Janba

No video but some pictures where taken. Cole would work them close but they run from him. At least he didn't loose them through the fence which is what happened in most runs in B course. Twist settles them so can get close plus she is so instant on obeying commands its easy to move her 1 foot to the side. Same with Colin's dogs. Cole wouldn't really hurt them he just finds them frustrating, especially as his handler never knows were to put him. What he does is dive in and try to do a quick nip, like you would to a recalcient sheep but not as hard, then goes back off them. He has also been known to shove them where he wants them.

A wee small brag for the day. They ran the two B courses then the 2 A courses. In the first B course we got an ugly pass with 5 points deducted for disobedince (plucking a duck) and he went the wrong way on the cast (he knew there were no sheep the way I sent him so went the other way looking foir them) but he still one of only 2 passes and his first inter B pass. 2nd B course he did a much better run and has only lost 8 points to the shedding ring (+ 10 for plucking ducks as a disobedience) but try as we might we couldn't get the ducks to stop in the swhedding ring. I couldn't get him far enough off them, and still say he was working them, for him not to be still influecing them. Problems of a dark dog. Then we got a pass in the first A course, so his HSAd title. I ran him started in the secomnd trial as well as I wanted to try to stop the plucking. It worked with a lot less plucking. He only lost 7 1/2 points on the course but still 5 for disobedience - which may have also been from me doing loud UH every time he looked like plucking. Now we don't get to see ducks again till the state titles in Oct. Ann got HIT in he first trial with 99 1/2 with Twist and Colin got HIT in the second trial with 100. Both were beautiful runs to watch.

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. I'm probably a bigger hindrance to Cole than you are to your 2 when it comes to ducks. I seem to always put him in he wrong spot and get as frustrated as he does with them. Ducks aint easy. And where we are having the trial is an absolutely beautiful setting with a creek at the bottom of the B course so I can just see ducks making escape attempts to the creek. ETA I hear very good reports on how Jazz is going (thumbs up but can't do emoticons as internet is working on 3G). Can't keep anything secret in the herding world.

We have a double duck trial tomorrow. 2 runs in inter B, an started A and a move up to inter A if we pass (and the handler doesn't have dummy spit.) We only get to herd ducks at trials so I've given him the "no pluck a duck" lecture.

BB Does the breeder withhold the new owner taking the pup till the papers are provided. With the hold ups etc by the CCs the pup may no longer be a baby and the new owner might not then want it. Would you have taken your pup at 14 weeks because of hold ups with the papers? It took 3 months and 4 attempts to get the NSW registration papers with the correct pedigree for my dog despite the fact that the export pedigree was correct and that was with paying for express delivery after the first 2 attempts.

I might be being pedantic but shouldn't it be worded breeds that DDs resemble rather than breeds that resemble DDs?

People do lure course but with an artificial lure and earthdog competitions are run in NSW for terriers that go to ground, not sure about other states. Herding is also popular with owners of herding breeds amd regular competitions held in most states.

If the older dog doesn't want to play the pup should leave it alone, not all dogs want to play with young pups. The older dog is probably giving signals to the pup, that the pup is ignoring, before it growls and snaps. Not many people would put up with an over the top child bouncing on them, pulling at them and kicking them without saying something but we expect our dogs to do it. The fact that the pup kept wanting to play after the first few times suggests the older dog was being were disciplinary not aggressive. When it latched onto the pup where did it latch on and was the pup on the ground, standing etc and did she scream then run away frightened when released or just act pretty normally? I have seen my dally keep one of my BCs on the ground as a pup with her mouth over his nose grumbling away at him. He was over the top and ignored her warnings but he got up when released and played nicely.

The last time I had anything to do with dogs PROPERLY trained in manwork (and it was a long time ago) the dogs weren't driven by agression and the desire to fight, but then I suppose I am behind the times in that sort of training

Owners of designer breeds who want to trial their dogs still need to be ANKC members to do so. There are plenty of associate and sporting register dogs competing in dpogs sports. Designer dogs shouldn't be eligable for showing as they are cross breeds. Stae body membership offers nothing if you don't compete or breed. If they ran things like fun days, more information days, seminars in dog ownership it might help. Why should the average pet owner pay a large membership fee to just get a magazine that has very little in it to appeal to the average pet owner?

Unless you are showing, breeding, trialling etc there is no incentive to be a member of your state body, so unless more people are encouraged into these fields memberships will keep dropping and so will registations.

Thanks for the replies. The report was more noted for what it omitted than for what it said

I always have a box of Box1 2 x2s. Mine get one as a snack when I leave for work and another at bed time. They love them and never have adverse reactions to them

The letter did come 3 months after the collection date. They did say in the covering letter that there have been delays in sending reports.

The anaphylaxis was more or less instantaneous. The thrombocytopenia happened later. Sorry, my post was poorly worded. My border collie did go into anaphalactic shock almost immediatley after a heartworm injection. It wasn't MDR1 mutation. He did recover because of emergency vet treatment but I would never give another dog a heartworm injection.

I got the analysis from Coles collection from Frozen Puppies today and while I know what a lot of it means some thing I have no idea if they are good or bad. What are the figures for good semen count, a good normal morpholgy rate and a good thaw mobilty %? I wil ring them to clarify tomorrow. ETA I probably should have been a bit more specific. It has things like Mobility Status(0 -1-2-3-4-5) 5 but no explanation. I am assuming 5 is good as his collection mobility was 90%. But is a post thaw mobility of 60% good or bad?

What sort of research? Genetcs, how to handle a matingetc ?

First of all why do you want to use him as a stud dog? What does he have to offer the breed? Has he had all his health tests i.e hip & elbow scores, PRA tests etc? It is not just a matter of saying he is avialable for use at stud - the bitches owners have to want to use him. The only place my dog is advertised is his dogs online profile and I get very few enquiries from that and none where I have allowed him to be used. The times he has been used and the serious enquiries I have have been from people who know him and word of mouth from breeders etc who know him. ETA talk to your dogs breeder and others in the breed to see what their opinion is as to his quality.

Good explanation Janba. Given what you say Jules, that Poppy is a control freak - she likes to hold them on fences and in obstacles as she knows she can control them and hold them there, she needs to learn that she can also do this elsewhere and develop confidence in her own ability to keep them under control in open spaces. At least that is my interpretation of what Janba was explaining It is what I am trying to say. If I can upload it I have a video of Cole working some Suffolk sheep when he was younger and one stood him up and kept charging him. He ran from the sheep but came back when asked and eventually moved them. He lacked confidence to start with but trusted me enough to keep trying nd won. That was a huge boost to his confidence to control his sheep. Hope this link works

Confidence isn't really about the dogs working ability but on about experience. Its like learning to drive a car - the potential is there but the practice gives you the confidence to handle the car in different situations.

The shed is for advanced B course - and the hardest thing I have found to train on sheep. Poppy to me sounds like she lacks a bit of confidence in her abilty to control the sheep (not in her ability to work). Driving the sheep to the fence and holding them in an obstacle put her in a postition of control. It all comes down to how much experience the dog has. Cole went through something similar where he seemed worried about loosing his sheep in then ope paddock. I fixed most of it by working on getting him to hold sheep in the middle of the paddock. I put him on a stop stay and just waited. When the sheep moved I let him block them and then put him on a stop stay again. Over a few weeks he gained confidence in his abilty to block and control then. I also worked him on a mob of about 50 getting him to hold them in position. It might seem like you are not making a lot of progress but the dog gains confidence. Stock handling for trials, maintenance work on the sheep etc for is also a great help in giving the dog confidence.

A tiny little brag from training today - I got the split for the shed twice :D I had Cole work them for a bit while they were in the equivalent of a shedding ring then when the opportunity arose got him to drive 2 or 3 sheep from the others. He is getting the hang of the command "these" and knowing they are the ones to concentrate on and working them away to get a split. BUT he hasn't got the hang of walking up between the 2 groups to do the hold. When I give him the command to come to me I want him to come straight without putting pressure on either group of sheep but he wants to arc round and back to me which causes the sheep to join together again.

The titles would be be from winning things like the national yard dog trials etc nothing to do with the showring. They would be WKC registered not ANKC.

Dalmatians and border collies. Dalmatians because they make me laught and BCs because they are the ultimate dog

You are correct. A dog with the wrong conformation cannot do the work it is supposed to do. The breed standards for the working breeds were written to describe a dog that has the physical attributed required for the particular work it bred for. Cosmetic points like colour, ear carriage, etc, are of no importance in a dog bred purely for work but the basic structure of the dog still needs to be correct. Working breeders do need to remember that if they only breed for working ability and completely forget about conformation they will end up with dogs that no longer look anything like the breed they are supposed to be. There are plenty of crossbred dogs that work well but it doesn't make them good examples of a particular breed. And a dog with perfect conformation can be useless at working. Basic structure does need to be correct and a dog with serious conformation faults is unlikely to be able to work well and stay sound so unlikely to be bred from. I know one working breeding who recently culled a bitch from his breeding program because she had a bit of a questionable rear end. This bitch was an open 3 sheep trial dog.