RubyStar

The wheat doesn't touch him :p It's covered by 2 layers. Would that still affect him? Just curious! For some good news (well for me ) I spoke to Steve tonight and he's going to build me a 2 door barrier system thingy with a divider for the boot of my car, all removable, this Friday woohooooo So now I can get poor Ruby in and out of the car without b!tch features muzzling her way through instead I did ask about the false floor for extra storage and he said he could do it, but upon further thought, we concluded that it wouldn't leave them with much room and they'd have further to jump in so I will live with using my back seats and foot wells to carry training gear, but at least with this setup it eliminates the need to carry a crate on my back seat at all times! Just for occasions where I can't use my car as a crate. I'll also get him to rig up my cargo net as a cargo barrier to stop Millie from jumping over my back seats. So it's not for a safety thing, just a visual barrier to hopefully deter her. Hope my tax refund from last year (that I only just submitted ) comes back soon, as it has already been spent! Can't wait :D P.S. might need a new car for dog #3, this setup won't work with 3 dogs but I will cross that bridge when I get to it

Yes I'm sure their happy faces would motivate me! But it won't solve the time issue Already over extending myself with obedience, retrieving and agility Slow and steady I guess, I've got another year to build it up very slowly

In the new ANKC rules (which come in soon), the table height will be 400 for 400 and above dogs I believe. And 200 for 200 and 300 dogs?

Bedazzled PM'ed me first! Thanks guys :D I am glad how Toby is coming along he is almost back to 100% tonight and I will need to do some training in the morning or he will drive me insane. I also thought I should let those of you who are aware of the situation my nonno passed away yesterday evening. RV I am so sorry How are you doing?

Cool. These can be for people or doggies. I made mine originally for Ruby's sore leg but going to make one for me! I tried one out on my lower back where it sometimes is a killer and it was lovely. I think I need a long one to go round my neck, next!

Congrats murve and Orlando!!! :D Best of luck to everybody entering the upcoming ET's. I'll be aiming for next year possibly with my girls. Haven't done any training with them lately and the last we were at was only about 3km's at only half the speed required, so a fair amount of work to do. And Ruby pulled up lame a few weeks ago and is only just recovering now so I wouldn't have entered her anyway, don't want the injury to return. I wish I had the motivation (and time!) to bike them more often to get their fitness up and be ready for next year! I am going to need some serious motivation for it to happen

I bought my first bag of BH last week. Very happy with it so far! As far as dog food goes, I actually think it smells quite pleasant so it must be appetizing for the dogs! Smells better than a lot of other premium (and non premium) foods I've tried. Great service from the WA rep, too! She warned me the dogs tend to put weight on with it so just keep a watch. Which is good because my girls need to put a couple of kilos on, they've lost a bit on their previous food. I think the output is smaller, too, but I need more time to assess that properly because I am still mixing 50/50 with the old food.

Sure thing

Not a problem :D Oh and you have colour choices, I forgot to mention that. At the moment, the 3 colours available in corduroy are burgundy, navy blue and light blue. I might even get some patterned corduroy I made a small size one, perfect to wrap around Ruby's elbow. It's 20x20cm with 2 channels. I've also made some 20x30cm, with 3 channels, and a 20x40cm with 4 channels. They also contain wheat pouches so if the outer casing somehow gets a hole in it, the wheat won't all fall out If anyone else is interested, I can make custom sizes. I sew them with channels so the wheat doesn't all fall to one side. Smalls are $6, medium are $8 and large are $10. Hit me up with a custom size and I'll give you a price I'm also making cool mats. So hit me up with a size! City Farmers sell their small for $45.95 and larges around the $100 mark I won't be charging anything like that!! Please help me kick start my little business, peoples! :D

ness. I know how you feel and I really hope it gets better. There isn't much any of us can say to make you feel better, but know that we feel for you and are here for you too

It was a real bitch teaching Ruby scent discrimination!! Took us ages, and it wasn't until Ptolomy suggested cans out in the pile did Ruby "click"! Millie was taught in one session I started by placing a single scented article under a magazine and asked her to find it (she saw me place it there). She would naturally sniff to get it from under the magazine (she's a real loud sniffer!) Then I progressed to another article (obviously unscented) under another magazine, along with the scented one under a different magazine. As she was already sniffing them, she understood the difference pretty quickly. The same tactic didn't work for Ruby, little miss

How do you keep the dog in the water swimming laps, though?

Thanks chicko. Heathridge would be a fair treck for me though Just got the details of the one in Southern River, 5 minutes from me $6 for half hour so I think I'll be making an appointment or two! I was imagining a cost of like $50 Edit: anyone know if humans can get in with doggies at the one in SR? It's called Aqua Doggies. Reason I ask is I can see Ruby wanting to get out and be silly. Can you go in with them at the one in Heathridge? Edit 2: Nope, you can't get in with them at the one at SR, bugger!

Sounds like you're doing everything you can. Fingers crossed for some results after a further 3 weeks rest and physio sessions!

Sorry to hear that, ness Are they advising anything else (ie. medication, massage, etc) other than crate rest? It just seems such a copout to keep telling you to crate her. You've tried it, it's not working. Did you get x-rays (or ultrasound?) done with your specialist visit the other week? I'd be wanting more answers!

I'm not sure, I've never looked into it, probably way out of my budget (which is $0!) This is when I wish I had my own swimming pool!! Anyone got one where they wouldn't mind Lab hair clogging their filter?

True. At the Perth Royal Show last year, Millie got a serious case of stage fright. She started off really nicely, then saw the crowds of people and just stood still with a look of horror on her face! So I tried coaching her along, knowing full well the Q was blown but I wanted her to be confident. She didn't recover so I asked to stop the heelwork and move onto the next exercise. She did lovely with the rest of it! (OT but I was disappointed the judge decided not to bother scoring the rest of our round just because I pulled out of heelwork! Wanted to know what we had scored!) I have lost Millie on the occasional sniff in the ring, and while I have let it go because the rest has been good, I think I am going to crack down on it and exit the ring. Gosh it's hard to do, but I got especially good at withdrawing the many times Ruby has been either off with the fairies, or mugs the stewards straight out the "gate"!!

You will lose more points if you use the dog's name. You are safer asking her to heel again. The rules state you can only use the dog's name prior to heeling off the first time in heelwork. All judges will penalise differently I've found. As an example, in CCD, Millie got a bit of a fright by a bunch of GSD's sitting ringside, that I had to reset her. I lost 8 points for that, and the rest was lovely.

Thanks for the response re: the commands to use for gloves. Fetch it is! Gloves was going well at 3m, but at 6m they are both deviating at the last second to the middle glove if I send for the outer ones fetchindawgs, thanks for the video loan. I will see what trial I will be attending next and message you privately to see if you will also be there to grab it from you I'm over the moon at the moment with a couple of things. Firstly, Ruby's sore leg looks to be finally healing. We did a bit of training yesterday and she doesn't appear to have any lameness even the next morning so I am crossing all crossables that it stays that way! Secondly, the water retrieve is finally heading in the right direction! :D I have dogs who like to spit whatever item out at the water's edge and shake, then abandon said item. Yesterday, I had them both coming out of the water and about a metre up the bank to me and giving me the dokken before shaking! Wooohoooooooo!!! Yes, a metre is a huuuuge feat at this point in time :D I am working on 2 problems here. One is the coming out of the water with the item and to me, the other is holding and giving to me before shaking. I have been lumping So while the coming out of the water one is making progress, I am yet to get them to hold until the command to give is given before shaking. It's still a race to grab it before dropping it (thankfully this isn't an issue on land [mostly ], so I know the knowledge is in those brains of theirs, it's just a matter of getting them to transfer that knowledge to this different scenario). Baby steps :D But I'm very happy to be heading in the right direction

I think that's worthy of a brag, kathq!! Well done

Still looking good this morning without a hint of lameness But she is now off the medication as her 10 days are now up so let's see if it holds up when she's "on her own" It is still stiff though as she won't let me bend it as easily as her right leg. Poor Kenzie I'm sorry that the crate rest isn't helping

I'll run him if you want to train him Dead birdies don't phase me anymore.

You couldn't see any lameness, could you? Mason did well, today :D

Well done to everybody getting out and training! I've been working on some UD exercises with both kids this week. Scent discrimination with a full set is coming along nicely, but we've been using the same heavily scented article for quite a while. Tried a brand new set of just metals at the end of the week and it totally blew their brains Been working on seekback. Ruby has more confidence than Millie to seek further. So in the very short amount of time I've been training this, I'm quite happy with where Ruby is at at the moment with it! Also been working on gloves. At a distance of about 3m, the girls are doing pretty well. I tried the 6m on Thursday night and even though they were looking at the correct one when I sent to #3, they both deviated to #2 at the last second! More work required here Today we did some retrieving training. I've been struggling to get Ruby to bring the dummy out of the water without dropping it and shaking it at the bank. Today we made some progress and her coming out and to me Even made progress with Millie on this, so I'm doubly happy!!! The excitement of it all around water made it very hard to get Millie to even listen to me This was a dog who hated swimming not too long ago! No agility training the past fortnight or so, might get back into that this week

Congrats, TN!!!!! :D