TigerJack

It was either Keith Millington or Jane Lawrence. I cannot remember which classes they judged though. Cheers, Thankyou!!

Hi all does anyone still have their catalogue from the Sydney Royal Show this year? (Or a really good memory.) I need to know the names of the agility judges, specifically the one who judged the Excellent gamblers class. Filling in a title application and one certificate only has the judges scribbled signature, its not printed onto the certificate as well. I can't decipher it. thanks Jo

My little Bella! 2nd place in the finals of 200 ADX. Very proud of my girl. She is so completely knackered now

I had a Dane (pure) who was 14 when I had to put him down. He could have stumbled on for another year but his cancers were having too much impact on his quality of life.

I had issues with one of my flyball dogs who dropped the ball on the run back to me. I had deliberately never thrown a ball to her as I did not want a dog that was mad for chasing a moving ball, I wanted the return to me to be just as fast as the run to the box. I tried a lot of things encouraging her to hold it longer but in the end the thing that worked best was backchaining the retrieve completely by starting with the ball to hand part of it. I had never done a lot of clicker work but decided to give it a go and was pleasantly surprised at how effective it was and that it took literally one week. n I now hav a dog that is so keen to give me a ball she will punch me with her paws and hold it in contact with me till I take it. Still not interested in fetching a thrown ball, just giving me any that are lying near me on the ground. I started in the living room. Sat on the couch with a ball held out in one hand in front of me and a large bowl of cut up steak on the table next to me. I played with the steak so she knew it was there and completely ignored the dog and watched the telly. She tried every trick she knew to get my attention and kept indicating she wanted the steak. Eventually her head turned slightly towards the ball so I clicked and rewarded. You could see the lightbulb moment. She then nose touched it for reward. Then I upped the ante and waited till she opened her mouth and tried to grip it. After that I tugged it a bit till she held on for longer. after that I briefly let go when it was in her mouth and immediately grabbed it again and clicked as I grabbed it. Another lightbulb moment! Then after she was repeatedly grabbing it and giving it back I moved on to increase her drive to get it for me. I dropped the ball onto the couch once and she pounced on it. After this was reliable, I placed it on the floor at my feet. After that I held her collar and rolled the ball to the corner of the room and then released her collar once it was stopped. She pounced on it then too. and so on... really important not to race through these sections, do tiny increments of change before progressing. I then moved it outside and started close again and then once she was bringing it the length of the yard I started running away from her and she had to chase me down to give me the ball. This part got her very determined and is when the punching me and holding the ball against me started up. (because I am not that coordinated at catching with one hand the slobbered ball she had been tossing whilst also holding treats and a clicker.) So inadvertantly my clumsiness increased her urgency to get it and return it to me. When I dropped it, she would again pounce on it and hold it in contact with me till I took if from her. I started storing the treats up in the peg basket hanging from the washing line as I had too much in my hands. I knew she had it thought out when she would give me the ball, wait till I had a firm hold on it then she'd run to the line and stare up at the peg basket waiting for her treat. One thing I notice with other peoples attempts to do this sort of backchaining is that it fails if you lump behaviours together. Don't progress even a little bit till the earlier bit is really solid. I was pig headed about it and still the whole thing took me about 8 days with maybe 3 daily sessions of no longer than 5 minutes each time. For a long while after this I would wake up from a nap on the couch and find a small pile of balls next to me. She still loves handing them to me and still prefers to let other dogs fetch them while she herds them back closer to me.

Can you post a picture? I drive through there every day to work and back. Will keep an eye out.

put posters near schools. Schoolkids see lots more than adults who drive around. When my girl Tiger escaped a year ago and was gone for 3 days, I got several phone calls from kids who had seen her. It helped that she is a people dog so she was hanging around a couple of schools to be near the kids I think.

stick it in the dishwasher. They come up nice and squeaky clean that way

I used it with both my dogs at the trial last Saturday. My kelpie and my normally nervous little silky terrier both had no problems whatsoever.

Hi guys, If you make any errors, I think the best is to drop Keith an email. Then he can sort it out with Brett (the guy who looks after the e-performance side of things.) I think Keith will forgive most things, so long as you get your membership number, your dog's registration number, your dog's titles correct! Cheers, Le Brett will send you a paypal invoice. This happened to me a while back when I tried to do my entry on the ancient obsolete computer at work. The paypal button didn't appear so I couldn't pay. Brett sorted it and sent me the invoice and I just logged into paypal then. All entries done on the home computer now! Jo

I don't practice with treats, its dinner. They learn pretty quick when their dinner is getting snapped up by the smaller dogs underfoot. Just done this with my Kelpie boy and he's learned pretty quick not to bother searching for the ones he misses as they are already long gone.

I'll be there with St George Jo

If you can find someone to handle Sparkle (she works for absolutely anyone - good and bad handlers can get clear rounds with her) Sparkle is available. I cannot handle her because I am judging 500 spdx in the other ring. Sparkle is 600, so is happy to come down to 500. She has her masters title a few times over and is an AgCh. Let me know if you cannot find anyone else. I might be able to bring Jynx for a run, too, although she does not handle as well for other people. She has all her masters titles, but was retired because I had too many dogs to run. Cheers, Well if you are all game, I'll volunteer to give Sparkle a run. That's the day I will only have 500 dogs, leaving the 200 at home that day. I'm sure the 600 pairs could fit in between my 500 runs outside. (Are you sure Le, that you are judging then? Maybe you can run Sparkle. The list that I have has you judging 500 pairs on wednesday and 600 SPDM is on the Friday.) Jo

If you enter, that gives you a definite time line to work with!!! My issue is not being able to enter strategic pairs by the early bird closing date. Pace has two SP passes and has a couple for pairs runs between early bird entries and the final closing. But she does not have a regular running partner. If she makes it through to excellent she will need a different partner than she would if she ends up staying in novice. In the same vein, I do not dare ask anyone with an excellent dog to partner me - that would just jynx me so I would not get a quallie and then leave that person stranded without a partner. My plan is to enter everything except pairs then pay the extra entry fee for pairs (at the same time, hoping that I can still find a partner by leaving it until the later date.) Cheers, Pairs! hadn't even considered that. There is another friend who is also aiming for the Nats as her first trial so maybe we can be the entertainment for the 500 SPD. Sounds like late entry for pairs for you. Although there are probably a few people in a similar situation who would need to switch at the last minute. Maybe there needs to be a waiting list of sorts on the yahoo list for this sort of thing.

yes, decisions decisions. To enter the young boy in everything and hope we've got contacts and weaves done by then or just stick to jumping??

both my kelpies do this. They line up behind the dog that is actively chasing the ball and then run out further to herd the perimeter when its tossed. They stay in formation and follow the ball dog back in. If the ball dog doesn't see where the ball gets tossed to, my girl will go out to it and drop next to it as if to say 'here it is, found it for you, come and do your bit now.' When I am out with friends who also have kelpies it is similar, we have a whole lineup of herding dogs all focussed on the dog that's doing the retrieving. its hopeless if you haven't got a dog that will retrieve along with you. Both my kelpies will tug at home but not much away from home.

To compete in any dog sport you need to join Dogs NSW and have the papers for your puppy in your name. Not entirely correct. You do certainly need papers to do ANKC agility trials. Either get hold of the limited register ones or else forget them and just register the dog on the associate register. You can do agility through other bodies though, like ADAA and ADAC. Just join those associations, don't need the dog's papers for that. To do Flyball you do not need to have anything from Dogs NSW at all. You need to join the Australian Flyball Association and join a club. There are joint arrangements for Flyball in place with the canine councils (I was on committee when it was arranged) so that a group of people who are ANKC registered (as opposed to AFA members) can form a team and enter any AFA flyball comp and vice versa. To date, no ANKC registered team has entered any AFA event to my knowledge and I do not believe that there have ever been any ANKC flyball comps arranged either. For Flyball, when you apply to join the AFA, you get a CRN (competition racing number) and the dog gets a number too. It would be your number and then A for the first dog, B for the 2nd and so on. You can list their name as whatever you like, call name or their pedigreed name, doesn't matter. You can get titles issued by both the AFA and the ANKC but you do then need to have been a member of Dogs NSW (or whatever state) when you achieved the title. Whatever you decide, you only need papers or AFA membership for when you decide to compete. Good luck Jo

I have a van with a deck above for dogs and storage below. The deck is about waist height so easy for the nimble Kelpies. I used to have a geriatric Great Dane who simply couldn't manage it so I got a folding camp table from 'Drifta' here (scroll down a bit to see it) A standard sized step stool or ramp wasn't going to work with a dog as big as a Dane and I already had a camping kitchen and table set up from Drifta so I knew they were good. The great thing about the table is that the legs are adjustable in height so good for all sizes of car. It also holds up to 100kg. I got hold of some pyramid matting and got my handy motor trimmer brother to stitch it onto canvas in a sort of fitted sheet arrangement so it has a non slip top. I can still take the canvas/matting thing off and use the table as a table if I want to. The Dane is now long gone but I still use the table. It folds down completely flat and has a handle on one side to carry it.

yeah I got mine this week too and also got the $25 gift card. It doesn't seem to have an expiry date either. More shopping!!

I bought several packs of these a while back in different sizes to suit my dogs. They are cheap enough to keep on hand in case I need them and I carry a few of each size in the doggy first aid kit in case I have to dress a cut foot and need to cover it. They are easy enough to put on and there is a dozen or so in a pack so even if one tears you have spares. They are like really heavy duty balloons but not that fragile. They are good for covering a dressing and are thin enough that without a dressing the dog will still feel like they aren't wearing a boot. Rubber so non - slip.

thanks FruFru, he's coming along. A year ago when he came to me he just sort of latched onto me as if I was the only one he could trust. He panicked if anyone else tried to hold him. Its also why I tend to chop out matts rather than try and tease them apart as I don't want to damage the trust by causing him pain. In a year he has finally gotten to the point where he is comfortable wandering around between me and friends he sees alot. At trials, he will sit on my lap and then march off over the arm rest to another friends chair if they look like they might have food. He wouldn't have done that a year ago so he is a lot more confident. It was only people he was shy of, not dogs so that says alot for what he might have been through in the past. We are doing fine with desensitisation. I couldn't touch his feet a year ago but now he lets me play with them, same with his ears. He's getting there. Anyone know a good groomer in the St George area of Sydney. Or Eastern Suburbs I guess as I work over there.

I think the trick is recommendations or finding someone with the same breed who has a regular groomer and is very happy with them. What breed is he? He looks like a maltese x which I daresay is one of the most popular little guys to hit the groomers. He is either a tiny (badly bred) pure maltese or else a maltese cross

I am sure there are a lot of people like me who have never used a groomer and who are a bit bemused about where to start looking for a good one. Reason being, that nobody gets on DOL (or any other forum or info place) to say how wonderful the groomer was that just did their dog. All we ever do see is the ones that weren't happy. So for me, I am reluctant to try one. I guess I am lucky in that I have mostly short coated dogs so no groomer type requirements that I can't manage. I do, however, have two little white fluffies with difficult coats. One, is fine being handled as I've had her since she was a pup. She does let me comb her out and tolerates the knots being pulled and cut out so she never gets matted. She also happily sits still while I clip or scissor her down to a very short maintenance clip. The other is a tiny tiny (2kg) little rescue that had possibly never been groomed in his life before I got him. He was a terrible matted little knot of sticks and burrs and fleas wighing only 1.6kg when I got him. The whole coat came off in one piece. He must have been like that for a long time as he paced, rather than walking with the diagonal legs on opposite sides moving forward at once. (does that make sense?) He still paces now, even though the coat is gone. He has a cotton wool type of coat. Very fine and fluffy but a bit wavy. He looks appalling shaved to the skin but longer than 2cm or so and its hard to keep knot free. Even after a year, with me constantly handling him and combing and doing my best to keep him matt free, he still looks a bit like a muppet haircut cotton ball. He freaks at the sound of a clipper and is scared of implements like scissors and combs. I am sure if he had a decent clip done by a professional then I could maintain it but I wouldn't know where to go to find a good one and I worry for how traumatised he would be. I don't know what went on in his life before he came to me but he hates being groomed by me who he knows, I imagine a strange groomer would be a bit scary for him. All a bit daunting really. All I ever see on DOL is the reports of people unhappy with groomers so I am nervous of trying one. My little man will likely have to keep his geeky haircut done by me as a result. This is 'Chicken' looking fairly good for him. He does need his legs trimmed but that is a difficult task and he finds it traumatic.

none of us get to see the shirts until they are all delivered after orders are filled. They don't have samples because they don't make them up till all orders are received. Hence the really soon deadline for shirt orders (early January.) The design is somehow made into the fabric once they know how many orders there are so none are made in advance. Would have been nice to at least have a sample of the fabric, even if it was the wrong colour, so you could see if you like the feel of it. Some of these synthetic cool dry kinds of shirts just feel terrible, some are great. I did overhear someone saying it was more of a royal blue for the shirt, so must not be a dark navy,

I have sat next to the cabana with these on display at the last couple of trials so I've seen them. You do need to check the website for the measurements as some of them are male sizes, some unisex and some female. The tricolour jacket is really nice and I'm going to get one of those. Looks very warm. They only had a small size there so I need to go check the website for sizing and I think that was a men's size so the hips will be narrower. The contrast colour one does look like dog hair will have a hard time sticking to it. It comes to probably just on hip level, doesn't cover your bum. From memory it was a female sizing one. quite fitted. Not for me but looked like a nice lightweight jacket. You'd need a bigger size if you wanted to wear a jumper underneath. The padded vest was very nice and so was the fleecy jacket.