Mrs Rusty Bucket

Great work Jozlyn... and watch out for kelpie training human (again). Change the quality of the treat she gets for coming out compared to what she gets for going in. Ie praise or nothing for coming out vs roast chicken for going in? Try kibble in - kibble out or kibble in - roast chicken out (or game of chase the boss for coming out). Until she comes out readily when you ask and goes in readily when you ask - just keep changing the quality of the reward (and remember she chooses what's best) for going in vs coming out until you have the balance right.

Sorry, I thought snooker would be easy because you choose your own course... but it's hard to get a flow and if you knock one bar - then it's hard to make enough points to qualify. Especially if your dog expects you to babysit over the obstacles and won't "go out". My dog could do the "number 7" obstacles but not and make time... argh. I like strategic pairs a little better - it works for us because the sequences are usually in a straight line (in novice), and my dog has a good drop and if my partner muffs something - my dog loves chasing me to the other obstacle - though if this happens - very very hard to make time.

http://www.petrescue.com.au/view/174637 There's three kelpie puppies on Petrescue in SA. Heather (all breeds / sharpei rescue) often has something along those lines too. http://www.petrescue.com.au/search_by_member/?member=1149

I like the "Crown Jewels" theme crown jewels http://www.royal.gov.uk/the%20royal%20collection%20and%20other%20collections/thecrownjewels/overview.aspx selected diamond names... This crown incorporates many famous gemstones, including the diamond known as the Second Star of Africa First Star of Africa (the second largest stone cut from the celebrated Cullinan Diamond), the Black Prince’s Ruby, the Stuart Sapphire, St Edward’s Sapphire Koh-i-Nur (‘Mountain of Light’) diamond Or you could combine the names of famous or favourite royals and gemstones/diamonds.

I thought kibble was mostly fibre, dog food equivalent to sawdust. My dog's stools are much firmer on kibble (and a couple of sardines) than the casserole and kibble combo. She doesn't get bones much - cos they cause other problems.

Mum had her dog done when it was getting to the point where the glands needed expressing every month. I don't remember infections or ascesses being a problem - just repeatedly unbarebly stinky dog. The dog was fairly old when it was done, and she lived another two years without further problems in that area. The rest of her slowly fell apart though (joints, deaf, blind, smell, recognising people...).

I tie (figure 8) knots in (long) leads - so I can step on the lead and stop the dog that way. If I was working with long line a lot (eg tracking) I would use sailing gloves - they have leather palm liners to prevent rope burn but still give you good grip. If you tie a figure 8 knot - it's easier to get undone if you need to shift it.

thanks GeorgieB It's good to know they're doing things so well.

This is more in line with foster caring. Depending what dog you wanted to adopt. There's a lot of people who adopt puppies and as soon as they become awkward teenager semi-deaf dogs - they get brought back to the shelter. And then those dogs are largely unhomeable. If you took an older dog - then there is less chance of this happening. But it is better for a dog to have one home or family than to be passed around. This is possible true. I would like to know the answer too. But I would also like to know the percentage ie if 100 OS students adopt - how many take their dog home with them? how many give them back to the pound or otherwise get rid of them. And it's unlikely the RSPCA would adopt out to an Australian student in rental accomodation either. I've seen heaps of those posting to get rid of their dog because they're moving to accomodation that doesn't allow a dog. It's still racist to ask a question based on someone's appearance and accent. That's what racist is. You can't tell by looking at someone or their accent, whether they're about to nick off overseas for work or because their visa expired or because they want to visit family and don't come back. Heaps of Australians go overseas and leave their dogs behind too.

My dog likes to lick. She will try it on with certain friends, and my immediate family. She did try it with me and somehow I persuaded her not to, so she only licks me when there's food involved (ie treat reward for hand targetting sometimes gets a lick). I think I made it unrewarding for her somehow. Ie removed whatever it was that she wanted. Or I gave her something else to do, like bliss out with an ear gasm or something.

probably depends a bit on the dog. I've read some theories that doing it for the dog - increases the need for the dog to have it done, ie the more you (or the vet) do it, the more you need to do it. I don't know whether changing the diet makes a difference or not. And it may just be that some dogs need help always. My mum's last dog - when it got to the point she was getting done at the vet every month - Mum asked for what else could be done, and their choice was to have the glands removed. The dog was already about 12 years old - and lasted a few more years after that. So far - touch wood - my dog hasn't needed any help. Something to ask the vet for sure. Would love to know the answer.

I think the problem is - that they don't ask everyone if they're a citizen. If they asked OP, they should have asked me. And for the others - they should make it really clear over the phone before people rock up - that they need to bring the whole family - I agree - it's important, not that a dog who is friendly away from home, will be quite so well behaved when they all get back and it realises the new dog is staying. I know some OS students do the wrong thing, well it helps if the right thing (and the cost of that) is made clear to them. But way more dogs are there because Australian citizens did the wrong thing.

my EH vomits up things like chicken wings. Cooked chicken bones seem to go straight through - but freaks me out - stuff we find tossed into the hedges at the local park. Grrr. Most dogs can eat raw bones just fine. Certain dogs - eg hoovers (inhale their food without chewing it into smaller pieces) - can't. PS if you're worried about it - just supervise and pay attention to how your dog eats the food. If there isn't much chewing involved you may need to freeze and or hold it to encourage chewing into smaller pieces.

I never got asked if I was an Australian citizen when I went to the RSPCA. I did get asked if I owned my own home. But I didn't have to prove it. I made several trips to the RSPCA but they didn't have any dogs I liked at the time. And I made one trip to AWL and they did have exactly the puppy I wanted (even though I'd gone out to look at a different dog). I reckon if you want the dog - get an Australian looking/talking friend to go and adopt the dog for you then sign it over into your name. Will be a bit of a PITA for the microchip but the rest of it should be straight forward. I know one person who was an OS student - and he rehomed his GR because he didn't think he could safely keep it in China. And I know someone else who took both her dogs (they were not from RSPCA) back to Singapore with her. She was a bit sad about it because where she was - there aren't many (any) nice places to walk two small dogs. She did own her own home in Oz - go figure. Please don't hold the actions of one racist RSPCA staffer with some bad experiences against the whole organisation. I've also known them to turn away people who are trying to adopt one of their dogs - who haven't brought the whole family (including pets) with them. Some of the staff get a bit rigid in their attempts to make sure dogs get forever homes. So if one person or even 10 do the wrong thing - eg one of the most common reasons for giving up the dog is renting and moving to somewhere that doesn't accept dogs... they make it a blanket rule that nobody in those circumstances gets to adopt. I suspect all that does is encourage people to lie.

My dog used to get very car sick. I couldn't feed her before any long trip - ie more than 20 minutes long. Like not even the night before. She figured out for herself that if she lay down on the seat with her head down and shut her eyes she didn't get sick. I think a covered crate low down in the car would also help. I figured out if she sat up and was drooling you had about 3 seconds to pull over (dammit - why is there no shoulder on the side of this hill). I also used to carry lots of newspaper to shove under her mouth so she'd up chuck into that and clean up was as simple as carefully folding the newspaper and putting it in the bin. Kibble almost always came back completely unchanged. Home made dog food would not reappear. Things like chicken wings - really really bad. We used to drive about 1.5km to the local dog park every morning - just to keep her used to the car. I think she was 18 months old before she could sit up and look out the window and act the least bit excited about that trip. And then I had to train her to stay on the seat and not bark her head off (stop the car worked).

I think metal chains and padlock might be better than velcro... Vomit treatment? If the dog hasn't eaten anything spikey you can induce vomitting with salty water or syrup of icckycak (uppy chuck?) ippicac? I talked to someone the other day - whose Lab cost her $4000 to get strapping tape out. And in with the strapping tape were hair clips, elastic bands ... I didn't tell her about the rock eaters I've come across. (Eg why is that dalmation so fat you could use her for a card table? Cos if I don't feed her enough - she eats rocks).

TCM Do not leave your dog alone with the mannequin(s). I knew a dog that killed a beatrix potter mouse door stop - because she felt threatened by it. Snuck up to where it was when nobody was around and ripped it to pieces. When she was in the same room as it and supervised - she acted completely freaked out by it. Maybe - supervised - if you give him some time to have a sniff and get used to what they are - he might get over it. Or he might sneak back and kill the threat.

I like this one for the people who have 6' fences and escapee dogs...

Weasels These are a couple from this year's catalogs... OC AG CH dogsnamehere ADM JDM ADO JDO SDX GDX SPDX dognamehere CDX ET ADM JDM ADO JDO SPD SD GDX The ones before the dogs name are Obedience Champion and Agility Champion, and if they had breed champion - that would go before the dog's name too. The ones after, I'm guessing go in the order they got them but not necessarily. I am surprised that Open gets listed separately to Masters in the agility combos - but Open is open - anyone can enter so it's not necessarily a higher or lower standard than Masters. There's also a few that have multipliers eg JD04 - because they've met the qualifying criteria x 4 eg Jumping Open (5 passes under 3 different judges) x 4. So I'm guessing at least 20 passes under 3 different judges. Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't have a couple more grades above masters - but it would make the competitions hard to run.

My dog had a good go at strangling herself by the collar on palings like that. Fortunately I was there when she hooked herself, so was able to unhook her. And I don't leave the collar on her in the back yard any more. she is microchipped so I'm hoping if she does decide to escape that way, that the microchip will bring her back. So far even her favourite lawn mower man is not incentive enough to try jumping the gate again.

My brother got a 9yo SBT to tolerate a cat. Took some work on his part. But he had previously trained his dog to walk away from situations it was uncomfortable with (eg being harrassed by small children) so it was a similar process. He did not leave kitten with dog unsupervised tho. When the family was out the pets were separated in different parts of the house. They're good now - use each other as hot water bottles. Unfortunately his fierce killer attack cat is not so brave with my dog - who would be fine if the cat didn't run. Sigh. That cat doesn't speak to me either - whether or not I bring my dog.

Yes it's rather dramatic - that's why I removed it. I just can't understand that some people can denigrate a whole field of knowledge and structured study - using the product of that field to do it. And I feel about as warm and fuzzy about it as those whose favourite breed they feel is being attacked (whether that belief is well founded or not). Hopefully I won't be tempted to respond so dramatically again any time soon. efs

I think you could call the socialisation - dog manners, etiquette and body language reading. Or dog social skills.

My bad. I didn't know about the spaniel and the others. Only the terrier and the mastiff. Youtube has most breeds doing agility... and some horses and cats and chooks...

To me - based on what's posted in this thread - it looks like Corvus did a study with what was available to her - and admitted it was an insufficient sample size to make confident conclusions - so she asked for more information on the trends her tiny sample size indicated - to see if that was true or not and some of the breeders had a masssive hissy fit because she asked. I can't see anywhere that she said it was a solid and conclusive result. It would be fair for her to say it was true of a significant number of dogs in her sample - which required further research. Which seems to have been blocked. And I really don't like how some of you lump all science and scientists into the same basket. If you really feel that way, then quit taking your dogs to the vet - because what they know is all based on scientific results, get rid of your computers (more science) and your electricity supply etc. . .