Gayle.

I use Digital Works in Melbourne, they are fantastic. I've always had my prints done by them, aside from snapshots which I do at Officeworks. http://digitalworks.onpix.com/owners/index.asp (Their website looks like crap, but their prints are excellent).

Ask at your club about an obedience rule book. Then read it from cover to cover, then read it again. It will cover all the rules of trialling at the different levels, as well as a comprehensive description of the exercises. Find out at your club if there are any trialling classes. One-on-one instruction, even for 10 minutes a week, can really help you along.

We have an Australian Shepherd on our bed every night. She's always slept there, I love it. She's a good girl, lies very still and is a fantastic snuggler. She gets off when she's told to, then lies on the floor and waits patiently til she can come back up.

Who is "they"? Do you have a link to that data, I'd be interested to read more about it. Mine both do formal obedience and one is a show dog, so they get plenty of handling with the SFE and judges examination in the show ring. They are good little puppies at the vet as a lot of show dogs are, as they're used to having mouths examined as well as poking and prodding by judges hands.

Not sure about a "normal" technique, but I prefer for the pup to place themselves in position, lured there with a reward in hand. So for a sit, I would hold my hand over the pups head which makes it look up and the rear end drops into a sit. Give the command "sit" as the rear end drops, praise and reward. For "drop", I'd use a similar technique but bring my hand holding the treat down to the ground and back towards me, encouraging the pup to lower itself to the ground, then extend itself into a drop. Give the command as it's following the lure, praise and reward. They are really the only two positions the pup needs to know, although teaching it to stand is handy for grooming and if you pursue more formal obedience at some stage, the dog will be required to know the stand command and also the hand signal that goes with it. I've never heard of a technique where you place the dog in the position though. Everything I've been taught has been about encouraging the dog to find the correct position itself.

Pointernuts, can you PM the name and address of the greyhound guy to me please? I need to get Dusty looked at before we go back into the show ring as she "crabs" slightly in her gaiting and I'm almost certain it can be fixed with some manipulation but I want someone with a good reputation to do it.

Unless you have his pedigree, there's no way of knowing for sure what his heritage is. He doesn't look quite fluffy enough to me to be pure pom, they are more round like a fluffy ball on legs. He's very cute though. At his age, while it's not really necessary to make him sit and wait for his dinner (although you can if you want), it's not a good idea to give it to him if he's in a state of excitement....jumping and yapping cos he can see it in your hand. Wait until he's calm then reward him for his nice behaviour with his dinner.

Gotta love the righteous brothers and sisters on here. What's done is done, puppy IS going to be left alone on Monday as the OP has to work. So how to make little pupster less anxious. Soft cuddly things. Constant sounds. Warmth. Somewhere to "hide" such as a cave made from cushions and rugs. Yes she will be an unhappy little sausage, but she'll get used to it and before you know it she'll be all grown up and you'll wonder why you worried. Not everyone takes time off work when getting a new puppy. I didn't when I got my first Aussie Shepherd, two days after he came home he was put in the backyard and there he stayed til I got home late in the afternoon. He is now a happy, well balanced 2 year old with a lovely outgoing nature. Don't feel guilty, you have a lovely breed of puppy, she'll grow up to be an absolute delight, I'm sure.

Just out of curiousity, why do you assume damage caused by you is covered under warranty? Warranty covers manufacturing flaws.

Does Midol have a dog?

Labradors weren't bred to lead the blind but they do it extremely well. They are the ultimate working dog, in my opinion.

Would it be more suitable to say the dog is playing well? My dogs, by ANKC definition, are working dogs. That's good enough for me.

I use the phrase "Time to do some work!" to signal to my dog that I want him by my left side, alert, focussed and attentive to my signals and commands. For him, the word "work" signifies the beginning of an obedience class/trial/practise session. It's just a word.

My dogs get a whole tin each about twice a week, dumped on their kibble. They love their little fishies.

If you keep her in a pen outside, make sure it's never in full sun as the sun still has some bite to it.

I am about at the end of my first bag of Uncle Albers and Benson, who has always had an itchy, scaly patch on his back, has never looked better. His coat is thick and soft, his skin is clear and healthy and he looks fabulous. Dusty has just had a massive coat drop, so she's now a whippet and not an Australian Shepherd, but I expect when it grows back it will be as nice as Bensons. Kibble makes up a very small portion of my dogs diet...maybe 2-3 meals out of 14 per week, so I'm surprised by the impact it's had.

Anothet trick to get him to eat kibble is to stink it up with a mashed sardine mixed through it. My dogs LOVE sardines and would quite happily eat stones if they came with mashed sardines. If I asked my dogs what they'd prefer to eat, they would undoubtedly say "people food, please. specially ice cream and chips!"

Chicken wings are very high in fat compared to other chicken pieces, so maybe try replacing any raw bones with wings.

Taking their food often equates to teasing and you'd likely end up bitten, I would think. I have not really thought about preventing resource guarding but I do strive to be a good leader to the pack and I know I can take food out of their mouths if I want/need to. We have an elderly Lhasa Apso and Benson occasionally takes her treats, and I very smartly take it out of his mouth and give it back to her. Sometimes to the point of reaching into his throat to grab it before he swallows it. He lets me do it, I'm sure he's not happy about it but he's never growled at me, just looked disappointed that he didn't get to finish the treat. So.....my theory (and I could be way off the mark), is that as a good pack leader, you *could* take the food if you wanted to, but it doesn't mean you have to do it. Therefore you don't have to "prevent" resource guarding so much as gain your dogs absolute trust and respect as his leader.

Yes it is. I can sympathise, as Dusty can get quite anxious in certain situations and all I want to do is reassure her that everything's ok and that no one is going to hurt us and no one is going to leave her. She doesn't like one of my sons, he's never done anything bad to her but when she was a puppy, he came in the house with his motorbike gear on and scared her. So now she gets terribly anxious if he's around (he doesn't live with us), and growls, paces, whines and barks at him. We went to stay with him and for 5 days, she suffered from terrible anxiety and wouldn't relax when he was home. It was awful to see her so worried and scared, although she was perfectly safe.

Can you tie her up but stay with her? Then gradually move away but stay in sight and build up the distance. It sounds like she suffers some extreme anxiety at the thought of you leaving her, the poor darling. My Aussie girl is a bit the same. She's gotten better as she's gotten older but she simply hates it when I go away from her, especially if we're not at home.

That's bad luck, Rebanne! At least a greyhound is unlikely to pull....she'd be fairly gentle on the lead, wouldn't she? I grew up with racing greyhounds and don't ever remember them pulling, I used to walk 2 or 3 of them at a time when I was a teenager. We did about 14 kms today. Around the Moe Botanical Gardens....around and around and around, until we finally found the entrance to the rail tril, then partway along the very lovely rail trail, which we'll be doing again. it's 8.5 kms long so if we go to the end and back, we'll be getting pretty close to the length of an ET. We took both the dogs, they are both exhausted right now and don't expect there'll be too much action from them for the rest of the day!

Our current doggy family started with a 10 week old male Australian Shepherd puppy....we got him settled into the family, taught him manners and took him to obedience classes and got him started on that. He bonded with all of us but particularly me as I'm the one who does just about everything for him. When he was around 6 months of age we started looking at getting him a play mate and I put my name down with some breeders for a black tri girl pup. She joined the family when Benson was 10 months old and fitted right in straight away. They have been together for a year now and are very dependant on each other but we make sure they have a bit of time apart each week. They both go to obedience classes (my daughter is the handler of the girl) and are both doing well at it. I used to have to listen to Dusty screaming for Benson from her class, but she's grown out of that, thank goodness. I think our way was a lot easier than bringing two pups home at the same time, as we were able to devote the time and energy we needed to each pup as it came into the family. And it was barely any time from getting one puppy to getting the next one.

he's beautiful. I have a brown Burmese cat named Bruno. The naughtiest cat in the world.

A while back I was checking out the prices of some of the better supermarket brands (Optimum, Natures Gift etc) and for bigger dogs, it would actually work out cheaper to go to a pet supply place and buy a large bag of super premium food. Although the supermarket brands appear cheaper, their per kg cost are quite often higher.