kelpiecuddles

We have the manual. :). At this stage I've been stacking her first with him watching on and then he copying me. She's getting the hang of it quite well We just need to work on being able to show her teeth as she wriggles a lot LOL

In the NSW junior handlers manual it says As far as I know it's not an issue in NSW but may be harder if we are interstate and hoping to show we would need to check the rules for where we are going.

As I understand it that rule varies state to state.

Has he a got a currency? treats, a favourite toy, etc? I'd be taking him out on the lead but just as far as he'll go without barking and reward, reward, reward and then gradually go further.

Honestly I think it's no different than kids really. My oldest is ridiculously smart but gets crap reports and would probably score quite low on things like Naplan because he's just not interested in sitting there and doing what he sees as a silly test, he'd rather be dismantling the toaster, fiddling with his chemistry set or building something awesome with Mechano.

As many of you would know my son is getting a start in showing this year. He's getting some lessons from a lovely local lady who is helping him out and she has also offered to let him handle his dog, yet to see how that turns out as her dog is very focused on her and mucked around when Alex tried handling him because he wanted to get back to her, might be less problematic in the ring if he can't see her so we'll see how it pans out. His other option is our basset Josie, I had thought originally he wouldn't be able to use her because she's only pet quality but I've since realised(thanks HW!) that it doesn't matter so much whether she's show material as they will only be judging his technique in junior handler. So it looks like Josie ticks the boxes, she's neutered but is main registered as I recall so all that remains is to move her in to my name for show purposes once our DogsNSW membership goes through. Then there is the issue of teaching HER what she needs to do. So I was wondering whether anyone has any tips for new young people(and older dogs!) just learning the ropes of stacking? We've already worked out one major hurdle which is that she doesn't like her rear end being touched and arches her back if you try to move her back feet for stacking purposes BUT I worked out today that if you leave her back feet in place you can move her front feet forward and then pull her body forwards a little to get her over her front legs properly and she stacks great! (Don't know if I explained that well but it works LOL). It also has the bonus of being easier for the young fella with his shorter arms as she's obviously very long in the body so stacking her from the front makes it easier for him to keep her still while he adjusts her. We are working on her allowing her tail to be held and so far she's doing great with that and allows me to pose her nicely with her tail in the right position(previously if I touched her tail she would put it between her legs) and we are working on touching her all over to ensure she won't do the crouch thing when touched in the ring(would I be correct in assuming the judge will still go over the dog as if to judge it for the purposes of junior handler?). We've planned to go to a number of shows in the coming months, the first couple will mostly be to watch and learn and then it'll be on. Final question! For the purposes of ensuring Josie is relaxed in the ring when he starts showing are we allowed to take her to shows with us as a member of the public? I'd like to get her used to the environment and get him to work with her off to the side(obviously not where it will cause hassles for others though), so that she gets used to it and settles, I'd like to see how she handles it before I throw him in the deep end with her. (Obviously we fully intend to be sensitive to other peoples dogs, etc, we'll probably go to shows where someone we know is exhibiting and sit with them when we aren't working with her)

Don't know LG, but I have a suspicion that the way he writes about Dante I suspect Dante felt plenty of happiness and love in his life even if he was raised for work.

Personally when I talk to people about breeds I always tell them to work out first whether they can live happily with the worst things about the breed(lots of fur, grooming, extra training for breed traits, etc), if you can't be happy with the worst things about a breed it's not even worth looking at the best things about the breed :)

I suggest if you are at all inclined to tear up you get the tissues BEFORE you read this. It's a letter full of love and bittersweet sadness written in the car as he contemplated walking in to the vet to have his beloved police dog euthanized. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/christopher-coscia-writes-letter-to-the-k9-partner-he-had-to-kill/story-fngwib2y-1226813656367

Thanks HW, I'll check. She's easy to pace but she does sometimes resent having her tail touched so stacking can be hit and miss with her(When you touch her rear end she just tends to sit down to avoid it, not snap or anything). He's using her for home practice so if she starts to tolerate it better we'll keep it as an option.

Nah I'm not really. :). It's a budget for a nine year old so I'm not stressing about that sort of stuff yet. Don't want to confuse him too much. Lol We have it lucky I guess that the breed we are getting in to doesn't need much 'stuff' to get them in the ring as far as grooming goes and it's mostly done before show day, as long as they are clean and looking in good condition and maybe a bit of chalk on the white spots and they look good. We already own a great fold out gazebo that we won in a raffle :) Then it's crates, well my dogs are crate trained so crates are there and for starters he can make do putting our crate on a little pull trolley.

I agree OSS, if you have kids you wouldn't force them to play with a kid they didn't get along with and I'm sure you wouldn't voluntarily go out to dinner with someone you disliked as an adult, I'm not sure why we expect our dogs to behave in a way we wouldn't force on ourselves. Just to be clear I'm most definitely not anthropomorphising dogs, just making an example ;)

I wouldn't be taking her close to the other dogs, from the way you describe it it's almost like she's feeling like your 'forcing' her to meet them and I think that's probably asking for trouble.

Yes but this girls whole head comes right over the fence so she can bark really well at anyone going past. It's actually pretty frustrating if I'll be honest, if she just poked her head up for a look it'd be OK but she barks quite aggressively at anyone that walks past. I'm told she's a lovely dog and I'm sure she is but she's certainly a good guard dog too! She's a stunner as well. :)

Probably hard to do with a doggy with such long legs but can I put in a request that you do your best to train him not to stand with his paws on the TOP of the fence and bark at people walking past, it really freaks my dogs out when our neighbourhood dane does that! :laugh:

My dog is certainly more likely to arc up at another dog if she is on a lead and it has a go at her, off lead she's more inclined to ignore. Personally until I saw a behaviourist I would put a cage type muzzle on the dog just to be safe, not worth the risk in my mind.

She's not really show material and I don't want to demoralise him completely by making him show a dog that's not got a chance in hell. There's a possibility that this rescue basset we are taking on is actually from show lines, I am waiting to hear from the probable breeder of him so if he's halfway good he might be an option but unless that happens we'll stick with what we can. There are a couple of people I already know around here who will let him show their dogs and once he's there and showing he might be able to get a few more contacts. :)

There are quite a few shows fairly local to us in the coming months :) We have the added issue that we are relying on the generosity of others allowing us to use their dogs from him to handle as we don't have our own yet. He has been meeting regularly with a lovely local lady who has been giving him lessons :)

I wouldn't have been happy with that assessment

exactly ;) and maybe empty the dishwasher for me too :D

LOL, I don't mind covering the petrol but I don't want him thinking it's some sort of free ride and a cheap activity, if he's going to do it he needs to contribute to the cost in SOME way. For now he'll just show locally and we may head down to Melbourne sometimes but it would be to visit family at the same time so I don't count the cost of that ;)

Thanks :) It's not on the initial budget but it will be at some point in the future and I like to budget a LONG way in advance LOL

My son and I are going to sit down and work out budget for DogsNSW membership, handler membership, etc, etc plus cost of show entries(and other fun things we need to get him like clothes and a showlead :) ) so he can have a input in to budgeting, etc for what will essentially be his hobby. The other additional cost which will happen at some stage down the track is the prefix fee, I can't see anywhere on the site whether that fee is an annual fee or a one off fee? I'm assuming all the rest of the fees are a standard yearly rate? can someone just confirm for me which, if any, are one off costs. I don't mind covering the one off things to get him started but I've told him he will need to assist in the other costs even if it's by doing extra chores to help earn it :)

Well I did once see someone suggest that intelligence in dogs is best tested by their ability to do the job they were intended for(or a 'pet' approximation of that, eg. a working breed that does agility instead of herding) So something like a basset hound should be smart in ways that allow them to use their superior snoz, follow and find and alert their owner, a border collie should be smart in ways that could be moulded to make them a sheepdog and so on. Doesn't mean they are actually doing that job in real life but that the potential is there if that makes sense. I thought it was an interesting way to look at intelligence in a very variable species.

Research tells me that Warstorm bassets has(or had) a couple of Kinkiwi hounds themselves so I'll wait for them to get back to me as they would know whether they were down here.