laffi

First of all never cook bones. I don't what your chicken mince was .. was it a minced chicken frame? Chicken frames are rich in bones and therefore should never be cooked. I would say raw meaty bones are much more nutritious than most of available dry foods (esp the ones from the supermarket) so I would not give up yet if I were you. I would give her a chicken wings and see if she still has diarrhea. It's possible your dog can't tolerate chicken. If that's the case I would try raw turkey (turkey neck or wing) or raw roo tail...

I think at this stage he will definitely stress at the trial .... I think your first goal is try to find what he likes and I think it's going to be the hardest part. I would also vary the food rewards so he never knows what is coming. Mine used to love cheese but got over it a little so I had to improvise. At some stage I only used raw meats in training (at the club) gross I know but it worked. Are you using clicker training? I found that my golden gets much more focused once she clicker is out (I think it's conditioned as for 1.5 years she had to ear all her dinners through clicker training). Are you going to bring him to Glendenning this Sat? I know he is not the one competing in agility but I would like to meet him

I really think you need to find reinforcer that HE likes. What food were you using the the 2 food game? For about 1 year I was frustrated with my golden as she was so much more slower and 'lazy' than my aussie. So it took me a year to find what she loves (food pouches stuffed with sausages or chicken chunkers), sheepy tug toys, swimming and sniffing. I use them all as a reward. Now she is not as fast as my aussie but at least she is eager

The Spotted Devil I will try that last game too

what helped me with the lost of attention after feeding is -C&T for looking at me and feeding more so the dog doesn't have time to get distracted - delivering 10 treats one after another so it lasts for a long time Laffi had this horrible habit to sniff the ground after she got the treat (I think to see if she dropped any ) but feeding her for longer (this is one is at variable schedule and mostly used as a 'jackpot' really helped.

What is your rate of reinforcement? How often do you give him food during training? With Laffi to get her attention we started with every couple of secs (for nice heeling for example) and worked from there.

Well I am not sure what you feed (raw or dry) but you can easily use all the dry food in one session... even for a german shepherd It's much harder if you feed raw though :rolleyes:

Another excellent advice . My golden retriever also has to work for every scrap of her food :rolleyes:

My golden retriever doesn't play in all the environments either.. but we are working on it. So which foods did you try? Make a list and try to rate how much he likes each of them. I used not to feed my GR for a day if we had agility training the next day so she was quite hungry and therefore liked her treats way more. I don't have to do it anymore but it did work very well. (I did feed her heaps during and after training so it's not like she was starving lol)

I agree with what has been said. You need to find an "A" reinforcer. It's a reinforcer the dog will take at any time and any place. This will help you with consistent focus. If you need some ideas for Diesel's reinforcer: http://www.clickerdogs.com/listofreinforcers.htm Is he toy or food motivated? My golden retriever doesn't tug in all the situations (she loves tugging at home but not always in the park) but she does accept sausage in any situations . So I used these food pouches toys to reward her with the sausage inside but also incorporate some retrieve and tug into it. Her focus improved heaps when I started using the food pouch and not just the food directly.

have PMed you Vickie

Thanks everybody! Thank you for the tip stormie! now I know what to ask about then I call them

grass seed

Thanks heaps . They told me the costs: the blood test (lab fee) is $99 + the consult fee of $79.50. So total is $180 ( well $178.5 to be precise ). In Brisbane I was able to get the consult + titer test for $70.

Does anyone know where you can get a titer test in Sydney that is reasonably priced? Thanks!

Seems like your vet has no idea what is wrong with your pup Did he do any skin scraping?

:rofl: Congrats you were able to get the right diagnosis and it all worked out well

I think allergies to red meat are actually pretty common. What are the ingredients of RC you are giving her? More specifically what are the sources of proteins? I would just stick to that source just in the raw version. So if it's chicken I would give her chicken mince rather than beef. She is tiny so you will not need a lot of it anyway.

I have to dogs: dog nr 1: crazy to train 10/10 easily focused 10/10 retrieve drive 9/10 (her tennis ball would be 20/10 but she is a snob and doesn't retrieve random items so I put 9/10) dog nr 2: crazy to train 9/10 easily focused 7/10 retrieve drive 5/10

I think the IGA frames are for human consumption so no preservatives. I would drop anything that has preservatives in it. Unfortunately with allergies you will have to determine yourself which foods/treats are OK and which are not. So I suggest you start reading ingredients lists of everything you feed and try to determine yourself which foods/treats are OK and which are not. The simplest way is to put her on one thing (let's say one type of dry food) for a couple of weeks (no other treats, minces or anything) and see how she goes. If she stops itching add one more things at the time and see how she goes. However if she still itches drop the original diet for something else. But remember one thing at the time otherwise you will never know what is causing the allergies. Dogs don't get 'bored' of food. When they are hungry they will eat. ETA: she could be allergic to anything: grains, preservatives, chicken, beef etc etc

The foods you listed contain a significant amount of grains (corn/wheat etc) that can cause allergies in dogs. There has been a lot of threads about it so I suggest you do a search and read more about itchy dogs and common suggestions for their diet. Most people would advise to switch to raw diet (read up on BARF and prey model diet) or a better quality kibble (Eagle Pack Holistic, Artemis for example). By going on raw it's easy to perform elimination diet and determine exactly what your dog is allergic to. It could be that it's environmental allergies and not food at all. BTW Some people here had huge success with Evening Primrose Oil Shampoo. I have used it for my itchy dogs and will never use anything else

I have done quite a few ADAA starters level trials in QLD and the hardest entries were 90deg never less than that. So something like * * * * * * * * * * * * 3 ______________ 2 ______________ 1 I have never seen less than 12 or more than 12 ETA sorry about the drawing

OT: for the 14th do you mean the ADAA glendenning competition? If yes I will see you there It will be our first NSW comp Btw not that my dogs are fantastic weavers or anything like that but I don't even think they see a difference between 8 and 12 weaves. I used 2x2 method and it took a bit to add 2 more weaves to 4 (like 3-4 sessions) but after that they would just weave 8, 10, 12.... they don't seem to see any difference. So I would say you are ready for 12

First of all I think training happens 24/24 7/7. As for 'formal training' I think it depends what your goals are. I am competing in agility and preparing for competing in obedience. I train once a day 5-6/week. The sessions usually are 5-10 min long. I have two dogs and one is always crated when I work with the other one. I alternate them so I never work for more than a couple of min with each of them. I always prepare what I want to work on: weaving, contacts, handling etc. I think my training lessons are pretty well structured as most of the time I try to follow some drills from agility DVDs. I always think ahead of time what I am going to reward and what I will ignore. I rarely ever correct the dog but I do use NRM (no reward marker). I use the clicker about 70% of the time and verbal marker about 30% of the time. During the sessions I always try to have about 80% success rate. Although with my softer dog I don't mind having it 90% whereas with my crazy aussie I can handle 60-70% but I do try to have it at 80%.

I totally agree! I spend a lot of time thinking about the value the different rewards represent for the dog.