DeltaCharlie

I have lots of working BC photos I could share :) Most of our breeding lines are main registered so could be bred with show lines if we wanted to. Although the sire we used for our last 2 litters was Sporting Registered so his pups are too. Sweep and Link (both Main Registered) Whip (also Main Registered) And because who doesn't love a puppy- Whip (MR) Boost (Main Registered) Dash (Sporting Registered) Family photos Porter (litter 1) Shock (litter 2) Rush (litter 1) Link (Mum) Fuze (litter 2) Sean (Dad) Cian (litter 2) Rush (litter 1) Fuze (litter 2) Shock (litter 2) I think the pups were about 7 months old here. Not the clearest photo, I can't find the original so this is a screenshot. Sean (Dad) Rush (litter 1) Link (Mum) Flyte (litter 1) Cruize (litter 1) Plus my signature has the older guys in it, just missing the youngest 3.

Dogs pick up on contextual and body cues so much better than verbal anyway. Tailwag and I have different commands for everyday things (wait vs stay, drop vs down, free vs OK) as well as different agility commands (not just names for obstacles, but also for direction changes and tight turns). The dogs work it out LOL I knew an agility handler who used the word "back" for everything- move laterally away and hold the line, turn away for a rear cross, take the far side of a jump, perform a serpentine, and in some situations it meant come closer LOL Her dogs always seemed to know what she wanted, even if spectators didn't :laugh:

We travel to and from paralysis tick areas all the time for agility trials and not once have we ever been asked about them.

DeltaCharlie, do you not remember Dimmitrol? This was the first heartworm preventative before the monthly ones came out. How long ago? I only got my first dog Cody in 2005 :)

We use interceptor on ours so can't help there, I was just curious as to which heartworm tablets you are currently using? I don't know of any daily ones. What have you been using previously for worming?

Oh, and if he is only 9months old and has learnt that insisting on something works you are in for a lifetime of hurt with him LOL If ours demand anything they tend to get put into a crate or put outside where they can insist all they like but we can't see it :)

Throwing a ball does not count :) It's still physical. I'm talking training as in teach him tricks, teach him some obedience, take him to obedience classes perhaps, things that make him think but don't really require him to work hard physically.

Retrieving and Gundog work is done in an environment where they are required to jump and twist. There are no rabbits on flat open spaces like ovals. Fully aware of that :laugh: I shared a property with a working lab owner for many years and saw the work her dogs did. Some were built to do agility too, some were not. What I meant is that the demands of an agility course are a little different to the demands of a hunting ground. It is no different to the demands of a sheepdog differing to those of an agility dog, we are careful with the structure we seek to ensure it is compatible with both. Many working dogs are not structurally ideal for agility either. I know of many people who see the word "working" (be it kelpie, border collie, Labrador, cocker spaniel or ess) and just assume that it is the golden key to success in agility. They don't take into account whether the dog is bred for it, is structurally suited to it, or even physically capable of it. Then it is the poor dogs that suffer. I am talking about the people that are then training agility a few times a week, competing on weekends, and expecting their dog to still be structurally sound at 15.

That seems like a lot of walking to me, our working border collies are lucky to get 30mins a week. At 9 months of age they certainly wouldn't be walking that far. Have you tried doing some training and mental activities with him to wear him out as opposed to physical exercise. All you are doing by walking him longer is making him fitter, and therefore needing to be walked longer again. It is a very vicious cycle :laugh:

There was a lady who moved to Canberra from WA with her working cocker just before we moved away from the area so we only saw it at training for a few months. Seemed like a great little dog and had a lovely temperament and quite drivey. The longer body would probably put me off them for a performance dog, although being a smaller breed the longer back might not impact on them as much as it would in a big dog. They are obviously built for retrieving and gundog work, not jumping and twisting in the air repeatedly for their entire life.

Pretty sure Kelly doesn't randomly train other dogs :) She just enjoys performing with her own guys.

why not hang on to them for the extra two weeks ?. It's in their best interests to be vaccinated at 8 weeks plus and I've never had an issue with a puppy buy when we explain why we vaccinate a few weeks later. Out of the 7 pups we have bred (across 2 litters), 3 stayed with us permanently and 2 didn't go to their new homes until after 12 weeks. So most of them have actually been done later :)

With puppies we keep ourselves we never give their first vaccination until at least 9 weeks. Anything before that is usually unnecessary as it is rare for Mum's immunity to wear off before then. With pups we sell, they unfortunately need to be done at 6 weeks as the ANKC regs state they need to be done 2 weeks prior to rehoming. Such a waste pumping stuff into them at that age

Smisch works there, perhaps she would be interested?

Hahahaha, we are forever telling Sweep that it will fall off if he licks it too much. The other boys don't seem to ever lick though. When I got my first dog Cody, I had my heart set on a girl. Everyone had told me they make better pets, won't pee on everything etc etc. Nobody had girls so I got the boy instead, after being told it would be ok as long as I desexed him before 9months (he was done at 6months). He was predominantly an outside dog anyway so I couldnt tell you how much he marked, but he never pissed on anything at training or caused "boy issues". When I got Delta I was told by a few people that the girls were more expensive because they could be bred and youu recoup the extra money that way... As far as performance sports go and the BC lines that we prefer, a female is definitely the better option. They mature faster, are more sensible, and learn faster (due to being 100% on the job and not goofy, nothing to do with brain capacity). Other BC lines are different, but this is the tendency for our dogs. Always exceptions of course, we had a male out of our first litter that was a dual national champion at 18months in his 2nd ever agility trial. Whip was 3.5 when we finally started to settle down and work nicely, there was no way he was ready to trial at 18months. All our girls have been though. Regardless, I prefer the boys. I love the snuggly, "I'd do anything for you" attitude of them and as far as I am concerned I need to love the dog I live with, that is my first priority, performance maturity comes 2nd in importance. Tailwag prefers the girls and their independence and focus on the task at hand, so it works out pretty well. I have the males, she has the females :)

He does a great job :) We are looking at doing it ourselves anyway, the ute already has a canopy so we only need the front gates and a dividing panel made. Just don't have the equipment to do it properly yet.

I tried that logic with Cody (a very fearful dog who hated other dogs in his space when on lead). Unfortunately Jo Public just assumed it meant he was aggressive towards people so would stand a lead's length away and allow their dog to go up to him This was at obedience/agility training too, where people should at least know a little better... When out with my dogs I work on 2 principles- every person is an idiot and every dog is poorly socialised. I would prefer to assume the worst and be pleasantly surprised than the other way around. I don't allow other dogs into our space and have been known to take a boot to a dog that was hassling mine (usually attached to an oblivious owner, but sometimes a km down the beach from the owner). I got into an argument a few years ago with someone at Petfest in Sydney. We were running flyball that day and I had only picked Whip up from the breeders the night before so it was a huge day for a young dog (he was 10-11 weeks old). He was crated next to the C-crate pens that housed the others and all were under the gazebo area which had been protected by sides until pack-up time. Some lady insisted on bringing her dog right up to the crate and allowing her kids to put their fingers in to pat the puppy. I asked her repeatedly to take her dog away to which she insisted "I am, I am" yet the dog was still straining the collar and right up against the crate. Seemed like a nice enough dog but hardly an experience I wanted for my new puppy. I ended up forcing my body between crate and dog and used it to force the dog to get back away from Whip. Our other dogs were going spare by this point at the thought of a strange dog encroaching on their space. The ironic thing about it all is that had she asked nicely I would have jumped at the opportunity to get Whip out of the crate to meet her kids and get pats and treats from them. Instead, I had to turn into a crazy woman and scare them all away.

Would he be interested in making more? There is definitely a business for it in the dog world and we are looking for someone who could build cages into the back of our ute :)

Could be his way of saying he doesn't want the fun to end, ours know when it is bedtime too and can dig their heels in. Is a doggy door an option? If it were me, I would give him one chance to come in and close the door on him if he doesn't. Wait 5mins, try again, if he still refuses close the door and leave him out there. He will work out soon enough that you aren't playing his game anymore. One of mine would prefer to stay out given the choice (but yard isn't dog proof so can't).

Could be his way of saying he doesn't want the fun to end, ours know when it is bedtime too and can dig their heels in. Is a doggy door an option? If it were me, I would give him one chance to come in and close the door on him if he doesn't. Wait 5mins, try again, if he still refuses close the door and leave him out there. He will work out soon enough that you aren't playing his game anymore. One of mine would prefer to stay out given the choice (but yard isn't dog proof so can't).

Sorry, I didn't explain very well, probably because I don't actually know what it is that is throwing me off as the shot itself is a great one. I think maybe it is the dog that is off-balance, is she turning slightly rather than running straight? I can't put my finger on it, like her back is closer to the camera than her feet are (like a motorbike turning a corner?), perhaps it is just an optical illusion, I'm not sure what it is sorry Like I said though, I think they are great shots and a stunning subject to boot :)

I like #2, the first one is a little off-balance and my mind can't quite relax and enjoy it (hard to explain sorry). Great shots :)

Same as the poster above, we read somewhere that it was recommended not to put them on immediately and so that is just what we do now. I'm sure there is no need for it, but we still do it anyway :)

We sit ours on the bench for 24hrs too :)

We use them on our little dogs (2.5kg and 5kg) and have had no problems. We were initially worried and stuck with advantix for them but after speaking to quite a few vets they all assured us that they were no longer seeing any problems with tick collars on small dogs after the company had made adjustments to them in response to earlier problems. We just use the offcuts from the border collies and cable tie them on :) At ages 15 and 13 they rarely go swimming so no need to remove them often. We kept a close eye on them at first but no issues whatsoever with them.