freundhund

Hi As a GSD person who shows, does obedience, agility and is currently preparing a GSD for the ET, what was recommended to me by a reputable vet who does a lot of GSD work is to wait until a minimum of 12 months of age. BUT you should hip and elbow X-ray and have the results scored for the dog to make sure you are not exacerbating any problems that might be in the hips and elbows. Also to increase the distance slowly ie 500 metres for a week,ie Mon, Wed, Fri. following week you can take it up to a kilometre, but up increments slowly, also not to fast ie no cantering or galloping, stay at a trot. Don't do a lot of down hills as like coming off agility equipment it can be a strain on the shoulders and elbows. Hope this helps you.

WEll Abbiestar I will get to meet you iin Canberra, I have sent the Diva's entry off. Now got to get basck to training again. I know that there will be about 4 GSD's from Sydney coming down to Canberra. Looking forward to meeting everyone in Canberra. My obedience club isn't happy with me as our club trial is on on the Sunday as well, and I normally supply a few nibbles for the judges for it.

Hi Sway The GSDL in NSW has for a long time sold leads like the one you show, several people supply these leads in different qualities of leather, also they have some imported from England and Germany as well. Try contacting the marketing officer of the GSDL to see if they can help. The GSDL will have it's marketing tent at the Spring Fair on the GSDL grounds at Erskine Park.

I have a 2 year old GSD. Last year at 12 months of age she was getting a daily walk of a minimum of an hour a day, plus swimming 3 days a week in summer, or light biking to 8 kms. In addition I was going to obedience training with her 3 times a week and agility training once a week. I am very sorry but I used to have 3 children under 5 years of age, a husband who worked long hours, including frequent overseas trips and a full time job. I used to be able to manage this and walk 2 adult GSD's and attend obedience training regularly, taking the children with me. There is no excuse not to give your dog enough exercise of course she will be bored if you don't do enough with her.

The grounds at Erskine Park were originally leased for 20 years, and the DogsNSW has renewed the lease, I am unsure if it was for 15 or 20 years. The major problem for NSW members is that the area where the current grounds are due to be rezoned for houssing due to the flood mitigation work that has been done. I don't believe that it will be easy to get both Penrith Council and the State Government to forgo the monies that they will receive from housing developers. I heard a large number of people were against Erskine Park as it was a lease arrangement when the then NSWCC was offered other options where NSWCC/DogsNSW would own their own land.

Medium Size Cross Breed!!!!!!!!!!!

After my wonderful weekend with my obedience (not) dog at Newcastle. I am back to walking her, couple more walks and I will be able to get the bike back out. Congratulations to TerraNik on her 2 passes in CCD, with her Finnish Lapphund.

Congratulations murve and Orlando :rock: :party: :dancingelephant: :cheers: That is wonderful news. Looking forward to hearing everyone elses news as we all pass the ET this year. :party:

Try Jessica Kada from Sires on Ice.

Good luck to all those doing their ET this weekend.

TrinaJ I am to sick to even take her to the beach. I can't stop coughing and am on anitibiotics., but as soon as I can I will start again. Just hoping that I can get rid of the virus asap. Abbiestar, have driven from Sydney to Adelaide to show, as well as Brisbane and Melbourne. You know you are insane when you show dogs. :D

Well I am most probably going to do the Sydney ET, with the Canberra one as a back up in case the Diva comes into season!!! Currently, struggling to train as I have now picked up a stupid virus. Hopefully back to training in a few days.

I have just had the fortnight from hell, Mother's Day I had a drug addict who decided to play chicken thru the traffic on Parramatta Rd and ran into the side of my car damaging the wing, bonnet and putting his head thru the windscreen..... Having no car hasn't help me with training the Diva as I have come down with the virus that gives you a bad cough and aching joints. So after 10 days of no work or any real exercise eldest son offer to take the Diva for a bike ride to the park. Stupid me said okay, not thinking to say take her steady, well when the Diva came home she could barely stand, and this morning is so stiff I think she has pulled a muscle. Now having to find a dog physiotherapist as the local one who only works on Sunday's is also on holiday for a month. Not happy Jan, but at least I hope to have the car back by Friday....

Well my last bitch I trainned thru to UD, through her seasons and 3 pregnancies,(Hers)and 2 of mine I never found her being in season to be an issue or in whelp for that matter, trialled her in whelp, and put her back into the trial ring when her puppies were 5 weeks of age. She was desperate to go back to trialling, for her trialling was the biggest show off you could imagine, everything done at a million miles an hour. My current bitch 20 months is due to come into season in June/July I trialled her last weekend and I noticed that she was very distracted at the morning trial with the border collies up the other end of the ring playing together, she desperately wanted to go and play as well, in the afternoon trial, she wanted to go and play with the Aussie Shepherd in the Open ring. So I would say that she mighn't pass until she has had this season, I don't worry about taking her out when she is in season, I just use this a time to work on a new excercise.

Well the Diva's training today was an hour of swimming as the weather was gorgeous at the beach today. I enjoyed the swim as well. However, I think the beach days will be few and far between now with winter coming on.

Hi Willow What a wonderful letter, would you mind also writing one to the small dog with the moron of an owner the lets it run up aggressively to yours. With you screaming at the owner to please put it on lead, whilst my current girl doesn't mind (my male if I had him with me would) I don't want her to get attached so badly by one of these little dogs she isn't okay with them in the future. Okay, particularly at the moron that abuses you, when you ask for their dog's safty to put it on lead. Thanks for writing the letter most of us want to write.

I haven't seen the article but I have trialled a number of dogs, but I am not an expert. I find personally that the amount of training I do with my dog/s has depended on the dog. My first dog, I only ever, trainned once a week at my club!!!!!! Any more than once a week she would look at me like I was insane, but she would learn tricks. This girl passed every trial I entered her in first up. My second dog, I trialled, I had to train a minimum of twice a day, like a drill sergeant. As well as ring practice reguarly, he was a *** of a dog!. My third and fourth dogs were brother and sister, who I think I over trainned as I worked them every day, the girl would pass her trials every time, I still don't think I want to admit the number of trials it took to get the boy's, CD, CDX or UD titles!!!!!!!!!! The next couple of dogs didn't really hit the trial ring, as I had children with them. So my current dog, I go to class twice a week, and do lots of fun obedience training with a ball and a tug toy a couple of other times a week. The first time this girl really did a formal session was at class training the week before her first trial, I am being careful not to over train this girl as she is extremely willing and I don't want to destroy the willingness.

I had a puppy buyer fly over from NZ and stay with me for a week so that she and her puppy would get to know each other. Also she felt that the puppy would be happier after flying to NZ to have someone he knew at the other end. She lived about 5 hours from the airport in NZ. To get the right puppy I would go anywhere I could afford to pick the right puppy!

Hi Ish I am interested in your issue, as I am currently trialling in CCD after not trialling for a number of years. I am finding a lot of the new judges are judging very differently from years ago, and are having very interesting interpretations of the rules. I have been watching a lot of judges and there definately seems to be differences in what judges seem to want. As far as I am concerned I would have considered that the collar that you wish to use would be quite acceptable. However, if I was you I would take up the issue with your state Obedience Committee and ask for a ruling on whether your collar is acceptable or not. If the collar is acceptable ask them to provide you with a letter that you can show to judges in the future. Cheers FH

Hi Abbiestar The Diva and I will either do Sydney or Canberra as being a bitch she will come into season for one or the other My preference is for Canberra, with Jenny Kenworthy as the organiser it will go like clockwork and I won't feel stressed. Now my question is pulling, the Diva is pulling the entire 20 kilometres!!!!!!!!!! I are struggling trying to get her to run alongside of me, and after the accident with my previous dog on the Springer, I am very nervous about putting the Springer on to the bike. So anyone with suggestions of how to stop the Diva towing me the entire ET would be appreciated. Hi Zenith If you would like to send me a PM, I would love to organise to have a practise ride with you, especially as the Diva pulls like a steam train and I need to teach her to run alongside me. She is very non aggressive so no problems around other dogs. Cheers FH

Sydney City Council, doesn't have a dog limit. I had 6 GSD's in a Terrace in Newtown, that were approved by the Council. I used to walk all of them twice a day, no problems with neighbors, in fact the near neighbours told the inspector after a new neighbour moved in the house 4 doors down the street that there were no problems accept those caused by the new neighbour. Inspector finally put all complaints by this one neighbour down to malice as he and the other inspectors got sick of being told my dogs were barking. Including when the dogs went into kennels for a month to see what would happen!!!!

I breed and show GSD's. Over the years, I have had people want the darkest puppy in the litter because they are the most savage!!! I found this amongst the Greek, Italian and Maltese families that wanted puppies. I also found that I was frequently told this myth at training over the years. A coloured South African friend told me that in South Africa black dogs were not as popular as lighter coloured dogs, she actually commented it was to that level some white people's mindset went to. With pure black GSD's I find that they are often easier to sell. I used to have a bitch who carried the black gene and I had people always after black puppies!!! For me, I must admit, I don't care what colour a dog is if I like it, and I do like a solid black or bi-coloured GSD.

Just a little of topic. Trial the Diva at her first trial, she came in 4th in CCD on a countback at the GSD National. Now we should be able to deal with the obedience at the ET. Cheers

I want to congratulate all the shoppers who got their teams matching raincoats!!!!!!!!!! And well done to all the handlers who managed to look happy and put on a professional looking performance in horrendous conditions. Kudos to all of them, for promoting dogs in a such horrendous conditions.

I have white bed sheets and white doona cover, but they are cotton and the magic words are "NAPI SAN". I must admit I have never had a stain on my sheets and doona cover that "NAPI SAN" couldn't cure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!