs, is a whole bunch of stupid harmful stuff about alphas and dominance is attributed to the way wolf packs work when in fact wolf packs do not work that way, and neither do dog groups. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/alpha-fallacy http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/ima...20statement.pdf (check out page 3)

So many variables. All she's finding out is how the dog reacts in that room with that stranger. Frosty has different reactions depending on context and the stranger and the sex of the stranger. At the vet she'd make friends with anyone that would let her including the cats, if I let her. But at the park she only greets some people and I can't tell who. And some people she will greet today, she will actively avoid the next day. She does try it on with anyone who has treats though. Have to work on that one.

I got my dog from AWL and they had desexed her at 8 weeks old. As far as they're concerned - the benefits of desexing before handing the dog over to new owners, far out weighs the problems. And I haven't had any problems. She's a great groveller and has the most non-threatening friendly approach to people and dogs I've ever seen. Not sure if that's related but bonus if it is. At 1 year and 7 months, she also doesn't mark over other dog's pee spots. Which is another bonus as far as I am concerned. http://www.ndn.org.au/ The link would probably help you find a vet who will desex when you want for a price or payment plan you can afford.

I might be a bit out of my league here, I don't compete (yet). I don't deprive my dog of meals, I sometimes delay a meal till after training or class, depending on how close they are together. If it's four or more hours after mealtime to class time, then I feed at the normal time. I use treats during training, and try to cut back the meal by that much - or I use the meal kibble as part of the treats (low value ones). I definitely deprive my dog of my company/attention if I want to improve performance. This usually happens when I want to catch her and she wants to play chase me. I shut her outside by herself for five to ten minutes, and then when I go back out there, she's easy to catch. Hadn't thought about that in terms of before competition or class, but she's definitely more clingy if she's been separated from me for a little while. It seems to wear off after about 15 minutes though. Might make the stay-recall hard though if she's stuck to my knee and won't stay.

If you bark at your dog when your dog is barking at something he wants to "scare off", he thinks you're joining in, you approve, and you inadvertantly reward and reinforce the barking - ie make it worse. Try giving him something else to do. You have to show that whatever it is he can see from the balcony is no big deal and not worth barking at. I'm guessing that swatting him may make him assocate nasty people in the street that need scaring off with a very real threat of a swat, ie from imaging danger, he experiences it. Which may also make the problem worse. Try instead giving him a string of obedience commands, sit, drop, heel (to back inside) reward with yummy treat. Or "come" and treat. If this isn't working then perhaps a distracting noise - squeaky toy and if you get his attention instead of the strangers, then treat, command "leave it" or "enough". Also try teaching him to speak. Get his attention when he's barking and "speak" and treat - if he barks. This makes my dog concentrate so much she shuts up. And then she barks or growls only just loud enough to get the treat, which is a lot less than she does for the doorbell. After you teach "speak" you can then teach "quiet". A lab should be very food motivated, so this should be easy. If you're still not getting his attention, try body blocking - walk between him and the view "leave it" and herd him back into the apartment and treat when he pays attention to you and not the view. I sometimes add a rattle (eg short chain inside a tin can) or a water pistol for distraction but usually body blocking with treats is enough. For bite inhibition - very important. Detach dog, gently push his own lip over his teeth and let his own bite pressure apply the force, until he lets go, and then ignore (no eye contact, no talking, turn your back) for 3 seconds or longer. You can add an "uhuh" in neutral tone if you want. An ouch or high pitched yip (the noise he makes if you step on his tail) might help but made no difference with my dog. If he's really persistant or you need to make dinner and don't want him helping and haven't got time to ignore for three seconds... put him in a crate (google crate training) or the laundry until you have time to do the appropriate response (whatever works). Again the harder you play with (or swat) your dog, the harder he will play with you. So you either have to be very gentle with your handling or completely over the top growly yelling (like a grumpy mother dog). And you have to make sure he knows it's "game over" (No more attention or locked in the laundry) any time he puts his mouth on you. No matter how gentle. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/puppy...ing-12-18-weeks http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/teach...bite-inhibition

One way to get my dog all excited is to say "Puss puss puss" which is what I would say to get the attention of any cats silly enough to be in my back yard at night, before I let my dog out. And now it's conditioned - words - cat chase - exciting. I'm undoing it by saying the words when there is no cat, I just want her here so I can put the lead on. Her least favourite thing. Suggestions for breaking the habit - have rattly tin for distracting noise, pump up water sprayer jet for distraction (no need to aim for dog's head, just close on the ground or fence nearby or on the butt is good enough) and the command "leave it" which should be followed up by your dog's favourite reward if the cat is left. Eg fresh roast chicken or beef, or play or whatever the dog LOVES (ideally more than chasing the cat). And what Schmoo's boss (or serf) said - try to get your dog's attention with the great "leave it" reward before the chase is fired up. Ie you have dog on lead, you bring him into the room where the cat is, and you tell him "leave it" and good dog + treat for every time you can get his attention on you and the (treat) reward instead of the cat. Stand between him and the cat to block his view and get his attention on you if you need to (body blocking). Body blocking and treats is what I had to do to get my dog to leave horses on the city beach alone. Seems to be working, as long as we then go the other way to where the horses are. Practice lots. It won't happen overnight, but it should improve. Especially if he associates leaving your cat alone with loads of treats and pats and good human attention.

Sounds fine to me apart from the bbq chicken - Frosty likes that too. I had to reach down her throat and pull one of those pointy chicken wing bones out last week at the Hockey Club. Mind you if we need high value treats... I can help bring stuff too if necessary. I live pretty close to "urban chicken" and Becks bakery on Winston Ave. And Frosty rides on the back seat and the food rides in the very back behind a luggage cage wall.

I'd recommend puppy pre-school but it is important to find a good one. The one I went to is run by my favourite vet and president of our dog club. He had all the products for "pushing" but was kind of anti push, telling us stuff like a desexed dog needs 1/3 less food than what the packet recommends and maybe less than that depending on how much exercise the dog gets. We learned a lot about what is good play and what needs breaking up and how to break it up. And general stuff about what a dog needs in terms of on going care. I didn't know much about vaccinations before I got there. I learned they need annual vaccinations and also should not be allowed to socialise with strangers until after the puppy has had the last booster and add two weeks - which I didn't know before. Makes me wonder how long the C5 vaccination has been available. And we did basic obedience like sit, heel, stay, come with treats like kitten kibble or cheese. We also learned how to teach our puppies not to bite, I didn't find yelping all that effective but a 3 second ignore after the yelp worked well. Our class had a malamute (huge), a Groodle - working on huge, and my ACD x who was tiny compared to the other two. But I think ACDx became boss puppy, she was more agile than the malamute and more adventurous than the Groodle who had been boss puppy in the previous group she was with. Groodle did come out from under her owners legs eventually and no puppy was savaged or seriously hurt. It's important that an ACDx is taught to play nice with other dogs, children, joggers, bicycles, cars, tractor mowers... We followed up puppy pre-school with puppy school at obedience dog club. And lots of meet and greet beforehand and at our local dog exercise areas - the unfenced or not quite fenced mixed use sports ovals. The best way you can get good socialisation is to take the puppy when it is too small to do serious damage and introduce it safely to as many new situations as possible. I don't know how you can expect a dog to know the dog ettiquette rules if it never gets the opportunity to learn.

I once made the mistake of feeding a very greedy horse some apple and he choked on the pieces. Fortunately I was able to dislodge them by rubbing his throat and wind pipe but he was all ready to lie down and die. Freaked me out. We got the horse dentist in after that which helped. Every now and again my dog inhales her treat and I rub under her chin and down her neck until it comes loose. Blech. Chew and swallow, you silly hound.

Me and the vet nurse worked out that a 6 month pack of revolution that comes with a bonus 6 month supply of worming tablets is cheaper per month or per year than Frontline plus heart worm plus intestinal wormer (eg Drontil). But I will probably change brands each year, just to make sure there is no resistance build up in the local parasites. I'd never heard of some of the things on the list. We get ticks here, sort of, but not usually the paralysis ones. Haven't actually seen any on the flat but I know they're in the rural areas. Roo ticks mostly.

Hi all Didn't notice this thread before. Sorry about that. I'm coming too. I was going to fend for myself as far as lunch/food goes as not always keen on pizza. Especially as a study time meal. I'd prefer sandwich, will eat subway. Was thinking to bring some home made bikkies or slice. There's usually some to share though I might have to make a double batch to cope with 20 or do choc chip cookies. I will go with the flow as far as contributing goes. Just to make it easier and then if I want to eat some pizza I will have contributed. Now I'd better go reply to that email I got. I feel like a complete beginner next to some of the names on the list.

well I got booted from Rose's ring Open Agility to Keith's ring Master's Agility - so didn't see tribe Ness except for helping set up the shade thingy. I wish I'd brought mine from home too, we ended up borrowing one from the judges feast table. I did leads - they wanted me to do back up timer, and very glad I wasn't. We made a couple of mistakes that didn't seem to affect things overall, backup timer was needed a couple of times. Some big dogs need to practice the tyre/hoop on the first obstacle, framed by the auto timer beam holders cos quite a few went under instead of through. I can't believe how fast it was though. As one dog went through the finish the next one would be setting up. I hung the leads on the pole next to the exit, I did not have time to hand it to the competitor finishing because the next one would be already in. Check no jumps down and judge ready and scribe ready - started already. I didn't always get to watch the whole round either, cos I'd be sorting who was next. So I guess I was steward of the leads and marshall. We coped really well with competitors out of order because of ring clashes, most of the time the competitors who were waiting to go would sort it among themselves, and any numbers that didn't show up, I wrote at the end of the list for that height and checked then. The open agility ring was running much slower than than the masters one anyway. Only one who was supposed to show up, didn't. And we found them in another ring competing. They could have queue jumped at ours. Nobody complained about it. It was hectic, but great fun.

Hi All I'm with Rose with the morning shift. I'd be helping and she'd be leading. Oh wait, you mean "steward holding the leads" not the "Steward in charge". "Holding the lead" is what I've been told so far (Lead Steward - duh). Oops. Well they do give that job to first time helpers. I think there is another person to do time keeping so I guess that's at least three, unless we double up on tasks. I think I could do "scribe". Pretty sure I don't marshall but I could be wrong. I know how it goes with equestrian events when competitors have more than one ride and the numbers can be out of order, though I've only "jump judged" for those. I might be helping with pole height etc, that would be ok. I've had some practice setting up gear at training. I know Ness's dogs, they're gorgeous. I know they don't like surprises, I let them approach me if they (and their boss) want, otherwise I try to keep clear. I will try to take my cue from the handler about how close I need to be. I know when I'm practicing I like a gap of several metres at the starting point so my dog doesn't get confused or distracted. I wasn't as worried about scaring a dog as much distracting it. I don't know if I'm where Ness's girls will be competing. My dog likes to greet everybody and every dog so I didn't want to be accidentally encouraging that from other dogs when they're supposed to be paying attention to their boss. A pole with a hand sounds like a really good idea. That would free up lots of people for helping. I don't think we have it at SAODC otherwise they wouldn't need me. Or is my job putting the lead on the pole? I don't think we've got automatic timers though they would help me a lot. I think I will bring one of my kitchen timers just in case. It runs on stop watch or count down. I hope I don't have to do timing and it stays in the car park. And I'm pretty used to players ignoring or trying it on with the ref. I umpire hockey often. We get food and reserved parking. I'm looking forward to crispy bacon sandwich for brekky and some coffee. Judges usually get a formal sit down lunch under shelter - well that's how the obedience competition went. Helpers got food from the bbq. I had to move all the bars before I could do each run at training because Ms talk alot had her dog on the top rung and mine was on the next rung down. Eventually Rose came and helped but Ms talk alot didn't. Then again we didn't always help put them up for her either. I'm pretty sure my dog would have jumped the top height, after I persuaded her that "over" was what I wanted and "strolling under" was not.

Hi all Our club is hosting an Agility Competition on Sunday (18th April). I'm hoping any agility competition regulars can advise me on what Stewards are supposed to do and maybe not supposed to do. Apart from helping set up, I think my main job will be holding the lead for the competitor team, I'm not too good at keeping time. I plan to leave my dog and treats at home but I will probably still smell a bit like her. I would love to read any stories about stewarding gone wrong or right, and any advice about what good stewards do for the competitors and judges. For example do you help catch the dog if it nicks off out the ring or is that just too bad? Is it ok to have an umbrella - I think it might rain a bit.

I use a front attach harness on an ACDx. I found out about it from someone who owns a very big and enthusiastic weimerana. It's brilliant. As long as you remember to take it off when you get home so dog does not have the opportunity to chew it into little pieces. available in SA from http://www.petdogtraining.com.au/products.html and from USA http://www.softouchconcepts.com/ I believe black dogs do one too - they're in Victoria http://www.blackdog.net.au/index.php?page=...=1&Itemid=5 And if you want a comfortable lead on a puller/sled dog/cart horse, I recommend the cotton rope horse leads available at most equestrian supply shops like horseland and saddleworld. Hope that helps.

When our dog club ran an obedience competition recently, only "entire bitches" were required to be "vetted". But I guess it wouldn't hurt to check with each host club, what they expect.

My dog on nice warm days, would drop from the sit, and then lie down (dead dog) and go to sleep. Nice to see her calm and relaxed in class and not nicking off to greet everybody but... not what I was looking for. So I worked on getting her to stay in the sit and catching her if she started to drop so she could "get it". I hadn't been very strong on stopping her from doing it as I was more focussed on her "stay" no matter what the position. We practice in front of dinner - as per "triangle of temptation". I put yummy dinner out. Get her to "come", and then sit stay, and I stay right with her and if she thinks about dropping I catch her, and make sure she stays sitting for a definite interval but not as long as before she dropped. Ie if she took 30 seconds to start to drop and we start over, I make her sit only for 15 seconds the next time. So she's more likely to get it right and I can praise her for getting it right (Set up for success). when she gets it right, she gets a pat, praise, and the release command and the eat dinner command.