Pretty Miss Emma

Emma was my first dog. These photos are the day I brought her home. She turned 9 years old about 1 week after she came home with me and I had her for 3.5 years. She was the best dog ever. She made me love dogs and all the things I do with dogs. She made me want to learn everything I could about training. She made me fall in love with BC's. And she showed me how dogs make your life just a little bit better. I miss her so much, but I love my 2 dearly and it is funny how I see bits of her in Hamish (her Dad is his great grand-dad!!).

I used to take my dogs to cafes because I lived in an area where there were plenty that were dog friendly. Now I don't do it so much (also because I can't afford to buy stuff at cafes!!) mostly because the cafes I would choose to go to don't allow dogs even in the outdoor areas. You have to tie your dog in an area away from you. There is no way that I'd be leaving my dogs in a situation where anyone could walk up to them, kids could run past them, other dogs could go up to them without me right beside them. I don't completely understand the logic of it as I think it creates a more dangerous situation than having the dogs sitting with the owners (even if they were to allocate specific tables dogs could sit at so as not ti interfere with workers etc). But I guess when the time comes that I have the money to eat out at cafes again then I will need to hunt some out that are my version of dog friendly!!

I don't like the sporn ones purely because I have seen dogs rubbing themselves red raw under the arms (they didn't care that it was tightening). I use front attach harnesses and like them. But really it is a bit of use what's going to work for you (which I know is of no help at all when trying to figure out what to buy!!). I feel that the front attach harnesses take a lot of strength out of the pull.

Tassie you and I are in the same boat!! I chose some music for Kenz to do her freestyle starters to and put in an entry and now I guess we'll have to figure something out!! At least it's only just over a minute! But yep along with training for all the other things - ooops, probably should have started planning earlier!

I have 2 BC's. I'm lucky that I can take one to work when I want to. But I try not to take them anymore than twice a week each because they need to be able to be away from me and each other. So anyway how it works here.... One comes to work (full day of working and doing things), other stays home alone. The one home alone gets a couple of Kongs, a chewy, some dry food in a bottle/treat ball/across the lawn or floor. Because of my living arrangements in the past 6 months or so they hadn't been at home on their own (and were instead having those days at their grandparents house!) and so I've been exceptionally concerned about barking and whatnot, so as a result I leave the dog door in so they have access to the house as well as the back yard. Both home together - they get fed their breakfast before I leave and they may get left with a biscuit. Hamish won't eat treats if he is left alone with Kenzie (she picks on him over food, they won't fight, but she looks at him and he runs away from the food!) so no point leaving treats for them. Again they are left with the dog door so they can access house and yard. Oh and if they are home I will leave the radio on for them. Regardless of what their day has been I try to get them out for a walk each night (although that doesn't always work depending on the heat and how busy my day has been!) that ranges from 2km-6km. We also go to training on a Tuesday and am also looking at other training on other nights. I guess now that I think about it I do generally do some sort of training most evenings with them. I think I'm lucky though, I've put effort in to teaching them that they don't need to be busy all the time and can just chill and they do tend to do that. Also I think that while I'm at work they really just sleep the majority of the time!

Definitely trained and socialised, but Kenzie can be reactive to dogs that she doesn't know. She likes predictability, and she expects that in a stay all the dogs stay. So far we haven't had an issue in the obedience trials we've entered, other than the whole dropping during the sit stay thing. But it is one of my big worries (and yes it is probably more of my worry than her), and I don't really want the work I've done with her undone because of a wandering dog during a trial. I would hope that the judge/steward would remove a dog that is wandering and standing over other dogs as really that is potentially creating a dangerous situation.

Hotdogs, sausage, roast chicken, devon roll, cheese, good-o's, dry food (but not the one they get as standard, and generally a fishy one), am going to give them left over hamburger this week!

I have to say I'm petrified that a dog will get up and move to Kenz during a stay. She would not deal well with that. I just wish there was more distance between the dogs and in all honesty in CCD I wish you could choose a sit or a drop, not have to do both. But that's a rule review discussion! For now I just need to work with the rules that are there and hope that the other dogs in the line don't decide to pick on my little girl!!

I have heard that giving them ginger can help, just as it does for humans with the same issue. Gingernut biscuits or gingerbread (obviously an appropriate biscuit size for a puppy!). But I do know of some puppies that had to be medicated to travel in the car while young as they were so violently sick, not sure if they grew out of it as I didn't see them as adults.

I wonder who polices this? As there is a dog I see semi regularly at shows that has been de-barked and it is very obvious, the sound of a debarked dog is quite horrible (I find it a more offensive and grating noise than the noise of an actual bark!).

I think the thing we find hardest is that most of our training has been sit stays with distraction, so there has been movement. If I put her in a sit stay and walk around, fidget, etc she will generally do the sit stay. But if I stand still, as is required in a trial, that's when she almost looks to me as if to go "well you're not going anywhere so I'll just lie down here"!!!! Frustrating!!!

A way I used to try and increase kenz's confidence around people she didn't know was I taught her to "say hi". What I'd actually taught her was to target and nose-touch people's knees or hands. But people thought she was so clever because she would go over and "say hi" when I asked her to!!! She also thinks it's a great game (because it earns her treats from me or the stranger). But for her it really just is a basic target training exercise! She is now much more willing to approach strangers of her own accord and is much more relaxed with strangers touching her - but I think this is also a product of age.

Stick with a collar and lead at that age. And as everyone else has said lots of training!!! I use front attach harnesses on my BC's, but I don't use them til they are around 6 months old and only if needed. I need to use them when I walk the 2 of them together - they just have too much strength combined when we head out on a walk. When I walk them separately I don't need to use them so they just walk on a flat collar (and yes, it is my laziness in training them to walk nicely together on flat collars!). Mind you even when walking together probably 1/2 way through our walks I could take them off their harnesses as they are more in to the "zone"!! I don't think harnesses are an automatic answer, but they are a tool in the tool kit if and when needed.

Thanks! You've given me things to play with and we'll figure out what works for her!! I have heard that BC's pretty much often have an attitude of "well I'm staying and why would I waste my energy in a sit, a down is much better to save my energy"!!! She knows what it means, but I think she just figures a down is easier!! I'm thinking we might start with the chair/table thing, she loves sitting on a chair so maybe the incentive of that might override the laziness of going in to a drop!!

Just wondering what methods you all use to teach a sit stay? Kenz pretty much knows what stay means. A down stay - no problems!! She will stay for minutes on end even if I"m out of sight. A sit stay however, well, who can be bothered sitting for that long!!!! She never leaves her place but she goes in to a down. We can pull off a minute or so every so often but generally we get to anywhere between 30-45 sec and you can see she just has this thought of "well if we're not moving I'll just lie down and wait until we do something interesting"!!! So just wondering what techniques you employ when teaching a solid sit stay with duration, so I can see if there is something else out there for me to try!

You don't have to do the whole cert III etc to become a microchip implanter I don't believe. From what I have heard you just need to have completed the specific UOC on microchip implantation, but working with/for someone who has higher quals. I could be wrong, but a couple of years ago that was what was able to be done.

When I have changed my animals chip details to my name I think there was a fee (about $7 or something) that was just an administrative fee. But I thought the chip transfer form did have the breeders signature on it when I got it (but I could be wrong!).

It sounds more like a Noisy Myna the Indian Myna are just generally thieving pests! As for a Noisy Myna, I'd agree in trying to put up some sort of barrier. Noisy Myna's are a native species, so really they're the good guys! And they seem to only swoop seasonally, so if you can put up a barrier for a while the problem should go away in the not too distant future.

My old girl was on Stilboestrol for probably 12 months then moved on to Propalin which was more effective for her. As soon as she went on the meds all issues stopped (she was also diabetic and the only way we figured it out was because her incontinence meds stopped working as she was just drinking sooo much, once the diabetes was under control the meds worked perfectly again!).

My old girl had to wear one for many days because she'd had eye issues and was at risk of her eye basically rupturing if she knocked her head, so for her it was preventative to stop that happening (she could only have it off if she was 100% supervised by me for short periods). Anyway, how do you manage them, well I found pretty much do everything the same! I made sure I had a big water bowl available, also I took it off while she was eating (kept the collar cleaner and she was able to eat easier). But otherwise she just had to deal with life with it on until her eye had healed!

My BC's got some lamb ribs last night, they haven't had them before but they loved them! They also get chicken frames whenever I get a chance to go past the meat supplier. I'll also pick up the dog bone packs at the supermarket sometimes. They love them and we've never had a problem with bones!! As puppies they got chicken necks, wings and sometimes drumsticks.

I have 2 BC's and they are so much easier to groom when they are on a table! At the moment I get my trolley out and pop them on there to groom, but I'd like to get a grooming table as I'm setting up the side of my house as a grooming area (the hydrobath is out there already!). I want to spend the least possible on getting one and will happily wait to save up the money, also happy to get a second hand one - they just don't seem to appear often! But can you please help me out... Firstly what size would be best to buy? I don't envisage ever owning dogs larger than BC's. What brands are good brands? And what sort of prices would you expect to pay both new and second hand? And where do you find them?!! I've been searching ebay and the classifieds on DOL, what stores though or other online places? Thanks in advance!

I actually really enjoyed the intro weekend seminar that Delta do before you sign up/enrol in their whole training course. I didn't do the Cert IV and have no intent to do so, but it was a great 2 days and a good intro to what they do.

My BC Hamish is 22 months old and still entire. He is still maturing, so even if I wasn't showing him now that I know a bit more about it I would keep him entire until he is fully matured. If I were having behavioural issues with him that would probably change my mind a little, but I've learnt a lot about dealing with an entire adolescent male in the last 6 months or so and I have a dog that is delightful 99% of the time. I chatted with my vet about this issue also. And while they in general are advocates of early desexing (I think mainly because there are so many stupid people out there that just need to have one litter, or he has to prove himself, or it's cruel - you know all those excuses that irresponsible people throw out!) they also recommended to me to leave Hamish until he was a bit older and more mature especially if there were no behavioural issues. She was of the opinion that in males there is direct health benefit (ie cancer issues) until they are around 6 years old, so desexing around that time is beneficial. I would wait as long as you can if you aren't having any issues with him.

A lot of people apply for prefixes before getting in to breeding. I have a prefix and have no intent of breeding in the very near future. But I wanted a particular name for if/when I do breed - it means a lot to me. Plus it gives a name to me and my dog family and I can spruik their achievements to the people I know! Plus I have to say going through the tests and speaking to breeders (as part of the process of getting a prefix) I think is a good thing to do as part of your thought/planning process if you are considering ever breeding. I found it a relatively educational experience (and partly because I thought it might need to be a bit more stringent) and it certainly got me talking to more breeders about all such things, and obviously there will be more conversations if/when I do get a bitch.