TigerJack

don't foget to wait till 6pm tonight! My credit card is still recovering from clean run!!

added my comments to the online feedback link. That proposed off leash dog area is tiny compared to what it is now

I have two thundershirts for two of my littlest dogs. THey do not eliminate anxiety but do downgrade it I find. The first girl, a rescue mini foxie is terrified of storms. She shakes badly, starts to drool and tries to get into cupboards or small spaces. With the shirt on, I then place her in a crate and she settles down and copes fine. She still shivers occasionally but doesn't have the look of sheer terror on her face. She will also manage to just sit near me on the couch with the shirt on but prefers her little crate hidey hole. Considering that I used to sit and hug her to me really tightly to settle her, the thundershirt works on a similar principle. The second boy is a tiny little maltese rescue boy. I think he must have been locked in a cage and had bad experiences as he is a shocker for anxiety and sort of like separation anxiety when I crate him if he comes along with my other dogs to trials. He squeals like he is in a panic, digs at the door, licks the door, and shakes madly. He has rolled the crate doing this. With the thundershirt on it downgrades to just licking the door. She noise and the frantic digging at the door stops. Until he sees me come back anyway, then it is just an indignant smack at the door to say 'oi, get me out of here right now.' No more panic though. I have tried easing him into crating, I use them with my other dogs alot but this little one is determined never to settle down in there. For my two, it doesn't eliminate the stress but it helps make it a little more bearable.

earlier this year my whippet cross girl Tiger managed to escape our very secure yard after happily remaining in that yard for over 9 years. She was lost for over 2 days and then hit by a car about 8 km from home. The only reason I was called early enough to get her to a vet in time was that she was wearing a collar, with ID on it. (One of those embroidered ones with name and phone number.) The person who found her was not a dog person at all and had spent a while wondering what to do with her, too scared to approach her, they eventually noticed the collar from a distance and got up the courage to get near enough to read it. (She was virtually passed out bleeding on the ground, too weak to move, but dogs are still scary to a non-dog person.) I don't think it had occurred to this person that there was a pound to take a dog to, they were too scared to go near the dog at all. My dogs that are outside during the day have collars on, embroidered ones with phone numbers plus engraved tags. (They also have that little plastic band from DOL saying if I'm lost my owner will post on DOL. Plus the petrescue plastic band too.) My inside dogs don't wear collars unless they are leaving the property then they all line up to get their collars on complete with all those tags too. The only reason they don't wear them all the time is the herd of little dogs with all those tags makes a hell of a tinkling noise all the time.

I do agility with my tiny Silky Terrier Bella. She is only 3kilos. She has made it to Excellent level in both agility and jumping. Now the course times are a bit quick for her but she goes clear all the time. It does take a while for a seesaw to drop with her on the end of it though. I am glad for the recent change to the pairs rules where a 300 dog can jump down at 200. Before that it was hard to find a partner for her.

I got some of these - they are called 'cloud collars' They are good, no stress with it over their face etc. I had a dog hit by a car earlier this year and while I was in the waiting room a staffy came in with one on so I checked them out and ordered a few for my lot. I will warn you that I don't think their sizing is correct. I got the one for border collie sized dogs for my kelpies and it is way too small. They would have no problem turning round and licking at a wound. Get it bigger. I think the smaller sizes are OK. My chihuahua's one fit fine. From memory I think they are a Kong product

Don't lump it all together. Years ago I tried teaching flyball to my tiny 3.5kg silky terrier. She can do all the bits but her problem was that shew as so light that the old curl box didn't trigger when her front feet hit it, only when her back ones came up to push off with. That meant she got hit in the arse or the back of the head with the ball. Scared her so she wouldn't go back up there. It was early days for flyball for me and I didn't know how to fix it so she never did race. I think now that she had several problems. First, she was no good at catching so the ball moving was always going to be scary. I would now backchain a retrieve with the ball with any dog so that they are actively seeking the ball on their way onto the box. They they won't be surprised by it flying out at them. Secondly, I would not put the ball in at all until I had finished backchaining the retrieve (away from the box) and taught her to catch properly, also away from the box. Then I would get her turning on the box without it being set. When she's doing that on automatic pilot then I would start to set the box without a ball so she can get used to the noise. At home I would have the box somewhere where I could set it and trigger it while she was nearby and treat her with food everytime the noise occurred too. (She startles easily.) Last thing, after she was able to catch etc, then I would try the turn with the ball in the box. If it was still too much for her you could try just sitting the ball on the ledge of the box and not triggering it so she has to go for the ball without it getting tossed at her. Take it slow and break it right down into all the separate bits and proof them before putting it all together.

would be a sight to see if anyone got any video of Vickie at the end of the run too. Jumping up and down on the spot and whooping out loud! That was one proud mum!

Mobic is the human grade tablet form of the same compound that is Metacam liquid. Maybe your dog will find the Metacam liquid more palatable. I had one of my chihuahuas on Metacam but ran out while I was visiting my Dad who is a GP. He got into his MIMMS drug book and found it was the same as Mobic so I got some of that. Hard to cut a tablet that small for a chi though, OK for a bigger dog. Whatever you decide, take it with food.

Before I got my third dog I rang my local council as they had a similar 2 dog thing listed but I had heard of the NSW companion animal act. My council told me I could have as many dogs as I wanted as long as all of them were registered and well cared for and there were no complaints made by neighbours. I currently have ten dogs, all registered. At one point I must have had a couple more listed as well because I took a while to let them know about deceased dogs. I have had no trouble at all. The critical thing is keep them all correctly registered with up to date addresses and keep them under control.

HI, I just paid. Order number 308 for tigerjack

Running order is up!

Running order is 99% done today! It will be on the AFA site this weekend. It is a big running order and most teams get 8 races each day, one division has 15 races over 2 days. The suspense is killing me! Is the singles running order going up at the same time? I am doing the 2 day comp running order and someone else is doing the singles and pairs and veterans. I know it is finished so I should imagine it will go up at the same time as the 2 day running order. I'll check that the other one is going up too.

Running order is 99% done today! It will be on the AFA site this weekend. It is a big running order and most teams get 8 races each day, one division has 15 races over 2 days.

I am the lucky person tasked with completing that nightmare. It is at the shuffle stage so I am just minimising clashes now. It will be posted on the AFA site this weekend.

its started! we put up one ring yesterday and strung the fencing. Then we marked out the rest for the 2nd ring. Plus marked out 'cabana city.' The area gets used for demos (it is the 'Supercoat arena') for a while then we put up the 2nd ring's fencing the day before the racing starts. There is a lot more room than I thought there would be. Plenty for cabanas and the runbacks are 68 feet.

Every team is getting multiple delivery passes as well as parking passes. Not coming because of the equipment issue is a bit sad because it isn't that bad. You should have asked questions before the closing date. (I'm on the organising committee.) There are enough delivery passes being handed out that equipment etc can be driven right to the site. Then you only have to drive an empty car out to P5 and walk back in yourself or catch the shuttle bus. DeltaCharlie with 9 dogs, Bec I assume you had at least one other person with you. You could have delivered all your gear and all those dogs right to the kerb next to the grounds and then one person stayed with the dogs and the other driven the car out. Personally, I find Canberra Royal much trickier. Its going to be good, 34 teams and lots of nice close racing!!

A friend of mine has adored Pumi from afar for years. Her current dog was aging and she had her heart set on a Pumi for her next dog. She had gone to the Royal Easter Show at Sydney at met with the only breeder that seemed to be there for several years (I think there was only one) and has corresponded off and on for several years. She finally decided the time was right and late 2010 made contact again to be told that this breeder was no longer breeding and was going to be relocating overseas so was reducing numbers. She did not have many Pumi left but there were a couple of two year old females. My friend had long wanted a grey male but this breeder had only black and white dogs left. After alot of thought she went out and met the breeder at her home (country NSW) and came home with a 2 and a bit year old Pumi female. This dog did not work out. It was terrified of everything and was never going to become the dog my friend wanted. (Dogsports.) She was heartbroken but came to realise that she could not give this dog the home it needed and it has gone back to the breeder. It seemed that the dog had lived its entire life on the one property in the runs with a couple of other dogs so was poorly socialised. Being relocated to urban Sydney with people and dogs was simply overwhelming for her. My friend had fallen in love with the breed from a distance and sadly, rare as they are in this country, you don't get to pick and choose amongst many breeders. This breeder had only kept her dogs in the runs and had not had them around people. My friend looked at importing before deciding to go and see the white female. It is a pity there aren't more of them about as they look like a fascinating breed. Bit of a challenge to train as they are supposed to be wilful but sadly, any dog, any breed that doesn't get socialised early will have issues. My friend was unable to afford the import costs and didn't want to have a dog go through quarantine. She was also reluctant to import a dog she had never met in the flesh. The reality of what Pumik are available in Australia meant that she could not have the dog she had yearned for for years. She has since spent months poring over all the rescue sites and has taken on a little cross bred rescue dog that will suit her. Pity there aren't more in Australia, they do look lovely. As my friend said, 'so ugly they look like they've been dragged through a bush backwards.' Jo

Does anybody know how to get the digital Clean Run Mags onto ipad? I can't seem to manage to figure that out.

I slung weed matting (it comes folded double) over chicken wire and slung that the entire length of the fence. Stops seeing through the fence and the chicken wire is a back up for palings falling off the neighbours side.

I lost my own boy Jack in May to this same cancer. Splenic haemangiosarcoma is very aggressive and so nasty. Goldies were listed among the breeds it occurs most commonly in when I researched it. Jack was only nine and very active. I chose not to wake him up from surgery. When he was opened up the vet found that it had spread all through his belly and was bleeding badly. It was kindest to let him go. The most he would have had if I'd taken him home was a few weeks and those would have been weeks of constant pain, he was losing so much blood from the tumours. The hardest thing was rationalizing how fast it had happened. One minute he was racing at flyball and the next he was gone. I understand what you are feeling right now. So sorry. At the time I felt guilty, like should I have tried chemotherapy or something but now, especially after the research I did, I know that taking him home to die would have been just for me, it is a nasty thing to die from so letting him go was best even though it was hard on me. It is such an aggressive cancer that even with all possible treatments survival beyond diagnosis is only a few months. You did the kindest thing.

Another of Cookie Monster the flying mop and her sister the half corded white mop Blizzard

The pics below are another of Jack, my Ridgeback cross Malinois and of BElla, my Silky Terrier. She is 21cm high and got her JD on the weekend to go along with the AD she got a fortnight ago.

And the flying rug The Flying rug is Cookie Monster who also runs with Cookie (man) and Jack while he was alive. Cookie Monster is also doing agility along with her completely crazy white Puli sister Blizzard