Gayle.

If you want to try a good canned food, give Natures Gift a go. It's supposed to be much higher quality than other supermarket brands, and the breeder I bought one of my dogs from reccomended it as a good stand-by to have on hand for raw-fed dogs. Just for those times when you've run out of everything and can't get to a butcher or supermarket.

Obi is adorable. Make going out a good thing by giving him a treat before you leave.....a treat that he ONLY gets when you leave. When Benson was a puppy, I'd give him a brisket bone to gnaw on before I went to work each day. Not only did he love it, but it made up part of his diet. Because I was working shifts, I left at different times of the day and he wasn't always alone, so he only got it if he was going to be left alone.

My husband has this lens. It's really, really crap. He upgraded to a Canon 70-200 f4L and it's like night and day. We gave the Tamron to my 14yo daughter to use with an old Canon 10D we have. Crap features are......lots and LOTS of purple fringing. Not sharp at all. Washed out colours and contrast. Slow, slow, slow to focus, especially at the long end. If you are buying a Canon 5D, don't settle for anything less than the very best lenses. The reason is the 5D is a full frame sensor and a lot of the cheaper lenses aren't sharp across the whole frame. You can get away with it when you have a camera with a smaller sensor because it effectivly crops off the unsharp parts due to the reduced sensor size. But with the 5D, you get the whole kit and caboodle.....soft edges and all. So don't look at anythling less than Canon's L series, Sigma's EX series or some good quality prime (not zoom) lenses, as primes are always sharper than zooms.

There are some default frame actions in Photoshop. Not a lot of variety but you might find what you want. Otherwise have a play with the canvas.....make a canvas bigger than the photo, play with textures, colours, shadows etc, then drag the photo onto it.

I just noticed a tiny bit of tan on his back leg. He is so gorgeous. And as for Miss Maddie....wow, she is absolutely stunning! Congrats on having two really beautiful puppies, you must be extremely proud of them.

I have a 9 week old Australian Shepherd puppy. I am feeding her Eagle Pack Holistic puppy kibble as well as raw chicken pieces, cut up with bones still attached, as well as a mix of raw mince, veges, eggs, cheese, flaxseed oil, oats...the same stuff I feed my older dogs. This is very similar to what the breeder was giving her and she's adapted beautifully to her new diet. At the moment, she is getting the raw mince mixture in the morning, the kibble down all day and the chicken pieces at night. She also gets the occasional lamb brisket bones to chew on but I doubt this has much nutritional value yet as not much goes down the hatch.

Satchi is adorable, and I love his name. Is he a bi-colour? I've never seen a bi-colour sheltie before, just a tri which I absolutely love. But if he's a bi then I think that just became my favourite colour combo for a sheltie.

My newest addition, named Dusty, 8 1/2 weeks old, Australian Shepherd. Loves my 14yo daughter and sleeps in her bed, hates having her lead on. Cute as a button and cheeky as a little monkey.

If it's making the image darker, you don't have the correct values set. Make a duplicate layer of your background and use the unsharp mask tool on the layer. Use values of 120, 0.4, 0. If it's too sharp (jagged edges) fade the opacity of the layer a little. To remove the jagged whiskers you often get on animals, apply a layer mask and brush back gently to the orginal just in those areas.

I bought a Sporn head collar a few weeks ago to try out and I really like it. The nose band is padded, and the lead attaches at the back of the neck, not the throat. You can slip the nose band off the dog and use it simply as a flat collar. Although my dog doesn't pull much anymore, I like to keep a head collar on him in places where he's easily distracted.....crowds of people, other dogs etc. So far I like the Sporn better than the gentle leader but havn't yet tried the Infin8.

Yes, it sharpens them. It's based on a darkroom technique of overlaying a transparency with an identical one and shifting it just very slightly to improve the edge sharpness......masking an "unsharp" image to make it sharper. It can also be used to improve contrast in your image. If you would like a tutorial on a very basic unsharp mask technique, pm me with your email address and I'll send one to you.

Plan B....go back to Bunnings and buy another indoor clothes rack. If one load won't fit on one, put it on two.

Once. I was feeding twice a day and brekkie was being buried in the garden, dinner was being picked over. So I cut back to just one meal a day of raw mince/vege/eggs/cheese mix and some raw meaty bones or chicken pieces. Benson now chows down dinner with enthusiasm.

This starts to raise it to the level of an elitist sport. Dog trialling should be fun and there should be levels for beginner dogs and handlers. It would be incredibly intimidating as a first time handler to have to enter a ring and compete against people who've had years of experience. I love Erny's idea of a "training" ring......get the experience of a trial without anything at stake....and also get valuable feedback to allow you to improve.

Learning to be obedient doesn't mean they don't do typical puppy stuff, that's a different story altogether! But a good grounding in manners means they can learn to sit before they come in and not rush you off your feet. Sit and wait while you serve their dinner so they're not jumping all over you in anticipation of getting it quicker. Sit at each kerb before crossing the road when out for a walk. Stand for grooming, bathing etc. Drop or sit and stay when you want them to stay in one place for an extended period of time. Even if they can't do a long stay, a short one is great for when you want to take their photo! I use the drop stay command when I'm getting out of the car and I don't want my dog to try and follow me until I've clipped on a lead and unclipped his harness.....otherwise he ends up in a tangle half in and half out of the car. They can learn the commands "leave" and "give".....leave that alone, or give that back. Phase out the treats as they learn the command and give different commands often so they just get used to doing what they're told when they're told to do it.

What about the Berwick Dog Obedience Club? I believe they are very good and being a community club, quite reasonable as there's only a small annual fee to pay.

It sure does work, but you're the one that does the work, along with the dog. The club I go to starts off teaching basic obedience for "good manners"....walk on a loose leash, sit on command, drop, stay etc......which are very easy to incorporate into homelife. Once you start, just be consistent and you'll see some nicer behaviour soon enough. Aside from making good little doggies out of naughty ones, it also gives their brain a workout which is very important for young, intelligent and active dogs.

We use a small squeaky toy to lure our boy back, I don't have a very loud voice and when I shout it doesn't carry far so if he's a long way away from me, he hears the squeaky toy better than he hears me. Once he's on his way back, I reinforce it by calling his name excitedly and waving my arms and telling him to "come to me". Once he arrives in front of me he gets praised and treats and a sniff of the toy.

Mine don't wear collars at home, neither do our cats. I've just bought a lovely little Rogz fabric collar and lead for the new puppy we're getting next week. It's very lightweight, and although she'll outgrow it fairly soon, it will be excellent for getting her used to a collar and lead. I think it's sized for toy breeds but will be perfect for an 8 weeks old Australian Shepherd. Yes, all my leads have collars attached and I simply unclip or unbuckle the collar after the outing.

Take a look at Natures Gift tinned food. It's probably a better option and claims to be human quality meat and no preservatives.

That's a bit sad, especially if they're public schools because they are actually owned by the taxpayers. Our local government schools seem to be very receptive to the public using their facilities.

She looks fine to me. Most of the JRT's I've seen lately look a tad too porky to my eye. In fact, some of them look like little couch potatoes. I've always thought that active breeds should look trim and athletic.

On the contrary, a lot of school principals would rather see their facilities used after hours by responsible members of the community, as it deters vandalism, which is a very real worry for a lot of schools. Give their office a ring and have a chat with someone there and you might be very surprised as to how receptive they are to the idea. I have permission to use the local primary school sports oval outside of school hours. We just throw a frisbee or a ball and do some obedience training, and it's great because the oval is fully fenced and I can let him off the leash without any worries. As long as I clean up any mess, I can use the oval any time that school's not in.

Can you shovel it up and give it back? I'd put it on their front doorstep so they don't miss it.

I took my puppy for walks from the day I got him. Not far, not fast and not for long but it got him used to traffic going past, other people, walking on different surfaces and being on a lead. He also got a short training session each day, either inside or in the front yard. Now at 10 months of age, I can (and do) take him just about anywhere dogs are allowed. Yesterday I took him into the Melbourne CBD (a first for my country lad) and he simply took everything in his stride. His behaviour was exemplary and nothing fazed him at all. He even sat under the table (outdoors) throughout a 2 hour lunch in Carlton while I caught up with some friends. He's so used to being with me that he just settled himself down, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't go anywhere without him and wouldn't let anyone step on him, and snoozed for most of the time.