Yes, I am alive! So is Mr Knightley!

1 year 1 month old

Woah, so long since I did my last post! I am sorry my devoted (and not so devoted) readers! That will at least change when we find a new puppy. This will be my least posting month for over a year. Shocking.

There are four or so reasons I have been so tardy in my postings. Firstly I continue to be pretty rocked by the whole situation of 'losing' Knightley in that way, and then losing the choice of that last litter was upsetting too! It is hard to find another litter that I am happy with. Secondly, not much has been happening really. I do some training with Knightley but probably not as much as I should, and no where near as much as I was doing. In a way I'm just waiting for the new pup. Thirdly, I've had a nasty bout of laryngitis for the last week, although antibiotics have helped me get over it much faster than I would have otherwise. And lastly, I have been doing a LOT of work on my Oz Working Dogs stuff, specifically the website. I used to work in the website industry quite a few years ago and my skills are very rusty, but they have been just enough for the package I have been using. Unfortunately my skills are extremely out of date. However, if I was to pay for the site I now have to be done professionally it would cost thousands of $$.

I also now advertise on Google for Oz Working Dogs, and Facebook, and that takes some time as I learn those ropes. On that topic though, go to the Oz Working Dogs Facebook Page and like me! You'll get discounts from being a friend of OzWD and can keep up with new products.

Knightley with his head chopped off in my new no pull
harness. It comes only in black - apart from the handle which
is red and black and quite sturdy and semi rigid. This was my
prototype and I am going to change the design a little but by
and large I am extremely happy with it. The straps are wide
enough to sew patches to.

In addition to vests, capes and harnesses I am selling all sorts of other bits and pieces now, from leather collars and leads, to Musher's Secret (protective paw wax), treat pouches, clickers, dog whistles and more. You gotta check it out for yourself to see! I've also developed my own no pull harness, which also doubles as a working harness. It has a handle, and O ring on the back, and is made of wide belt material. I'm also soon going to be selling patches from my site, which for many Aussies will be a great relief I am sure as they are very hard to get in this country.

So you can see why that has been taking up a good deal of my time. I very much enjoy developing new products, especially ones that work well and I can use! I have stopped using my Easy Walk harness in favour of my own.... not because I just want to use my own stuff, but because it works better for us. Actually I should come up with a cool name for it. I find the versatility of it makes it much more useful. We use the handle to help him up into the car, and I use the back O ring quite a bit, such as on his Flexi, which you don't want to do on the front O ring.

Another photo of my working no pull harness.

Knightley continues on his supplements and by and large is doing ok, but we overdid it a couple of weeks back and he limped out of the dog park. Very upsetting to see but it's hard to manage so he doesn't get himself to that level. I am a little worried about his elbows now too. His hips are cracking regularly and I thought I had heard his elbows occasionally cracking too but it's hard to ascertain which joint is cracking sometimes... but tonight he was on hubby's lap (and mine too partially, he's a looonnggg dog!) and hubby said his elbow definitely cracked. Sigh, here's hoping he doesn't have elbow dysplasia too.

He had a new meal tonight as part of his raw feeding diet - wallaby tail! It was a big hit. Sometimes I give him a large amount of meat and let him 'self regulate', ie eat as much as he thinks he needs and then he'll stop when he has had enough and I'll remove the rest. So I put down 1kg (2.2lbs) of wallaby tail tonight and it all went! And this was AFTER having maybe 200g (a little under 1/2 a lb) of pork earlier. So it seems wallaby tail is a go. It is important when feeding raw that you give your dog as much variety as possible, and wallaby is something very new.

I probably shouldn't have given him that much when giving a new meat for the first time - but there was a lot of bone in the meal and bone is a constipating factor so it should take care of any runs that may eventuate. I think I'll try to source some entire kangaroo tails. These wallaby tails were chopped up - not so small that Knightley would choke, but smaller than I liked. I would love some entire roo tails, although freezing them could be a challenge!!!! I am assuming you know what a wallaby is by the way. It is similar to a kangaroo, just smaller with different colouring. Some are endangered, but some are not. That is why a larger roo tail would be even better, if I can find them somewhere. Surely a farmer somewhere must want to get rid of some tails? So long as he took the skin off first though........ lol.

A photo from last year up at the snow. We were
at the very end of the ski season last year hence
the patchy cover. I had been looking forward to
seeing the surrounds with a proper dump of snow
on them.... but oh well. Everyone gets sick but I
can't risk getting sicker. Next year hopefully!

One major annoyance from being sick was the big snow trip I had been looking forward to was off the cards for me. Hubby went up without me, and it was really really snowy this year. I am sorry I missed it. I was pretty ill though, and my parents had planned to take care of Knightley while we were freezing our butts off at the snow, so they ended up taking Knightley for two nights anyway. So I was extremely lonely all weekend without my pup and my hubby. It was great having both of them back, although it was right having Knightley leave while I was pretty under the weather..... I was really too sick to look after him. My parents seem to have got on well with him, so it's good to know there is always someone who can take care of him if needed. He can be a bit troublesome, but he is a lovable dog when all  is said and done.

I am still trying to find another litter to temperament test for a new puppy but it is easier said than done. Of course there is always the option of straying away from the Golden Retriever breed....... but well, I would rather wait. I have my reasons, and I love them too!

Anyway readers, take a look at the OzWD site, and let me know if there are any products that need adding, or ones I could develop. I'm going to have a go at for both my vests and for normal guide dog harnesses. Is there anything else the assistance/service dog world needs?

Take care all. I'll try to post more often.

Happy 8 month birthday Knightley, a retrieve breakthrough and a new halter!

8 months old

Knightley's extremely illustrious ancestor, Ch Camrose
Cabus Christopher. This golden was an extremely popular
stud all across the "English" style golden world (Europe,
Australia, NZ). He appears more than once in Knightley's
pedigree, and looking at pictures online of Knightley's
distant relatives who also have a lot of Cabus Christopher
in them, I see so much similarity. He was considered the
'perfect' golden, and sired a LOT of litters, including one
for the breeder of Knightley's sire.

Wow, 8 months old today. I remember when he was just a fluffy little 8 week old! When we got him at exactly 8 weeks old he was 6.4kg (14 lbs) and now I am guessing he must be about 28.5kg (63 lbs), although that could be a little off as I haven't weighed him for a couple of weeks. He's still a bit short for a male golden retriever, so I'm hoping to see another growth spurt in the next couple of months. Feeding raw has definitely slowed down his growth - which is good. I wish I had done it sooner, for that reason, as well as many others. But he definitely is a fine looking dog, and I'm sure could have been a show dog if he had been chosen by a showing inclined family. He certainly comes from a long line of illustrious sires and dams, especially the famous UK stud Camrose Cabus Christopher, who features quite a bit in his pedigree (probably too much, I would have liked him less inbred!). He is developing a very masculine head, quite blocky, and for a 8 month old, has a good amount of feathering. His smooth trot is a joy to watch... I love to watch him move, especially at the dog park. With a trot that beautiful, surely his hips are going to turn out good in his 1 year old x-rays! (which will be a deciding factor as to whether he can actually work as an assistance dog or not).

We had several short training sessions today, working mostly on our retrieve, and we really had a breakthrough. He is now about to pick up objects (spoon, pencil, dumbell) from the floor several steps away, then walk over, place it in my hand then wait for the cue to release the object. We can hold objects together for 15 seconds+. I am very very happy with him! I can *definitely* see a solid assistance retrieve before he's a year old!

Training this type of retrieve is *very* different to just playing fetch. I am looking for very controlled behaviour, lifting the object right behind his canines, being controlled in how he comes over to give it to me (no boisterous running or anything), and only doing it on cue. Once he has this cue down pat with all sorts of objects including unpleasant ones like hair brushes, we'll start practicing it in public, where he will really be useful to me. I've always wanted him to be able to hand me the handle of my handbag, as I hate having to reach down for it, so I think I'll try sewing a patch on the handle, partly to mark where he is to pick it up from, partly to protect it. He won't actually have to lift up the bag itself, only the strap, and then I can lift it myself. This is similar to training him to pick up his own leash, which is another thing I will have to do (dogs have to do this in airports, for instance, when they are called through metal detectors). Once he has a lot of experience in different places with different objects, then I will start teaching new cues for different objects.... for instance picking up delicate things like credit cards usually needs a dog to use their lips and not their teeth, so needs to be completely retrained. Similarly for pieces of paper, so they don't get slobbered on. So getting a basic retrieve in place is going to be great, but it's only the first step.

I got two doggy things in the mail today. The first was my new halter, the Infin8 by Black Dog. I am very very happy with it! This is, so far, my favourite out of the Gentle Leader and the Comfort Trainer. It is very different in design to the other two, as it has a martingale collar, to which a figure of 8 thin band is attached and wraps around the muzzle of the dog. When the martingale tightens, the halter part tightens too. The idea is to start with the band tight-ish, and once your dog is really behaving nicely, you start loosening it more and more, until it's really just a collar. I am very impressed with the quality of the halter, it surpasses the other two, and Knightley is far less bothered by it. It was much harder to adjust for size, but once you've done it, then you don't have to do it again. I think it would have been easier for me if had been able to get the smaller size, but as Knightley is still growing, I opted for the larger - as he was between the two in size. It meant a lot of adjustment to get the big one to fit. Anyway, I like it a lot, and think I may have hit open a winner here.

The other thing I got was some kangaroo jerky, as jerky I had got in the past Knightley had loved - but it had been expensive pet store jerky. This was obviously a little more 'rustic', as some of it still had kangaroo fur attached!!! It was also like an eighth the price of the stuff I've bought in the pet store before. Knightley absolutely went nuts when I opened the package, and it has been a hit all day for our training. I have been hard pressed to find things to take out with me since I started Knightley on a raw diet. I would rather take raw meat, but I don't really want those sticky bloody hands outside the house, especially out in the public where I might be putting my hands on public furniture etc. This jerky, which is obviously very natural, may well fit the bill. Only problem is it's rather hard to cut up!

Anyway, the pup is breathing deeply beside me on the bed right now, sleeping soundly, and I think I might just join him.