piper

Ok here we go, putting something in writing in the hope of making myself accountable! First goal has to be for me. Without it the others won't happen. To train regularly and be consistant in what I want. Jazz: to finish her started ducks title with more finesse than her first 2 passes. To see the inside of an obedience ring, preferably CD. To start agility training to start teaching driving skills so we can continue on into intermediate herding. These may get put on hold depending on when she comes in season as am end of year litter is a possibility. Piper: to have a go at b course herding if it is oferred here or we manage to get away to trial. And to otherwise enjoy her semi retirement and hopefully have no more recurrences of her leg injury.

This is a great thread with some wonderful examples. I am getting Jazz ready to trial but frustrated with boring classes, intention next year is to train with a friend outside of class and this is giving me some good ideas.

Do thjey give you judge's sheets with the scores and feedback on it? Would help if they did - especially while the sport is new and people are trying to work out what goes on.

There are not actual camping facilities however most people do stay overnight on the grounds. Tents and swags are a common sight. Not sure if they still do it but they used to do a Bbq breakfast. It is a great fun night and more relaxed than most trials bringing out great work from some of the dogs.

Damn QLD is too far to go for an evening.

Don't make any long term decisions. It has been a hot week and that takes it out of them and us. What was it 4 days in a row of 39 including yesterday with a few above 35 before that. Not ideal circumstances for any person or dog to perform well.

I saw that with a working border that did 3 sheep trials. He was young and fast so the owner decided she needed to wear him out, every day they went for a 30 min run with her on a quad bike and him running with her. All that happened is he got faster and took longer before he tired. So instead of taking 5 mins in the paddock before he calmed down and worked steadily it took 10.

Begging of this year when we had that run of 40 plus days in Adeliade I went through the following each morning: 2 clam shells full of water in different areas of the yard so that there was always 1 in full shade. Partially filled ice cream containers of water frozen (5 or 6 of them) the night before and placed in different areas around the yard Every dog bowl filled with water and the big terracotta 1 in a shady location (the water stays really cool in that) A frozen bone to each dog as I left in the morning The 2 dogs that like water I would encourage them to play with the hose before I left while I went around filling clam shells and saturating the dirt under our biggest shadiest tree. I think that was all. I will start the same process again this week although now Jazz is older and more settled I am leaning towards leaving them inside on the worst days (revised forecast has 2 days at 39!). I am also thinking about wetting down some towels and placing these on their sack bed and in the crate? I have a cool mat but none of them will lay on it due to the feel of it I suspect.

Mine old boys were never keen on their veggie slop meals unless I added either a tin of sardines to their bowl (mixed through thoroughly with fork to break them down) or put some liver in the blender with the veg. I will say without it they would eat it but it was more slowly and less licking clean of bowl afterwards.

I haven't been there for a long while but wasn't overly impressed when I did go there.

There is a vet clinic that used to advertise in the DogsSA journal that has a pool and water treadmill. It is in the inner suburbs but can't think where. Ness uses it for her girls so maybe pm and ask her? ETA - found it: http://www.glenside-vet.com.au/Home/

Rural Pet Foods at O'Hallorhan Hill used to stock it to. It's way out of my way so I haven't been there for a couple of years. If I were down south I would use them all the time though. Their range of bones and prices used to be great.

Pups usually just need more per day than adults but can be the same food. What you are planning looks good to me but I would also add some offal for probably 1 meal a week. With my guys they have it instead of a bone once a week. I tend to use liver or heart for this. Some say heart is a muscle meat not offal and stick purely to liver and kidney for the offal meal.

I am from Adelaide so can't help you out with specifics of training whereabouts but I know there are a few places around Brisbane that offer herding training. This is 1 place that I have seen mentioned: http://www.workingsheepdogshow.com/ You could also try contacting the Border Collie Club of QLD - I know they run herding trials so would assume they have some info on who offers training and where. Good luck, but beware - it is highly addicitive

Try this thread for information http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=172826 There is also a pinned thread on where to buy raw food. There are several different ideas when it comes to raw diets. You can try doing a google searchon BARF diets or prey model diets. That should give you plenty of reading to do

I know what you mean, I got told it was more important to keep condition on them than what I actually fed. Natural yoghurt is another good additive and maybe she would eat her dry with that or am egg mixed through. I used 4 legs quite a bit too or stuffed kongs when the others had a bone.

What about getting carcass mince, I know lenards do it and then just mix in some veggie slops? With my oldies when they were here I also did things like tinned sardines or tuna with an egg and some veg and a bit of pasta or rice. I found they got t9 the point they didn't really tolerate bones, sometimes even the carcass mine would either go through them or bind them up. Can you get the Barf Patties from anywere local? Would work out fiarly cheap for a Lhasa I would imagine as they wouldn't really need a large quantity. 1 of the other things my vet said was to go back to treating them like puppies and feed more smalled meals a day and even use puppy food for them.

We used goats as our other species whenI did my course with Delta. Rather than clicker training and free shaping through offering behaviours we target trained them. They were curious enough to investigate a target stick when presented with it and quickly agreed to do it a few times for food. They did require a MUCH higher ratre f reinforcement than dogs and seemed more selective on whar they would accept as a reward. There were 4 goats and they all had a different food preference. Also we were told if they are out on green grass (we were in a barn/shed with them) they are harder to get to cooperate as they will take the free food rather than work for something.

OMG, How absolutely devastating for you and your puppy buyers. Unbfortunately I can't ofer any ideas or advice but just wanted to say how sorry I am for you and everyone involved.

I have had mine for around 3 years now and it hasn't missed a beat. I haven't had any problems with scratching of the surface. There is a removable floor in it that is made of a non slip material so the dogs are not standing on the plastic fir their nails to scratch it.

Jazz used to do exactly this. My method was to wait. I found a nice warm afternoon and took a book outside. I picked up the frisbeee and threw it. I then sat down on the ground and read. I totally ignored her, no eye contact, no talking. Nothing. I sat and I read. She laid down with her frisbee and stared. I sat and read. Then she started whining and pawing it. I sat and read. Then she nudged it, I kept reading I think it was around 20 mins and she had it back to me. She knew to bring it for the game to coninue as like your boy if I ignored and walked inside she would pick it up and race to the door with it. The instant the frisbee was within arms reach I gave her happy praise and threw it again. Then I started to read. I implemented a strict rule at home that no body was to play ball or frisbee with her while I was going through this training stage. Each afternoon for around a week I went outside with my book and sat outside for an hour. By the end of the week it was reliably coming back to me within a min or so. Then I went and sat soenwhere else in the yard and she got a bit conused and we went back to around a 5 min wait. All up I think it probabkly took 2 weeks before I would get the frisbee back to me pretty much immediately. I also have a strict rule of if I have to move to pick it up then it is not close enough or ekse dropping it 1m away will quickly become 2m away. Jazz has ddeveloped a fine art of throwing it at me as she runs by and takes off for the next throw but if it misses me she shoots back and grabs it and drops it more carefully The point of taking a book is it meant I didn't get bored and I wasn;t tempted to look at her or talk to her, I just let her work it out herself.

That seems to ring a bell now you mention it. I should try and find my notes. We didn't use it in cycles but everyone was introducing it and teaching new targets with it so I guess we weren't going for duration so that bit probably didn't stick in my head.

I went to the seminar in Adelaide by Kayce Cover the author of the article a few years back. She does use the ib differently to how most people use a keep going signal. That is it is a very fast repetitive noise that is continued for the entire time the dog is working towards the end behaviour. As opposed to the way a keep going signal tends to be given occassionally along the path to the behaviour. Did I like it? I tried it. I found it difficut. Piper tended to stop what she was doing more frequently I felt when using the ib than not, but that could be that she was trained "traditional" clicker method - say nothing during and then bridge. So a noise from m tended to make her stop and move in for a reward. She did however learn to target using other body parts over the course of the weekend, but I could probably have got them anyway it is just we took the time to work on them during the practical sessions of the seminar. I found it tiring to use, trying to keep up a constant stream of communication and I also wondered how it would transate to trial/performance behaviours given that the ceasing of an ib was supposed to mean "you are doing it wrong" - so how would you phase a constant stream of noise to nothing? It was a system developed for husbandry with zoo animals and I guess the constant feedback there serves a purpose and there would not be the same need to ever wean it back to no feedback needed. Was interesting to reread the article (I have a whole manual on it somewhere?) and reminded me that teaching body part targets was fun and I should give them a go with Jazz

Jazz entered herding at about 8 months. They can compete from 6 months onwards, she would have been about 8 months when the first test she was old enough to enter was held. As we don't get many herding events in Adelaide she was around 13 months completing her test levels (passed each time, even when I didn't think she would and only put her in so the breeder's friend who was judging could get a look at her.) I entered her in her first competitive trial class at around 20 months, missing 1 trial after completing her tests as I felt she was not ready. Again I put her in the trial so a friend of the breeders could have a look but with no real expectation of a pass but knowing that if she did pass she would pass well or it would fall to pieces - iut was never going to be inbewteen. Well she had 2 runs that weekend and won both with a 99 and a 98 out of 100 then completed the title at our next trial. She needs more training and maturity before moving up to the next stage though. She gained her title a week after turning 2. I am yet to start her on agility and only started her on obedience training this year, she is about ready for CCD after around 6 to 9 month's of semi serious training (I say semi serious as I expect a high level of work but don't train vey often). Piper was a different kettle of fish - I started training her for obedience an agility the day she came home. By about 9 months I was asked to trial her in obedience and being scored 195 in the ring at training by a hard judge. I felt mentaqlly she was too young and may nto cope with the pressue as I get terribly nervous in the ring. In the end I entered her in her first trial when she was around 14 to 16 months and in reality not working as well as she had been and some what bored by it all. We had the best heel work scores of the ring but a so so stand for exam and shitty recall so ended up 3rd (or might have been 4th on a countback?) behind Ness Then we did a few trials and had little things go wrong and left it for ages (read several years!) and finally gained her CD when she was about 5, having gained her 2nd pass 2 years after her first and her 3rd 2 yesrs after that on no training since the previous pass! Agility she started trialling in at 18 months and had some ba handler related problems while I learnt how to run a speed demon after my 2 plod around the course dogs and discovered that rough housing andd games outside the ring were NOT needed! She get either her JD or AD within a few trials and took about 12 months for the other entering a trial every month or so. Herding Piper started in as soon as it was available to compete in over here, not sure her age exactly but she had been ready for about 2 years at that point in time.

I have always heard of using kelp for improving pigment, not sure if it will work with snow nose though?