koalathebear

Pepper Mars The Bromance of Kuma & Satch Ava wants to join the cool kids Pretty Ava Hoover Shiny Happy Elbie with tongue dangling out Mars and Elbie have their own Bromance

Max and Daisy continue to be delightful. I am intrigued about what Daisy will look like when she's fully grown. I wonder if she will be Petite Pepper-sized So here are some photos from the Doggy Play Date at the Casey Dog Park in Canberra this morning. Elbie, who in the sunlight looks like burnished steel Long-legged Hoover Blurry Hoover running like the wind Dogs in action

My two dogs (Kelpies) tend to gobble chicken necks or wings and I had difficulty getting a regular, reliable, good quality supply of lamb flaps so I've switched to buying turkey wings from the supermarket. These are perfect for my two - they get turkey wings at least once a week and they LOVE them. It means that their teeth are beautiful and white. Every time I see anything vaguely brownish on a tooth, they get turkey wings and then they have lovely white teeth again We supervise their eating and they crunch away most diligently. I was incredibly happy to find something that they liked that was suitable and easy to buy.

We used to have a LOT of toy carnage but Tuffies have been great for our two. They've only ever managed to tear a hole in one and that was ages ago. Since then, we haven't had a single casualty: The dogs play tug with them, chew on them and they're fine. The array above is the same one we've had for months without any damage. The dogs never seem to get sick of them and will play alone or together. We also have the dog brick and the dogs enjoy it, but we don't bring it out that often

Thank you for your feedback. dasha: I am really sorry I posted. I've deleted all of my posts so hopefully the comments will return to your original topic. I hope you get all the answers you sought to your tug question!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I've always been a bit puzzled, too. I wouldn't say tug is a better reward than food - I like to mix things up with our two. A bit of tug, a bit of food. He loves balls as well. It makes life more interesting. Elbie is crazy about food. He LOVES the tug and will do things for tug but as soon as there's food, he doesn't care about the tug or a ball. I find the tug is quite nice to help focus before class and get his attention but I don't really use it at agility because it's too clunky to try to run around with a tug in my hand or my pocket. I never needed to throw the tug or a ball over anything because he's the sort of dog that will do what you want when he figures out what you want him to do so he'll jump/go through tunnels etc without anything being tossed. Also for him, agility is self-rewarding so when there's a full course he doesn't actually need any food. Last night at training, I was told I rewarded Elbie too late after he finished a run but to be honest, he didn't need it, I just gave it to him as an afterthought.

Sorry to hear about Mindy :'( Kelpie kisses and hugs from us. Take care of yourself.

I don't know how people do multiple disciplines with multiple dogs - I'm impressed. I just do obedience recreationally and as you know, OH takes one dog and I take the other so that's all right, but for agility it is sometimes extremely difficult to get out of work early on the Wednesday. My hours in my current job are far more reasonable than they used to be (I used to work very, very long hours) but it's still tough to get out early for agility. Now that I want Hoover to also do agility, that's going to be a challenge. Fortunately, it turns out that Elbie's class is going to start at 6.15 like usual and beginners will be at 7pm on the same night so I'll switch dogs and classes partway through the night. Finding time to do private training is very hard because as you know, I don't like to run the dogs offlead in an unfenced oval so that means trekking to the club to use their grounds which I can't do that often. Our yard isn't large enough to have full agility equipment. I really wish I could have access to agility training equipment more regularly or that my own yard was suitable. I try to do groceries during the week at lunch time to save time on the weekends but then on weekends there's the whole dilemma of relax, do chores or do dogly things? :D I really don't have enough time to do everything I'd like to do.

OH had to go to the office for a few hours today. Elbie waited by the door for ages.

We were told about these cool tug leashes that are perfect for agility. So a few of us chipped in together to have leashes shipped from the US Elbie got "Bandanna Picnic" because red is his colour and Hoover got "What a Hoot" because orange is his colour. They look unimpressed but they seem to be pretty happy with them - it certainly makes going for a walk quite simple in the morning.

I don't think it's that odd. Quite possibly it's someone who has his heart set on getting that particular type of pug cross, doesn't want to get a BYB or a pet store one (which would be easy enough) but wants to try to do the right thing and thinks that registered/reputable breeders (although they do not themselves breed crossbreeds), may be able to point him in the right direction. For instance, I remember a post a while back about someone whose friend wanted an Australian Bulldog. As I understand it, Australian Bulldogs aren't a recognised breed yet but there was a well-regarded breeder on DOL who said something along the lines of: "If your friend still determined to get an Australian Bulldog, then PM me because I will give you the names of some breeders who health test/don't puppy farm" etc. Presumably, even among DD 'breeders', there must be some that are probably more conscientious/ethical than others? I don't own a DD myself but I know of people with Spaniel/Poodle crosses who obtained their dogs from breeders who health test, provide a guarantee and raise the pups in their own homes etc. Of course, people really shouldn't be emailing breeders asking about crossbreeds but part of me can sort of understand what the person thought he was doing.

You've seen our car! It's newish as well so we can't upgrade to a larger one just because of the dogs

Definitely no one of the handyman frame of mind in my family. Also, I am wondering how I am going to fit the weave poles, the jumps, the tunnel, the chute and the tyre in the car as well as the two dogs when I go to train

Thanks Kavik. I guess I'll hold off on that for now as I suspect that your gorgeous seesaw was special for a fellow-competitor :D I've just bought the TopBuy tunnel, chute, jumps and tyre. I know they're not the best quality - but since we're still just starting out they should be fine. It's hard work trying to find the training time though - I can't set up much equipment in our backyard because it's on a hill, nor at our local oval because it's near a main road and I'm paranoid about Elbie offlead so close to a main road. I'll have to lug the equipment to the dog club out of hours. I really didn't mean for dogly stuff to take over my life like this

I was going to ask you where you bought your see saw

I suppose there is overseas precedent :p They're already a restricted breed in Ontario, Canada. Under the Dog Owners' Liability Act, SBTs are classified as pit bulls - fortunately owners don't have to euthanise them, but they are subject to restrictions.

Slow progress with the bang game. Elbie's banging away madly on the plank of wood on top of a pipe that is on the ground but he skitters away from it. It has taken me days and he still keeps running to the side of it - he hates the wonky instability of it. Tonight I managed to get him to walk up it halfway and then go into a drop but it's going to be a long time before I can get him to run along the length of it. Did anyone else's dog take a long time to master see-saw? He desperately wants to do it but he just can't overcome his dislike of a wobbley plank ...

Hi Your dog is old enough to do agility. Generally you just have to pass certain 'tests' to see if your dog is suitable. These vary per club but can include: - dog can't be overweight - dog needs to be able to jump - dog needs to be able to be in close proximity to other dogs without freaking out/becoming aggressive - in our test we had several dogs sitting next to each other inside a small circle while another dog worked around them - dog needs to have good recall (informal recall, not the formal recall needed for obedience) We have a Sheltie and a Japanese Spitz in our class and at one point we had a JRT/Pug which was about the size of a pug. I've also seen Frenchies doing agility. I'm not sure about other clubs, but at ours - it's definitely fine to just do agility 'for fun'. We are all taught on the basis that we are going to trial but while some people definitely want to trial, others definitely do not and then there people like me who aren't sure yet If you wanted to just train the way we're doing, it's a lot of fun for the dog and there's definitely no bitchiness. If you wanted to actually trial, I think that people would expect that you had a certain degree of commitment and that your dog was well-behaved etc I can't answer about the bitchiness thing because I haven't trialled and I don't really know the agility scene There is a lot of off-lead work which is why it's important that your dog gets on all right with other dogs and you have a degree of control. To my distress, my dog still does zoomies but I am hoping that one day he will stop :p