dancinbcs

Natural instinct tells puppies to toilet as far away from where they sleep as possible.

I have friends who successfully use their Lagotto as a working truffle hunter at their trufferie in Southern NSW. That is what they bought her for but they also gained her show Champion title as well. The biggest headache with her is the fact that her coat is like velcro and picks up every grass seed resulting in surgery to remove some that have burrowed through the coat into the skin. They have to clip her very short in summer and search her all over every day to remove the grass seeds.

Pulis do similar work to Kelpies so are a very high energy dog.

Do you want non-shedding or low maintenance coat because they are the exact opposite? The non-shedding coats require the most maintenance with very frequent brushing to stop the curls forming knots and professional clipping every 6 weeks. Short coats require a lot less maintenance but shed everywhere all year round. Long coats generally have low to medium grooming which increases to high maintenance for a few weeks twice a year when they shed coat. Of the listed breeds I would choose the Poodle because they are the smartest of that lot, easily trained and generally friendly with people and other dogs but they do have to be brushed and clipped.

It could be Collie Nose Discoid Lupus but it isn't common in Border Collies unless the nose lacks pigment which is happens in merles and any lines using merles. There are a lot of pet breeders not taking enough notice of the vital complete nose pigment. There are some chocolate lines too that seem more prone to it as well as the more serious systemic lupus than the blacks. Collie Nose Other possibilities for the nose damage are a bite from another puppy if you are raising two together or that she is digging with her nose and taking the skin off. No matter what it is she needs to be kept out of the sun completely, separated from any dog she rumbles with and kept where she cannot dig until it heals. I you are trying to raise two puppies together, which is definitely not recommended, they should only have limited play sessions together and be separated for a good part of the day as well as when sleeping and training.

That's an awful story! So glad you were ok and thank god the two guys were there to help the other woman. What an a&$hole the owner was to just run off with his dog, I wonder if there had been previous incidents and he knew the dog could be in big trouble. It could have been so much worse if those guys hadn't acted so fast with cool heads and not only grabbed the dog but managed to calm him as well. This dog wasn't in a rage but was totally obnoxious and pushy with no respect for anyone and was the sort that aggression can be triggered in very quickly. His strength, agility, fitness and jaw strength made him particularly dangerous even though he wasn't a huge dog, just a normal Pitbull/Amstaff medium size dog. I think most dogs that launch serious attacks are probably this sort of nature and all it takes is for someone to panic, inadvertently arouse the dog further and disaster strikes. Some dogs are seriously dangerous all the time but far too many are ticking timebombs with idiot owners who just do not see the potential their dogs have to attack. All dogs can bite and that is the risk we take when we choose to have dogs in our lives but there is a huge difference between a nip or a one off bite and a full scale attack were the dog tries to kill someone. When I walk dogs in a public area I carry a short stockwhip that allows me to scare off most dogs long before they get near mine. So far all but one charging dogs have stopped and had second thoughts when faced with me cracking a stock whip. Only one, a Boxer, got close enough for me to hit him with the whip and that sent him scurrying back to the stupid owners who had let him offlead with no recall. I pick up my little dog and keep the bigger one close to my legs while cracking the stockwhip over their heads.

I definitely doesn't work for Border Collies. I put in 8kgs at 8 weeks which a few of my boys and one of my girls were and the prediction was 42kgs. Way out from the real adult weight of 17 kgs for the girl and 23-26 kgs for the boys.

The stand still and avoid eye contact works with dogs that are hyped up and ready to take you on. I was rushed by an entire male Pitbull a couple of years ago that came hurtling down the street towards me. I was hoping he would run past but no luck and he decided to launch himself at me, not in a particularly aggressive manner but not friendly either. If I had been smaller or older he would have knocked me flying and if I had screamed and flailed around I am sure he would have attacked as he was really hyped up. I decided to try what I had been teaching kids in schools and stood stock still with my hands by my side but he tried to grab my hands so I ended up folding my arms. He kept jumping and nipping at me for a while then settled, lost interest and trotted off when he got no reaction from me. I was about to ask some people in the house I was near if they had anything I could tie him up with so we could call the ranger but at that moment he spotted an elderly woman walking a old desexed bitch and bolted towards her in full attack mode. Her bitch ran around in circles trying to escape and pulled the lead out of her hand, heading for the main road. As the bitch came towards me I grabbed her and calmed her down. As she ran though the Pitbull changed his attention to her owner and knocked her over injuring her shoulder, then went for her head. Luckily two young men passing jumped on the dog and had the presence of mind to grab the woman's walking stick and wedge it in the dog's mouth as he kept trying to get at her head but the stick stopped him closing his mouth. This could potentially have been a very serious attack if it had not been defused so quickly. One young man stayed on top of the dog while the other got the lady up and brought her over to me with her dog and another woman. We called the Police and Ambulance who came and treated the woman. Unfortunately just before the police arrived a car pulled up and a guy jumped out, grabbed the dog off the guy holding him and took off through the park with his dog. He was told that the dog had injured the woman who was still in the ambulance but he didn't care or stick around to find out if she was ok.

Have you had your dogs tested for the MDR1 gene? If not you may be worrying for nothing. My Border Collies have been on Interceptor/Milbemax for 20 years with no problems but BCs are far less likely to have the MDR1 gene that Collies who need to be tested. We all used to use dimmitrol for many years before the monthly tablets came out. They do work but you have to be very careful not to miss one.

What do you mean that given the location, American Bulldog seems exotic. They are available all over the place and responsible for some awfully aggressive attacks.

When the bad outweighs the good and there is no hope for improvement, I let mine go. My only regret with one was not giving her wings a week earlier. I would much rather act too early than too late and see them suffer when I could save them from that.

Border Collies are very much breed snobs and much prefer their own breed. They can spot another Border over a long distance, even at a dog show with dogs everywhere. They get on pretty good with Kelpies as well and mine have all liked Shelties too. The boy I have now has a passion for Poms, especially baby puppy poms. He goes nuts when he sees them and wants to nuzzle them gently.

Not in numbers enough to support the idea they are black rather than brindle, hence why it's always been believed "black" doesn't occur in Staffords. Interesting. Now colour testing is more available I wonder if people with dogs that appear to be black or blue will bother testing them to check.

So two apparent black dogs do not produce black offspring? A KBkbr dog would be true black but carry brindle and would only produce true black to another with the same KBkbr genes. The same applies to blues. Do they not produce clear blues when bred together?

Death isn't an appropriate punishment for a dog escaping the yard. That depends on the dog. Acting after the event if a dogs attacks a person or animal while at large is of no use to the victim. Why is it that most roaming dogs are SBT, Amstaff or Pit crosses? Because they attract irresponsible owners. If they didn't let so many of these types of dogs roam at large BSL may not even exist. Councils have to PREVENT serious attacks. Any dog can bite but those with strong jaws and the tendency to fight by grabbing and shaking, do a whole lot more damage than a breed that nips and backs off. Punishing the deed is too late. This particular dog has not attacked but he has been caught by council twice and the issue would probably never have come up if they had learnt from the first time. I feel sorry for the dog but not for the idiot owners who bought a red nosed, brindle dog and did not think he might be targetted by BSL if they kept letting him out.

Do the "KB" dominant black or "a" recessive black genes exist in SBTs? Reds and fawns have to be kyky ayay, brindles are kbrkbr or kbrky ayay. I am just wondering if their are any black and blues with different K an A series genes.

Without knowing the condition it is impossible to comment. Breed is irrelevant. For any condition that can be tested for and completely avoided, breeders are liable if they do not do the testing. Age is irrelevant as many inherited conditions do not show up until later. CL in BCs is not evident until at least 16 months but is an autosomal recessive inherited condition. Before the test became available breeders would refund for any affected dog as but had no idea where it was likely to show up. All buyers were warned that CL could turn up in any BC and no one could guarantee against it. Now the DNA test makes it completely avoidable. In any condition that is part inherited and part environmental, all the breeder can do is any relevant tests that reduce the risk but they can never guarantee that a dog will not be affected as they have no control over the environment it is raised in. If they do test and then breed with dogs with bad test results, then they are liable. So the main thing is the condition and what testing is available to prevent it.

Double post

My dogs have always eaten all together with no problems. Even dogs that have not been able to run together and visiting dogs all come to eat together at dinner time with up to 6 or 7 dogs at times. It is probably easier with my BCs than with food obsessed Labs but the same principles apply to teaching food manners. Mine have always eaten in exactly the same spots about a metre apart with their own bowls. They stay in those designated spots until they are finished, when they can walk away but not hassle any other dog. No one is allowed to guard food and no one is allowed to eat from any other bowl unless I give it to them to finish what one of the others has left. I always stand there while they eat and hold the edge of any plates that are sliding around, with my foot, so they get used to me being close to their food too. To start off it is important to hand food out to each individual dog in their designated places, so teaching a stay for reward. Then put the bowls down and add small amounts of food that they can eat straight away and not have anything to guard. Add food to the bowls in small amounts until it is all gone. Gradually increase the amounts you put in at one time until you can serve whole dinners with them staying in their designated spot. Adding food to bowls teaches them that you having a hand near their bowl is a good thing. Feeding the meal in parts stops anyone gulping a whole meal. Mine now get some mince with additives handed to them, then vege mix with added chicken, beef or fish for flavour in their bowls, followed by turkey necks, chicken pieces etc handed out to each dog. In the morning they get a little dry food in their bowls. So they never have a bowl full of food to worry about. Teaching them to eat this way also results in dogs who will split up to eat bones and not bother each other. I still supervise closely until I know I can trust everyone to mind their manners and it has always worked for me. The whole idea is to make them aware that you own the food and control who gets what and that no dog owns the food to be guarded from others. I don't take food off them as an exercise but do teach the word "leave", first with toys then with food other than their meals so if I do need to take something from them they will drop it for me to pick up.

Neither have I but I was very careful to never walk a bitch in season through my front yard or around my area. To walk, they were placed in the car in the back yard or carried to it if it was in the front yard, driven to secluded park and walked there. The process was reversed when I brought them home. The only days they missed being walked were the key days when the dogs told me they were spot on.

Either a mature dog from a breeder with cats or a puppy that the cat can raise would be the best solution. Most Border Collies are great with cats and seem to understand that the resident cat is to be respected, even when visiting other homes. I had a cat with 4 Borders and the 3kg cat was definitely in charge. She also wandered through the puppy pen when I had litters and that made all my puppies cat proof. If you want to go smaller, Japanese Spitz seem to get on very well with cats as they are almost as feline in nature as they are canine.

I would never let anyone walk my dogs in the street but I do know someone who had her showdogs exercised properly by meeting a teenager at a nearby oval with the dogs and had him run laps with them while she watched. I was great exercise that she could not provide but she was still there and responsible for the dogs. She actually advertised at the high school for someone to take the job on.

I always had one inside and one outside with them swapping over or crated one or both. Housing arrangements may also depend on how much mess the bitch makes. Mine hardly made any mess and washable throws over the furniture were all that was needed but some bitches with more discharge need to be kept in an easily washed area or crated. Sometimes the dogs are better kept as far away as possible and others are better if they can either lie next to the crate the bitch is in or be crated next to her. Some dogs whine and carry on, not eating, etc and others are fine. They are all different and you do whatever works best with your male. As you get more experience you get to work out how the dog reacts at which part of the season and with mine I could pick the key days and only separated them for about 4 days but if you are not used to the process, separation for the whole season , until the dog is no longer interested, is the safest option. While most bitches are in season for 3 weeks that can vary from 2-4 weeks and even longer sometimes. They can be ready to mate for a few days, any time from day 3 to day 27. Again they are all different and do not read the books that say they should be ready to mate on days 10-12.

The OP stated that a small to medium dog was needed and a Border Collie is certainly medium. Some bitches could almost be considered small as they can weigh as little as 14kgs.

In her position I would be going for a calm, mature dog from a breeder in one of her preferred breeds. Many Border Collies could happily live in that situation as adults but not as puppies as could many larger breeds like Goldies. Except for Shelties, who can be very vocal, she will not find many breed with a similar temperament to what she is used to. Corgis would possibly be the closest but they are still different to the larger herding breeds. Lappies could be an option but I don't know a great deal about them. If she wants a puppy she should be looking at less active breeds, rather than smaller breeds. Often the larger breeds are less active. I know that Japanese Spitz often live in apartments but mine runs around the yard far more than most of the Borders I have had and runs flat out when let off lead in a large area. So even though he is smaller and easier for me to lift, he is still from a very busy breed. Other breeds I considered downsizing to are Mini Poodles, Tibbies, Schipperkes and possibly Whippets but I am not a short coated dog person.