Gayle.

Hmmm I've just had a look at some of the past champions, and I would not have thought a dog who was born in 2008, titled in 2009 and not been shown since, would be a "past champion". Especially if that dog is being used in a breeding program.

I haven't read all the responses. I don't charge for dog photography. I absolutely love it, I do what I want and I do it in the timeframe that suits me, so I give the photos to the owners. I have an ABN as a photographer, and I do charge for other stuff, but I don't do much of it because I discovered I hate professional photography....it's just not me. I love doing what I want to do, I don't like doing what other people want me to do. Wedding photography, I'd rather poke hot needles in my own eyes than photograph another wedding. However, I do some corporate stuff for Telstra for which I get paid a healthy fee, but that's not often and I'd never do that stuff for nothing. I charge about the same as other pro photographers. Some pro photography I've seen is rubbish and they really have no right calling themselves professional. Others are fantastic, take a lot of pride in their work and charge a fee equivalent to the photos they take. The fact is, photography is a very popular hobby and there are always going to be amateurs doing what professionals do for a living, and de-valuing it by either giving it away or doing it on the cheap. That's life, the pro photographers who've been around a very long time and make a living from it have dealt with that fact for years and manage to rise above it.

I'd go with sheltie x as well. Pretty dog! Or a byb (purebred) sheltie.

The photo has been taken with a very long tele lens, which makes the fox appear closer than he actually is. It looks as though he's right on the dogs tail, in reality he could have been 4-6 metres away.

My girl Shae is a rescue who was returned to her breeder twice. The breeder is also the state breed rescue service and she was rehomed to me as a rescue. On the condition that if I can't keep her she will go back to them and stay with them for the rest of her life. But I love her and she's never going anywhere without me. What will be the future of your returned rescue?

I don't even look at Dusty during stays, if I do she invariably breaks. She seems to think that if I look at her, I want her to do something other than stay there. If I don't look, she's happy just staying there, although she does look around a bit.

We're onto about our 7th and 8th bags of Black Hawk (I buy 2 at a time) and couldn't be happier with it. Communications are excellent, Sherel always replies to my emails quickly and answers my questions, delivery is quick and easy and the dogs just love the food and do very well on it. I don't particularly care who makes it, what breed of sheep it contains or how old the emus are they extract the emu oil from. It's just a top quality food sold at a very affordable price. Bonus for it being Aussie made, and extra bonus points for the excellent service provided by the various distributors.

Neither of my girls are very physical, and both love nothing more than to be near or on me. I don't know what Shae is like around little dogs, I've never seen her with one but Dusty is as gentle as a lamb and lived quite happily with our elderly and very fragile Lhasa Apso until the old girl died (of old age) recently. I never separated the Lhasa from the Aussies, they were fine with her, but then she never instigated play and they tended to play with each other and leave her to get on with her napping.

I was in our little orchard with two of my dogs one day. A rabbit (that I think had been eating my strawberries) bolted across the grass with two Aussies in hot pursuit. Rabbit got away but the way the dogs strutted around afterwards, you'd have thought they'd singlehandedly dealt with the entire local vermin problem!

Whatever breed you go for, may I suggest getting an adult dog? That way it's a known quantity. I have Australian Shepherds, they are supposed to be an active breed that requires space (and mine do have plenty of space) but one of mine would be quite happy in a townhouse with a small back yard, she wouldn't be very vocal outside as long as she got plenty of attention at other times. I would never have known this when she was a puppy but it became very apparent as she was growing up. She is not active, she isn't noisy, she 's happy to snooze the day away as long as she's within an inch of me when I get home, and is allowed to have her nose and paws into whatever I'm doing.

They don't need much at all. I have 4 here and I'd spend maybe an hour a fortnight grooming them, in between they get a quick two minute brush if we're going somewhere. It's only if I'm showing that I put in a huge effort but on the whole they look good with minimal grooming. They don't "need" stripping but if they are dropping coat which they do from time to time, it's a quick way to be rid of it and they only need trimming occasionally......feet and ears.

Mine is burgundy too. He's pretty quick to get them out, mine took just a couple of weeks from when I ordered it til it got here.

The trolley gives me independence, I can now go to shows without my husband! I'd only take him because I couldn't carry everything, then he'd get bored after about 10 minutes, so I found I was showing less and less because I knew he hated it. Now I can enter whatever shows I want because I can manage everything myself. I don't take a gazebo, just find a shady tree or somewhere under cover, and the trolley makes it so easy to get the grooming gear, chair, lunch etc....plus the dog.....to where I want to go.

You can't pile all your stuff into a crate, wheel it to the set up area, unpack and pop the dog in, then pile everything in and wheel it back to the car at the end of the day. I love my trolley, I bloody hate the crate....it's too heavy, awkward and difficult to move and you can't groom the dog on top of it.

Yeah, my trolley is smaller than my crate (not sure what size the crate is though....42 inches sounds about right), but I can fit 2 adults dogs in the crate and only one in the trolley, but that's all I need as I'm only showing one dog.

I got the Jumbo for an Aussie, I think you'd need the next size up for a GR, unless it's a smallish dog.

My tip, go to the loo before the sweepstakes class. Usually they are first, so it's cold and damp, and sometimes they take ages (or it seems like it when you're standing there freezing your buns off) and inevitably that awful busting feeling starts.

Blue staffies can be shown. Even with un-black noses. They might not win anything, but then there are plenty of dogs that get shown and don't win. Doesn't stop them from being shown.

A Flatcoat Retriever would be about as much grooming as a lab...not much at all. Maybe a gentle comb through the long bits every now and then but they have a mostly short, silky coat that doesn't look like it would mat at all.

GSD's are like Aussies, they have a soft, downy undercoat that grows thicker in winter. None of my dogs like wearing coats, they get too hot even on freezing cold days.

Any dog that bares it teeth and growls at strangers looks imposing. My two pretty, soft, sweet girls are very scary when they want to be......a stranger comes into our place and they are ON GUARD. But they are very, very loyal to me and very protective of anything that's mine.

She's gorgeous, and the little muppet holding her is, too.

Oh, that's so sad. Have you spoken to the breeder?

Have you thought about something like an Australian Cattle Dog? You'd get the intelligence, focus and loyalty of a herding dog and the toughness and guarding instinct of a utility dog. Plus they are great looking dogs.

I wouldn't know one judge from the next, I just go for the day out, so not knowing who the judges are wouldn't make any difference to me.