sheena

I have one that starts off in my bedroom on the floor next to my bed then sometime during the night she moves out to her own room & her own bed. My second dog sleeps in his crate in his own room. I don't think I would sleep very well if I had a dog on the bed with me...I am a very light sleeper Both dogs know that beds are out-of-bounds.

What I have bolded...I think you have hit the nail on the head. I took my BC girl to puppy school & this happened & also I allowed her to just run with any other dog that wanted to play & IMO it ruined her. Maybe some dogs can take free play & some can't. I do agility with her & for a long time I was frustrated with even trying to keep her on the same course, she was so distracted & just wanted to run & play/chase the other dogs/kids/whatever. I learnt how to clicker train & worked on her with a programme called LAT (Look At That) & now she such a little angel & is up into Masters level at agility, so I couldn't be happier. I still revisit LAT when we first arrive at a trial or training but it doesn't take her long to settle. The only dog she is allowed to run free with is our new BC dog. He never went to puppy school & we havn't allowed him to run with strangers & he is just such a cool dog. :) If you do a search for Look At That on this forum, you will find heaps about it. But before you start, I would advise learning how to use the cliker to train your dog.

Who

This I just didn't want to be the first one to say it :laugh:

I am wanting to introduce it as a formal beginning to our training sessions each week. Thought we should start off with a bit of hand touching, spins & flatwork (running with the dog doing turns in & away from the dog in heel position)...maybe even some drops in a line then recalls. Wraps around cones or over low jumps...any more suggestions. And anyone who deliberatly comes late to class just because they only want to do the sexy stuff...well..watch out

As Pers. said, puppies do not know what NO means. The best way I have found to stop a pup from barking is get onto it very early & use either a squirt water bottle at the same time as your growly sharp "no" or one of those hand held ultrasonic devices & use it the same way. They learn pretty quick with the UD & with my guys one or two barks & they never nuisance barked again. Now they only bark in play or if something is serious. You can only use the UD if you only have the one dog present for obvious reasons & make sure the cat is not in the room. It doesn't hurt them & only they can hear it. It distracts them & they don't like it so they learn to stop pretty quickly. You can get them off Ebay for around $20.

My two BC's zoom together in the back yard & they have my lawn & yard looking like a BMX track. Two tracks...the one that the leading dog takes & there is another one that the herding dog takes, Always the same way & sometimes they will swap. They are not allowed to zoom in the house though

Yep...that s the one I bought from HomeArt & it is good. Another BC owner on DOL bought one too & her dogs like it

I have tried it myself, & it really does stay cool. Not sure if I would trust it with a dog that might chew, but they look fairly tough for a normal dog. They say the gel is non toxic, but it could probably make a big mess :laugh: I think they would be great for crates.

Well done.....a word of warning though...it does become adictive Just remember it doesn't happen overnight, so sit back & enjoy the journey... you wont be disapointed. Every dog is different & IMO that's what makes it so much fun. :)

I bought one the same as this Gel Cooling Mat 50 x 90 from HomeArt for just $30 & it came with a smaller bonus one. No filling with water, it contains a nontoxic gel that cools when your dog lies on it. They also had them for humans.

I would like my agility class to be doing some regular, without fail, warm up excercises before their training session. Unfortunately, some of them just want to get into the sexy stuff, so the pressure is always on, to "get on with it". I am going to put my foot down & I have the support of the head instructor. Does your club do regular flat work before a training session, & if so what do you do. My class is mixed with most being just intermediate (novice) but a couple are advanced they are the ones who want to skip the warm up session.

Amazing isn't it We use a $180 brush on our dogs & $2 comb on ourselves. I can understand why some people think us "dog" people are completely nuts :laugh:

My Mason Pearson brush arrived....but it is too good to use on the dogs I might have to order another one :D

Is she on Advantix ??? Advantix is supposed to repel mozzies & biting flies.

You NEVER know when you might have an emergency & need an ambulance. You may be attending to someone inside your house who has had a heart attack or been electrocuted or anything & you wont be able to leave the patient after calling the ambulance to clear your front yard of a dog who MIGHT be perseaved as aggressive by an emergency worker. Might be far fetched example, but it does happen, so people with authority should have unobstructed access to your front door. So putting a lock on the front gate is not going to help either in an emergency. I can fully understand the concerns of the little girl's mother. Her concerns for her little girl have nothing to do with her own two dogs behaviour....that is a completely seperate issue. Did the lady with the lab file a complaint against her two dogs??

As others have said...ask your breeder what they recommend. I raised my Border Collie pup on Black Hawk Adult food from the time I got him at 10 weeks. He is now nearly two years old & has grown well & is fit & healthy

must check them out :)

I never buy meat from woolies, they are always double the price of any butchers I can find. Unfortunately, when you live in a rural area, you don't have much choice. Woolies is the only place/butcher in our region that I can get it from. I don't mind paying Woolies prices for it...I am only glad that they stock it :) I rarely buy my meat from Woolies as I have a wholesale butcher I get our meat from, or we cut up our own cow...it's just turkey necks from Woolies.

He'd try to and I had to pull it from his mouth and he's not very happy about that. Haven't tried frozen so I'll do that and also try the chicken frames, thanks :) Can you find turkey at Woolies? I don't think I've ever seen those at my local butcher's. I get my turkey from Woolies, that's the only place I have seen it.

She is soooooo pretty & looks very happy. Is she hard to keep clean or do JS have a teflon coat. :) Love the name too, that was a name I had picked out for my last puppy, till we decided to get a boy.

Not sure, but in NSW I think the minimum age is 12, but you could look up the Dogs NSW web page & it should tell you.

Have you given any thought to learning how to clicker train...it is easy & the best way to train new things :)

Not real sure why you would choose Milan methods of training. I havn't seen much of his that I would be inclined to use. Why would you teach non-verbal cues. so when your puppy sits & waits for his bowl to be put down, how do you release him if you hve no verbal cue Also, what are you doing when you say you are "maintaining boundaries". I agree that saying "no" to a puppy a thousand times a day, could mean anything to the pup. You normally put a cue word on a behaviour after the pup learns the behaviour. EG. when teaching it to sit, you shape the behviour first then put the cue word "sit" to it. I would recommend to anyone with a new pup, that they get into "clicker training". Also there are some great books & DVD's around for puppies..."the Focused Puppy" is great. All of them use "positive" training methods only.

You could always get a border collie breeder to choose a pup especially to suit your circumstances. I couldn't live without my BC's & wouldn't go for any other breed. I like Paps, for a small breed.