Kavik

I'm pretty sure you can put it on right after a bath. I prefer to put mine on a few days before a bath, as I find flea products leave a chalky residue and make my dogs' coats look dull. I put it in a couple of areas on the back of neck, if I put it all in one spot, it runs over the hair instead of on the skin.

Ahh - Soft Coated Wheatens - so much fun to groom We have one that comes into daycare and for grooming and he is always a huge mess! Takes forever to get the knots out and you can virtually see his coat knottting up afterwards too I mostly just used lots of elbow grease and time (used a comb, dematter and scissors to help separate the worst knots) Hopefully Sheridan will be on to give you some more hints

My old girl had only dry (Euk) for most of her life - she is now 17 and lives with my parents, up until she was around 10 had only dry. Has chicken wings, eggs etc now as well. Not a bad run so far My own dogs get dry (Pro Plan at the moment) as well as chicken frames, eggs, sardines, fish oil.

Gamby The change of pace is only used at training, obviously you have to keep a consistent pace in the ring. dogdude That is the way I have always done it at other clubs too, and I admit I was skeptical the first time the instructor suggested it at my current club as it seemed to be the opposite of what you want. But strangely it does seem to pep them up for doing that right about turn, even when you go back into normal pace for the whole figure 8.

My club sometimes does this variation on the figure 8 exercise - it sounds counterintuitive but actually does work! Do fast pace going into you the left about turn (when dog is on inside near person) and then go into slow pace as you go to the right about turn (when dog is on outside). Change paces in the middle of the figure 8. This is opposite to what I have done at other clubs, but it does seem to teach the dog to push up into the right about turn and pay attention/go quicker.

I make sure that anything that is valuable and I want in one piece is out of reach :rolleyes: The dogs have the run of the backyard, and the front yard is for vegie patch and anything else we don't want chewed! Luckily trees are pretty hardy . . . With mental and physical stimulation and plenty to do they do usually grow out of being really destructive. Kaos at nearly 18 months still chews his bedding, but no longer tries to chew furniture or anything like that. I supervise when they are inside, if I can't supervise they are outside or in their crates.

I use luring like most of the others for teaching commands like sit, drop etc and for some tricks like spin. I use treats on top of the dog's usual food (I use mainly cheese as training treats). My dogs are active and I keep them lean so the extra treats aren't a problem weight wise. If I am going out with them or to a day training session the dog I am taking may not get breakfast to keep them keen.

The Kelpies get washed once a month, Diesel gets washed once a fortnight because he has allergies, gets really manky and smelly fast - especially bad at the moment. I also use Aloveen!

I have found giving them an alternative place to go (like a mat) is a good way to teach them not to get on furniture unless invited. The way I did it was to have a mat somewhere in the same room as the couch, and use a treat to lure the dog onto the mat, using your command (I use 'Place' but you can use what you like) and give the treat when they are on the mat. I get them to drop on their mats for this. Do this when they are not on the couch at first. And then when they are on the couch, I use the command 'Off' for getting off the couch, then 'Place' to go to their mat (you will have to show them where the mat is at first). Make their mats a good place to be, give them pats there and treats. My dogs will now go to their mats on their own without being told. Kaos knows he is only allowed on the couch if I am on there (he likes to keep me company when I read ) and won't get on if there is nobody on the couch. He does still occasionally deer leap onto the couch if I am on it though - working on that!

How Dogs Learn by Burch and Bailey The Dogs Mind is also really good

I also think her temp has to be OK for her to go into prey anywhere - they have to feel fairly comfortable to go into prey. K9 Force says you can use prey drive to help overcome some problems if the dog has enough prey drive and stable enough temp. I've taken Diesel to a Sch club, for fun, to practice his obedience somewhere different and see what it was like. They were a really nice bunch of people, impressed with his heeling and said you can do the obedience and tracking without doing the character part of Sch. Diesel is fairly lazy without heaps of prey and can be difficult to motivate, so we won't be doing it, but it was fun to go and see. I think you should at least go and see what they say if you are interested With trialling, are you sure it is the dog and not you giving off signals? Some dogs (including mine!) react differently if you are stressed or if you act differently than you do in training. Do you go to a training club? If so, how is she there? If she is different at trials than at training, it could be a few things, including different atmosphere, more excitement/stress as different dogs or it could be that you are acting differently (or a combination).

No trimming here, my guys also tend to the be on the lean side, active buggers they are

I don't do drive work with Zoe, but haven't really had a problem with her releasing on an unintentional OK. Haven't really tested it though, so she may break.

With the sheepwork I have started, I wondered about the probability of the dog confusing 'Stop' with 'Drop' (although I guess in the end not a big difference as both are stationary positions, at least one does not mean to move!), and I also use 'Go' as my send away command, good point that it sounds like 'No'! So far Kaos seems to be able to tell the difference, due to intonation? Even when I am doing drive work with the squeaky, when I practice both Stop and Drop commands, he seems to get it right. 'OK' is my release command for Zoe, but I use 'Free' for the others.

Are past NDTF students invited too?

I've been trying a few different foods to see if any of them help with Diesel's allergies. At the moment I am feeding Eagle Pack Holistic Anchovy etc. I don't see any difference (in the condition of the dogs) than when they were on ProPlan, and I am thinking of changing back to ProPlan after this to get a good comparison. All of my dogs are good eaters and don't really care which brand they get

Even when he is on cortisone he itches - just not as badly. I don't think we'll find something that makes him stop scratching altogether, but something that lessens it would be nice!

I've tried Sebolese (sp?) which is what the vet at first recommend we bathe him in - made him worse. I would imagine Malaseb would also make him worse as it is much harsher and drying than Aloveen. Unfortunately he has been on cortisone a lot more than I would like seems to be the first thing vets do.

Actually we do have some jasmine! I didn't know it was a common allergen. It came with the house, already here when we moved. Might talk to OH about getting rid of it then - might be hard though - it looks fairly established!

I'll have a look at Robert's site and go from there. Thanks

If I had lots of money and someone said 'if you do this testing and we find out what he is allergic to we can fix it' I would certainly do it. But I don't have that kind of money to spend the hundreds of dollars on consultation and testing to find out he may be allergic to 10 things like yours ( ) and further hundreds of dollars for vaccines to desensitise him which may or may not work, not to mention the other things which cannot be desensitised to or avoid. Not to mention the time and effort that goes into all of that, and thinking about what may or may not be in the park I want to visit or my parents house etc. Seems to be a lot of worry and stress and thinking for taking the dog somewhere fun! The fact that noone can give a difinitive answer on anything, and that even after doing every test available there may be nothing we can do, does not make it seem worth going down that path. If I can find something that will just make him more comfortable I will be happy. I would be more willing to spend the money if I thought there would be a positive outcome from it.

The fact that it is likely to be lots of things he is allergic to makes it seem even more hopeless I don't even know what type of grass/es I have in the yard to begin with I've taken plant samples to the vet to see if there is anything particularly sinister there and there isn't. As for changing the type of grass there - not sure how I would get new grass to grow, with water restrictions and all. At the moment, I don't do anything with the lawn, if it grows it grows without any help Since I can't do anything about bugs or pollens, limited amount with plants (he still needs to be walked, and spends most of his time outside), unless it is something like the detergent I use to wash his bedding, I still can't see how finding out would be useful. And it is not cheap to find out. Different if it was only a little bit, but it is going to be hundreds of dollars to get the testing done.

I haven't been to a dermatologist yet. From the location of the problem (tummy, flank, sometimes tail), it seems likely it is a contact allergy, most likely to grass or something, which I can't do anything about . Not sure if it is worth spending the money to find out I can't do anything about it anyway.

Hard to say with comparison between foods. On EP his coat feels more oily than Proplan, still has scurf. He is itching more, but also it is change of season so the worst time for his allergies. We tried Hills Z/D for his elimination diet, not really much of a difference either. Haven't tried Euk or RC. So far I am leaning towards going back to Proplan. I am still hopeful that I will find a food that makes a difference!

I was using Proplan sensitive when I could find it. Petbarn used to stock it regularly and then suddenly they never had any stock. So I used the Lamb and Rice when they didn't have sensitive.