piper

Try checking with the major camera stores. I know in SA that Diamonds Cameras runs courses for beginners. Also, not sure if Victoria have an equivalent to WEA http://www.wea-sa.com.au but they run quite cheap adult education courses on all sorts of things. I know Photography is in there, my Dad did a 6 week course with them and loved it.

OUCH!! That should have been more than just a bit uncomfortable.

I will hopefully have a dog trialling for next nationals and being local is an added bonus :)

Don't underestimate the shoulder - speaking from experience bicep tendon injuries can be VERY slow/difficult to heal. Knowing what I do now, if I were to injure the other 1 it would be straight off for treatment. Seriously, even it is only once just to get it checked I would be making an appointment with a good physio to make sure.

Go Gabby! She is such an amazing little girl :)

We don't get to sheep very often at all - this year Aretha has had 1 training session before the nationals, 2 runs at the Nationals, 1 "mock trial" type run through a few weeks ago and 1 run on the weekend. Her trial runs have been 4mins or less so not much time at all. Jazz has only had 1 additional training session otherwise the same as Aretha. The fact she has managed advanced on ducks is a miracle - if we get 1 training session a year on them we are doing well.

I haven't used them prog testing or ultrasounds (went to Noahs Crossing so that I could get the results back quickly but they did tell me they were looking at doing them in house in future) but had Jazz's c-section done at Midnight on a Saturday night. They were fantastic. I had called a couple of days beforehand and alerted them to the fact that I was expecting a small litter and it would most likely be on the weekend so the vet was informed to expect a call at some point. I also asked them rates so I had an idea of how much I would be up for if we did end up going down that path. When I called at 11pm(ish) we were told it would take them about 15 to 20 mins to get there which it did. After an exam and my getting stressed and teary the decision was made to go ahead with the C-Section. Once that was decided it all happened very quickly and we were out of there as soon as Jazz was standing up. The bonus was the bill was quite a bit less than they had quoted. The staff there are always excited to see the girl I kept from the litter when we go in. I love the fact they are 7 days a week and extended hours every day.

I don't trial often to have a brag but we had the first herding trial of the year in SA on the weekend. I had Jazz in Intermediate A sheep and Advanced A Duck and her daughter Aretha in Started A Sheep. Aretha is coowned with the owner of the sire and another friend. She doesn't live with me and I have only handled her about half a dozen times. I was incredibly proud to complete Aretha's Started title on Saturday complete with High In Trial. She has gained 3 passes in style - 2 passes at the Border Collie Nationals earlier this year with Runner Up High in Trial there and finishing it off beating her Mum for High in Trial. My first home bred titled dog is a special feeling :) Jazz did not want to be out done - she worked really hard to get a good intermediate sheep pass and Runner Up High in Trial (just 2 points between the girls). On Sunday we returned for a go at ducks and to see if we could finish off our advanced title. In spite of some mucky handling and a little bit of selective deafness, she passed and was again Runner Up ugh In Trial with the judge saying at presentations that it was my handling that cost us High in Trial - no surprise there, I got myself totally confused!! So Jazz is now Ulara All that Jazz HSAs HXAd and Aretha is Ildanach All Due Respect HSAs.

The bottle should say how many mg per mil it contains. Then you just use the normal calculators for how many mg needed. http://www.ingleburnvet.com.au/antihistamines.htm

I should upload the video to youtube to share :)

After bird flu imports of birds were stopped I believe there is talk of them being able to do so again in the future but for now it is a no.

Well I know that now. Normally they are just laying down at the back of their enclosure. Was so funny watching them today. I took some video on my phone that I should upload showing them enjoying their scratches :) It was really nice to watch from a handling point of view. Whatever they needed to give her was not urgent so they ended up decided to just wait and try later when they wouldn't lay down rather than try and force something. Yes it is a good sharp copy. The benefit of getting it off of someone I know is I knew what it was like :)

And enjoying a final cuddle with the handler :) This is the face that was pulled when they keepers left

I normally walk pretty much straight past these guys (Brazilian Tapir), but this got my attention and I had to stop and watch: It turns out tapir are like great big dogs and LOVE a scratch. I guess their hide is thick so they use leaf rakes to give them a scratch. They were trying to get them to lay down so 1 could get an injection but they wouldn't do it. I watched for probably 10 minutes and they never tried to move away - leaning in, head tilts, quivering legs :) 1 even had drool coming out of the mouth! Here is a close up of the drool dripping. LOL

Token giraffe shot The meerkat pics were all taken right out at 450 - 500mm and have eitherr not been cropped or only a small amount. Loving the sharpness of this lens!

Darned wire! I got to say though, I much prefer seeing the pride at Monarto. I know people want the "big" animals at Adelaide but I would rather they were all at Monarto with the space to roam. I know this guy can;t go there due to health though. 1 of the girls The lemur were enjoying the heat lamp this morning

It's always exciting get a new lens, even if it is a second hand 1. I am very very lucky and have some amazing friends. 2 who were rehoming this lens and let it go at an amazing price and another who purchased it for me :) Picked it up this morning and headed to Adelaide Zoo as it seemed to be the best way to test a new zoom. Not the best day for pictures but I am happy with what I got. Animals seemed to decide it was a good day to have backs to people or sleep in the shadows. I really wanted to see the gibbon baby again but the boardwalk was closed for maintenance On the upside I FINALLY managed to get the red pandas and didn't even need the extra length as there was 1 right at the front today. Our poor remaining Flamingo - they can't import birds anymore so can't get any companions for him and his old mate Greater passed away earlier this year. They have put the mirror in the enclosure to try and help. Kluet the Orang was doing his usual hide under a blanket trick but did peek out for a little bit - I had no idea I caught him mid yawn :)

Aussie Dog Turbo Chook - It is coming up to 10 years old (yes you read that correctly!) and has been through 3 dogs as puppies and gets played with on a daily basis.

No idea how recent this info is: http://www.afghanhoundclubnsw.org.au/lurecoursing.html

I was in NSW for a show and trial 1 time and there was lure coursing on at Erskine Park down in 1 of the bottom paddocks. I took Piper along for a try. I have no idea if it still happens or is a regular thing as it would have to be close to 10 years ago now that we tried it. It was fun, but the 1 thing she didn't succeed at :)

My first dogs were born in 94 and 95 and there was no limit then.

That sounds like me too Huga - if I wanted a nice portrait with blurry background I needed a small F number. If I wanted something moving fast I needed a high shutter speed. SO I started with aperture or shutter priority depending on what I was wanting and let the camera think about the other things. Then when I had that I started to add in ISO changes and later exposure compensation. I looked things up when I wanted to do something in particular. It never made sense when I tried to just read about it. And the benefit of digital is you can sit there and look at the EXIF data afterwards and see what you did. I would even go back to pics taken on auto and sports etc and see what the camera did with them so I could try and do the same.

Depends on how far I need to travel and how long the day is expect to be. Ideally I like to be home as early as possible but if it is something a good distance away then I don't want too much of an early start as I like my sleep :)

I did not realise ACDs were affected by CL? Sydney Uni who you provided the link to developed the DNA test for BCs so might be able to assist with testing. How old is the puppy?

Oh no! I am always worried I will do that. I have a porteen bag that I adore but hardly ever use these days as I can't quite easily fit everything in. In particular, I want a bag that I can leave my 70-200 f2.8 on the camera as I don't want to be stuffing about in the mud or dust at herding swapping lenses every time I get the camera out or put it away so I ended up buying a Lowepro backpack - I can't remember that type but the zip side is against my back so it has the aded bonus of security when travelling as no one can possibly get to anything.