maddogdodge

Thanks Teekay :) Luka is gorgeous by the way! :D

Everyone has given you fantastic information :) I'm also one of those people who has an Aussie with issues.... My boy has issues meeting other dogs, and he is territorial at home, mostly to men, he'll bark a lot and be very aloof yet territorial towards any intruders. We're working on this, and making progress... Despite those issues, I'd almost say I have the most chilled out Aussie ever! He would be absolutely happy with the lifestyle you've described. My boy is very content with a bit of training, and a romp with my Kelpie, and thats really it. Of course he loves doing other activities and is always up for them, but he's just as happy to chill out with the family :) He's very devoted to me, and seems to enjoy everything the same whether its laying around doing nothing, teaching new tricks or going hiking... if its with me, he's happy. He does love learning new tricks though, I love watching his mind tick over as he figures out what behaviour I want him to do :D Definitely do your research on which line of dogs to go for (would also recommend Pawsitive, her dogs are gorgeous!). Maybe I'm biased, but Aussies are just the best dogs ever!

I'm getting in early for this week! 16/52 My newest family member, Kito! I've been missing having a big boy ferret around after I lost Fred, so I took my two girl ferrets up to the local ferret rescue to see who's available. Well I completely fell in love with this little guy! He's only 4 and a half months old, he was born in foster care after his mum was handed in pregnant. He's just the most gorgeous little guy, so full of energy, incredibly playful but also, oh so sweet! He looves people, follows me around beggig for attention He's big too, already much bigger than my two girls, so he's gonna be huge when fully grown! :) I wish the focus in this photo was more on his eyes, but this will do, he's so fast its hard to get the focus right! And a couple more because I'm totally smitten with him and want to show him off Sorry guys!! He likes to steal my socks off my feet!

Cool knife shot Canetoad! :) Teekay your shots are always really stunning :) Gorgeous flowers Ranga, so vibrant :D

Cool photos of the moon! I missed it this time... completely forgot about it :p 15/52 A friend's cat that I'm looking after :)

The digital one at my work is also right next to the table... buttons still won't work half the time. Sometimes I'll have to press the temperature buttons 10-20 times before I get to the temp I want!

I have a Lazor RX at home (the older one with a flick switch) and its fantastic, love everything about it! Does a great job on my Aussie as well as all my grooming clients. At the clinic I work at we have two Lazor RX's one new with digital display and one old with flick switch. I would have to agree with Denali, the buttons on the new one can be a pain, you have to press them just right otherwise they don't work at all. But other than that, both of them are fantastic reliable machines.

So I only just realised that I haven't done week 14 yet I've been so busy and preoccupied lately that I just didn't realise I hadn't posted a pic yet! Just a iphone photo from me this time (sorry guys!)

Thanks MDD, that shot was taken at F2.8, 24mm, ISO 3200, 25 seconds From what I have gathered from my Googling, you basically want the largest aperture you have with the widest angle lens and high ISO 3200 or even 6200, the ISO will depend on how high you can get away with on your camera before the the shot gets too noisy. the longest shutter speed you can get away with before you start to get star trails is generally worked out as 600 divided by the focal length, so in my case it was 600/24=25 They do ned a fair amount of post processing though, to really bring out the stars Oh and to have the best chance of capturing something great you really need to be away from any light pollution. There was definitely too much light in my shot so I want to go inland and into the mountains next time. And make sure the moon is either very small or not out at all. :) I can't wait to have another go. I didn't realise when I took that shot that I wasn't pointing at the 'core' of the milky way so I really want to try and capture that. If only the bloody rain would stop :laugh: A fantastic app I downloaded on my iPad is called Star Walk, it's absolutely brilliant for tracking what the night sky will look like on any given day. Great for planning. The weather? Not so much :laugh: Thank you so much for that explanation! I don't have a wide angle lens (next on the list to get!) but I might give it another go with what I've got :) I live rural on 30 acres, and we get the most incredible view of the stars here, so light pollution is no problem at all Last august i did a road trip to central Aus. We were mostly staying at free campsites, sometimes we were alone which was just crazy... could have been the only people for 100's of kms!! But the view of the stars out there was just magical, wish I'd known how to capture it on camera!

I absolutely adore your star shot Teekay!! How do you do it? I've looked at tutorials and had rather quick attempts, I get stars, but nothing like that! I suspect I don't use a long enough shutter... Lovely early morning shot, Shewolf Beautiful horse Ozstar! :) Thats a cool looking shot Ranga!

Yes that is the downside I see with the "Friendly Dog Collars" products. Koda would be way over threshold by the time someone could read one of those leads, and the vests and harness's that they sell are useless for long haired dogs! Koda's fur would just cover all the writing! LOL Sometimes I wish I could, I've met so many stupid people when out with Koda! Thanks, I hope so too :) I'm sure it will help at least a bit! ETA: I was just thinking.... I wonder if things that say "In training" seem to tempt people to come up and ask what they're being trained for rather than stay away? Compared to Koda's jacket, will be interesting if I get many people come up to ask why he needs space.

Interesting! Koda also wears a muzzle while we walk (Only really because there are loads of off leash dogs around here and if one runs up to us I do not want him getting in trouble because he bit a dog! He's never actually bitten a dog, but there is a first for everything!). So with the muzzle plus a sign on his back saying to give him space, I think we'll be pretty set! We've also made a habit of carrying a large stick while walking, to fend off, off leash dogs. We've had serious problems with uncontrolled dogs rushing at Koda in the past... which just pushes him WAY over his threshold!!

Just an Iphone snap?? Thats a pretty awesome Iphone snap if you ask me!

I ordered this for Koda ages ago, It finally arrived yesterday :) Keen to test it out on our usual walks! I got it from here if anyone is interested in getting one too :) https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/167352345/jacket-vest-for-dogs-working-on-issues

Ooo cool spider!! :D Bit of a bad day for that wasp though :laugh:

13/52 Sunrise from Monday. Taken from my front yard :)

Beautiful Teekay!

Loving everyones photos! I agree, Canetoad, your dogs walks look much more interesting than the walks my dogs get! Your water shot is beautiful Teekay! Grumpette, I love Dee's crazy ears :D Tay, the beach shot is just fabulous! I'd love to get some beach shots of my two one day, they've only been to the beach once. Its a bit far away... and both of them hate water so they don't really do much there, lol

Thanks Ranga! Love your frog photo, I'm quite fond of frogs! :)

Week 12 My special rescue ferret, Fred. This isn't the greatest photo I have of him, but its the best I got this time... He went into the vet to have a teeth clean yesterday, and devastatingly, his heart failed... despite their best efforts, the vets and nurses weren't able to save him Autopsy revealed tumours on his spleen which had spread to his heart... my special boy... I'm absolutely shattered

Week 11 :) Nothing fancy, just one of the herd of cattle we have.

Very interesting shots Gapvic!! I like them! :) Didi is gorgeous as usual too :) 10/52 A couple of my new Australorp chicks, my future breeding chickens :D

Ranga - Love your horsey shot, creative angle :) Trifecta - Your shot in the window is just stunning Helen - Love the expression she's got, sitting in that basket! Tay - For some reason, I really like shots showing teeth, like your gorgeous photo! :D Denali - Happy birthday to Kokoda :D He looks so happy! SheWolf - Love the old shack, I remember exploring such places in the bush when I was a kid! I was just heading into the house today (just happened to have my camera with me) when I spotted this Crimson Rosella in our pear tree :) 9/52

Mostly mdd, I think it works very well. You will still get the odd person ignore it but I have found, even when I take him to a quite busy area people look at him, may say a few words but keep walking past. Tbh though, that may also be because I rarely make eye contact with passersby as I am concentraying on Luka and his ongoing training :) Definitely worth a try with Koda though, they aren't expensive. Thanks :) Sounds like its worth a shot.... I might pick one up at the Dog Lovers Show this year.

That is so adorable! When I was first looking into getting an Aussie I wanted one with a tail because i wasn't so keen on the NBT look... but now I've owned an Aussie, I couldn't care less if they have a tail or not... In fact next time, I think it would be awesome to have a NBT :) I'm curious, when you're out with Luka, do people notice the 'Nervous' lead? Or do people not notice/just ignore it? I've thought about getting Koda a 'training' lead... but I think instead i might make a lightweight coat style thing that says "In training" ... I feel like people would notice that more...