Mrs Rusty Bucket

We got paralysis tick...

I heard that customs/quarantine "inspected the plane" and there was "nothing untoward on the flight manifest" which means they read the paperwork and did not get on the plane. Possibly because they didn't want to find anything "untoward" but weren't thinking of dogs but stuff for "personal use". Ie nobody wants to bugger up the local movie industry by offending visiting movie stars. And if you don't look you won't find anything. And the groomer made the news - possibly because of johnny depp fans... and then someone thought - how did he get the dogs in without quarantine time... and that would do it. I expect whomever said they "inspected" the plane might actually get on it next time. If they still have that job.

I find a shammy leather (Chamois) even a $2 synthetic one can help quite a bit in drying my dog but also removing some of the fluff but not like the zoom groom / long fingered curry comb (1/3 the price of zoom groom). haven't tried a "slicker". After a bit of a google - those slickers look like wool "carders" that we used to make input for the spinning wheel out of raw fleece...

Done was quite interesting. some things she does are quite context specific or have only happened once so a bit difficult to answer sometimes.

I'm not sure if there is a fee for an extra dog here (Mitcham SA) but I know there is an annual rego fee for each dog and it can be reduced for 1. pensioner owner 2. desexed dog 3. trained dog 4. microchipped dog So I get 2,3,4 discounts for my dog but miss out on 1. I like the NSW system where dogs get life time rego. Not sure about the extra dog permits. Victoria is a bit stupid like that.

lyme? disease ticks There's a nice list here. http://www.canismajor.com/dog/disease1.html the fungal and protozoa and bacterial parasites there are going to be different to the ones here... A bit like horse flu - wasn't a problem here until it got imported.

Hi AL99 I find the zig zag curry combs don't work as well as the pointy rubber finger curry combs on my dog... eg one of this type works great and can be had for around the $5 to $10 depending where you find it. http://www.caribuhorsewear.com.au/rubber-horse-grooming-brush.html

I think most people have no idea about Australia's quarantine laws and why we have them. Travelling round Eurpoe and Asia - people try to get you to buy souvenirs you know you can't bring home because Quarantine will burn them. And I get a bit envious of the people in North America and Europe who can compete in each other's agility competitions, and have their dogs sit in the passenger compartment of the plane with them. Not that I can imagine my dog tolerating the noise of a plane ride when two cars moving along on the road are freak out worthy... PS his dogs should go into quarantine for at least a month - that would be the worst punishment for Mr Depp... I don't see why they should be PTS - especially if all their vax are up to date (and not the homeopathic kind of vax).

I've only got one dog and she's super high maintenance, and quite willing to demand attention LOUDLY when she wants it. I try not to reward that but sometimes - anything to stop the yelling... But sometimes she is invisible. One of her fave spots is between the back of the couch and the wall. And she often disappears in the back yard and gets accidentally shut out there (tho she's quite good at asking to be let back in when she's ready).

Ooh remote drop start really close to dog with some yummy treats... and ask for the drop - and treat. If you're trying to reduce the chance of crash tackles - always treat when he's next to you (you can move to this position)... not in front of you. Ie encourage him to come zooming back - next to you - not in front or behind you (tho he still needs to be looking where he's going). So get some drops - close up (in a low distraction environment) and gradually build on the distance or the distractions - but not both at once. And I use a hand signal which looks like me making a downwards cross signal. Other people make a double palms down signal that looks like they're pushing the dog down. Mine will also drop if I bow at her. But she has to be looking for a signal to work. Glad the OI OI worked... sometimes you just need to make input into a different source ie he's not looking - your best shot is yelling for attention (not scolding yelling)... I do continuous OI OI on dog approach - as a sort of sound beacon...

I'd be willing to bet he was as surprised as you were when the crash happened. Like letting Stevie Wonder do car racing... he just wasn't looking where he was going. If there was another dog involved - probably looking at that. Hence pay attention - paired with Oi OI OI as dog approaches, or dog on lead if you want to be safe and can't pay attention. And the more dogs doing zoomies - the tricker it gets because you can only look in one direction at once. If I'm at the beach I will sometimes wade out into the water because she can't crash tackle once I get to about knee deep - it really slows her down.

I've seen a lab do his shoulder by slamming into a park bench with concrete feet. It's not your fault Stressmagnet. Labs only look where they're going after they've been trained as guide dogs for several years. You do have to choose and manage... Ie zoomies come with risks - so you can - stand on the park bench - and take him to the vet when he slams into it - yell at him as he approaches (works for me but you have to pay attention) - keep him on lead or put him on lead if there is any risk of zoomies or you can't pay attention while he's zooming... - teach him to look where he's going and to be more agile. I know how to teach more agile but not to teach to look where they're going. best I can do is teach her she's not getting her dinner until she looks at it. But she keeps checking me to see when I'm going to give her permission to eat it... we crashed into the side of a chute-tunnel last time we were at training cos she was looking at me not where she was going.

If my dog is repeatedly doing something I really don't like - I think about what I'm doing that is encouraging that. Eg I had a problem a while back where she'd wake me up in the middle of the night, and bark like hell. I think it was the freight train but OMG. And if I actually let her out to check the back yard for burglars (what was I thinking - I don't want her confronting a burglar or opening the door to let one in), I'd get more of the undesirable 3am wake up yells. So I thought about what she was getting that encouraged the behaviour. Obviously she was loving the 3am garden patrol... gotta stop that. So just in case it was an emergency potty stop she needed (usually signalled by her getting up and doing the most pathetic quiet bark at the back door - makes me instantly awake like nothing else can). I put her on lead for the potty patrol - no more blasting around the back yard and acted boring. So me putting the collar on in response to the barking - would shut her up and after not many days she stopped doing it. Didn't even need to take her outside. In fact that was generally a bad idea.

My dog is really good at using people to wipe off her pursing friends ie she will start a game of chase me with something big and slow turning, and then run between a group of people after making a tight turn or making a tight turn after and invariably - if the people are not paying attention - the slow turning dog will crash tackle all the people. In my dog's mind - she wins the game of chase me, but it's not much fun for the dog or people in the crash. So I will yell "Oi oi oi oi" by way of a sound signal to look where you're going. As long as you start loud enough and when unco dog is still far enough to correct his direction... it works. But if evil hound uses people to end the game, I put her on lead so it won't happen again that day. Ie she's allowed to play zoomies but not if she's going to lead other dogs into crashes. You could improve Ernie's agility and ability to avoid crashes with some body awareness work but it won't teach him to look where he's going. Hence the yelling works quite well, as well as ending the game should he zoom around people or anything else he might crash into. I've seen some serious injuries (dog and human) result from crash tackles and it's a good idea to reduce the risk any way you can.

I went to see the vet with my dog after she was returned to me covered in her own poop and with nappy rash underneath from 4 days at the boarding kennels (not going there again). He recommended - for the poop explosion... a diet high in pumpkin. Ie make at least 1/3 of her food to be pumpkin until the poop is normal again. So I made pumpkin + sweet potato + chicken thigh fillet chopped and some water - and added cooked brown rice... and she had to share her dinner with me. :) she was so badly scoured out - that we still haven't had a decent poop since Friday.

Hmm, shoe polish - a mixture of moth balls (naphthalene) and wax... wax - pretty harmless moth balls - not so much. http://www.wired.com/2009/12/st_shoe_polish/ Personally I'd be tempted to try black texta. Often got that all over my hands without any long term effect that I know of (could be wrong). But it would sting an open wound. You can also get non-toxic textas for toddlers who like to put everything in their mouth. What has the chris stick got in it?

I used to get called "rude" on the hockey field cos I'd issue commands to the rest of the players to organise our defence. I had a chat with the two who got most upset and explained I couldn't say "if you wouldn't mind could you please take three steps to the left, thank you" because by the time I got to "mind" the ball would have gone through the gap I wanted them to plug. I said, if they don't move - I assume they didn't hear and will repeat (if the ball hasn't gone already). I said it's ok if they don't want to move - just wave so I know they heard. And after a few times of the ball going exactly where I told them to be - they would just do what I said, and we won a lot more games. There's some people who are going to think you rude if you just yell and don't say please and thank you or explain but there are times when that's what you've got to do. You can explain afterwards to some of them but not all. In this situation of the extremely anxious dog - I'd consider making up an injury or some really nasty disease that will repel people. A really bad smell would do as well but that might not be so good for you or your hosts. And occasionally - people haven't noticed there is a dog in that covered table box anyway. Not so good if they decide to use the crate as a seat tho. If the hosts of the party cannot provide you with a secure safe spot for your dog - it would be better if you don't bring it. Which might mean staying home. My dog can't visit my brother any more because he won't provide her with safety from his dog. If my brother would co-operate and prevent his dog from attacking mine - we could visit but he won't so she stays home.

Hi Big D I don't know much about why some colours are and are not in the standard for flat coat retrievers. I do know there are problems in some other breeds with certain colours being associated with health problems like blue in SBT - is linked to skin problems, and merle + merle in some breeds increases the chance of blind and/or deaf puppies. So sometimes colour is important and sometimes it isn't when it comes to the health of individual dogs and sometimes of the breed.

I think it's a bit like the emergency phone call vs the ordinary phone call I don't always want or need the emergency response... And different calls mean different things. One of my oldest recall not quite recall cues was "this way" as in - attention - I'm changing direction now... you might want to pay attention. And I had "come" for the obedience recall. And I've got a whole lot of recalls for get inside the back door. which mean slightly different things. Ie "in or out" or "shutting the door now" - it's her choice, but if she doesn't come at a steady plod - I'm going to shut the door before she gets there. Often she takes the extra outside time as a last minute toilet opportunity ie - she knows she's going to be in for a while so she'd better clear out what she can before she comes in. And then there's "cheese" or just opening the fridge door... which I can then pair with other commands like the emergency recall one. I don't really want her coming in the back door going flat out - because there's a few obstacles and a slippery floor. The main thing is - you want a clean cue that you start using after you've got the response you want, for the emergency recall and you don't poison it with ordinary or poor performance during the learning process. Ie you don't want a bit of "go sniff" and "evict the pigeons" on the way.

All I know is what's on their website. Whomever did the services page - can't work the caps lock key. And the rest of it is a bit clunky. But that doesn't mean anything about the quality of their service. In fact the more slick the website, the more I think they care about marketing and less about the dogs. So a less slick website means their priority is not the website but might be the dogs.

There's a guy called Nathan J Winograd who has made a film about reducing the numbers of healthy animals killed by shetlers. If the shelters are run differently - more animals can have homes found for them, and fewer healthy animals are killed and the shelter staff feel like they're doing some good. I think the ACT shelter is on this path? PETA don't like him very much. He dropped them right in it for running shelters with high kill rates. I've found on their website that they don't think anyone should have a pet. So that makes it a bit hard for them to find pet homes. I'm a bit fuzzy on what Nathan's method is for achieving his results but I do know that bringing the shelter animals to the people - helps find homes faster. Visiting the shelters can be very stressful for everyone - I know - that's where I got my current dog - it was really horrible, and oppressive feeling. I had to steel myself up to take only the right dog for me home. Got really lucky.

Reminds me of Sophia Yin. Very sad.

The nanana one you're changing from left arm to right arm around the jump wing? And he's doing blind crosses are us? Or I'm not changing arms without a proper cross? Or just running wide cos you're leaving as he goes round? Anyway lovely work. I'm still trying to persuade mine to do distance handling and she's over 6yo now.

I think they had a toaster on the living room that could be set up to toast a face. A good one for religious objects I imagine. But I reckon you could send away for any black and white silhouette you wanted. http://www.burntimpressions.com/

fetch a matching pair of shoes. Fetch the named object... find the thing under the towel remote drop and sit and then from one to the other eg sit, drop, stand, sit, stand, spin, twist, drop, roll over, stand, drop, and I don't have "bow" yet but I'd like it... I've been trying to capture an ear flick too. She's not entirely sure but in certain contexts she will try it on. "paddle" - as in pump your front feet - is one I've managed to capture - or rather every person at the park with a treat has captured it, while I was trying to train zero paw movement - I missed a great party trick opportunity. Targetting with nose, then each foot, then use that to get stretches... still working on this one too. Back up is very handy in many circumstances. and SG has a couple of lists. http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/02/idea-list-for-shaping/ or do a search for "shaping" on her blog.