Podengo

I love my Canon 550D - and I practically never took photos before I got it! I purchased it so I could take photos of Elsie while she was a baby! I am happy with the image quality, and feel I won't need to upgrade the body for a long time... Just need to buy new lenses now and then :p I'm still pretty much a total beginner photographer, but I love the images it can spit out! Slight picture overload below :) Waterfall pic Puppy pic Racing photo Snow photo Another snow photo

Apparently we're going to get up to 20cm of snow down to sea level on Thurs/Fri this week! The sled dog club have said we will still have training on Sunday, and they will bring a bunch of sleds out for everyone to play with

I have been trying to figure out a way to order some ready jumps.... But it's way too expensive - damn shipping!!

How cute! I was thinking this would be a jack russell! In that second picture he could resemble a jack russell x perhaps, though a tad bigger! :laugh: Hope he finds a great home soon.

The Doberman health section needs some serious work - "Dobermans are a generally healthy breed" :laugh:

We've taught play dead this week, she suffers a very dramatic death, but the thumping tail gives it away :laugh:

I know of one dog-napping incident in my city recently, a dog was taken from a rural property... Owners put up hefty reward and a week later someone called up and said their friend had given him this dog, and he would like the reward for it. They were happy to pay, so the finder arranged for them to go to his other friends house and meet some other person there and pay for it... All very dodgy...

I think Elsie might order a new handler too, she would've had her RN title ages ago were it not for my complete inability to read the signs properly!!!

I love the picture you posted up there BTW Ptolomy! ^ Hmm... In this order... 1) Tracking & Working Trials :p 2) Agility 3) Obedience 4) Rally

Yay finally have some brags to add! :) Last weekend Elsie got her first 1st place in obedience, a 2nd in rally (which would have been a first if I had read the sign properly!!) and her first clear round in agility! This weekend she got another 1st in obedience, AND a 1st in agility! YAY Elsie - love my talented little dog :D

Agree... Elsie marks a LOT while we're walking, but is not really a sniffy dog, she'll sniff lamp posts and that's about it. On the track however she is a machine, keeps her head down and works the track really nicely, and has NEVER marked while tracking.

:/ I think when they say "bully" they mean "bullfrog"

That kennel link just posted reminds me of this photo... American mess :laugh:

I own birds, a dog, a cat and a rabbit... Taking part now :D

I am not a member of an obedience club anymore, nor do I see any private trainers. I cannot find a club or trainer that trains competitive obedience in a manner that suits me or my dog, so I just train by myself. I will take online classes on occasion, and have competitive obedience friends overseas that I send my training videos to. Agility is more difficult, because of the gear required... I have to train at a club because I do not have the room for even 1 jump at my house. The club I train at is very close to my home (30 minutes walk), has all of the gear that I need and the people are all lovely. It's a very relaxed club, and you can kind of just do what you want with training, no one will berate you for your choices as long as you and your dog are being safe. I am considering going to a second club, or to a private trainer though, just for some handling lessons. I don't feel like I am getting enough 1 on 1 time at my club, which is understandable as you can't expect too much of that in a class environment... But I am really not doing Elsie any justice and she is a lot of dog for a newbie handler! :) As for other clubs, I just join whichever one is for my region, we don't have multiple working trial, sledding or coursing clubs here. Those clubs are very small and tend to avoid the club politics that OB/agility can't escape ;)

I have been slack with tracking training lately - there hasn't been much to work towards and obedience/agility took precedence! We will have our first working trial in November though, with a UD-level track, so we should really get to work on fine-tuning our tracking. Any ideas for upping accuracy in our tracks? I am confident that Elsie can get around a UD track, but will lose marks for a bit of casting and for going wide on corners. I want to aim for high in trial! Short grass? Long grass? Lots of food? Track into the wind? Long straights? Lots of corners? Help meeee!

Awesome!!! Huge congrats!! How was your final track? :D

Her one is apparently VERY laid back in the house - just sleeps all day, but she does get lots of exercise :) If you're in CHCH I think CaseyKay will be at the agility this weekend, at the RDA building. There are quite a few American line ones doing agility too, I think there are 3 entered this weekend.

There is a forum member with a French Brittany in Chrsitchurch, you can find her on the Brittany thread... CaseyKay is her username I think. She is very helpful and friendly :) Her Brittany is VERY bouncy and full of beans, an awesome little hunting and working dog, friendly, good with other dogs, not too much coat either.

I'm not sure if tracking works differently in Australia, but in NZ the only stranger involvement in tracking is the judge and track layer following along behind to make sure she is tracking ok (and it's way further away than what an obedience or rally judge is). Of course they follow a strangers scent too, but there is no need for a stranger to get within 5 metres of your dog at a tracking trial here...

Yup my regular vet is a sport vet, her special area of interest is lameness :)

Interesting - I wish I could try a small tub of it LOL. Did you buy yours from Clean Run or is there an Australian stockist? I don't think the fat content should bother Elsie too much...

I actually thought it was her patellas (being a Jack Russell x I was highly aware of the potential risk) and had her checked out for luxating patella, thank god it's not. The symptoms are what I thought luxating patella would look like, she would extend a rear leg, stretch it lots, hold it on a funny angle, then hold it up... It goes away after about 5 minutes. Both times it has occurred when she has just got out of her crate in the morning too.

No she hasn't - I'll ask about that when we visit the vets next. I try to get her to share some sugary fruit with me at shows but she usually just chews it up and spits it out! We have not seen a Chiro yet, but there is one at the show this weekend so I will go and have a chat to her and see what she thinks, thanks :) Oh and anyone have thoughts on something like this? K9 Super Fuel

Anyone supplement their dogs with magnesium? Elsie on occasion gets what appears to be muscle cramps, she has gone to the vets for it, but there isn't anything they can do... Especially since the cramps vanish by the time I get her in the car to go! She doesn't seem to be in a huge amount of pain, she will stretch a lot, be a little bit shaky and more cuddly than normal... But as usual if you try to cuddle or talk to her too much she will run off and bring you a toy. I know people supplement with magnesium for muscle cramps, and those 'cramp stop' sprays that they have for runners and cyclists etc have magnesium (among other things) in them, so wondering if it's something that could help out in Elsie's case? Both times she has had cramps has been 2 days after vigorous exercise, one time was a very long forest hike, and the other was 3 days of agility and obedience. I find this to be an interesting read on the topic: Agility Dogs Fitness: Magnesium FWIW, she is raw fed... Gets mostly rabbit, beef and chicken. We feed prey model raw, she gets organs and bones. She gets fish on occasion.