whiskedaway

The carpet becomes the colours, so they learn to put all four paws on the colour. They're actually using mousemats now because they've run out of carpet, so I'm sure shaping a different target would be fine with them. Have tried luring her to it (hence why I can get her to do it if I touch it because she thinks I've got a treat) but she just doesn't seem to be making the connection that I am clicking for her being near/on the carpet when I'm shaping it. She's just not connecting the dots at all and hasn't been for months. She's a typical Sibe and has her "I don't know why you want me to do that so I won't do that" moments. I just can't work out how to show her WHY I need her to do that.

Argh I am going to tear my hair out, Akira is driving me INSANE. One of the foundation exercises is a touch, which needs to be used after the see-saw, A-frame and dog walk. We use a carpet to teach it and they have to go and find the carpet and lie down on it when they're told "touch". They can't graduate until they can do it. Somehow we managed to get out of puppy class without being able to do it (no clue how) but we're not going to be allowed to go to pre-triallers until she can do it. We work on it for five minutes every day (any more and she gets bored) and have been since the start of the year and she still doesn't get it. Halo on the other hand has been doing it for a week, and already knows if I throw the carpet down and say touch, she has to run over to it (though she jumps up and down on the carpet cos she gets excited). Akira looks at the carpet like "what do you want me to do that for?" and ignores it. The only way I can get her to do it is if I touch the carpet myself. I've tried shaping it and she just doesn't get it or want to do it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to teach it? They've decided we're not allowed to do 2o2o because they want everyone to do it the same way.

My sister bought me some and they're horrible IMO.

I'm awful at telling what's in a cross breed as it is. I'm pretty confident I would have gotten at least 90% of the purebreds though.

The best food is always the one your dog does best on.

Yes I did see that, so am guessing to do that I need to register him with VCA or similar... Anybody know do I need papers to do this Give your breeder a call and find out if there are papers on the way (they should be giving you papers if they're a registered breeder). Otherwise the only way to put them on the VCA is as an associate, and they need to be desexed for that.

I'm so sorry Jules.

Haven't received mine yet (though I'm not going anymore anyway).

Yep agreed. A lappie would suit, and probably a keeshond, samoyed, Jap spitz as well. 15 minute brush per day is ample (my show lappie doesn't get that much grooming a day!)

Depends on the club. For example, I train Halo at two different clubs, and grade 1 at club 1 is the same as grade 2 at club 2. This is because club 1 have a learners level between Puppy and Grade 1. However, by the time dogs have reached grade 4 in both clubs, they're back to the same point again, and grade 5 is trialling.

Is she a miniature husky? Ava is about 50cm so definitely a 500 dog. I think Elbie is a similar height. My measuring has always put her in standard. A group 6 judge said to me the other day that she was sorry, but she was a little bit shorter. She's only a little girl.

Akira's a 500 dog, but only just. 1cm shorter and she'd be 400. Our instructor reckons it'll all depend on how the person who measures her reads the stick when she gets her height card.

Lovely photos! Love it how Mala seems to always be touching Astrid when sleeping.

People like this shouldn't own dogs, especially NOT Huskies. And agreed, five foot fences are not tall enough.

I don't agree with it either. Our obedience club make you get to grade 3 before giving the certificate, despite the fact that the things they need to do on the certificate are things they learn in grade 1. The other club that only Halo goes to give it after completing grade 1, so Halo gets a discount on her rego whereas Akira (who is in a higher grade) does not. Just seems a bit silly.

Just knowing my Sibe... it wouldn't be pretty and I'd have an awfully hard time controlling her!

Can anyone recommend a good dog photographer in Adelaide that would be happy doing some wedding shots of us and our dogs a few weeks after our wedding? Not sure if our wedding photographer will be willing to come out again.

Halo is a massive whinger, I love talkative dogs (not barking, talking, like the woo-woos Akira does) but she's normally fairly quiet except for the whinging. Drives me bonkers sometimes! Now that she's in season, she has stopped whinging as much and instead just puts her head on her paws and looks sad. I'm not sure which I prefer because I feel sorry for her!

Oh gosh, that's NOTHING compared to what Akira does. Have been told in the past that she'll get some amazing times one day if she would just stay in her OWN arena.

Apparently the child care centre she went to is raising money for the family. Just heard it on the radio.

She emailed me back and said she was fine to make them shorter for me. Am getting a purple and black one for Akira, if Halo wants to tug too (though she's not normally a tugger) I'll get her one later as well.

I'm leaning towards no. Like Aziah said, our dogs are a herding breed, so fit into the group they're already in. Also, being a rare breed, we already get compared to other Spitz breeds for all sorts of things that aren't actually required in our breed (for example, one that is debated quite often, tails being up in the stack) and I think that would happen even more if they were all in the same group. However if I ever get a show Sibe, it'd be very nice to have lappies and sibes in the same group and not worrying about clashing!

Thanks. Have emailed them, hopefully they'll be able to make one that's about 1m.

All of the medium sized breeds you've listed are out in full force at my club. I often feel out of place (I have a Sibe and a lappie) and they're both the only ones of their breeds out at agility training. That said, my Sibe is doing extremely well at agility, but they're definitely not a breed that someone wanting a dog to do agility would buy!

Do you know what the difference between standard and small is? Is it the thickness of the leads? 1.4m is way too long.