kelpiecuddles

lilysmum both my dogs get raw bones regularly and live on a primarily good quality dry food diet. However Beau regularly gets brown gunky teeth whereas Sascha's stay pearly white. Some dogs are just more prone to gunky teeth.

do you need to have a membership of anyone to come? (VCA, KCC, etc.)

there are these little round human hair brushes that you can get from the chemist called a scalp massager or something like that. They are only about $2 and I have found that a good circular rubover during a bath(hydrobath is even better)gets the fur out pretty good

After thought - do I need to be a VCA member 'coz I haven't sorted all that out yet?

I can probably come herding guy as long as I can bring the troops (toddler who will sit in his pram and my non herding dog who will be tied up as I don't trust him here alone yet- he used to jump fences). Can you let me know the details?

That would be great Sparty, I'm at Bullengarook just outside Gisborne now

Wow how unco am I, I've just spent the last week trying to find out some info on the Lancefield club so that I could do some herding with Sascha and have just now seen this topic Can anyone tell me whether the Lancefield club has regular training and whether theydo obedience, etc. as well. Alo whether they have a website, contact details, etc. I am only about a 25 minute drive from there so it might be my best option for herding on a regular basis.

At the vet I worked at follow ups such as having stitches out or a cast removed were part of the original fee. However when my dog broke his leg and we took him back for his follow up appointments at my new vet they charged us $40 for each consult to check the cast. Personally I thought this was a bit rude since the cast cost us $500 and the checks only took about 5 minutes. Needless to say we don't go to that vet anymore.

I had another thought, I wonder if I could find someone that might hire me 4 sheep out of a large flock that I could swap over every now an then. They would recieve excellent care while with us and could go back for shearing, etc. I will have the trailer so transport for a small number would be easy.

It's not my property which is why I wouldn't be able to keep them there. The guy has horses agisted on it so I could probably squeeze three or four sheep in but 20-30 might be pushing it I wasn't planning on getting them until Sascha was more advanced but herding guys lambs might be about the right size by the time I'm able to practice with Sascha on her own. We do have chooks and she trys to herd them but I don't know how to train her to do it properly. Luckily my chooks do tend to flock as there are only five and they've grown up together. I'm like you, wouldn't be able to sell or kill them so they have to be something I'm happy to keep till their old age

I agree with espinay in theory although the only thing I add to my dogs dry food is an egg (still in shell) or sometimes some rice/leftover vegies from dinner. + raw bones sometimes of course. They have always had nice shiny coats but I heard the egg was good for them so now they get that as a treat

Ok so I'm formulating a theory here. If I can decide on the best breed for me I may think about purchasing a small mob and finding somewhere to agist them. I will have a 6X4 trailer with a cage and canopy so I can transport three or four at a time to train (ie. so that I could leave gates set up at the place I'll be living and then just swap sheep in on a rotation basis so that they get a break from the dog) I don't think there's much in the way of sheep properties around there, seemed mostly to be small hobby farms with horses, etc. So what I would need to work out would be - what type of sheep I want: I was thinking that maybe a mixed mob might work, that way I can start with the quieter breeds and then work up to the more difficult ones and then go on to herding all of them at once, once she's a proper clever sheepie herding dog So herding guys Damara and X's sound good and then maybe a few merinos as an easier breed aand maybe a few of something else. Herding guy probably knows more about the area than I do but from the one time that I've been there it seemed very green but without being soggy, if that makes sense. Plenty of feed on the ground. It's on the outskirts of Melbourne if that gives you an idea of climate. As far as upkeep goes obviously I won't have any of the gear myself unless I come across some cheap second hand, but I'm always willing to learn how to do feet, etc. I have just learnt in the last few months how to pick a horses feet and brush one properly and I rode bareback for the first time yesterday!

Why not give her a command instead. Kelpie's can be very mouthy depending on their breeding and Sascha certainly was as a pup. The only time that Sascha get attention at all is when she follows my command to sit or drop. Once she is quiet then she gets a pat, if she starts mouthing and getting excited I take my hands away and she knows immediately that she needs to sit back down. It won't happen overnight but Sascha is much better and it's also great for training them

Three times I have bought chicken (once breasts from the deli, other time wings and legs from the meat fridge) from our local BIG supermarket and it has been off. I took it back and suggested to the assistant that she smell it, she wasn't really keen

Damaradoodles

Well I'll be moving down in a month but I'd have to talk to the guy that owns the property and see if he'd let me agist them as I don't own the place (and I'm not paying rent either so I think it's only fair that I ask him first), otherwise I might agist them somewhere else. I'll be coming to the doggy school at Tulla, I have a feeling you're associated with them???

I like the sound of your mutt sheep herding guy can I ask where you picked them up? I think you are out in the area I will be moving to, Gisborne, not far from Tulla?

OK first off I would like to say that I am not going out tomorrow to buy sheep I spent most of Sunday watching the herding at Spring Fair and I am completely hooked. One of the blokes there suggested to me that the best way to train ongoing would be to get three or four sheep (or ducks but I can't stand them) to train with. It has also occured to me that as I am about to move onto ten acres I will actually have the space to do this once I'm ready. So I'm just wondering what breed of sheep is best? I would imagine that any breed that is used for wool production would require more shearing and this would be something I would have to have done elsewhere. So is there a breed that is fairly quiet without too much wool? Happy to spend slightly more if it means that I get a breed that suits my needs/lifestyle. I love the look of Suffolks with their black faces, but I'm not sure how much shearing they need.

What people have said about feeding what works for your dog is absolutely correct. After trying Beau on Advance, SD, Euk and supercoat all of which resulted in him gong hyper and having big runny poos he now eats Coprice, whcih costs me $25 for 20kg and looks great. He also gets an egg every couple of days as we have chooks. I have also put Sascha on Coprice and they both have great shiny coats.

PM kelpie-i, I am joining her dog club next year and she knows a bloke that does herding courses, Sascha dn I will be doing some

Now that you have mentioned it, it is starting to bother me I intend to take her through to obedience and agility trials so it might be detrimental in the long run. I'm starting a new obedience club soon so I'll get some help when I get down there. I'm not concentrating too much on this command as yet because I have found that I really need two people to train her in it so I'd like to see some different methods

I see your point Haven, the only reason I use a seperate command it because this is what I was advised to do at training. I think that I will use the seperate command until I have her doing it and then gradually incorporate the two until she only has one recall command, rather than confusing her at this stage.

Don't worry we don't push it at all. Yesterday was awfully hot here so she didn't get a walk before training last night (it had cooled down by then) she was distracted and far too energetic to do training properly so we called it quits after the first half and went over and played with the agility dogs. She even did some work on the equipment which she loved(no jumps yet of course), she did curvy tunnels like she'd been doing them for years and it was here first try It was more play than training and she had a ball

BTW thanks for the advice on the 50% issue, I think I will only expect recall from her when I have partial attention and then as she gets older I will expect it during more distracting situations. If I think she is not gooing to do it I will collect her with the lead from now on.

This is why I have not been placing too much emphasis on the recall under distraction, it's just that my three year old dog is hopeless at recall when there are distractions around so I didn't want to miss the boat so to speak. As far as training young dogs in stay,etc. and the worry of doing it too early I was actually quite surprised how ell she took to it as it is probably her best exercise. She sits there with a look of wonderful anticipation on her little furry face waiting for the command that means she can come and sit in front of mummy. I'm certainly not pushy with my training(if you met my other dog you would know ) she just loves it soooo much and I feel like I am kind of dissapointing her if I'm not teaching her something new. Her latest trick is stand, stay and she is getting good at it and will even allow me to do an 'inspection' At some stage I'll get OH to take some piccies of her training.