Gayle.

L for lovely....luxurious......cos that's what they are. I have two of them and they are just divine to use. But on the other hand, my very favourite lens in the whole wide world is NOT an L lens....it's the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens and if I only ever had to choose one lens to use for the rest of my life, I'd choose that one.

Yes, and you'd know the cluster of stores then too. They were all the same....either we wouldn't get served at all, or they'd immediately make a beeline for my husband who clearly didn't have a clue. I don't mind dealing with Teds, but by email rather than in person.....I have bought a few things online from them and have found my email enquiries to be replied to promptly, courteuosly and with all the info I've requested. Mostly though, I like to buy from B&H in New York.

Glad you found out what the problems was....is it entropian? Bad luck about the irresponsible breeder though. Have you spoken to them yet, to let them know the dog has a health problem? Not that they'd probably care, but might as well lay on as much guilt as you can. She is a seriously cute girlie, I love that breed. More pics would be good, please.

That's why I buy online. The one time I did the rounds of the city stores looking for a camera body and lens, the salespeople all spoke to my husband. No good speaking to him, he didn't have a clue what they were talking about!

Ask the breeder how to remove the stains. If they've had Japanese Spitz for a while, they'll no doubt have dealt with this in the past and should give you some hints as to what to use that will be gentle for a baby puppy.

I'm glad you said that. I'm keen to give it a go, it's a lot cheaper than what I'm currently feeding (Pro Plan Selects) but according to the pack I'd have to feed each dog around 3 cups per day. If they have a meal of kibble at the moment, Benson gets about 3/4 cup and Dusty gets a bit less. To go from that to 3 cups each per day means my backyard is gonna be a quagmire of doggy poo in a day!

The shots actually pretty good for manual focus in low light AND a slow shutter speed. I'd be proud of a photo like that. You ought to see MY manual focus......by the time I'm done, you can barely make out the shapes! LOL! I noticed the difference in auto focus once I switched from the cheap kit lenses to better ultrasonic and L lenses.

Do your own research. Don't rely on a salesperson to guide you to the best camera for you. Take advantage of the wonderful resources on the internet, read photography forums, look at photo galleries such as Pbase (where you can see pics taken by certain cameras), read reviews by independent reviewers. Make your own mind up, then go shopping for the best price. I have never bought a lens from a salesperson........I do my own research then order it online. I have never had a discussion about camera brands with a salesperson either, I just walk in the store, ask them their best price on the camera of my choice and either buy there or go to the next place. I'd go Canon but that's just me. Buy a decent body but put some money into a really good lens (or two). The lens will be with you forever, the body probably won't. Since moving to digital SLR's, I've had 4 bodies.....Canon 10D, 300D, 20D and currently a 40D. I've swapped and traded lenses, but now have a range that won't change and that I'm very happy with.....and will fit my future bodies.

The camera needs something to lock focus onto and if it can't find what it needs it "hunts" for something, hence the whirring back and forth motion of the lens. In dim light, manual focus is sometimes the best thing to do. It doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with your camera or lens.....it just couldn't find something to lock onto. Better quality lenses have the problem less than cheaper lenses. The Canon 50mm f1.8 lens is a bit of a shocker for focus lock. The camera will almost always choose an area of strong patterning or contrast, if it's left to it's own devices. And in the pic you've got there, the area of dead sharp focus is in the lower left corner where the white line contrasts with the background.

The numbers on the lenses are the distance the lens sits from the film plane (or the sensor on a digital camera). The closer it sits, the wider the view you've got through the lens. Here is a really simple experiment to help you understand it. Take the cardboard tube from inside a toilet roll. Hold it up to your eye and look through it, take note of how much you can see.....ie, the field of view. Take a pair of scissors and cut a slice off the end.....about 2cms wide. Now you have a very short tube, look through it and see how you have a much wider field of view than with the much longer roll. That's a very simplified explanation, but should give you an idea of the basic structure behind a lens and what the numbers mean. Your eye is the "film plane", the end of the tube is the lens. Of course, it's much more complicated than that, lenses have a series of magnifiers and mirrors to enhance the view, and the glass on the end of the lens is not where the measurement is taken from, but hopefully this will help you understand it. With a zoom lens, the actual lens mechanism moves forwards and backwards as you rotate the tube, moving it further or closer to the film plane (or sensor) as you zoom in or out....therefore changing the field of view you can see. You can experiment with two cardboard tubes, one inside the other, and move one in and out.......viola, a simple zoom lens. So, the higher the number, the further the lens sits from the sensor, the narrower the field of view. The lower the number, the wider the view you have because the lens is sitting much closer to the sensor. Hope this helps you understand it!

I think that's pretty much crap and probably one of those DOL urban legends. Different foods digest at different rates.....plant matter digests much faster than meat, for example and digestive systems cope with it quite nicely. Dogs might be carnivores, but at a very basic level, they are opportunists and in the wild they are scavengers (oh yeah, in my house they are scavengers too! little bin-snacking buggers). If it's not crap, I stand corrected but I'd really like to see some valid research to back up the claim. So far I've seen absolutely none, although I've seen this statement repeated by many people.

Given a beagles superior sense of smell, I'd tend to go with Daisy. She could be smelling something that you and the other dogs can't. I make up a type of "barf" mix with raw mince, grated veges, eggs, cheese and whatever else is at hand......tuna, yoghurt, cottage cheese, sardines etc. The dogs get that, raw frames and other chicken pieces, brisket bones and the occasioanal meal of Pro Plan Selects kibble (which is like doggy takeaway). They look fabulous, and it's fairly easy to keep chubby Dusty's weight under control, simply by upping the vegetable portion of mer meals for a few weeks. Also, on pandering to dogs....I think if you remove their uneaten meal then give them something different at the NEXT mealtime, it's not really pandering. If you continually trot out new food for their precious little tastebuds to try at the same mealtime, then yes that definitely is pandering.

I only just saw this thread. I'm so sorry to hear about Bomber. Hugs to you, and regards to your mum. I can't even begin to imagine how empty your place feels now. RIP beautiful old boy.

I tried not to call Benson when he was off and running and clearly NOT going to come back to me. I would just do something interesting, like throw a toy in the opposite direction, or start jogging away.....or even just walk away and ignore him, and when he started to come back THEN I'd call him, run backwards, give him a big welcome....so that he always got it right. It took a while (seemed like it was taking forever!) but eventually it worked and now he does come when called, all the time. There is probably a more clever, quicker way but this one worked for me. I read somewhere that you shouldn't teach a recall then put a lead on them because they'd associate coming back with having a lead on. Benson comes back and if he sees the lead, he hold his head out so I can attach it to his collar. Because having a lead on after a play means going home and getting something nice to eat. Or having a ride in the car, which he absolutely loves. It never means anything bad.

Yep, although I saw a gradual improvement from about 14 months, but it's not until the past couple of months that I've actually felt confident I can let him off-leash and have him come back to me. In the meantime, he was only ever off-leash in a fenced oval or at agility and obedience training. I am feelling your pain. It's SO frustrating to watch a clever and reposnsive puppy turn into a deaf, dumb and blind "I know nuffin" adolescent.

Benson lost his balls at 4 months of age, and had a lovely reliable recall til around 7-8 months. Then he not only went deaf, but lost his distance vision as well.....otherwise he'd surely have seen me jumping up and down waving madly for him to come back. Finally, at around 18-20 months, the ear canals have cleared, his bi-focals have kicked in and he now comes back when he's called....every single time. I think it's the age more than the hormones. Benson is also a lot more focussed than he used to be.....his heeling, his general attention to me, his responsiveness, have all improved out of sight over the past few months.

That's awesome, congratulations to all of you! Our club has something similar....four graduation days a year, which are conducted along the lines of an obedience trial, so it'a all quite formal and important. I really look forward to them because it's an excellent gauge of how you're coming along with training. Our classes are puppies (up to 6 months), beginners, class 1, class 2, class 3 (CCD), class 4 (Novice), class 5 (Open). Benson and I were in class 2 forever, or that's what it seemed like. We'd breezed through the lower classes but once we got to doing off-leash stays, he just wouldn't stay so we didn't pass 2 graduations, but on the third one, not only did we pass but we won our class. So we're in with the big boys now and he's working so beautifully, I'm very pleased with him.

What sort of photography do you want to do, and how much do you want to spend? There are heaps of good lenses, they range in price from $150 up tp many thousands of dollars, but they are all suitable for different purposes. An 85mm lens is excellent for portraits and quite handly for some still lifes, but not much good for landscapes or group shots.

Running him around the backyard for 15 minutes before leaving him alone for the day is more than likely adding to the level of destruction. All you are doing is hyping him up.....then leaving him with a body full of energy and nothing to take it out on except his surrounds. Rather than try and wear him out with exercise, which you're clearly not doing.....how about an intensive 15 minutes of obedience or trick training? Get his mind tired and his body will follow. Keep the running around until you're home for a good long stretch and you can really tire him out properly.

I must have the only puppy in history who has never chewed anything she shouldn't. Honestly, Dusty is the BEST behaved puppy I have ever owned, or even known, for that matter. I can leave her in a room full of shoes, toys, clothes, etc and she never touches anything. She's never even chewed up her toys. My daughter laughs when Dusty takes my slipper under the bed.....most dogs would chew it up, Dusty just sniffs it and licks it then brings it back out. Benson, on the other hand.....loves unstuffing things and has destoyed countless beds (his, not ours!) but overall, he's been pretty good and not destroyed anything too valuable.

Brisket bones might keep him occupied for a while, especially the larger chunks from around the breastbone area. Brisket bones aren't weight bearing bones and they have a honeycomb type of construction, so are easy for dogs to crunch through. I'd be inclined to give one or two under supervision first to see how he goes, but ask your butcher for some larger ones.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine bought me a Kong Biscuit Ball for Benson. I stuff it full of bone shaped biscuits and give it to him during rest breaks at training, and it keeps him occupied for ages. I had him at an obedience trail and the wait to go in the ring was never ending so I gave him the biscuit ball to keep him occupied. Another Australian Shephed owner came up to me after a while and asked what it was. She said "I've been watching him for ages and it's kept his mouth, paws and mind busy for ages. And he's an AUSSIE!!!!" Aussies get bored fairly easily. I currently have it stuffed with kibble and devon and in the freezer, cos I want to see how that works for warm days.

If we have any left over sausages, steak or hamburgers, I chop them up and freeze in ziploc bags for doggie treats. I use home brand chicken and ham roll from Aldi's or Coles and chop and freeze that as well. I try and make up a bag of mixed treats and add some kibble, cheese and kabana to the mix so they never know what they're getting. I tried slow-drying sliced chicken thigh in the oven overnight, but for the time, energy and power used, it wasn't worth the effort. The dogs loved it, but they love cheap old ham and chicken loaf just as much and it's much easier to prepare and less messy to carry around.

Am I the only one who thinks it looks just exactly like a pair of jocks?

I have a LaserLites table dryer which is absolutely fantastic. It's on a short stand, and the dryer head swivels up and down. My dogs are big so I dry them with the dryer on the floor, then just aim it at the part I want to dry and it allows me to have both hands free for brushing and holding while they get dry. It gets right down to the roots of the undercoat and it's very quiet. I got mine secondhand from an ad on DOL. A friend of mine saw it and sent me the link then went to check it out for me. For small dogs who are groomed and dried on a table, something like my one would work beautifully because you don't need to hold it and it leaves both hands free to control the dog. Plus its not big and fits in a cupboard, so doesn't have to stand around looking unsightly when you're not using it.