piper

For the safety of myself and my dog, I would always go the proper cargo barrier. I have had the "do it yourself" 1s and they are fine for a dog who knows what a barrier is and respects it. I had 1 in for months and months and months once and never had an issue. Then I took a friends dog in the car that had no concept of a barrier and was very quickly able to move it. Having said that, even with my guys who know what a barrier is I would not go back to 1 of the cheap 1s as what that incident showed me is if the dog hits it they do not remain secure so in the event of an accident you potentially have a flying dog and a flying barrier.

Donatella, looking at dogs with anything other than a smooth coat will give you no idea if they are overweight. You need to use your hands, you should be able to feel the last few ribs quite easily and also feel a waistline.

Oh dear Well that saga will have another chapter as apparently there are more. They weren't sure on exact numbers and apparently the whole mob was not together last weekend. Once the weather breaks and we have a temp more reasonable we will make another attempt to find those that have taken refuge in the gully. I have suggested they get some good interesting feed and start putting it out each morning and evening in the pen to see if they will start to come out for food.

What I discovered about the alpacas is they seem to work by bluff. They one tearing in, head down, making noises then stop dead and bounce up and down. And then run back to the flock. When we train had some alpacas in the paddock at 1 stage and they got used to the dogs and when you sent the dog into the paddock they would just move out of the way, so I think she is used to ignoring them. I think if she had given ground or been startled by their behaviour they may have continued/escalated but as she basically side stepped them, ignored them and carried on they backed right down. It took 2 or 3 quick attempts to get her between the alpacas and the ram and as soon as she had done that they dropped back. On Saturday, as we approached the pen, the male alpaca actually jumped the fence to charge at her and then when that failed ran back to the sheep and then eventually jumped the fence back out of the paddock again. We were ready to call it off both days if they created a problem and on Saturday they did try and catch them and put them in the stable but weren't having any luck. A biscuit of lucerne kept them out of the ay until we were nearly at the pen.

Dockdogs is in NSW Dyzney - you might have to do a weekend trip to Sydney :) I believe they ran a comp at Canberra Royal last year as well. I must admit the way Seven jumped in it was what I thought of as well. Is there anything your gorgeous girl can't do??? :)

Home from rogue dorper removal take 2. I have never been prouder of Jazz than I am today. By the time we got there, there was only out - the ram. Jazz lacks strength, it is out biggest problem so the thought of firstly separating the ram off from the alpacas and then moving it across 3 paddocks was scary. I did not think she would do it. Not only did she do it, she did it amazingly and never lost her head. And when we got him to the pen and he did not want to go in and started putting his head down and putting pressure back on her she went straight in and at his nose - 3 snaps of the teeth just in front of his nose to turn him and then a quick shot at his heels to get him moving straight into the pen and up the ramp onto the trailer. Real work is so much more satisfying than a trial :)

Lucky I like doing it as a couple of the shits escaped overnight. Now waiting for a phone call to say the stock trailer is there to go and catch and load the buggers.

It is highly addictive PME, I totally get where you are coming from. I got a random phone call yesterday from someone who had been given my number by someone they had stumbled upon when trying desperately to find someone with a working dog to move some sheep for them. Turns out they were a while 2km away from me. The description of the sheep was terrible - rogue sheep barging through fences, unable to be caught. Been roaming for months. Many many many hours have been spent trying to catch them, could I help. Well, yes I can give that a go! So this morning I headed up there expecting the worst and had them in the pen in 15 minutes and that included the time to walk down and look around and work out where we needed to go. Oh and getting them in the pen once, putting the dog in the wrong spot and causing them to exit the pen and take off while I headed to the gate. They were very light, not worked by dogs and very wary of humans after all the chasing but once they realised they could not escape and would continually be stopped and turned back they were very easy to move. I was thrilled that Jazz was working nicely off balance and holding her lines really well when asked and was not fighting me to head them off all the time but quick to do so when sent. She had 1 silly moment early on but other than that she was so good. Anyway, I think the people thought I was some mad woman to jump at the chance to do this and be happy to accept their thanks and a bottle of wine and box of chocolates for my time. And then to tell them that if the person doesn't pick them up this weekend just let them back out in the paddock and give me another call when they know when the new owner would be there. Hard to explain to someone that doesn't get it that I will take any opportunity to work my dog as I love watching her work and it makes her so happy. ETA: I had to laugh, the wife said she saw me and my 1 dog and thought there was no way 1 person and 1 dog would be able to get those sheep in and that they would be wasting more hours out there. LOL

They always come outside for the keeper talk at 2:15, and just before they go indoors for dinner at around 4. Aside from that, it's just luck really. Yes, I go to the keeper talk but find the light not great in there at that time - they seem to end up sitting in deep shadows. Must just be my bad luck Received the confirmation letter for the members breakfast with the Cheetah yesterday, so looking forward to it :)

My gosh, she is a very tolerant girl to still be putting up with that.

Lovely photos! I need to get out there again. I have not had much luck with chimp photos - they seem to be mostly inside when I have been there or just outside so the angle is terrible. Is there a best time of day to be there and see them out and about?

In regards to the tablet taking and growling issue - once she is well again, I would be doing some work on desensitising her to having her mouth handled and teach her to take a tablet so that if you are ever in that situation again she will not be put through the additional stress .

With the eating issues it doesn't sound like it but did they check the pressure of the eye? Glaucoma can cause the eye to bulge and it can appear to come on very suddenly and be very painful for the dog. ETA: Some breeds are more likely to have glaucoma than others and I am airily sure ACDs are one of them.

Is it flakey stuff through out his coat or actual scabs on the skin? 1 of my border collies used to get a bit of a dandruffy look after a blow dry when losing coat. I assume that the force of the hydrobath and drier lifted up the dead skin cells. His coat and skin were otherwise in good condition and it only happened when he was losing coat, I assumed it to be normal. None of my others have ever done it but then none of them ever had the length or thickness of coat that he did so I probably got to the skin better with them than I did with him.

I sort of used 1 - I just used the puppy pee pads (bought in bulk on Ebay) with some fake grass laid over the top of them and yes they did naturally use them. With my first litter I found when I cleaned the box that the majority of wet newspaper was in 1 corner and t happened to be near the wheeling box door so at that point I started putting the artificial grass there and after a few days moved it to just outside the box with a pee pad underneath it. Then I progressively moved it away from the box over a week until it was the furthest corner away from the box. I never had problems with 9 puppies having wee and poo everywhere or walking through it. Sometimes they didn't quite make it on there - if they were walking and pooling they might start on the grass area but end up off of it or they may wee and get it just of the edge but they definitely tried to use it and were all very easy to house train. I did find with the 9 puppies that 1 wasn't enough and i needed 3 or 4 down to make a large enough area for them. My second litter was only 2 puppies and I did the same thing with them. By 6 weeks of age I was having them free in the house without accidents. I had a couple of pee mats down in different areas of the house and if I didn't get them outside in time (we had a run of very hot weather so they had to stay inside during the day with quick trips out for the toilet then back in) they would actively seek the mats out and go on them.

Oh but new puppies need new toys and collars and leads and harnesses.....

FalconRange - I am in SA and happy to combine.

It can be REALLY difficult to get a good view, very hit and miss. You go around the enclosure on a bus so can get pretty close to the lions on a good day, and the backdrop makes photos look like they could be taken in the wild. :) Last time we stood on the viewing platform and could see 1 of the females with her cubs patrolling the far fence, got on the bus and by the time we were down there they were snoozing under a tree We have booked in to the members breakfast with the Cheetahs in Feb. Champagne breakfast, keeper talk, up close and personal with the cheetahs, there whn they let them out for the day and watch them send their food in on the lure :)

It has been quite a few years since the people in SA with Ridgebacks also had their Bluetick Coonhound. I don't know of any around down here anymore.

Another 1 to try is camerastore.com.au - I could not find better for my Sigma lens earlier this year and it is not a grey import. They are the online leg of a major camera retailer in SA. They were even good enough to ring me the day they lodged it with the courier to let me know to expect it the next day :)

After my own research and searching DOL I narrowed my choice down to Outlander and X-Trail. For ages I had been going to get an X-Trail as my next vehicle but then came across the Outlander. The fuel economy on the Outlander rates better than on the X-Trail and when I looked at both I preferred the Outlander. The fact I was able to pick up an awesome deal on 1 was a bonus. The 2014 model comes out this month s there are some good buys on the 2013 at the moment. I got mine for less than $25k on road with a whole 5km on the clock. I only have the base model but that has cruise control, power everything, built in blue tooth, reverse park sensors etc so I didn't see the need to "upgrade". I did get the cargo barrier installed but the border collies can just step between it and the side walls anyway. As there are built in side airbags the cargo barrier can not go to the edge. They don't even have to squeeze to fit through, it really is a walk through space for them. I also forgot to ask them to install the points behind the drivers seat for it so will get them added when it goes back for service.

Another thing I thought of: Is it Daytime/nightime, indoor/outdoor. If the lighting is not likely to be great then I would pick the fastest lens on the best body.

Most definitely not a pro but the things that I think need to be taken into consideration would be: What type of event is it? What length are your 2 lenses? How close/far away will you be from what you are shooting? I would then put the lens you expect to need to use the most based on the event and shooting conditions on the better body.

My guess is if it closed down for several months last year then it was not being used to capacity. Combine that with a 2/3 cut in quarantine time and that could potentially mean that it is not a viable service to run. Especially given the fact that other facilities will also have a decrease in the number of nights animals are staying and therefore an increase in vacancy rate. I believe you can book visits with pet walking agencies and things like that to go and visit for you.

Same issues that owners in SA, TAS, QLD, NT and areas of WA other than Perth face CrazyCresties - and people get around that by arranging for friends to visit for them. I think there would be people happy to take 10 days in the Eastern States over 30 days locally.