hopenfox

I can't wait! Thanks for the directions Sharon. They look pretty straight forward, so I've decided to have a go at getting there myself. I'll leave my place early, so I'll have plenty of time to look for streets and turns and to retrace my steps if I have to. Hopefully I won't get there too early...How early is too early ImaShepHead? Is 8:30/8:40 okay? Only 3 more days to go!

Nooo! It's further away from me now! I'll have to get up even earlier! Let's hope it is easy to find - it took me heaps of trips to the Ballarat Dog Club before I didn't get lost going there anymore. How far from Ballarat is Scarsdale (ie. how many minutes drive)? Now I'm stressing...

I heard that the whites only cause problems when fed alone. If they're fed with the yolk, they're okay. I think something in the yolk neutralizes or counteracts the affects of the white. I feed whole eggs once or twice a week.

When at home, Hope goes 2 or 3 times a day and Fox once or twice. Hope uses her droppings to mark, like other dogs use urine, so when we're out, she's likely to leave a pebble or two here and there, so maybe up to eight times a day when she's away from home! ETA. My dogs are on a totally raw BARF diet.

My dogs love fresh popped popcorn! It stores well and is nice and dry in your pocket - a bit crumbly though!

Valerian is a plant. The tablets (which you can buy at health food stores and supermarkets) are it's ground up roots. It's sold to humans as 'promoting restful sleep and for the relief of mild stress and anxiety.'

Hope had the Valerian...I was a little worried about drowsyness when I first tried her on it, but it did just as I was told it would. Took away most or all of her anxiety and stress, and left her relaxed, but still very allert. I gave her only one small tablet in the morning and the affects seemed to last all day. I can't believe I went through all those traumatic, stress filled earlier trials when I could have sailed through with her on Valerian!

Well, no passes for me, but I was soooo happy with Hope! No sign of nerves, she didn't shut down ( Valerian!) and she worked very enthusiastically for me through both trials! Fox was really hit by the weird heat/humidity and though he tried hard, he had a lot of trouble concentrating and thought the broad jump was too much of an effort - easier to just walk over or around it! Congratulations CrashTestDummy and wagalot on your passes!

I'm coming to the Sunbury trial this Saturday. Hope and Fox are both entered in Open.

How exciting! I've pmed you 2tollers...

Yay!!! I won something! Thankyou so much, the dogs and I can't wait for our Orbee ball! Congatulations to the winners and to all the others who took such amazing photos. I can't wait to see more!

Maybe you could hand out questionairs to the members to find out what they'd like/expect to learn? Your class sounds pretty interesting to me, so I wouldn't really mind the few who drift off - maybe talk to these people and find out why?

I'm still interested, and happy to attend on a weekday. Can't seem to drum up much interest here, so thought I might 'advertise' for interest in the club newsletter. Also, tried to take a photo of Fox in sunnies, but they wouldn't stay on! His head's too narrow...any suggestions?

There was something about it in the Victorian Herding Association's last newsletter, I think. It was supposed to just be a training day...I got details from Di Hayward (secretary) when I contacted her about it.

Have PMed you the details, hannahb

Hannahb - There's a (double) Pre-Trial at Riddels Creek (Central Highland/Lancefield Kennel Club) on the 6th of August...

Congratulations Sam and Cooper! I'll be entering Fox in his first Pre-trial soon...that'll be interesting! So what were your goes like? Everything run smoothly and go as you hoped?

Also, if he does go down in a stay, try to have someone else put him back into position - he may be enjoying your attention and the way he can get you to return whenever he wants you to...

ME!!! I've been waiting for one to come close enough to get to! I would definately prefer a day workshop, and 'drive training' is what most interests me, but I'd be happy to learn/hear about everything else related. If I know it's going ahead, I'd be very happy to rope in other interested Bendigo people. You might need to let me know if there's a limit!

Just one comment...Make sure you train for the trial...i.e. If you train with heaps of verbal praise/encouragement and lots of play-time and food rewards, and then go into a trial and walk around like a robot with single comands and no toys or food, your dog will wonder what's wrong with you! That's what I had problems with with my dog, Hope. The verbal and physical praise I gave her between exercises, during a trial were not enough. She was used to heaps of verbal encouragement during training, to perform well. Then we hit the trial ring for the first time and after a short while of my silence, she 'shut down', (she's quite a 'soft' and nervous dog) probably thinking 'what have I done wrong?'. I'm still struggling to change her first impression of the trial ring.

I use mostly roast meat, chopped small or really thin slices of sausages. I think the greasier, smellier, softer and warmer the treat, the better, for teaching new things. For other already known exercises, I may use less tasty treats like pop corn or breakfast cereals. I love using the sausage slices, because though they're only 1mm or less wide, they're easy for the dog to feel in their mouth, and easy to feed without losing my hand down their throat! For my agility class, I recommend everyone use the roast meat or sausages for learning anything new. Most doggy people don't seem to mind their hands getting greasy. I don't like people using hard dry food of any kind as treats, unless they can show me their dog loves it and eats really carefully and slowly. (Which hasn't happened yet!)

Maybe wrap the ends in thin rubber (rubber band or cut fingers of rubber gloves?) before connecting to the joiners?

The brackets the poles sit on are actually just joiners with a section cut out...

Congratulations Sparty!

I have yet to need to board my dogs, but what I'd probably do is package and lable (including am & pm) daily portions to be kept in the freezer. I think I would probably ask the staff to feed the patties and bones frozen. That way there's little chance of anything going off and it would give the dogs something to do (frozen things would take longer to eat).