toshman

Sorry, but if they can manage it for major cat shows, why can't they do it for dogs? I once stood in line with a friend who had entered her cat that the Sydney Royal - they did it in stages, with a number of vets, and it all went smoothly. At our royals, you need to check in - if you had a couple of vets there doing the check, it wouldn't be impossible to get through everyone.

As for impact, I would have thought it better to assess all dogs, rather than one from each breed. What if the RUBOB had health issues? That still has an impact.

Yes, being notified about the rules for disqualification would have been a condition of entry. However, having the reasons published internationally (and it based on one opinion) and the potential damange to a kennel is not something, I imagine, was in the fine print.

Crufts is HUGE!!! Have you ever seen a cat show with over 5,000 cats entered?

That's PER DAY :laugh: Almost 28,000 dogs entered (that includes sporting dogs etc.), but somewhere around the 23,000 entered in breed.....

I don't see what's the problem with responsibly re-homing a dog. Horse owners do it all the time and no-one questions it. Sometimes one has to go many years and own a lot of different horses before they get the right one. They may want one that's better at showjumping, or better at dressage, endurance or whatever. A certain horse may be a great horse but not suited to what the owner may have wanted to do with it...therefor selling it on to a more suitable home. Same with dogs...if the dog just doesn't suit you then I can't see problem with re-homing it?

Can't help being cynical here, because the phrase is so often used by breeders - but instead of 'rehoming' the dog, couldn't they just look for a 'forever home' for it? :)

I'm afraid I don't believe in the "work it out for themselves" approach - I think it is up to me to protect my dog as much as possible. But I have a small dog so I am aware of how much damage can be caused to him. You have no way of knowing what a dog's intention is when it is running towards you - you may think it "looks" friendly but things can go bad very quickly. I personally tend to scan the horizon when out on walks and turn around if I see any loose dog in the distance. I would also put myself between my dog and any approaching off leash dog - its a good idea to carry a pop up umbrella or a big stick as well.

What a great idea the umbrella is....it would frighten off the approaching dog and also protect the smaller pup.....places a pop up umbrella in my To Buy List....Thanks Lavendergirl. ;)

Please think about what effect the pop-up umbrella would have on your own dog as well, Kadbury

I'm very wary of shouting loudly at any stray/loose dog if I am out walking with my cattledog/kelpie-cross who's a real softie, because I realised that she thought I was shouting at her (how was she to know the difference?) when another dog approached, and she became really frightened at any perceived confrontation...placing myself in front of her was a really good option for her.

First dog was a Glen of Imaal Terrier.

Fabulous - great imagination :thumbsup:

Thank you. Have found it on bookdepository and fishpond (FP cheaper though! :-) will order it shortly.

off topic - is that a border terrier? i think they look gorgeous! Do you have to strip their coats?

Yes and yes! His coat was completely blown when I took that photo but I love it...and him????

Toshman - i hope you didn't think i asked the questions because of your extremely cute photo of your dog!! it was more a general question re the breed and what is involved in their care!! sorry if you took it that way LOL.

No apologies needed RosieFT :laugh: I wasn't making excuses for him :) Generally a BT needs stripping a couple of times a year - hand-stripping is best - but if they're in show coat they need quite a bit more work.

Thank you. Have found it on bookdepository and fishpond (FP cheaper though! :-) will order it shortly.

off topic - is that a border terrier? i think they look gorgeous! Do you have to strip their coats?

Yes and yes! His coat was completely blown when I took that photo but I love it...and him????

Oh, also if a dog 'went' for rosie, I am not sure she would be submissive. At agility training there have been a few incidences over the years where dogs have scrapped and rosie gets SUPER excited and VERY interested in what is going on. Wouldn't want her to come off second best if she decided to stand her ground. So i thought i may be able to stop that if it was going to happen by taking her away. hmmmm

Terriers do tend to do this - trying not to generalise here, but many of them are happy to join in a bit of a scrap

A little booklet which might help you is written by Turid Rugaas, called "On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals" - or anything else by her, actually! Your Rosie seems to have done alot of the right things to keep the situation calm - good for her! And good for you too, for not getting in a panic...

Oh I was under the impression that as long as he was registered associate he could still be entered.

In agility? Absolutlely. He will also need to be desexed to be registered as an Associate (but I see that he is).

In conformation? I'm afraid not.

If you're looking for an activity to tide you over before agility, how about Obedience? Associates can do that.

Well there's lots and lots of things you can do in agility as far as training and focus are concerned before he is 18 months old - you can join one of the agility clubs in your area and take it from there. He just can't compete before he's 18 months old.

yes, most of it was just a rehash of the first one and some very heavily edited snipets from interviews - more of same interview giving is seen in the KC program that was doing the rounds of the web recently

Mmmmm - I thought that KC one was pretty "blar blar blar" too, actually :) But nice to see Steve Dean wandering around with his Border Terrier in tow.....go the Little Brown Dogs

SAme old blar blar blar!

Did you watch it becks - to know that it was the same old "blar blar blar" ?

Please consider giving dogs their own kennels! I wasn't very impressed last year when I tried to find somewhere for my boy who doesn't like other dogs and kept being told if I wanted him to be alone I would have to pay double the normal rate - not fair !

Just a reminder, everyone. It is one week left for early bird entries.

Cheers,

And just a week left to pay for your accommodation at SIEC if you have booked a cabin or a campsite ????

Boil / simmer 10 mins and when cool slice thinly and place in a slow oven for 1 hour or so leave in oven with the door closed until cool.

I do this too, but omit the boil/simmer bit at the start...just slice thinly and lay out on some grease-proof paper and put in a slow oven (140 deg celsius) for an hour or so. Becomes rather leathery on the outside, but still soft-ish on the inside. Chop into whatever sized bits you like. All dogs in this household give it the thumbs-up

Thanks for posting, very nice to see. We do a lot of ferreting in the winter months with pursenets and longnets and it really is a wonderful way to fill the fridge.

Lurchers are great dogs. :)

Just picked up on this....we do Earthdog at Erskine Park through the winter months, and are always needing rabbit carcasses to use as our quarry (not allowed to use live ones). It's always hard to find them - would you sell them too, Polecatty? :)

To keep this on topic - I've always loved Lurchers and the 'romance' behind them :)

What are Castle Hill grounds like? Are they really wet?

Obviously not as wet as Erskine Park

There has been a change of rings advised on ozshow due to flooding - hopefully the attached PDF comes through OK!

Just read that the whole day has been cancelled because after last night's rain all the rings are under water.....

Agility Dog Club of WA run puppy classes - http://www.agilityclubwa.com/

Just had a look at the ACWA puppy foundation classes and the gorgeous photos that go with them - what lovely pups! Beezneez, have you seen the site - esp. the puppy foundation classes page?

Layla is only 6 Months old at the moment, so she is still too young to do agility. I think they have to be 18months to start it??? Not 100% sure. But i defeinately will be enrolling us in to do it. She is a focussed dog when she wants to be. And she would have an absolute blast!! I will definately have a look at that link thanks Weasel. She tends to listen to me more when i have her on a long lead or if i drop the lead rather than remove it from her. Today i took her to the enclosed park and she had an excellent recall for the first 15 Minutes then after that, she had enough. I tried playing a catch me game. She would chase me and all that but then when i stopped. She would run off. So not sure about that one. Haahahah I even had treats (her fav polony) and her favourite toy. I think i may need to find a new fav treat. Not sure what though.

Thanks so much for your help BC Crazy and Weasel!!!

She can't COMPETE until she's 18 months old, but there are many clubs, and I'm sure some in WA (which produces some of the very best agility dogs in Australia IMHO!), that have foundation classes for puppies from a very early age...that's the time you teach focus and all that basic, and very important, stuff :)

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers as to how to teach my furkids to free stack. We are newbies to the show ring with 3 shows under our belts now but have a few coming up in the next couple months.

They are both staffords, my boy 9 months and my girl is 8 months. Both are very willing to please and fairly easy to teach as they love their treats ;) They both stand well and hold for a good amount of time once stacked but once I have asked them to "stand" I can't figure out how to encouage them to move to stack by themselves.

They will let me stack them manually but I find, especially with my boy, that he doesn't "hold form" ("keep a strong shape"/drops his back) and can also turn out his feet more than normal whe I move his legs under his shoulders. If he's wondering around the yard and naturally stacks/becomes "alert" due to seeing a bird etc. I praise him for his "stand" but when training I don't know how to encourage him to step each foot to these same positions that he needs to be in (if you know what I mean).

Any help would be great. Thanks :)

There are some good tips here - Sue Ailsby is a great trainer from the USA and writes lots of articles...

http://www.sue-eh.ca/page24/page40/

It's a PDF document and you will be able to read it if you have Adobe Reader downloaded on your 'puter. I have a mac - maybe you do to?

Just covering all bases - I sent a message to the agility Yahoo list too, but there may be people here who aren't on that list...

Booking/Payment forms were sent out from mid-October 2011 on for accommodation booked at the SIEC in June - maybe some emails went to

junk or simply went astray, because it appears a small handful of people didn't receive theirs....

If you have booked accommodation through me and haven't yet received the form via email, please contact me privately at [email protected] and I will re-send - it's not long now until the end of February when payment is due; how time flies!

Cheers,

Julia

Have to agree with dasha. Can't believe she's charging for the privilege of being her guinea pigs! And agree with amypie, why would you want to spend 5k on something that really is just a hobby.

I find it hard to believe that Susan Garrett, of all people, would do something so "out there" without knowing for sure whether it's going to work first :)

Associate member in WA can only own an Associate registered dog! Is it really that different in other states?

What is an associate member dog? Are there limitations on showing, etc? I couldn't find any info about an associate membership and what it actually includes or excludes.. I might just call dogs NSW today and ask. It was too late yesterday to call which was the only reason I asked here instead.

These are two completely separate things - an Associate Member of DogsNSW, and having an Associate Register dog! NSW Rules & Regulations say you can own and show a dog as an Associate Member - no limitations on that. You just can't vote, have a breeder's prefix, or judge, or be on a DogsNSW Committee. You still get the Journal every month, too. Personally I don't understand why more people aren't Associate members :) Quite a few sporting people are associates, especially if they own associate register dogs.

My juvenile oy has done this since he was a minor and it drives me nuts. Add a dose of stubborness so that the more you try and fix it the worse he does t.

I am probably butting in here where I shouldn't because I have not been in the show ring for more than 20 years. But labelling a dog as stubborn because he sinks back when you try to get him to stand nicely has just irritated me enough to make me write.

Dogs probably do not even understand the concept of stubborness. They lean back because they are not enjoying themselves. They do not likes to be pulled and pushed into place. It also invokes the "opposition relfex". If you pull them forward, their reflex is to pull back against it. In fact, one of the best ways to shift the dog's centre of gravity forward is to pull it back by the tail then release it. (Difficult with a Aussie without at tail, I realise!)

As a dog trainer who remembers just a little about showing dogs, I would suggest that you get you dog into the approximate position you want, put a bit of gentle pressure on him the opposite way to what you want - as though you are pushing him to lean back. When you release that pressure he will rock forward again. At that moment give a reward marker (use a clicker if you use one) then treat the dog. Let him continue to nibble on the treat while he is leaning forward over his front. I would vary it by sometimes throwing the treat ahead of him and releasing him to run to it. This will keep his attention forward.

I have not tried any of this training. I have not needed to teach a dog to stack. It just makes sense to me as a dog trainer. Make the show ring fun. Associate it with games. Do not associate it with a place where you get pushed and pulled around.

I did not look at it closely but at a quick glance I suspect that the link http://www.sue-eh.ca/page24/page40/

that was given in a previous post is well worth the read. I also recommend their section on "dominance". I do not agree with everything in that articles, but it gives a good understanding that we should not try to give human interpretations (eg being stubborn) to our canine partners. They do not have the same way of thinking as we humans.

Excellent post, Le I was also going to mention the opposition reflex until I realised the dog had no tail, but you suggested another way to do this!

Sue Ailsby is great - and there is a book called "Click To Win - Clicker Training for the Show Ring" by Karen Pryor which is good.

I always prefer to see dogs free-stacked in the ring, rather than being man-handled into some semblance of a natural stance.