Gayle.

I've always fed the dogs on super premium kibble and raw meaty bones, veges etc. The kibble makes up only a very small part of their diet...maybe 2 meals out of 14 in a week. I've tried various brands...Eagle Pack Holistic, Pro Plan Selects, Nutrience. The dogs have always enjoyed it to the point that I'd use kibble as training treats. Since Benson started to get his adult coat at around 4-5 months, he's had a dry, scaly, dandruffy patch on his back, extending from the base of his tail up to near his "waist". He's always loved a good scratch there and when I strip his undercoat out with a rake, he backs up for more and more to the point his skin gets red raw. It's obviosuly a very itchy patch and it looks it. I've tried various anti-itch washes and ointments but nothing ever gets rid of it. The vet saw it and declared it "developmental"...as in he'll grow out of it, his breeder said the same. Sometimes it would calm down and not be quite so flaky, other times he looked like a lamington. About a month ago, I was running low on kibble (Pro Plan Selects) but due to tight finances and Christmas depleting the coffers, I couldn't afford to replace it with a similar brand. So I did some reading on here and decided to give Uncle Albers a try. At $30 for 22kg, if the dogs didn't like it, I could donate it to the pound without crying about the cost. Fortunately they loved it. So, they're now having Uncle Albers as their two kibble meals a week. A couple of nights ago I was grooming Benson and it suddenly dawned on me that he had NO dandruff. No itchy patch...and in fact the skin there looks healthy and clear...not the dry scaly mess it usually is. Not only that, but his coat which has always been a bit on the dry side, is lustrous, shiny and looks absolutely fabulous. Could it be that he grew out of it? Or was it the kibble I was feeding him? I suppose I'll never know but I just love having a non-flaky dog with a beautiful jet black coat. Anyone else had a similar experience?

Oh yeah, I have two in the Aussie Shepherd clubs 2009 calender. They ran a contest for pics for the calender and I didn't enter it, so the president rang me and asked me to please submit two she particularly liked. One of them has Leopuppy's girlie Kinta in it with Dusty. The other one is Dusty floating alongside Benson at the beach. I also had some published in a book....a real book, not one you make yourself. It's about our local region and I have about 20 local landscapes in it and a collage of my pics on the cover. And a few years ago I had some published in Australian Camera magazine. One thing that gives me a real thrill is when my adult kids ask me for framed pics of mine for gifts to hang on their walls.

Since writing that, I had 3 pics framed and are now on our walls. Two are pics from Tassie, one is a still life of white daisies on a white background. Why not? I just hadn't got around to it and at that stage, our living room walls were red, which does not flatter any art. Walls are now white and my husband keeps bugging me to hang some more photos. I do have lots of matted prints. I have entered a lot of print comps and had professional mats made for them. I also have a digital frame on my desk at work with lots of pics on it, and small framed prints of kids and pets. One thing I found with digital photography, is that it's very easy to build up a large supply of very good photos and not do anything with them.

The same camera in the hands of another person could take crappy pics. It's the photographer, not the camera, or the brand of camera that makes good photos. The camera is just a means of capturing the picture. And Leica digital cameras....while beautifully crafted and bloody expensive, generally don't have as good a reputation as Canon, Nikon, Sony etc. And most of the Leica's can be picked up as a rebadged Panasonic.

We're trying out Uncle Albers here....after husband not having a job for 5 months last year, funds are tight and I can't afford to spend $120+ on a bag of dog food. Uncle Albers has meat, chicken and fish as the first three ingredients, and it's made in Australia. The dogs love it, but they only have it 2-3 times a week as most of their diet is raw food, so it's probably not making much of a difference to anything but my bank balance!

My dogs don't get the same meal two days running, so they never get bored. They get a variety of raw meaty bones (mostly chicken and lamb), raw mince, veges, eggs, cheese etc. mixed up and frozen in meal sized portions, chicken necks mixed with veges and tinned fish, or kibble and sardines. I use kibble as training treats, they so rarely get it for a meal that they'll work for it in training, and special treats are leftover bbq sausage, steak etc which I freeze and just take out in small portions. I would suggest varying the pups diet and introduce kibble back in a different form (mixed with tinned sardines goes down a treat here) just every now and then. If you're worried about the kibble going "off" it would freeze OK in smaller portions...maybe in ice cream containers if you have the space.

There is a way to do it if you know how to use the * button to meter the scene. Pressing the * button will keep a memory of the settings required for about 16 seconds, I think. Then shine a torch onto the area you want to focus to give it more light so it can focus better, set your focus, turn the torch off and take the pic.

I started walking my pup on the lead from 8 weeks of age....just little short walks down the driveway and back at first to get her used to the lead, then further afield as she grew bigger and more confident. Maybe get him used to walking somewhere close by that's interesting and fun for him so that he cmes to associate the walk with a positive experience when you get where you're going. Even just to the corner, produce a toy he likes, have a little game then put the toy away and walk home again.

Well, I'm back to the animals, but not a dog....todays' photo is a cat. I call the picture "Magnificence". Meet Kate, my drop dead gorgeous Maine Coon girl. She is 3 years old, weighs around 10kg and measures about a metre from the tip of her toes to the end of her tail when she's lying down. She's one VERY big pussycat, and a sweeter, more docile cat you'd never find. She was bred by Coonhaven Maine Coons and came to us after I saw her photo online and fell in love with her. She has been with us for around 2 1/2 years and I just love her to bits.

Oh my, this is sad news to wake up to. Hugs to you, Shelly, I know I don't see you much these days but I think of you often.

No dogs tonight, although they were right there with me. This is the old Glengarry railway station, no longer operational, but now the start of a rail trail we rode our bikes on tonight. By the time we got back the sun was creating a beautiful golden glow on the building. Lens is Canon 17-40mm f4 L.

Back to dogs again......decided to practice something I'm not very good at; panning. And I'm still not very good at it. On the Move. But that was taken AFTER a rather painful accident, so I have an excuse. I decided to try for some action shots of Dusty with her frisbee because I'd got some great ones last week, before the photo a day challenge. I was kneeling on the ground, looking through the viewfinder and trying to track her, I lost sight of her for a second then all of a sudden something slammed into my head and I was flat on my back. Dusty had caught the frisbee right in front of me and kept running. She slammed into the lens (my husbands monster lens), and pushed it and the camera hard into my forehead. I am now sporting a massive egg above my left eye, a delightful thumping head and blurry vision. But!!! My sense of humour is intact, cos here is my fun pic for the day.....The Brangelina Dog.

Rather than look for a food to do the job of keeping the teeth clean, check out the ranges of chew toys for dental hygiene. There are lots of chew toys in different sizes now available that they'll do the job, and they look like they'd work fine.

I never thought of giving the dogs a whole carrot to chew, although they have it grated in their raw mix. Benson loves whole raw apples though and will steal them given half a chance. I gave them a carrot each a few minutes ago and they looked at me like I was stupid, and it took a few minutes for them to realise they can eat them...but they're both chowing down on them now and enjoying them!

Todays effort.....still pitiful but at least it's not a dog. Serious Teeth.

Sensational pic! I love the composition with the wires looping through the frame. Good work!

I had to have a bye yesterday, due to work and other commitments....and this is todays pitiful effort...due to dog show commitments. But tomorrow, I intend to make up for being so slack! Model Dog I must say, this little girl is the most obliging, patient and gorgeous model ever. Not once did she try and jump down from the sidebaord after I'd lifted her there....she just waited for me to get done then I lifted her down again.

There are my favourite types of before and after......the raw shot, the clean finished product. Before: After: Before: After:

My befores: After: Cut and pasted into one shot, adjusted levels, brightness and contrast and jumped up the saturation a bit with a Velvia plug in.

I've had my dogs on Pro Plan Selects Lamb and Oatmeal for a while now and they absolutely love it. Only problem is it's very hard to source around here and I have to drive 2 hours to buy it. I tried the standard Pro Plan, and it was OK, but not a patch on the Selects. I even used it as training treats cos the dogs loved it so much. Having said that though, my dogs don't have a huge amount of kibble in their diet. Maybe 3 meals a week out of 14.

I use the word "drop" for the dog to go from a sit to lying down. Off is for getting off the bed, couch etc, and down is for getting down off me, when they have their paws up on me. If you're going to use hand signals, use them from day one. It won't take the dog long to be able to cue from just a hand signal then. If you have plans to trial in obedience, use the correct signals from the start.

That's an awesome shot for someone who's not very good.

Waitin' on dinner. Canon EOS 40D Canon 50mm f1.4 lens. f3.5 1/320s iso 1000 Aperture priority. Natural daylight.

The Canon Ixus range are beautiful, and very simple to use. Some have anti-shake technology, they all have large LCD screens and metal housing, and they all take sensational photos.

Benson sleeps outside in the summer and has done since he was a puppy. His choice, not ours. In the cooler months he sleeps in our room, either next to or under our bed. He also sleeps inside during summer if it's raining but on dry nights, as soon as I say "Bed!" he's waiting at the back door to be let out. Occasionally I've been outside and seen him asleep, he lies on the back lawn like a little swagman.....quite obviously cooler and much more comfortable than he would be inside. Dusty, on the other hand, is a bit of a princess and she much prefers the end of my bed, no matter how warm it is!