Seita

Sorry for the new topic but I am very excited to announce that I finally found a boarding kennel in Brisbane that not only KNEW what a titre test was but also accepts them in lieu of a vaccination certificate!!! I know there are a couple of people on here that do titre tests and I know last time I asked about boarding kennels that accept titres no one could recommend a kennel. In case anyone else is looking for a kennel in the Brissy area that accepts this, the kennel is Bowhill Kennels at Willawong in the western suburbs.

Thankfully I only have the one dog at the moment so no one else to stir her up. She's got sedatives for the next few days but I expect that she'll bounce back pretty quickly. I'm still umming and ahhing about sending some entries off for competitions in November just in case she's doing really well. I know she's going to be going batty within a week or so of being kept quiet!

:thumbsup: Are you using and tick preventive? (sorry to ask but I always want to know if one of them is ineffective My dog had a tick when on Advantix, 1 week after the application (!) so I stopped using it and switched to Proban) I only had her on a herbal remedy called tick stop which is supposed to help them build up an immunity to ticks over time. I had forgotton to put a new tick collar on her. I don't trust the spot ons and will be putting her onto proban tablets and permoxin washes from now on. A worthwhile reminder to all that everyone needs to be extra diligent with tick prevention. I think the tick stop stuff probably helped her combat the tick more efficiently but it certainly isn't enough - I knew that but had just forgotten to put the tick collar on her, I did have one kicking around but had forgotten about it. My last dog was on a tick collar and I think we had her on a spot on as well (I can't quite remember) and she didn't survive. The vet mentioned that if using a tick collar the killtix ones seem to do a better job of keeping the ticks away.

Make sure you get pup used to being alone from the day you bring him home and build him to longer periods of time so that when you go back to work after those first 9 days he won't freak out. Find a good safe area to confine him while at work and start by putting him in there for half an hour or so while he eats a meal, then gradually increase the time so by the time your 9 days are up he will be fine to stay in his pen for the whole day. Pups usually need 3 meals a day so try giving him a treat ball or something similar to feed him his lunch -this will keep him busy trying to get food out and also provide that third meal. This is a bit challenging to do with raw feeding so you can try sticking a couple of necks into a kong and filling the kong with some stock and freezing it so it's a tasty iceblock for him to play with through the day. I have always done this sort of thing with puppies and now that it's warming up it's perfect to keep them occupied and cool!!! The only other advice I can give is do loads of research on raising a pup, there are some good e-books title before you get your puppy and after you get your puppy but I can't remember who wrote them - maybe someone else will post the links up for you!

rain coat or drizabone?

Just an update, she has improved heaps and is allowed to come home tonight. She'll be sedated for the weekend to keep her calm (she is not normally calm) but she gets to come home so I am very very relieved!!! :p

My last girl was competeing in novice when she was 12-18 months old. She was not ready and needless to say we didn't do very well. With my current girl I started training her from 8 weeks and she didn't enter the obedience ring until she was 2 (around march last year). Like dogdude said she would have probably been ready and would have done it at 12 months old but I wanted good scores and I wanted her 100% proofed as I didn't want to muck around in those lower levels. She gained her CDX title in August last year and has been in training for UD since then. She is just about ready for UD now but I still want to do further proofing and training so it's not likely that she will hit the UD ring until she's around 4 as again I don't want to muck around with loads of fails and just want to get in there and do well from the very start!

Just spoke with the vet clinic and she's on the mend. Hopefully she'll be able to come home tomorrow.

Laffi - yes she's at the vets now. I took her there first thing this morning when her back legs started going wobbly. I had hoped that she wouldn't get affected by the tick as I thought I'd got it off in time but apparently not. She was showing first stage symptoms this morning so I rushed her to the vets who think she should pull through. But you just never know so I am trying to be positive but realistic at the same time.

Thanks Marie, I will definitely be keeping her quiet which is just about impossible but I will do my best. Unfortunately this ends her trialling and showing for the rest of the year (just as she comes back into coat too!!). I did everything I could for her over the past few days as well just in case it came to this so hopefully I've done enough to help her get through.

Can you use a tick collar and proban together? My girl is at the vets at the moment fighting a tick that I pulled off her 2 days ago. Or should I just use the proban and the permoxin?

She's at the vets until at least tomorrow evening now but the vet thinks she's got a pretty good chance of pulling through so it's just finger crossed until then.

she started showing signs of paralysis this morning so we're off the vets now.

probably best to ask to have this moved to the show forum. But as far as I know kids need to be over 8 or 10 (depending on state) to handle a dog.

Yeah I have her locked inside the house today and will go home and check her a lunch time to make sure she's alright. Is there anything I can give her as a preventative or boost in case she does come down with symptoms in the next few days?

Thanks Tilly. I lost a dog to a tick about 5 years ago and am pretty paranoid about them now. I have checked Ella several times now for other ticks and can't find any, she seems to be fine still so fingers crossed.

I just pulled a paralysis tick off my girl, is there anything in particular that I should be doing now? I think it had only just recently attached itself to her and I have removed it and cleaned the area with an antiseptic. She seems to be fine at the moment but I just want to make sure that she doesn't suffer any adverse affects as a result of the tick. I will be monitoring her for the rest of the night and we will be off the vets if she even so much as pants in a funny way. Does anyone have any advice?

All titles required qualifies under 2 or more judges. From page 6, section 2 (titles) in the ANKC rules for obedience trials:

I feed sardines in oil regularly. I probably give my 18kg Border collie one or two tins a week - sometimes a whole tin in one meal and sometimes it's fed over a couple of meals.

Hey kathq I did a bit of what Ptolomy suggested and my girl clued onto it realy quickly. I have 2 bar jumps (don't own a solid) set up about 3-4 meters apart (pure neccessity as my yard isn't wide enough) and just did a couple of overs in both directions. Although I don't throw toys away I have her come back to me for her tug reward but I don't think it makes much difference. I am giving some really big exaggerated signals - like whole body stepping in the right direction with a mega arm wave as well to really stress the point I'm making. Ella just sits there quivering waiting to be told to jump!!!

Your dog will probably have a critical distance where he will start acting like this when he sees other dogs. I have found that the best way to teach a dog to calm down is work outside of this critical distance. Say there is a dog 20 metres away and you are walking your dog towards that dog, at 20 meteres your dog might be excited but relatively calm, as you get closer your dog probably gets more and more excited and starts pulling on the lead and ignoring you. At this point you turn around give a quick pop on the collar and keep walking away from the other dog until your dog calms down. You simply keep doing this EVERYTIME your dog starts acting up and gradually your dog will learn that by getting silly he loses the opportunity to meet and play with that other dog. Over time you will be able to get closer and closer to the other dogs. It's the same thing when he's playing with another dog - try keeping him on a long line and the other dog loose if possible so when he gets over the top and too rough you simply pull him away until he calms down, then praise him when he's calm and let him play again. I live to do alot of recall work - firstly in low or no distraction environments and then gradually increasing the distractions - I just call the dog praise or give it a treat and let it go back to what it was doing. This builds value for you and for the recall command so you will be able to call your dog away even when he's really excited or really into a game with another dog. I have a reactive dog, she hates other dogs in her space and gets very snappy. I need to remove her from other dogs alot and just get her to focus on me so that she ignores the other dogs around her and doesn't get worried about them or feel the need to snap at them.

if you can get it off her without chasing her and making it fun for her then give her something that she is allowed and give her LOADS of praise. You can bring her inside on a leash and give her stuff that she allowed to play with until she gets the idea. If she's picked something up trying calling her to you and giving her a treat as a substitute - she can't play with the item if she's eating a treat... although if she's clever she might start picking things up and bringing them to you in hopes of earning a treat! That may or may not be a desired behaviour! Move things that you don't want her to get out of reach and make sure there are things for her to play with that you can give her when she's inside. Most important thing is not to chase her when she does grab something as this will turn it into a game, ignorning it is good or offering a substitute and praising her when she gives the item up are all important too.

This is the method I've been trying and as soon as I get past the side of the jump she runs around straight to me. Maybe I am just asking too much too soon and need to back it up a bit and make haste slowly as the saying goes. Really get her set on the arm movement first. Maybe you could play with the layout of the box and jump for a while... start with box and jump in line (maybe split the sendaway and directed jumping for a while and just put the dog in a stay in the box) and tell the dog to come over the jump to you and then really gradually move the jump back out the right spot? I really don't know what might work so I'm just playing with ideas! My issue is that Ella really likes the jumping bit so tries to go over the jump on the way to the box... but she's still learning and hasn't fully clicked on what I want! ETA for the agility people - for this exercise think of an obedience ring (large rectangle) dog is at one end and at the other end of the ring (approx 25 metres) is a box made of pipe (1.5m x 1.5m). Half ways between the dog and the box are two jumps that are placed on opposite sides of the box about 7.5m apart. So the dog is sent straight out to the box between the jumps and then called back from the box but needs to got either left or right over one of the jumps as directed by the handler so it's not a straight recall. I hope that description makes sense!

This article has some info too: http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=bell.html

LOL I have the opposite problem to you, the directed jumping is easy it's the send to the box that is hard for us!!! I've only started this but she's already cluing onto it really quickly. Once she's in the box I tell her to stay and then move so that I am in front of the jump so we she looks at me the jump is between her and me so the most direct route back to me will be over the jump. I then call her 'over' the jump and use the hand signals that I will later use... if you need to you can use come first and then over till the dog gets the idea. As the dog gets better you can start moving back towards the centre position gradually. At least this is the way I'm teaching it, I'm sure other more experience people will have other good suggestions for you!!