TigerJack

I have been using the Kingsford Veterinary Hospital for all my crew for the last 6 years or so. Andrew is the head vet and we've been seeing a new young vet (Kathy) lately. 70 Gardeners Rd Kingsford, 96626703. Driving east, go just past it and turn left at retravision (before the servo) and park in their parking spots. I have so many dogs that they give me the 'gold client' discount, I am always in there. We've had a few surgeries (anal glands removed from my chi following endless abscesses, cancer plus whole toe removed from my Dane plus several other lumps removed, at least 7 desexing ops, gashes sutured, tooth holes dressed) plus a corneal ulcer treated just a couple of weeks ago. They were also very caring and supportive when I finally had my Dane put down earlier this year. Arranged the cremation and wooden casket etc and didn't mention money while I was there in tears. We dealt with payment a few weeks later. They often ring to follow up on how a dog is doing after some treatment or other. Half the time they don't charge me for a followup visit (like recently to check the corneal ulcer 4 times over 8 days. I only got charged for the initial visit and the medication and one follow up. she spent a whole day in there at one point as she may have needed the eye stitched shut.) They also know I work in health and can help with keeping my dog calm during stitches, apparently not all owners are allowed into surgery. I've avoided at least two anaesthetics that way. Jo

From a flyball perspective, different reason not to throw a ball too often. You don't want to create a situation where the dog is more motivated by chasing the moving ball than they are by returning to you with a static ball for the tug or food motivation reward. Throw a ball too often and you get a dog who goes down fast to the box to get that wonderful tennis ball but returns more slowly as they have already gotten their reward, the ball. Having said that, I didn't figure that out with jack till it was far too late so he still gets a ball thrown for him but only occasionally. My other flyball dog (kelpie) is not remotely interested in fetching the ball, she just wants to chase after the dog that is chasing the ball. Of my three bigger dogs, if I take them to the park and there is no ball then all 3 will stand there waiting for something to happen. If I throw a ball, Jack will go get it and the other two will run after him. Interestingly (to me) if Jack doesn't see where the ball went, the Kelpie will go to it and drop next to it to mark where it is and then bark at Jack to come get it. She won't get it herself. These 3 dogs have done a fair bit of this chase the ball and chase Jack as well stuff. Jack is almost 8, all 3 are lean and muscled and virtually no fat on them and there is no sign of any joint issues at all. (The kelpie is the only pure bred, the other two are crosses.)

Scat Mat. Has a static electricity charge so it feels prickly and dogs and cats won't walk on them

bumping - I'd like to know about this too

Elevate the dog so it can see out the window. I have a little dog that got carsick without fail every time we went anywhere. I got a puppy booster seat (has a tether clip to attach to the collar on it) and she would happily hop up there and sit up watching wehre we were going and was not ever sick again.

The Flyball you are talking about is St George Flyball, we train in Peakhurst (tried Tempe, too much hassle.) (Her name is Marion and its a 'deaf' scottie.) You can access club details from www flyball.org.au or PM me for details. Jo

I also have a little chi Daisy who has been worrying me with weight lately. She used to be a little chunkybutt at 3.6kg but she has dropped to 2.8. She used to have saddlebags on her hips and now the bones stick out. Losing 0.8kg is an enourmous emount for such a little dog. She was still eating but I sometimes had to stand over her and keep reminding her to eat. I decided I needed to get her checked out and so took her to the vet for a complete blood workup. Full count etc, liver and thyroid function tests etc and it all came back normal. I'm none the wiser about her weight loss but at least there's nothing nasty going on. I now up her food as often as I can. She's eating, she's playing normally and she doesn't seem stressed. I am putting it down to her burning a bit more fule trying to keep warm in the winter (she's now living in a coat) and also down to a bit of pining. My old Dane was put down earlier this year and Daisy was very attached to him.

fur fitness 2/82 captain cook drive caringbah www.dogwashcafe.com.au

umm - St George was there too from NSW, not just PICSI and Norwest! Plus 3 teams from ACT. Fabulous effort by Julie and the Albury guys. Probably the best organised comp I've been to. who would have thought 89 races and packed up and driving away from presentation by 6pm. Excellent job. Maybe there will be room for a few best 3 of 5 races for 1st division next year. and good egg and bacon rolls - well done Trish

the draw is out 89 races 60 sec changeovers 3 heat races 24 teams 6 divisions no lunch break its going to be a long day

For Flyball, go look at www.flyball.org.au and find the club details section. There is the St George Club (mine) and we train in Peakhurst. Send me a PM if you want details. There is also the Sutherland Dog Training Club and they do Flyball and agility as well. PM Mrs Dog for info on that. There is also the Hurstville Allbreeds dog training club. PM Monelite for info on that one!

QUOTE (whatevah @ 12th Jul 2008 - 07:55 PM) I will be there with Moses (competing) and Tia (to give the chooks some time away from her). Can you camp on the grounds? I don't think so, or everyone would be doing that instead of booking in the caravan parks. I wouldn't recommend camping on the grounds. We did that the first year and it was so amazingly cold. The main problem is that the only showers open directly to outdoors so the wind comes straight under the door and the 'hot' water was tepid at best. We were much happier at a caravan park the last year. Jo

2 teams from St George. Packing the thermals and the beanie and scarf. Jo

I'm contemplating the 3 year version but I'm really put off by the intranasal yearly kennel cough thing. That intranasal vacc is horrible and the one experience I have of it was for my chihuahua pup and he virtually had aspiration pneumonia after it. Very traumatic to give them too. I'd hate to have to try and give it to a staffy! my baby Chi was hard enough. Jo

ANKC agreement is for all states (including QLD.) I don't believe the vote was unanimous amongst the states but it was still voted through so you could enter an AFA comp in QLD now and (when your dog gets enough AFA points) apply for the CCCQ title.

Yarrowfell, apparently ANKC titles will be assigned as long as you were a member of that group when your dog acquired the points under the AFA. Perhaps they just haven't drafted up title certificates as yet. Also, the site listed by Molasseslass (and I also saw someone post the ACT version a few months back) has rules which are out of date. Not sure why the ANKC still has old rules, the AFA ones were updated prior to the agreement being signed and so the current AFA ones are supposed to be in force for the ANKC. Not a great deal of difference but there's a couple of important ones, jump heights are only 7-14 inches now for example. No more 16 inch jumps.

Flyball is alive and well in QLD. GO to www.flyball.org.au and check out the list of AFA affiliated flyball clubs. If you are talking about ankc flyball, well there is currently an agreement signed between the AFA and the ANKC so that members of either body can enter teams into comps held by the other body and the ANKC is using the rules from the AFA. There are plenty of AFA comps and they are listed on the AFA website mentioned above. So far no ANKC comps have been organised to my knowledge. They don't have equipment or qualified judges yet. A group of ANKC people could submit a team to an AFA comp and race right now. If you care about points and titles then the current agreement allows competition points and titles gained in either bodies comps to be recognised by the other body and titles assigned. ie; enter an AFA comp and you'll get AFA points and can apply for the titles wehn there is enough points. enter an ANKC comp (if they start having them) and you get points from them and ANKC assigns titles. AFA and ANKC points will be listed together (as long as the agreement stays in place) and points at an AFA comp can also get an ANKC title as long as the person / dog is also current registered / member of the ANKC.

I had an elderly Great Dane until very recently and my vehicle is a vito van with a raised floor for the dogs (gear goes underneath.) I looked around for steps or ramps and eventually did something completely different. I got a fold up table from 'Drifta' who make very hardy camping kitchens and the like. They had made the stuff I have already in the van. The table can support 100kgs but the legs fold down so its a little over one inch thick and the table top is about 2.5 foot by 3 foot. I had my very handy brother make me a non slip top for it which is made of canvas like a fitted sheet with pyramid matting attached to the top. It is effectively a platform that is height adjustable (legs are adjustable in length) the dog setps up to the platform in one step then into the car on the next level. Easy! Drifta here

Tigerjack,just so you know,Nutro is no longer available in Australia as of last week.I used to use it but have recently switched to Orijen sadly, this isn't an issue for me now as my Dane, who I kept on Nutro, was put to sleep last Tuesday at the Grand old age of 13. eukanuba has done the breeder bags(20 kg) for many more years than advanceI've never seen a breeder bag of Eukanuba, do you need to order them? edit but still can't make the quotes work

the best food for your dog is the one it does best on. Raw is great for some, dry is great for others. Experiment a bit and try adding some raw to the dry I feed 9 dogs advance. I rank it in the same level as the eukanuba I used to use. I would still use eukanuba but for a long time now advance has had 20kg bonus bags for the price of the 15 kg ones so better value for me. I've also used nutro and its certainly great but not easy to get hold of. I've tried the cheaper brands of dry and always regret it. Loads more poo and loads more smell and they need to eat alot moer than they do of either eukanuba or advance. Advance turkey and rice is good for me as its tiny kibble so good for my toy breeds and also good for my Kelpie. My Shepherd, Ridgeback x needs a bit more so he's on the energy food or sometimes the puppy food (even higher fat than the energy one.) They seem to like it just fine.

I saw the big red boofer and the kelpie. Were you with St George? I said hello to heaps of people but the weekend was so busy it's all a bit of a blur. yes that was me and I agree. The whole weekend was a bit of a blur. Jo

Is anyone else camping?2Tollers, I was about 50m from you, down by the fence next to the big red trailer. I had the kelpie and the big red boofer. I think I spoke to you?? Yarrowfell, I saw one pug so must have seen you. Jo

go to the following website and select 'whats going on' then 'clubs' then 'nsw' for a full listing. http://www.flyball.org.au/ Psychos train on a sunday and leaps and Bounds train on a saturday (I think)

there are a few. go to the following website and select 'whats going on' then 'clubs' then 'qld' for a full listing. http://www.flyball.org.au/ Also you can contact the QLD representative on [email protected]

I taught my first flyball dog to catch with food. He was hopeless with the ball at first. I got a box of the tiniest kibble I could find (ended up using cat kibble) and stood in the kitchen and put him in a sit in front of me about a metre away. proceeded to toss kibble underhand at his head. This was instead of his usual dinner. I had several other dogs rushing to pick up the dropped kibble so he very quickly put some effort into getting to the food while it was in mid air and by the end of one single box of kibble I had a dog that could catch anything tossed in the general direction of his head. It easily transferred to a ball. Having said all that, I wouldn't just teach him to catch. That was my first dog and I did it differently with the 2nd (and less ball obsessed.) I learned more by the 2nd dog and so I back-chained the retrieve with a clicker with food rewards. Made giving the ball to me such a good thing that she will do anything to get to it and then chase me to force me to take it. The first dog's drive is to get to the ball, that is his aim. The second dog's drive is to bring it to me, faster return, doesn't get dropped. Now I just have to get her to take a tug and it will all be great. Jo