piper

My entries are in. Need to pull my finger out with the training now.

Definitely true for my BCs. The ones with a natural lie down on sheep have always been the hardest to keep in a sit & the more upright ones on sheep have had no trouble with a duration sit stay. Doesn't mean it can't be done if they naturally clap, but definitely makes it harder to teach. I agree. Jazz is very much a "the sheep are still, I shall lay down and watch" dog. She is a pain for a sit stay. Lucky we don't trial in obedience so I don't need to worry about it, and if I do need to leave her I just leave her in a down. The exception begin agility start lines but as she is anticipating moving forward for these and they are not for very long she doesn't seem to lay down.

Given the control she has over feeding them, I highly doubt any of them would go and annoy another. Feeding multiple dogs in close proximity it is something that you teach them - to leave others alone. My guys all get fed in a similar way to the video but with only 3 of them it is an awful lot easier to manage and train that it would be for that many. All of mine know not to bother another, they are taught from a puppy by me body blocking any attempts to approach anyone else's bowl. What they do know though is a bowl that has been left unattended they can investigate so whoever finishes first usually stands back a couple of metres and watches the other 2 intently until 1 of them moves away and then they quickly go and check :)

Looking forward to meeting up, piper. :D Yes. Hopefully there will be catch up time. First nationals I was so crazy busy running from 1 place to another that I hardly met anyone that I wanted to. At this stage if I get there Friday I will be stupidly busy and not likely to stop and speak to anyone. Saturday will only be slightly better but I think Sunday will be good with no one entered in anything :)

Thanks for starting this thread :) I am working on getting my 2 ready for the BC Nationals in about 6 or 7 weeks. It will be good to watch and get ideas.

Is it her first litter? With my girl on her first litter she was mostly a calm Mum, but if the puppies were stressed she would stress. It can be a bit of a vicious circle - she is unsettled because they are unsettled, they are unsettled as she won't let them settle... It was suggested to me that some of her unsettled behaviour in the first few days could have been the uterus contracting back after having the puppies. Buscopan was suggested for me (but she seemed to be over it by then) and is something I will keep on hand in the future. Fingers crossed everything improves.

So so pleased to log in tonight and see the wonderful news. Congratulations and sounds like Reba is doing an amazing job.

It is also to do with the fact hot air rises, cool air sinks.

I love the Budweiser clydesdale ads. I spent ages last year when they released they super bowl ad looking at their webpage and videos :)

Go to Bunnings and buy a suitable piece of ply. They come in pre cut pieces of 900 x 600mm then find where the trestle legs are and buy a set of folding trestle legs. Then go to where they have the carpets and stuff and but the pyramid matting and finally find a suitable adhesive. I made mine that way years ago and it works well. It was really easy to do as well. Mind you these days they have half size trestle tables that would be perfect and just put something non slip on them.

Nova has only seen the uni sheep from a large distance before, but then there was a sheep drenching ad on TV and he did the same thing! Phew, glad it is not just my fools then. What interested me about it though (when I stopped laughing) is how she just knew what they were and that other animals did not get the same response. I do herd with both of them and both were exposed to sheep prior to first seeing them on TV but I would not have expected them to recognise them like that on a TV screen.

An embarrassing story about a supposedly smart dog.... (and luckily she has only ever done it once but we did laugh a lot....) I can't remember the program but a flock of sheep came on the screen and Jazz went from sleeping to alert immediately, then as they walked across the screen and "off" of it, she did a lovely arc across the lounge room and then tried to go behind the TV to find them. Her daughter is not much better - the first time she saw sheep onTV, she tried to get onto the cabinet and stare at them. Mostly they ignore it but if there are animals on there, in particular flocks of animals they will watch intently.

I'm another watching and waiting with fingers crossed for you, your girl and her precious cargo. Could you perhaps entice her to drink some more by giving her something like goats milk to drink, even if only a splash in her water?

Are there any listed local to you that you can go and check out with tape measure in hand?

The Sporting Register is open and at the moment is predominantly working sheepdog registries. I believe the Murray River Curly Coats are looking into how to be accepted onto the Sporting Register. They have had DNA testing done that shows they are a distinctly different breed to other retrieving breeds and if I recall from what I read of the study they were closer to the Portugese Water Dog than the Curly Coat Retriever. They have excellent records on the development and history of the breed. I do hope they succeed in gaining Sporting Register recognition so that they can participate in ANKC dog sports while remaining entire if the owners wish.

I agree - weighting is much easier. I have not succeeded with taping, I can never get it to stay in long enough and I won't prevent them playing for months on end to stop the others pulling it out. And I have tried quite a few methods. Cinna's are better than her mothers but I would still prefer them a little higher. Mystiqview - what is Stockholm Tar?

Well done. Did you end up putting anything in her coat to make her look like a scruff?

Normally I would say fly but in this case I would be adding up time and if they want to drive. Depending on where they live, the time taken may not be significantly different. I went to Victoria for a course with the dogs many years ago and drove over with a friend. Some other SA people flew over and back. For the return trip we worked out we got home 15 minutes before them. In their situation though they had to travel back up the South Eastern Freeway, not far from Murray Bridge.

Eastern suburbs of where? Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth....

3/52 This is not a shot that I planned. With the weather and fires I was thinking it would be a photo less week but I ended up going out to the evening show at DogsSA. It isn;t the full manual that I wanted to use. I was struggling with the lights and ended up trying a few different things to see what works. This 1 was on aperture priority:

LOL. There is not the slightest hint of remorse in those eyes.

Give it a go, I just think it depends on why the coat is like that. A friend had a border collie years ago that had 1 section on his back that would go really red as soon as the weather started to warm up. She used a leave in conditioned/suncreen spray on it and it did make a difference. It was a human 1 but I can't remember what it was called.

It gave the dog a very manky moth eaten look with bits of hair clumping together and sticking out at different angles. And with the dirt through it as well there was no sleek shine to it.

A friend of mine did some TV work and her dog had to look like a stray. they put olive oil in his coat and rubbed the dirt through. He was TOTALLY unrecognisable. LOL

My husband has been out for over 12 ours now for CFS. He said this morning before he headed off he wasn't sure what time he would make it home. And that was before it all really went downhill. I am just thankful that he works behind the scenes in planning, support, communications and logistics. I don't know how the loved 1s of those out there in it feel, I am stressed enough and I know he is in a safe location.