wings

Thanks for the link, that was interesting! I sort of follow that line of thinking already, I'm always telling family off for greeting Tannin when she hoons up to us all bouncy. They think it's cute I guess they don't have to live with it! Always annoying when the family think it's alright if they just give her a pat anyway!

Thanks for the ideas I'll experiment with a few raw type things and see if those work and I'll find a rabbit fur tug. We managed sitting while on leash yesterday with no other contact between us, I almost fell over her telling her how brilliant she was! Thankfully in short sesssions she can be really attention motivated! It's like "Wait, so all I had to do was sit down here and I got to stop doing anything else and be ruffled all over and in the itchy spots with you using that silly voice? Awesome!"

She even eats her biscuits slowly, seems to graze on them more then sit and scoff. Only thing she can't resist is a raw bone, those she can't wait to be given and then runs off with them for a feast... shame those don't make good training treats! No attention span is right she'll be so focused on me and then suddenly there is somthing not there that needs to be stared at! I'm in a small town between Pakenham and Warragul, out in West Gippsland.

Don't stress? How does that work? We're experimenting with treats. At first it would seem plain dried liver would be the thing but she got bored with that after the first two treats. She has no interest in a biscuit bone. Now we're trying a treat bar, not much luck! I've been told to try somthing 'smelly' like peices of smoked lung and see if that catches her nose's attention. Good to know they catch on eventually, Tannin had treats in her old home but never for any real reason. It seemed to be more "you are here and so is the treat bag" rather then "you did what I wanted so here is a treat."

No real interest yet although she does have a few toys I swap around to see if anything attracts her. Attention works pretty well and has up to this point but I'm feeling really stalled, hence trying to find a new motivator.

My training has stalled! I have a soon to be 9 month old Kelpie pup that I have had for a little over three weeks. She came to me without much training (ok, none) and we have been working on the sit, drop with some success and the heel and recall with...some results is probably the nicest way to put it! The sit and drop are working well but only if I'm holding her collar, I'm having a lot of trouble doing this on the leash or loose. We've only just found something that might work for recall, and that includes clapping hands to catch her attention. At the heel she still pulls. Tannin also has very little interest in food rewards which doesn't help! How do you get through to a dog with little interest in food? What is a better motivator? Also I'm 'shopping around' for a good obedience group or trainer but want to find the right one not just the closest one... hard when you are rural!

Good point about the older dog, anyone got a grown up sheltie I can pinch? I'll probably go the path of adding a second puppy when Tannin is ready, I didn't get the full puppy stage with her since I got her at 8 months so it might be fun to get that the second time around. Would you say the level of training I'm aiming for before Tannin can start learning to herd would be a fair point to introduce a new dog? I know you say I'll know when it happens but I feel like such a dog noob at the moment!

I have an 8 month old kelpie female pup who has been home for a week. My aims with her are to establish a good level of obedience (sit, drop, stay, away and come all off leash) and begin herding with her as I live rural and really want to run some stock of my own. She's an outside dog, has a pen of her own and uses half of our very large front vernadah so she always knows where we are if we are inside. She gets about two play sessions a day, goes on a walk to work on her heeling (it's not very good!) and often I spend some time out with her reading (which means she is belly up getting a rub.) If I'm outside working I bring her along on leash or via teather unless I am working the horses in which case she has to stay back in her pen. I always knew I wanted two dogs, especialy since she is an outside dog which means time spent on her own. When is the best time to bring in a second dog? I'm in no rush to increase the pack straight away but I want to do things right by both my girl and the future addition so I really want to get the timing right.

Thanks guys, that thread is really helpful!

(Not sure if this is the right spot... if it should be in nutrition then sorry mods!) My kelpie pup comes home in a week and a bit (YAY! ) and I plan to continue on the diet she is used to, a twice day feeding of a good dry food. But she's also been used to getting meat offcuts (and apparently some of the best bits as well) from whatever her family was preparing for themselves. I really want to bring some raw food into her diet, especially some meaty bones but I'm worried about getting 'the right' bits for her. What sort of bones would be best for an 8 month old kelpie? What veggies/fruits are easy to start with?