FHRP

cabanossi and cheap sandwhich meat are my dogs preferred treats :rolleyes:

Have you tried luring him in with food? Make sure he knows you have it before you leave him, call him in and put your hand out in front with the food and lure him straight into the sit?? My Whippet has a fantastic every day recall.. but can't get him off the sit in a formal one

So sorry to hear of the passing of Ike, and so young. I am sure he is healthy and running free at the rainbow bridge now

Yes, there are times when I lose my patience and even temper when training my dogs, I'm afraid I am not perfect If I'm starting to get frustrated I'll stop training, or change what we're training. If I'm just in a cranky mood altogether, we don't train at all!! I am all too aware of how many months of training can be ruined in just seconds of bad temper....

That would be enough for me to change vets. A vet who's primary interest doesn't appear to be the animals, is not one I'm interested in. I have to say it goes a long way when my vet remembers me and my animals, although I would never expect them to remember every detail without looking at their records. I don't think there is anything wrong with being a 'pet only' vet, as long as the vet recognises it and is happy to listen to the owner and refer when necessary. My local vets often say when I'm discussing something in regards to some form of competition that most of their clients are pet animals, but they can still offer adivce or refer. Each vet in the practice also has their own area of specialisation. They also make a point of discussing their clients amongst each other (the vets, not other clients of course) which can lead to some ideas. When my older Vizsla had an injury that didn't heal as fast as I liked, my local vet (different vet at the time to current owners) took a conservative approach initially. When I decided that I wanted it investigated further I did go to another vet who eventually referred x-rays to a specialist in Sydney. I was happy with each vet involved. I much prefer a conservative approach if possible and when I want some specific approach, I will go to specific vets. I am also not afraid to get second opinions. Needing a second or third opinion does not mean the first was incorrect or that the vet was doing a bad job. My vets know I do this, and are OK with it. If they weren't I would probably be hesitant in seeing them.

Are you happy with the actual vetinary attention your pets are getting at your current vet?? If I thought I was getting the best care for my pets from that vet, then I would probably smile and nod when given 'dietary advice' and then ignore it. If I didn't think their vet attention was anything special, then I would definitely look elsewhere. I consider myself very lucky, my local vets are great for everyday stuff, and I have a couple of other vets within 20-40 minutes who I go to for specific stuff. I get on great with all the local vets and they don't try and shove their commercial feed at me, only commenting that my dogs look superb and to keep doing what I'm doing! They know all my dogs names and often ask me questinos about agility and obedience when I'm there (I'll give them the bill one day ) I had a real time finding a vet I liked when I was younger. All of them seemed to talk down to me and couldn't comprehend that I actually knew my dogs better than they did! After shopping around at vets that various people recommened, I gave up and just went to my local vet in the area I had just moved to. They were by far the best vets I had been to. It's a personal decision IMO and although I'll recommend my vets to other people, I will also say it's a personal decision and you have to be comfortable with them.

Just remember to take any left overs out of your training bag after training!! They get stinky quite quickly.. as I keep finding out

My dogs will eat just about any treat, but their favourites are- Roast chicken Cabanosi Sandwhich Meat (devon etc. I buy the homebrand stuff from coles, heap and lasts) Schmakos, dried liver, cheese are fine for rewarding recalls when out walking etc., but if I'm training something new, the above treats are what rate best. A sueaky toy mouse with the real fur rates higher than food for my young guy...

Is that so wrong lablover? As someone who does just about everything I can with my dogs, I agree to some extent. I will admit my dogs may well be 'jack of all trades, master of none'! But, my enjoyment comes from experiencing each discipline with my dogs, not necessarily reaching to be the best of the best. It is said far less often now, but people used to say that doing agility will spoil an obedience dog. Nothing could be further from the truth with my older Vizsla, it was through agility that our team work really came through, and then we breezed through Novice class (Open is another story). I have definitely cut back on his agility since training UD. There was some obvious confusions when doing directed jumping, however consistent training has seemed to got us over that hurdle. A number of experienced UD trialers have told me that they did have to drop their other activities while training UD. Yes, it even effected a local trialers Retrieving trialing!! So, for that period, you make a choice. At times with multiple disciplines, that is what you have to do. Last year my young Vizsla started his trialing career. He tried agility, jumpers, obedience and retrieving. He titled in Novice agility & jumping with all placements including winning jumping at the Nationals (only gundog to place in the top three over the whole weekend, also picking up a 2nd), won Novice Agility at the state Titles, titled in Novice obedience with a 1st, 2nd & 3rd and finished our first Retrieving season with his first Novice stake win. He went onto achieve his Open agility & jumping titles, with some nice placements and wins too and has an Open obedience pass which was gained under pretty awful conditions. Admittedly the real 'tests' come at the top level of competition. He already has two Masters Agility passes with placements. I believe he will be a better UD potential dog than my other boy, and I am realistic here, he is a VIZSLA and unlikely to compete and win at All Age retrieving level anyway. What I won’t start with my young Vizsla at the moment is tracking. I have been told that it is not a good idea with a dog you are retrieving with, especially the Utility Gundogs who like to air scent so much. I am not totally convinced you can't do the two at the same time, but I think we have enough on our plate at the moment, and I do think my boy has a very good nose and may not encourage him to follow it too much on his own I was a bit worried about trying Lure Coursing with him, thinking it may again effect his retrieving. He actually gets more enjoyment out of lure coursing than picking up pigeons I think!! And, if anything, his keeness for retrieving improved. We all have slightly different goals with our dogs. Some people prefer to focus on their one preferred activity and reach the top level their is. Others, like me, prefer to try everything and see what we can do Yes, I definitely have my preferences and will focus more on that than other things, but even that changes. Up until last year our love was agility, but that has dwindled somewhat. The order people teach their dogs things will most likely be in order of their own preferred sports. Rogan was straight onto agility concepts when he came home as a puppy. I encouraged his retrieving and started obedience, but our focus was agility. If I was more tracking focused we would have done a lot of tracking basics as a pup, just as if I was gundog work focused he would have been doing far more retrieving foundation work. As a result, I believe that barring injury etc. he will easily gain the top titles in agility & jumping, he’s already well on the way!! Hopefully he will be a UD dog, I’m not sure about OC but I doubt he’ll ever be a RtCh, and that’s OK with me. I am also realistic that if I really wanted that RtCh title I would probably be better off getting a dedicated retrieving breed, although it is not essential. Once I’ve considered we’ve gone as far as we can in Retreiving, which may well be an NRD or before we’ll even give tracking a go, who knows, if his handler improves in tracking he could be a TCh one day!! We are having a ball along the way and the titles are nice, but they are not the only achievements we’ve made. As my title under my avatar suggests.. I love versatile dogs

Any pictures of this dog?? Sounds lovely

My older Vizsla currently competes in Agility, Jumping and Obedience. We train each week in obedience, hoping to one day get through an entire UD trial We train ocassionally in agility now, used to be much more into it. We have dabbled in tracking and he is great, I am hopeless. The drought has not made it any easier for us but I do intend to try again, hopefully this year!! He has also done the Endurance Test and we are hoping to do Open Gundog Working Tests soemtime too. My younger Vizsla competes in Agility, Jumping, Obedience, Retrieving and Conformation oh and the odd GWT but we much prefer retrieving trials. We train fairly regularly in Agility and less often in obedience Retrieving requires a lot of work, although we've been pretty slack over Christmas. We also had a couple goes at Lure Coursing last year and he absolutely LOVED it, knew exactly what to and I think it's the ultimate handler sport, let 'em go and leave it to them We have started some training in flyball but can't stand the noise. He may do the endurance test one year if we can't find anything else to do that day My Whippet trains hard at being a couch potato and unfortunately is carrying the extra weight to prove that he mastered this art over the holidays. We are both set to hit the road and do some cycling to help us both in fitness. I may dust him off and put him back in the show ring sometime this year too. Oh, we tried Lure coursing.. he was hopeless. Can you tell I like to try everything we can??

Like dogdayz, all my dogs have accepted a bath, never really enjoying it. However, my youngest Vizsla is a funny boy with water. He loooooves a bath in the tub. He tries to get in the tub when I have a bath, and often plays in it after I get out. He also loves to lay in water too. He will often lay in any tub of water big enough, mud puddle or river if he's warm. However, he doesn't like a hydrobath and he HATES rain!! Out of all my dogs he is by far the worst about rain!! It seems he likes to get into water, but does not like water falling on him... go figure. If you have a dog that likes water and/or toys, try giving them something to play with in the bath. Rogan loves to play with things in the water and although it can make a bit more mess, I really enjoy seeing him enjoy himself Here's a pic of Rogan as a young boy after his bath.. he just didn't want to get out

I have fed pre-made stuff for conveience occasionally, but much prefer to make it myself. One of the big reasons I feed my dogs the BARF diet is I know exactly what they are getting. Buying pre-made stuff cancels that out...

Not sureif it's been said.. Be consistent. Probably my biggest downfall in training

Yes, Lablover, I meant untaught words. And even then a lot of things we say to dogs is about tone and body language (physical cue).. An action must be taught and then the verbal cue applied. Expecting a dog to drop because we say it over and over again don't work.. they don't speak english!!

End training on a positive

Now, this would be my older Vizslas idea of a great days hunting!!! He loves to hunt and point but never got the retrieving gene and doesn't like those icky birds in his mouth... Thank goodness my younger boy loves his birds and loves to retrieve.

Dogs do not speak/understand English

Two years ago I lost my sweet shaggy girl... We still miss you Bella Aust. Ch. Mulvine Bella (AI) NJCV 23/2/94 - 6/12/2002

I have found a BARF diet grows pups slowly. Although I don't have any giant breeds, I have grown from medium to large size dogs on the diet. All the pups have matured slower, being smaller than either litter mates, or others of similar age in the show ring. I was actually concerned with both the Whippet and the Spinone that they were going to be somewhat small and lanky, but both have filled out nicely and are neear top size for their standard!!! I always keep pups lean too, oh and my adult dogs

Hey, unless the dentition was fully checked with those on the butter, you can't prove it wasn't the Standard Poodle!! But we won't mention the choc chip muffins before the Canberra Royal.. or the huge bag of liver scoffed in just minutes while we popped down the shops.. or the bag of dog food he suctioned through a 2 inch gap.. or my Dads birthday cake that reduced by a third when our backs were turned... or the roast chicken he got out of a fully zipped cooler bag (plus more muffins).. etc. etc. etc. I am lucky he has an iron gut...

HA!!! A mere 4kg of meaty bones??? Flynn raided the fridge just after I had been to the meat and fruit markets.. he ate two kilos of mince.. two bags of meaty bones (over 4kg but he didn't waste time on the bones, just the meat off them), a tub of margarine, a block of cheese.. and that's just what I can remember for now. He looked pregnant.. and the smells that came out of him...

I have NO doubt that my Flynn would do this in fact it worries me somewhat! He just doesn't know when to stop. My first dog was a food loving Lab.. but he had NOTHING on Flynn.

In an ideal world, yes!! Truth is many pet owners do not find lumps on their dogs until they are quite large. A big reason my vets still support annual vaccination (as opposed to 3 yearly) is so they can get their hands on peoples pets annually and go over them thoroughly. They are impressed with what I pick up on my dogs.. which of course are rushed in for any little lump or bump ;) If you choose to keep an entire pet, you need to make sure you check them regularly. I wonder how many times the entire terrier X down the road that is chained in his yard every time I go past is checked....

Kit, back to your original questions :D Yes, vasectomy's are available to dogs, but if I was going to bother putting my boy through an operation, I'd get the whole lot done and have him neutered. Remove the urge as well as the ability ;) I do know of a dog that had a vasectomy. He has a genetic condition that does not affect his outward appearance but definitely means he should not be bred from. The owner did not want to stop showing the dog as they both enjoyed the ring, but definitely didn't want to chance any litter being sired by him. Totolly against the rules to show a dog with a vasectomy I know, but maybe a more responsible action than some breeders have towards genetic problems.... Because the owner also had entire bitches (breeding bitches) and didn't want an oops litter from the dog she had a vasectomy done on him and continued to show. Hopefully the owner is very careful in regards to when her bitches are in season and there aren't any oops litters, but sometimes dogs just have a way... Castrating a male will remove any chance of testicular cancer, but it does not eliminate the chance of prostate problems. Reduce yes, elimnate no. Also, castrating a male dog will not stop him from lifting his leg. My Labrador was castrated at 9 months old and started lifting his leg at 12 months old. I love the fact that my young Vizslas (2.5 years) doesn't lift his leg in the home yard. One less boy peeing on all upright structures... Oh, and I regularly check the testicles of my boys Something you've got to do if you're gonna let them keep them...