piper

In some breeds if you threw out all carriers of something you would leave a very narrow gene pool and potentially open up other problems. A mating to a carrier is safe if it is done with thought and planning - that is that the other half of the mating is DNA normal. I am yet to breed my first litter but have here a girl who is DNA normal for 3 different diseases and I would not hesitate to use a carrier over her provided that dog was going to give me other things that my girl needs. If I did use a carrier over her then progeny would be tested and purchasers clearly informed of what the results mean to their pup should they turn out to be a carrier and that is that they own a dog that is genetically proven not to have 1 of the diseases able to be tested for but does cary the gene and could potentially pass it on. The dog would be placed on limit and this explained to the owners and why.

I have been thinking about this. I sort of had similar issues with Piper. Piper used to only dislike other dogs that rushed up to er when on lead and working, it was definitely about proximity to me. Then we started agility and she would work initially with say 5m of me and suddenly the behaviour changed and even at the park if offlead and within a 5m radius of me she would snap. Then we started herding and progresively she would take commands from an ver increasing distance, as this distance increased so did the distance away from me that she would react to other dogs, it was all very much related to her "working" distance from me. I never put it down to herdng but rather her increased response to commands at a distance and the fact that she always reacted in some way to dogs "intruding" on her working, and to Piper working means focus on me and that is where her focus always is. I should add that if a dog is sensitive in its approach and doesn't charge head first in like a rude thing then she is far more tolerant. I have always just managed it by responding and calling her away if I see a dog approaching in a manner I know will annoy her and once she is back to me I do my job and block them out of the way to the best of my ability.

Jules, A simple piece of advice for your PT that I was given - just keep walking! If Poppy is a strong gathering dog and constantly moves the sheep to you wherever you are just walk. You can walk through the gates and they are 4m wide so put yourself on the fenceline and walk and she should keep them to you. That only leaves you needing to think about the stop and the pen. Of course this is not always fool proof but it certainly helps, especially if you have nice quiet sheep. With quiet sheep and a dog that balances to you you should be able to walk most of th PT without needing side/flank commands. I am currently contemplating entering Jazz in our next trial but not 100% about it yet. She is such a lovely worker but works soooo wide that I may have hassles if the sheep stick at the obstacles as she is not confident on her walk up yet. Poor girl is probably not confident on her flank commands anymore either after I spent 10 mins getting fed up with her constantly taking wrong sides on the weekend and stopping her and resending her only to realise I had my commands around the wrong way Luckily she is a forgiving little thing, I need to put more faith in her the only times I can think of her taking her flank commands wrong it was me that had made the error and she was going the direction I had told her to, just it wasn't the direction I wanted.

Sorry for the short notice, we have been arranging a training day on SHEEP for NEXT SATURDAY June 13. This training day will be held at Meadows Boarding kennels. The benefit of using Cass's place for the training is there will be a variety of different sized yards and paddocks able to be used for dogs of differing levels. The training day will commence at 10am. Cost is $7 per training run. Please contact me via email or phone to confirm your attendance as numbers are limited. We hope to see you there. You are welcome to cross post or forward onto other interested parties. Kristen 0412 228 956 [email protected] EDIT TO ADD: Must be financial members of DOGSSA

I find lamb flaps good for putting weight on a dog or any nice bone with plenty of meat and fat with the added addition of the teeth cleaning as well. Tinned sardines mixed through the meal you currently give or an egg or yoghurt in it may make him want to consume more. Or rather than 1 large feed 4 or 5 smaller feeds during the day. My Jazz can be awful for keeping weight on and when I find she is dropping weight I go to pieces of lamb flaps a couple of times a week and she puts the condition back on.

If that happens & he won't come back the best thing to do is run in the opposite direction or fall on the ground in a heap. He's sure to come back to you to see what's wrong. I am always wary of that advice, after a friend was told to do just that with her BC. Said BC looked around, couldn't find owner, paniced and took off. Went missing for an hour or so in the suburbs and the grounds only streets from a very busy major road. It was a very very anxious time for everyone there and involved in her search.

I used to use "yes" with Piper if she had been working well and just done a nice position. If she had missed the position I would just move off with a hand signal. And of course in training yes had been followed with food a fair amount of the time. I have no idea if it actually helped keep her enthusiasm up as it gave her feedback or not as heelwork was never her issue anyway. And no judge ever commented on it. The other word would use in training was watch. I used heel for return to heel.

THey have the complete mix that make yourself and most of the supplements. I don't think they do the prepared stuff as they don't have fridge/freezer for that type of product. I am running low on it, last got some around February I guess. Maybe ask at the counter. The 2 times I have got it from them the staff have been excited to tell me all about it and aks if I have used it before and what sort of results I have had.

I use VAN together with a raw diet for my guys. I use Raw meaty bones some days and then VAN on other days. The VAN I mix with offal or sardines as well as egg and yoghurt. They love it. I was feeding it a few years ago then stopped as I could no longer get it locally. Then late last year I was in PetStock and noticed that they carry it now so picked some up again. Cassie - I got it at the PetStock at Parafield Gardens but I think they said to me that all the Petstocks were carrying it (in SA at least) and that the vet that created it had come in and talked to staff about it before they started to sell it.

Well I was chatting to Judy Chapman at a show and asked what kind of things they wanted and she said some cute tricks would be good. So I rattled off Pipers list and she asked me to come along and even offered to provide the sound for the freestyle if I needed her to. And I figured Piper would enjoy it, she is such a show off. I figure I will let her know I won't be coming and why but offer if she would like to look at her another time if they still need more dogs then I am happy to do so.

Well I haven't done it with her for a couple of years, 2 weeks ago I started doing some training of her again and pulled the bin and ball out. She is slightly manic and it needs refining again before filming it. But Piper put a spanner in the works by injuring herself while working sheep last week and is now on about 8 weeks rest :D I had been working on the bin, skateboard riding, putting her toys in her wagon and "going home" (bringing me the wagon) and also a freestyle routine for a try out for a demo team next weekend. Thats now out, oh well.

My favourite complex trick with Piper was to put rubbish in a foot pedal rubbish bin. First she had to learn to pick soemthing up and take it to a target, then to release it at the target. In between that I worked seperately on teaching the foot pedal on the bin, gradually increasing the criteria to not rewarding unless the lid was open (the bin we have takes quite a bitof force to open, really had to learn to stand on it with that foot not just touch it) then holding out for duration of foot on pedal, then encouraging her to dip her head in (took some work to get that bit sorted and worked it out by throwing the rewards in there when she kept her foot on the pedal. Then introduced doing that while holding something. And for Piper the addition of holding something became a real hurdle for her - took a bit to realise she could hold an item AND use her foot. She would run to the bin, drop the item, hit the pedal, pick up the item. I had a similar hiccup with teaching a formal retrieve - she would drop the dumbbell, sit then pick it up again. Once she got past hitting the pedal with the item in her mouth it was a very quick transition to putting it in the bin as she already knew to put it in something. With the bin trick I started off using a tennis ball and later changed the types of items.

You use it with the sanding bands attachment. Mine are not keen on it but better than they are with nail clipping and I prefer the finish they get - smooth and don't scratch like they can after clipping.

It was Vet wrap stuff that I used. After I tried the crape bandage. But the suggestion would have been a good one had I not already tried it, so thank you . Bugger! Guess it doesn't stick enough. Snood seems to be the next best thing. Or wrap and then cover with a snood to keep the wrap on?

What about vet wrapping the ear as vet wrap will stick to itself and also the hair a bit it may not come off so easily? I know of someone that usd to vet wrap the end of her dogs tail as it would split it wagging it into things and I seem to remember someone having vet wrapped an ear before as well.

The closes club to you would be Para Distrcts Obedience Dog Club. They train on Sunday mornings for Obedience and Friday evening for Agility. They also offer Fyball, not sure of the night for that. They are at the bottom of Saints Rd, I can't think of the exact road name ut if you turn off of Main North Rd onto Saints Rd, it takes a 90 degree bend to the left about 1km along but there is a small access type road that goes straight ahead - they are down there (it is a "right" turn due to the way the road goes and I think has a turning slip lane. I think there is a sign there pointing to the off lead dog park)

I used to wake up in the middle of the night crying in pain with them, they felt like they lasted forever. Usually it was only sore a day or 2 but with a bad 1 it would be longer. Thank god haven't had them for ages, they spontaneously went away several years ago. I have never known of a dog to get a cramp but am sure it can happen. It is so scarey when they suddenly hurt themselves, Piper was going for a toy 1 day and collapsed screaming. Couldn't stand up and I was sure she had broken her back twisting. When I got her up she didn't use her tail at all for hours. She had strained the sacroiliac ligament as well as another 1 in her groin. Within a week her behaviour was mostly normal (slow to sit and drop still but her demeanour and want to do things and returned) but it was a good 3 months, as the vet had told us it would be, before she was totally normal. Took her a while to get her confidence back at things that involved jumping or stretching, like getting on the furniture for a cuddle. Since then I have made sure she is facing the direction of travel when I throw something to minimise the twisting and wrenching she does. Her return to heel around my body is now brilliant as she circles me to line up for the toy to be thrown. Hopefully Mandela's issue resolves itself with time and rest as well.

I can't believe how blunt the chiro has been with you. They are such harsh comments!! In regards to the cramp - it is a possibility. I used to get night cramps in my calf and often it hurt more 1 or 2 days afterwards with obvious heat and tenderness in my calf. If it was a bad cramp it oculd take a week before the aching went away.

They have a guarantee on them if your dog does not play with them and Joe is great to deal with if you ever have any problems with any of his products. Jazz's favourite toys are all Ausie Dog toys - her enduro ball which is locked away and only used under supervision because she goes so mental for it and is so vocal playing with it that I more likely to get neighbour complaints if she has it out, lol. Her frisbee - we nick name it her dummy as she will walk around the house with it hanging out of her mouth and also the turbo chook. Our Turbo chook is 5 years old and used to be Piper's favourite. Over the years it has had 4 different border collies play with it but Jazz gives it a daily beating, given it was already several years old when we got her we were amazed it survived her puppy months but it did and she still plays with it every morning and evening, some evenings involve tug games between her and Piper. It looks daggy but but it is still in 1 piece. I can't speak highly enough of the Aussie Dog toys and also Joe's service.

Well done. Do you know if any other Keeshond or Finnish Lappund have participated in the ANKC herding program? Would love to see pics or video if them working.

I checked to see if you posted last night and thought nah you probably got home and fell into bed. I was tired anough but you guys had a much longer day. And we thank you so much or your help and being prepared to ang around afterwards for the impromptu but very beneficial training session. Both your guys did very well and are goin to be such very different dogs to work. I am sore you are going to learn so much between them.

My first thought would be poodle - they are known to be intelligent are an athletic breed and come in different sizes to suit different needs. I have known of some lovely poodles in both obedience and agility. I even remember a 3 legged poodle with a masters agility title in NSW - I was amazed watching it go around.

Dova, you ARE a saint!! Without someone to bring the stock it kind of makes the whole trial a bit difficult to hold.

4 acres is enough Jules, go on you know you want to!! :wink: You need to find someone with a larger flock that you can have 5 from and rotate them so they don't get too dog broke. I anted to do that with my parents 5 acres but they up and sold it for development. Darned incinsiderate I say!!!

Oh you are a life saver!!! As 1 of the organisers you do not know how much we appreciate people like you with enthusiasm AND prepared to help out BTW - we have spoken on the phone a few times and I'll be there all weekend scribing for some and judging for others. My girls get a break this trial, I didn't feel either of them were quite ready for their next level even though I felt I could probably manage to get them around the course. I would rather wait until I am confident that they don't need me for anymore than basic directions of where to take the stock :p