Gayle.

Oh gosh, you're a glutton for punishment, but I've been so impressed with how you've dealt with Tango. And I'm a massive Miss Pepper fan. One things for certain, if you take on this pup it will have a far better life than it currently has. Is there a registered Dally breeder near Launceston? Does the dog have a registered name and papers? I would personally not call it rescue because it's really not, but it could be considered a good deed for the puppy.

At the obedience club I attend, each level has it's own exercises and they get more complex as you graduate up through the levels. Puppy class is mostly about socialisation and behaving nicely on leash. They are supposed to learn to walk on a loose leash, sit on command, a right about turn and the beginnings of a stand and a sit stay. They stay in puppies until 6 months unless they compete in a graduation day.....they are run like a proper trial.....and get a pass card. The next level is beginners, and that builds on the loose leash walking, sit and stand on command, and sit stays. Then they go to class one, which is building on the above with drop, stand stays, right and left about turns, sit on halt with no voice command and 1 minute sit and drop stays. My little man graduated from puppies at age 4 months and is currently in beginners but we mostly go for the socialisation as I'm not fond of the current instructors methods, so we do most of our real training at home. I find it very valuable in not only socialising the puppy, but also talking to others who have a dog or three at the centre of their world. It's also good for learning how to act around other peoples dogs and learning manners in the dog world for both puppy and handler. Plus ours has some great social days which always involve the dogs. And it can be a leg up into trialling if that's where you want to go.

Piper, send a PM to collies02, she is the Vic distributor.

I won't leave 3 Aussies inside when we're at work, that's just a recipe for disaster, especially combined with indoor cats. I do take a bit of pride in my home and I doubt there'd be much to be proud of after a few days of dogs and cats left unattended inside all day.

My 30 kg Australian Shepherd boy has just a cup of kibble per day and a raw chicken drumstick. And the current kibble being fed is a mix of Uncle Albers and Coprice Family Dog, so not even super premium. Dusty is around 25 kg and she has about the same of Supercoat. I was sent a sample of Black Hawk Holistic and the dogs love it so I'm now waiting on a quote for a couple of bags to be freighted to me.

Good idea to get him to a vet for a check up though the week and get the vets advice. It should be easy enough to isolate him from the other dogs so that he gets the idea that the stim is coming from the barking and not from another dog.

That's disgusting. Truly disgusting. Some people have to realise it's only a dog show, in the grand scheme of things it's not all that important.

I have a friend in Sydney with a barking Aussie and I emailed her today because I knew she'd used a stim collar, and she said it was highly successful When her girl starts to get noisy again, she said she shows her the collar and she shuts right up.

Congratulations, that's awesome news. I bet you feel fantastic tonight. Did you get a nice fringie? :D

It could be just a shade of red. In my breed, red is anything from a pale apricot to a deep dark brown. In Border Collies, reds and chocolates are two different colours.

Sorry, I'm not a breeder, owner or exhibitor but there's a thread here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=110662

I'll give regular updates, First update is that it's been posted. I am thinking I should maybe put it on him with no batteries to start with, so that he can bark with it on and not experience anything negative, then once I add batteries to it, he hopefully won't associate the collar with the stim. I hate doing this, he's a gorgeous boy, such a lovely temperament and right now he's sound asleep in the sandpit and he looks so cute. But he is rapidly driving me crazy and so far nothing else has worked except bringing him inside and he can't stay inside all the time. And it seems that when he starts barking, his brain falls out his ears or something because he simply doesn't hear commands or if he does, he takes no notice of them.

Benson seems to bark to communicate. He does it very happily, his tail wags, he looks like he's telling you something, but it's just bark, bark, bloody bark. And he has that herding dog ear-splitting topnote to the bark. My husband went to let the chooks out this morning and he came back almost deafened having heard Benson's chook-tending-instructions for the first time. He really ramps it up when he sees the chooks, fortunately he can't get to them although he's given is a cracking good try. I have ordered the same collar Flaves has, the one with the recharger. Hopefully it will work.

That would be great, Flaves.

I've been reading up on the Innotek collars. They have an increasing level of stim but drop down to the lowest level once the barking stops.

I taught Benson to "speak". Stupidest thing I ever did because now when he wants my attention, he speaks. And my god, he can talk the leg off a chair. KitKat, does the dog have long or short hair? Benson has a fairly thick ruff around his neck, if I tightened the collar, would the thick hair keep it in place?

Benson is turning into a problem barker. Since we moved, he barks at everything. We live opposite someone with greyhounds and they run them in the paddock across the road. Benson barks. We have a pony club near us and kids ride past on horses a lot. Benson barks. We have lots of birdlife around. Benson barks at them. He can see our neighbors through the fence. He barks at them. He barks when he's playing, he barks when I'm training him, he barks when I'm preparing his dinner....and according to our neighbor he barks all the time when we're not home, and seeing as we both work fulltime, that's a lot of barking. Since I got some chooks, he barks himself stupid when he can see me tending to them. He is not bored. He has two other dogs to play with, he gets loads of exercise and training, he has lots of interesting things to play with, a sandpit to dig in, a huge yard to run around in and lots and lots of attention. His bark is loud, and it's ear-splitting. It is driving me crazy. I can make him stop barking if I am there with him, but as soon as I walk away, he starts again. I am thinking about a no-bark collar. Not the citrus spray type, I think he'd figure that one out fairly quickly, he's not stupid at all and he has a very creative mind. I'm thinking more the electronic stim collar. Which ones work, which ones are a waste of money, or are they all a waste of money and is there a better solution? PS, the barking isn't a problem with the neighbor as her son plays his music very loud at various times of the night, so we're pretty even there and Benson is inside at night.

Whereabouts in Vic are you? I would enter my dogs in more shows if I could get someone to take them into the ring for me, even a complete novice. I have two Australian Shepherds....my big girl is lovely and gentle and would be quite easy for a child to show, the puppy might be a bit more of a challenge but he's a happy boy if a bit wriggly. It's unlikely the judge would say anything to your daughter, they genereally don't give much feedback at all. And I once saw a corgi with a very obvious limp be awarded a dog challenge from a very big lineup, so if that's good enough for points what's a bit of a mouth problem?

We've entered Isaak for Sunday, we're 266, first cab off the rank but I don't know if I'll go.

The dog has to be on a regular leash, flat collar or harness and the trial is run on 3 different surfaces. The one I was in we had concrete, bitumen and grass.

I agree with this 100%. I cannot see the point of breeding litters just to sell the puppies as pets, I have to have a purpose, something to strive for, otherwise the incentive to breed just isn't there. The number one reason dogs exist in our society is as pets and I see no shame in anyone breeding the very best pets they can. That is some thing to be proud of, not ashamed of.

While I can see your side, I applaud those breeders who are putting time and effort into breeding litters of gorgeous purebred puppies for the pet market. Why shouldn't people have top notch, well bred pet dogs? These are the breeders who are truly doing something to stop the sale of one more puppy farm or BYB pup. For each pet puppy that comes from an ethical registered breeder, that's one less puppy that's sold by an unreputable, unreliable source.

Do you mean Dee_al? She is a friend of mine, the puppy is her boyfriends. It's very, very cute although I'll be the first to admit I'm not a staffy person at all. I saw her a few weeks ago at obedience training, her visits to DOL were sporadic before the puppy and I don't think much has changed there.

Some Aussie lines, and particularly bitches, don't have very long coats. If you like the Aussie look and temperamant, I'd be inclined to look seriosuly at a female. My girl doesn't have a lot of coat and I can go weeks without brushing her, then when I do she has no tangles or mats. The boys tend to be the ones with the full mane, the fluffy pants etc.

And why not? My dogs LOVE running beside the bike, and to be honest, if you're can commit to a couple of bike rides per week, plus other regular exercise for your dog, it's a pretty easy title to achieve.