TigerJack

yes I do wash it all in my washing machine! Used towels are only urine soaked, all poo is removed first! Biozet or something good like Drive works just fine. I never mix loads though, the dog towels get their own load and the grass does best on its own. Seriously, its not much different from washing your own child's nappies! I have been washing dog twoels, lawn and my own clothes in the same machine (separate loads) for years now. I have so far washed my pieces of grass dozens of times and I certainly end up with a few stray plastic grass leaves in the bottom of the machine but it scoops out easily. Mine come loose becasue I'm using the offcuts from my lawn which were cut a little haphazardly. If you got your own from Bunnings you could make sure you trimmed it between the strands of grass so you'd get less coming loose in the wash. Jo

OK, my experiences with 6 tiny dogs all living inside when I'm not home. (One is a silky too!) With the first tiny dog, I tried a litter tray and she thought it was just great, as a spot to dig! It was like a sandpit to her. She would furiously dig and dig and spray litter all over the place but she never once peed or pood in it. gave up on that idea. I now do two things. I place a folded towel (I buy cheap $3 ones from Kmart or BigW and they are the 'dog towels') on the floor of the bathroom and the laundry. The little dogs know to pee and poo on those. Trained fairly easily by doing the usual observe the puppy routine and then take them to the towel when they need to go. keep them there until they use it and then reward. (This process has been introduced to two adult tiny dogs too so it doesn't have to be started as a pup.) It is a bit icky at first as you should really leave a towel in place that has already been weed on (or used to mop up an accident) as they will return to the urine scented spot next time they need to go. It does help that my house has no carpet at all so the towel is preferred by the dog as they don't like going on a hard surface where they might get wet feet. Second thing I do now is use my own version of the petloo. Sorry but the ones you will see at the expo (saw them today myself) are horrendously expensive and you can do it yourself much more cheaply. I had my back yard done over with fake lawn and I kept some off cuts. This stuff is the exact same stuff used on the petloo. (I checked the petloo stuff to be sure of this.) I recently found that you can buy the grass by the metre at Bunnings. It's quite a wide roll so half a metre would probably get you 3 or 4 good sized pieces. Take one plastic tray (I used the upturned lid of one of those 'under the bed' plastic storage bins) and line it with a couple of folded dog towels. Place your piece of grass on top and its all done. My dogs happily use this (and I didn't have to train it) as it is the same stuff outside in the back yard. The advantage of the home made version is that it is really cheap and it is only about 4cm high as opposed to the petloo which is about 12 cm high. (My little disabled chi x could never have gotten onto it.) The other advantage is that my version has a couple of old towels absorbing all the liquid urine and you just replace them and toss the used ones in the wash every day. The petloo has a tank or reservoir that you have to empty out each day and its rather large so that just seems like a good way to tip pee on your shoes to me. I heard the petloo demonstrator say that you just rinse the grass with water everyday and you never get a smell. Do not believe this piece of advice. I tried just rinsing my grass offcuts and they still ponged after a while. I now fold them in half and run them through the washing machine with a bit of biozet. All smells nice. I usually replace the towels about 3 times (over 3 or 4 days) and then do a grass wash and disinfect the tray and start over with all clean stuff. So its a new piece of grass roughly twice a week but towels just about every day. My washing ine is probably the only one about with pieces of lawn hanging on it. Seriously, for less than $50 you can buy all the bits and do it yourself. I understand the petloo is almost $400. Yikes. Good luck with whatever you choose! Jo edited cause I can't spel

I have a friend who has a ten year old kelpie. He had this dog on the 'senior' variety of kibble for a few years because that's what he thought you were supposed to use. He got a good supply of advance in the red bag (energy or performance or some name like that) as a prize at Flyball and so used that instead of Senior kibble for a few months. He noticed such a change in the energy of his 'old' dog, he decided to keep him on the 'young' food. The almost 11 year old is still competing at flyball. Jo

Cosmolo I did get what you meant but I don't think I worded my answer too well. I get what you mean about off switch in low drive not working in the high drive situation (the flyball.) I discovered it by accident myself I suppose, with my girl, as the off switch she learn't while in quite high drive for the sheep herding, just transferred over to other situations. Pretty neat really. Prior to the off from herding, she was less controllable at flyball (or anywhere really.) Jo

To some extent I agree with this but I don't think the off switch is actually flyball specific. ought to apply whenever you need it. I too have an overactive Kelpie. My girl is 18 months old and we do Flyball and also sheep herding. She has now competed in 3 flyball competitions. Her drive is great, learning control and focus was harder (and still not completely there!) The reason I say the off switch isn't flyball specific is that I discovered that the hard work we were doing at herding (almost 12 months worth now) was all about building a relationship with her. We have cemented the hierarchy between us and she is now much more controlled at herding. She knows that she gets the sheep only when she focuses on me and does as I ask. Without doing anything different at Flyball, I found that her flyball focus was getting better, the more I took her herding. I figured out that it wasn't the flyball that was making her a hyperactive nut, it was her lack of focus and my relationship with her wasn't as good as I thought it was. Now that I have something she really wants (to herd sheep) I have gotten her to pay attention to me and work with me, she knows I am the only one who will let her have her sheep. The same focus just came across to the flyball too. She pays attention more, still gets crazy and barks madly but stops and settles when I ask her to. Her recall now is much more reliable too. I realise herding isn't for everyone but maybe you can find another way to build the relationship between you that will carry through into whatever sport you do with her. I have to say I would never trust her with chooks either, but I don't have any. So far she's let my parrot alone. Good luck with the flyball. Where are you training? Jo

yes its the same Trent and Jem. Trent has seen this thread and wants to know if you mean he is a cheeky monkey or Jem! Jo PS: Actually Mooper they are both a great test of patience!

I had the exact same problem when I made up a batch of this recipe a fortnight ago. Still haven't solved it, they are frozen at the moment. I posted for suggestons in the off topic section and got some good recipe suggestions which I will try as soon as I get some of the ingredients. Otherwise I might just scramble 3 or 4 of them at a time for another of my dogs who could do with a heftier breakfast sometimes. I can report that my scrawny chihuahua has put on a whopping 150 grams and has now got a nice covering over his ribs and he no longer has a bony bottom. He looks great and he loves the satin balls. He just needs another 50 to 100grams and he'll be good. I had tried all sorts of thngs before this recipe and could not gt the weight on him despite his eating everything on his plate. I will be keeping a batch of these frozen from now on. I am now contemplating making up sufficient quantity to fatten up my ridgeback cross who never stops running. I shudder to think how many eggwhites will be leftover after a batch that big. Jo

yup, me. I clip my Maltese terrier girl. She looks a bit odd for a week or so and then it starts to grow back. I just clipped her for spring last weekend and the clippers died mid clip (cheap crappy set.) I had to to the rest of the dog with scissors so I left her a bit choppy looking, its already looking bettr a week later. She didn't much like the clippers when I first started it but she's fairly resigned to it now and she hated going to the groomers so it is much less stressful for her if I do it. Just keep telling yourself 'it grows back!' Jo

alot of clubs (flyball, obedience etc) require proof of annual vaccination anyway so if you wat to participate you have to vaccinate.

My flyball club looked at changing our vaccination requirement to this new 3 year vacination but we ended up abandoning the idea. We might look at it again in a few years after it is more widely spread accepted practice at local vets, but then again, maybe not. One of our members is a vet student so we had advice through her links to Sydney Uni. We found that while the reccomendation was to drop the c5 to every 3 years, there was still a requirement to do the Kennel Cough (bordatella) annually. In this situation you'd have to do the intranasal inhalation type, not the injection (and I'm not really sure of the reason for this.) There was concern that people would just not bother with the bordatella and we'd end up having to police it and it became too hard. I also got the impression that vets weren't 100% behind it yet as the annual vaccinationn appointment is often the only health check a dog gets so they lose the only opportunity to keep an eye on the dog's healt (and gein the income from the consult fee!)

Similar to when you get a cold. A week or so. Important thing to remember is that all dogs in the household should be quarantined until a week to ten days after the last symptom in the sick dog. This is becasue your other dogs may get it from the first dog and be incubating it but not yet showing symptoms. If they go out, they could be infecting other dogs. Your first dog may get well just as the second one comes down with it and if so, then you keep the quarantine going for all dogs until the week to 10 days after that dog's last symptoms. A few months back I had one dog come home with it and I ended up quarantined for about 3 weeks as one by one my other dogs got it. I ended up with 6 that caught it. They had varying symptoms from the hacking cough (and nothing else) that lasted a single day to spitting up gunky saliva and being quite ill for three or four days through to a very miserable little chihuahua who looked like he had a raging head cold for the better part of a week, runny nose and all. All got the cough linctus and only two required antibiotics for the secondary chest infection. (Antibiotics do nothing for KC itself as that is a virus, they are only affective against the secondary infections that the sick dog might come down with.) Best of luck and here's hoping the other dogs don't get it. Don't panic, though unpleasant, it is only the doggy equivalent of the common cold. Please do pay attention to the quarantine issue though as that's the only way to restrict infection. Jo

Kaz my elderly Dane was put onto glucosamine with fish oil and the vet reccommended 1500mg of glucosamine per day. He is 58kg. My 34kg ridgeback cross gets 1000mg and my kelpie sized girls get 500mg per day. Hope that helps. I use the MSM powder on myself! Jo

If you take your time and teach a proper swimmers turn there will not be jarring. Jarring occurs with dogs who 'slam' the box head on. They have not been taught a correct turn. I have a large dog (bigger than a gsp) and our boxloader reports that he has almost the least impact on the box of the dogs in our team. Smaller kelpie sized dogs toss the boxloader about more than Jack does because they slam more. Having said that, there is repetitive jumping. If you don't think your dog will handle agility, maybe he won't handle the flyball jumps either. Depends on the type of shoulder problem. Maybe get your vets opinion before trying any of these activities. Good luck with what you choose. If you do decide to go with flyball, make sure you find a club that will show you the correct swimmers turn and teach it slowly to proof the behaviour so the dog doesn't revert to slamming in the excitement of a competition, and don't listen to anyone who tells you that big dogs can't do swimmers turns, they can. Jo

Found St George pics, they are great. Have sent the link to the team. I've labelled our dog's pictures.

I am feeding 10 dogs that range from geriatric Great Dane down to chihuahuas and a silky terrier. (She is 3.5kg) I have not tried eagle pack yet but I have them all on eukanuba. Every now and then I'm tempted with something cheaper but I always regret it. The poo quantities just increase amazingly and the dogs need to eat so much more on the cheaper stuff. I always go back to premium. My old Dane gets horrible diarrhoea on cheaper stuff and Dane diarrhoea is just so bad cause it comes by the bucket full. Because I have so many, a 15kg bag lasts 2 weeks at my place. Its really only the big dogs that cost a few $$ to feed. In the grand scheme of things, the tiny amount eaten each day by a chi or by my silky costs a few cents. Most of the pet food warehous tupe places around here do a loyalty type programme, Buy 10 and then you get a bag for free. My 6 tinies (chi's, chi x's, silky and mini foxy none of which weigh more than 4.5kg) share about 1 and 2/3 cups, twice a day. So you can see that even buying the little 3kg bag, it will last one silky for weeks. (They all do get bones etc but not every day, the dry is their main food.) My silky has great skin and a lovely coat, in fact even though I have ten dogs, some poundies, some purebreeds and some mixed breeds, theres not a skin problem amongst them.

Sas there are now carts available for 'quad' affected dogs. The dog is supported front and back and they can still propel themselves around to some degree but without putting weight on the joints.

Pix sorry to hear about Kaeleigh. Would you consider a dogcart for her when she gets to that stage? It would still allow her mobility without having to weight bear on the joints. I ask because I have a little disabled dog who I expected to require a wheelchair by now. I researched it but he luckily doesn't need one yet. While looking at all the sites I noted that a big percentage of the dogs in their pages were GSD's with hip dysplasia or spinal problems. So size of dog can be accommodated. Its a big comittment though so I know there's alot to weigh up before going down that path. (I have kept my list of cart links so let me know if you want them.) Best of luck with her Jo

Had a great weekend and got chilly camping out. The covered arena was pretty good and jack ran a personal best time of 4.799. he usually runs about 5.3 sec so I was very pleased. Met a few DOLers and came home with a few extra pups that are going to live with Rozzie in Mudgee. It was a good fun comp and we'll be back next year. Jo

they sent an email to team captains tonight and said the running order will be up on thursday.

The possum saw the light and had moved on by next morning (I think Tiger is dissapointed, she keeps checking to be sure.)

thats the good ones

I moved into my house about 6 years ago and got Jack as a little tiny pup about 6 months later. By that stage I had finished fiddling with the inside of the house and was trying to grow a few things out the back. I tried roses, but Jack though they were great to teethe on. I have one climbing rose that I planted as a bare rooted little thing and every month or so, Jack would dig it up just as it was starting to shoot again and I'd come home to find hime chewing it. I replanted that thing about 6 times and it pretty much did nothing for the next three years. About a year ago it suddenly started some real growth and I got the first flowers on it at the end of last year. There used to be alot more roses in my back yard but they all got Jacked! I have given up on roses, they either live or die now. Jack loved to dig up anything that I had been planting, I think he thought he was helping me. I was obviously doing something that was alot of fun as I spent ages digging little holes and putting plants in them. He felt it was only right that he got to play with the holes and the plants too. He couldn't stand letting any potted trees on his verandah. I put them in giant pots, put stakes around them and chicken wire around that. Jack would still crash tackle the lot and then go in from the top and bite the heads off the baby trees. I have given up on fruit trees in pots. I had a clay chinese soldier (like the terracotta ones in China) standing in one of my garden beds, he was about 2 foot tall. Jack took a particular dislike to this fellow, even though he lived behind a nice row of chicken wire fencing. Jack would carefully climb over the fencing and then molest the chinaman. He would wrestle him over onto his side and then pummel him mercilessly whilst using him like a rolling pin across the garden bed. That poor chinamans head got knocked off about 4 times before I finally gave up and put him out the front of the house on the verandah. I have given up on garden ornaments. I was told that you could stop a pup digging holes if you gave them a sandpit to dig in. Tried that, doesn't work. It wasn't as much fun as digging up plants. I was told that if you blow up little balloons and bury them they will pop when dug up and frighten the dog away from the digging. This doesn't work either. Jack thinks that if you find one balloon you must carefully excavate all remaining garden just in case there are more lurking around. At this point I gave up on diversion tactics like this and tried putting chicken wire fencing around all the garden beds. I have alot of banana trees in my back yard and they even grow fruit. With the price of bananas at the moment I had been looking forward to them ripening. I came home about a month ago (after getting home about 5 hours later than I normally do) to find that my dogs had retaliated to my lateness by pulling down two big trees, complete with unripe fruit. They pull them down by grabbing the drooping flower head at the bottom of the bunch of bananas and pulling it until the trunk of the tree snaps off. The managed to flatten my hills hoist in the process. I rescues the two bunches of fruit (about 120 bananas in total) and have them lying on top of the giant doghouse out of reach. Hopefully they will still ripen. I have almost (but not quite) given up on bananas. I used to have grass in my yard. I have been here about 6 years and have turfed the yard 4 times. I just get it established and we get water restrictions. The dogs race around and around and around and it ends up looking like a motocross track. All mudholes and speed bumps. I gave up on grass and spent a fortune and now have fake grass (really good decision, no more mud.) I took great pride in the watering system that I installed myself. I got all the tubing and little spray heads and junction bits and pieces and ran it all around my garden. I could water one bit at a time and it only went where it was needed. I came home one day to find about 40m of tubing had been ripped up and then 'tug-of-warred' into submission and then wrapped around and around the hills hoist. There wasn't a salvageable metre of it left that didn't have teeth holes in it. I never did find all the sprinkler heads. It just as well I gave up on fancy watering systems as we ended up with water restrictions anyway and I wouldn't have been able to keep using it. I have a little 4 shelf pot stand outside my back door and I used to plant flowers and a few succulents and they looked really nice. I came home day after day to fing jack had pulled the whole thing over, up ended the pots and carefully chewed each plant into shreds. I ended up putting chicken wire round each shelf of the stand. Looks a bit silly but at lteast it's still there. I have otherwise given up on potted plants now. I have all sorts of 'proper' dog toys bought at great expense but Jack still prefers eating pots and buckets. Runs around with them in his mouth, madly swinging them back and forth bashing into his own head. (I did mention he's an idiot didn't I?) He ate his own water bucket about 5 times. I gave up on plastic buckets and now we have a metal one for the dogs water. Today's little adventure has us reaching new levels of silly behaviour. I let the dogs out this morning and they all went berserk, barking at the giant camphor laurel tree in my back yard. I look up to see that a possum has taken up residence (probably came for the bananas on the dog house!) This possum moved up about 20 feet and just sat there. Picture, if you will, me in my flannel pyjamas and fluffy slippers holding a long stick, the dogs are circling the tree, madly barking. I'm poking the possum, trying to dislodge it. I've already tried hosing it and that just made it cross. I don't want to hurt it but I don't want the dogs to go nuts all day either (or worse still actually catch it.) Large dog, steps on the back of my slipper, I trip off the retaining wall I'm standing on and take a header into the garden below. Luckily a dead tree broke my fall. The only damage was a large scratch down one arm but my nice long stick broke in two and my slipper is no longer attached to its sole. Went inside to rethink my options and have some breakfast. Left the dogs on possum patrol. Came back out a bit later to find that Jack had decided to climb the tree! There used to be a lovely old staghorn fern on the side of my tree. It must have been very old and it was beautiful with foliage that spread about 5 foot wide. I don't have a staghorn anymore. Jack had worked out he could leap onto the retaining wall then onto the top of the staghorn. Its root system makes a nice platform about a foot by a foot (especially after you knock off all that pesky foliage.) From the staghorn platform he can then reach the fork of the tree. This is a 35 kilo ridgeback cross gsd, ten foot up a tree! Possum moved up a few feet, just out of range. I have given up on the possum! It's now night, I've brought all the dogs inside and I'm hoping the possum has the sense to beat a retreat while it can. I have come to the conclusion that I am not meant to have an organised garden. I took down all the chicken wire and the dogs can do what they want. The plants that survive are meant to survive and there's no point at all to flowers. The fake grass makes it mainly presentable but otherwise they can do what they want to it. One day I will grow something without teethmarks in it. Jo

no worries, happy to help. So who is with which team? I'm not that familiar with the Victorian ones. I'm with St George and we are in red shirts. I'll be the one with a large skinny red dog attached.

As Mrs Dog has said, we'll be there. I think we'll be in different divisions so happy to help, should be fun. Might make Jack run faster if he sees me race someone elses dog. We could probably round up a spare ball shagger too if you need one. Jo

My Kelpie girl and my whippet x staffy girl both did this too. Neither were inside during the day, they both did it whilst teething and for a few months after. These girls are several years different in ages so the plaster was just fixed from the first one when the second one started. I found fiddling with the holes just made them work harder at lots of little holes so it was easier in the long run to let them keep their one main chew spot and just fix it when they were done. It lasted about 4 months for both girls. I think they both liked the texture and the taste. Kelpie girl ringbarked the dining room table leg too.