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6/52 Nala Waits

Is it Echinacea (sp?) without all it's petals? I bought mum some and they look like this once all the petals fall off. Today I am sharing a photo from my weekly puppy photos, as I haven't shared one yet :)

I second this. The main thing stopping me attending a show in Feb is the cost of accommodation, and I'm foregoing that show to attend a bigger one in Sydney. We also spent over $100 in petrol this weekend just showing locally, 90min round trip.

It is beautiful, I actually live just about 10 mins up the road from Urunga, but I say I live near Coffs coz that's where I grew up. A nighttime drive would be a nightmare! Good luck in the Armidale show, and CONGRATS on that huge achievement!

I used them with my pup (the Rudducks brand, Puppi-Trainer pads and the Little Stinker brand) who had not used them before, to my knowledge. She seemed to know what to do with very little, to no encouraging. They were only a back up though, we took her out to the toilet as often as possible. I think if you use them in that way, as a back up to you actually taking them out, they work well. To date, my pup only had one pee accident in the house and that was because we hadn't taken her out in a while. At 17 weeks she is now able to hold her bladder from 10pm-7am (although we often take her out about 3am, sometimes we have slept through though).

Had to give my big girl a go in here, here's my Cleo-baby

Aw would have been nice to meet you guys! I'm sure we'll get up there again one day, I LOVE Armidale city (we last passed through in late April, and it was beautiful with all the falling leaves) and the whole country out there is gorgeous, I just wish they'd build a better road. The issue we had was actually something the mechanic had done with our brake pads, but no matter what, having your brakes jam and start smoking coming down the mountain is enough to freak you out! (we have a better car now though). Thanks, it's knuckle down time now! (hard when I love to spoil my girls lol)

Well we took her along, had a chat with my friend who is also my mentor and she said to try her, she's not really that bad apparently (and is allowed to be a little timid being a baby). I did pull her from sweepstakes, that was a longer class and I wanted to focus our energy on the breed class. She was much better today, still pulling away and in group she tried to bum plant again because she thought we were having another examination but I encouraged her up and she was happy there was no exam! The judge was very kind, he didn't touch her mouth (I didn't even tell him she was teething, she's lost several more teeth this weekend - she's a big gummy bear!) and she stood and let him touch her after the initial pull away. I guess I was so worried because there was a dog excused on the first day, he was terrified and peed and bit the judge and I was so fearful that I was ruining Nala and would cause her to be like that, but I have been given some lovely advice from so many people including judges. I will now put some hard yards in to have her good for our next outing! All in all, we came away with a Baby in Group from our very first show together and I wasn't expecting that - so i'm happy! I think she has a bright future ahead, as long as we practice (thanks Rebanne for your tips!) Luvsdogs I was going to, but decided to save my money and use that towards the Dally specialty instead, as i'll get to meet up with Nala and Cleo's family and Nala's breeder finally! Wasn't a hard decision, I HATEHATEHATE driving up Dorrigo Mountain to get there!

get as many people as possible to go over Nala while outside the ring and give her a treat as they approach and finish. Even just set her up and have people approach and leave, walk past and around etc before touching her. Thank you, times like this I wish I was less shy! I think I'll take her to work with me, lots of people who all love dogs! We start the obedience club's puppy school soon, I think that will be a good chance to practice with people going over her too, more of a formal setting, Your work mates can do it. They don't need to do a full on exam, nor does Nala need to be stacked. Get her sitting and have people approach and leave, Nala doesn't get a treat unless she has four feet, and bum, on the floor. Then repeat while she is standing. Can do it during tea and lunch breaks. :D Thank you, that's some good advice. I'm thinking I'll pull her out of tomorrows show, no point in stressing her when I want her to like showing. I'll still take her along though, i'll be showing my other dog.

get as many people as possible to go over Nala while outside the ring and give her a treat as they approach and finish. Even just set her up and have people approach and leave, walk past and around etc before touching her. Thank you, times like this I wish I was less shy! I think I'll take her to work with me, lots of people who all love dogs! We start the obedience club's puppy school soon, I think that will be a good chance to practice with people going over her too, more of a formal setting,

Well done!!! We are showing locally to me, bonville and Dorrigo shows (held near Coffs Harbour) not a very big show, but big enough for me lol. We had the same result as yesterday, baby of breed only, she's really scared of the examination part now I've got a lot of work to do to fix her up, but the judge today was so good, she actually gave me show training, as I showed Nala! I feel so bad though, everyone else's puppies are so well behaved and nala's trying to run away from the judge and climb into my lap. I don't quite get it, the first judge didn't hurt her (that I saw, he was not gentle, but that was all) but now she gets set up, judge approaches and she freaks out. She likes the judges, started to wag her tail and climb into their lap once (embarrassing!) but will not stand for examination now. Not really related to teething either, she's letting people touch her mouth.

It's so much fun to actually win! There was a girl there though, her very first show yesterday with her little Aussie and she won 3-6 s/s, baby of breed, then group and probably close to show as well (Doberman got it). She called it beginners luck but then has done it again today (we left before general specials though, so don't know which pup got in show) so there are a few of us newbies having a good time. I still call myself a newb too, I may have several shows under my belt but I still feel like I have NFI what's happening half the time lol.

Thank you :D I am soooo happy with her, she's everything I dreamt of and more. We had a slightly less good day today, she was a bit nervous of the judge around her head, but the judge was so nice and gentle with her, I was really pleased. She got baby of breed today, knocked out of group by a Lhasa.

Haha here I am, I forgot to post in here too, yes we got baby in group :D was my first time beating others in a group! Was sooooo stoked, and so was her breeder. Cleo did me proud too, and got challenge bitch neuter (and I nearly walked out of the ring because I'm so used to only neuter bitches that I forgot I had to challenge the dog lol). I even got a comment from the class judge that Nala has good spotting, a promising comment from one of the owners of Australia's best show dog!! Today we only got baby of breed (only pup in the class) and Cleo was beaten as well, but I am still so happy with how they have shown, and lots of people love Nala (my friend is like, keep her away from Kay!! She wants to steal her!) lol which is nice. 2 days to go!!

Would you mind sharing (a link?) as to what bike the shop recommended as suitable for an ET? :) Sure, http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-au/bikes/model/rove.3/14944/66432/ this is my bike, the guy asked what I was planning on doing and recommended it based on that. I just said I was doing on and off road, like on grass (not mountain biking!). I am really happy with the choice, the guys at the bike store actually let me take it home before paying it off :) (well they know where I work and we've worked next door for 3 years so he knows me I suppose!) it's been raining though, so haven't had a proper ride yet!

I had a great first show with Nala today, she got Best Baby in group :) totally stoked, she did really well even though she was a bit nervous around the mouth (class judge wasn't the most gentle) she still strutted her stuff well. Got some lovely advice from our Staffordshire terrier neighbours to help with that nervousness - can't wait to see how she does in the next 3 days! Now if I could just shake my nerves!!

Cleo and Nala love each other! Nala still spends most of the day in her "run" but has a lot of time out with the bigger girls and loves them both, they've really accepted her into the "pack". I can't wait til Nala is big enough to really run with Cleo, I'm so conscious of Cleo accidentally hurting Nala, she runs so fast that Nala would just run into her or be bowled over and hurt.

I hope you can, I'm saving hard from now, I've cancelled my plans to attend a nearer show in Feb for this big one. I don't think I'll do that great in terms of winning but I will possibly get the chance to enter a parent and progeny class which would be very exciting and I think we could do well in that, Nala's siblings already have a few baby in groups under their belts and her dad won a few BIS this month! It's sad how dog attacks effect them so much, Cleo can't really say hi to other dogs on lead now, because she was attacked on lead. She can be fine off lead playing with the same dogs but on lead she'll growl at them. But in the same breath, i'd rather she not run with other dogs that I don't know because she places them much higher in value than me - something I want to do differently with Nala.

I'm 5-6 hours from Sydney :) would be meeting halfway lol. I was going to go to the Royal as well but Nala's breeder is coming up all the way from Tassie for the specialty so we chose that instead. Haha the Aussie Special is the same day as the Dally and the same location! Haha well next to my two they are exceptional lol. They have done a fair bit of obedience training too :) We will def. be adding one once we have a property, and it will be a red merle if I get my way.

How close are you to Sydney Lisa? I'll be down that way for the Dalmatian specialty in April (can you think of anything better!) lol. On my Dalmatian FB group someone took a screen shot thing of the liver dally in 101 Dalmatians, the scene was where it was being held by a police officer - so at the end. I must say I had never noticed until I saw that. Good to hear Nova was a good boy in store, we have 2 red merles that visit us, Cooper and Summer and I LOVE them, they are the reason my husband will get his own Aussie probably when we move house. He's very determined that it will be HIS dog! They are so focused and well behaved, very different to dallies in their focus. It's so funny, their humans are so used to all of us at the store fawning over their dogs, luckily they don't think we're crazy nutcases just dog lovers.

I'd fly, would she be driving back alone with pup? We had enough trouble driving back from the airport while Nala was awake! She slept for the remaining 4 hours which was 7pm onwards - so nice and dark for her. Puppies find all the trouble right when you can't get to them!

They do tend to lick the food out of the maze, but it still takes aaagggeeesss to get it out! Cleo licks like 1 bikkie out at a time! Nala couldn't even use it, she's too small (well her tongue was). I'd probably recommend the maze for a destructo stage dog, it's shape keeps it pretty flat to the ground (hard to flip, especially on a hard floor surface with it's little non slip feeties). I like the UFO but I found it hard to put all the kibble in, and bigger kibble doesn't work it'll be good for Nala when she's older as she's on BH and that kibble is smaller than Hills adult. And thanks everyone for the kind comments about Nala :) I wish you could all meet her in real life! And Lisa, you know you want a liver ;) they're crazier than the blacks!

My bike came in today (awesome turnaround!) but now I have to pay it off...hubby won't let me use his credit card to cheat and get it quicker lol. I'm like you Elise, I loved the prep last year...the few times I did it before my bike just failed. I am so in love with my bike :) lol.

We're 16 weeks old here today :)

3/52 Nala by sunset