RallyValley

Please put me down as 52 Weeks of Life :) I will hopefully be able to just share my fav project 365 picture every week :)

I'm clearly insane because I am attempting Project 365 this year

Looks like 2014 will be a great year :)

I have two 5 1/2 month old rising stars in the ring from my first litter. One is my adorable Kite, Astrelis Dawn Flyer, she is very fun to show but a bit naughty.

The other one is her brother Butch, Astrelis Dawn Raider, owned and shown by my friend Claire. Butch has had a fantastic start to his career taking out 8 Baby in Groups and 1 Baby in Show (Open & Ch Shows).

Some good reading material. It may pay to provide the number to elderly friends and get them to call before they provide personal details over the phone.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900

In 2013 I am not going to be too ambitious because Zora and I will be having part of the year off for a litter ( :D ).We have 6 beautiful outgoing pups that are now almost 7 weeks old. Probably Zora's best achievement yet! Good job Zora

Pups are all 5 months old now. I have seen them all since they have gone to their new homes and they are all thriving.

Here are my goals:

-Finish RN Title

-Aim for RA (maybe even RE) -- On hold for a little bit, waiting till I am happier with her work. -- Hoping to get started on this after her 'maternity leave' finishes.

We have done a couple of RA trials, no Q's as we had a little too much enthusiasm in the ring and were a little out of practice. However the issue I had earlier in the year was a lack of enthusiasm when we had trials so I consider that issue fixed for now :D

-Enter CCD -- I tried but then a season got in the way. Should get this one even if it is CCD NFC by the end of the year. -- Also hoping to get started on this too after her 'maternity leave' finishes.

Have entered a couple of CCD trials, we did so much better then I expected but each time had little airhead moments and one time we were going beautifully but the dog who has never had SFE issues decided to move. :laugh:

-Get ready for trialling in agility early 2014 -- Still aiming for 2014 :p-- Still aiming for 2014 but have taken some steps to make that a little more realistic :D [/color]

Probably won't be early 2014 but won't be far off we have began a lesson plan and private lessons, plus she did SO well at her working sport at the Stacey P-G seminar the other week

Lastly this is a BIG maybe...

-Enter a UG Field Trial - Not going to happen now, since Zora has missed the whole season due to being in season then pregnant. -- Sadly have missed the field season, however yesterday when we did some testing with the pups Zora reminded us how keen she is... Hopefully we can be on track for 2014

I also achieved an unexpected goal, I started to play around with tracking and Zora has already passed her track one. I'm hoping to get her track 2 by the end of the season. We got our track 2 with a grading of Very Good just before Zora went on maternity leave, despite being quite pregnant her enthusiasm never wavered. There is a possibility of going for track 3 this season otherwise we will put it off until the next one.

No track 3 this tear but we will continue with tracking next year

We passed a year anniversary this week.

Still miss my special guy.

Also to say it may be different in some breeds, but for mine if people 'choose' it's generally because they like a marking (i.e if everyone initially indicated they wanted the pup with the most orange) which is a really silly reason for a 15 year commitment.

I chose for my puppy people, aside from the stud dog owner who was free to pick as he had the knowledge to choose what he wanted best. I did ask everyone if they had any preferences and took this into account too but ultimately based my choices on temperament and structure to suit the pups future lifestyle.

We conducted multiple rounds of temp testing and also a conformation puppy party. I consulted with my breed mentor many times and we even had an online conformation puppy party via Skype.

If anyone had insisted on getting a particular pup I would have told them to go to another breeder.

Leah82 they do have an off switch and are easy dogs to live with (mine cope on a suburban block with a tiny yard and are alone while I am out 9-10hrs a day for work) provided you give them daily exercise and mental stimulation. They are bred to hunt all day if required and have to have the intelligence to do so. Depriving them of a job and a physical outlet is asking for trouble.

They are an absolutely fantastic breed and I would never have anything else now.

Well it definitely looks like the Toller is ruled out :laugh: I really don't think a BC would be suitable as my friend & her husband are disabled to the extent where anything more than a walk they couldn't handle. He is on a walking stick & she has her own physical problems. But they would have lots of time for training not involving anything much physical (for them) & that is why the GR suits them. Also they go away a fair bit & need to leave the dog with their daughter & young family. A shame a miniature GR does not exist :)

What about a Brittany spaniel, bit smaller and still very smart, the ones I have met haven't been as high energy as the tollers and BCs I've met

I'm not sure a Brittany would suit if you are ruling out a Border Collie. They are fairly high energy dogs, one of my puppy families owns and shows Border Collies and finds their Brittany is more 'full on' than the Borders are.

Brittanys are beautiful friendly dogs and are physically very sound. They have much less coat maintenance/shedding than a Golden, usually max out at around 21kgs for a male. The biggest downside is they do require physical and mental stimulation or they will create themselves a 'job', which can be something as inane as chasing butterflies or as annoying as destorying things.

Rainey is spot on with the Fauves!

And it translates to Low Fawn Dog from Brittany.

Basset simply means low and you can have, apparently a basset chair or table etc. There is also (though not here in Australia) a Griffon Fauve De Bretagne which is a tall Fauve.

How come Fauves are 'Bretange' but the other famous breed from Brittany is a L'Epagneul Breton... Why aren't they Bretons too? (Genuine question) :)

CC I gave all my puppy buyers the recommendation to try this puppy school:

http://www.pawprintspettraining.com.au/what-we-offer/puppy-kindy/

The feedback I have had is that it was really good and especially helpful to more inexperienced owners.

Still reading along where I can! My little pup is a whole 9kgs now We are a month away from starting 'real' (bird) training but at the moment we are having fun playing and learning tricks. :)

The stud dog I used wouldn't mount my bitch in standing heat if his owner was nearby. The owner has to be inside, hiding out of sight until they were tied. The dog was 7 when he was used and had been told off for mounting behaviour.

Stud dog number 1 - Luckily it was a local dog. I spent hours with him, watched him at field trials, his owner let me take him to shows. The dog even sleep over at my house and we I took him to a Royal with rides/people/horses galore.

Stud dog number 2 - Met briefly when overseas at a National. Have talked with owner at length and I think to a degree performance titles speak for themselves.

When I was choosing a breed longevity and health were (as well as mental soundness and great temperaments) my main criteria. I ended up going with a Brittany. In our breed if you hear of a dog that dies young (under 10) usually it's an accident. Many dogs live well into their teens, last year we just lost a great Britt at 18 and we have another breed legend in WA still coming to supervise field trials at 15.

In those Finnish statistics for Britts the highest cause of death is 'Age' at 13 yrs 1 months average. The second highest cause is 'Accident' at 3 yrs 19 months average. Those two combined make up half the Britts on their database.

Most enquiries I get are 'local' so I just arrange to meet up in a neutral place (e.g park or dog show) to suss the person out and answer any queries. If they are happy to meet up and no red flags come up after meeting and seeing how they interact with the dogs we progress with further enquiries from there.

Hankodie, how is the teething going? Nova finally lost his last remaining baby tooth yesterday, after almost a week of excessive drooling and stinky breath it's finally gone and all the other teeth have cracked through. Just waiting for them to come completely out now!

Aww big boy Nova is growing up fast! We have stinky breath here too at the moment, he's lost almost all teeth in the front & bottom row, just waiting for the rest to fall out. He has an insatiable urge to chew everything and the only thing that seems to give him some relief are frozen turkey necks. He's not too interested in the deer antlers Can't wait for all of them to come out!

All that stinky breath smell is still ahead of me ;) Only just starting to loosen now.

Thanks guys, she is a pretty little thing. Lisa CC this was my first litter and even though everything was smooth sailing it was every bit as full on as you hear. I love hearing back from my new families, everyone is loving their pups and I get so excited seeing the pics they send.

I'm also having Kite teeth at the moment, but she is just at the start of teething! Her fav teething toys are bones or failing that my hands will do :laugh:

She has her first show today, one of her brothers is also entered and one is coming down to watch - so we will have a reunion of half the litter :) I anticipate total naughtiness from Kite...

Hope it's ok to join in here :)

My Brittany Kite is 12 (or 13?) weeks old. I bred her so it has been a very different experience than any other pup I have had before! Just had her litter sister Bindi visiting for two weeks which has reminded me how crazy and full on Kite is :laugh:

Here is a pic of her at 10 weeks

And some pics of her from 0 - 8 weeks I need to update with some more recent shots.

I'm so sorry to hear about your losses CaseyKay. It seems so unfair and unbearable

RIP Maddie and KC

As a photographer you wouldn't post up a picture that didn't look nice. Maybe the moment they captured of your dog was less than perfect and rather than put a picture like that online they have omitted from uploading it.

This story makes me feel sick to my stomach. I am not in any way defending the breeder mentioned but the media making out that HD is 'fatal' and that they did a $500 'genetic test' to find out the dog had HD - don't they have to have some level of truth in "news" programs

The man's dog is also looks overweight, how can they prove the HD is not environmental?

I'm glad to be joining this thread again as I finally have an agility dog in training again!

Because of my crappy shift work job I'm doing private lessons at this stage with an awesome instructor. :) I am very proud to say that after our latest lesson we were able to do a basic sequence, it's a massive case of good dog, shame about the handler but at least I'm aware :)

And sorry I can't add anything constructive to the current discussion, just don't know enough!

Feed her her dinner one piece at a time. Put it in the bowl, move away then put another piece in the bowl. She will get used to your hands near her bowl soon enough.