SkySoaringMagpie

I've been wondering that myself. It might end up going the way of The Rock.

If you've got a show Afghan tho' you might spend the next 2 hours blowing the coat clean and dry. Think Bjelkier has Sammies, so a similar prob! Out here it's mud that is a problem as much as the water.

I use it if pilling a dog with a piller or by hand is likely to cause resentment or stress and the dog is starting to cotton on to their treats being doctored. So, get dog to be pilled and other random dog, sit them both, start feeding treats and the dog who needs the pill will take the food with the pill more enthusiastically and less "skeptically" with another dog sitting by them also eating treats. Not something I'd do with a dog on medication for the rest of its life, but it works well with teething puppies on antibiotics and that kind of thing.

We are double income no kids on acreage with good infrastructure. That's the short answer! Food - we buy 15 kilos bags of it and whatever RMBs we can find cheaply. Having a country butcher helps. Bills - most are to do with showing related expenses, we haven't spent a lot at the vet recently, and our bills are slightly different in that a lot of what I do spend is health check and repro related rather than illness related. Bedding - we have a lounge in the dog area, crates (which are not shut overnight) and allow the older ones into the human lounge area where two of them sleep on the leather couches. Walking - as we have roughly 2 acres fenced around the house, I take dogs out each morning and/or evening for a walk and play recall games. I don't run them all together, most are polite co-runners, one isn't. Safety - we have 6 foot chain wire fencing and kennel runs for when we are out. Council not an issue as we're in NSW - only problem would be if the neighbours changed and someone decided to complain. Right now we all tolerate each other, and mine don't bark constantly, they might bark once or twice a day. We wouldn't have this many dogs if we lived in suburbia.

Good advice, if people are set against crate training a few photos won't change their view, it will just entrench any view they might have that you are a potentially unsuitable jailer.

The bolded bit is the key a lot of the time. I think "you need to show the dog who is boss" is next to useless. "You are walking into the heel position instead of your dog walking into position - have you tried X Y & Z?" is more helpful.

LOL! Mabby = Joan Jett. Dressed in shiny black, figure to die for, confident, knows how to rock out . Hee!

Wasn't sure whether to post this in the show ring, training forum, or general - but figure we cover everything in General! How well do you take feedback about your dog's behaviour, or for the obedience/show/dog sport people - your handling? Do you appreciate it? Resent it? Does it make a difference if it's positive or constructive criticism? Any other thoughts?

And why. Fer instance, our Afghan puppy Lochie, purely on the basis of his hair - Berlin.

how does this work? With my one, when he stops whinging, i approach him but as soon as i do, he whinges again. I m not quick enough to praise before he makes a sound In that situation I would try a clicker and throw treats.

Same as the old one, Greece.

I've been asked to let you all know that there has been a change of judge for Canberra Royal. Ms M Dekaristou is replacing Mr G Kostopoulos. New Schedule here: http://www.rncas.org.au/showwebsite/UserFi...dule%282%29.pdf If you have any questions please contact the conformation phone inquiries number on the schedule, I am just passing this on.

I like your idea of "walk on a loose leash" day, or "house training day", partly because it doesn't ask people to bite off a whole heap and then chew hard. Having been a volunteer instructor, my view is that the reasons for the failure rate are twofold. One is instructors who are good with their own dogs, but not very people savvy - droning on displaying their knowledge rather than teaching, or not honing in quickly on the handler's main malfunction and coming up with a suitable way to address that in a way that will stick. It's not usually the dog that has the problem. To be clear, I'm not bitching at volunteer instructors for that, they are at least showing up and they don't get paid. If they do get paid, then yes I am bitching about it The other issue is that people just don't practice. I suspect part of that not practicing is because the syllabuses are often trying (admirably) to cover everything at the right stage of development. Your person with good self-discipline who will read the handout and do all the home work well for 5-10 minutes a day is usually 1 or 2 people in a class of 10-15. Your experienced dog person who has raised and trained 4 or 5 dogs does a lot of it by instinct, and forgets how hard and overwhelming it felt when you were completely new to it. Some dog people have never been "new" to it, being raised themselves in obedience or show homes. And I have only taught in Canberra, which is a University/Public Service city where people are generally more educated and more familiar with "learning".

This is a big part of it I think. There are some aspects of canine "rudeness" that people who like to impose on others for fun find entertaining or even rather well intentioned people think is cute. Plus for some people, seeking "help" to train a dog when the pop culture messages say it is all about being the boss is hard to do. Puppy pre-school has been a huge step forward conceptually, most well intentioned people will go to puppy class. Unfortunately not all are run well - they're not supposed to be a free for all but neither are they supposed to defeat the purpose of socialisation. I do think that obedience clubs need to run two streams. One for people who want an easy to live with well mannered pet, and one for people who want to trial and do dog sport. Finding enough skilled (with people) volunteer instructors is the bit that stops this happening plus some cultural views from old timers about "proper" training. Our local club got a grant to give active instructors a $100 petrol card. That kind of thing is a good example of what we need in the way of support from Councils and sponsors - reward the people in the community who can make this happen. Preventive training for good manners is not expensive rocket science, the expensive rocket science comes later when no training has happened at all. Or the black plastic bag in the bin EFS

~~mental image~~ Dog or handler? ROLMAO!

Funnily enough I noticed an exhibitor who is very vocal about the evils of bum running run up someone else's bum recently. Must only be a dirty trick when someone else does it. But the person whose bum they ran up had already done a very naughty crowd in the challenge line up with their bum basically hanging over the dog in front so I didn't feel sorry for them either. The games people play. You gotta or you'd

Putting my pollyanna hat on here, let's see if we can get this thread to 7 pages I love: - When my dog shows well, win or lose - Catching up with friends and celebrating each others achievements - Spending sunny days seeing bits of the country I'd never see otherwise - Trifle - Winning!

Agree with Lyndsay, and it is obvious to an observer which is which. That's why I said upthread that I don't mind unless I know it's attention seeking. Sometimes it's not just new people who take time but infirm people hanging on to their hobby too. I don't mind waiting for them, I do mind waiting for the Queen of Sheba to get themselves into the ring with the right dog.

On a related note, exhibitors in your group or breed with a bad case of verbal diarrhea.

Yep, fortunately I've not stewarded the toy ring often enough to get seriously cheesed off by that yet, and it doesn't occur in my breed TG. I have seen some great little set ups where people have those velcro number holders and the number and each lead in little named pockets for each dog and a helper who knows which dog is which and has them all set up to go. And then there's the helpless and hopeless

This one only cheeses me off if I know they're doing it as an attention seeking thing. Then it's really particularly if it's hot or raining.