DeltaCharlie

Im in Sydney and someone at one of my clubs has just been given a research grant to look into overimmunisation in dogs. They will be working alongside researchers at Sydney Uni, who will be testing our dogs. Not sure how its going for numbers but I have offered to find her some more Sydney dogs if needed in which case I will let you guys know. I think at this stage there is only Perth and Melbourne that test which is why it is so expensive- they need to send the samples to them for testing. The 3 year vaccination is actually a repackaged 1 year vaccination. There is no difference, however, you have to pay more for it Seems slightly illegal but I dont really know much about the law in that situation.

I dont like the idea of slowing her down with weaves, I have seen too many dogs slowed down to concentrate on accuracy and they never get the speed up after that. Im having this problem with Delta at the moment, she gets so excited about weaving as it is such a highly rewarded obstacle at the moment that she actually nips me to hurry me up. Even at home, so you can imagine how excited she is at training. Basically rather than slowing her down, reinforce what she is doing right. How many does she accurately do before missing them? Delta gets about 6 or 7 before skipping them. So, we are practising with 6 poles at training. It is much better to have her doing 6 accurately with speed than to try to slow her down to make the full 12. When she is doing that accurately I will add another 2 for her to do at speed and so on. If she misses them a few times I will bring it back to 6. Otherwise you are just practising the misses and not reinforcing the success. I had a dog a few years ago that I actually had to bring back to 2 poles for training. Every time he rushed through them in the right way he got his click and treat. Took forever to build up to the 12 at training but when we got there he did it incredibly quickly and it was worth it. Like Delta is now, he would weave quickly and accurately at home every time. But, they need to be taught to do them in a stimulating environment as well. Home gives them the basic idea and background knowledge to help them learn the "brand new obstacle" at training. Like someone else said, it is almost like a completely different obstacle at home and at training. Weaving is basically the only behaviour that has to be learned for a dog, jumping etc is natural. Expect it to take a long time to reinforce the minute details of it.

Wow I just looked at the dates on the original posts. Where on earth did I stumble upon this topic??? Who knows what I was doing, but somehow I ended up finding it and pulling it out of retirement lol.

My treat bags that I take with me to training usually have chopped cabanossi or frankfurts; some little bits of cheese; some dry dog treats (those nature's gifts ones from the supermarket) and some dry kibble stuff. Sometimes I will throw in some bacon pieces or dry water cracker things. I have found that having such a huge variety works really well with any dog. If they know what treat they are going to get then they can choose whether or not they want to work for it. If it is a complete lottery then they are more likely to work because it could be something super wonderful If you only feed that "super wonderful" treat every time then it quickly loses its effectiveness and you need to find another one.

Wow that was a rather confusing course, even for masters. It is hard to tell from the camera angle but some of those turns seemed pretty tight. You both did very well

Mine get all their food frozen coz I never remember to get it out of the freezer in time They have never had a problem with their dinner being cold, they just munch through as per usual. Even the cat is getting used to my laziness and will accept cold food now instead of room temp, wont be long before she just accepts it frozen too lol.

Id go with the others suggestions on bones. I used to feed Delta necks, frames, wings, drumsticks, lamb flaps, lamb offcuts. Basically anything that my older dog would eat, I just expected it to take her longer to get through them at that age. Doesnt mean they cant eat them though. My other suggestion is to freeze them first. Not only will it stop him from being able to swallow them until he has chewed them properly (teaching him safe eating habits) but they will also numb his gums which will help with teething pain.

Chicken mince shouldnt smell, although I have given my dogs some rather gamey mince before (so bad that I refused to thaw it because then Id smell it again) and Ive never had any problems with it. In humans, yes Id worry about salmonella but dogs stomachs can handle meat that is starting to go funny. To be on the safe side though I would avoid it, especially if your dogs arent used to eating proper meat. I would scrap the rice and vegies. Dogs cannot digest the vegies anyway and we now know that grains such as rice arent that great for dogs and can cause problems (up until a few years ago rice was promoted as a really healthy thing for dogs so now nutritionists are frantically trying to re-educate pet owners). Dogs dont need carbohydrates, and the rice is basically a carb overload for their system. Plus, its best not to introduce too many new foods to them at once anyway, dogs stomachs dont handle a great variety like ours do.

I will apologise if I am doubling up on what other people have posted, I only skimmed through the replies. 1. While I refuse to feed my dogs any sort of commercial food, I do know that Science Diet is basically junk and I know a few vets who swear that they would never feed it to their animals. However, they make a lot of money through recommending it. You have to be really careful to watch for where the bias may exist. 2. Cooking the meat destroys some of the valuable nutrients contained within. Freeze it first if you are worried about bacteria- it will destroy bacteria but most nutrients can still survive when frozen. I have been feeding mine raw for a few years now and I have never had a problem with them getting sick. Dogs stomachs are much hardier than a humans. Think about what they have spent the day eating while you are at work- bird poo, insects, etc. Their stomachs can handle a lot. 3. I have to agree with the vet here. I cant for the life of me remember the article that we put in our club newsletter a little while back and I cannot actually remember the important details so you may just have to take my word for it until I can find where I stashed it. Basically there is something that is either added to pet quality, removed from pet quality, not removed from pet but should be... something along those lines. I remember thinking it was okay because mine eat human quality food so I didnt pay that much attention to it sorry. Whatever it was meant that you should only be feeding human quality meat (I really wish I had some idea what I am talking about). A few things that I would like to add. 1. I would never feed raw meat and dry kibble at the same time. Some people do without a problem but Im not willing to take that chance. The kibble is full of preservatives etc and takes a lot longer for the stomach to digest which means that your dog ends up with raw meat sitting in its stomach waiting for the kibble and potentially making your dog sick. 2. Find a cheaper place to buy your meat I get a lot of mine from a store set up near a greyhound track that basically supplies the racing community. He has a butcher contact who supplies him with human quality meat (he has a few families who actually buy lamb flanks from him to eat themselves, despite it being a pet supply place). He usually charges me about $10 for 10 kilos of beef mince and about half a dozen duck carcasses. There is a chicken store near liverpool that I pass on my way home from work that sells chicken mince for 50c a kilo and 5kg bags of chicken carcasses/wings/drumsticks/necks for about $2. I get my chicken hearts and livers from there too for about a dollar a kilo. Just ask around and Im sure you will find some good places. You would be surprised what butchers are basically giving away. 3. I would be wary about going with everything that your vet tells you. They honestly believe that they are giving the best advice but have a look at who sponsors their uni courses- the dog food companies. So of course they are taught that commercial food is the best option. When I go to the vet they always comment on how incredibly healthy my animals look but when they ask I tell them I feed them "mainly dry food, some rice and egg occassionally". My dogs never get dry food (except as a treat, they go crazy for it at training), grains like rice arent particularly healthy for them so I never feed it to them. They do get a lot of eggs and yoghurt though. I gave up a long time ago trying to argue with my vet about the best nutrition for my pets. They compliments I am constantly receiving and the instant improvement I saw was proof enough for me.