ness

Cos his mummy didn't feed him enough . I mean he only gets frozen sardine and kibble kongs I think he is very deprived and his mummy needs to be reported.

Fingers crossed its nothing major BC Crazy.

Interesting I placed an order with Pookinuk Monday afternoon and had the food delivered no issue by lunchtime yesterday.

Megan I totally share your frustration - Kenz hasn't seen an agility course in nearly 2 years now and has had the last 4 months almost completely out of action recovering from ortho surgery.

Tough situation megan. I think you can only be guided by what the "professionals" have to say. I am in a similar situation with my young dog and have been for a while and I think you have to reach the point where you are happy with whatever decision you end up deciding on - whether that is to retire him or not. Its not a decision to be rushed and I haven't reached it with my youngster. I am still hoping she gets back to it but her problems are a little more complicated then your youngsters by the sounds of things. Its hard when they are young and active otherwise. At this stage in spite of all she has had wrong with her the physio and the ortho specialist both see no reason why I shouldn't get her back to it. The chiro vet is a little more conservative on his outlook over things and has suggested she may not get back to agility. Time will tell. We are taking things a day at a time and having lots of rough spots along the way.

No probs Snook - Amy has even met mine briefly :laugh:.

Snook if you need to set something up that is controlled I can always help out. Either one or both of mine would likely be fine. Let me know you know where to find me if necessary.

I can see what Ptolomy is saying and do agree with her. I don't think its specifically related to the heel position but more due to the element of flexibility in DWD/HTM. If you asked the dog for a trick which may look like a traditional obedience skill i.e. recalls/distance positions etc you are not likely to be pinged points to the same level you would if you compete in an obedience ring i.e. things like forward movement on a COP type trick. I also think the flowing nature of DWD and the fact that its set to music does impact ever so slightly on the precision but it also as Ptolomy and BC4Me say it is very much up to the handler to insist on it and I suspect a lot don't.

I reckon you should just go and look at some and take the 2 soft crates you wish to fit and see what happens RS .

Caind01 if you want another opinion (from a different view point) try Dr Matthew Condon at chiropet (http://www.chiropet.com.au/contact.html). He use to work as a vet but now does acupuncture and chiro and is very useful as far as second opinions go. I take my two BC girls to him and he was the one that found Kenz's patella luxation when nobody else had.

Yep 36" is fine for female BCs. Mine both fit in that size.

I would also recommend crate training your young kelpie pup. As Kavik mentions its good to have somewhere safe and secure where they can settle when you leave them at training and trials and the sooner you get them accustomed the more readily they can take to it. The other benefit is having a super active breed if you ever have the misfortune of having the dog injured and being forced to strictly rest them it greatly assists to have a dog who is readily accustomed to being confined in a crate for varying periods of time.

Given you said its for Christmas - is the kennel local and could you make arrangements to take the dogs their prior to there Christmas stay. Or even send them a photo so they can actually see the dog looks more kelpie then staffie. If that is the problem they have.

Another vote for Steve (K9Pro). He was brilliant at helping with my nervy timid youngster and just because he has "prongs" in his toolkit (so to speak) doesn't mean you will end up using one so don't let that put you off him. I will tell you my girls program through Steve was as close to being purely positive as they come with barely any corrections. I have always been an advocate for positive/reward based training in the first instance and nothing Steve suggested to me during the course of training my youngster (over the few years I have been dealing with him) was or is anything that registered as something I wasn't going to be comfortable with doing. He is certainly good with reading the dog and being able to provide solutions which work and if something doesn't work the first time (normally handler error), he always seems to have a plan b and c and d etc. And in the end the results speak for themselves. I certainly owe Steve for having helped my youngster live a much more normal and happy life then she might have otherwise.

Well go on tell more :D.

I would be crate resting your girl for 8 weeks as it is possible for smaller dogs less then 15 kg to do conservative management and fully recover from a partial cruciate tear. It takes 6-8 weeks to start to rebuild adequate scar tissue and then another another few months of gradually increasing exercise to harden it correctly. You may avoid putting your dog through surgery if you take such measures. http://tiggerpoz.com/

You can also check out some videos at TopDog - they have a video of the sit/stand exercise for example. Things also such as walking up and down off curbs can help build hind end strength. http://topdoghealth.com/rehabcenter/rehab-videos/#.UCdNL47W8y4

You could check out some of the FitPaws gear. Things like the balance discs might be good or the peanut. K9Pro stock the FitPaws gear these days - http://www.k9pro.com.au/categories/Fitness-and-Rehab/Fitpaws/ You can start by having the dog place its front feet on the disc/peanut. Even just sitting or standing on the disc or the peanut is causing the dogs muscle to work.

Practice is overrated - good luck .

Hope everything is ok Kallistar.

Yep they have currently exceeded their bandwidth and not sure what the latest is on when it will be reinstated.They are definitely aware about it as a message was posted on the SA agility list by the person in charge of the website.

hey you don't have the dog the first specialist named princess paws because she was so wimpy . Actually the one who did the surgery reckons she is a little bit wimpy to. And she still refuses to walk up the stairs . Going down is ok, going up she will either come up half way or won't at all and will have a tantrum downstairs until I get her. Not so sure what that is about she won't even come up with me carrying yummy food and Ness coming up the stairs. Kenz is just frustrating me she has had no more 3 legged episodes since Monday now will be interesting to see how she is when I get home from work today. Fingers crossed. Bummer about the show ring and Rommi. Yep Kenz has hair to cover any of hers - although its far from completely grown back yet. I think I remember something about the TPLO surgery and the leg not being 100% straight because they have to change the angle of the tibia (I may be thinking about something else though).

If anybody in Adelaide needs a recommendation of a specialist vet clinic and particularly an orthopedic specialist then I can highly recommend my dealings with VetSAIR and John Punke. I have unfortunately had rather extensive dealings with them over the last 12 months - talk about a run on bad luck but they have been wonderful to deal with.

I wouldn't be surprised that Rommi is still a little limpy OSS. Kenz had significantly less done with her knee in comparison and she was still definitely limpy at 6 weeks. Physio said they don't have the same drive in the surgery leg for ages. Also if you read all the information on lists like ortho dogs there are plenty of TPLO dogs at 12 weeks who are still having uneven gait issues. Kenz's specialist got back to me yesterday morning after I emailed him Monday evening. He isn't totally sure what is going on with Kenz however has said if the lameness is being caused by the patella slipping (which I suspect it is because when I came home and massaged her she was good to go again) then because there is still instability and further surgery can fix that then that is what should happen. . Kenz is back to see him in just under a fortnight so until then I have completely eased up. She had a nice walk/swim at the beach yesterday and a nice long walk this morning. There is still a slight chance if she rebuilds the muscle then it will stay in place. Not liking the wait and see though .

Way to go Scoota - what a wonderful last trip away .