whiskedaway

Akira ate a fly catcher. The ones with the smelly chemical in them that attracts flies. Turns out it also attracts dogs.

Not sure how much post-processing you've done, but I'd love to see the levels of the whites brought up a little to make them pop more. Love the shot though!

With lappies, many of us hold their tails up in the stack because there are judges that think they're supposed to be up in the stack like a Samoyed - our standard says it can be down, but must be up on the move.

I was waiting for someone to come and suggest Lappies! I was tempted, but seeing as I don't have one, I would wait for someone who does. As Corvus said, grooming with lappies really does depend on the dog - my female doesn't need much grooming at all, she's due a brush tonight and this will be her first brush in three weeks. I think if you don't want much grooming, you'd want to go with a female over a male because their coats don't tend to be as big. And they really do stand up to rough play - I just witnessed my Sibe (who might as well be 40kg because of how roughly she plays) completely bowl my 13kg lappie over and the lappie jumped up to play some more.

Me too Same here!

Halo and Akira having a snuggle in the car when Halo was only 10 weeks old

I think getting younger people involved is hard because when you're young you normally don't want to get up at the crack of dawn on a weekend, you're busy studying/starting a career and as a result have better things to spend time/money on and unless you know someone who shows, you often don't know you can do it. For me, biggest factor is cost. I've been on the receiving end of horribly nasty comments (said behind my back, not sure if I was meant to overhear it but I did) and as a result I pulled my dog from the ring for a month to let her mature. However my breed is rare, those people wouldn't know what makes a good lappie if they fell over it and so I didn't let it put me off. I am looking forward to getting back in the ring (we've just had another month off due to our wedding) and spending some time at shows.

This is exactly us with Akira. She's from a BYB, her parents are papered, and I love her to death, but like you we'll never buy from anyone but a registered ethical breeder too. Akira was the last one left in the litter, the breeder wanted to keep her (because she's the spitting image of her mum) but his wife said no. So she came to us. Halo we picked with a lot of help from her breeder, we were after a show dog so after the breeder made her pick we chose from the remaining girls. We were lucky to meet the litter when they were five weeks old and based on personalities it was always going to be either Halo or Ruby, who the breeder kept. Halo was the first to escape the whelping box and the naughtiest, and we knew that, but it worked well for us because we already had a Sibe so Halo has been a piece of cake in comparison! I doubt we would have been able to have her if we weren't fairly experienced with dominant dogs though. If we ever have a litter, I will probably pick for my puppy buyers, but it will be in consultation with them to make sure they're happy with the arrangement too.

My OH was like that too. When Kez destroyed his car, that's when he decided that she was bored and should have a friend. So I got my way and got Hales, and it's worked out perfectly - OH thinks that getting her was the best thing we did and now we'll always have two dogs.

Love the snake killers, Christina! Here's my pack. Akira (Siberian Husky) and Halo (Finnish Lapphund) And a crappy iPhone photo of Halo sitting in her favourite spot on top of the crate with Akira sitting nicely beside her.

A Siberian Husky and a Finnish Lapphund.

We ended up buying secondhand, but if we'd gone new we would have gone with Crusing Canines - they answered questions so promptly, it was great.

Thanks for all your help guys. They have approached one of the breeders who was recommended to me and are getting a girl from their litter that was born two days ago.

Just updating a little. Nothing major, but I'm quite proud of both my girls. Akira's LLW has significantly improved this year - just walking she still pulls a fair bit, but we're probably at 40% LLW all the time now. At obedience, we're at 90% LLW which is fantastic and she only really pulls when she's not concentrating. We've worked out how to motivate her now and she's concentrating stacks better. She's also realised that I'm fun (and normally have food) so she has stopped running off during stays, and is allowed to train offlead at agility now. Halo has started obedience - her stand isn't solid but she has heaps of fun with obedience so I thought I'd get her started. However I am most proud of her fantastic recall - she could be playing with another dog fifty metres away and if I call her she will come. She's definitely proving already that she has the drive and willingness to please that is really useful for training. Updating this. I'm feeling like I haven't achieved much this year, but we've been absolutely flat out. Akira - LLW is still questionable, but we're feeling a lot more in control now. For example, while Akira walks on a tight lead, she's not yanking our arms off anymore. - Akira got to grade 2 in obedience, and I doubt she'll get any further this year. We haven't really gone to an obedience class with her since July due to commitments with showing and our wedding. It's not something she likes anyway so I'm not too bothered about it and we've been concentrating on other things. - Akira's concentration is a LOT better. Some days she switches off and I know there's no point doing anything, but others she's an absolute angel. And as a result her recall is a lot better too. - Akira is starting to really understand agility, and I'm hoping to have our first trial in jumping next year. She's been getting some fantastic comments from our instructors. - We haven't started flyball yet as we have to be in grade 3 obedience to do so, but we're hoping to start next year. - Akira also had the chance to do some sledding earlier in the year which she loved, so we'll be going out to do that next year. Halo - Halo is becoming a great obedience dog. She now trains at a new club where she's in grade 2. She's unfortunately had a month's break from obedience due to being in season/injury, and if we were told if we'd attended more classes last month she would have been moved up to grade 3. Her big downfall at the moment is her down stays, though, which is something we're working hard on. - Halo has started doing puppy foundation agility classes. She takes her time and does things slowly, so it's very different training her to training Akira. - Halo's confirmation training is going well, she's got a really good stand now and she did quite well at Adelaide Royal. Me - Not sure if I'm really a better handler (I watched the Adelaide Royal video the other day and cringed) but I'm having fun!

Entire females do mark - some constantly. One of mine has to cock her leg on every spot in the yard where the males have, and on power pole... And subsequently frequently pees on her trousers/feathering. So very similar to a male. Either gender if desexed will be less prone to this though. My desexed female marks on walks, though she doesn't cock her leg. She's a very dominant girl so I expect that's why. My entire bitch does not, but she is most definitely way down at the bottom of the pack.

That would be fantastic, actually, because then I can track back to the current litters available. They're getting a cocker no matter what, they could never pick a different breed of dog (though I did try to convince them to get a lappie!) So articles like that won't turn them off cockers, but it does mean that we need to be aware of which lines have great temperaments and go with that.

Oh no. C'mon Earl, hang in there buddy!

Thanks guys. LOL Cockerlover, this will be their fourth Cocker so I think they really are addicted. They have already gotten in contact with their old girl's breeder but unfortunately their bitch had a phantom. Hence why they asked if I could help find someone. Will pass on what health tests need to be done and all your info - unfortunately meeting the parents might be hard as there don't appear to be any litters in SA at the moment, hence why we're relying on word of mouth a little.

We're using them in two weeks for our Sibe and Lappie based on a lot of recommendations. They've been lovely to talk to so far.

Hey guys, my Aunty and Uncle are wanting to get another Cocker Spaniel after they lost their old dog Juliet at the start of the year. They've asked for some help to find a breeder, but as I don't know much about Cockers I don't really know what health tests to be making sure the breeder does. Also is there anything to be looking out for in terms of being ripped off in regards to "rare" colours, etc. Also any breeder recommendations would be appreciated. They're in SA, but are happy to go interstate. Perhaps PM for that though. Thanks in advance!

Oooh, we might be able to do the 30th, we'll be home from our honeymoon.

We didn't receive a sash for RBCC at Adelaide royal this year? All we got was a felt ribbon for 2nd in open bitch (bcc came from open as well). hmmm - think you should have.... Was pretty sure the RCCs all got sashes. We were on the first day. Happy to be wrong. Nope, we didn't get a sash for RBCC either, we were on the last day. I was very jealous of the beautiful RCC sashes at Melbourne!

Completely agree with this. My girl got loose earlier in the year - she thought it was a grand old game of "keeping offs" and wouldn't go to anyone. As soon as she tired of the game, she went straight up to an old man, looking all sad with "help me, I'm lost" eyes. One way I've been taught about getting her to come back when she's decided she's free is to crouch right down and call her. She doesn't feel like I'm a threat then (or maybe she just thinks the game is over) and I'm sure this would work for many dogs that are loose.

I downloaded it less than a month ago, but don't have the file anymore on my work computer. I can see if I have it at home tonight.

Well I must say, I find your comment about "beauty contests" extremely rude. And yes, my bridal shower and it clashed. I do have bridesmaids who are also busy, and unfortunately this was the only weekend we all had free. The date for the bridal shower has been set for months (as they need to be) but we were only told the mock trial date a few weeks ago.