Willowlane

Thankyou so much for all the information showdog! I will go through bit by bit :) 1. She seems to mainly pace in the walk but can at time pace for one or two strides in the trot. The lady who pointed it out to me on Sunday and helped me said the same thing as you. I need to distract her, get her attention on me, a bit like snapping her out of it. The lady who helped me got me to distract her by talking to her a lot more...when I get nervous Im silent lol and Willow really seemed to respond to me being more vocal. Unfortunately she is pacing when I walk her normally, it seems to have been a side effect of putting a choker on her to walk her everyday which was a suggestion to stop her pulling but I think it caused her to start getting lazy and stop the forward thinking motion. A chiro could be a good idea I just dont know any good ones in our area mmmm it wouldnt surprise me if she is sore with how she plays. 2. I have her on a chain to show which I run with under her ear. We counted it out and by the time I stood up, placed and tightened the chain under her chin, brought it up under her ear, stood up, straightened the lead, wrapped it around my hand and set off it took me 20secs!!!!!! It was very neat but omg so long I definitely dont rush. I then walk a little circle around me to straighten her up in front of the judge, walk her out a little, start moving off slowly then build up speed. I use to dash off quickly till I was corrected. 3. When it comes to her antics in the ring she likes to try jump all over the competitor around her and embrace her inner springer roots, of course I dont actually let her jump on the dog next door but rather get her to focus on playing with me. Food rewards, talking to her, funny voices, funny faces, anything to keep her amused and keep it fun for her. Is this the kind of thing your meaning? Should I be doing this? I do a lot of this at home and just transfer it to the ring when the time comes. I like to have a strong partnership, well thats what Im working on. 4. I will admit something very bad, the last 4 weeks I have not been able to train her at all between shows starting a new job has made it impossible. I groom her once a week but because im new to grooming it takes me longer than the average person so I dont want to make her stand there any longer than need be. The lady I met on Sunday said to just do 5mins in the morning or evening each day in front of a mirror. What do you think of this? Is it too much or too little?

Thanks persephone, he was a very special boy :) My 2 girls have been a real comfort to me since Carny left, Dogs are a wonderful thing in not only the best but also the most difficult of times xx

I have and still am going through this with my English Springer Spaniel girl Willow. The only things she will eat at 5.5months is chicken necks and a small amount of kibble with oil and sardines every 2nd/3rd day. Since 8weeks of age when I bought her home shes also been a nightmare to try to get to eat more than once a day so she now just gets fed one meal at night. Being a show dog she was considered underweight for her 3 and 4 month age periods and only really picked up a bit once she turned 5months. We really really struggled to get her to keep weight on between her refusing to eat and her constant playing and boundless energy. She now eats approximately 1kg(ish) of chicken necks at dinner but wont touch kibble even if I cut down the chicken necks she wont eat it, only with sardines which she loves...she's just never liked kibble. She will occasionally eat red meat mince and kibble but only occasionally. You have to get her on the right day lol.

We had Hillsborough this weekend, well the last 2 and a bit days and although we didnt receive any jaw dropping results it gave me yet another chance to get into the ring and practice the craft, get exposure and just have some fun. I will admit I get down heartened when we repeatedly dont win but all you can do is brush yourself off and get ready for the next class. Im still too slow with my stacking and dont get her stacked right a fair bit of the time..well I have good and bad days. Im also too slow at going from the stack to starting my triangle or up and back so lots still to practice and improved on. She's also started to occasionally pace in the walk so I have to nip that in the bud now and shes a bit lazy when she runs out so we need to find some more incentive or up-and-go to get her really on the job and striding out with purpose. I have not quite figured out how im going to do this yet but I will figure it out!! If there are any suggestions I would love to hear them! One great thing was she was very responsive to my voice at this show - for the first time. When I spoke to her around the ring the lifted her head and her eyes followed me, getting her to lift her head has been one of our big problems so this was a big step forward. I was also super happy to get some positive feedback from her breeders. They felt I had improved which was very rewarding as compliments dont come easy. Im also watching her more as I run her which was one of my big stumbling blocks so thats been a big focus of mine the past 2 shows and I feel its paying off! So next weekend is another away show, this time in Gunnedah. It will be her last event in Baby Puppy before going to minor which is kind of fitting considering her first event was at Gunnedah also. Wish us luck WL :D

Its amazing how much a dog can change your life and help in the darkest of moments. The last few days have been truly horrible for me as my dear pony Carny whom I have owned for the last 15years and is now 28years old has finally given in to old age and is being put to sleep tomorrow morning . He has lived an amazing and very healthy life not needing a vet for the 10years of his retired life and only falling sick the last 2 days. Unfortunately it is kidney disease and cancer so there is nothing we can do for him but at least we know we have given him a life of love and kindness and we let him go to a better place full of carrots, molasses and endless red slushies his favourite thing after a hard days winning. What has become apparent to me is how much strength I draw from the other animals around me especially my dogs Willie, Maple and Holly. Having them close to me gives me a sense of comfort although it is also hard as the sense of ending is also close for my stunning Welsh Springer Spaniel Holly who is now 14yrs old I just pray she can hold on for a little longer as I am not ready to let go of her yet!!!! With all this talk my thoughts turn to insurance. How many of you have insurance on your dogs? How does it work because it seems to be different to that of horse insurance which I am use to. I have heard that its for the whole of there life or they are insured for their life time? How does this work? Is it incredibly expensive? What is covered and what company is best? Today my husband and I got away from reality for an hour or two and took the girls for a walk and went to Simon's Cafe for coffee and cake, the girls got sausages. It was a nice family outing. Willie was her perfect self as always xxx

Hi All Needing suggestions on where to go for a really good quality leather collar and tags. Also suggestions on what colour to get for a very very deep liver chestnut and white ESS. Black, Dark Brown or Tan? I thought the Tan could work quite nicely against her coat instead of blending? With white stitching like in the photo (K9 collar)? I have looked at the K9 collars, I got her last Syntek collar from there but wanting other opinions on places to look. I would like brass fittings if possible as they look softer against her coat. I also need to get an ID tag if anyone can recommend a place to get a brass tag done. Secondly I have a black Cocker Spaniel, what colour should I go for her? Black with white stitching and silver fittings? Any thoughts would be very appreciated :)

Big update time! So its been a while since I last updated and lots has happened. First we went to Canberra for the ladies KC Championships and didnt have the greatest show, well I mean she was a good girl but I didnt handle her well. Apparently I was everywhere, not looking at my dog etc etc we didnt get a look in for either sweep stakes, she placed 2nd to her sister on the Saturday in the baby puppy bitch class and then won it on the Sunday but she was the only one in it that day and there was only 2 in it on the Sunday. I just didnt feel right, we had a great talk to her breeders parents on the Saturday and they were lots of help and Sunday felt better but I think it was just one of those shows Scroll forward to this past weekend and it was a completely different story. It was my first time attending a show by myself and silly me decided not to take my gazebo thinking of yes its so nice and sunny on Saturday but by sunday at 6am I woke up to rain on the roof top. 1hr30mins and a trip to my parents home I had the gazebo and it wasnt raining at Erskine Park go figure... I decided not to put it up, my next silly mistake as it then proceeded to start raining while I was in the ring to which the most lovely lady came to my rescue actually a few lovely ladies offered their gazebos to house Willow and I. I struck up a great friendship and am going back out to the spring fair to say hi to my saviour this weekend. As I mentioned to her I have met more people going by myself than I have in 5 shows of going with my mum/husband! Anyway as you might of guessed I have a fear of trying to put up the gazebo by myself, it just so huge, cumbersome and heavy and this is not forgetting that once you put it up you have to pull it back down again . So onto the actual show we had a smasher!! First off was Sweepstakes and she worked a treat, I made sure to watch her the whole way around the ring this time and steady myself so I didnt run her out of pace and I was thrilled to be called into the top 5 then out for a very very close 3rd place and top gundog. The judge made a point of stating that it was very very very close between the top 3 placegetters! I was stoked :D Next was her baby puppy class, there were 4 of us, the equal biggest class I have been in and we WON it!!! She again work amazingly and the judge was so positive about her with her comments. Great day, great people, not so great weather...bring on Hillsbrouogh next weekend!

Thankyou very much for the information show dog I have one of the bricks but I decided to hand pluck her legs, I just did the dark hairs. I have attached a picture of one of her back legs. It looks like there is a line but it is less noticeable when she is standing. How far up the leg do I thin the coat? She was so good while I was doing it, she just stood there not caring at all.

How do I strip out the fluff on her legs?

I was shown by a groomer, I would love to learn how to do it properly.

Lastly the fluffy legs.....

Some photos of my clip job on top of her head and the back of her neck. Also a photo of how her hairy legs are growing, I love how the brown hair is growing out horizontally from her legs lol Poocow the clippers are WHAL Arco SE 5 blades in 1