Luke W

Barkly needed surgery to remove a rubber toy he'd eaten several months earlier. Get well soon Nix!!!!!!!

Just came across this thread! Nice shots for camera phones!! Way of the future :) I rarely drag out the big guns nowadays and mostly take shots on my iPhone 5. I can't help myself though - my good shots mostly get edited but I now do it all in phone. I have quite a few apps for photo editing... And, Barkly bought me an iPad for Christmas so I'll start doing editing on that! Here's a couple taken over the least week:

Update please! :)

I'll play this game :) Barkly Agility trial much more than I did this yearGet his ADM and JDM titles [*]Start trialling in RallyO Aiming for RA [*]Start Trialling in Obedience Aiming for CDX In summary - turn Elspan Barkly Blue JDX ADX >>>>> Elspan Barkly Blue JDM ADM RA CDX (yes, I'm overly fond of titles ) New Puppy Lots and lots of awesome agility foundation work Start obedience and RallyO triallingAiming for CD and RN before 12 months old Me Stop taking my eyes off Barkly in agility runs Become a better trainer, handler and instructor Go to lots of trials with Emma and the gang Make more use of the tent and camping gear! Enjoy weekends away trialing Aim high I say! (The hardest is going to be getting Emma in a tent occasionally)

OMG I could have written this post. I've had an interesting dog ownership life - my first dog now lives with my ex (much to my dismay, he's my phone background and it HURTS seeing him even regularly cos I just want him around 24/7, I adore him), my second - and heart - dog was a hoarder/farmer rescue and was PTS due to multiple health issues and dementia after 2 beautiful years. It's taken me almost 2 years to bond with my current dog, and that only really happened when I got dog number 4, who has made me realise all of Scooter's strong points and just compliments him so beautifully. edit: ummm, this is Panzer Attack. Oops.

Ps. When he arrived, his lead walking skills were zero. Today, after some encouragement, he was almost perfect! A lovely position right next to Emma.

I'll come back to this thread when we have settled in with our new little (Rudy the Lost Dogs Home cavalier!! We couldn't help ourselves :) ) and we're ready to foster again!

Thought I'd chime in!! This is going to be an interesting and fun experience. Not to mention a great learning experience for us! Taking an 18 month old dog, with no training, from nothing to a dog who gets agility and jumping masters titles (). So here we are, the beginning of a record of little Rudy's exploits - complete with training pics and hopefully some videos! Agility foundation won't start till next year - so that's a couple of months to get off-lead reliability and a good recall. It should also be enough time to start to find what really motivates him and to start classically condition some toy drive. We could also start on some back-end awareness (although he can already walk backwards!) and targeting I guess. Knowing the little guy just a little myself :).... While he is food motivated, it's not a huge 'drive'...he takes food very gently and doesn't sprint after it. I'm thinking that throwing super-tasty, easily seen (cooked chicken breast) treats while running (throwing ahead) and doing circle work would be a good idea. Building a desire for toys - clicker, motivating food and a slowly, slowly approach! Back and forth recalls also seem to be an exciting activity and might build up some speed while keeping things super fun! I'm thinking we should hold off on static exercises for a while (sits, stays, downs, etc), until he gets the hang of fun training. The static exercises are easy to teach after he's starting to be excited about training. Interested to hear other thoughts!!!! This is going to be a good thread to show what you train and what you achieve. Emma - I'm sure your going to turn little Rudy into a superstar!

Meet Rudy (formally Stewie) the Cavalier, everyone :)

We have been looking at minis but having absolutely no luck with breeders.

Hi guys :) I've decided it's time to take advantage of my circumstances and take on a needy foster dog. I live half alone and half with the gf in Mt Waverley with Barkly (4 years desexed male Cocker). Scooter is here sometimes but he's on strict crate rest for the next couple of months so will not be interacting with the dog at all. I work from home, gf is a vet nurse and groomer. Our yard is huge and securely fenced, we are obviously both quite dog savvy. I'm looking for a dog that preferably is small - medium, pref not a bull breed as gf only weighs 50kg and will be doing a lot of the exercising. House-checks are fine, and landlord is ok with dogs. Anyway, if there's anything I can help with, drop me a PM. Cheers!!

That is assuming she gets any sleep in the first place I haven't received papers at the time of pick up either. If you have no knowledge of the breeder/breed you might want to check with DogsVic today that the breeder is actually registered. Good Idea Jules... Just checked with DogsVic...prefix checks out and both the sire and dam (different prefixes) are both registered with DogsVic...

Cool. Puppy will be 8 weeks old on Sunday - so I'm guessing the papers won't have been sent off by then. I'm not even sure if they've been named yet.

That's a nice supply sparky... I provided my friend with Before and After you get Your Puppy (Ian Dunbar) and a puppy pen. Yesterday we bought a couple of Kongs, a chew toy, a collar and lead and a hard crate. She's already got bedding and soft toys, food and water bowl etc, etc. It's my friends first dog - so I'm trying to help her give it the best start she can. As you can imagine she's getting lots of conflicting information: "puppy pens and crates are cruel", "it needs lots of vegetables"...a a few others.

I'll be helping my friend settle in when she gets the pup home :) Setting up the puppy-pen, showing her how to stuff a kong, setting her alarm for 3am toileting.... :D Thanks for the tips... The dog comes with a 'puppy pack' - I assume they'll give us some food - but I'll be sure to ask about diet and routine. I'll also ask for a blanket or a toy or something from it's current sleeping quarters. I'm always scared about not getting the papers. It's a bull breed (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) so I don't want my friend to ever come close to having to deal with BSL laws.

Hi Guys Quick question...I'm going with a friend to pick up her new puppy on Sunday. She's never had a pure-bred dog before and it's been a while since I got mine. I've put together a list of things (certificates and such) we need to make sure we receive: pedigree papers - transfer signed on rear microchip certificate - transfer signed on rear vaccination and worming certificate copy of L2-HGA & HC Clear by Parentage certificate Anything else? Thanks.

According to their website, there's also Bulla (Monday nights) - no intake assessment until 2013. ADCV (Altona) doesn't have a website at the moment - so it's a bit hard to find info on them. If you're out Altona way - drop me a PM.

Enabler. Just ordered.

I have the two Dunbar books, "Before you get your puppy" and "After you get your puppy" as PDFs and give them to anyone who asks me for advice on their new puppy. My other favs have already been mentioned.

Didn't you do the puppy class at Croydon? We do all that stuff in that class. A couple of the lessons are walking around the streets. We do stopping at curbs out on the road. Recalls up at the local school. Ok I haven't taken a real dead possum for the leave it class but I tell them that is why we are teaching it! I didn't do puppy school at Croydon - started in basic 1. Sounds good though. Maybe that sort of stuff should be in basic 1 as well.

http://www.southsidedogschool.com/ I haven't been there for a few years. We used to actually take the dogs for a walk off the grounds to proof road crossings and stuff!

This isn't really answering the question but I'd like to see some classes that focus less on what seems to be an introduction to formal obedience trialling and more on 'manners'. Things like stays, real loose lead walking, recalls, food refusal, stopping at curbs, leave it, spit it out, that sort of stuff. In real life scenarios, not the unreal environment of a big open expanse at an obedience club. A formal recall on an empty oval doesn't necessarily translate to a recall from a smelly dead possum while on a casual walk in an off-lead park. Perhaps I'm just asking for some solid instruction on 'proofing', with an opportunity to practice under the guidance of an instructor. To many classes are spent in the sterile environment of a local oval. The closest I've seen to this sort of instruction was a club in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. Almost entirely Delta trainers.

Barkly is a terrible eat anything dog. The most notable episodes were: A mosquito coil (still burning) sitting under a table at a holiday house (lots found in his stomach contents) A nicotine patch (not mine)...well, as far as I can tell, he didn't actually eat it, but I thought he did (nothing found in his stomach contents)

All training requires you to watch the dog... A scat mat? You got me there - but a scat mat is poor training. I would almost consider it management. I used something similar to a scat mat initially on our dalmatian and she just learnt to jump around it. Teaching the dog not to jump onto any bench, or any sofa is a much better way of training. How would you train it without an e-collar?

Good job - the radio didn't quite fit did it :)