TIPANDUS

Some people just don't think about the probable danger and some people are just idiots. It is not just the general public, either.... You would think a VET would know better, but no. We were out on a main road one day, and we watched in horror as a car swerved to miss an old SWF sauntering across the road. We stopped and coaxed the shaking girl into the car, and called the number on the tag. It turned out that it belonged to a vet who was away from home, so we dropped it off and it walked through the fallen down fence. We rang the vet later, and the reply was "oh she is a rescue dog, and she does as she pleases"....... We didn't even get a thank you. Needless to say I would never take my dog to this vet as this one obviously has no sense, and no feelings for the animals they are supposed to care for, so what chance of a empathetic response to someone else's best friend? Di

We used Vicks Vaporub to solve our chewing puppy problem, it has worked for both Tippy (JRT) and Kira (Border Collie). I just reapplied it when necessary. Di

We taught Tippy to bark on command by saying "where's Schatzi ?" ( his best friend), in an excited voice, as we had noticed he would woof once whenever he heard this. So armed with clicker and food we started with "wheres Schatzi SPEAK", then faded the first part, and added our hand signal. Only trouble is he now speaks very softly at first, he needs several goes to get a sound out. So far we have not found anything that will make our BC pup Kira bark on command, but I am sure we will.

Thanks for the reply Erny, we do have one scheduled break, but are encouraged to interact with our dogs between exercises. Also after training a Jack Russell who switches off easily if bored, we know to use lots of fun playtime in between official exercises. We have a whole new set of instructors this year but previous instructors were very dog savvy and taught us great lifelong positive motivational habits, which we use daily. We have never had a dog refuse to drink before, so will be taking "spiked" water next time in case it happens again, thanks for helping.

Oh yes, it seems an hour is a long time for me and for our 20 week old BC Kira. We have just returned from class and she has crashed next to me. She was finding it hot too, ( it does get hot in Armidale occasionally) flopping into my shadow to cool off. I couldn't make her have a drink though, :D so I had to content myself with wetting her belly and under her arms to cool her off. She definitely has more energy at the Tuesday night classes we attend, and so do I. Di