wuffles

Check out the rear end awareness Also at 2:47 there is a great example of a conditioned response... the middle dog is already sitting, but sees the sit command and goes to sit again

One sleeps in the lounge on his own bed, the other in our bedroom usually under our bed. She's allowed up when it's cool enough.

Our dog club has a "library" of books and DVDs that members can borrow. Don't know if anyone else's has the same?

Great pics and videos, is there anything better than watching dogs get new toys??? :D Can't wait until mine arrives.

Hahahhahahaha, classic pic! That needs to be submitted to a competition somewhere :p

What a lovely happy dog! Thanks for posting, something to aspire to

You'll just have to wait until May and see them on the prize table at the Gundog Club's agility trial Ava might win you another bag and slip lead! With the way she is treating agility at the moment I think we may get the prize for entertainment value rather than achievement. Is there one of those? I tried going through the toy box last week to get rid of some of the old/broken/unloved ones and make way for the new. The first one I found that I thought could go in the bin has somehow become a prized possession again, now I can't bring myself to chuck it.

Mine wasn't posted until the 21st so I will have something to look forward to in the new year :D People should post pics of what they got! Lots of soft toys coming our way, plus a bunch of cheap toys like the Kong ball on rope that I can hopefully give away to people in my obedience classes. And a bag for me, and a bowl, and a slip lead...

Also have a look into the requirements to actually start flyball, some clubs may require you to do some obedience first, or go on a waiting list. I'm at BDOC on the northside so can't be much help, sorry!

It's only in Excellent so heaps of time! ;) It's the hardest one for me, too. Ava will backup away from me but with me is a different matter. We'll get there. Also the moving stand, walk around the dog (without pausing) will be interesting. The one I've found surprisingly difficult is the front, back 1 step, 2 steps, 3 steps. In the start Ava really wanted to swing her bum around towards heel position after the first step. I already knew from obedience that I had some work to do on fronts, so this has encouraged me to work on it, and I think we are pretty much there In January I have a Rally-O trial one night and an Open obedience trial the next night, so it will be interesting to see if it affects our performance in any way.

True, and I guess that's why I asked as I'm sure I'll have another like that in the future sometime! She did learn to chill pretty quickly, but she needed *something* to take the edge off before settling down. We did heaps of training and play and would put her in the crate with a chewy but I still felt like she was happiest when out and about. Once she was vaccinated I'd walk her to the oval (2 mins walk), have a bit of a play then just sit with her and watch everything that was going on - that was probably the thing that worked the best for us. The 5 minutes per month of age worked ok for us for on leash exercise, but she was still Little Miss Destructive when we went to work.

What does everyone do with pups who are simply full of beans ALL the time? My girl wanted to be out and about exploring the world, training did not tire her out.

Mine was neutered at 11 months but her coat didn't go fluffy. Guess I was just lucky. The only spot she collects things is on the back of her hocks where the fur is actually "fuzzy". We were very close to getting a puli, the coat care itself didn't bother me but drying would have been a problem I worried about it raining when we were at work, coming home to a dog that'd been wet all day, then having to put the dryer on it for an hour

My Aussie runs through grass seeds every day, she rarely collects any at all! Her coat is soft, with a slightly harsher outer layer and soft but not huge undercoat.

I LOVE the look of the Komondor. Too much dog for me, but I think they are just stunning. I love the look of the Bergamasco as well, call me crazy.

My 7 year old muttley still digs. He loves it! Thankfully my younger girl isn't interested, she just chews everything instead. I do understand you, but unfortunately despite my girl getting a number of rotated toys during the day, she can still be destructive. She's just turned 2 and is finally getting better so hang in there. As far as treat toys go, in my experience the best ones have been: Busy Buddy Range. - Squirrel Dude. Is really hard to get the treats out, so only works if your dog is very persistent. My girl throws it constantly against the concrete, it entertains her for ages (we call it the "pok pok" because when we leave for work that's all we can hear ) - Twist and Treat. This has adjustable levels of difficulty but for kelpies you will probably need to make it as hard as possible like I do. I put different sized kibble/biscuits/food in here and close it as tightly as possible. - Bouncy Bone. Both my dogs LOVE this, it's one where you can put rawhide on both ends. I'd recommend the big one, we have medium and they destroyed it pretty quickly. Buster Cube. My girl LOVES this but I find it's not that difficult for her. She still pushes it around for 5 minutes though and whinges when it's being prepared so that's not too bad. Plastic bottles. The bigger the better (eg. juice bottles). Put some kibble in the bottom and screw the lid on tight. Make sure your dog doesn't eat the lid (mine don't). Sometimes I give them empty milk bottles, not rinsed, and they spend ages trying to get the milk remnants out. Cardboard boxes. Great for tearing to shreds. And finally, kibble scattered in the yard if they don't argue over it. Even when it's long gone they'll still sniff for it. Edit: Oh, and mine get Kongs with tinned dog food inside, frozen overnight. They last a good 15 minutes

I gave in and put in an order Gosh I am Ava is going to have so much fun with her new toys.

Sounds like a really good idea I don't have training buddies as such but I've met so many doggie people just through getting my dogs out and about that I have a fair few people to train/socialise with! There is a group of dogs and their owners who walk through the local reserve each morning, I found them just by wandering. I went to obedience classes with my girl from the time she was a puppy, went through the levels, started trialling, and now we have a "triallers group" which is a mixture of newbies and more experienced, and we all help each other. I also instruct classes now and I really love teaching people with aspirations to trial! I've even met good friends at dog parks. Good luck! Edit: Just thought I'd add that I did find it really hard at first!!! I felt like you, like I didn't really "fit in" as I had no idea what I was doing. I researched a lot on my own, printed out and read the rules, looked on Youtube, went to a few trials, talked to lots of people, read the training threads on DOL. I found that there was almost a bump I had to get over which was when we were almost ready to enter our first CCD trial and once we entered everything became easier (and everyone became very welcoming all of a sudden).

We have a local wandering dog who jumps the 6ft fence. Just boing, straight over it! One day he came over to us while we were training (their house backs onto the oval), invited Ava to play, then she chased him all the way back home and he went straight back over the fence. Ava ran into the fence and looked very confused

I have used Woundguard spray before but my girl hated that more than anything in the world, a bucket is better

In the last few weeks I've ordered 3 packages from the US, one arrived in 9 days and the other two in 6 days!!! Edit: None of them Cleanrun orders dammit

I loooove Bright, it is very dog friendly. We took our dog there with us, lots of great walks and restaurants happy to let you sit outside with your dog/s. A few even brought us a bowl of water and a dog biscuit! We've actually had a lot of good experiences travelling with dogs. Once we stayed in a motel and went next door to a restaurant to see if they did takeaway dinner. They said they could, but why not just tie the dogs up outside, and they'd give us a window seat so we could essentially sit right next to them? And we stayed at a pub/B&B who had never let dogs inside before, but were happy to let us crate our two outside our bedroom door at night. If we have to stop at Maccas we park the car close to the eating area, tether them in the back and leave the back of the wagon open... we've had numerous people ask if they can pat the dogs and comment on how well behaved they are (they always give a happy wag for a stranger). I've found that like you TSD, as long as you respect the rules (ours are always on leash or long line, picked up after, not allowed to make noise, kept under control in crowds, etc) people seem to be fairly accepting.

Mine has "Mists of Avalon", born December 2009. Registered in NSW. Sounds like such a weird rule!

Isaaks' litter had a theme, their names all had the word "twist" in them to honour the sire Twister, who died shortly after they were born. But I got to choose the name, I just had to use the word "twist". I also chose Bensons' and Dustys' names before they were registered. I don't mind that I didn't choose because she has a cool registered name

My girl's has "of" in it and she is 2. My breeder had a theme so I didn't have a say in the pedigree name - I chose her pet name to match her pedigree name though