Mrs Rusty Bucket

One of the kennels I used to use, had hours that I found difficult because in order to arrive in their one hour window morning or evening - I'd have to travel through rush hour traffic... or travel before and arrive about 30 minutes early - which I sort of solved by hanging out at a nearby town oval, which was about 3 mins drive instead of an hour or so from home. Ie travelling in rush hour makes for time warps - which means that the one hour I might allow to get there can warp to 2 hours and I miss the window. Not happy. The afternoon pick up requires me to leave home about 3:30pm which puts me through the parents school pickup as I have to go past a school or three no matter which way I go. And again - right through rush hour window as well. I'm ok with having designated times but they seem to have chosen for maximum inconvenience for city dwellers. But I'm not likely to use them again as the vet bill to deal with the infection she picked up from living in her own poop for a week - exceeded the boarding kennel bill.

There's Para districts obedience dog club... They also run agility classes and dances with dogs - so some (most?) of the instructors are familiar with reward based training. I don't know their policy on chain collars - but I would insist on a flat collar or for a dog that pulls out of a flat collar - then a limited slip like a martingale collar. http://www.paradogtraining.com.au/index.html There's also Gawler dog training club and another at Munno Parra - near the corner of Peachey road and Vincent st (I think). Go along meet people, if comfortable with methods then join up, if not might need to find a private trainer or delta based trainer. There are some very good trainers at Para - especially on the agility side.

so it's a cute ad that encompasses everything we wish the public would not do when choosing a puppy... and finishes by promoting puppy chow - which according to the checkout - may or may not be suitable as a dog food let alone a puppy food, because it's not called "complete and balanced". http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/purina-puppy-chow/ So I guess I would re-write the ad somewhat... He goes to a breed club social event - and meets lots of breeders, gets along really well with one or two of them... and waits patiently for puppies... then there is a beautiful litter of pedigree puppies, and he gets lots of advice and a puppy instruction pack from the breeder... and a week's supply of what the breeder has been feeding the puppy with instructions about where to get more and what to transition, and puppy training opportunities... And when the puppy eats his model farm... he rings the breeder for advice at 3am (ok maybe not that bit?)... I can't believe the puppy didn't have an accident on the couch... Sorry Persephone - I can't help it.

Most council animal control are well aware of false complaints. One of my friends had new neighbours complaining about her beagle - but she could prove that her beagle was not home at the times they had logged complaints about it. Ie it was either fiction or some other dog they were hearing. Our council sends someone out to check if they hear barking and problem noise as well. Our whole suburb barks - there's a dog in every second household - sometimes two or more.

Are you game to try the sugar free lolly challenge? What also gets me about the product is that name says sugar free, but the ingredients are for the original ones with sugar in. And there's no fraud report button for amazon.

which thread are we in. Sheena - maybe you could update the topic subtitle to include the phrase "xylitol deadly to dogs" If anyone wants to know what a large dose of these sugar free products can do for you (or to you or your favourite member of parliament), just have a read of the customer reviews for Haribo Sugar Free Gummy bears. http://www.amazon.com/Haribo-Sugar-Free-Gummy-Bears/product-reviews/B008JELLCA The sweetener is Lycasin which contains maltitol which is very similar chemically to xylitol and has the same laxative side effect if you over indulge.

How long does the home made peanut butter keep? I think I'd have to get a new food processor first tho. The one I've got - which is pushing 30 years old is getting a big gutless.

I'm pretty sure the company I bought some vitamin supplements from - puts xylitol sweetener in everything. Which is very scary because I was thinking that would be one way to get more nutrients in my dog when she's on home made food... But I've thrown most of it out because it all smells like snot/sulphur. Total waste of money.

I think it's really sad that you've bought a defective puppy - and the breeder isn't concerned, hasn't offered to help with the vet bills or a partial refund or something. Doesn't seem right to me that the breeder gets rewarded for providing a car with a broken engine.

I think my dog is an "independent thinker" and extremely good at training humans, really fast at that. Will work for food, especially someone else's. Can spot a treat handout across an oval or several km down the beach... But I think the stubborn part - is more a reflection of my (lack of) skill as a trainer. If she's thinking about whether it's worthwhile to respond or not - then I haven't got a conditioned response. And I need to do some more and better quality training. If I am not very consistent - she will be inconsistent with her response. And that applies across environments. For some reason I am much more consistent at club training environment than I am at home and her response (or lack of it) reflects that completely.

Yup SM - I don't think that beagle deserves that.

I just used old sheets to cover up barking dog in crate when I only had the vebo pet one. But I do love the k9+ caprice that I have now. But it does weigh more and doesn't fit conveniently on that top shelf in my car luggage rack. And definitely more sturdy. So it depends what you want and for what you want it.

I dunno. I think that some people get a dog - get frustrated and give up within a few weeks - and you just know that's going to go to hell, the way Ian Dunbar describes. If the owner is willing to persist through the frustration and keep learning about puppy training - eventually they will get there but the ones that give up... I've got one next door - I feel sorry for that dog. And an obese Doberman across the road who barks at everything that goes by the house... and saw lots of wanna be sled dogs at the park today. Tho for once they understood "bad idea" when their dogs tried to greet mine and politely backed off before my dog went all Hyde monster. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L3rr8Qp5JKQ

I think I might be putting the cone of shame on my evil hound tonight in the hopes I get some sleep. She's a sneaky wound chewer... likes to do it when she thinks I'm asleep but she wakes me up doing it.

vebopet have soft sided crates too and the big ones fold up flatter than the equivalent sized K9+ crate. Unfortunately for me the vebopet soft sided are not quite as robust as the k9+ ones - first thing that happened was something heavy (not the dog - probably a person) fell on the crate and broke the slidey bit that holds the frame together at the top. I fixed that with a lot of super glue and cable ties. And designated it the home crate - where evil hound dug through the bottom of it chasing the bob a lot around in it. Because it was flatter, it did fit in the top shelf of my car luggage cage tho - which none of the k9+ ones do. It also weighed a lot less. So you'd be sacrificing some durability but you'd get a lighter crate that fits in a smaller space if you get the equivalent sized vebo crate soft sided. It doesn't say how much they weigh but I'd guess about half the k9+ weight. We did use that crate out and about for a couple of years, and it lasted a year or so under bob a lot abuse... Would not be good for a crate chewer tho. http://www.vebopet.com.au/dog/dog-crate-cage/collapsible-fabric-pet-carrier-crate-7-sizes.html I also don't think my dog would stay in an open top pen given she can jump out and she knows it. There are other dogs that come to agility and stay in their pens. So I guess it's possible that an agility dog might stay in one. But sometimes they jump out.

About the different attitudes your dogs have... This article - I don't agree with all of it but it does provide a good picture of what is going on. I think I'd call my dog "dog selective" at the moment - she's fine with dogs she knows and not so good with ones she doesn't know. She doesn't automatically love every dog that wants to say hi (which is normal for a herding dog). She was "dog social" as a puppy but sort of grew out of it. Which is sad but some other dogs are just mean or rude and she remembers and blames any dog that looks like the rude dogs. Understanding Different Dog (to Dog) Tolerance Levels http://www.badrap.org/dogdog-tolerance

On another forum far far away... someone has just proudly posted how you need to be careful about where you get your puppy from in case it's a puppy mill - and then announced they had gotten theirs from a notorious puppy farm - with a lovely website. At the moment I can't tell if the someone is just trying to advertise the puppy farm or they believe what they posted. And I've got two choices - request banning - or try to educate them. There's just nothing on the review websites about these places. There ought to be "I got my puppy from here, they promised this and this is what has happened and it costs me about 3x the price I paid for the puppy, at the vet every year getting problems fixed up that could have been prevented by the breeder". So lots and lots of people still think it's ok to get their puppy from a pet shop despite ANKC and RSPCA and others saying it's not. We need better marketing... to drown the bad guys out. It's easy to post a bad review of a restaurant - how come there's not the same for puppy farms and pet shops.

I think this might be a clue that the puppy is in the wrong home, but there's still hope. My current dog has taught me more than all the dogs I've lived with and trained before her. And there were a few.

some people have to make their own mistakes to learn... When me and my hound did puppy school - one of the other participants I felt really sorry for - a malamute puppy (get huge fast), with lazy teenagers - who clearly did zero training between visits to puppy school and didn't do the thing the vet asked for each time - ie toilet the dog before they came in.

butter wouldn't melt... oh bitey face - you got butter on your face - let me fix that for you... very cute photos.

I took my cattle dog x black and white spotty dog to a Rottweiler show at SACA one time. I think there might have been a herding comp at the other end or I had some other reason to be at SACA but I put her on lead and went and checked out all the other dogs. I didn't let her say hello to another dog without permission. I also took her round a dog show at Armidale NSW - despite her long tail, she did look well camouflaged with the stumpy tails - I'd love to have one of those dogs. Same thing - no greeting other dogs without permission (me or her). It never occurred to me that I might not be allowed to do that. Nobody asked me to leave. I often go to agility or obedience comps when I'm not entered too. Most of those in Adelaide area are on council land anyway - the public can go through as long as they don't interfere with the actual competition. I think there might be some objection if you were trying to do a "fine cotton" substitution with a dog you had entered, and swap for one you had not entered... but I think the regulars might notice.

It's a very Rick Charlesworth (Hockey) thing (and Herb Elliot's running coach was the same) - make training really really hard that competition seems easy by comparison... The blind cross around a jump wing - I think we were calling them Katcher turns or KTs. My dog loves a blind cross. Must be a way I can use that so I don't have to keep twisting my (busted) knee with front crosses in awkward places. I'm not really good at saying "lalala" either. She's got a really good understanding of "go round" at the moment but she takes that literally - ie goes around - all the way around without taking the obstacle - which might be useful but isn't always going to be what I want.

Hi Sheena I've seen a few courses from OS where it's handlers choice which way they take an obstacle, but not so many locally. Ok none but I haven't walked many masters courses recently and I'm not the one deciding if they got the course right. I have walked a few opens and there's been on "your choice" on tunnel ends (or jump directions). I think I'd want to push the dog around the back on the "left" side of 10 so she was pointing in the direction of 11 and then it could be a sort of a threadle and then straight to 12 so I'd want to get between 10 and 11 - go straight from 11 to 12 to the left end of the tunnel so I could supervise around the back for 14... not sure how I'd get her to the weaves without getting in the way - she still doesn't have the best independent entry but I could see how this course would be great fun for someone with a good round the back (lala?) and independent weave (not to mention the distance handling stuff around the back then into the tunnel at 7) I guess if someone didn't have their shoulders set right they could send their dog to the tunnel - which must have looked more tempting set up on the field than it does on the map.

Gimme a job, I wanna job, can I have something to do, gimme a job, what sleep? No - gimme another job, hello??? At least that's my impression of border collies... extremely terrifying.

Does it matter which end of tunnel (no 13) you go into? Is it leftish end or right ish end looking at the picture. Also 11 to 12 looks like straight ahead into the tunnel and then round the back to get from the tunnel to 14...? Looks like a challenging course. I think I would not get the exclusion zone, especially asking my dog to do stuff from the other side of that tunnel (7).