Sheilaheel02

Congratulations Wuffles! A fantastic result for such a young dog. Happy Belated Birthday Ava.

Great stuff Toshman. If I had the time and energy I have a little dog that would LOVE this sport. He has only been here for two weeks and I reckon he knows where every rabbit hole is already. I haven't let him investigate too much because of the snake risk and because I have no desire to have to grab a shovel and dig him out of it (he's pretty small). Shaz

WOW! Awesome result DSO. You must be very proud of Jess . S

Thanks AP, Lena was almost called Vera instead, but my Aunt Vera and my Mum weren't terribly impressed with that idea. The JRT is named "Lucky" and I'm really tempted to call him "Larry", which would suit him, but probably won't end up changing it given he was my Uncle's dog. (BTW, I may PM you for some advice on training a Terrier!!!) Ness, since throwing full bottles of champagne is probably a serious breach of OH&S guidelines, I think your suggestion of appropriate reinforcement has real merit!

Hey Barb! Not so much sucks as embarrassing! I've really let this poor dog down due to various circumstances. He has never had the time and focus that Sheila and Trevor enjoyed....so much wasted potential. I've wanted to quit, but I'm pretty stubborn ;) I doubt I'll venture into Rally O. I haven't got time to do another discipline and I really need to work on my horses more as well (even more wasted potential). Then I've got my new pup, Lena and I've just inherited a JRT of all things. Good on you for getting all the way up to SPDM. We are having a break from that class for a bit to focus on other stuff, but my partner and I might spend some time training the "Watch" and "Go" commands for each other, the dogs seem to know what they're doing!

Thanks Wuffles, Jude and I ended up having a fab SPDX run after I forgot to watch her first sequence (focussing on my dog not going to his buddy) and she forgot to call "Go!" when she finished it. I saw some of your run and Ava still looked like she was having a blast. MM got a pass in Novice at Cooma on the Saturday, so I guess I will have to perservere with obedience for a bit longer. ;)

Great work CleoJ. No luck for us on Sunday at Cooma. The SFE knocked us out of contention again! Mick moved his feet as I returned. We got our SPDX last Tuesday night and first place at the ribbon trial and while it would have been nice to finish his CD this weekend as well, overall, I'm very happy with my wild boy at the moment. S

Suzanne Clotheir IS amazing

Gosh Nic, how awful. I'm glad Bella is doing OK. I've been on a mission lately to plant some good shade trees in the garden and wanted to find varieties which were not known to be poisonous to dogs and horses. After much googling, it has proven quite a challenge. Of course many of them would need to be consumed in large quantities to be toxic, but you'd be shocked at how many trees/shrubs etc are potentially problematic. Prunus (most of the fruit trees - and possibly even those which are ornamental or flowering) were on most of the lists I looked at. Shaz

Gulp (swallows hard due to large lump in throat), a little too close to home at the moment. My beloved Uncle passed away on Rememberance Day and his little JRT who was his constant and devoted companion has come to live with me. Dick and "Lucky" were devoted to each other and I know the little dog is missing his owner terribly, but he's doing OK at the moment. It's probably a good distraction that he has to try to keep up with the 'big dogs' at home. S P.S. KTB, you'd better not laugh out loud if you see me coming along with three and a half dogs!!!

Oh Daveri, wait till one of your dogs finds Wombat crap!!!! Mick rolled in it and I swear it's the Aussie equivalent of Skunk Bloody hell, more I tried to wash it out the stronger the stink got. I was seriously considering washing the offending dog in tomato juice in desperation.

Sheila ate pretty much everything: Sticks, stones (in fact she would duck dive for them on the bottom of the river) numerous plants in the backyard, the head off a off a terracotta duck ornament, the knob off a desk door, hundreds (I swear!) of dog beds, renovated the front of her kennel many times but the worst thing which almost killed her was half a tennis ball which required surgical removal. I'm sure the Vet was amazed she actually survived. Trevor's worst offence was swallowing one of those rabbit fur squeaky rats ....whole! I tried to get it out of him, the vet tried to get it out and while we were in the vet contemplating another surgery a little Pom came in with suspected rat poisoning. I can't recall what it was but they put a tablet in his eye to make him vomit. So, I suggested it might be worth a try with Trev since I fed him just before he ate the rat. At this stage I reckon the vet was thinking I imagined him swallowing it and he handn't scoffed it at all, but she agreed. She gave him the tablet and left us with a cat litter tray to catch whatever came out. Well, what came out was the RAT, whole, complete with fur, ears and eyes followed by the recent dinner. Just when I may have some chance of convincing the vet I wasn't a total nutter, I did a happy dance around the surgery holding it up saying "It's a rat, it's a rat, we have a rat!!!" LOL Mick eats the usual poo, horse, bird etc but apart from ripping the guts out of and chewing up toys, we haven't had any major dramas so far....touch wood. For whatever reason he doesn't eat his bed either which is good. Lena so far has chewed the wires off the treadmill, my shoes, my socks, my undies, the bottom of my leather lounge and she has a fetish for tissues. She eats horse and bird poo as well which is bad enough, but the one thing that makes me gag is if she retrieves a kitty cat crunchy from the cat litter tray and brings it into the kitchen to eat. Fortunately, I have been having some success with stopping the last one.

I tend to stick to roads or paths when riding horses or walking dogs wherever possible during summer. If I'm out of my yard, the dogs are generally on lead. I lost my beautiful Appaloosa mare to snakebite and while I know I can't prevent everything, I'd rather take whatever precautions I can. I was walking back up my gravel driveway with a horse in each hand about a fortnight ago, so we would have been making a fair bit of noise and vibration I would have thought. However, my smaller horse (about 14.3hh) startled and as he pulled back I could see a big brown just lying there on the drive! It was basically the same colour as the gravel and was hard to see until it moved. It scared the bejesus out of me and all three of us backed up in a hurry, but it didn't seem to be particularly worried, it took a minute or two before it decided to move on. I think we were pretty lucky that for whatever reason it didn't strike - it was certainly within range. I have really short (and I mean I scalp it on purpose) grass in my house yard but my puppy disturbed something this morning which looked like a small brown, but by the time I recalled all the dogs back into the house and went to have another look I couldn't find it. All three dogs had been running around earlier in the area and the two foster dogs then spent another 40 odd minutes chasing balls and screaming up and down the place. I've got those repellers all around the edge of the yard, but I honestly don't know if they work or not. I know I've had less snakes close to the house than in previous years though.

First I have to live that long........I seem to be wearing out my body rather quickly. I am drawn to high drive ACD's and ASTCD's and will always love them. However, after one trip to the pound saw me leaving with a particularly adorable Aussie Terrier I fell in love. I'd love to own a blue and tan of my own one day. I could have kept 'Kenny' in a heartbeat but a fantastic home came up for him, so I let him go. S

I know of a Pug called Barry! I laughed my head off when I first heard it. Dogs don't care what you call them. They largely go by the tone of your voice at any rate I think and the sound of the whole word. LOL Barry! How awful! I'm still laughing! I LOVE Barry as a name! But I would probably end up calling the dog Bazza.....hmm, Bazza and Shazza works for me. One of our recent fosters (RIP due to tumour) was named Dave Buzzard The Rockstar aka Buzz for short. Dave Buzzard is a ficticious character of course, but we had another one named Stanley or Stan the Man (after Paul Stanley from KISS). We had a Jovi too and a couple of others that I can't recall just at the moment. It's only fair we explored other musical genre's given we had Kenny, Tammy and Reba One of the most handsome and lovely red ACD's I ever fostered I named Cecil (Cec) and his adoptive owners kept his name because it suited him perfectly. My own dogs were/are Sheila (Sheil), Trevor (Trev), Mick and Lena. S

RnB, I was told that based on anti-discrimination laws, certain Govt and Council run pounds are not allowed to refuse a dog which has been deemed rehomable to any member of the public wishing to purchase it. So, if I wanted to go in next week and buy several dogs to treat however I wanted and to use for whatever unethical purpose I chose, but told the unsuspecting staff at the counter that they would be kept as my loved pets only, there is little they could do. The only exception might be if they were aware of or had proof that I had been charged with animal cruelty or similar previously. Just one real-life example without going into too much detail on a public forum, and because the full details make me feel physically ill: I rang the local pound and basically begged them not to sell yet another poor dog to a particular individual who was not fit to own any animal and was at times a threat to other human beings, but was told they did not have the power decline the purchase. Other dogs owned by this person had ended up in the same pound and were in such a physically and mentally distressed state they were not allowed to be rescued or on-sold. I was looking into other possible alternatives to keep these dogs out of a very bad situation, but ended up having to shelve those efforts while I focussed on legal options for protecting my own personal safety. S

The Army has travelled from Sydney previously to test local dogs including DAS and Queanbeyan Pound and taken dogs back with them for induction into the training program. The soldiers who visited two of my foster dogs here were consumate professionals, but it was also clearly evident that they were genuine dog lovers. They thought that both dogs I put forward were brilliant candidates, however, neither of the dogs passed the firearms test. While I know that not all members of our group supported my decision at the time, if both or either dog had passed I was comfortable for them to go off and be trained to do this critically important work. These dogs work side by side with their handlers in the field and I'm sure that while their jobs are not without great risk, and at the request of their country, neither of them would ever knowingly put each other in harms way. One of my former foster dogs, Frosty, would have easily passed all the Army testing, however, she was adopted just prior to them meeting her by a non-military professional dog trainer. She is now a trained domestic explosives and narcotics detection dog along with another of my foster dogs from DAS. Yet another ACDR dog has been trained initially by this company and went on to be a Cane Toad detector dog on Groote Eylandt for the Council there. His name is Rusty, he came from Hawkesbury Pound intially and he also features in a documentary about dogs with extraordinary jobs. Two of these dogs came from domestic pet homes and ended up in the pound system. Frosty was on her way there as her owner could not cope with her at all. I had to decline several new pet home applications for her because I knew that while they would love her they could not provide her with the stimulation and training she required. I had her in my foster care for over a year prior to her starting this training. I can also vouch for the fact that some other dogs purchased as 'pets' from pounds can and do end up in far more dangerous and desperate situations, often with sub-standard care, than the fortunate ones being taken on and trained for important tasks where they are well cared for and highly valued members of a team. PF is right, many of the high drive working dogs won't be adopted into a domestic pet home or necessarily go into foster care, so they end up spending several days in a highly stressful environment before being put to sleep anyway. I have agreed with Michael Linke on a range of other subjects in the past, however, I have to respectfully say that I think on this issue he has gotten it drastically wrong! RIP Sergeant Todd Langley and RIP Lucky and thank you for your pride and courage. S

http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/artic...602265&vId= Man charged over fatal dog stabbing Updated: 11:20, Sunday April 17, 2011 A man's been charged over the stabbing death of a cattle dog in southwest Sydney. Police were called to a house at Eschol Park about 3.30 yesterday afternoon following reports of a domestic dispute. They found a red cattle dog dead in the back yard. A 38-year-old man's been charged with torturing beating and killing an animal and animal cruelty. In an unrelated incident a dog was fatally stabbed 11 times at Merrylands in Sydney's west on Thursday. Disgusting excuse for a man, you gutless b*stard

OMG people make me sick RIP baby..... S

Scubadog30, George is based in Adelaide but travels interstate regularly. If you'd like to speak to him directly, PM me and I will send you his mobile number. S

The website may not impress some, but I've had personal experience in dealing with George from Sit, Drop, Stay and I was impressed with his professionalism, knowledge and skill. I have no experience with Mark but obviously others have. S

Same here Kavik. If mine have worked particularly well and consumed a lot of treats or a jackpot, their evening meal might be adjusted accordingly. They always get a 4 x 2 for breakfast regardless. If I had a different type of dog, I may consider other approaches, but currently lack of drive is not an issue. S

If he knew he was standing in the water of a Croc infested creek fishing and he had with his dog nearby, the guy is a complete tool. S

Hey Raineth, I think my (mostly) ASTCD must be broken! Can you tell me where I can locate the 'laid back' button please? Must be the tail stuck on the back..it's the crank shaft for a lunatic. I love both the ACD and and the ASTCD. S

People for the Early Termination of Animals