Pretty Miss Emma

Wow, that makes it really hard for people. You may end up with people having to find a bitch that is of substandard quality potentially (because that's all someone would let you have on main/you end up going to a breeder that you wouldn't really choose but they will let you have a bitch on main) or you possibly end up trying to get a prefix with another person because they will only do co-owns (and I can see that being a nightmare!). That really puts new people in a very tricky situation and also puts those who have been breeding for a while in a tricky situation if they want to co-own but not share a prefix. It doesn't feel like this is productive to keep people (or entice people) in to the world of pedigree dogs, there will be a whole heap of people that will find this too hard and end up going the BYB route which is a real shame. Makes me glad I'm in Vic at the moment!

(note - I haven't read the whole thread just the first bit and the last bit so I may have missed some info!)

most people don't get into breeding until after they have been showing for a while. So not so much of a problem.

When I think of my breed I still think it would be difficult. I've owned the breed but only started showing just with my last dog. And in my breed most bitches to be on main register (from breeders that I would actually buy from) go out on a co-ownership. I would hate to be forced in to buying from a breeder that I really didn't want to because I needed to have a bitch completely in my name to be able to get a prefix. I know it is different breed to breed and breeder to breeder, but I think there is the potential for it being an issue. Not to mention what others have said about performance vs showing. Showing certainly is the secondary thing for me, the performance work is more important to me (because I love doing it as do my dogs!). In saying that my dog will be shown to get his Aust Ch. I just think it all gets tricky and for newbies it already is tricky to start with.

Wow, that makes it really hard for people. You may end up with people having to find a bitch that is of substandard quality potentially (because that's all someone would let you have on main/you end up going to a breeder that you wouldn't really choose but they will let you have a bitch on main) or you possibly end up trying to get a prefix with another person because they will only do co-owns (and I can see that being a nightmare!). That really puts new people in a very tricky situation and also puts those who have been breeding for a while in a tricky situation if they want to co-own but not share a prefix. It doesn't feel like this is productive to keep people (or entice people) in to the world of pedigree dogs, there will be a whole heap of people that will find this too hard and end up going the BYB route which is a real shame. Makes me glad I'm in Vic at the moment!

(note - I haven't read the whole thread just the first bit and the last bit so I may have missed some info!)

My old Emma was an RSPCA dog so we did the million paws walk each year. Her last year she was not capable of the walk, she'd been ill in a variety of ways, was blind and was recovering from pneumonia. We just made a 2 level shopping cart nice and comfy for her! She sat in the top level (closely supervised so she wouldn't try to get out!! But she wasn't really able to anyway) and it was most convenient as we were able to put all the other "stuff" we had with us in the bottom basket! She was nice and comfy, had so many people say hello to her and had a lovely day out!! And it's a pretty cheap option.

Other than that she just used to get walks on her own so she could amble at her pace, not get bowled over by the younger one, and do the distance she wanted. And of course I'd take her out places via the car. Often I'd take her to parks where I could drive to and Kenz could have an off lead run and Em would just meander around near me.

If he's happy to go ankle deep at the beach I'd keep doing that and playing with him ankle deep and then one day while you're playing just go a teeny bit deeper so that maybe he accidentally gets wet up to his knees, etc, etc. I found that both my 2 weren't really confident around the water when young (preferred to run in the shallows as you mention) and then all of a sudden once they figured out the water wasn't evil they turned in to water babies! Now I can't let them off lead anywhere near a body of water if I don't want them to have a full swim - regardless of the weather!!!

Just take it slowly do fun things in the water and he will ge tbetter eventually, he just needs to have his own realisation that the water is great!

I don't agree. I work full time and have raised 2 puppies. It's just about managing it properly. While Kenz may have a few issues they are nothing to do with me working full time. And Hamish well you can't get a much more well adjusted dog than him!

No, having just moved from the North-West of Melb to the South-East there's heaps more idiots with fireworks here than I ever used to encounter over the other side of town!!! So don't go South-East to get away from them!!

Oh dear BC, but at least you know and can work with it/around it now. I distinctly remember when Emma was diagnosed with diabetes, I thought the world was coming to an end! But it doesn't you learn a lot and you figure out what you can and can't do and you adapt life a little bit and it all keeps going on and you tend to make sure you make the most of those fun times just a little bit more because you've had a bit of a scare.

It will all be ok, because Stella has a person looking after her who will do everything possible to give her a normal life!

I don't think you have to stop beach visits all together, just manage them! My old girl used to get a bit stiff when I took her to the beach as she aged so we just had to go for shorter periods and I had to really watch what I did with her, it had to be an "easier" trip.

I put the fish oil capsules in with dinner and also mixed the sardines in with dinner. My chiro (who is also a naturopath and a vet) said they could have them every day, but again this is more as a preventative not to deal with actual joint issues. My dogs often get 1 or 2 sardines with their dinner, but with your dogs size you could probably give a tin each day if you wanted (they're about 60c a tin I think, I just buy homebrand ones!).

I said I would get a shelter dog, but it would have to be a working dog and most likely a BC or BC x. My beautiful Emma came from a shelter, I knew she was a BC but could well have been a BC x corgi (she had short legs!). Then it just so happened through a series of chance meetings of people who knew about BC's that I found out she was an ex-show dog, so I had gotten the pure-bred dog I had wanted!!! Well to be honest I just wanted the right dog, and that she was. But she did start off my addiction to the breed! So while I would do everything possible to get a dog from a breeder (particularly because I want to show my dogs and want to know the temperament to some extent for the activities I want to do with them) I would still be open to offering a home to a dog from a shelter.

I use fish oil with my dogs but no idea about dosage rates. I generally just buy whatever brand I can get that is reasonably priced and have been giving the dogs 1 capsule each (they range in weight from 10kg-24kg) just once a day. However, none of them have joint issues, it's more of a preventative. Something else I have been told that is good for joint health is feeding tinned fish like sardines and mackeral (the ones in tomato sauce or water not vegetable oil as that is the oil you don't want but you do want the fishy oils). Have you looked in to seeing a chiro? They may be able to give you some exercises to help your dog. The other thing is, if your dog is coming back from exercise limping (especially for more than just a few hours) you probably need to pull back on the activities that cause that to happen.

Ok, we're going to try really really hard to do it this year!!! Firstly with Kenz and then also with Hamish!! I know I've said it for the last year or 2 with Kenz but really I'm going to try!!

to you and Stella. I hope this can all be sorted out soon for you.

I hope Stella and you are ok BC Crazy. How scary. Best wishes from me and Kenzie and Hamish that all works out ok.

I have 2 dogs, one who likes to go and sleep in the middle of the lawn during a thunder storm!!! They don't phase her at all! Hamish - well he tells the thunder exactly where to go! I don't think he's scared of them because he doesn't really show fear behaviour, he just would prefer that the noise go somewhere else!

I have one of these that I need to sell. It's brand new, size 24, only been taken out of the pack to look at it, has blue trim. I ordered one and ended up with two! I'd also love a cool champions for Hamish but $$$$ is preventing that so for this summer we will be trying out this coat. (Oh and Hamish is a big BC, so I'm guessing this size would be ok on a Lab)

If you're interested I'm looking hoping for $25 plus postage.

So we were off herding this morning. We've done about 5 or so training sessions I think this year and I'm just loving it!! Oh and Hamish is absolutely addicted to it! Kenzie, well she's learning to love it and we're dragging out the little herding dog stuck inside her! She loves the idea of it she just struggles when she doesn't know what to do!

I can't wait for next year, I'm going to start trialling Hamish, and when Kenz is ready we'll get her in also. But Hamish, I just can't wait to see what he can do. he improves so much each time he goes on sheep and he just knows what to do! I find him really exciting in this sport and I'm hoping for big things from him. Kenzie well, I like dabbling in everything with her so we will at least do a little bit - whatever she finds fun!

I still don't really know what I"m doing (thank goodness my dog knows!) but I'm learning and I really do like it as a sport. It's so nice to do something that your dog was bbred to do!

I'm going to aim high again for 2014 and hope that we get maybe one or two of the things I aim for!!!

Kenzie...

Do the Endurance Test.

Get her HTM.N and her DWDF.S and maybe DWDF.N

Get her herding instinct test and see if I can have her ready to do HT (she still needs a lot of confidence building).

Trial her in Rally Advanced

Look at CCD (again! We tried once and we didn't like it, we might go back for another go!)

Hamish

Continue with our Conformation, get him some more points, improve my handling skills with him to help him do better in the show ring!

Do the Endurance Test

Get him started in DWD - maybe we'll try for his DWDF.S and HTM.S

Herding - We're going to try everything!!! Ideally I'd like him to get his instict test and HT in the first half of the year and try for his PT in the second half of the year. I think he has it in him to do this!

Maybe look at putting in to some Rally or Obedience, we'll see if I get around to doing some work with him!!

Hmm, I might need to find some time and money to make all this happen!!!!

I was thinking of heading up to Olinda and Sassafrass to do some Christmas shopping this weekend, but the dogs will need to come with me as I don't yet have my yard 100% secure (and I am definitely 100% paranoid about such things!!). So I'm wondering if people have recommendations of where I could stop off with them and take them for a walk and what not? Preferably not really skinny tracks where we might run in to other dogs just because that makes it difficult for us to get past (given that we have issues with being polite when we come across other dogs on lead, I have one who gets too excited and cannot contain himself and the other who would like them to not be near her while there are leashes involved!). Oh and I'm not fussed about off leash areas because I rarely let mine off unless I know the area well. Oh and to throw another factor in - not too far off the main road because I don't want to get lost!

Many thanks for any help!

Well done Wendy!! I didn't realise that, I love it when my breed does well!

Thanks all. I was hoping there might be something I haven't tried, but I think you are all right. I can't crate her, just bbecause if he knew she was in a crate he'd go to find her there! But we will just keep putting her in a room where she is happy and saying we don't know where she is. Soon she will be able to stay home sometimes and won't have to be there all the time (I'm sure she'll miss seeing mum and dad and their dogs all the time but won't miss hearing/seeing the neighbour!).

She's seen him elsewhere and totally freaked. It was an agility trial and I was almost ready to pull her out because I was worried she would run off. She was ok in the end because we walked off, calmed down and then she was too busy having fun with her run to worry.

Have tried LAT, but she generally is so concerned about getting away that she just doesn't care. And it's not the look of him, it's the sound of his voice, the worry that it might be him at the door, etc.

This is why it's so frustrating! If he would follow the instructions we'd be getting somewhere but he won't so I feel like we're constantly treading water in this case!

So, I have a bit of an issue that has recently gotten a bit worse with Miss Kenzie Kenz.

Since she was about 9-12 months old Kenzie has been quite scared of my Mum and Dad's neighbour. But of recent it is getting worse. I know what is triggering it to be worse, which is a combination of issues... she spend 2 or 3 days a week at Mum and Dad's while I'm at work (this is a necessity due to the security of my back yard currently), she can hear him from the back yard, he comes to their house and if he knows she is there he tries to talk to her (he's convinced he is a dog whisperer and every dog loves him and he refuses to accept that Kenzie is petrified of him).

We don't know what started this problem. As a baby she loved him and would sleep on his lap. But she ran away for a few hours when she was about 9-12 months and it was after this that I started seeing the fear behaviour. So I don't think it is something that he has done, I think it is just that she associates something not good with him for whatever reason and possibly due to something that happened to her while she was missing. And she really has no reason to be fearful of him (other than the fact that she just is).

So, usually the behaviours I see are the lip licking, panting, yawning, shake offs, whale eye, hiding (either behind my legs, somewher ein the car, somewhere in the house or out in the garden), desperately trying to get away from him (particularly when on lead), hyper-vigilance when we pull in the driveway, and she has toileted at times. When the doorbell rings she absolutely bolts to the back of the house and then paces and darts from hiding place to hiding place; if I'm there she will literally try to climb in to my lap.

I do my best to ignore (as in not encourage) the behaviours but keep her "safe". I move her quickly away from him as much as I can. We let her go wherever in the house is going to keep her happy when he is around. We ask him to ignore her and not try to interact with her at all, but he "knows best" and "all dogs love him" so this lasts for around 5 seconds (and we remind him everytime he tries to talk to her - so it's a constant conversation of blah blah blah, just ignore Kenzie then she might speak to you, blah, blah, blah, just ignore her, etc). Mum and Dad do everything the can to keep her safe and calm when I'm not there and it's really upsetting my Mum how anxious Kenzie gets, she wants her to love visiting her (which she does, she loves her grandma and grandpa, she's just super anxious the whole time because what if the neighbour comes in).

We're at a bit of a loss about what to do, and it makes all of us a bit sad that she is feeling this stressed. Mum and Dad try to make sure they're prepared if the neighbour is coming over by getting Kenz either outside or in to a room on her own before he comes; and they don't let on that she's there, or they just say they're not sure where she is in the house. They constantly ask him not to talk to her or try to go near her. She's such a compliant little girl, so she often eventually does go up to him if she's cornered and will lick him on the hand (I wish she wouldn't because then he thinks he's "won her over" and he doesn't need to take it easy). We've tried feeding her exceptionally high value food, which she will take (and I don't care how much of it he gives her if it makes her feel better, and she will stress to the point of not eating so the fact that she does is good) but again he goes too far too fast.

So anyway I'm looking for something else to try. It is not practical to say he just can't come over when she's there; it would be like saying your grandparents couldn't come over. So it is something that needs to be managed and hopefully improved. Plus he is someone who does handyman type work with my Dad at my house (although Dad always tries to coordinate this so that it is a day when Kenz is at work with me to minimise the stress involved!). But I need some more ideas on what to try.

Tomorrow Kenz is spending the day at Mum and Dad's. I'm going to give her some rescue remedy and probably some orange essence on her collar (I'll bring home my de-stress spray from work to have at Mum and Dad's also). But any other ideas anybody? I don't care whether she talks to him or not, I just want her to feel less stressed about having to hear and see him.

Oh, and the reason I've finally come here for help is that Mum was telling me she was really concerned about Kenz on Tuesday night (she had a sleep over there). She wouldn't settle and sit in the living room with Mum, which she usually does. She would just stare out to the street. She was sitting on Mum's bed for a while and Mum thought she was panting more than she should be. She couldn't find a place she was happy to sleep. And then in the morning she had an accident in the lounge room, which she's never done there. And I think what flagged this most with Mum was that the neighbour didn't even come over. I know she doesn't like being away from me, and we have also just moved house so she will be unsettled; but it's upsetting to think my little girl is feeling this way, and that my Mum is getting so worried about her.

Sorry that was a long post, but any ideas for help would be great!

Hi reactive dog owners! Just popping in to see how things are going and to give my little reactive girl a brag. Kenzie did her first dog dancing trial on Saturday - well there wre 2, 1 in the morning 1 in the afternoon. Anyway I chose to do dog dancing with her because she loves doing tricks so she automatically wants to focus more on me (even though we competed in heelwork, but there were still some tricks!), I can talk to her the whole time, the general good manners around the ring is keeping dogs quiet, keeping dogs away from the ring and people not being too close to the ring. So I was trying to put her in as safe an environment as I could. Also the trial were on her home training ground and the stewards were people who she knew - so everything was as much our way as it possibly could be! Anyway waiting and entering the ring were probably the hardest bits for us because that is where there was the possibility of being close to other dogs (and people were excited coming out of the ring and were rewarding their dogs). Oh and we had to perform off lead, so she was of lead for around 3 minutes all up each time I guess (sstress me out!!).

So anyway, I made sure we had treats and stayed as far as we could from the ring entry until we had to go in - this worked for us! Once we were in the ring I just kept talking and talking to her and she was allowed to spin any time she wanted to if it meant that she could keep focussing on me! So the end result was 2 really successful routines, both getting passes and in the afternoon trial she even came 3rd in her class!

I never thought I'd be able to trial her in something off lead!!! And she was a little superstar and manged to focus on me the whole time!! The only issue we had for the whole day was when there was a dog doing a really bouncy routine and she could see it from her crate - so she went off her hed for a little bit. But we went for a walk and then everything was ok for her.

I'm so proud of my little girl! From not even being able to have another dog near her without telling it to go away to being able to get her Heelwork to Music starters title doing dancing off lead!!! She is the dog I got to be my performance dog and when I started dealing with her reactivity I thought all that was never going to happen. But now that I'm choosing my dog sports carefully (and which trials I actually enter her in) it is possible and we had a great time!

Keep up the good work with your reactive dogs - it makes the "wins" so much sweeter!! I was just bursting with pride for my little Kenzie Kenz!!!

I just read this which was on FB, and it poses some good questions to ask yourself before getting a puppy and is a bit of fun to read! I definitely agree with the bit saying how many of the certain breed of dog have you met and how many breeders have you spoken to - good points! But it is a bit of a fun read with a good message.

Thanks so much guys, all very helpful and along the lines of what I have said too (that there is a lot of variation even within a breed, and it can be hard to know when getting a puppy whether the dog is going to be higher or lower energy etc).

Kirty I did mention Aussie Shepherds for that exact reason but it was in amongst a lengthy post with all sorts of info so I'll see if she missed it of if she's had a look.

I've made a few other breed suggestions too, another option for them may be a Lab but I've warned her that Lab puppies can be absolute destructo nightmare dogs when puppies/young adults and she needs to be prepared! :laugh:

If anyone can recommend any breeders that she could call to have a chat to that would be much appreciated! I know there are a lot of fad colour breeders in BC so would prefer some recommendations.

Would she prefer someone in her state or is she happy to go interstate?