BrigadoonRose

I think that Devine has written sensationalist, uninformed drivel goes without saying. The article should be dismissed as such. The fact that a local govt minister sees fit to consider that drivel is much more concerning.

This. I *love* the amount of info that's available on the Internet, although of course it needs to be viewed with a critical eye. Does your library have computers/Internet access you can use? Also, did you talk to the librarian about what information you're after? They can often help source books from other libraries both within and outside their network

Made me giggle :) Having just discovered the world of dog sports, some of these descriptions seem pretty familiar ;)

Not sure if you're still about Fairystar but here's my 2c, from the perspective of a new puppy owner. Yes, take your pup on school runs. Great for getting used to travelling in the car & the hustle & bustle of daily life. Even when you get to school you just sit there him/her with the door open watching the world go by - keep it a nice calm outing. You've asked other questions re your pup's behaviour which I can't help with but I will say, there are lots of knowledgable & experienced people here that can offer you advice. Some of it may sit well with you, some of it might not. No point getting cranky about it. My method of learning anything has been to choose a couple of people whose advice you respect and who have the knowledge/wisdom/experience to back it up and listen to them. Implement what they tell you and give it a chance to work before you try something else. As for all the other advice, look at it critically (in the academic sense). If it fits with your philosophy, store it away in the memory bank. If not, I have a favourite quote from Robert Downey Jr: Smile, listen, agree then do whatever the **** you wanted to anyway ;) Otherwise, you'll end up a stressball and changing tack every 5 minutes. Knowing the right thing to do by our puppies can be stressful and I think our pups pick up on that. I hope you get your pups issues sorted out soon & you can get on with enjoying life together :)

I have a Lowepro Flipside 300 which I'm really happy with. The seperators for the compartments are all fastened by velcro, so you can make them as big or small as you want. It fits my 70-300mm lens on camera no worries with room for a couple of other lenses etc. It's quite easy on the back for a long day of hauling around, with a strap that goes across the chest and one at the waist to help distribute the weight. It opens from the back rather than the front. If you take it off your shoulders with the waist strap still fastened it can be swivelled around to the front and sits there (sort of like a little table attached to your waist), making changing lenses a bit easier (terrible explanation, sorry - I hope it makes sense :) ). Lots of other storage for bits & pieces too.

Would a smallish fence extension at a 45 degree angle, leaning into your yard, work? I've seen them used for keeping things out. I guess they'd work the same to keep things in.

Oh..I love doing that to people. Willow loves bull chews, we use them at bedtime to keep her quietly gnawing away if she's not quite ready to sleep. People ask me..."Oh, what are bull chews?" I say, "Well, you know...Bull...bits." Doesn't take em too long to put two and two together with interesting results. I'm always puzzled by people who say stuff like, "Poor Pig" or "Poor Cow" when buying pet treats. I ask them, "Do you like bacon?" But somehow that's different. A bit OT but after my 8yo daughter got over the fact I was giving our dog pigs ears, she became even more concerned that there was only 5 in the bag - she was worried there was a one eared pig getting around somewhere! LOL

LOL. I already feel like the crazy dog lady when I'm out with my pup in public, muttering away, making silly noises & ignoring people as they talk to me so I can keep Zeus walking along nicely :) Maybe I'll fit right in!

Hi Mish13 Great advice already here. I have no idea why your camera chose what it chose for your shots above. Generally auto works pretty well, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to flash photography so no help there I'm afraid. I can say that the shallow depth of field (limited area of focus) in the shots is due to the very wide apeture. Like others have said, the slower shutter speeds would create handshake as well. You're not alone with the exposure triangle - it makes my head spin too. I have come up with a way for me to understand things. Although I'm certainly not an expert photographer, I'm pretty happy with a good number of my shots. My favourite thing to photograph is landscapes so I primarily shoot in apeture mode (A). My rule of thumb #1: If it's fairly still (ie not tearing around the place like a soccer game or racing cars), I shoot in apeture mode. If it's moving a lot I shoot in shutter speed mode. My rule of thumb #2: If I want everything in focus I use an apeture of f11 or less (or more - don't know the right terminology but f11, f16, f22, etc). My camera takes pretty crap shots over f16 though. If I want a nice blurry background, I use f4 or more. Note that when using the big apetures (f4, etc) your focus point needs to be pretty spot on as there is a very limited amount of the shot (foreground & background) that will be in focus. There's a generally accepted photography rule of thumb (not one of mine ;) ) that says your shutter speed shouldn't be less than 1/focal length, eg if your focal length is 30mm your shutter speed shouldn't be less than 1/30sec. This ensures handshake doesn't cause blur. My rule of thumb #3: I can't take a clear handheld shot at a slower shutter speed than 1/60. Any less & I need to use a tripod. My rule of thumb #4: Forget about ISO 90% of the time. If I change it for a special situation, I will without fail, take my next set of shots at that different ISO and cock them all up. If I do venture onto M mode, I choose what's most important to me for that shot out of area of focus (A) or clarity for movement (S) and set that. Then I use the little meter in the bottom of the view finder to tell me when I've adjusted the other one to the correct exposure. Keep at it, maybe just choosing one thing (like apeture or shutter speed or area of focus) to work on at a time. You'll see the shots improving ETA: typos

Awesome!

Must be that special Tasmanian water Kirty ;)

Facebook have pretty stringent rules about how it is used to run/promote competions, and often suspend pages for contravening those rules. At the very least the comp might be against FB regs.

Thanks Tassie & NC. So much to learn! It's actually Nekhbet's fault I'm asking all these questions ;) We started her puppy school on Saturday, where she planted the seed in my mind :)

I can tell you love retrieving. It sticks out a mile in your posts :-) When you say gundog, do you mean breed or one that's been trained under a gun? Are you retrieving actual game that's been shot in the retrieving trials? This dog sports business is a whole new world to me & I'm getting a bit fascinated by it all!

Thanks for the offer. I'm out Geelong way, so Skye is a bit of a trek though (if it's where I think it is). I saw a little tracking on YouTube, and yes it looks like fun too! Maybe I should start stocking up on 2 minute noodles & get the kids to work on their treddly endurance just to be safe :-D

Wonderful spider shots! I always think they have very gentle eyes (& eyes & eyes) in these type of photos - maybe it's a Charlotte's Web syndrome :) Persephone, that dew shot is fantastic from a iPhone. You're very clever!

Thanks TSD. Great idea to do videos. I fully expect to make masses of mistakes I like the sound of retrieving, too, after reading your posts on that thread. A lot of it makes my head spin, but it still sounds like a fun challenge for dog & handler :) I sound a bit like I'm in a rush, don't I? I'm not though - just trying to get straight in my mind what I could expect. And after our first session yesterday, I can see it's going to take lots of practice to get my brain, body & mouth all working together, never mind poor Zeus! :laugh: Off to do some Googling & check out some dates.

Thanks huski, mrb & natsu chan. Short bursts during the day is certainly achievable for me. I was concerned I'd be looking at a much greater weekly commitment, which might be difficult playing Mum's taxi to 3 kids. The length of time to become competitive isn't a worry. I'm fortunate to work from home, so we pretty much do the short burst thing anyway. Good advice to get along and watch some events, and I will do that. Given that rally allows feedback/reward on the go, do people tend to start their dogs younger there?

Zeus had his first session at puppy school today which we both thoroughly enjoyed. Our trainer thinks Zeus has some potential in obedience trialling. Being a complete noob in this area I have no idea what this would involve. So I've done some reading and found there is both obedience & rally. I'd love to hear your experiences as far as time commitment involved in training for competition in each of these, & why you chose one over the other (or do them both!)

Mine is the very uptight school marmish Margaret Boundary :-/ Regardless of pseudonyms, I think there are some awesome ideas in this thread for novels! I'd especially love to read about mixeduppup's Candice Elspaso :laugh:

Thanks dee lee. Seeing the side effects is what's made me sit up & take notice. Many (many!) years ago I did work experience at a vet and observed an overweight Lab being spayed. The additional length of the surgery and possibility of complications due to her weight really stayed with me. In fact it was the only surgery I've ever observed that made me feel woozy. :-P

Yes, I can feel his ribs. I'm wary of the weight creeping on, like it does to me ;) So would I be correct in saying that feeding amount is something that's in a constant state of flux depending on life stage, activity & food type? Something that needs to be continuously monitored?

They are awesome shots! I love the first one in the second group. It must have been amazing to see IRL

I have a 15 week old Lab puppy & I'm quite paranoid about turning him into a porker. But after reading what you feed your dogs I'm a little worried that's what I'm doing! I feed Advance Puppy Plus, a little bit less than the recommended amount (according to their feeding guide, although who knows how much the adult will weigh at 15 weeks :-/ ) - that works out to about 1.3 cups 3 times a day. Am I growing a little boom bah?

LOL. No time for sitting down! We've got stuff to do!