piper

Relationship building - keep things fun and happy. The best things come from you. You could even hand feed for the majority of his food so that you build your own value to him. Collar grabbing - have a handful of his favourite treats cut up small and start out with touch collar, feed, touch collar feed. Build up a positive association between hand coming towards him and food. As he gets excited about this build up to grabbing and holding his collar and feeding. Start to use sudden rushing movements as you do it and always follow up with high value rewards. I used to get my puppy classes to do this as it is handy for teaching a dog not to panic if you need to lunge and grab in an emergency situation.

Just reading through this - you did not get your pup until 16 weeks and he is now 5.5 months so really that is not a very long time with you and it osund slike he had not had a lot of experience with the world before you. Do you know much of his up bringing until he came to you. Is it possible that someone was a little heavy handed with him? I would be looking at building up the relationship with you so that he thinks you are the best person in the world as well as doing collar grab games as suggested by Agility Dogs. And at this stage I would not be physically placing him into position. Keep training upbeat, fun and reward heavily to build up value. If he misses something just give a no reward marker and try again. I would aim for lots of short session through the day with a high success rate. If you are not getting 80 - 90% success rate then lower the criteria so he can get it right and build confidence. Good luck.

It's been a busy week but I have checking in every day. The waiting room is such a happy positive place to be. Toohey - thanks for the positive news and as much as we love your updates I look forward to the first update from Jed herself

I'm getting closer to a decision. I don't expect Jazz to come in again before about January so still have some time. At least I have a short list now and have spoken to the owner of 1 of the dogs.

Thank-you. I hope to always stand up to it as it holds meaning to me. For about 10 years now I have had a car sticker "Border Collies the versatile breed" and from the time I became involved in the breed have always been involved in multiple disciplines. At the first border collie nationals, my older girl Piper proved her versatility by being the only dog to place in all performance areas - herding, obedience, agility and jumping with qualifications in 3 of the 4 (would have been the perfect weekend if not for that last bar of the agility course!)

After a nervous wait I have just found out I have a prefix approved. Ulara All that Jazz HSAs will be the foundation bitch for Ildanach Border Collies. Ildanach is a gaelic word meaning versatile or master of all trades. It was my first choice as I strongly believe in maintaining the versatility of the border collie and will be breeding keeping soundness of body and temperament and ability to work in mind when breeding a litter. After 16 years involved in the breed and having participated in obedience, agility, conformation, herding and a touch of tracking I am proud to be a registered breeder.

Yep was the cheapest I found when I was looking for the pp40, and fast service too.

Yep - I basically wanted a reall easy target. Also I wanted something low and shallow so it was easy to just drop it and have it land in. The 2 things I eventually wanted her to release items into (a toy wagon and a bin) were both a lot higher and she has to be quite precise to get things in there. The clam shell quickly gave her the idea of put it in something.

I trained Piper to retrieve using this method http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html and I later trained her to put the item in a container. Ther are bound to be easier ways to teach the put in a container but what I did was get a large very open container (clam sheel in fact) and teach her to go to that. I did that without the retreive item. I actually taught her to stand 2 feet in it initially. I then added getting her to do that while carrying something and when her feet were in the clam shell asked her to give which she knew as a release and would click the item as it landed in the clam shell. Piper was very clicker savy and quickly worked out that it was the item landing in the clam shell getting clicked so started offering that without putting her feet in there. I then used a small container, all the way down to a rubbish bin to put rubbish in the bin (a foot pedal 1 to open which came with it's own set of complications but was a very cute party trick once we solved them).

My Dad sent me the link with the comment "video on dog sledding, something you might like to do with Jazz" so I was thinking it would be some serious video on actual dog sledding, but killed myself laughing watching. The dogs are just soooo happy and I love the techiques they use to get moving.

Yep, even though it was drizzly and muddy. I actualy feel for the beginners - the round yard was just a sludge pit, at least I only had to walk through it a couple of times to shift stock, not work in it for any period of time. Jazz's half brother kept laying down in it, yuk!

Argh, I had just typed a reply and lost it! We did have a good time - anytime where we get the chance to do some herding is a good time With the side commands I got told mot to think of it is left and right but instead think circles. For me that was easier as anti-clockwise is anticlockwise whereever you are on the circle, whereas when the dog is facing a different direction it took me longer to work out as I would need to think where I want the dog to go and what direction this is relative to the dog rather than with circles it is either clockwise or anticlockwise around the sotck no matter where on the clockface the dog and I are situated. I think though that was part of Jazz's problem today that she sees the commands relative to me - hence backing up and going around me at times and when I was in a different spot it changed the picture a bit too much for her. I am thinking I am going to work with a clicker at home and a toy and help build her understanding that way. ETA: Ness should be in here soon with news on how she and Kenzie went.

Well we enjoyed our training today, even if Jazz did get caked in mud and I got soaked to the skin. Jazz had some lovely moments and some down right strange moments. In 1 smallish area she decided she could not possibly go and get the sheep with me at the gate - would got 10m, and turn back to me or drop yet in all the other areas she would do it no hassle. The person whose place it was said she has a couple of dogs do that when the sheep are in that area too. Very odd. Anyway I just went closer and got her going. She did some nice casting work in the big open paddock and lovely changes of directions. Taking her side commands no hassle at all, then we started driving... We went to a smaller area for that so that we didn't have sheep getting too far away and her feeling the need to head them and control them back to me. She did some fantastic walk ups to push the sheep off of my legs and onto the fence and would keep walking up even between the sheep and I which I was pleased about - Piper always tried to arc back to the head once she was past me. Going on the suggestion I was given at the clinic a month ago I started by crossing her - so putting her in a down and walking behind her to initiate the cross and then sending her - that was all ok and she coped with that in both directions and from various distances. If I got level with her she would iunstead go out and around me which I didn't worry about too much as we were in a smaller area and she likes her space. But as soon as I took even 1 step to the other side so that she had to cross inside of me she would have real hassles and just would not go the side I asked. As it was a training session I tried sending her to the head as well as to the tail and either way if she had to cross me even by half a metre she would either turn and face me or try and take the opposite side. If I stepped back so that I was behind her then she would push herself out behind me in the correct direction. I probably moved too fast and need to spend more time crossing her, just she was doing that so well that I moved on a bit. I have to remind myself that she is so lightly trained and I am for the first time asking her to do something that is totally foreign to her so I need to give her time. I will say once we got them onto the fence each time she did a good job sitting in the right spot to keep them walking along the fence, much much better than Piper. A half brother of hers by the same sire was there for his first go on stock today and looks like he will be a similar worker.

Well done Janba!! I am chuckling away at his plucking deductions - sounds like he is worse for it than Jazz is. I find the ducks interesting, I was saying to Ann the other week it is like they are in a bubble and the size of the bubble is as far off of them as the dog works. As in Piper works close - within a couple of metres and they will come to that distance from me. Jazz works them from well off and they will come nowhere near me at all. So things I did with Piper don't seem to work with Jazz as it puts me in their way and they deflect off of me where with Piper they would move past me. Did anyone get any video? I would love to see some of good duck runs - we are all just fumbling through over here.

Than is FANTASTIC news. I am sure his owner is having a much happier home coming having found her boy.

Not sure if this has done the rounds before, but it is too cute not to share. I can see my Jazz would LOVE doing this.

Oh no that sounds just like me with my 2. Tull wanted to pick me up and move me around last time she said, lol. I discovered what works when working Piper on ducks doesn't with Jazz. Add to that that Jazz works so wide off of them that at times fences were in her way. Then she got frustrated and went for a pluck so went and hid in the Y chute and took time to agree to working again, lol. I am very pleased with Jazz, I just wish I could do her justice. She feels wasted on me as she has so much natural ability. We have hit a sticking point now as she can't drive so intermediate is out of the question rand we get so few opportunities to go and train that getting her driving is going to be difficult. Look forwards to reading a brag from you later today :D

good luck Janba. I hope you are less of a hindrance to Cole than I am to Jazz when it comes to duck handling! We get a rare chance to train on Sunday which i am looking forward to. Hope to continue developing her driving.

We reverted to 2 meals and using puppy food. So they would get puppy biscuits for breakfast and then a fattier bone of an evening such as a section of lamb flap. Ricky then got to the point he couldn't tolerate bones even in a small amount so he just went to puppy food. Another friend was told to use nutrigel as well with her old girl and she found that once she added that to the puppy food things stabilised.

I do. I started using it quite some years ago before the pet versions were readily available in Australia. I would buy the combined powder from the health food store and sprinkle it over their food. My old boy Reagan went onto that and had a 4 week course of pentosan as well as changing to a more natural diet. Prior to being arthritic we called him Tigger due to the way he bounced, I can't say which of those things worked for him but within a few weeks we reverted to calling him Tigger and he went several years on just a natural diet and the human glucosamine powders or capsules before needing any further veterinary intervention. Jessi the beagle whi is currently under going treatment has been having glucosamine and fish oil but was becoming very noticably lame hence the decision to see the vet and try out the injections. They have said keep her on the supplements as well though.

Hi Koemi, I pay around $30.00 for one injection. Simba has to have one every week for 4 weeks. XXToughgirlXXxx Wow, I am doing well with my vet - $17.20 per injection. Jessi had her third injection tonight, so far I am not seeing massive improvement but there has definitely been some improvement. THings I have read indicate the biggest improvement is often seen after the third injection. The vet said to us after the initial course of 1 a week for 4 weeks it is 1 as needed and that can be anywhere from once every 3 to 9 months. With 6 months being average.

Thank you for the update Toohey. It is good to hear that Jed is getting over another bump in the long road. Anyone for take away chinese for dinner tonight? Bought some and have plenty to share in the waiting room.

Sorry to hear about the setback :D I understand that healing from burns can be a very bumpy road. Jed will definitely be receiving many many positive wishes and prayers from the DOL community. Lighting another candle this evening.

Just checking in to say still thinking of you Jed. And what a beautiful caring waiting room you have. So full of positive , healing thoughts. I'm making a curry for dinner if anyone wants to share, hope it doesn't stink the waiting room out too much.

1 of my border collies gets just under a level cup of food and the beagle a fair bit less. Good luck with getting the weight off of her and helping to improve her quality of life. Reduced weight and improved muscle tone will hopefully see her much more comfortable. I'm not sure if supplements like glucosamine and fish oil would help in your girl's case.