J...

I finally have an obedience brag Darcy and I finally hit the Novice ring today, about 2.5 years after she got her CCD title. I've had a bit of a battle with her motivation in the obedience ring as I did too much paddock bashing with her as a young dog (first dog) and the word "heel" was a cue for her to switch off totally. Agility was also a big reward for her and obedience paled in comparison so it's not been an easy run to get her to this stage. She ended up being the only pass in the ring - tough ground (rabbit poo everywhere!) and tough judge (took ages on the SFE with a hat and coat on and we ended up doing what would be an open level heel pattern here in Vic!) but I was really happy with her work. She was motivated and happy and worked well. Not only did she win the ring, she also got HIT and highest scoring member for our club. Despite the fact that I took 8 points off her recall score by standing her instead of letting her autosit - my nerves are so bad in obedience so who knows what was going through my head at the time ;) Lost 4 points in heeling, all my fault for looking at my dog while heeling and one RAT where I stuffed my footwork. But we did it!!

I'm competing both days, Obedience in the morning with a Masters Jumping run and then just Masters Jumping in the arvo each day. Pretty relaxed given we usually do around 1/2 a dozen runs so it will give me time to work on Zee with heaps of distractions. Tez I'm sorry I interrupted your training again tonight... we nearly need a timetable!! . Nice to see the grounds have been mowed

No, but by releasing her from the contact when you didn't ask her to get on you are effectively rewarding the behaviour. Go and get her off the contact and ask her to continue doing what you asked her to do, not what she wants to do. Same here, in fact I am half way through completely retraining my 4 yo's contacts. BUT I am now putting a heap of work into my 9 mo's contacts so that there is plenty of work there that shouldn't be an issue with it when it comes to competition. If I have a doubt that she doesn't understand her job then I haven't done a good enough job of training her. If I have to bandaid her in any way then I'll know I haven't done a good enough job of training her. Done heaps of this over the past few days as well - what's your training plan? What is your criteria and what are you going to reward and not reward? Planning planning and more planning, especially since you have so little exposure to equipment. Sounds harsh yes but it made a hell of a lot of sense to me. I can't wait for the next 2 days, which I'm literally about to head off for.

Just covered this at the Lynda Orton Hill seminar. You didn't ask her to get on the equipment so don't release her to get off. Let her figure out that she only gets rewarded for it when you ask for it. You've built up a lot of value for the contact equipment so build up value with you to balance it out.

The freeze dried stuff looks great but I'd prefer not to change their diet if I can avoid it which is why the chicken wings would suit. Darcy is on raw as she doesn't tolerate grain/preservatives that well. I could feed some grain free Artemis for a few days but once again it's a diet change with a potential for belly aches. ;) I'm not worried about the nutritional balance of the diet as it's only 4 days, I am more worried about the physical balance of a diet of chicken wings for 4 days i.e with no fibre to give it a hand to pass through?

Have just been away camping for an agility seminar for a few days and need to head back Thurs (away til Sunday). Made up a raw vegie/fruit mix before I left and took my usual additives with me - yoghurt, protein and supplements. Unfortunately the good esky I bought isn't as good as I thought and I don't think it is keeping the mush and yoghurt cold enough. Ended up feeding chicken wings for tea last night (straight from the supermarket deli). Has anyone successfully fed just chicken wings for a few days while away? I know it's not ideal balance wise but I'm at a loss on the best way to feed them while away without decent refrigeration and the chicken wings are easy to get and feed straight away.

Bugger - there is a big size difference between the mediums and the smalls then. Something tennis ball sized would be perfect, I find the squeaky tennis balls which you can get in some pet stores a good size but they get really manky and slobbery and I'm not sure they have the teeth friendly glue??

Would she be happy with you throwing the reward to her? If I use a ball as a reward I throw it to Darcy to catch which she's just as happy with. I find too many other dogs in class try to get in on the act if there is a squeaky ball thrown. What size are the small i-squeaks in comparison to a tennis ball? I have a few mediums and find them a bit big to handle easily or shove in a pocket.

Any chance it's a snake bite?

Thanks J!

Any chance we can do a full day for the workshop? It's a 6 hour round trip from here to KCC and back, just more worthwhile to get a full day if I can.

Nice Should teach Zee that one - she bows a lot naturally as it's her favourite stretch and she also bows slightly first when she drops. She is so much better at shaping than Darcy, simply because I understand it more. I didn't even know what shaping was until Darcy was probably 18 months old.

My two had the biggest zoomie session in the rain yesterday. Zee had never seen an umbrella before and both dogs spent their time either bolting up to me (playing chicken at the new "toy") or running around full speed with their tails tucked up their butts. Took them probably 20 mins to get it out of their system, they'd have a brief sniff and then take off again. Nutters, both of them!

Found your frisbee tez - predictably the toy addict found it, she was most upset when I confiscated it. I've put it in the little shed (small oval) down there out of sight for you - stand in the doorway and then look to your left and up slightly, it's up on the "shelf" formed from where the window cover is hooked up.

Oh your poor bugger, you have had a shit of a night I didn't really pay attention to what you were up to - was too busy making sure Zee didn't crash tackle the fence or those people walking around the outside. I can sympathise - just one of those training sessions where you wish you'd stayed in the house - only to be pestered endlessly because you haven't taken them out for the day That lake, well all I can say is I wish it would rain and fill up all the other lakes and rivers so we can have ours back in peace and quiet - it's such a bloody free for all lately. I haven't been using it - I'm still too paranoid about the blue green algae! Been driving to just this side of Killarney twice or three times a week - at least it's quiet there. Not keeping my dogs as fit as I'd like them though. Not getting my house work done either.... You should've said about the frisbee, Darcy the toy hound would've found it for you. Will see what we can find for you tomorrow, will give you a yell if we find it. Dunno whether Zee has ever been described as well behaved but she passes on a lick and a good fleaing (a Zee specialty!) as a thank you for the compliment.

While we're on the topic, does anyone know if skins of melons cause issues? Often I've thought about tossing the skin of a watermelon, honeydew melon or canteloupe out for the dogs but they'd probably eat the lot rather than just the remainder of the melon.

Hey tez must've been your turn to snob me tonight I was waving you down not waving at you but I probably wasn't that clear either I didn't want to interrupt your work as I already felt bad for distracting Jane with my two. Gotta love the black gene. Edited to add: Does anyone happen to know or remember reading what time the sheep trials finish up each night at Port Fairy. I have to mow the site for Acme tomorrow arvo and thought I might kill 3 birds with one stone - mow the site, take a look at the trials and take the dogs to the beach afterwards. It's mentioned in the Standard and the WT but no mention of finish time. I don't think I'll get there this weekend.

Dropped in another urine sample at the vets today, it is still showing signs of white cells. They've given me another week of the same AB, I have asked them to culture the sample to find if we're on the right track just for my peace of mind which they are very happy to do, so the sample was being sent off tonight.

You can have some of Darcy's stay skills if I can have some of Kinta's enthusiasm for heeling I think our heeling work probably belongs in here at the moment. We've taken most of the summer off from working much agility but have just started to get back into it so Darcy remembers what a jump looks like for the Lynda Orton Hill workshops. So of course our enthusiasm for heeling has gone right out the window, right when I've literally just sent entries off for her to do Novice at Wbool. She is still heeling but you can tell she's really not into it...

Give Petstock Colac a call, they often have flyers in there for them, or at least they should have the contact details.

That's not a UTI, it's excitement peeing which is a behavioural thing. The AB's would have been broad spectrum to cover all but the most exotic of bugs. http://www.trainpetdog.com/dog-nervous-behavior.html It's not excitement peeing, seen it plenty of times and this is not it. She's also piddled a few times when she wasn't excited. It doesn't explain the mucuosy stuff on her innner leg this arvo. I gave her 2 Cranberry tablets tonight, will put her on 1 morning and night from tomorrow.

I'd say so persephone - don't understand why they didn't culture it to start with to find out which a/b would suit. Now I have to hope to god I can get another sample. She'll be heading back in tomorrow, she piddled in the car again tonight. Seems to be linked to excitement - training or knowing she's going somewhere exciting. Tonight we were literally 2 mins from the beach. I flipped her over to see if she was red or irritated at all and found a tiny bit of brown mucusy like stuff stuck to her feathers just on the inside of her leg. I also got some cranberry tablets from the chemist - anyone got dosage recommendations? The good old black and gold cream cheese is getting a hiding trying to hide the A/Bs, Vit C and now Cranberry tabs.

Count me in!

Everything I've read about spay incontinence refers to it being something that starts happening when they are asleep, more common in dogs over 20 kg and more common when they're older. She's under 20 kg, not overweight, and is only 8 months old. She is only having issues when she's wide awake. Absolutely no sign she's having issues asleep (she sleeps inside). It wasn't a deliberate piddle, it was an accident. She already gets a dose of ACV in her dinner and the vet was really happy with the pH levels as he was going to put her on acidifying tablets but felt no need too. She hasn't been groomed at all. I will give the vet a call tomorrow which he asked me to do - was just worried and hoping it's not something serious.

I had Zee to the vets Wednesday arvo has she has had a few toileting mistakes over the previous week, she's just gone 8 months old and hasn't had any mistakes since she was about 5 months. Desexed at 1 week short of 6 months. Managed to get a good sized sample (vet was impressed!) and took it in - tested fine for pH (acidic) and specific gravity but showed a slightly elevated level of white blood cells. Also a very slight temperature. She's been treated with A/Bs since Wednesday PM. Yesterday I noticed her sit and then fidget slighty and squat, with only a small amount of urine. Tonight we were doing some crate games and she had a minor accident in her crate - something she's never done even as a baby puppy. I was thinking it would be at least starting to clear up a bit by now? She's only got 3 days of A/Bs left.