DeltaCharlie

just Google holistic paws in Kambah. Kate Millhouse is her name

While my regular vet would administer the test for me and is happy enough to do so, her understanding of them is not actually that great. I came down from Sydney with a pretty good knowledge of titre testing through attending seminars with Dr Jean Dodds from the US etc, and realised quickly that the knowledge base down here is severely lacking. My vet has referred to it as "a snapshot of a dog at a particular time" which isn't exactly true. Levels don't suddenly fluctuate overnight and high levels certainly do not require retesting yearly as she recommends. It was also pretty expensive to use her as she doesn't have a vetpath account (would have been about $200 per dog). So instead, I went with the holistic vet in Canberra. She is incredibly knowledgeable about titre testing, its only $60 per dog, and the results are back within about 3 days. My regular vet was perfectly accepting of them being tested and when she asks each year for their status I just tell her they are still high. I will likely get them retested every 3 years, just to be sure given how much they are exposed to, however they theoretically are covered for life.

We use interceptor only (and not regularly, but we do need to be mindful of heartworm and being on a property they have access to lots of wild dead things at times). I have never treated for fleas and have never had a problem with them either. Even bringing home foster dogs covered in them, my dogs still never got them. Someone suggested once that it's because they are on a raw diet and the fleas like the preservatives from commercial food but not sure how much truth is in that. We only use tick prevention if we travel to a tick area.

11 dogs, 2 of them like to curl up somewhere dark during storms and would likely panic if outside in them. The other 9 couldn't care less.

This is Whip's ADX run from the state titles last weekend. I still have a long way to go as far as my handling of him goes, and I am retraining his understanding of tight turns, but I was so proud of his effort given we have done no trialling or training since June. Everything is really starting to click for him, and he is really maturing nicely now :) I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

My understanding is that if the vet has set up an account with vetpath it should be around the $60-70 mark, if they havrnt then its a lot more. I think its free to set up an account though... DOLer stormie is much more knowledgeable on it all though. I was going to drive to Sydney to get her vet practice to test mine last time they needed it as it was going to work out cheaper than the vets in Canberra. Then another DOLer mentioned a holistic vet in Canberra that titres. You may find that it works out cheaper to go to a different vet for the titre. I have never used my regular vet as it is too expensive and not worth the hassle of trying to change the opinion of a professional :) so I just go elsewhere to have the blood drawn. Vetpath are very good, mine were done late Tuesday (7pm) and I had the results emailed to me by the vet by Saturday. Get the vet to request the levels though, they have started to just give a pass/fail type result which doesn't give a lot of info. Saying a dog has immunity could mean it is 1:5 (lower than I would like for show/performance dogs) or it could be >1:80 (which is as high as you can get). Knowing the actual level allows you to make a more informed decision about whether or not to revaccinate.

I don't actually see how that would work The point of the 16 week vaccination is in case the pup still had mum's immunity at 12 weeks. I'm not sure how giving a double dose (which IMO is a ridiculously large amount in one hit for a little body to handle) would get past the issue of lingering maternal antibodies. By 16 weeks mum's immunity should be gone, and therefore won't cancel out the vaccination. Perhaps the vet is referring to the nobivac 10 week finish vaccine? It is the latest one and is supposed to eradicate mum's immunity completely allowing for earlier socialisation. The experts on overvaccinating (namely Dr Jean Dodds) warns against it due to the high quantity of vaccine being injecting in one hit, and the problems that can arise from it, some of which won't necessarily present until old age (compromised immune system etc). One of the pups from our last litter had the 10 week finish vaccine, was then titre tested 3 weeks later to test immunity and came back as having none at all. She ended up needing a normal C5 afterall.

I just love the line: So true :laugh:

Loved reading this article. It is so easy for us to make excuses for lazy handling and I am certainly guilty of not trusting my dog enough, watching them land, then trying to beat them to the next obstacle (much to their frustration). Busting the myth- too slow for your dog

We have 11 dogs, yet we still take ours to puppy preschool. Even our last litter went to school (we kept 2 pups) and they have 9 other dogs at home to learn off, were at trials most weekend, and we are experienced trainers ourselves. You can't beat a well run puppy school and I really hope you can find one. We are lucky that our vet runs a really good one and it has the added benefit of making the vets a happy place right from the start. Good luck with the search :)

How much ground work did you find you needed to do? By that I mean how long have you had to spend teaching her what the stride regulators mean and how to actually accelerate along the plank rather than slow down given that she previously had a stopped contact? That is the one hold up I have in my mind. If I do decide to retrain Charlie I want to do it properly which means accelerating down the down ramps etc rather than just running through them. He isn't a dog that accelelerates easily, he prefers to just maintain a pace, so I am not sure how well he will go given he is used to decelerating down the ramp if that makes sense? Are you introducing turns off the contact before you put her on full height or are you going to teach that later? Sorry if I am being a pain but just curious to know how other people do it :) As far as judging goes, so long as you are watching the contact zone rather than the dog you should be able to get a fair distance from it. A lot of people get caught up with watching the dog rather than just looking for anything to strike the contact zone. You see it in flyball too, when judging close crossovers you should be looking at the ground where the dogs meet rather than the dogs themselves, otherwise it is inaccurate as they are moving too bloody fast :laugh: the contact zone (and grass for flyball) don't move so they are the objects to fix your gaze on :)

I have considered doing an online course (probably Silvia's as I like the way she runs hers) and completing it with Charlie. She gives about 4-6months as a guideline, depending on dog and handler. He isn't as fast as any of the others and would be easier to judge, and it would give me the experience and knowledge if I wanted to do it with a future pup. He was trained on a 2o2o but one of the things I identified as a stressor for him was anything that interrupted the flow. I stopped insisting on a stop and got myself a much happier dog :) I had pretty much pulled him out of agility until recently so didn't bother doing anything about his contacts and they are now a bit "hope and pray". Probably at about 85-90% accuracy which I can handle given I had retired him multiple times over the years for not wanting to be out there. So long as he is happy, then so am I :) Both Delta and Whip have such rocksolid 2o2o performances (even if they are a long way from what I would deem a perfect performance) that I wouldn't want to mess with that. Plus, I like that I can regather my thoughts out there if need be. Having stopped contacts for me means I can break a course into short sequences and don't get myself into such a fluster :laugh:

I thought a correctly taught running contact was an average of 6 months to perfect? Ideally, with no trialling on contact equipment in the meantime. Shows what I know :laugh: What method are you using to teach it? I'd love to experiment with running contacts one day, unfortunately there are not enough judges around who can accurately judge it on a really quick dog so I'm not sure I want to go down that track just yet. At least 2o2o is black and white to a judge.

Looks like the ones we use too :) They are great, very sturdy and well made.

Kate Millhouse at Holistic Paws in Kambah is the only vet I have been able to find that will titre for a reasonable price ($60 total per dog). Everywhere else is about $200 per dog. I was shocked moving down here from Sydney at just how close minded most vets down here seem to be. As far as raw feeding is concerned, I have never had a vet question it. Simply stand your ground, say your dog does well on it and you don't see any reason to change what works for you both. Like I said though, I've never been questioned by a vet. Our regular performance vet is Sandra Hassett at the animal medical centre in Phillip. She is also a chiropractor, a behaviourist, and a very good diagnostic vet.

Only if you make it obvious :D You could be hosing out the cobwebs from the top of the fence and happen to miss, sending water skybound :p Just kidding... If it was me, I would be restricting my dogs access to the area. Apart from the fact that you could land yourself in trouble if he gets out again and the person isn't considerate enough to return him, he obviously isn't comfortable with everyone who walks past and in all fairness to him I wouldn't be making him feel like he is in the position where he has to react. Colourbond fences make things so much worse in that respect as the dog has no visual cues to rely on and can only go on sound and scent, which can heighten their anxiety as someone walks past. I would reduce the issue by keeping him away from that area with some sort of internal fence, or better yet, a dog run. Good luck :)

I've always titre tested at 14 months and they have always come back with highest levels of protection and haven't required the first year booster. So mine just have the puppy shots, then titre 12 months later. If they were low I would of course vaccinate but haven't needed to on any of them yet.

Don't be fooled by that. One of ours had the nobivac 10-week shot thinking that would be all she would need. It completely eradicated maternal immunity but didn't take effect itself leaving the puppy with absolutely no immunity whatsoever (took titre levels to see how it was going). She ended up needing to have the protech vaccinations after all. I am not a fan of the nobivac vaccine, that is an awful lot of vaccination to be putting into a little body in one hit. Think about it, it is a high enough dose to override maternal antibodies- that is a pretty potent amount! To give it to a dog after already giving it other vaccinations is just asking for trouble IMO. I can dig out what Dr Jean Dodds said in response to the nobivac vaccine if you like. She is considered a pioneer in vaccination protocols and preventing the overvaccinating of pets. Even she still recommends the protech shot at 9,12, 16 weeks.

I'm keen :) what are the details?

There is no option for both full height and weesaw height in your poll so can't complete it :)

I got part way through the article before I stopped reading, so forgive me if they did address this. What some people don't realise is that different vets make up their costs with different things. Some provide cheaper surgeries but more expensive general consults and regular things like vaccinations. Others charge more for surgeries but everyday things are cheaper. Then you get other vets who make quite a bit of a profit off the sale of dog food, flea treatments etc (through more promotion or simply demographic) and can afford to offer cheaper services. After hours vets are not only having to pay extra in wages for the hours they are open, but they also do not usually sell any dog food etc and need to make their money through the vet care they provide.

I personally could think of nothing worse than a boisterous young lab in a family expecting a placid dog that won't knock over the children...

As far as vet based ones I cannot recommend the Animal Medical Centre at Phillip highly enough. Our pups graduated from there last night and it was a very positive experience for everyone. It is run by Sandra Hassett, who is not only a well respected vet and chiropractor, but is also a behaviourist, a breeder and competes in a variety of sports with her own dogs. We are members of BDOC so tossing up whether or not to register our pups in the upcoming classes too. Ours are a little older (17.5 weeks).

Oh, and I took my tablet with the signs, explanations, and rules saved on there for quick reference :)

We are about to have our 2nd ever Rally trial on Sunday. I had no idea what to expect at our first one but everyone was so helpful and the judge took the time to explain things for us and make sure we were walking the course correctly. Oh, and if the lead gets tangled in your dog just untangle them at the next opportunity (next time you halt etc). Tailwag wasn't sure so Sweep did a number of stations with his leg caught in a lead until she could untangle him (not that he even broke stride so it didn't matter too much).