RubyStar

Had a great time last night and so did Mason, lovely people and really friendly dogs, was worth the drive from the outback lol! Let me know when you guys have the next one, will endeavour to come down! Couldn't last night, I had drinks after work then dinner at my parents. GR - are you joining Candice and I at Hillarys tomorrow morning?

This sounds interesting! I think I need to know more It is sooo fun to watch, dogs and their handlers dancing to music! doing spiffy tricks too.. Its at Jack Mann oval on Bishop Road, they have midland, but I think its Middle swan.. its just off Roe/Toodyay Road, or near the corner of great northern Hwy and Roe Hwy How often do they have these sorts of things CNR? I've just realised I have a Fish & Chip night on at our local dog park tomorrow evening which I am kinda obligated to attend so won't get to this particular event. I'm keen to know when and where else there is 'dog dancing'! You have fish and chip night with the locals at your dog park? I wanna live where you do! The people at my local are snobby old gits!! Have a look on the DogsWest website and download the events file, it should list the events scheduled for the year. You are welcome to come I invited Candice too but don't think she and hubby will make it. Nice bunch of people and dogs at our park - only goes for a couple of hours from 6 to about 8, depending on how warm it is and who wants to hang about with drinks etc. Whoops forgot to reply to this! I might have to join you guys sometime, but I can't tonight Have fun!! You brave, brave people! ;)

We should organise a group agility equipment making session! Once I learn more with Millie, I wouldn't mind having more equipment and lugging it to the park every so often if a group of us contributed and made use of it. Not worth it just for one person!

I'm loving Cider's finish, too, how cute is that!! Love the way she follows you to maintain heel position. Millie does that too, but no amount of trying will get Ruby doing it like Millie does!! I've still got a loooooooooooong way to go (as you know ) but I can already sees things coming along better with Millie than with Ruby so I put that down to not only being a different dog, but hopefully due to me knowing a teensy bit more than I did when I started with Ruby. I hope by my 5th dog, I will be half as good as Ptolomy!!

amypie, are you planning on training with both clubs for a while? I think once Millie and I learn some more, I might train with more than one club so I've got more opportunity to use the equipment. I'm already a member of 3 clubs so I just need to utilise them a bit more

Not sure why their times say until 9pm on Mondays, the stuff is packed up and lights are off by 8pm!! No idea what their levels are sorry

Well I've had to whip out the old rubber gloves before and stick a finger up Millie's bum. Poor girl was pooping poos as hard as rocks that were coming out sideways!!!

Now come on, they are Labradors, surely that's simply not achievable Wouldn't you at least put the food in an Esky or a bag to reduce the temptation slightly. Awww come on you're being a bit judgmental when it comes to the Labrador! No wait, you're absolutely right

Oh I managed to get it out of her mouth before she swallowed it, with the help of another woman who was just as gobsmacked at the picnic blanket as I was But at 9 weeks of age, she was too quick for my mum and pinched glad wrap out of the bin that had just come off a tray of mince, too irresistable to a puppy! She swallowed it whole. 2 nights later, I am outside at 3am watching her struggle to do #2's, I get closer and see something glistenening out of her bottom So I pull, and pull, and puuuull, and this poo shaped piece of glad wrap comes out You should have seen her jump as I pulled it out ;)

I couldn't believe someone left a picnic blanket full of half covered food UNATTENDED in an offlead DOG AREA Ruby chowed down on a ham and tomato sandwich, complete with glad wrap While Millie went for the biscuits loosely covered in foil My brats got the scolding of their lives after retrieving the sandwich from Ruby's gob, but come on, who does that!! Morons, that's who Ready with my flamesuit for those who will come along and just tell me I need better control of my dogs where food is concerned Thankyou up front, yes I know this! ;)

This sounds interesting! I think I need to know more It is sooo fun to watch, dogs and their handlers dancing to music! doing spiffy tricks too.. Its at Jack Mann oval on Bishop Road, they have midland, but I think its Middle swan.. its just off Roe/Toodyay Road, or near the corner of great northern Hwy and Roe Hwy How often do they have these sorts of things CNR? I've just realised I have a Fish & Chip night on at our local dog park tomorrow evening which I am kinda obligated to attend so won't get to this particular event. I'm keen to know when and where else there is 'dog dancing'! You have fish and chip night with the locals at your dog park? I wanna live where you do! The people at my local are snobby old gits!! Have a look on the DogsWest website and download the events file, it should list the events scheduled for the year.

Cider is looking FABULOUS!! :D

Woohoo! I almost lost one of my small i-squeaks last night! It fell out of my pocket! Lucky one of the girls spotted it drop! (RosieFT or Amypie, can't remember!)

Even with Millie who will warn other dogs away from her if they get too close and she doesn't like it, I have to say, she's SUCH a pleasure to train! She would prefer to be with me than pay attention to other dogs, which makes such a refreshing change from training Ruby the social tart!! I can't go near other dogs with Ruby or she'll be bouncing around the place from dog to dog. So we keep our distance from others, unless we are specifically training focus around people and dogs who have given us permission to heel around them for this purpose (and we only do this around the obedience gurus who have well trained dogs ) I had Millie sitting amongst other dogs last night and she didn't care. If some sniffed to say hello (we had heaps of Border puppies surrounding us!), she would sniff back but then attention was back on me. If she feels threatened she will warn them, but otherwise just doesn't generally give two hoots! Love training her!!!

CnR - not at all! Millie doesn't like dogs getting in her face either (or her privates!), but it hasn't stopped me from attending training. Only last night at agility, a GSP lunged at her so she gave it a serious "back off" bark. As ness said, you just take care to stay away from other dogs and keep your dogs attention on you

Of course it is, but does this always happen?

It's not you and your dog I would be worried about, it's the others letting their friendly or uncontrollable ones getting in her face if she knows she doesn't like it. You can keep your distance as much as possible and ask others not to approach you if it helps? Also letting the teacher know so they can tell the class to keep their distance might be useful if you think its necessary? I'm not saying a class wouldn't be suitable for you, but you asked if all dogs are under control at class and my answer would be a "no"

No. Assume worst case scenario if you want to train at a club. The only way you can avoid things as much as possible is to train privately When I used to do classes, some girl came with her aggressive dog and left it in group stays and on numerous occasions it "went for" in a nasty way the dog next to it. Needless to say, I avoided being near her then left group classes pretty swiftly after that. Oh it wasn't just group stays, this girl let it offlead in the block heelwork that most clubs do and any dog that got within a 3 metre radius of it, it went for it! Not all dogs are aggressive, you also get people who let their friendly dog greet every dog just because it's friendly, which is also annoying. Yes I have a very social tart (Ruby), but I don't let her go up to other dogs if I can help it.

Only needs to be registered with DogsWest if you want to compete The only registration you need to train at a club is a club membership!

"good carpet, bewdiful animal we breed to make carpet, for you I make special deal" Cheap cheap!!

I hope so, I want to take mine and mark a few things. But I doubt it I started working Millie on my right side tonight. Oh boy, that's a hard task to achieve when she's been so heavily rewarded being in heel position on my left! But she started getting the hang of it (a few lapses had her going back to my left!) We also learnt a front cross - ooh looky at me using the terminology Can't wait for next week now!

I had heaps of fun! Pretty sure Millie did too I'm very proud of her, she can work in close proximity to other dogs without the need to initiate a meet and greet session with each and every one (like some blonde hussy I know ) Speaking of chocolate Labs on the previous page... who wants one for free? She may be an agility prospect with the right trainer, but she also comes equipped with demolition skills! I think my baby is trying to dig a hole to China - something tells me she doesn't like it very much in her new back yard? (look sideways to your left at the pic)

Why a chocolate? Come and have a cuddle with Millie, she really has eyes for people. She's a big smoocher ;) Though a bit psycho ;) I love my Labs, and think I will always have one (or two), but I agree, life is too short to just experience one breed! My next dog won't be a Lab for this reason :p They are still my #1 breed, though!!

You could knit a blanket with the amount of hair one gets out of a Labrador! It gets out all the dead fluffy undercoat and some of the fly-away top coat I'm not familiar with the Westie coat though. It's not suitable for every breed, I think it works best on double coated short haired breeds like the Lab? Got mine (a medium) from ebay from the US for about $25 including postage.

Sounds like you need a Labrador :D :D ;)