kylieandpossum

hmmm yes i see.....very nice.....and its good that hes calm! some of the things you describe you can teach a flyball dog, like toy and ball drive, its sometimes better if they dont come with too much of that already. there will definately be someone at castle hill who would want him for flyball, although the...um...competitor in me doesnt want them to have anymore height dogs than they already have i would take him right now if i wasnt renting and could squeeze another one. im sure he will find somewhere soon, he looks adorable

GREAT WORK SAS Hope it works out for Cobber soon hes so cute....for flyball purposes anything with a BC cross is highly desirable - does he have longer than usual cocker legs? any idea if hes a fast mover? he has attracted some attention in flyball circles!

hmm maybe. its interesting that she works your ducks and chooks and not other peoples! that sounds like a very nice way of working them, a really nice approach. it does sound to me like she doesnt know that sheep can be moved in the same way. i dont see any reason why she wouldnt learn it tho. maybe shes a three sheep dog, which is 'unusual' for koolies, given the need for movement, but maybe try that. 3 are much less intimidating, harder to move but maybe less movement is better for her? totally agree. and about the land! one day.......

oh i know that look! once you get the bug youre a dead man. i took poss along with a view to behaviour modification and now im preparing for trialling. hilarious! some of the people i do herding with are also in a flyball team with our cattle dog and we had a flyball comp on the weekend and the herding nuts are sitting around talking about technique and when s the next trial, flyball, what flyball? very amusing. we are going to go look at a few more before we do them tho, yard dog trials esp being kind of complicated with all those gates to latch and unlatch. you will be surpised at how if you jsut get a couple of things under control the rest will fall into place (about the body slamming, you might lose some points for that :D )

i think now i have done so much work with miss p she would be controllable over ducks, she may however have learnt some bad habits from our cattle dog from when we used to keep chooks and came home one day to a pile of feathers. hmmmm. he seemed to like the taste of wool too. hence, no more sheep for you! poss tried to work a friends cat once, that was pretty funny. just stalked it, down low, avoiding swipes, but didnt run away. she can be gentle when she thinks she might get hurt. no body slamming!

Funny you should ask M, we are looking at buying a 100 acres to have sheep for the pups, do you think that's excessive.......... dont worry some friends and i have made jokes about forming a co-oporative and buying a few acres for some sheep, and room to set up an agiltiy ring and flyball run! then we would all have to quit our day jobs because we were too busy with other things! so glad you had a good time, looks like chill had a ball

We went really well. It takes so much precision and concentration to manouvre the ducks through the obstacles. I was so proud of my boy, he did so well. We ended up coming 3rd!! We also got 1st in the city slickers sheep competition, 1st in the novice high jump ( he had never jumped before but ended up jumping 6ft 11) and 2nd in the encourage sheep trial. We entered the Novice sheep trial too and did ok and he got a score, but i know what we have to work on now. Paddock work!! Sorry, i will stop my weekend brag now. I am so happy with my boy. He cant get out of bed today though. Big Weekend!! Here is a pic of him with his prizes oh well done! i wish i had seen it, esp the ducks. i love watching kelpies work ducks. im not sure if the ducks would survive a koolie and now he can cook his own toast

sounds like the weekend was fun, i told my herding friends about it and they were very jealous and suggested if we got in the car friday night we could have got down there in time! adam, that issue is easy to fix but it depends who you have instructing you and what methods you use. i will tell you what worked with P but it could be different for your boy. poss naturally worked around ok but if they got stuck on the fence her first instinct was to duck inside, ie between me and the sheep. because she worked high i had a stick in my hand (a thin light piece of fibreglass, like they use for electric fences). its an extension of my arm and not to be used to hurt her with. when we first started it had a plastic bag tied to the end of it. when she wanted to duck in front i stepped in there quick and put the stick out in front of me to block her (say we're working anticlockwise then the stick is in my right hand so that my shoulders are turning in front of her, giving her the space behind me to work in). she learnt quickly she needed to stay out of that area between me and the sheep - it was jsut a natural aversion to strong body language and a stick with a flapping piece of plastic on the end of it! we didnt want her to back we wanted her to get the stock off the fence by going between them and the fence. she is a good barker but would just stand at their heels and bark. so i pointed the stick right at her butt and made encouraging noises, like a 'chchchchchc' sound, which gees her up, so she was getting a negative motion (the heat from me and the stick behind her) and a positive sound. i had to make sure that stick stayed right there (let me clarify, i wasnt behind her, im still in the middle of the yard, its just the thought of that stick behind her, that i could step into her with, is enough), and then shes getting encouragement to go forward. she was uncertain about it but i just kept making the noises and encouraging her, like go one possum, get em possum and everytime she took a step forward she got a good girl, still with the stick there, and then she just pushed her way through and got a big 'good girl' and the stick came down and now she does it no qualms. does that make sense? this is jsut what worked for me, interested to hear how other people do it. and if hes only working in short bursts take him out BEFORE he looses interest so he leaves wanting more. he will come back keener. esp take him out if he does a good bit and is really excited. hes still young tho so i wouldnt worry!

they look like some serious working dogs! and very tired ones, like 'im trying to sleep here can you get that stupid camera out of my face'! they look very strong and tough. and so do your sheep!!

hmm interesting. of course i have no real idea not seeing whats shes doing but it could be sheep, they're a bit more intimidating,a nd it could be that youre asking her to do it yuor way, rather than letting her have free rein...im not sure how you introduce her to the sheep tho. but possum raelly resisted anyone trying to tell her how to work for quite a long time and we still have words about it now. if you are trying to impose yourself (which you should, cos you want her to do what you tell) she may be like, hmmm i dont think so! but like i said, couldnt tell you for sure.... (shes veeeeery cute by the way)

oh. my goodness. i want one of those. and yes we shouldnt really be making this into the koolie-appreciation thread! sorry

and also ditzy. princess p has blonde tips on her ear hair so perhaps its not her fault

they should be pretty tough dogs from up there, pretty rough country. they will know what to do all right, they're gonna run you ragged look forward to pix and report, have a great time

what a gorgeous creature! where did you get them PAX if its not a rude question?

oh i think im in love what a cutie!