Natsu chan

Dyzney, a couple of doors down from the dog pool in Devon Meadows is Tallara Kennels. They've been doing herding since around 2000 before it was ANKC recognized. Have you tried them?

Great work everyone! Jess where do you live?

This sort of thing is just so frustrating. Not the dogs fault really since all dogs have prey drive in varying degrees we have just redirected it and for the dogs it's self rewarding behaviour. Which is of course why you keep them locked up. Dogs just chasing animals can kill them. Horses can and do go through fences, I've seem one cart wheel over a fence with a dog hot on it's heels. Pregnant and lactating animals can go down with eclampsia, which can be fatal too. The stress can also cause them to abort. People love their animals every bit as much as we love our dogs, and farmers have enough to contend with without people letting their dogs run wild amoung their livestock which is also their livelyhood. These dogs will have been getting out for awhile to have been so bold and fearless, so their owners have been failing them for awhile. I don't have any answers but boy it makes me mad, and really by the sound of it these two would be better off pts. Poor animals all round really!

I'd be interested too.

Spike's Puppy here's the temperament section for the collie rough from the current UK standard. The ANKC hasn't caught up yet. There was a a description of temperament in the standard for a long time then at some point it disappeared. It looks to have been reinserted now. I think some people are forgetting that drive and nerve and temperament go hand in hand. Dogs need good nerves, it's essential you only have to look back and see how many breeds have become infamous for fear biting during periods or great popularity to see how closely connected they are. Some dogs will always end up in the wrong place I don't see how we can change that to be honest. We aren't perfect nor is the world and you can strive for perfection but you shouldn't expect it. Some dog owners do the wrong thing, some breeders do and some dogs no matter what you do will be born with issues of some sort be it physical or other wise. You can only do the best you can, right?

Is this two dog blanket rule meant to mean no extra dog permits? This is what I'm hearing, in which case this will affect breeders, rescue, show and performance people. Since most people in any of those areas have at least 3 dogs. It really is ridiculous.

My feeling is that the mircochipping laws won't get tweaked simply because the RSPCA would see that as removing the control from them to the councils. That nasty little clause about being able to seized and sell dogs unless you pay them a bond is a win win for them. Either way they stand to make money out of it. I can just see this being passed and then the CCs being served with warrants for the details of all prefix holders and dogs being seized and sold right left and centre. Given most registered breeders are ordinary people without easy access to large amounts of money it would be a given that most dogs they seized would be sold. Puppy farmers won't care one dog is as good as another as far as they're concerned but for us things are different. One individual being seized could have implications for a whole breed especially if it's a rare breed. Call me cynical but the way this is structured just strikes me as a way for the RSPCA to micro manage dog breeding and ultimately to have free access to any dog they want. I know the RSPCA aren't perfect but after years of Wirths endless criticism of anyone but himself and the org and the way serious complains get ignored, while oceans of money get spent pushing for more and more restrictive laws that don't actually solve anything, I have very little faith left int them.

This whole thing just gives me a headache. I really don't think it's a practical solution but I suspect it won't matter the RSPCA seems to have registered dog breeders in their sights and that's that. I'm sure they know it will cause people to just stop breeding and as a bonus side affect you won't be allowed to own a show dog if you aren't a breeder either. I don't think Spikes puppy mean that we shouldn't care about what happens to the dogs in puppy farms it's more the complete feeling of doing your best and still being treated like some sort of criminal. Registered breeders are feeling more and more cornered and frustrated and powerless and I think that's where Spikes puppy's comments are coming from. I don't even breed and I feel the same way!

LOL @LP! I don't blame you I'd have done the same thing. I mean such temptation!

LP she looks great....but didn't you say you were only showing Zara? We all knew you'd never stick to that didn't we?!

Victoria had them up for awhile Bedazzled. Can someone please link me to the suggestions on Dogswest as couldn't find them. I'm probably being a bit blind again but oh well.

I agree with you Steve but that particular bit just jumped out at me. Most pet people I know desex as early as the vets will do them and as the compulsory registration age use to be 6 months then that was fine but doing it this way whether intentioned or not looks like just another way to get more money out of people via fines. I think there are much better ways of dealing with these things but the government isn't interested in it. Everything combined just seems geared toward removing dogs and cats from suburbia which isn't such as surprise given the number of dog related complains most councils get.

I think one of the issues with this sort of thing is the refusal to register baby puppies until they're desexed. Most vets won't desex before 6 months but puppies must be registered at 3 or 4 months where does that leave people? Damned if they do damed if they don't and that's health issues aside. They can't get the pup desexed because the vet won't and the council won't accept the registration unless they've been done, so then they face fines for having an unregistered dog. How is that going to encourage responsible owners?

Erny I said no about the reporting bites thing too. My feeling is that they will try via this to slap a DD order on anything that bites which of course if it's compulsory will include vets being bitten by dogs who are injured or other wise not themselves. Why should a dog who may be in tremendous pain and lashing out at someone hurting them be labelled as a dangerous dog. Then there's police and military animals. The questions made me feel rather ill too. I don't think Brumby likes dogs very much given the amount of anti dog legislation that has gone through since he's been in office. I also pointed out that the least they could do was make annual registration state wide not on council basis which means if you move you have to pay for a whole years rego again, since council won't reduce it if you move half way through the year or do partial refunds. The truth is this will probably go through regardless of what we say just as everything else has.

There are good vets and bad like in any industry. Personally I think attitude makes all the difference, if you finish your eduction convinced that you now know everything you are condemning yourself to mediocrity. An open mind, a willingness to learn and respect for others and the knowledge they have is what makes people good at what they do. Uni though it is of course vital is only part of being a good vet or doctor or scientist or anything else. We only stop learning when we close our minds. That's how I see it at any rate, and good vets who love animals are like diamond dust and should be valued accordingly. Why any vet would think it was okay to breed unhealthy pups, knowingly especially with all the screaming going on of late is beyond me.

Sandgrubber not wishing to be rude but please note that your response to the RSPCA refers only to Victoria. The people who were refused membership were from NSW. I do believe however that people have been refused membership in Victoria too with no reason given, these people did not have any investigations or prosecutions against them. I recall someone who was a well recognised member of the EFA had this problem too. Someone is not being completely honest. Having said that, if they've said they'll accept CC members we all need to join don't we?!

I'm not sure if you've worked out who I am either Dyzney, but I picked up a very nice crate from you just before Christmas and Miss Pants likes it very much. nothing but good feedback from this end, I can assure you. Is that fabric the same weight as the soft crate skins? You don't know if things will work until you try, do you? I think it's a good idea but I think you need a better name for them. I wonder if it would be worth putting a strap inside like bridle bags have to strap down the umbrella, jump poles or box pieces. I just made a strap out of velcro and car seat belting but strapped into a bag would be better.

You're on to something. As an umbrella bag maybe not but as a gear bag for jumps and boxes and god only knows what else I think you could be on a winner. Any chance of embroidery on those too? Can anyone else sense their bank accounts cringing in horror?

I've had to use them on my girl, she has an injury to her back and so wears to toe pads down on one hind quite badly. You can buy cheap ones off ebay or more expensive ones on line. I have found this style to be the better ones, I have a collie so around the same size as your labs but not as high energy: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WEATHER-PROOF-DELUX...=item414b8f224e They will stamp around in them at first but they get use to them just be aware they can slip so you need to get the size right and do up the lower velcro firmly.

Sway don't quote me on this because I'm not sure but I would guess that either the trial secs for the clubs email the webmaster or vise versa. Most of the club hold their trials around the same date every year, so I'd imagine once word got that there was a website the info would get passed along. Only a handful of clubs and the breed/group clubs seem to advertise in the gazette, and I wish they all would it makes it hard now with no website and if you don't have net access well.... I'd love to see a dog sport website with results and schedules for all sports in all states, but in reality it would be a lot of work to maintain and possibly just completely impractical. It's a funny system after being out of trialling for so long I couldn't understand why there were so few trials, until someone pointed me to the website. I'd never managed to find the vic obedience site via google so I guess it's assumed you'd just get told about it by someone eventually. Not the best system really.

Koori was doing this too, not scenting just grabbing. I took to putting the articles out in long grass, as in mid calf height, and setting them out with her in a drop stay facing away from me. That seemed to help but having said that I'd done foundation tracking work with Koori too so she will put her head down to scent when you say find it was more a case of encouraging her to scent each article than to scent at all. Just a thought Ness, I've never done UD just played around.

Congrats Ness! And everyone else too. Kenzie looks like a little star in the making, and she's having a great time too by the look of it! Was that a nice early xmas present?

Lucy's mama I have a collie who is a carrier, my old girl was probably affected. I wouldn't use spot ons and really it's not necessary most of the time. We have used collars and sprays but for fleas I find we rarely have much of a problem, but then I don't live in a tick area. The daily heart worm tablets are safe for affected dogs since they don't contain any of the mectin family of drugs. Most of the collie breeders I've spoken to won't take the chance with the monthly heart wormers, even the ones who don't own affected dogs.

LP you need your head read if you aren't happy with that black girl of yours! She's such a good girl, it's not perfect but it's lovely. She's going to be brilliant in open. We have a wee training brag, Koori did a full length seek back under pretty heavy distraction ( think a large group of drunk yops yelling and carrying on and smashing bottles) last night. I was very happy with her the grass down at the park is over ankle length and she foot tracked our whole heel pattern back diligently, and cheerfully and did the most lovely retrieve, well aside from pouncing on the seek back article. She was so pleased with herself. Course she'll probably never get into UD and I'm thinking I will retire her once she gets her CD but even so... I'm so pleased with her and she's enjoying herself no end.

My thought was that we do a halt at the start post, not the usual remove lead, judge says their piece, 'are you ready?', 'forward'. So the lead comes off before we enter the ring or at the gate. The dog is expecting the lull, but by just halting you catch them before they get a chance to space out. I had to do this many years ago with my first girl when I was a junior at Dover gardens, she didn't start training until she was 5 and she was a lazy sort of dog and that was the only thing that kept her brain on the job enough that we could do the club trials. Other wise the pattern was such that she learnt she could go off into a daze at the start peg. Not really what you want....Ness I hear you, it's frustrating Sunny use to drive me nuts but she was such a sweetheart in every other way that you couldn't really criticise her.