Gayle.

We have a fence between our house yard and paddock made from star pickets, dog wire and tent pegs (to hold it into the ground). It wasn't expensive to erect and it didn't take long. The original fence there was similar but had loosened up a fair bit with time and the dogs knocked it over. Rather than replace it, my husband built the new one butted up to it then tied the two lots of wire fencing together, which served to make it very strong. The hard part for one person would being able to pull it tight enough so that it doesn't sag. Do you have someone who can help you?

I consider myself to be reasonably dog savvy, and having an entire male in the same house as a bitch in season sounded like it would be easy to manage. Especially with the set up we have here. No pens or runs, but a large and secure courtyard and backyard, large house with separate entrances the dogs could use without coming face to face. In theory it sounded like a walk in the park. But nothing at all prepared us for 25 kgs of raging testosterone, all bundled up in a 10 month old puppy who was yet to grow a brain. One evening at the height of hell, I looked at my husband and the description that came to mind was "shell-shocked". Research didn't prepare us for it, nothing did.

I took my two girls herding yesterday. We had an awesome day. Dusty had seen sheep at 4 months of age, she is now 3 and hasn't seem them since. Shae is 5 and as far as I know, has never seen sheep in her life (she is a rescue dog and from the history I know of, she wouldn't have been taken to any kind of dog activity). Dusty appears to still have the instinct she showed at 4 months of age, but lacks confidence and when paired with a handler who hasn't got a clue (me!) it's all a bit confusing for her. She had two turns in the pen, the first one was more successful because we just let her natural instinct kick in. The second time we were trying to guide her and in true Dusty fashion, she just lost all her confidence and floundered around and wanted constant reassurance. Poor Dusty is a mummy's girl and a bit of a princess. I think she will be fine with a softly, softly approach but it will take time and patience. Shae, on the other hand, realised this is what she was born to do and went from strength to strength. She watched, listened, picked up on cues, disregarded my incompetent dithering around and simply got on with the job of moving sheep. She was calm, watchful and sensible. She was amazing, and I am now all inspired to keep going with her, get her HIT and then go on to trial with her. And we were all so exhausted we were in bed by 8pm last night, and now it's just gone 4 am and we're all wide awake! LOL!

That's awesome, Colleen, well done to you all!

How well do you know the breed? He most definitely does not have a feminine head. Nor does he have a puppyish head.

This is my Australian Shepherd boy who was desexed at 4.5 months. He is well within the height standard, nicely proportioned, not leggy and certainly not hideous. In fact, I'd go so far as to say he's quite a handsome lad. Really, the only thing he's missing aside from the obvious, is a thick ruff of hair around his neck.

My entire boy is going to be a stud dog for his breeder. I had the same problem a few months ago. Telling me to desex him wasn't an answer to my problem and probably isn't an answer to this one. To the OP, if you have someone who can take him and look after him for a week, your neighbors will thank you. Or look at boarding him, but it's pretty busy in boarding kennels right now. You have my complete and utter sympathy though, I went through the same back in Feb and it was like the doggy week from hell. I had to keep them separated as I don't want pups under any circumstances.

I have a young entire male, destined to be a stud dog for his breeder, so he will remain entire. He is well trained, well behaved and he's a real sweetie pie. Thinks he's a lap dog and loves a snuggle. When he was 10 months old, my bitch came into season, and about a week later my boy's brains went out the window, his balls took their place. It was like watching a movie in high speed fast forward, with the sound turned up. He went from a quiet, placid boy to a screaming, SCREAMING bundle of unfulfilled desire. He tried to climb a tree to get over the brick wall to the courtyard where the object of his desire was placed out of harms way. He barely ate for a week, and paced, howled, screamed, jumped, and did everything he could to get in that courtyard. He lost a heap of weight and he's only just started to regain it now, 2 months later. My neutered boy was in the courtyard keeping the bitch in season company. He was quiet, placid and peaceful. Don't tell me testosterone doesn't make a difference because it most CERTAINLY does. The bitch will be desexed before her next season, because I can't desex the male (he is co-owned and I show him) and I have no desire to live through that again.

Who said the dog was abused?

Oh my god, that is just awful. So sorry for you.

Vets wouldn't have a clue. Not one vet has ever picked the correct breed of my dogs. Most of them think they are border collies, and one thought Benson was a collie cross. He looks like a crossbreed to me, with lots of his heritage from pugs but not all. My best guess would also be beagle.

I kind of get the bad grammar and spelling.....I hate it but I get it. And I really get autocorrect because I often post from my iPhone. But the ones I don't get are the people who use words or phrases they have clearly never seen in print, and the resulting posts have me scratching my head trying to work them out. The two that come to mind are "au fait" which I've seen spelt as offay. And "per se" which I've seen written as persay. And the use of the term "devils advocate" when the person obviously has no idea what a devils advocate is.

I wonder what the numbers are on collies (rough), beagles, cocker spaniels and fox terriers. They are all breeds that were in abundance as family pets when I was growing up.

They are beautiful little dogs, friends of mine had one years ago and she was a sweetheart. I just looked on the DOL puppy listings, there are some for sale and oh my goodness, they are not at all expensive. Who'd have a mutt when you can have one of these for about the same price?

In that case, which breeders of previously docked dogs are now selecting for strong, well furnished tails with good carriage? That should solve the problem of tail damage in the future. :D Of course! That is the answer! Why didn't we think of that before? We will set up a laboratory, get all the genes represented in the correct quantities, and knock out the recessives. No worries - instant fix! Oh damn, I just had second thoughts .... what I really need is a few centuries to reverse those problem tails. But then again there will be some rogue breeder out there who wont do that and they will just come along and contaminate the laboratory-produced dogs with perfect tails. Bloody backyard breeders again, should be legislated out of existence. Breeders can spend all their lives dedicated to selecting the right genes GayleK. And just 1 inappropriate mating can undo that good work. Souff Well, docking was banned in 2004, we're now almost halfway into 2011, that's time enough for a few generations of dogs to be selected for better, stronger tails. But where are we after 7 years of no docking? Still debating whether or not it should be legal. It's not, it never will be again and breeders managed easily enough to flatten faces, shorten legs, lengthen backs....it shouldn't be too hard to toughen up tails.

In that case, which breeders of previously docked dogs are now selecting for strong, well furnished tails with good carriage? That should solve the problem of tail damage in the future.

Jut a question for those of you who are very pro-docking......and this is just being asked out of curiosity.....are any of you actively lobbying, or involved in a group that are actively lobbying to have the law revoked? And another question for those of you who work in veterinary clinics, how often would you have undocked dogs presenting with tail injuries? Cases out of 100 or 1000 maybe?

Balance. communication My dogs can communicate equally as well as one another. My NBT girl isn't keen on young dogs getting in her face and she communicates that extremely well to them without her tail. My boys both love meeting other dogs and both of them, tail or not, communicate their good intentions quite clearly to strange dogs.

My docked, tailed and NBT's are all pretty similar in speed and balance. Really there's not much difference at all except that one I have more to brush and the others I have an extra bit to trim. And the tailed one is the brains trust, but the other three aren't dumb by any stretch, just a bit less cunning than he is. I doubt that's related to him having a tail, anymore than his bouncy good nature is. None of them like having their tail, dock, stubs touched....the tail is a nuisance to groom because he doesn't like me touching it, but the stubs and dock are a nuisance to trim for the same reason. I can read their moods equally, and in fact I find their head carriage and ear position to be equally as good to judge their mood as their back end is. I don't care one way or the other. A beautiful dog is a beautiful dog, with our without a tail. But docking has been outlawed for quite a while now so it's time we got on with getting used to tails.

Well, the dog of mine with the tail is the smartest one of the lot. He's the one who leaps out of the obedience ring to get the treats and brings them to me in case I forgot how clever he is. He's the one who steals the other dogs bones and walks past me with his eyes firmly shut so that I can't see him or the stolen booty. He's the one who figured out within a few hours how to show the puppy the escape route from her back yard run. He's the one who barks at the front door so the other dogs will leave their dinner to see who's there, then he goes and cleans up their bowls. None of the others are as smart as him and none of them have tails. You can draw your own conclusions there ;-)

I've spent many years with docked schnauzers, I find them very easy to read their mood - the ones with tails are just 'shouting' their mood. I have one I will be rehoming soon as I can't stand her dopey temperament and her ever wagging tail. Wouldn't her temperament still be the same if she was docked?

I can't quite fathom how the dog itself is different just because it's tail isn't cut off. My dogs are intelligent, funny, affectionate, obedient (sometimes), friendly and awesome to spend time with. Tails or no tails doesn't change that. And I have a mixture of docked, natural bobs and tails. The dogs aren't different because of their tails.

Here's a list of countries where tail docking has been banned. Some large and populous European countries there, and I'm surprised to see South Africa on the list as well. They'd have a similar demographic to Australia, I would think......a mix of indoor and outdoor, and working and non-working dogs. Australia Austria Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Israel Latvia Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Slovakia South Africa Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Virgin Islands

Thought are with you, Jan and Clare. It's so hard when an oldie goes, they leave a hole that's a million times bigger than the space their little bodies occupied. :D

The only dog I find a bit strange looking with a tail is a Pembroke Corgi. I think its because they are so low to the ground and their tails tend to be quite thick and bushy, so it makes them looks twice as long. But I think they carry the natural bobtail gene, so not all would have tails.