SkySoaringMagpie

Think you are probably talking about Jim Hickie's fairytale: http://www.afghanhoundsinternational.net/a...o/fairytale.htm

Video available at the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wet-dog-s...ory?id=11939488 Call it Fido physics. Intrigued by the infamous wet-dog shake, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have figured how fast a sopping wet pooch must shimmy to dry himself off. How did they do it? Instead of running for the hills when the waterlogged animals got ready to shake, the researchers risked getting wet themselves. They got up close and personal with a slow-motion video camera, and then analyzed the shaking. They discovered that the smaller the animals, the faster they must generally shake to dry themselves off. David Hu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the research is interesting because drying wet fur is critical to how mammals regulate heat. "A lot of animals have developed fur mostly for thermal insulation purposes and they need special mechanisms to basically get the water off," he said. If the standard 60-pound dog had to rely on evaporation alone to dry off, he would have to spend a quarter of his daily calories to get rid of the water, Hu said. Smaller animals would have to use even more of their daily energy to do the job. Researchers Studied Shaking Mice, Dogs, Grizzly Bears, Panda and More "To evaporate the water is very costly to them," he said. "Physiologists call this the wet-dog shake. That's why this thing evolved, and it's basically a slight variation of shivering." Hu said scientists have studied the phenomenon biologically, but haven't taken a look before at how it works and how efficient it is. Hu said he and the researchers, including graduate student Andrew Dickerson, videotaped 16 different species shaking off water. They studied various breeds of dogs, including the Chihuahua, Labrador, poodle and husky, as well as mice, rats, guinea pigs, grizzly bears and the panda. Some of the researchers got a little wet, they said, but it was worth it: They found a mathematical relationship between the radius of the animal and the frequency with which it had to shake in order to dry off. The smaller the animal, the more rotations per second it would have to make in order to dry off. For example, while a mouse with a radius of 2 cm (less than an inch) would have to shake with a frequency of 27 hz (shakes per second), a dog with a radius of 20 cm would only have to shake with a frequency of 4.7 hz to get comparably dry. The reason the larger animals don't have to shake as quickly has to do with surface tension, the researchers said. Hu said the droplets stick to the animals because of surface tension between the water and the fur. To repel the liquid, the animal must create enough centripetal force to overcome the surface tension. "If a dog shakes at a sufficiently high frequency, that centripetal force can overcome the surface tension and pull it off," he said. "All the animals have to reach the same speed [which is equal to frequency times radius], but because the larger animals have a larger radius, they can move at a slower frequency."

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The finer points people are talking about that you can't see are something you need to get your "eye" in on. I can see a lot more now than when I first started, it takes experience to look at a dog and handler and work out whether it's being presented to its best advantage or not. It's a bit like looking at a very out of focus picture and seeing it slowly, slowly, slowly coming into focus. Basically you just have to chuck yourself in the deep end, study the bibles of your breed, get a breed mentor or two, watch a lot of judging, go to handling classes and remember that there is no one way to get it right, and not everyone agrees on what is right. Within a breed you'll hear a lot of debate, and a lot of different opinions. Until you work out what your opinions are, and get your eye in a bit more, your breeder should be able to tell you what your boy's strong and weak points are, and how to show him to best advantage. Also, different judges are looking for different things and you only learn what they are looking for by experience. Clever handlers adjust how they show the dog to suit. You might please one judge by moving your boy like a bat out of hell, yet annoy the hell out of another judge for doing the same thing. Some judges have a thing about tail carriage, others don't, etc. One thing you can do - don't fuss over tweaking the weak points in the ring because you are saying "here they are!!" to the judge by doing that. I think you are probably very details oriented and a perfectionist - that will stand you in great stead, but it's important not to let it paralyse you. It's in making mistakes that you learn the most. Each stuff up or error of judgment about how to show the dog (not the same thing) teaches you more.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay for Hound Club, too hard with driving back home and time off. We'll be at the Saluki Show at KCC park on the Saturday tho'. Thanks to my buggered foot I'll be sitting in a chair while Keshwar shows my dogs. Naturally I will contribute by providing helpful advice between classes.

So who is going?

It misrepresents clicker trainers and conflates them with positive trainers which is an error at best and lazy propaganda at worst. There is a lot of overlap between the two but not all clicker trainers are purely or even mostly positive. I'd like to see him in a debate with Shirley Chong, my money would be on Shirley. I always find it amusing when people characterise science as something they "don't believe". It's not a faith based question, the principles of clicker training are well established. Just because clicker training is not the right tool for every situation does not make it a bad tool. No tool is universal in application and SOME of its followers suggesting it is still does not make it a bad tool. It's just a tool.

I love a judge with a sense of humour: On 4 February 2010, Swanee began experiencing very bad diarrhoea. Mr Smith administered Imodium tablets to him. Unsurprisingly, Swanee did not appreciate this. ETA if not obvious from the context, I'm referring to a judge presiding over a court case, not a show judge!

OK, need to find OH a dressier look for the ring - particularly for specialities. Here's a picture: http://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/profile.asp?dog=44641 Office style suits will just look weird, and mad bling in crazy colours is definitely out. I am thinking a sports jacket and open necked shirt rather than a matchy matchy suit with a tie but I think the pants probably need to be mid-grey. Don't know how easy it would be to match a sports jacket to grey pants. The dogs are: Black and white parti-colour Black masked cream Grey grizzle - can't have charcoal behind this dog Black irish tri So black is out, white also out. Camels and light tans won't look too good behind the cream dog tho' they'd work for the others. As I mention above, lurid neon colours and out there styles are definitely no go. I am thinking that an understated corporate goth look might be OK tho' I'm not sure how you'd pull that off without black pants. Fire away please fashion police!!

i have seen a lot of labs in beginners training classes and they can be very challenging for an inexperienced owner especially as adolescents. They need very firm boundaries around food, jumping up and their overall exuberance. They are also really physically strong. If a GSD is your dream dog I would look around for a really good breeder and go for a well bred even tempered GSD.

Most multi dog people have things they are and are not prepared to manage or put up with as a result of their previous emotional scars experience. It is a lot of work to run a multi dog household, if we weren't breeding/showing I wouldn't. The more dogs you have, the more vital it is that you and your partner are clearly the leaders of the household. For that reason I would see how you go with her dogs first. You might decide that you want to keep goats or breed chickens instead. Things I would avoid in a companion only home: Littermates of any configuration Dogs of the same sex and a similar age, particularly bitches More than one bitch if one of the bitches is entire bitch Same sex pairings of some breeds no matter whether desexed or not. Entire dogs with entire bitches. Our rules now are no littermates, and no bitches who are closer than 3-4 years in age to the other bitches. Neither of our breeds have DA heritage behind them, but they can still be sharp. Something I can't stress enough. Often aggression problems surface on maturity and during adolescence. You might think your reputed to have aggression issues breed is getting on great with the others as a pup, and that all your socialising and training is paying off, but the true test is often at about 18 months to 2 years when the breed characteristics come out in the temperament. Some are fine, some are not. It is easier to manage those dogs in a household without a heap of dogs milling around. 4 dogs counts as a heap. We have five I would also talk to people who successfully run together the breeds you are thinking of - if you can't find them in real life, you could ask here.

I still don't understand what you mean about joy pooing. Most creatures are relieved by a good poo but so far I am yet to recognise any pooing that reminds me of Beethoven's 9th.

What is a joy pooer?

Like RTG ours are all show dogs and I want them to learn to pee and poo on the lead. There is nothing worse than taking a dog away for a weekend and it not doing its business. For me the public bit is a non-issue, no-one is going to die because they saw a dog take a crap. The spot they do it, sure, I wouldn't let my dog crap on something important but I don't walk my dog through graveyards or over commemorative plaques or anywhere else it would be inappropriate for them to go as a general rule. As for marking, my rule is not on other people's property. They can mark nature strip trees, but not cars, fences, gazebos or anything else that belongs to another individual.

If it is within their policies and you can't get a change, something else to consider is putting up ads for your local rescues on the same site.

The dog with the fewest bad habits is the one I made the biggest hash of training because she was my first. Yet she doesn't counter-surf, barge around, jump up, bark, whine, toilet indoors or do anything I find irritating. She's pretty much perfect. Breeding counts for a lot as does a breeder careful to give you a newbie-safe dog. She has a rock solid true to type temperament and I can't take any credit for that.

Everything that goes into the kongs is human food but even if it were kibble I wouldn't care. :D

Dishwasher here too, on the top shelf. I have five to clean a day. They come up really nicely and being crazy dog people we don't care about having dog stuff in with the people stuff!

Tazi?

Nice work Alyosha, over to you!

Not really! I buggered up the Beauceron - and don't have enough snout finesse to work out why!! Ok folks:

Karelian Bear Dog?

I am not sure about this - Catahoula Leopard Dog?

Yep! Told you it was a doddle

We have a number of menu options which depend on what is cheapest at the butcher and whether we have a show the next day (no messy bones) or whatever. Our base kibble is Royal Canin Maxi - they get that in buster cubes in the morning before we leave for work if they are not getting kongs, which are usually filled with either leftovers (I cook without stuff like onion) or mince. Other meals are: Kibble and a tin of sardines - in olive oil for the young ones inclined to be too ribby, and in spring water for the ones inclined to be tubby Kibble and tinned mackeral Chicken wings Brisket bones Lamb neck (but only for 3 of them, the other two can't tolerate lamb) Chicken carcasses Turkey necks Kibble and giblets, chopped liver, chopped kidney or other offal Butcher's pet mince from the local butcher, has a lot of soft bone in it which is good - mixed with rice or soaked pet "muesli" Bags of beef bones from the local butcher Human leftovers Occasionally goat bones if I can get to the Canberra farmer's market Occasionally supervised marrow bones I use the same principle i use with us - go for variety within a budget. Our kids have lovely shiny coats and no probs with infections etc so I figure we're onto a good routine.