hopenfox

I'm coming...This will be the first 'live' Flyball comp. I've seen...and competed in...

How exciting! At last! Missed out on the first one and been waiting for another for AGES!!! I've emailed you Dave... ETA; Can't wait for Hope to discover that sheep are even better (or just as good) as poultry to herd!

Hi mareschi, I've been going to the McIvor Road Vet for 12 years and am very pleased with them...A con for them, is the 'head' vet, Sue has changed over the years, becoming a lot more 'careful' in what she says (eg. Ask advice and she will often say "it's up to you", she's not that talkative either and you have to squease it out of her - answers to most questions are yes, no or maybe - she's not a people person). She's a very good vet though, and I would trust her with any opperation on any of my pets. (She's removed lumps from my rats, desexed my ferrets and a rat and opperated on my guinea-pigs and chooks with great success.) Several friends go to the Eaglehawk Vet. Clinic and rave about it...

Erny; So does that mean it would'nt be possible to neutralise an adult dog?

Wow, molasseslass! Thanks, what a great page - so clear and easy to understand. Great suggestion...I'll be looking for the white part next time I need to clip Fox's nails. ETA; kittyhawklee - My vet charges from $7 - $13 to clip claws. Just let them know you only want that done, so they don't charge you for a consultation as well.

just curious how others with black-nailed dogs go about nail clipping, since you can't see the quick; How often? How much do you take off?...

Mine are all rolled up in a box! I have way too many to put them all up, but I do intend to string a light cord accross a bare wall one day and clip all the best ones to it... My other thought was to lie them all out somewhere and take a photo of them. Then enlarge and frame the photo and hang that up instead!

I'll be going... Hope's entered in morning Novice and Fox in both morning and afternoon Open. Both hoping for their 3rd and final pass and a title! :D

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :p Trim looks just as pleased as you must be! ...off to go look at the photos now...

That doesn't make me feel any better, bowser! Thanks, mana, I'll definately try doing it externally first!

Faced with the possibility of having to empty my dogs anal sacs, I'm curious to hear from other's who do this themselves, what their dogs reactions are... Do the dogs freeze and endure or snap or tremble in fear or try and escape? My dogs are quite sensitive and I'm sure they'd be horrified if I pushed a finger in there!

And here's me trying to get Hope to understand Sheep CAN be herded, not just ducks!

Pippi, that sounds much more possible! And so great if I can follow someone. I'm terrible with directions and maps. Blindfold me and drop me a couple of blocks from where I live and no one would ever see me again! But I've been through Daylesford on the way to trials, so I know how to get there. How exciting! Here's Fox at his first (and only) workshop;

Great photos Sky, I could almost imagine I was there! Lovely scenery. Sparty, it would take me 2 hours and 40 minutes then, if I went via Ballarat...Don't know if I could handle getting up that early! I'll have to go find a map and see what a more direct route looks like, but I'm feeling tired already.

Tullamarine sounds far away...Love the idea though. How long do you think it would take to drive there from Bendigo? Don't know if I can handle Melbourne traffic! :D

:D ...I'm so, so jealous! Sounds like you all had a really great time, loved looking at the photos. And you had that many goes? At the one workshop I went to, I only just got four goes with each dog over the whole weekend and Hope (who thinks only ducks are herdable) only just discovered sheep in the last 3 seconds of her last go. Now I'm worried if it's a while till my next workshop, Hope will forget and I'll have to spend another weekend trying to get her to acknowledge the sheep! chezzyr; you'll be interested to know Fox is petrified of plastic bags and the herding instructer at the workshop used one attatched to the end of a stick in place of a rake. I was quite worried, but though his ears went back and his tail went lower, he was so excited by the sheep he soon began to ignore it and after a few goes he tollerated the bag being run over his body with just a flick of his ear! He hasn't learnt to ignore plastic bags at home though, it was just the excitement for the sheep was stronger than the fear. Waiting for more photos!

I have been offered sheep herding lessons with the owners of Merrynvale Working Kelpies. I'm curious if anyone here has heard of them/know what they're like? They've been around for about 7 years and began with Futura, Scoriochre and Noonbarra bloodlines.

Where-abouts in Melbourne??? I live near Bendigo and am desperate to find someone/somewhere to start us with herding. Why does everything always happen in Melbourne???

Such an interesting thread to read. I would so love to do some herding with my dogs, but have no idea where to start (don't know anyone who herds or who owns sheep near me). Anyway I have a black and tan Kelpie called Fox and a blue merle and white Koolie (Hope). We train and compete in Agility, Obedience and Flyball and have been to one herding workshop earlier this year which we all REALLY enjoyed. I have never seen Fox so excited! Hope has only ever been around ducks, so it took a little while and a lot of encouragement before she realized sheep were herdable too! I've never had any problems, except maybe when my two are 'stalking' eachother, they're often totaly oblivious to other dogs. Sometimes I catch them frozen in a crouching staring competition that goes on and on and on, only broken by a sudden noise or playing dog, and they'll snap out of it and go roaring off play chasing together.

Jed....My Cavaliar is 11 1/2 and still has beautiful teeth!

Oooohh! I'm sooo jealous. Looking at all those photos and reading this thread made me really emotional! I really enjoy seeing and reading about 'first times' - when a dog discovers what he was born to do! I've only been able to attend one herding workshop. My Kelpie (rescue) who had never shown interest in any sheep before (ones out of his reach in padocks) 'came alive' after his first go...I have never seen him so excited about anything, he was trembling all over and couldn't take his eyes off them...Not to mention the non-stop whining! And my Koolie who only thinks ducks and chooks are herdable, suddenly discovered sheep in the last minute of her last go. I can't wait till we do that again. Hopefully she'll take off where we finished last time. Does anyone know where the closest regular 'herding classes' are to Bendigo (if there are any)?

Broad jumps are easy to make using weather-boards (they even come painted white!) which you'd find as offcuts at second-hand wood places. I was excited to find and buy (for $10) at a recycle yard a 2.5 metre long steel frame from an old bench. All it needs is 3 lengths of timber and I'll have my own mini dog walk! - that isn't to heavy for me to move by myself.

Weaving poles are approx. 60 cm apart. At an early agility trial my dog was confounded by orange weaving poles after having only ever weaved through white, so I bought some second-hand pvc electrical conduit (orange!) and we practice on them now. I set them up by pushing thin bamboo stakes into the ground first, and then threading the poles over them. A friend uses a length of ducted heating/cooling as a flexible tunnel and though it is a little delicate, it's lasted a long time and bends just like the real ones. Tyre jumps are easy to make. Find an old motorcycle tyre (usually free at mot. repair places). Pull the edges together with plastic 'ratchet' ties, build a wooden frame and stand and screw or wedge the tyre in. Recycle yards are full of posabilities for tables and you can make an A-frame by hingeing two wooden doors together.

The club I go to now is still exactly the same as it was 11 years ago when I first went...check-chains, long, boring routines and long, boring lectures. Even the instructors are the same! One thing that's changed; flat collars, treats and toys were outlawed then. They are only frowned upon now. Most of the instructors haven't trained their own dogs for years either! Since I knew nothing at the beginning, I started off with check-chains and now use only motivational clicker training. The difference is amazing. Why would anyone aware of reward based training ever want to continue with 'correct and punnish' training? I'll soon be starting up a clicker training class so maybe I'll be able to slowly lure members away from the other classes and put the old instructors out of a job!

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm writing them all down so I can try them all one by one to see how long they last and how much they're loved. The banana, yoghurt and honey sounds yummy, can't wait to try that! Can Kongs be microwaved? Any ideas for really, really hard to empty stuffings? No matter what I try, both dogs have the Kong emptied in less than 20 minutes. Other things I would love to hear are how long do people's Kongs last and what methods do dogs use to empty them. Hope eats all she can reach and then turns the Kong on it's end until anything small and loose falls out. Then she throws it repeatedly in the air as high as she can, in the hope the heavy landing will dislodge some more. Finaly she resorts to chewing at the edges and licking out the rest. Fox eats what he can reach and then, puting the whole Kong in his mouth, he crushes it and everything inside turns to crumbs and falls out! Hope's Kong lasts for about a year and Fox's for two. Hope is usually given Fox's old one and he gets the new one. I try to make their Kongs even more interesting by shutting the dogs in the house and hiding them in the back yard. Hope then searches the left side of the yard and Fox the right. Fox always finds his really quickly...I'm beginning to think he's reading my mind!