DeltaCharlie

It is a competition that is run Australia wide across a large number of clubs. You do not need to be a member of the club running it to participate. There is a club component (most successful club awards taken from the top 3 competitors from that club over the year) but also an individual component (based on all 4 runs throughout the year). Every state runs the exact same course and the points are accumulated over the period of 12 months. It is made up of 2 x agility and 2 x jumping courses, usually designed by a judge in training and pretty flexible with who clubs choose to have judge on the night. I think entries are $2 per run, but could be wrong. Caffy (Perth) won it with Snazzy a few years ago. She probably has more knowledge of it as nobody in Canberra runs it anymore so I have never actually participated.

Perfect sense, DC. In fact, given that we are weakening immune systems by an overload of vaccine, the Insurance Companies should be embracing the idea of and accepting titres with open arms. What would be the likely expense of treatment for CC though? What I mean by the above is that there is no treatment for CC itself. That's a matter of letting it run its course. But if it was to develop to secondary infection, I could imagine the cost of a vet visit and antibiotic. Under my insurance plan, I have to pay for the first $100 anyway. So, if it is brought down only to cost and the exclusion of whether we are doing the right thing by administering vaccines unnecessarily, is there really any benefit to vaccinating for CC (which would involve a Vet consult fee and out-of-pockets for the vaccine) for the sake of maintaining insurance cover? Plus Kennel Cough vaccine doesn't cover all strains (not even a third of strains, from memory), so they can still get it. If they aren't of an age or type of breed when KC is likely to cause massive issues or be fatal, it's pretty pointless. Pretty much my thoughts exactly :) I don't agree with the KC vaccine, and see it as rather pointless as it doesn't cover much and the disease itself in an otherwise healthy dog won't make them any more than a little bit sick. Which is why I haven't actually gone ahead with it yet, as it goes against what I believe in. Our dogs don't come in close contact with other dogs at a trial, don't share water bowls or drink from communal bowls, and rarely have play dates with other dogs. So I consider their chance of contracting any form of KC to be quite minimal. However, my mind was partially changed after a conversation with FHRP a while back. A healthy dog she knew had contracted it (surprise, surprise given how many strands are not vaccinate-able) and the vet costs in the end came to a quite a few hundred dollars (not sure of the treatment required). As the dog was covered with Petplan, the fees were reimbursed minus the excess of course. She said it had actually worked out much cheaper financially for the owner to have the dog vaccinated and subsequently insured. I don't know the finer details of it though.

Even with the dogs that are covered by petplan, I am not going to vaccinate them. The whole point of titre testing is to give you the confidence that your dog has immunity and will not contract the disease even if it came in contact with it. Given that, why would I vaccinate to ensure they are insured for a disease I am confident they should have immunity for anyway? Does that make sense? KC is a different story, even though I see it as unnecessary I am considering getting Whip re-vaccinated for it as that way if he happens to contract it and requires veterinary attention I can claim the expenses. Delta and Charlie are not insured so I won't give it to them. Shock is still covered by her puppy vaccs at this point in time.

I give puppy shots and then titre at 12-14months. Have never had a dog come back without a high level of immunity at this age. If they are adequately vaccinated before 6 months it should, in theory, carry them through for life. Certainly no need for a 12 month booster, its just overkill unless a titre level comes back as a low result (which still technically indicates immunity but most would revaccinate in this instance).

One thing I meant to add before. If you are feeling anxious when you are there- don't go! The last thing you want is for him to think there is a reason to be anxious, they are unbelievably good at picking up on our moods. I have experienced first hand the effect that my anxiety has on my dogs when I felt too much pressure at a club years ago. My heart would be racing as I pulled up the drive and before long, Delta would refuse to do anything for me. I switched clubs and she was like a whole new dog again! I will never do that to them again.

45 mins of talking is a lot of time to be waiting around for young dogs. I wouldn't expect my adults to wait patiently for that long. As for giving everyone a pig's ear? No way in hell would I be feeding any of my dogs a pigs ear once a week. I refuse to feed them any more than maybe half a pigs ear per year (if that). I also wouldn't want to be feeding mine something of value with other dogs so close by and not necessarily under control, great way to encourage resource guarding. I wouldn't be happy with the situation if it was me and would probably look for another place. I wouldn't have the confidence to say anything to the instructor about why though, I'm too shy. Easier to walk away and find somewhere else. No guarantees that anywhere else will be any better though. I expect a bit of chaos at puppy school, after all not everyone knows about dog behaviour and for many people at puppy school its their first dog, but its the sitting around that I would be put off by.

I've never had a male need a cone for desexing but I wouldn't imagine they would need it for more than a few days. They are dissolvable stitches aren't they? Female desexing is more intensive, Link had had 2 litters previously, and the stitches don't dissolve so we had to wait until the vet appt 10 days later to remove it. She was well and truly used to it by that time, in fact she hardly noticed it after the first 24hrs. She was being crated regardless as she wouldn't stop jumping on and off the lounge, running around with toys, or trying to engage in wrestling games with her daughters.

Our little dogs love the water. Jaz (3.5kg) tries to leap over the waves to retrieve her toy, ending up waterlogged and very much like a drowned rat most of the time but doesn't hesitate to go straight back in. Brooks (5kg) will hold her ground as the waves pass, then swim out until the next wave, where she waits for it to pass again. Definitely no fear out of either of them when it comes to the beach, but living with 9 border collies doesn't leave them with a lot of choice :laugh: Here are some photo collage things from a years ago, most of the shots are from the beach.

Link ended up having to wear one for the entire 10 days she was stitched up as she was obsessively trying to pull them out. She was crated at night and during the day while we were at work (something she is used to- its a big crate) and there were no issues at all. I think the idea of them is that they are supposed to be worn at night and when you aren't home :) If they could be trusted unsupervised then they wouldn't need one in the first place!

How much are you putting it up? I've been teaching Shock and retraining Whip on tight turns. We started very low and go up by 2" at a time if they are doing it all perfectly over a period of time. Being a puppy, I have raised Shock by 2" a month, Whip maybe every few weeks as he is already trialling and not generally a bar knocker, he just needs to learn the tightness side of things. Every dog is different, I was supposed to start Shock at 4" but she had no respect for the bar at all and Silvia Trkman advised raising it to 6 (and then 8) so she had to pay more attention to it. That was a few months ago and she has just gone to 12". Whip I started at 10" as he was already full grown and it seemed rather silly to have him doing bars on the ground, I experimented a little until I found the right height to work him on (where he would actually acknowledge the jump while still wrapping tightly). If you jump straight back up to full height then there is a big difference in what their body needs to do to accomplish the task. If you watch a dog tightly wrapping a low jump (that they presumably step over) as opposed to a full height jump (which requires airtime) there are vast differences in what their body needs to do. My advice would be not to rush it, take your time to teach it properly and it will pay dividends in the future.

I second the frozen. I've just finished feeding the zoo and it was an assortment of dinners tonight. 4 of them got a dinner of frozen chicken wings, we freeze them into meal portions in freezer bags to make it easier to serve frozen. Obviously with a puppy you would only be feeding one at a time anyway though. We start our litters off on chicken wings at about 5-6 weeks (thereabouts depending on the puppies and wing availability). We don't feed frozen at that age, although we do keep hold of one end as they eat to stop them gulping too fast. Also a great chance to teach them a "give" and that they will get their food back as long as they allow us to hold it or take it periodically. Not a bad skill to reinforce throughout their puppyhood (and life if need be). By 10 weeks they are eating a frozen wing on their own. Takes them forever with puppy teeth!

Well, the trialling season is once again upon us :) Here are Whip's ADO run and Delta's ADM run on Saturday. I was only just off crutches so Tailwag ran my dogs for me. Hoping the video works, we had technical difficulties on FB for the first little while, then it started working fine so fingers crossed.

I didn't read very far down the list before reaching "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and surprise, surprise there is an icon to say that a pet dies! Great idea though :)

Whip is coming up to 2 years in April since getting the 12month implant. About the 12 month mark his testicles became firm again and there were a few behavioural changes but there has been no change in size as of yet. A month or so ago he was able to free run with a bitch in season and showed no interest in her whatsoever (although his love of the beach would probably overrule anything :laugh: ) He was originally going to be used later this year over Rush, but he seems like he will be a perfect match for Shock (who is only 11months) so Rush will outcrossed and he wont be needed for another few years. Hopefully by the time he is needed everything will be back to normal.

I'd recommend them to anyone. If for no other reason than her incredible ability to pick up on the most subtle things (things I would never in a million years have noticed) that might be stopping you from reaching your potential, and provide you with friendly and easy to follow advice to get it right the next time. Her patience is unbelievable and she has so much time for each individual in her class. I just wish Shock had been a little bit older so I could have got a little more out of the lessons, or in hindsight used Whip as the guinea pig to learn how to teach Shock when she was older. It didn't help that we ran into some ridiculously hot weather in Canberra and there was no way we were going to work the puppies in the heat. We also both suffered major injuries last year which held us back. All in all though, very impressed with the entire experience and would love to do another one of her courses in the future, perhaps one of the handling ones. Or I may even repeat the foundations one and look at doing some of the stuff we didn't get to last time round.

Here is an example. I have been stuck at home for nearly 2 weeks after a nasty knee injury and am going a little stir-crazy (as are the puppies). Given that I can now hobble around a little I wanted to get them outside to get rid of some bugs, without having to really move myself. So, I created a little sequence to show what I was talking about. If I was able to actually move, I would likely handle it slightly differently (more distance, more driving to upright, less exaggerated arms) but very happy with how well both girls knew what I wanted. I was also pleased with how well they sent to the uprights, they did it so confidently that I have no doubt they would have sent just as well if I was further away. I wasn't game enough to try any of the other dogs in case they knocked me, and I was already tiring from this short period of time, but my suspicions are that Delta may have got it from this short distance as she is good at maintaining a parallel path but any further distance and she would take the front approach. She may not have committed to anything though with me hobbling as she pulls off pretty easily without momentum. Charlie would probably be the same. Whip has no regard for a parallel path whatsoever and would likely take me out in his attempts to get the front of the jump. I have started doing the same foundations from the Silvia course with him, but he is not up to that point yet.

I must say that I LOVED the online puppy and foundation course that Silvia Trkman ran. So simple to follow, unlimited videos that you could upload and she always gave great personal feedback to each person. Not once did she ever try to sell anything else, talk about how great the course was, and you were free to get out of it what you wanted. Our pups were pretty much right on 6 months when we started the foundation course (which was the minimum) so we didn't do anywhere near as much as what others were doing. To do so would have involved doing stuff every day and that is something I do not agree with for puppies. So, we just concentrated on one aspect of it (worked out to be 1 or 2 simple play/training sessions every 2 weeks) and ignored anything that wasn't necessary for what we chose to teach at the time, which was sending to tight turns and tunnels. We still have access to all the videos and materials so can revisit it whenever we are ready to for the other skills. At the age of 10 months (and still not anywhere finished with the online course material) these pups have a better understanding of a lot of handling aspects than any other dog in this household. To make it better, it hasn't even been explicitly taught to them (eg they will confidently send to the backside of a jump from anywhere as long as our shoulders point them to it, our other dogs would either need us to run towards it and really keep the line or they would cut across our line to take the front side). That wasn't taught to them, all we taught them was how to wrap an upright tightly :laugh: They just put 2 and 2 together and realised if we were asking for a tight turn and were facing the outside of the upright then they needed to wrap it in the direction that would bring them over it from behind the jump. No more lazy handling for us though :laugh: Gone are the days were we could get away with not giving accurate information and the dogs still saved our arse- if we don't tell them exactly what we want, then they will do what our body tells them we want (even if our head disagrees).

They can actually vaccinate against coronavirus. Its included in the C7 vaccine, along with leptospirosis. My first dog Cody was given a C7 (with me naively believing the vet when she raved on about how much better they were than other vets because they gave the 7 and not the 5). Neither disease is commonly found around Sydney or Canberra so have never given a C7 since. I remember when the lepto/corona vaccine first became available in Australia there was much discussion regarding the combination of the two. WSAVA and AVA class coronavirus vaccine in the "Not Recommended" category. Lepto vaccine, if given should be repeated every 6 months and considering that this is only available in combination with the corona vaccine I think that it's not a good thing to be so frequently injecting an antigen which actually falls within the "not recommended" category. In spite of the WSAVA's recommendations and categorisation of these two vaccines, the manufacturing company still persists in combining these two vaccines..... one that needs to be injected twice a year to be effective and the other that should only be used in exceptional circumstances. One has to ask why ?????? For $$$? Or is that me just being sceptical...

They can actually vaccinate against coronavirus. Its included in the C7 vaccine, along with leptospirosis. My first dog Cody was given a C7 (with me naively believing the vet when she raved on about how much better they were than other vets because they gave the 7 and not the 5). Neither disease is commonly found around Sydney or Canberra so have never given a C7 since.

I put the details on the other thread for my recommendations for titre testing in ACT. Interestingly enough, while my regular vet may not be as knowledgeable on titre testing (hence my decision to use Kate Millhouse at Holistic Paws) she is the first to admit that she doesn't agree with giving dogs a KC vaccine and would prefer people take measures to prevent the spread (eg not allowing your dog to say hello to every other dog at the trial) and to see dog clubs remove communal drinking bowls. We have never had an issue with KC, even when it has been around, however, we also never allow our dogs to drink out of any container that isn't ours, we do not allow anyone else's dog to use our containers, and our dogs don't say hello to other dogs at training, trials etc. We only give an intranasal vacc to puppies and to older dogs who may be weaker and less able to fight it. Oh, and the few dogs that have got pet insurance as at least if they happen to contract it and require vet attention we can claim back on the associated vet costs.

Kate Millhouse at Holistic Paws in Kambah, ACT Holistic Paws website Costs us $60 per dog for parvo/distemper. Sent to vetpath in WA and results are back a few days later. Kate always requests the actual numbers rather than just positive/negative and keeps a database on all dogs to see how their levels are fluctuating over time. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for titre testing in the Canberra region.

I pay $60 per dog for titre testing. It pays to look around, if a vet has an account set up with vetpath that is all it should cost. Some may charge a consult on top but most wont if you ask for just the bloods drawn and tested. I don't like the idea of the heartworm preventative as that is an awful lot of poison to put in their system in 1 hit, particularly puppies. It also contains ivermectin which I would never risk with a border collie. It amazes me the number of vets who don't realise the danger of using ivermectin in breeds that have tested sensitive to it. BCs are only turning out to be about 5% worldwide affected but you just don't know. I remember a few years ago the vet I first went to for titre testing said that they only reason they got people in for annual vaccinations was because otherwise your average pet would go 3 years between checkups and too many early signs of problems were missed as a result. People didn't tend to come in just for an "annual checkup" so they stuck with annual vaccinations as an incentive (even though it was the norm for most vets at that time, she didn't necessarily agree with it).

Puppy vacs and then titre at 14months. Mine have always had the highest level of immunity at this age so I see no reason to give a 12month booster unless a titre test come backs low. Mine always seem to come back with the highest level whenever I test so I only test every 3 years as per the recommendation of my vet. Titre levels don't suddenly drop overnight, its a gradual process (and can go right back up again if exposed to a low dose of the virus). In theory, if they return a positive immunity they should be covered for life, but I still prefer to play it safe and test periodically. ETA: We use interceptor on them every 6-8 weeks. If we are going somewhere with ticks we will use advantix but don't need to treat regularly in Canberra.

We use a variety of slow feeders here. Ours are usually fed bones but do have a few meals out of bowls each week. Out of 11 dogs: - 6 use slow feeders -1 has his smooshed down with yoghurt normally but has a slow feeder for travelling when there is no yoghurt to lick off individual food particles - 1 should have one but the smallest size is too small and the next size up is too big - 3 are perfectly fine with regular bowls. We have 3 different types of slow feed bowl depending on the individual dog. Some have narrow muzzles so need a bowl with smaller gaps, some like to eat their bowl so have hardier made ones, and there are some with $3 cheap shop bowls. Border Collies are not prone to bloating but why take the risk when there is a tool so simple that will slow them down. As puppies they are fed using kongs etc but that isn't always practical with multiple adult dogs as their meals just wont fit in a kong and it would take us forever at dinner time!

Been watching this thread with anticipation. So glad to hear that everyone appears to be doing well :) Time for a bit or a rest for all involved now.