piper

Great pictures. What did the tollers think of it and do?

I was wondering how people went at the State Champs. Waiting to hear...

That is a very big brag indeed!

Hi Jed, still thinking of you and hoping for your continued healing.

Gawler do agility on Wednesday evenings and Munno Para on Tuesday (I think). Agility Dog Club on Thirsday and Para Districts on Friday. Then the other side of town there is Southern and Noarlunga. Or SAODC in the parklands in town. Not too sure on their training days and times. 1 club that may be an option is Burra. There used to be a few people from Burra that trained at Gawler and were getting agility going out there. I think it was only going to be a fun sort of thing. It is still a bit of a hike but might be easier than Gawler etc. Could be worth a phone call to find out if it is still on. Whyalla is another option although I don't think that wuold be much closer to you than coming down to Gawler? Club contact information for any of these can be found at www.dogssa.com.au

They are lovely. I met a gorgeous little bi-black boy here in Adelaide last weekend and he is going to have a go at herding in the next few weeks. It was the first time that I have seen 1 "in the flesh" and I think they are very striking, although I could be seen as some what biased on that

The picture looks reasonable to me. Many years ago my old boy (who has been gone several years)was grabbed over the back by an Akita. There was no blood and I don't remember now if there was slobber or not. We found 2 small punture marks, it happened late in the evening so we took him home cleaned him up and went to the vets the next morning, no one expecting much more than the vet to clip the area to have a look, giv it a clean and some antibiotics. Ricky ended up with a massive area shaved, multiple drains and once shaved you could see the bruising under the skin and in the space of 12 hours could see and feel the built up fluid pooling. There was a lot of hidden damage due to how he was grabbed and shaken. Even with the surgery, drains and antibitotics he still ended up with a problem wih necrotic tissue and needing several lots of surgery. The owners of the Akita were very surprised like you, as at the time no one had thought it was that serious. His vet bills were around $2000 and I know there are some things we were not charged for, and this was back in 1995 so what you have explained does not surprise me at all.

That was actually really funny. When the judge oferred the rerun I was like hell no, we have done so well so far. I'll just get them back in the paddock and carry on. Her best work for the weekend were things that weren't judged - that moment and a couple of moments of yard work the day before when stock handling the sheep made me so proud of her.

I put it in the herding thread, but I will have a brag here too. I had Jazz in 3 herding trials this weekend. Sheep yesterday and 2 lots of ducks today. Well my girl worked like a trooper and came away with 3 qualifications and 3 High in Trials. Scores of 90 on sheep and 93 and 95 on ducks. The 2 duck passes brought up her started duck title so she is now Ulara All That Jazz HSAsd I am happiest with the 90 on sheep as she actually has her started title so we went in it to practice for intermediate so worked it differently to how I would normally - did nearly a full length intermediate cast and worked on getting her used to driving by letting the sheep move in front of me. She normally hates it and coped will with it. So to do that and still pull a 90 was great.

Well I sorted my positioning out today and as expected the dog was fine. Jazz is now Ulara All That Jazz HSAsd gaining 2 passes with high in trial each time and scores of 93 and 95!

Jed, You are "sounding" more like you in your posts now which is great. I hope the healing continues and you soon feel well enough to be out of hospital. Sucks that they discharged you when you dont feel up to it, but I agree with the less infection risk comments.

Jazz and I trialled on sheep today. She isn't ready for intermediate so I put her in started again but set her up most of the way back to C and did not go past B myself. I also got her to do some small bursts of driving - not a lot. Sh shut down a bit when we were training it the other week and hates the sheep getting past me so we worked on letting them move past me and stopping her before she felt the need to head them back to me. Each time she let them past me and walked in a step or 2 without heading I would then release her to go around as a reward. Will keep trying it when we get the chance and extending the distance and duration. Even with our mucking abbout with a longer cast and star of driving she got high in trial with 90. I know what you mean Jules about the real work and not just playing. I have a lot of fun in the yards and stock setting or moving the mobs around. Today we worked the yards after her run and got toally caked in mud (I mean CAKED - it was several inches deep in most areas, some places Jazz would not even walk over) but had a good time and it really has helped her to build confidence in confined spaces. Today she even went for an appropriate nose grab with a ewe standing its ground in the pens - didn't touch but air snapped just infront of the nose which was so barve for her. 12 months ago she would have left if stood up in a small space. We also rotated the mob around as needed and collected them back out of the paddock after our lunch break and moved them through several small paddocks to the PT area. I think proper jobs seem to make a difference with settling the dogs. Tomorrow is duck day 2 runs for the day and I don't expect to have such a good brag due to handler impairment issues, lol.

I find it is quite readily available in the stock feed places. I know of a few in Gawler that have it if you go down that way.

A lovely story. A prison rehabilitation program that looks like it will meet it's objectives. They would be developing so many skills other than just learning to train a dog. It would be interesting to see if they found it affected things like the violence rate between inmates - I imagine it would as they learn to communicate and cooperate more effectively.

Good night Jed. We will try and keep the noise down out here so you can get your rest.

I don't think SA was on their list when I used them but I was still able to get my order with a good delivery price. Hopefully they will sort it out for you.

Jed, seeing you post from this morning would be the highlight of my week and was such an exciting thing to find when I got home from work. Your words and photos have me shedding new tears at the loss of your beloved fur kids.

Hi Jed! It is great to hear you are up to reading on your laptop now. We are all looking forward to hearing your voice of reason again. Toohey thanks for keeping us updated. The waiting room has a very positive feel to it with your news tonight.

What a beautiful link. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Goldchow for the update. It is wonderful to hear that Jed is slowly getting there and up to seeing friends, I am sure that having friends beside her will be helping with both the physical and emotional recovery she is going through.

There are some great programs out there these days. I would have loved that as a kid! The school I work at has recently had some kids working with this group: http://www.labsnlife.com/ Unfortunately I work in the office so did not get to go and see it in progress

Same here mirawee and I had the same thoughts as you - I know they don't have to, I would think if it was me particularly for a hotel I would like to inform them out of courtesy.

Well done!!! You are doing an awesome job Dzyney. Did someone video it - I would love to see a rotti working and it sounds like she works them well. Congratulations.

Great scores! Go on and do it - she is still young, plenty of time to learn to drive.

Well done Vickie. My 2 both had no hassles adapting to ducks, haven't tried geese but I would guess they are similar. Jazz will start to work them but for the first minute or so you can see her looking for sheep while she does it. LOL. What filmwork are you doing with her? You should be proud of that too