Gayle.

Benson loves ice, Dusty comes running for it when he does then looks at me like "WTF is this????"

There is a lady who competes in agility in Victoria who has an artificial leg. She uses a different technique to most in that she doesn't move too much, but has taught her dog to run like the wind while it's watching her hand signals. She is a case in point that anyone who is determined enough can do agility with their dog.

If I were looking for a serious agility and obedience prospect, the breeds I'd be seriously considering are Border Collies, Australian Shepherds and Kelpies. And I'd research thoroughly the lines of those breeds that are producing the top winning prospects at the moment and in the past, and narrow it down to not just a breed, but a bloodline within a breed. With all three breeds you could also look at competitive herding if that takes your fancy, as all three breeds excel at it. Go to both. You'll get a more rounded view of the competitive dog world that way and talk to a broader bunch of breeders, handlers and owners.

Oh gosh, she's beautiful. And she sounds like a real character!

I have bought from The Vet Shed before, also from Pets Direct. Both good. I can usually get the stuff I want at Petstock, although they're on the pricey side.

http://www.petsplus.com.au/pet-shop.asp?id=1060 http://www.thevetshed.com.au/product_info....roducts_id/2686 http://www.getprice.com.au/Ezy-Dog-Harness...2--37513933.htm http://www.petsunleashed.com.au/Product/ezydog-harness-large

We're "camera snobs" in this house and only have digital SLR's (even the 15yo) so no pocket cams I can grab. Definitely no video coming any time soon, but I'll keep it in mind for the future. The trouble with having dogs as intelligent as Aussies is that they learn the bad stuff just as fast as they learn the good stuff.....or faster, in Bensons case! it's taken my 3 years to get him heeling....kinda sorta, and only when he really feels like it, but it took husband about 30 seconds to teach him to scream. And according to my husband (who is American, so you have to imagine this with an American drawl)......"He screams good!"

Fortunately we don't have a video camera and none of our out-dated mobile phones have video.

This would probably be funny if it was someone elses dogs, in someone elses house. But right now, I am shaking my head wondering WHY??? my idiot husband thought it was fun to teach this to the dogs. He says to Dusty "Bensons calling you a girl, he's calling you a GIRL!!!!" and Dusty jumps on Benson, and Benson screams the house down. And I mean SCREAMS!!! He sounds like a two year old at full throttle.....at an ear shattering pitch. Dusty doesn't actually do anything to Benson, just leaps on him, but this screaming is apparently the funniest thing in the world and the dogs sit up with big goofy grins on their faces afterwards and my idiot husband is rolling around on the floor doubled over with laughter. Perosnally I think he could put his newly discovered dog training abilities to better use, but he's apparently also working on teaching the dogs to say "Nar-HAAAAAAAA" in time for International Talk Like a Pirate Day in Sept. Any more stupid dog tricks I need to be wary of?

No at all, it's a great topic for discussion and it's also very relevant given the thread title. Being that I own both purebred, pedigree dogs and cats it's something I'm interested in discussing. At one time, I entertained the idea of showing a cat, but after attending a few cat shows as a spectator, I decided that I couldn't cope with spending Sundays cooped up in a hall that stunk strongly of cat piss by 10am. But I love pedigree cats and love the story of the Australian Mist. Do you think this doesn't go on now? It definitely does. But no one talks about it. Some breeds that have become rare or extinct due to war, famine or whatever reason have been recreated by people with a vision, but having a clear idea in mind of what you want to create and having the commitment, drive and balls to actually do it is hugely different to making Maltipoopenschnoodledoodles. Actually, come to think of it, breeders of doodles do have a fairly clear vision. They want to make money. Lots of it.

Has anyone tried? Seriously? It would take a lot longer with dogs because they are a different species with different genetic makeup and it might not come about in one persons lifetime. But the dog breeders being talked about in this thread, the ones cross breeding, don't appear to be doing it with creation of a new breed in mind. The alternate registers, such as the Australian Bulldogs, seem to be making small inroads into developing a breed but they also seem to be a helluva long way from getting them to breed true. Same with Labradoodles. And there are too may people breeding those for profit for them to ever have any credibility (and especially with that ridiculous name). Because the cat fancy people are just as passionate about their breeds as the dog fancy are about theirs. And there are nowhere near the same about of cat breeds as ther are dogs.

Yeah, but they were developed as a controlled program, not by any Tom, Dick or Harry setting out to make a quick buck. Look up Truda Straede's website, she has a diary about the development of the Australian Mist and it makes VERY interesting reading. She knew what she wanted before she started, but she says even she had no inkling of what she was getting into. There were hundreds of kittens born as part of her program........obviously there were a lot of "leftovers" as she had to select the ones that most closely resembled what she was trying to produce...and she had to make sure each one was responsibly re-homed. Then she had to get recognition and the breed registered. Her established breed is now an attractive, moderate, nice-natured cat with a good temperament for families, and it breeds true. When a breeder puts two Australian Mists together to produce a litter they know that they are going to get a litter that resembles the standard written for the breed. Spotted or marbled coat, moderate head, prominent whisker pads, medium size etc. etc. Burmillas aren't new, neither are Mists, both have been around for quite a while now, but the point is, they weren't brought about by anyone who just wanted to breed for the sake of selling kittens at exhorbitant prices. And the creators of the breed went to the trouble of having the breed recognised. ETA, here is a part of Truda's diary. Years ago, I read a much more comprehensive version, but I can't recall where. This isn't the work of someone who put cat A to cat B, gave the offspring a stupid name then advertised them in the Trading Post as rare, unique and $1500 a piece, thank you very much and hurry before they're all gone. http://members.dcsi.net.au/ausmist/jottings.htm

Blackberry Storm Blackwatch In the Black

Back in Black Black Tie Affair Fashionably Black

They aren't classes for crosses, they are classes for domestic pets, which is not the same at all. Generally it encompasses the family moggie, as well as purebreds who aren't good enough for the general classes. They are judged on personality, grooming and general "niceness" as cats. Whereas the pedigree classes are judged according to the standard of the breed. Cats are a lot different to dogs because most cats weren't bred for a purpose or a sport. Plus a moggy isn't necessarily a crossbred......it's more likely a purebred is a selectively bred moggy.

What about if your reason for wanting a dog was to pursue a particular sport or hobby though? You can't rock up to the local pound or shelter and request a dog who's the one most likely to be good at obedience trialling/agility/hunting/tracking/flyball etc. Because you can't tell just by looking at them, and you have no family history to help you make your choice. And an "egotistical view of how a dog should look"? Well, I damn well hope that the people who bred my dogs had an egotistical view because when I decided to buy Australian Shepherds, I want them to look like Australian Shepherds. I don't want my dogs to look like corgi's or pugs, or rotti's or crosses of other breeds, or indeterminate mongrels. I want them to look like what they are supposed to look like. I want them to grow up looking like the pictures in the breed books I selected the breed from.

I expect some peple would do it....not because there's an unfulfilled need for the breed in this country, I doubt some of them would even give that any consideration or spend time researching the subject. They'd do it because they can. Because it would give them a massive ego boost to "recreate" a breed. And being a large hunting mastiff type, it would no doubt have large litters of puppies which no one would want because the vast majority of the population don't want large hunting mastiff type dogs as pets. And the fate of those unwanted puppies (which the "breeders" know will be unwanted when they breed them) is another taboo subject on DOL.

Selective breeding is how most of them came about, NOT cross breeding. This is a misconception most people have. Purebreds did not start out being different breeds that were crossed with each other to make different purebreds. They started out as purebreds who were selectively bred to set desirable traits which were then carried on down the generations. The reason the labradoodle program was abandoned by Wally Conron and the guide dog association is because after 5 generations they could not get the dogs to breed true. They could not guarantee the coat type, the size, the look, the temperament, the intelligence, the biddability etc....even after the 5th generation. They were not getting the non-allergenic coat they were after, not on every pup they bred, and they abandoned the program as a waste of time and resources. Unfortunately they unleashed a monster on the pet-loving public in the form of desginer cross bred mongrels with stupid names.

Rubbish. I bought my gorgeous girl from an interstate breeder, she has a lovely pedigree, parents are both titled (dad is a Gr Ch), lots of relatives with performance and conformation titles both here and overseas. Including her plane ticket, she cost me LESS than $650. That is around half the price of some of the labrador x poodles I've seen advertised. She was not "going cheap" because the breeder couldn't get rid of the pups....I chose her from a photo the day after she was born (I was particular about colour, markings and gender) and the entire litter of 9 puppies was sold by the time they were a month old. The breeder I bought her from has been fabulous, each and every time I have a query, she responds within hours, sometimes minutes. She adores the photos I send her of my lovely girl and it's so nice to have someone appreciate her like I do. A few weeks abo I looked at some of the DOL puppy listings. Some of the breeders have the prices in their ads. Maltese puppies for $1000. Tibetan Terrier pups for $600-$800. Poodles (little ones, can't recall if they were toy or miniature) $950. These breeds have similar "looks" to the Maltipoopenschnoodledoodles being pumped out by puppy farmers and sold at astronomical prices through pet stores and over the internet. But they pay it for cross bred mutts. So why wouldn't they pay it for purebred puppies with a pedigree from a registered and ethical breeder?

My daughter taught Benson to speak, he picked it up really easily because he was barking at something at the window and every time he woofed, she'd say "speak" and give him a treat. I could see the look of puzzlement on his face when he was getting a treat and he didn't know what for, but it took him only a few minutes to figure it out. Now I am trying to teach him to "whisper" cos his spoken words are bloody ear splitting.

I like dogs that are/were bred for a reason. Whether that reason be for bringing bulls down, herding stock, catching rats or simply sitting on a lap. I love that over the generations, humans who bred these dogs have cared enough about them to carefully select their breeding stock to make the next generation just a little bit better than the last. I love that each breed has it's own unique traits that are bred for and preserved....even if the breed closely resembles another breed. I love that the heritage of every single pedigree purebred is charted, registered and preserved for the future of that particular breed. How is crossing the breeds going to be better than what's already gone before them?

Sorry, only just saw this now. I've never fed Eukanuba so I wouldn't know. My son feeds it to his English Setter though, as he has a sensitive stomach and he doesn't react to the Eukanuba Senstive kibble.

I gave away one on here last week....a meduim sized one went to Eridor for the cost of the postage. I found it useless on mid-length coats.....the Oster undercoat rake is much more successful. Eridor has smooth collies and I think the length of their coat is more suitable for the Furminator than the longer coat of the Aussies. BTW, I had originally paid about $18 for it on eBay. It was a genuine Furminator. No way I'd pay Petstock prices.

Depends on the parties concerned, I think. I was offered a small breed of dog on breeders terms. A small expensive breed of dog, which I would have to pay the market price for. At the time, I didn't know a huge amount about breeding purebred dogs, but I did know enough to ask some pertinent questions. Health testing? Breeder doesn't believe in it. What if the bitch isn't good enough to breed from? Breeder apparently never had a bitch that wasn't good enough. I passed up that particular offer.

If you change the dogs food, it's best to find one you can easily get. Eagle Pack Holistic is good, as is Royal Canin. My dogs really liked Pro Plan Selects but that wasn't stocked by anyone local so we had to drive 1 1/2 hours to buy it.