Tassie

I used to have Polaramine - for myself and the dogs - no problems. Last year I asked my vet what would be a good OTC anti-histamine to have on hand for the dogs (Border Collies) and he recommended Phenergan in the 10mg dose.

Hey Noels - big congrats on that result for you and the lovely Kiss. My little Miss Kirra got the 2 passes she needed for her Gamblers Dog title last weekend, and got a Masters jumping pass, and had a couple of very near misses. I'm pleased with my little demon bitch. Ness - you must have been pleased with your girl's work in the UD ring - sound very promising.

Yes - we had a good day the last tracking trial of last year's season, when both my BCs, and their BC friend Mollie, got their Tracking Dog titles. That was a real buzz. I have to learn to trust my Fergus - and I somehow have to persuade Kirra that, unlike agility, tracking does not have to be done at warp speed!! Sorry, I don't know who TasDog host with - but I think if you emailed the webmaster at their club email address, he'd be happy to provide the info.

Hi Helen - Here's a Tasmanian one to get you started - TasDog. I think if you go to the State control sites - like Dogs Victoria, you should be able to follow links out to some of their affiliated clubs. Is this to fill in your time after your gorgeous puppies go to their new homes .

The things you see when you haven't got a camera :rolleyes: But even without having met Ollie dog, Icould just imagine this. Fingers crossed and all good wishes for you and your family, and of course the famous Ollie.

Hi Andrea Yes, I'm here :D . There's no tracking club as such here, but there are a couple of informal groups - one running out of Hobart Canine Obedience Club and one out of Tas Dog Training Club in Launceston. If you can pop up to the Domain some Sunday afternoon, a few of us there can show you some ways of getting started. Have a look on the net too, there's some useful stuff there. As usual in any sort of dog training, there are different methods and schools of thought - what a surprise . ETA - Hi Helen and Ness

Advice on the obedience test - most judges will keep it fairly simple and short , as it is primarily to see (a) that the dog is under some sort of control and (b) that at the end of the test it still has its brain in working order - or at least working as well as it was before. ETA even though you have the option to do it off lead, it's safer to do it on lead. As far as training goes, it's illegal in Tas too to ride a bike with a dog on a public road - and you can't take dogs on the main bike path in Hobart. However, you can sometimes find parks with trails through them where you can make up a circuit - we had one about 1.5k round trip - and gravel, which was good, and we also had a bike path and a road which was usually closed off - about 3km round trip - bitumen and concrete and grass. As far as speed goes, the test has to be completed within 2 hours riding time - but be aware that the judge may instruct the pacesetter to take the first leg out somewhat faster than the 10kph average, to get a bit of time in hand for unforseen circumstances - like gale force winds and sleet as we had down here a couple of years ago when my dogs and I did ET . So in training, it's handy to work up to the dogs being comfortable at about 13-14 kph for at least part of the time. Then you have no worries. Just remember to allow plenty of training time to build up fitness (handler and dog) and toughen up paws (dog) and bum (handler).

Way to go Jasper dog. Keep it up, boyo.

Poor old Ollie dog - and poor you. But it does sound promising that the a/bs seem to be taking effect. Hopefully they'll kick in more pretty soon. He's a real tough fighter isn't he - must get it from his mum. Best wishes.

Ack! Poor Warrnambool! What a bummer, after having to cancel the whole Sunday at the back to back in November because of howling gales and freezing rain! That's a shame for them - they're such lovely folks and put on a great trial.

Anna, if you can get hold of a copy of the book Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt you might find the game "Look at that" helpful. It is a clicker training based book, and would be more effective with clicker training, but would work without. The idea is that the dog is clicked for looking at another dog, and being clicker savvy, will then immediately refer back to the handler for a treat/reward. Thus, the presence of another dog (at a distance, at afirst) becomes a good thing, reducing stress all round. There are other 'games' in the book which you might find helpful/fun with 'Miss Independent' , and will be stuff for you to do with her while she's recuperating.

Agree - vet visit indicated, sooner rather than later, and I'd be asking for a full blood chemistry panel. Even if it doesn't show anything abnormal, it's still useful to have as a baseline for the future. And no, that's not normal for a 4 ish yo Border Collie.

I'm lucky to have a girl who loves to do agility, so I usually enter everything in standard trials - ADM/JDM/JDO/ADO - so in a double/double, that's 8 runs a day - like last Saturday - although I did pull out of one ADO run half way through as it was going to hell in a handbasket . I do 16 in a back to back standard weekend. My fitness is certainly not what it could be - but I'm working on it, and luckily my girl handles well at a distance, if Ikeep my brain engaged. Like others, I find having to remember more than one course at a time tricky - though I guess that would get better with more practice. Our trials are so small down here, we normally don't have to walk more than one at a time. In games, I run SPDX and Novice Gamblers - my handling and course analysis is not up to Snooker, and I end up confusing the dog - last thing I need to do! Now, if I ever get enough impulse control on my mad Fergus to run him as well ...... OK, I'll need to get to the gym more often.

Chelsea's Mom - the very fact that you're aware of an issue, and thinking and planning ahead, means you're part way there. Good advice here. Just one more thing - which I've heard advised, but haven't actually trained .... and that is, to train the dog to accept that you being nervous and having the lead under tension is actually a good, not a scary thing. This one is based on the idea that sometimes we just can't help ourselves getting uptight, so it is a good idea to 'proof' our dogs against this - heavily reward when we hold the lead tight. I like the theory, and maybe if you visualize an attack, you could get the adrenaline flowing in you so that you can heavily reward Chelsea. Obviously, this sort of proofing is done initially at home. Another piece of advice from an overseas trainer at a seminar, was to sing to our dogs as we walk along, if we feel ourselves getting nervous and hypervigilant, or recite nursery rhymes, or tell our dogs lovely stories of when they were puppies - anything to enable us to keep our feelings under control, and our breathing calm and regular. Seems to me that can't hurt - don't know about your dog, but mine like me telling them stories like that. Best wishes to you all.

i-click for me (but I must admit I haven't tried the triple crown - except the one that's built into the handle of my target stick.) I like the i-click because it's easier to hold the treats in the same hand - and the food dowsn;t get stuck in the clicker .

I'm sorry to hear of your boy's diagnosis - although in some ways it's better to know exactly what you're dealing with - then you can plan. Sounds like it's a very good thing that you're able to have him evaluated by the oncologist so quickly - again, it enables you to build up a clear plan. A friend went through this with one of her Border Collies a few years ago. Chemo was successful in giving her girl quite a long time of good quality. And I do remember her saying that the dog had no problems with the chemo - in other words, it doesn't seem to be as dire for dogs as it can be for people. From the experience of other friends, I would certainly be discussing combination therapies. It's such a shock when you get a seriouis diagnosis apparently out of the blue in what had looked like a fit dog. I had it with hemolytic anemia in my previous Border Collie boy. So there are lots of us here who can imagine what you're feeling - plenty of good advice, and plenty of shoulders when you need them. Good luck to you and your lovely Jasper.

Good that Spanky's feeling better. Let's hope it's all over. If he has trouble again, you should consider asking for a referral to a board certified veterinary orthopedic specialist. Could be expensive - could need X-rays and maybe MRI.

My guys have enjoyed swimming at both Dogs in Motion and Devon Meadows, when we've been over on the mainland. As was said, Devon Meadows has a couple of advantages - the dogs are swimming at human waist level, so it's a bit easier on their necks, I feel, and more importantly, they're working both sides of their bodies. The one at Diggers Rest might be closer for you. I was lucky enough to go there with a DOL group last Christmas. Really super facility - and again, dogs are swimming at waist level. Here's the link Kepala. It's just off the Calder Freeway, near the Calder Raceway.

Haven't read the puppy thread, so this might have been suggested. I would be having her trail the leash (a very light one) around inside the house - and then, maybe just before meal time, or something interesting like that, I would be picking up the lead quietly, as she moves to get her meal/toy or whatever exciting thing that is. the theory behind this is that you holding the lead means very good things for puppies. If she's food oriented, I would hold the leash, throw a hig value piece of food, and 'race' her to the food. Make it a high energy game. Life we said in realtion to going to the vet, if you're stressed, she will pick up on that. If you have a friend with a safe back yard, I'd be playing these sorts of games there too. The sooner you get it through to 'little miss princess' that she is a dog, and you as the human actually get to call the shots, the happier you and she will be. She sounds an extremely smart little dog - as Cavs are, so you're going to need to be one jump ahead of her. Loving a dog IMHO doesn't mean just cuddling and babying her, it means encouraging her to learn how to be a lovely companion dog in the world she's going to be living in. Going to puppy kinder, and following up with other puppy classes, and maybe going on to the sorts of dog sports that Cavs can excel in, is a great way to do this.

Glad that she did OK at the vet. Just a couple of things - As has been suggested to you, I would follow up on this vet visit with a number of visits to the vet surgery - to weigh her, and just to let people love her - especialy while she's cute. I've done this with my dogs - and still take my 6 year old BCs in every 3 weeks or so - to weigh them on the scales in the waiting room, and also just to keep them happy about being there. (Obviously I choose my times when the waiting room is not too full.) Most vet surgery staff are happy with you doing this - it helps them in the long run, because it means they have less stressed out clients - canine and human. Keep up the car trip stuff - lots of short, happy trips - take her if you're going to the shops for anything - take her to places she likes to go. The idea of your fiance taking her in the car to pick you up was brilliant. Just like with the vet office - you're trying to build up a very happy association - car = great things happening for dogs. On the calming signals - they are calming not in the sense of calming a dog down from being crazy with fun - that's a different thing - something you have to enforce with a "That'll do" or something like that, and getting the pup to be quiet - rewarding for calm behaviour like lying on a mat - maybe with a chew toy. It's really important for you to help a pup find her off switch. The calming signals that Turid Rugaas is talking about are more 'placating' signals - when the dog is stressed/worried/anxious - originally about other dogs - but can also be about situations and/or handler behaviour. They are signals designed to 'turn down' the level of stress/arousal of another dog - like saying "I'm not a threat" - so you woud only expect to see any reaction from your dog to you yawning, if the dog was in an anxious situation. It's like turning sideways on and avoiding eye contact when approaching a shy/uncertain dog. Anyway - hopefully you'll be less stressed now that you know Izzy coped fine with her first vet visit. Good job.

Owww - PF, how ever did you do that. What a total bummer. That will certainly put the lid on yur agility for a while. Here's hoping you follow instructions, and that it will mend quickly and well. You'll be glad to know we still have our start line stay - well, with Kirra anyway - Fergus is a work in progress. That was such a painful process - for me, and I'm sure for everyone else - but it was worth it - and the pain of acruiring it certainly made me more likely to work to maintain it. And although our trial season hasn't started yet, in training, I'm still doing "Handler's quickest course, dog's most efficient line". I went with another friend from here to the Stacy Peardot-Goudy seminar at Jugiong in January - very, very hot, but I loved it - and it was really interesting in that (luckily) there wasn't really anything that conflicted with what I'd learnt with JW. Now - if someone could only fix my spatial awareness and memory problems .....

Two Border Collies here - Fergus (Dellhousie Mr Kyte) TD ET and Kirra (Khayoz Sweet Soul Music) HIT ADX JDX JDO SPD TD ET and 2/5 ADO, 1/3 GD, 2/7 JDM, 1/7 ADM. So you can see where my goals for this year are - something (anything ) in obedience with Fergus, as well as more tracking, and more tracking and agility/jumping with Kirra. to Poodlefan, Ness, Helen, and Sharon - and good luck and good work to everyone for this year.

Good grief, PAX! Well, maybe we don't need all that much rain - but some would be nice. There was a bit in December, but virtually nothing since just before Christmas - 0.2mm so far this month. Forecast for today was rain periods - yeah, right - at least it's been overcast today. Some rain periods are forecast for tomorrow, too, but I'm not holding my breath. My 'lawn' crunches underfoot, and my guys get sore pads from sharp pieces of dry grass! It'll probably rain tomorrow when I'm right in the middle of taking puppy class .

Hi Noels You'll be great doing a demo - what's that saying "Just do it"! (I'd love to see a vid of it.) Yep, there is a good tracking group down here - but only 4 trials a year . Both my guys do tracking - had a nice last trial of the year, when both Fergus and Kirra got their TD on the same day - that was a buzz. I learnt that I really have to trust Fergus - and since you guys have met my goofy boy, you know how hard that is - but I'm going to do it this year. And I need to convince Kirra that tracking is not the same as agility - it does not have to be performed at warp speed! Thanks for the extra tip about the trick bucket. Cheers -

Levi, here's the link for Camp Tailwaggers (aka Coolangatta Pet Motel) Camp Tailwaggers . Go to the side bar and you'll find the up coming seminars. Camp Tailwaggers is where I met the other 3 lovely ladies - hi girls . It's a super place, and I would love to be going to something there this year, but it's just soooo far away from me. Too far for a weekend, really. :D And anyway, I've already blown part of my 'seminar budget' doing the 4 day Stacy Peardot-Goudy workshop in Jugiong - money very well spent, and didn't stretch the budget too far, as I piggy-backed it onto the Christmas rellie-visiting trip to the mainland. MrsD, that tricks class sounds great. And Noels, I love the idea of a trick out of a bucket. Do you mind if I pinch that for my puppy class? Oh, and by the way, can we have some of our rain back please :D - it's dry as chips here. Not a drop for weeks.