dancinbcs

There are a lot of different factors involved in how fast a puppy will learn. How and where the breeder kept them, how smart the puppy is, how naturally clean it is and how observant and consistant the owner is. A pet shop puppy that has been used to toileting in an enclosed space where it lives may take months to work out what you want it to do. An inconsistant owner that allows the puppy too much freedom and therefore lots of mistakes can set the puppy up to fail too. Every time the puppy toilets indoors it will set the progress back because you are teaching it that is ok. Try to avoid mistakes at all costs by confining the puppy when you cannot watch it closely and the puppy will learn much faster.

Mine have all been trained and reliable by about 14 weeks but I don't relax the training until I have had 6 weeks with no accidents at all. Some of my Border Collies have been trained by 9 weeks but I start training the litter at 4 weeks. My Jap Spitz was completely reliable by about 13-14 weeks. I find females usually take a few weeks longer than the males because they often don't get full bladder control until about 12 weeks.

In my experience the success rate is always higher with natural matings. I usually do 2 to 3 consecutive days. I only use AIs with an inexperienced stud dog or an oldie with back/leg issues that prevent natural matings. With the inexperienced dog I use an AI to take the pressure off while still trying for a natural mating.

Epilepsy can be caused by lots of things but there is often a hereditary component especially if you get it in subsequent generations. Unfortunately many breeders hush up problems and future generations of breeders don't know there was ever a problem. I remember a concerned Kelpie breeder telling me about a prominent stud dog around 1990 that had epilepsy and was producing it in his offspring but the owners hushed it up and continued to use him. Now 20+ years on a lot of breeders would not have a clue there was a problem there behind their lines.

I saw a later news report about the NSW case with sound not just the voice over, showing them catching the dog and putting it in the ranger's van. That was one very nasty and dangerous dog and there is no doubt it needed to be pts. The father of the little girl in Melbourne said the dog grabbed her by the hair and that was what ripped her skull so it may not have been a really serious attack just one with dire consequences. They were minding the dog and had it loose in the yard were the 4 year old was playing. That is just asking for a disaster. So many little kids are attacked by dogs that belong to friends and family. If a dog is not raised with small children, you can never really be sure how it will react to them. I can confidently take my dog into schools and walk through the playground at lunchtime or have him in a class of 5 year olds but would never dream of leaving him loose with toddlers playing in a yard. He has never been exposed to that sort of situation and while I think he would be ok I could never be sure and the risk is just not worth it.

Epilespy is definitely known to occur and be hereditary in Kelpies but unfortunately the mode of inheritence is not known. It would be highly unlikely for all puppies from an epileptic parent to also have epilepsy so if your dog does not develop it within a year or so the odds are pretty good that he won't be affected. Worrying won't help so just take each day as it comes and hope you never have to face the problem. Good on the breeder for keeping you informed and being honest. About the only way to reduce the incidence is to not breed affected dogs and avoid breeding closely related dogs to others that are also related to an affected animal. This takes a lot of co-operation and honesty among breeders to achieve. Any sort of witch hunt just makes everyone bury the problem.

Make sure you get to a doctor to report the accident in case you have injuries that haven't shown up yet. Teh worst of my injuries didn't show up for a week. I had someone slam into my passenger side wheel in a roundabout, on the way home from a show in early October. I thought that the dogs and I were ok even though I was aching all over by the time the Police arrived 2 hours later. Three months later I am still having physio and acupunture and am now off to see a neurosurgeon in a couple of weeks because of severe whiplash that is not settling down. I also had lots of soft tissue damage to my back but that is greatly improved. Luckily my dogs were contained in crates in the back of the car because we were stuck in the middle of a roundabout in the rain for all that time. Thankfully lots of BC friends from the show pulled up and organised between them to get me and the dogs home because the car had to be towed. I declined an ambulance because I had to get the dogs 50kms home. It was the first real socialisation day for my little 12 week JS puppy and he had to contend with the bigggest thunder storm I have ever been in and then the accident. Luckily none of it seems to have fazed him. My 8 year old BC seemed ok but I have noticed his hearing seemed to have diminished since the accident and only just this week is improving again. I assume he must have hit his head on the crate and caused temporary damage to his hearing.

I know temperaments have improved greatly over the past 20 years but I remember the old stud master in Sydney years ago who had Cattle Dogs himself, telling me the the only breed he would not manage a mating for were Basenjis because too many had bitten him with absolutely no warning during matings. He was one of the most dog savvy people I have ever met and his ability to get dogs mated successfully was incredible so I took notice when he said Basenjis were the only breed he didn't trust. Over the years since I have not seen any incidents with them at shows so the breeders must be doing a good job with improving the temperament but they are still a primitive breed and not a breed for the average pet owner due to their ability to escape and hunt.

Just a suggestion if you are after a big strong dog with no hunting instinct - a Bullmastiff might fit the bill. Not sure about rescue ones but the well bred ones don't chase anything except burglars. I know someone that has one with valuable horses and small dogs on a property with lots of native wildlife. They chose her so she could be with them working around the property and not want to run off to hunt anything.

The problem with a "Bull Arab" is that it isn't a pure breed but a mix of breeds so the temperament is less predictable. Puppy "A" might be fine but puppy "B" a disaster. Instincts like hunting and herding are very hard to suppress in dogs that have been bred to do these jobs for centuries. I wouldn't risk it and would suggest a non huntng breed instead. If you get a dog that doesn't work out then it could be very hearbreaking all round.

I never use a crate to sleep puppies in either, preferring to put them in a room with a baby gate or a puppy pen with a bed at one end and newspaper at the other. They travel in a crate to shows so soon learn that crates lead to fun things. I take them out to toilet last thing before I go to bed and make sure they go. Then it is lights out and quiet in the house and they usually settle within a few minutes. Some will just wee on the newspaper, others prefer to go outside so if they cry I get up and take them out to toilet. Praise if they go but no play and no food. This applies to any time before I am ready to get up, so if they wake at 5am they get taken out for a toilet break and put straight back into their pen. After a couple of weeks they usually start sleeping through the night and not needing to even wee. I have done this with all my BCs and now with a JS. They have all learnt that there is no playing or food until it is time for me to get up. If you play with them at all they they have a reason to get up earlier and earlier. I always leave toys they can chew on but never food tyoe items that will make them thirsty so they drink and need to go out more often.

Me! I did when I applied for my prefix all those years ago. Benshiva was my 31st choice LOL. Wagaway in Border Collies was the 36th choice for them way back in the 70s. I got my first choice but someone with my first initial and surname got my second choice a couple of months later. Now that was spooky.

I usually feed twice a day but if once a day it would be about 2 hours before I go to bed. Dogs need to poo after a meal and 9-13 hours later depending on age so feeding late at night allows them to go before bed and then not need to go until morning. I never expect a dog to sleep longer than about 8 hours at night without needing a toilet break so 11 hours is too long for most dogs. Mine are bedded down round midnight and usually wake between 7 and 8 am. BTW, that sounds like an awful lot of food for a Cocker. Maybe you are overfeeding. Cut the amount back and see if he is keener.

With my main breed I wrote up a list of what I did and didn't want in a dog. I wanted - very smart and east to train, biddable, medium size, basic "dog shape", long coat but not dragging on the ground. I didn't want - smooth coat, excessive shedding like a Lab or GSD, drool, squashed face, short legs, Gundog "doggy odour" from the oily coats, Terrier tenacity, Hound or large Spitz aloofness or a really strong guard instinct. So that ruled out Toys, Terriers, Gundogs, Hounds and left just a few breeds from Working, Non-Sporting and Utility groups to choose from. My first choice was a Standard Poodle, then I decided I wanted to show as well as trial the dog and I was not up for that much grooming. I wasn't comfortable with the docked tail on the poodle either at the time. So my next choice was a Border Collie and I have shown, bred, and trialled them for nearly 30 years. I knew some of the first breeders of Japanese Spitz in Aust and always admired their dogs and thought they might be my next breed when I wanted to downsize a bit. then 10 years ago started to occasionally help a friend showing her JS and got to know the breed very well. Now I have my first JS. Quite a few things about him are easier than a Border but other things are more difficult and rather frustrating after having Borders.

:) She has a super reliable dog already trained to do everything they need.

What do you want in the name? Dogs or people names, breed, places etc.

I know someone with dogs that can do it and is available. Will pm you the contact.

What type of flooring are you going to have? Lots of dogs do manage on hard floors but just don't have polished floorboards. Apart from it being very slippery the dogs claws will destroy the finish. Estapol is fine and some of the floating floor boards are tough enough and not as slippery. Tiles can be very slippery, hard and dangerous for dogs and toddlers if they fall on them. If I had a choice I would love slate or cushioned rubber flooring for ease of cleaning without being slippery.

It is a common problem with Borders. They are so easy to housetrain but get it into their mind that they can only go in the yard at home. Entire males do grow out of it as the instinct to mark things kicks in but other than that a trip away is a good solution. They cannot hold on forever and will eventually go while you are away so you can praise like mad and let them know it is ok. Try to get a command word going before the trip away and that should make it a little easier but you still might be walking around a lot the first night.

Thanks again Andrea, so that included BYB's then? Even one off litters? The quote is from the code of practice but the NSW Companion Animal Act which is the actual law, also includes microchipping and vaccination of all puppies/dogs and kittens/cats before being sold or given away by anyone. That includes a one off oops litter.

The Australian Silky Terrier is more robust with little kids and more readily available than Yorkies. I would be surprised if anyone would sell you a Yorkie when you have a 4 year old. Little kids tend to accidently break tiny dogs like Yorkies. Silkies are still small but that little bit larger and tough enough to hunt the rats and mice they were bred to hunt. Silkies are smart little characters if you don't mind stubborn. Not sure what the Yorkie temperament is like as they are pretty rare.

Yep, breeding is a bit like taking $3000 - $5000 to the casino and hoping you don't come out behind except with breeding you are never going to stike the jackpot money wise. If things go well you can end up with a few thousand for 8 weeks solid work. If things goes wrong you can end up losing the lot. I have seen many people spend every cent they had to raise a byb litter and then had to surrender them to be put down because they ran out of money and couldn't find buyers. The saddest cases were when the bitch was a stray rescued in whelp and the carers were not aware they could be desexed in whelp, so went ahead and raised a litter. The most amazing case I know of was a registered breeder about 20 years ago with new, rare, very large breed. Most of the imported show dogs in this breed were from the US rather than the country of origin. This breeder already had 4 Rotties, had bought a nice bitch of the rare breed and planned a litter to a sire from the country of origin. At the time average pure bred puppy prices were about $400-$500 and this rare breed were selling for $2000. The breeder ended up selling his car to pay the stud fee and feed the ensuing litter of 10 on the best of everything, confident he would get $18000 back in puppy sales and could buy a new car. The problem was no one with show lines wanted them and the public had never heard of them so there was no demand for puppies. Last time I saw him the puppies were 8 months old and he still had 6 left at home and he was broke. He had only sold 3 and managed to give one away. Feeding 6 growing puppies and 5 adults had taken everthing he had.

I would guess the cost of raising the puppies to be about $400 each for a large breed if she uses budget food. Calculated that from the fact a litter of 6 BCs cost about $500 each to raise on premium food, including the proportion of the stud fee in that amount. That includes extra food and supplements for the mum, vet visit after whelping, worming, puppy food, vaccinations and microchipping. A larger litter of bigger puppies will eat a lot more but she won't have a stud fee and can cut corners with cheaper food. Then she needs to figure in the cost of a whelping box/clamshell, bedding, any extra vet costs if things go wrong and a possible caesar at around $1000. Oh and advertising. That can ad a lot to the costs.

Some good points in this post. Public education is definitely needed because there are still people that do believe the bitch just feeds the puppies and they pocket the profit. It is sheer ignorance not that they are awful people or they don't care about their dogs. I will never forget the family that came into the pet warehouse I used to work in many years ago. They wanted to know what to feed their 2 year old unregistered GSD because she was suddenly losing weight. It turned out she had a litter of 10, 2 week old puppies and they were only feeding the bitch her usual one can of food a day. Then they asked when they could touch the puppies. The litter was is a box in the garage with no bedding and they hadn't been near them since they were born. This family had 4 small kids and had never wormed the dog. The dad told me his mate had an unregistered male GSD so they thought they would breed them together to make a quid. After an hour they left with several hundred dollars worth of food, wormers, bedding, supplements and the dad wondering how he was even going to break even, let alone make a profit and what they were going to do if they couldn't sell the puppies. This was at a time when unregistered GSDs where about the most common "pure bred" available and were dying in pounds like SBTs are now. They simply had no idea they needed to feed the bitch more, that they needed to feed the puppies, about worming or vaccinations, etc. At least they listened, took on the advice and bought enough supplies to take care of the bitch and puppies. We sold them budget stuff, not premium but it still added up for a litter that size and a bitch that was already drastically underweight. As for BYB puppies seeming to get homes, that is only true for the small ones. There is a huge demand for small crossbred puppies but not the bigger ones. When I worked for a major shelter we put down an average of one whole surrendered litter a week of med/large crossbred puppies. The owners couldn't find homes for them and neither could we. Some of these people had spent a fortune raising them only to find they couldn't even give them away. Most were Cattle Dog cross, GSD cross, SBT cross or BT cross at the time with a few Pit bull cross types just starting to come in when I left. We also got pet shop puppies that they couldn't sell that were past the cute stage. People would adopt larger adult dogs but no one much wanted the larger breed puppies.

If he is healthy and pure bred than he only looks about 4 weeks old, not 8 weeks. Have been following and reading with interest. Looking forward to hearing of little Oscars weight gains. :) Do you think it possible that the bitch was running with the male during her entire heat cycle and conceived at the beginning of her cycle AND at the end and little Oscar is really a quite a bit behind his siblings? Not much chance of that. A bitch ovulates and releases the eggs all at once. The eggs can survive for about 4 days so can be fertilised over those 4 days but no longer. If they mate before ovulation the sperm may survive a few days until they ovulate so puppies can be conceived from matings as far apart as 8 days but the actual embryos all form within 4 days and the bitch whelps 63 days from ovulation, regardless of when they are mated. Being 4 days behind wouldn't make that much difference in size.