ness

The aussiedog toys are good and somewhat indestructable - especially things like the enduroball.

As I said SecretKei - ANKC tracking hmm having a person at the end is dependent on the state you track and what level track . Only track 1 and 2 here in SA will have a person at the end otherwise mostly its just a t-shirt/article left. The articles used on tracks are normally socks. They do have to indicate them but the method of indication isn't stipulated. I gather they are cracking down on the indication side of things so it is preferable to teach the dog something like a sit or drop. ANKC tracks do have cross tracks at the higher levels - either a known or an unknown. A few of us could never work out why a known person is considered "easier" then an unknown as most of the land we train on is heavily contaminated with cross tracks anyway so the dogs are mostly quite use to unknown cross tracks.

Good luck with Gibbs MG.

Hmmm lets go with all three .

Inevitablue.

Well done Tess and Inevitablue - fantastic work. Onto novice you go .

Here is a good link to read up on - not specific to elbow surgery but its still joint surgery and its all much of a muchness as far as the "rehab" is concerned. http://www.lauriebry...o/recovery.html Here is the link to the ortho dogs group: http://pets.groups.y...yguid=253757634 And the TopDog Rehab Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TopDogHealth

MG try joining the ortho dogs yahoo group. Its got lots of information about rehabbing dogs post surgery. I would also suggest looking into something slightly larger then a crate. The general consensus is something like an xpen is preferable to the confines of a crate. Even a room baby gated off. A bathroom or something. They need to be encouraged to rest and not have enough room to be stupid but they do need some small amount of room to move around. Agree with Ptolomy's suggestion though.

MG as you know I have been going through this with Kenz for nearly 8 weeks - there is no easy answer .

Hmmm if you think its 6-8 weeks only that might be wishful thinking MG. Crate or confine in a section of the house. Gibbs will need to be confined to a room or an xpen with no furniture or anything he can climb on as I wouldn't imagine he would be allowed to much space to run around.

Thanks for mentioning that Ptolomy - if your going to swim him at the beach and its for rehabbing then I'd be careful about allowing to much free running. Kenz's swimming is controlled she is on-lead until we get into the water and I stand out in the water and she swims. A dog pool would be preferable but the amount we are swimming at the moment she would send me broke way to quickly. ETA. It might well just be a sprained toe. They can take a long time to heal and are easily redamaged. There is no joke that there is good news and bad news when it comes to ligament/tendon injuries. The bad news is they take a long time to recover and are easily redamaged.

Smisch if you have access to somewhere to swim him that would be my suggestion as choice for exercise and keeping him fit. It certainly helps keep the fitness up without placing unwanted strain on anything.

Best advice - give them a break for a few weeks, go away and work on something else then back up and start again from scratch. You can work a little quicker through the stuff you have already done but I find if I get stuck with anything and then start to hit a brick wall thats a better way to reset the slate. Sometimes its all the dog needs. I also find it works better then just backing up a step immediately because I have done that with things only to find when I up the criteria again I am faced with the same brick wall and a lot of frustration on the part of the dog.

Ok I might as well chip in my two cents - Kenz has been out injured since early December of 2010 - so well over 14 months now. She has been on and off lame in her right front and her also her left hind. We have been through vets/specialists x 2/chiro vet/physio/canine massage. She has had it all. We have been through strict rest/restricted exercise. She did manage to compete in obedience last year but only at novice, however she did manage her title with some convincingly high scores. To cut a super long story a little shorter we went off to another new specialist in November after nearly 12 months (a guy recently moved over from the states who has had plenty of dealings with rehabbing performance dogs). We agreed if she had only been a pet dog the level of soreness she was presenting with probably wouldn't mean you would do anything more. He also agreed if she came up sore you would simply rest her. He diagnosed her right shoulder lameness as probably chronic biceps tendonitis. He was happy enough to try a "new" treatment which Inevitablue put me onto - a course of 2 PRP injections. We have been super strict with the rehabbing as though - she has been rehabbed as though it was post joint surgery and yep its a long slow drawn out process. She is still on confinement/leash walks/swimming and he is happy enough with her progress at this point. We are nearly 8 weeks since her first PRP injection. The spanner in my works was a diagnosis only last week of a grade 2 medial luxating patella to explain what has been happening in her left hind. In spite of all this he sees no reason why she can't and won't run again in agility. He has seen video of her running, he knows what is involved and I am happy to be guided by him as to whether its feasible. The patella issue is one that he says he can happily fix with surgery if it starts bothering her to greatly. Got to love an ortho guy. He said its no real drama and I'll just have to go through the rehab we are doing now again post surgery. So I have been asking myself the same question at a number of points in the last year or so. My young BC absolutely lives to work though and in fact prefers being trained to going through walks. She is significantly depressed without the training. We are now back to reasonable length walks a few times a day and swimming but she isn't happy and has been turning her nose up at her walks. Ask her to train however and she bends over backwards. I guess we aren't at the end of the journey yet but so long as the dog is wanting to (and the specialist has no issue with me doing all I am doing) then I see no reason to not. At the moment her potential return is only limited by my patience and commitment to rehabbing her but I won't say its been an easy journey and there have been plenty of times I have thought whats the point lets go bury my head in the sand and not resurface again. The dog always comes first in the equation and I don't think the dog is ready or would be happy to retire and live a pet dog/couch potato life. At this stage I am considering whether she will get back to agility simply for the fact she has a lot of potential to be an absolutely awesome obedience dog and I might not put her at risk, especially since her patella issue puts her at an increased risk of rupturing a cruciate. The specialist isn't so worried about the risk and says is fairly matter of fact about it suggesting if she does her cruciate then he can repair that and the patella at the same time. I also wish you all the best for the Nationals and as Ptolomy says the dogs don't care about the titles.

Here is an interesting video clip on teaching pups - its not something I would necessarily want for a competition dog but for a pet perspective it raises some interesting thoughts:

Depends on the dogs to some extent. You can also manipulate it by having them out individually. I was lucky my older girl was much older and didn't really take immediately to the pup - was indifferent and still is. I was therefore put in a position of keeping the pup amused and entertaining it rather than having it rely on the other dog as a source of entertainment. It also would depend on what your focus/goals might be for the pup. Competition or pet. Some competition people will keep there pups separate from their adults until the pup has more focus on them then they do on other dogs. Some breeds are also easier when it comes to this then others. My guys are both BCs and have also both shown a preference for doing things with me rather then playing with other dogs.

How to interact and play - "engagement". If my pup thinks I am the best thing on the planet and the source of all the fun then the rest is made so much easier . I know having a dog who finds interacting with me a reward means that she is never slow to respond to commands because there is always the opportunity of something she might find rewarding coming as a consequence.

Ptolomy - hey I would probably do similar if I was her in a similar situation :laugh:. Well done again Deb and Brookie.

I hear one of my all time favourite Aussies gained a UDX pass today at the trial - well done and huge congratulations.

WA I would use barriers of varying types and work on building up muscle memory that says drop straight. With relation to teaching fronts I will often set the dog in a sit and then move myself into the correct position. You can work on fronts by taking a step back and having the dog hold front position. The other thing that I find helps to bring them in nice and close is to teach them to run between your legs. You can do this by throwing a treat or toy through as they are coming in and having the dog chase it.

Eeek Ptolomy - you could pack Soggy over here for a holiday but I might not return her :laugh:.

Have fun RS and Amypie .

I think crating is a good idea for all of the reasons mentioned. Having had a youngish BC on long term injury restrictions it has certainly been made somewhat easier by the fact she was crated overnight as a youngster (till about 6 or 7 months in her case). If it had been my older girl who is not crate trained at all I think it would have been made a lot worse.

Ptolomy they both look like they are having a blast and look at all that snow.

Murve - hit up Bunnings or your home hardware store for lengths of PVC and connectors. . Normally its a couple of dollars a meter of PVC and a dollar or so for each connector. I use 25mm PVC for my training box and its only 1 or 1.2m rather than 1.5m.