ravenau1

Hello WA peoples ;) I know a lot of you are involved with showing etc and was wondering how I go about finding out when a particular breed of dog is being shown? The last time I managed to find the info but now I can't remember where!

I love the Kung-Fu Corellas!

I have to admit it's not something I've ever thought about before! I just had a look at the website and it looks like they do Obedience, Agility and Show classes. I am interested in Agility so probably would attend for that but they meet on a weeknight which is no good for me. But that's my fault, not theirs.

Not sure it would have been the cold, english.ivy! I was out walking Astrid at about 5am yesterday and it was actually really warm. Perhaps he was just excited . I think he would be fine with a nice insulated kennel as it doesn't really get that cold here.

Minxy: Not only is his name lovely sounding, it really fits then! I met at puppy school a couple who have an Akita called Tank, which I thought was awesome too They weren't there with him though, they were bringing their new pup, a Chi x Shih Tzu, talk about a difference in sizes I only saw them a couple of times though, as they were technically in another class and just did a couple of 'catch up' classes with our group. KTB: Not a recurrence, thank goodness! But related in a roundabout sort of way! I have some probs due to the treatment for that problem, and some of the meds I take for that cause me to have really high blood pressure (they have to as I take them to increase my blood volume) and the high blood pressure may have caused a new prob . But I need to take those meds as I am literally bed ridden without them, I pretty much spent a whole year without being able to stand up for longer than a couple of mins. But for over a year now I have a fantastic Specialist Dr, new meds (including some weirdo experimental meds that I had to get special permission from the govt to take lol) and I have worked really, really hard. Unfortunately the condition isn't curable as such as the damage done by the treatment for the initial problem is permanent, but it's very well 'managed' now. I have been a bit stressed over the new thing, but this week I am feeling better. I am having a bunch more tests (one today actually) and seeing a new Neuro and I am sure with some more hard work everything will be fine. At least it's never dull around here! ;) I forgot to mention, thanks for the puzzle link! That will be a fantastic present for OH! How is yours going with the Falcon? Is there much cursing while looking for pieces? There was here! It took 35 hours and 51 mins to build his (not continuous!). Note, that's not 35 hours and 50 mins, or even 36 hours ;) He kept a log book while he worked on it and as always with my OH, it was very precise! Those shows look like fun! I love that sort of thing, and I love watching dogs work. wuffles: Satch looks as comfy in his hole as Ava does on the couch! How old is Ava now? That vid is very impressive! KumaAkita: Haha poor Kuma looking for you! Astrid hasn't heard me on speaker or anything but if I am watching a vid I've taken and I am talking on it she gets a bit distressed! Like there's another one of me around somewhere and the prospect is a bit disturbing! . But if she hears OH's voice she will go and look for him, usually on the bed wizzle: Awww! lovely pics of Genevieve I was watching some of 'The Tudors' tv show the other day and King Henry gave Jane Seymour a Cav as a present and I thought of G. I wonder if that was historically accurate! Kyliegirl: I find other people and their dogs difficult at times too. I do training every day with Astrid at our local football oval as it's just down my street and at the moment it's fantastic because they are refurbishing the stands so there are heaps of people and building noise etc. There are heaps of signs everywhere that dogs are allowed but they must be on lead and people must clean up (I use a really long lead). Well, there are still people with offlead dogs and no one cleans up. I wouldn't be surprised if one day the club has enough and just bans dogs. Astrid doesn't like offlead dogs coming up to her and it's pretty annoying! Twice in the last week I've had dogs come up with their owners running behind manically waving their arms and calling their dogs then apologise and say that when their dog sees another dog they can't get him to come back. Well, put the dog on lead then! It's more frustrating because there is a lovely offlead dog park about 5 mins away! Dog fishing sounds like fun The Fenstar: How exciting! My family had a Mini Schnauzer and she was an awesome dog and such a little character. Can't wait to see some puppy pics! Well, Astrid has a new 'trick'. It's one of her own making and I'm pretty sure it's called "Let's see what I can find so I can take it to The Boss because I am not a Doberman, I am actually some sort of weird household retriever". Just this morning in the two and a half hours I have been up I have been given a full toilet roll, a pack of butter menthols, a rock and a Kmart catalog. It went on pretty much all day yesterday too. She doesn't chew them or even try to play, she just trots in and stares at me while holding them until I say 'give' then she gives them to me and looks really pleased with herself. No idea what has brought this on As far as the other breeds go, I have admired Aussie Shepherds since I first came to this site! But had made some presumptions about them and wouldn't have thought they were suitable for our situation. But recently OH's family had asked me about a miniature variety (which there really isn't, and of course they aren't really Australian) and in the process of reading about that I learned a great deal more about them. I haven't actually met one in person yet, but I am currently working on that! And the second, we have new-ish friends that have Great Danes and my OH is in luuurrrve with them he says that they are 'kindred spirits', when I asked him why his explanation was that they are "Big drooley galoots" just like him! haha! They take a lot of work and special management when puppies though! And of course, Dobes . Astrid's breeder is pretty sure she will eventually be having a litter with Astrid's (older) sister and that will be hard to pass up!! So, much more research and discussion to be done, but it's a lot of fun! eta: Looking at my post, I think I may need to attend 'Emoticon-a-holic's Anonymous'

Hello everyone! It's been a full on couple of days here and this is the first chance I've had to have a good sit down at the comp. I had an appointment with my Specialist on Thursday and got some not so great news and that night Astrid got really, really sick. The vet says a tummy bug, but I don't know, perhaps she was picking up on the stress in the house and it made her sick, poor little thing She's quite sensitive to our emotions. But, onward and upward! She was feeling much better by last night, but going stir crazy, so after we got home from the lovely dinner out Mr Raven surprised me with, we took her for a walk. Well, being confined to the house for two days turned her into a manic whirlwhind She bounced like Tigger the whole walk she was like she had never even heard of LLW! So today, after having a lovely sleep in we took her to a dog beach 45 mins away and she had a great time! She loves the beach so much. She didn't really know what to think of the pelicans though. Then we had dinner on the foreshore overlooking the ocean, it was lovely I packed Astrid some food so she had dinner too! Yesterday we finally got around to picking up a new outside bed for her, one of the hammock style ones on the frame. We got the biggest one they make and she LOVES it! We're going to get a smaller one for inside too. Here she is on the new bed, with Little Frog (she likes to cuddle with him when she's sleepy) and some bits of box she destroyed. And yes, we are in discussions regarding a second puppy ;) Though it will have to wait a little while now, but that gives me plenty of time to research and for us to decide. There are currently 3 breeds in discussion, one being a Dobe and the other two being completely different! I'm not sure you could get three breeds more different to each other ;) foxyboi: Ike he's so gorgeous! Shiba's are so distinctive looking, stunning! Not sure if I could handle one though Minxy: I bet Kyojin was glad to get those stitches out! Did he try to scratch much? I may have asked you before (and excuse me if I have ;) ) but where is his name from? It's very lovely KumaAkita: So glad the instructor was better with Kuma this time! Must make it less stressful for you. And who could be scared of that cute face?! KTB: Awww! Love those pics of Hoover, he really is very striking! Elbie looks nice and comfy :D We are having some issues with recall too! Weirdly enough when we are out and about Astrid's recall is great! At the beach today she was chasing a seagull and I called her and she spun right around and ran back (I must mention that she was on a 15m lead but hadn't reached the end of it), but around the house, nada! I think while we are out we reward recalls a great deal, big rewards and lots of praise, but not so much at home. Must work on that! Hoover's features kind of look, 'rounder' than the other kelpie there. Perhaps because he is young yet? I love the differences in the same breeds of dog! People presume that they look the same! kyliegirl: Echo is so handsome! And as for the obedience/puppy classes, at the end of the day he is your dog, and the right way to train him is the way you want to . In our puppy classes the puppies were really closely monitored, and if anyone was showing signs of dominance or fear or too rough play, or the dogs were getting too excited it was back on lead and calm down time. I don't think that fight you described should ever been allowed to take place Clastic: Ah! Great, thanks for the info about the bows! Unfortunately Astrid 'drops' bottom first I will have to work on that! I love the pic of pepper asleep, it looks like she's laughing! wuffles: What day is your wedding? Are you crazily excited yet? :D

KTB: Love the birthday cake! . That puzzle is fantastic!! Where did you have it made? (if you don't mind my asking). KumaAkita: Awww! I love that pic of Kuma, he's such a gorgeous guy! wuffles: A week and a half! How exciting! I loved my weddings such fun! Max#1: Love a good head tilt! I've often wondered why they do it though. lilli_star: I'd rather run than do math too I'm not looking forward to winter here, we really need to get something sorted as to a waterproof area (other than the garden shed we use as a kennel) outside for Astrid. At the moment we have plenty of shade but it's not waterproof! clastic: Great bows!! That looks sooo good! How did you teach that? Things are cruising along quite well here, though I am having some trouble with teaching Astrid a 'stand' from a sit or a drop. She will drop from a stand or a sit, and sit from a stand or a drop but I can't seem to get her to understand 'stand'. I can lure her to a stand but I just can't seem to make her understand. Not sure what I am doing wrong? Piccie time! Here's a couple of shots I took on Sunday of Astrid playing with a Portuguese Water Dog Poolside bitey face Wrestling! And I love this one, there's a Dobe under there somewhere In other news, we have been discussing the possibility of adding doggie number 2 to the family

Awwww! Happy Birthday to Ziggie and Elbie! They've both grown into such lovely looking dogs! Koala, that's OH's Falcon, he's a Star Wars nut (our house is jam packed with SW stuff). And a Lego nut. I imagine it was the best day of his life when he found the first Lego Star Wars piece :D He likes the Collectors Series stuff, so we also have X-wing, Death Star, Imperial Star Destroyer, two different Tie fighters, an AT-ST and most recently the Tantive IV. We have nowhere to put them all now, and that's why the Falcon is on an old card table

A couple of hours each time when we visited Astrid , mainly just chatting and playing with the big dogs though.

There are a few Dobes that track here in WA with TrackWest, I hope to do that with my Dobe too.

We had great success with the Look at That game while we were having issues on walks recently too, it worked so well

KTB: I showed OH the pics of Elbie with the balanced treats and he just about busted something laughing and is now even more determined! They're great! I have trouble getting Astrid to stay still enough for the ham Will keep practicing kyliegirl: Sounds like Echo has a really good routine with you! That's somewhere we're lacking a bit, OH is a shiftworker so our bedtimes/walk times etc are all over the place . Astrid is exactly the same as Echo at puppy classes, all she wants to do is play! In the long run though it's been good because it gives you a good chance to work with distractions. We take Astrid for a bit of a walk/play before classes to kind of take the edge of that bouncing energetic excitement, and that's helped too. wizzle: awwww! What a lovely postman! And I don't for one moment believe that your cute and perfectly innocent looking pooch would destroy anything! Well it was our first day at non-puppy school obedience today (even though we have our last week of puppy classes tomorrow!) and it went better than I was expecting! Astrid was very excited to meet the other dogs (especially a little Frenchie and a Ridgeback, for some reason she falls in love with every Ridgeback she meets ). We talked to the trainer and we are allowed to use toys/games as a reward as well as food so that's good and made things a lot easier. Hope everyone is having a good weekend

KumaAkita: Thanks, we think she's turning into a beautiful dog and we love her to bits! She's the second best decision I ever made Max#1: We can use food treats but not toys, though I will have a talk to them about it! And yeah, she's all snout wuffles: Hmmm... I vote GSD, Great Dane, Lab and Jack-o-Lantern (the eyes ) but I am shocking at this!

Thanks so much! :D Ham worked brilliantly! Though she looked so funny I got the giggles at times OH will be thrilled when he gets home from work lol.

Permoxin would probably help as a replant, it's very cheap to use too! Thanks raffikki, I will look out for some! :D Hmm, I wouldn't say flakey as such, as in if I scratch at it none comes away but it does look a bit rough, if that makes sense? Why, is it something I should look out for?

Yes, I think that is pretty well correct. There are plenty of people here who show their dogs and they are friendly and helpful. It's just a shame I think that a lot of people are told to go to shows to find a breeder etc. Do you mind if I ask why? Because people were incredibly rude. One even made a snide comment in regard to the walking stick I was using at the time. I was quite upset at the time, but now OH and I have a giggle about it. And like I said, the interactions I've had with Astrid's breeder have been great. When people ask me about purebred dogs, as they often do knowing I have one, I never tell them to go to shows. Maybe people are too focused or busy but I certainly didn't find it a good place for a newbie. all or only some? Just the people I spoke to, and I didn't speak to everyone there. Perhaps I just picked the wrong handful to talk to, anything is possible. As you can imagine I didn't stick around for terribly long ETA: As I've seen suggested here before it would be great if there were regular 'meet the dogs' days or something, where people could get along to see different dogs and the dog owners weren't under competition pressure like at a show

Coffee almost out of my nose there :D

Do you mind if I ask why? Because people were incredibly rude. One even made a snide comment in regard to the walking stick I was using at the time. I was quite upset at the time, but now OH and I have a giggle about it. And like I said, the interactions I've had with Astrid's breeder have been great. When people ask me about purebred dogs, as they often do knowing I have one, I never tell them to go to shows. Maybe people are too focused or busy but I certainly didn't find it a good place for a newbie.

Well, after taking advice from here and visiting a dog show to talk to people/look at dogs of two breeds I was almost put off getting a purebreed dog altogether. In the end after much more research I only chose two breeders and decided to contact them one at a time in order of my preference. The first breeder is lovely, and amazingly friendly and helpful so I didn't end up contacting the second. We are in very regular contact and my experience with her has been nothing but positive

He's just gorgeous!

Aww, that's so nice! But really, if you posted another pic of Acheron I could agree with the lady and drool some more

Well, we had an interesting day yesterday, Astrid had hives! There are a couple of pics here http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=214942 . It was so weird! She's pretty well back to normal now though. We start new Doggie School tomorrow, doing the 'Canine Good Companion' 10 week course through DogsWest and our Council before moving on to other obedience. It's only 10 mins down the road and nice and early at 8:30am so we will be home before it gets hot. The only bad thing is that it will be a bit early for OH when he's on late shift during the week but he can nap when we get home. Max#1: Astrid loves tug! And at home I also use a game with a squeaky toy as reward but it's hard to translate that to classes for me as they're all so food based! Tomorrow we will have some low fat cheese, grilled chicken, ham and sausage so I hope something in there will hold her attention. Glad that Max seems a bit better, it's so stressful when they are sick! KTB: Love those piccies, and Hoover's Humungo-Ears I love them! How do you get Elbie to stay still long enough to put a treat on his nose? This seems to be my OH's lifes mission but Astrid always wriggles! Wuffles: That's an amazing pic of Ava, it's very artistic! SammieS: Asti is gorgeous! 4kelpies: Wow, I just love the jumping pic, third one down. The focus in those eyes! Kyliegirl: Echo is looking great! They grow so fast! Astrid spends most of the day inside with me as I'm home 6 days per week, unless she's running mad zoomies or sunbaking in the yard lol. She's generally calm inside unless she's feeling particularly energetic! Stacking, is that how they stand for shows? That always looks good! KumaAkita: ;) That's just horrible, I wouldn't be going back either. It makes you wonder why someone like that would be a dog trainer!

Went to the vet yesterday afternoon, just in case, and it does seem to be hives! He said not too worry too much at this stage and if it comes back we will have to figure out what causes it. I picked up some calendula tea while out shopping last night and did a rinse before putting her to bed. She's still asleep this morning so will do another when she gets up raffikki: It sure does look similar! I will be extra careful when I wash her in future, it's a good idea about rubbing it into my hands first as I do tend to massage it in! Dobesrock: She sleeps next to the bed but we do go for a little walk in the evenings and she usually asks to go and sit outside a bit at night. We do have HEAPS of mozzies around here! Anyone know if doggie fly repellent will work on mozzies?

Thanks Erny! The lumps have gone down almost completely since this morning, there are still a couple which are noticeable but all the rest have gone. Her skin still does look a but funny underneath though and it looks like her fur may be a bit thinner, or perhaps I am looking for problems now lol. I will find some calendula tea this arvo, thanks for the info!