Gayle.

They are just different cameras in the same series....the 20D was replaced by the 30D which has recently been replaced by the 40D. There isn't much difference between the 20D and 30D.....bigger LCD on the 30D and some minor picture style improvments and one or two other small things....pretty much a 20D Mark 2, but the 40D goes a step further with a self cleaning sensor (yay!) and 10mp as opposed to 8, as well as some other large and small improvements. I upgraded from the 20D to the 40D recently and my husband inherited the 20D to replace his 10D (which now belongs to my 13yo daughter). All are superb cameras, all will give you amazing results once you elarn how to use them. As for lenses....how big is your budget and what do you want to photograph? The best value lens is the Canon 50mm f1.8 which gives superb results from a cheaply built lens.....it's "big" brother, the 50mm f1.4 is my favourite lens of all time and the one I use the most. it's around $450, the f1.8 is around $150.

I make my own "BARF" food.....bags of it rather than patties and I do it once every 2 weeks or so and freeze it in 500 gram lots. My little dog gets 150g, my big one gets 350g plus any table scraps that are suitable. Just something to remember, if you are freezing quantities of it, remember to rotate what's already there and use that before the freshly frozen stuff.

In a deep freeze (not the freezer compartment in the top of your fridge) they should last for at least 3 months, and if they're well wrapped and airtight, up to 6 months. After that they might start to suffer a bit of "freezer burn" but they'll still be ok to eat. Use freezer bags and squeeze the air out of them before tying them closed.

Chicken wings are VERY fatty (which is why they are so yummy baked in honey soy sauce) and they are also cheap. A good quality puppy kibble is also higher in calories than the equivelant in adult food.

I used a large, hard plastic pet carrier (PP40) which is an airline approved type. I padded the base with old rugs and we strapped it to the backseat with the seat belt. I normally use it for my very large maine Coon cat, so a 10 week old Australian Shepherd puppy fitted in there quite nicely, although he howled most of the way home. I would not carry an animal loose in the car. You might be the best driver in the world, but other drivers aren't.

I think that is probably too cheap (but I am not a groomer, I'm a client). I pay $40 to have my Lhasa Apso clipped, bathed, nails done etc. and it takes the groomer around an hour. I'm happy to pay that 3 or 4 times a year because she does a way better job than me.

If he's bored, start doing some basic obedience training with him. He's old enough to learn to sit, drop, stand, stay etc.....and it will give his mind a workout as well as his body. ACD's are highly intelligent dogs, but they need something to use their intelligence on. You don't need puppy pre school for basic training.....buy a book on dog training.

Good luck with your training! I started with my Aussie Shepherd pup a few months ago and we went from puppies class up to beginners when he was 6 months old. Yesterday we gained our first pass card and have now graduated to class one. I was SO excited and so proud of my boy. This is the first time I've ever formally trained a dog and it is very, very rewarding. Not only do I enjoy the training, but Benson just loves it. He gets really excited when he knows we're driving to the grounds cos he gets to see all his mates. I hope you have loads of fun and I'll look forward to hearing about it, so please come back and post your thoughts on it.

Teach him little tricks like shake hands, play dead, roll over etc. It's entertaining for him, it's fun for you and it give their brain a workout as well as their body.

He is supervisor/admin on a large construction site. He has an office on site but he also has to take frequent walks around the place and liase with tradesmen, engineers etc and he thinks Benson would love it there...and be a real hit with the tradies.

One very real advantage of a pup going to a home where two people work fulltime is that they often have a high disposable income to spend on their pets. We do, and our pets have the best of everything. When we got out Aussie pup, I budgeted about 1.5k for the initial purchase.....pup plus extras. He was a bit cheaper than I expected so it meant I just had more money to buy more stuff for him. He started life with a large, sturdy crate, plenty of new bedding, a LOAD of toys, a car restraint, collars and leads, a large bag of Eagle Pack puppy food, bowls and various puppy chew things. He still has Eagle Pack, plus human grade raw meat and bones. We make a real point of taking him out with us on the weekends and taking him when we run errands, pick kids up etc. He gets to be part of almost everything we do, and in the not too distant future, he'll also go to work with my husband.

We're going to add another Aussie Shepherd to the fold next year and when we do, I'll take a few weeks off work to settle her in. But on the subject of fulltime work and dogs, I was discussing the cost of keeping our pets with my husband today. I've never added up how much we spend on them each week, cos I reckon it'd be way too scary (3 purebred cats, a moggy, an old Lhasa Apso and a young Aussie)....and we don't show any of them, or (as yet) participate in any dog sports. I take the Aussie bloke to obedience classes every Saturday and eventually hope to go a bit further......but for now, they are family pets. They cost us a small fortune, but we don't care because we love our fluffy family. How do people who don't work, afford to keep dogs?

I had a little dog once who existed solely to escape the house or the backyard and run up and down the street til SHE was ready to come home. She was a wily little devil and every time we thought we had her contained, she'd find another way out. Our pergola gate, which opened up to the car port, had a metal slide bolt. I was blaming the kids for leaving it open cos she often got out there and the gate would be wide open. They swore up and down they didn't leave it open and I didn't believe them til one day I saw the dog with her paw on the bottom rail of the gate, shaking it so the vibrations worked the bolt loose. We had to install a spring on the latch so she couldn't work it loose again. Once she was out, she was a bugger to get back.......she'd just charge up and down the street having a wonderful play with everyone and everything til she decided it was time to wander home. One day she was inside the house and someone drove up the driveway. The dog was watching out the front window, and watched the visitor come to the front door and knock. She positioned herself so that as soon as I opened the door for the visitor, she bolted between my legs to freedom. And straight under the wheels of a car driving past. My darling little dog didn't die instantly.....she survived long enough for me to take her to the vets, and died just as we got there. I was absolutely devestated. Please don't let this happen to your dog.

The grounds are bone dry, the day is shaping up to be absolutely superb and the members of the club are working flat out to get everything ready in time.

An update....the local weather has been very kind to us.....sunny with a light breeze for the past 2 days. The grounds in question will almost certainly be dry. I'm heading there shortly for our obedience class, so I'll be back with a further update this afternoon.

I'm a member too, and going to be there to watch (and take photos) so I'm hoping it's dried out. The grounds were pretty wet for most of the winter but a few sunny days dries the mud fast, and today's bee fairly windy and kinda sunny.

That is such a shame. The pups are possibly missing out on some of the best homes available.

Buy him a playmate. Another dog. You'll never regret it and he'll love it, then you can quite happily leave the two of them at home all day and they'll never get bored. And keep remembering, he's a dog, he's not a child. There's a very big difference. As for people you pay to do doggie stuff for you, who think they have the right to lecture you......well, I used to take my two small dogs to a groomer who'd lecture me about how badly they were groomed. Duh????? That's why I took them to her! Cos I was hopeless at it. Eventually I got sick of handing over my hard earned money to her and found another groomer who was quite happy to groom my dogs, get paid and not say a word about the cruddy trimming job I'd done of their faces.

My husband and I both work fulltime and our teenage daughters are at school during the day. That didn't stop us adopting an Australian Shepherd puppy earlier in the year, and it's worked out great. We have an elderly Lhasa Apso that keep him company, but he spends all day in the backyard with access via a doggy door to a small roofed porch area. Before and after work we spend loads of time with him, and weekends we go to obedience classes and take him to the beach, park, on drives etc. He has a sandpit to dig in, toys to play with, bones to chew and space to run around in. According to our next door neighbor, they never hear him during the day so he's obviously content while we're at work. I would not keep a large puppy like a Goldie crated during the day. I'd be more inclined to secure the yard or build a puppy run and leave him in it with plenty to occupy him, plus a warm dry place to snooze.

My dog gets Eagle Pack kibble, with or without a topping of tinned sardines, almost every day. About twice a week he gets raw brisket bones or chicken necks/wings/drums. It might not be deemed suitable breakfast food for humans, but for dogs it's perfect.

I have an 8 month old black tri-colour Australian Shepherd boy, who I don't show. But we do obedience at the local club and our graduation is coming up in a few weeks and we're hoping to do ok after weeks of practise in beginners class. I would love for my boy to look beautifully groomed for the day but beside the occasional bath and a twice a week brush, I really don't know how to make him look like a "show dog". Any hints, tips and ideas are greatly appreciated. I have a pin brush, an undercoat rake and a bottle of fairly expensive dog shampoo.

I will probably get seriously flamed for this, but I would suggest having the pup fitted with a head halter, and learn to use it gently....no tugging at her while she's wearing it, just keep her on a very short leash. Bouncy pups are VERY easy to control when they're wearing a halter, and once you've got her used to it, supervise the kids very closely while they walk her on the leash with the head halter on. Once they can comfortably walk her a short way, they can start to give her basic commands such as sit and heel. Maybe not the 2yo, but definitely the 4yo. The head halter will put the child in control, the basic commands will show puppy that they are in charge, not her. The reason for the head halter is that (no matter what anyone says) they are the easiest way to get a rambunctious dog under control and keep it that way and if you go about it firmly but gently, you can take charge quite quickly.

My young Aussie pup was a jumper....he drove me nuts and I thought that giving him loads of exercise would wear him out....it didn't, it just made him hyper! So then I started to make him sit for absolutely everything....sit for pats, sit for treats, sit for hello, sit for coming in the door, sit for going out the door........anything at all, he had to sit for. Now he rarely jumps! Cos he knows he has to sit, sit, sit. And it's so easy to do.

Do you charge more if you work outside of business hours? I would. If I work Sundays I get paid double time and a half........

Erny, I've only been using it a few weeks and use it under the guidance of an instructor at the local club. On our regular walks, Benson is fine and mostly walks on a loose lead, but in new places, he's off here, off there....new smells, lots of distractions, and I find I'm correcting him more than on our normal route. Which is why I now use the harness for an unsual outing. At training, he pulls to get closer to the other dogs. He's a big happy-head and wants to be friends with everyone but I have to keep him at heel because most dogs don't like a big waggly-tailed adolescent puppy bouncing all over them, and a quick check with the correction collar keeps him by my side. ETA, I don't mind at all using different tools for different situations. My 13 yo daughter prefers walking him on the head halter (Gentle Leader brand) and he's just fine with her. He paws at his face when I use it, but he doesn't do this for her. For a quick walk to the local shop, I just clip his lead to his everyday flat coller but that's useless if we go somewhere different as I don't have much control. I also use different lengths of leads for different situations, and that suits me and suits Benson.