Gayle.

I have two Aussies, and 7 months old is a difficult age cos they can be stubborn little butt-heads at that age. Think pre teens! My boy, I used to have terrible trouble getting him to come when I called him if there were major distractions (like just about everything outside our yard!) But I stopped calling him if I knew he wasn't going to come, which sounds a bit defeatist but I didn't want to set up a pattern where I'd be calling and calling and he'd just continue to ignore me. If I knew he wasn't going to come back, I'd either not let him off the lead in the first place; go get him or simply start walking away from him. He'd appear at my side within seconds. For the pulling, I used a variety of non-pulling devices such as head halters and no-pull harnesses and taught him that being by my side was the best place to be. Once we had that under control, he went on a limited slip collar and lead and a short, sharp jerk on the lead would get him back when he started to surge ahead. But lots of praise, lots of treats for being in the right place worked the best. Also, abruptly turning and walking in a different direction works, but not if you have two dogs at once. My boy is now 2 years old. This morning we went to our regular obedience class and met a 4 month old border collie puppy. The pup jumped all over Benson and was very excitable, pulling his owners all over the grounds. Benson just stood there calmly and quietly, then went down in a drop position to let the pup jump on him. The pups owners commented over and over what a lovely, well mannered dog I had. But it seems like only yesterday *I* was the one with the excitable pup that jumped on everyones dogs and pulled me all over the grounds! It does get better! My girl dog is entirely different. She would rather die than displease me, she is a little darling and has always been the same. If she pulls, I tell her not to and she comes back to my side immediately. This isn't through good training, she was born well-behaved. So I take no credit for her nice manners.

You called my favourite girl "Piglet"! That's ugly, can't she have a nicer name than that?

Puppies + too many photos = no such thing. Bring 'em on!

Dusty had it, although it was very mild The hair around one of her eyes fell out. I'd taken her interstate to some dog shows and to stay with my son. She was 8 months old, and didn't cope at all well with being away from home. She hated staying at my sons house and spent the whole 4 days we were there growling at him. She was very stressed and came home with mild demodectic mange. It cleared up quickly and the hair grew back within a couple of weeks.

Gorgeous! Little tri girl 3 is looking better than ever, I think she's my favourite. Does tri girl 2 have a black ear on the left side?

I feed a combination of raw and kibble. Kibble would form less than 10% of their diet though. As they've always had this diet and in this ratio, I can't honestly say their health has improved, but they've always been wonderfully healthy dogs, right from birth.

Yeah that one. Girl 3, I think she was.

I love the little black tri with the stripe up her forehead.

Mine get about 80% raw as well, probably more. They have 14 meals a week, 7 of them are a chicken drumstick (standard breakfast fare) 5 or 6 are raw mince mix/lamb offcuts/chicken frames, wings, necks or thighs and one or two are kibble, always served with sardines. I'm not convinced the kibble makes THAT much of a difference, but there's no escaping the fact that Benson now has the nicest coat he's ever had, plus the healthiest looking skin.

She looks fabulous, she certainly doesn't look like a mum of 6! What food do you have her on? I switched my two to Uncle Albers due to financial constraints, and Benson's flaky, itchy skin cleared up, his coat looks a million bucks and Dusty's new coat is coming through thick, silky, soft and gorgeous.

Well, Bryden's excited for you. She just squealed in my ear when she saw the pics and has successfully deafened me. She squealed "Ooooohhhhhh.......OOOOHHHHHHHH...she's got BLUE MERLES!!!!!!!"

Kinta looks beautiful. Any full NBT's?

Well, I'm a bit keen on black girl no. 3. But I need more pics of all of them to really decide which one's gonna be my particular favourite.

I have been hanging out for these bubs to arrive, in fact the whole family has! Give Kinta a big pat from us (and some for leo too, cos he can't miss out!) They look adorable, and hey.....she produced FOUR black tri's! Now doesn't that tell you somehting......black tri's ARE the best colour!

I don't go on the roads unless they are VERY quiet residential streets. But our town is criss-crossed with bike paths and cyclists can go pretty much anywhere in the town and not have to ride on the road. My rear brakes are my left hand, but I'm left-handed so it seemed perfectly natural to me. I never use the front brakes though. I look like such a dag with my bike, cos I have a basket on the front and I love it. I can carry all kinds of things in my basket....treats, water, snacks, jacket etc. but I get no end of ribbing from my husband and daughter cos they think I look silly.

You sound like me when I got my bike at Christmas.....I hadn't ridden one in 30 years so I had to relearn it and I felt really awkward/clumsy/terrified and had no idea how I was going to manage to ride around the school oval let alone a 20km endurance test. But it didn't take long to get the hang of it and now I cna't wait til July cos we're rarin' to go! Hopefully we can fit some more long rides in over Easter. Now daulight savings has finished we can't ride after work and I don't have time before work to train.

We did 18kms this afternoon (without Miss 15!) and both dogs did it with ease. In fact the only one who's hurting is my husband who keeps complaining about a sore arse. It took us about 2 hours, we were trying to go about 10kmph but I think at times we were going faster and other times a bit slower. It was a lovely ride though, and we timed the end of it just nicely.....as we were packing the bikes onto the car, the rain came down and hasn't stopped since. How is everyone else doing?

Here is a link to the form to register an associate dog. It has all the rules re associate dogs on the form. http://www.cccq.org.au/documents/Associate...Application.pdf

You should be able to register a non-pedigree dog as an associate for the purposes of performance sports.

Mine went out pretty much from when I got them at 10 and 8 weeks. I prefer early socialisation.

Praise and treat when he does the right thing. Stop what you're doing when he struggles, just wait til he's calm, then start again. Praise and treat even if it's only a second or two of good behaviour. Keep the grooming sessions short but frequent. Concentrate on one part of the body per session, then let him have a play and a nap, then go back for more. He'll get it eventually, you just need to be consistent.

Benson and I are absolutely loving the training. We head out after dinner, he runs, I pedal. He's quiet, I'm quiet. We have this agreement.....it's our *quiet* time together....mum and dog, running, cycling, bonding. It's fabulous. Til three nights ago. Miss 15 decided she needed to come and bond with us too. How to wreck ET training 101. "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Hurry up!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! You're too SLOW!!!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Can I take him now? He's not just YOUR dog!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Ride BEHIND us, he keeps pulling to catch up to you!!!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Why does he keep turning around to look for you, he's pulling me off my bike!!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! He wants to stop all the time!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Oh gross, Benson that's disgusting, mum why does he have to do a shit RIGHT NOW?" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!! Here, you take him he doesn't do ANYTHING for me!" "Mu-um......MU-UM!!!OK I'll take him now, he's being a good boy!" (that's cos there's high school boys up ahead and how cool does SHE look with a handsome black dog running alongside her bike!) Tomorrow night we lay some ground rules. 1. It's my ride, we go at whatever pace I like. Don't like the pace, don't come on the ride. 2. He IS my dog, I chose him, I paid for him, I feed and groom him, I exercise him, I train him. He sleeps under MY bed. 3. No matter where I ride, he is going to want to be with me. Why? See rule 2. 4. When a dog's gotta poop, a dog's gotta poop and he needs to find the perfect place first. 5. It's probably not gonna look too cool when you fall off your bike in front of all those boys cos Benson would rather run with me than you. Maybe it would just be easier to sneak out the bedroom window and go without her.

I agree with this. When I bought my first Australian Shepherd, his breeder said to me "Get him out meeting people, seeing stuff, being places, experiencing life as much as you possibly can from the day you take him home. More dogs end up being euthanased in pounds through poor social skills than will ever die of a disease picked up off the ground!" When my next puppy arrived, she was 8 weeks old and came on Virgin Airlines, in a Jet Pets crate. It seemed a little silly to keep her away from public areas when she'd already flown interstate in a crate that had housed who-knows-what prior to her being in it, on a plane that could have all manner of air-borne diseases, and then in the Jet Pets van which carried thousands of puppies before her.

I wasn't keen on Aloveen, it tended to dry the Aussies coats, but I've found Plushpuppy conditioning shampoo to be excellent.

Ruth, if you download the Digital Works software and install it, it has the current price list on it. Just go through the motions of placing an order (you don't actually need to do it) and the price list pops up. The software is easy to get rid of if you don't want to keep it (it's just to upload files to their server).