FHRP

My 13 year old boy had a suprelorin implant nearly 12 months ago. At my last vet visit with him a month or so ago the vet said he may not ever need another injection, that at his age he may not go back to producing testoterone? Has anyone had an older dog implanted with suprelorin that lasted a lot longer than the 12 months? The vet said to watch for the return of normal testicle size (they shrunk heaps) to gauge when he would need it again. I must admit when I had the implant done 12 months ago I didn't expect him to see out the life of it so I didn't opt for surgical castration. He's in great form now but I still think we'll opt for another implant if needed.

ish, have you got a photo of your dog wearing the collar?

Thought I'd share the only photo I took at the field trial. It was taken with my phone, so low quality. I was walking Polo back to the cars around the edge of the padock while another brace was working and he found three birds on the way! He's pointing one of them here, lead still attached.

Congrats Wuffles!!!! Great stuff Congrats everyone else on their weekend results, it seems to have been a good one!!

I have done various 'drills' for depth with Polo in his retrieving training, he usually does very well although the retrieves are generally always longer than we get in the field. Part of the problem is that as I live in a state that doesn't have a game season, he does not have the experience of being shot over 'for real'. He does watch the bird come down once flushed, but he will then look away, ready to go on and find another bird which has been the norm in our training. He doesn't get as good a 'picture' as I'd like! It was quite obvious with the other dogs that have much more experience with shooting, they don't take their eyes off where the bird went down. I don't think it will take Polo long to learn the process though :D

All dogs found birds at each trial. Unfortunately Polo's bracemate on the first round yesterday did not get the opportunity to retrieve, and the team were given several chances to make it happen.

The training sounds fantastic TSD and RubyStar! fetchindawgs, nice photo's, Congratulations on your Easter results, very rude of me not congratulating earlier! Nice to hear of the youngens and the 'oldies' doing so well Polo and I survived our first Field Trials :p Can you believe it though, his retrieving was atrocious!!!! He is not used to the short marks and any handling sends him off at full speed and over running the birds by miles in a second Even his water retrieve on the pigeon was very poor today :D although he did nail it yesterday. Despite his embarassing retrieving work he did well to win the Saturday non-qualifying trial and to place 2nd today in the Novice trial for his first Field Trial Championship Point

Great photos!!! RubyStar, you're looking very professional The only photo's I managed on the weekend at the retrieving trial was of this cute little guy. OMG I got so puppy clucky!!

For me soundness has to win. With the pressure on purebred dogs being healthy pets, and with my own interest in the working side of my breeds and competitive dog sports, breeders must be doing everything possible to produce physically sound dogs IMO. In the show ring I have been disappointed several times seeing noticebly lame dogs win large awards. I would prefer to see a sound dog lacking type placed over an unsound typey dog. However, I would not like to see either win any substantial award including Challenges if the lack of soundness or type is bad.

How did everyone enjoy their Easter trials?? I know that mollipop's girl did well and that rubyroo's boy did some nice work over the NSW trials weekend. I survived my first All Age trial today with my "rent-a-dog", Charlie As he was yesterday's AA winner the pressure was on :D I'm happy to say he got all his birds with some very respectable work We didn't make the placings, but I did get some nice comments on my handling Now to train Polo...

Maiden bitches absolultely can have phantoms. I had a bitch who had terrible phantoms including getting milk, before ever having a litter.

As our training is usually early morning, and I am not a morning person, Polo does very well despite my mood

Sounds like a fantastic day TSD!! Was that Em's first introduction to birds? I have been out training with my firends ESS this week, trying to cram as much in before their first trials She was doing lovely work on the dummies, but bring that bird out and she gets the same eyes as Em's and that's her only focus too mollipop I haven't seen those dummies in the shops for a while now. They pop up in the Cheap stores Go-Lo, Clints etc. and my friends know to snaffle them up if they see them. They are great for pups but too light for throwers or anything like that. Have had a few ups and downs in field training with Polo. Well, really there's only been one day where he seemed to be in a bit of a 'mood' and a bit off The birds have been getting very thin on the ground, must have all moved to Victoria! I can only hope! This morning we had a great session though, several birds around and Polo worked extremely well. I hope I can hold it together for the trial.

What type of dummies have you been using previously? Have you tried the cheap little soft puppy dummies you can get form the cheapo shops? edited to add a picture of the type of dummy I mean. Polo is only a baby in this, about 12 weeks old I think, so the dummy is quite small.

What reason has been given for not using Dokken or wings on dummies until he's holding properly? Is he mouthing or crunching dummies?? If after 2 months nothing has changed then you really need to change what you're doing IMO. I don't hesitate to put wings on a dummy for a dog that has more interest in birds than dummies, as long as they aren't going to chew them. With my Vizsla his first 12 - 18 months of training for retrieving trials was on pigeons or winged dummies as he just did not have the interest in plain dummies. He now picks up any sort of dummy (and even plastic bottles in a trial ). My older Vizsla had absolutely no interest in retrieving, anything, ever. It was a slow process but basically we went through the Shirley Chong method and he became a very reliable retriever for Obedience trials, never failed the Retrieve in Open. He also got through Novice GWT's and several Opens too. He was never destined for Retrieving trials though....

I did the same :p Waiting for mine to arrive Love the vid, what a good Kelpie!!

Great stuff RubyStar!! Congrats on the Royal Obedience results Pax & WAers!!

The very small bits I've seen of working cockers has certainly not been low drive. I haven't watched the youtube clip (can't at work and forgot at lunch ). I've also seen some pretty drivey show cockers too! Maybe not suited to retrieving, but very competant in GWT's and agility & obedience.

The Working Cocker that came out to a trial in May 2007. Not the best pics.

Careful what you wish for!! I wanted a dog with more drive for retrieving after having Rogan, and now I have Polo who is off his face with enthusiasm most of the time!! Most of the time I love his enthusiasm, but there's times where calm just looks so much easier You would be hard to beat a working lab for drive for retrieving though....

It is very rare for a trial to be cancelled due to rain. That trial was a small ribbon trial with only one judge who on the night was also not well. Because entries were small it was relatively easy to contact all entrants and let tme know of the postponement. I was supposed to steward that night eta. This weekends trial has several judges and potentially interstate exhibitors, so it will certainly go ahead even if it's raining.

There are Working Cockers in Australia, but I'd guess there's not many. We did have one turn up to a Retreiving trial a few years back with a couple, the woman having emigrated from the UK and brought the dog with her. It was a lovely liver dog and very interested in the trial, he'd been worked in the UK. I will try and dig up a pic I took of him when I'm home. Unfortauntely I never saw them again and when a friend was trying to source a Working Cocker pup I couldn't track them down I have heard that there have been some recent Working Cocker imports, maybe Steve Austin is even using them?? Could have my wires crossed there though. There was at least one Cocker run quite extensively in Retrieving trials in Eastern Australia, but it was well before my time in the sport. I do hear the stories though. Not sure if it was Working or Show lines though...

Me too The judge made good use of the grounds IMO. Incorporated some cover in Novice, but had the dummy landed in the open, so a very achieveable challenge for the Novice dogs. You mustn't be able to view the pics? ;) Dummies were used, not birds. I think for our first Test dummies were a good idea to encourage some new people who are still a bit thingy about dead birds ;) Maybe we'll have birds at one of our test next year!

Thanks, yes Rogan won Open and Polo was second. I like to support the club with entries and Rogan does love the format, more than retrieving trials A shame you couldn't make it rubyroo, Stinger would have had a great time, the Open test did provide a few challenges!!! Good use was made of the dam/swamp and treed areas. There is a recently created thread on AWRC with RATG dates that will hopefully be added to, might be useful for people on here interested in the events http://www.australianworkingretrievercentr...f=11&t=2379

Thanks TSD. Yes, I manned one of the throwers for all of Novice :D