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BC4Me I can answer as I know they got their third pass at the BC nationals last weekend. Way to go PME and Kenz . Onto Novice you go . Can't wait to see the video.

Yep my two are both on the Rosehip Vital. $65 for a 500gm jar is very good price. All the best with Sonny.

Playing on sand especially if its soft is extremely hard on their hind end BC Crazy. Swimming would be fine though. Kenz has had soreness in through her spine because of all the issues going on with her back end. However the physio was never sure which was the cause of which. They wanted spinal x-rays but it wouldn't change the management so we didn't go ahead with them. Lots of physio/massage sees to have helped and when she had the physio out recently her back has actually improved over the last 12 months pain wise in that she couldn't find any soreness.

All you said in your original post was that a vet could rule out other things not that any of them needed urgent attention in a dog who is making improvement. Will take her to the vet later I just didn't feel it was an emergency at this point in time. She has only had a full health check about a month ago and went from being 100% fine yesterday afternoon to not in a very short period of time last night when I let her out for her final toilet stop.

Not sure that really answers the question - all I am wondering is do you wait a few days and see if things improve and if not then consider a vet trip. She seems otherwise relatively relaxed snoozing away.

Is there any benefit to taking the dog to the vet if you are pretty sure the dog is suffering this. My oldie who is 13.5 started showing potentially signs of this condition around bedtime last night. She managed to eat breakfast this morning although I offered her dry food rather than chicken necks and is otherwise snoozing. Money is tight and if it doesn't need a vet visit I would rather avoid the expense but if its necessary then obviously I would take her. She is my first oldie so not really sure and just going on what I have read online over the condition. If she worsened then I would be straight to the vet but other than she can't walk without falling over she has started being able to stand and has toileted fine this morning with me supporting her.

I should have said the dog with known stifle issues has however shown significant soreness in through her back as a comparison but agree you can never prevent everything. I suspect in my girls case knowing how many close relatives (littermates/half sisters etc) had cruciate issues at a younger age then she did that it probably helped delay the issue and don't doubt age was a factor and she probably wasn't as well muscled as she would have been in her prime.

Its interesting to read about the relationship between sore backs and cruciates. For what its worth my girl who did rupture her cruciate has never had issues with a sore back. She also had good proprioception. I don't think there was much I could have done differently to reduce the risk of her having it rupture. She was also only at the local chiro vet 2 months before she did it and had a totally clean report card. Just goes to show you can be careful and still not totally avoid the problem.

I like these coats https://www.backontrackproducts.com.au/pain-relief/195/dog-rugs/

A couple of photos of miss Kenz. She is only 453mm. She is definitely cheeky and full on though.

BCs can be variable in size and if your looking for an adult rehome as distinct from a puppy you might find one who is slightly under standard and being rehomed because they haven't made the correct size for showing. I have one who is about 12.5kg and is about a cm under the standard.

The flaps on the k9+competition model also fold up if you wish for any reason to leave the crate more open.

LOL nope it was to big for my needs although I bought Large for both my girls.

I have these ones for mine. As far as soft crates go they seem to withstand a fair bit of abuse and are still going strong 5 years later - http://www.k9softdog...ex.php?p=crates The only thing I don't really like about them is there is no flap on the front so I normally take a towel to cover the front section.

Think it depends on the dog. My young BC was in a soft crate by about that time. It depends how reactive your dog is to the environment. I think its more the case of baby steps to. If you are mostly leaving the dog in low distraction environments unsupervised and the dog is good in the crate already then a soft crate might work. I do know the first few times I left the "puppy" in a soft crate I had somebody else keeping an eye on her. I will say when I was crating her post ortho surgery I went back to a solid crate as I felt safer leaving her in that even despite the fact she was well crate trained. I like the ones which have flaps that you can close up so the dog can't see. I would think a totally open crate like the one you posted the link to might tempt the dog to break out if they can see to much of what is going on.

Agree entry level Canon or Nikon would suit the bill. I have a Canon 450d which was the entry level canon when I purchased it. Takes some good shots and does give you room to grow if you opt for settings which aren't auto.

Ptolomy having had to go through getting blood sent off to the US for the genetic research I found that yes most of the vet practices I called wanted to charge a consult fee. In the end as you know it was pulled at the specialist centre and I was charged a fee but it was nominal compared to a consult. I didn't have to organise shipping though as the researchers had already arranged that.

Yep find a decent chiro or physio and get some advice. You may still need x-rays eventually but certainly my first point of call with lameness matters.

We will just have to agree to disagree BC4ME nobody is perfect and I certainly don't think my routines are making a mockery of the sport. Maybe in my case its about getting the dog out doing what she loves which is working to the capacity she can present herself and I am still pretty tickled pink to think with as limited training as she is allowed to do she can still go out there and work herself inside and out and give me great routines and enjoy herself completely in the process. Its not about playing for sheep stations the wins in her case were a bonus and I am certainly aware that people put much more work into their routines and they don't come off any better.

BC4ME Kenz has a routine I put together in literally 3 afternoons of about 5 min practice that would score high 50s as an Intermediate routine and that was without having trained for many months prior. I doubt anybody would consider I am making a mockery of the sport. Seriously you said its not about marks but when judges give you high choreography marks you must be getting something right. We all do what works best for our dogs and if that's what works for mine then I will continue to do as I will. As I said there is wing it and there is winging it. I certainly don't ever go in expecting not to pass with flying colours in anything competition wise. For example I had fairy wings in my costume as part of my starters routine and yes I did certainly put them on in the backyard and have a practice to make sure she wasn't bothered by them and they didn't interfere with things in anyway. Did I go to the extent of putting on a full costume prior to the trial nope. Any way I am sure you might find lots more people "wing" it then you imagine and I don't think any of them are making a mockery of the sport. When you have trained dogs in a number of performance disciplines and the dog wants to work as i have said elsewhere actually training anything is fairly straight forward and dogs who are enthusiastic really don't look bad.

There is "winging it" and there is "winging it" though BC4ME. Its not like your talking about a green dog with no performance history - especially as far as Tassie is concerned. Same when I entered Kenz. I had no issues with knowing not only would she perform what I wanted when it was asked but she wasn't going to be rattled by anything I threw at her and would roll with it. What do you know we won both classes so "winging" it can't be all bad. Each to their own if the judges don't like my winging they don't need to score me so highly never mind actually winning classes. Maybe I am just exceedingly blessed and lucky with her that she is capable of doing it and at a high standard. Its about having fun with your dog and if the dog is having fun and the handler enjoying it whats wrong with winging some of it. I can think of others who have done similar and also won their respective classes with well trained seasoned performance dogs. Any way hope you all have a blast at the Nationals and I will be hanging out for a report when your finished up :D.

So when are you getting back out then Xena98 :laugh:.

Yes effectively you can wait until the dog offers or you can ask the dog and reward the dog once the dog knows the behavior.

Tassie - well you know the success I had on NYE with winging it so Kenz says no chickening out with Cousin Rory.

You can still use a toy with a clicker. My BC was not very food motivated as a puppy. What I did do was use her meals to train her so she wasn't getting any additional food and it allowed me to lure behavior where I needed to. I would then substitute a toy reward fairly quickly. The other useful behavior which can be used as a substitute for a food lure is a nice hand touch.