piper

teela, I think it is also a supply and demand issue. If they are going to all of that effort to setup a discount day for say 20 dogs whereas in another council area they might get 50 or 60 dogs in that time - staff time divided by 50 instead of by 20. Given oyur comment of rural SA, I would guess they dont expect a huge number hence the higher cost. I think I paid about 30 for Piper's chip about 10 years ago at an AWL microchipping day, Jazz is from NSW so came microchipped. My litter of pups last year I paid $60 per pup for vaccination and microchipping but with 9 pups all done in about 30 mins I wasn't paying consult time per pup. Maybe ring your vet and ask how much extra to microchip while you are there for something else? I can understand $60 if that is all you go in for due to the consult time but if you are already there for something else then the microchipping might not be that much extra.

From my very limited experience I would go with too warm - my litter did the same at a similar age and no matter what I tried they cried and then a few experienced breeder friends suggested I take them out of the box (which had a heat lamp) and put them on the floor and see what happened. Yep they shut up and settled down to sleep - they were too warm in the box. LIke you I had made sure they fed, weighed them, checked they had been toileted etc. I think I even tried lowering the heat lamp thinking they were cold.

Oh cool. Thanks :) I was going by the reviews on it that mentioned it was only suitable for left shoulder and camera on right. Even without my shoulder problem I would prefer it the other way just because I am left handed.

I was going to get a black rapid 1 but the issue is they can only be worn over the left shoulder - I have a left shoulder injury so can't have it going just across that shoulder. Even on the eck strap the pressure makes my shoulder sore after awhile so no way I could do the diagonal strap. I cant even carry my hand bag on my left shoulder. And it seems when I have looked that all the shoulder straps have the camera on the right of the body so the strap going over the left shoulder unfortunately

Southern Cross Waltzing Matilda Gone Drovin Walkabout Australian Made Anzac Mate Ned Kelly Great Southern Son/Daughter Banjo Paterson Advance Australia Fair G'Day G'Day I'm not overly keen on any of them - I hit reply thinking "this will be easy", it isn't. LOL.

Janba, I definitely get the giving them purpose. Once i had drilled inside flanks and she was giving me those I then set up a small race and have been getting her to drive the stock through those - she see,s to have accepted now that they are allowed away from me to go in there and now we are working on "and I dont want them back immediately" - she tends to panic as they come out of the panel and rush through to stop them and in turn brings them back to me. I was pleased on the weekend that I was able to get her to not do that several times. I know with Piper she always hated driving but understood it was ok in set circumstances - she was unfortunately quite pattern trained to A course and understood that once they headed to the Y that was ok. I am doing similar with Jazz (not that patterning the course though) n getting her to work towards understanding it is ok to take them somewhere. I find even with dogs in the early stages of training (and handlers) giving them little jobs really increases their understanding and team work. We have had the sire of Jazz's pups out a few times, he had never worked (was exposed to sheep as a pup and showed good signs then but never trained or exposed since) until about November and after only a few sessions I had her getting him to put the sheep away and swap them over etc. And you could see a change in him once there were things to do. Reminds me I need to get someone else to do that same thing next time we are out...

Isn't it funny the different ideas - if the flanks are not great I would be more inclined to work sheep than ducks. I find ducks need much more precision work and there is far less margin of error before causing them to go off line or split than there is with sheep. I remember someone (and it might have been Steph?) saying to me that working ducks is like having power steering - a tiny movement is all that is needed for good effect so I would want the dog responding well to flank commands and staying off their stock. I definitely find sheep far more forgiving. I'm still sorting out Jazz's walk up and driving, I'm trying to decide if I enter our first trial f the year or not. Got some reasonable short drives along a fence line as well as across open space on the weekend but I am just not quite happy with it - still too inconsistant for my liking and I'm not sure how much training I can get in between now and the end of April, although we do have a 1 day clinic coming up.

Rubiton - I agree, the strap on this camera is AWFUL and no padding at all. The old 1 was really nice and quite padded across the back of the neck. I have seen a lowepro 1 advertised but it doesn't appear to be a shock absorber 1. The crumpler 1s look comfy, might have to find out where they are stocked to check 1 out.

I have discovered that the strap on the camera I bought last year is nowhere near as comfortable as the 1 on my previous camera. After a trip to an open plan zoo yesterday my neck was killing me so I have decided to look into a better strap. I was looking at these: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rapid-RS-7-ConnectR-2-Additional/dp/B004HPKF7M/ref=sr_1_2?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1331465372&sr=1-2 or similar but it seems they can only be used on the left shoulder and I have a left shoulder injury so can't carry anything on that shoulder. Does anyone has any suggestions as to nice comfrotable neck straps for carrying a dslr around for hours? I was also wondering if a wrist strap was worth getting too?

Other things to consider - male judges/female judges, in the ring alone, at the front of the line, in the middle of the line, back of the line. My girl used to get upset when going in for class in group but not for anything at breed level and then I realised it was the breed that was behind us most of the time that tended to make a lot of huffing puffing sounds right behind her as we moved.

For the people in SA - we have Kate Dourley and Karen Edwards from Victoria coming over to do some clinics in the April school holidays. Please PM me your email address if you would like information and a registration form.

Huski, Check the link to the store in your signature - I just tried it and it has a comma instead of a . in 1 place so doesnt work. Easy enough for me to fix and am now about to have a look around but thought you would like to know :)

+1 Me too - too much overload on the dog's system otherwise IMO. I do the same - and flea treatments are only given when there are actually signs of fleas, not as an every month thing.

Fingers crossed Lyndsay! Jazz had 9 hiding and I couldn't feel movement until about 3 days before she had them, if she hadn't been getting so enormous it would have worried me as everyone kept asking me if I could feel them. I joked they were packed in so tight there was no room for movement!

How nice of her to start whelping during the day. Sounds like she should be finished in time for sleep tonight. LOL.

So so sorry to hear this news jr Hugs to you and Rommy.

jr_inoz - good luck with Rommy tomorrow. Will look forward to seeing a pics of a contended Mum and pups tomorrow night.

A crate at night keeps puppy safe, helps with house training and allows you to sleep without worrying about what they are getting into (this is after the first few nights of hell while they express their displeasure - but they will do that no matter where you confine them anyway, so nay as well be in a nice safe crate). Jazz started in a crate next to our bed and then when she needed a bigger crate went out into the passage by our door, some time around 9 months we stopped using it over night and started letting her sleep on a bed next to me. I think crating over night also gave her good night time sleep habits - out other 2 tend to get up and wonder around at times, not Jazz - if she gets up it is to ask to go out to the toilet and that is it.

A question on the beef liver remedy - does it have to be beef? Would lamb live work? When I tried to get beef liver before my pups were born I couldn't get it anywhere - asked all the local supermarkets and butchers and none had it or were prepared to get it in. Fortunately I had no issues so never needed it but I thought it would be worth finging out if lamb liver would also work.

Tug has recently moved higher up my list that;s for sure. Jazz has suddenly clicked with tugging at agility and her performance is vastly different. She is still not a reliable tugger in that if I have just rewarded with food I can't get her to tug but I would say I am now up to 75% of the time that she will happily tug at training. In the last 2 weeks I have used tug almost exclusively and the difference in her has to be seen to be believed. I did not think it would make that much difference given it is not her first choice of reward but it really does.

4 months old is hardly a vulnerable age. Goodness, i must be truly awful - my border collie babies were outside all day while I was at work from about 4 or 5 weeks of age. By 4 months it is quite possible to have pups on 2 meals a day. I really can't see how the fact they were outside aline is an issue at all. Asal - whatever has happened I do hope the pups are found safe. Do you not have any more recent photos to help?

They don't leak like taps. They groom as much as they need, I even hear them wake up and clean if the feeling takes them ;) If you're worried when they're asleep just put them in a crate. Saying that if they're always used to bitch pants they probably will be messy for a while as they get used to the fact they're meant to do their own routine maintenance This, Jazz is always an unsettled sleeper and moves from 1 bed to another during the night. I have never seen any mess left from her. I might feel different about it if she slept on my bed, but she doesn't.

thanks piper, I will see when and where the next country show is, do you go to the country ones ?? I'm in SA, so no. But I know through posts here and friends that there are often country circuits in different areas of NSW. No idea what they get in the way of cavs but it would hopefully give you some sort of idea. I imagine the best entries will be when there is a circuit with quite a few shows at the 1 place or in the same area over multiple days. I;m sure it has been said and you may have answered it so apologies if you did and I missed it - have you spoken to the breeder of your girl and asked them to assist? As others have said a mentor is invaluable. I had my first litter last year and didn't have a mentor as such but instead quite a few experienced breeders (both my own breed and other breeds) that I could approach for advice on anything from breeding questions to questions on development, the standard etc. I also remain in close contact with the breeder of my girl, even though she is interstate and Jazz is 4.5 years old - it is just as important for her breeding to know anything that happens with my girl and her progeny as it is for me.

mumoftwo, there are a lot of country shows in NSW. If yuo look at the DogsNSW webpage for their calendar of events you should be able to find something within a reasonable distance of you.

I remember talking to a breeder who said she went through several years of reabsorbed litters, singletons, still births, defects and then it suddenly improved. Then they worked out in the time frame that all of that had happened they had someone nearby that had used aerial spraying for their crops. Prior to that they did not have problems and everything improved again afterwards, just at the time they did not connect the dots as to why 1 pregnancy after another with multiple bitches from different lines went wrong.