Reddii

Xena will work for: Tuggie, Food Praise Fear of correction - early trainnig methods shown to us by an old school training 'academy'. Sadly this is now the only thing that works for some behaviours like recall from an exciting situation. Will not work if a tennis ball is in the equation, unless the work is to retrieve the ball or run through weavers. CK will work for: Squeaky toy Praise Food Tuggy Tennis ball.

I've sacked my girl from obedience. She just hates it. We haven't trialled in obedience and she is about 20 months old so may be a little different from your question, but she just gets no joy from it at all. She will actually whinge when we are having a break, not the I want to work whinge, the I hate this S*&* whinge. I know I should be able to cope/manage this, but when she is so good at agility don't see much point in pushing her to do something that we don't enjoy. I don't really enjoy it that much either, but my boy LOVES it so we are going to get back into training when we get back from Canberra (flyball) and get him trialling before too long.

Hey there, I use Black Dog harnesses for the dogs at flyball. They are basically the same as their tracking harnesses, only with an extra handle (just looking at the pics, never had a tracking one to look at.) The flyball ones are brilliant - they allow complete movement without any restriction or rubbing. They have a double restraint across the chest so it is not putting too much pressure on too small an area. They are a more natural feeling fabric (almost like a heavy cotton or jute) than a lot of the harnesses so they are quite soft on the dogs. There is also only one clip that is not obtrusive in any way. The only downside to them I can see is that if you get one out and count backwards from three the dogs seem to go into an uncontrollable barking frenzy! Cheers Tony

It's pretty hard to catch the dogs so you don't hurt them too, especially when they get a bit bigger. Xena will jump into my arms when she gets really excited at the end of an agility run or something just as fun. Only problem is I reckon 80% of the time she doesn't like it when she gets there - hurts her when I catch. She's only 16kg and I'm not all that small at 90kg so unless you get the timing just right with Midge it might be a challenge.

My boy did his first full flyball run last night!!!! He still stopped to say hello to the box loader and have a sniff around the box (with ball in mouth - idiot), but he did come back over all 4 hurdles, albeit with HEAPS of encouragement. WOO HOO Beginners in Canberra here we come! My girl is finally back to her old self after she was attacked the other week. She will never be a super confident strutting around saying hello dog, but works really well and let's not much bother her because she is too focussed. In recent weeks she's lost a bit of focus and has worried too much about what is going on around her, but last night all that mattered was the job at hand!!!!! Only problem was when OH was box loading in the other lane and Xena kept running to the centre line to have a look at her and then missing the first hurdle on the way back. At first we thought it was the dog in the other lane, but her body language was all wrong for that so we moved OH - Bingo! Good thing is that she won't be boxloading at comps!! Have a good weekend everyone.

I've got two black dog ones - medium, they are great. The black dog people are also excellent to deal with, I've never had a problem, but they've been really helpful organising flyball harnesses and once when an order went 'missing' they were prepared to send me another complete order if it didn't turn up. Turns out the builder moved it to somewhere that we'd never have found it so they didn't have to, but the offer was there!

My girl has no real interest in other dogs or people, but we do have to be careful there is no food to guard. Toys etc aren't a problem. My boy will play happily, but we have to watch as he 'owns' the toys and won't be bullied. The couple of play dates we've had have been really good for him.

My biggest problem according to those who know is that I don't praise my dogs enough when they do the right thing - working on that one. I can also be guilty of using full sentences around the house, but never in a formal 'training' environment. I still have a lot to learn, but most of these I'm OK with I think. My biggest hurdle is learning to switch my attitude for my dogs. One has to be calmed down so I can keep up with her, the other has to be brought 'up' to work. when I have one after the other it is quite difficult.

I've had a problem with Xena not retrieving the frisbee and all obedience going out the window when we are playing fetch as well and have solved the two problems in the same way. Not sure if others subscribe to the theory, but it has worked for me. Rule 1 - no retrieve, no play. If we are on our own (just Xena and me) that means that I throw the frisbee and if she chooses not to catch it or bring it back the game stops until she does. She has no interest in other dogs/people so it quickly becomes pretty boring, much the same as a tennis ball that doesn't move on its own. At the worst point it would take about 5 minutes of mexican stand off until she would bring the frisbee back to me. If we are there with CK (my other dog) she comes back to me (recalled) and CK has his turn (they are tethered while each other has a turn so they don't crash while trying to catch it) before she gets another chance to bring it back. It has taken about 3 months of this, but she is just about back to where I want her to be. The problem was that she would run off and look for tennis balls, I know this because she would always find something that looked like it might have once sat next to something that looked like a tennis ball and bring it back to me, then give me that BC, c'mon, let's play look. Now we are working on using the ball for a reward - bring the frisbee back 3 times, get to chase the tennis ball and will extend the number of times she has to bring it back over time. The goal here is to get her to know that the tennis ball will come out, but only if she does as she is told first - have to get her to focus on something other than a bloody tennis ball. Relating this back to you throw the ball, ask her to bring it back and if she doesn't sit down and wait for her to do it. When she does heaps of praise and a chance to chase the ball again. Rule 2 - do as I say or you don't do as you want to. Kind of along the lines of NILIF, but my version I guess. You lie/sit/stand before getting to chase the tennis ball. On their own it's pretty easy - do the command before I throw the ball. (not always that easy with a VERY ball focussed dog) With two dogs it's even easier. Don't obey, get held while the other one goes to chase their ball (I always use 2 balls in different directions for the 2 dogs - they know CK goes first and Xena goes second unless I say otherwise.) This one worked a little more quickly - two throws for the other dog and the 'disobedient' one gets the picture. I've found this also helps to re-inforce that I am the boss and if I ask them to do something - retrieve/catch/whatever then they do it and get rewarded. Hope this helps in some way. Cheers. Tony R ETA 'R' to save confusion!!!!

We had a similar problem with the postman using our footpath as his private moto cross circuit - nothing to do with the dogs, but someone using the footpath and causing a nuisance. We planted grass plants at either end of our nature strip and no more problem. If you put trees or hedging plants along the front it might just discourage her from walking along there as well as proving a bit of a screen????

Xena has had a bit of a rough trot at flyball lately, she's had a head on collision with another dog and been attacked so we've been doing a bit of building up with her to get her confidence back. Last night she was coming back into the girl she crashed with and Morgan growled/barked in a very close pass - nothing in it, and what she normally does, but it gave Xena a fright and she dropped the ball. She came straight back to me as she always does, but realised she had dropped the ball just after the last hurdle. silly little girl turned around and went straight back and picked it up, nearly getting run over in the process. It was a bit scary, but very funny to see how proud she was when she brought the ball back to me!!! Not sure whether it would fool the judges, but at least she understands the rules of the game!

That is so cool. Maybe we need to line Daisy up against Riley the mini-snauzer who runs in our team. That woudl be a really good race!

Anyone want a reasonable well trained 14 month old BC pup CHEAP????? CK has always been the laziest dog on the face of the planet until you ask him to do something. Once he stops he stops and goes to sleep just that quickly. I've been thinking I'm really clever working on his confidence and drive lately and it is coming along really well........too well it seems. Last night I made the mistake of leaving a tennis ball on the lounge when went to bed. One of them had stolen it out of the ball bucket - both are ball obsessed, but only allowed tb's at flyball. I got woken from a dead sleep (still no idea what time - I didn't really wake up) at some point in the night by CK's 'come and help me' bark. There was the little man in the lounge, nose under the lounge chair trying to fish out a tennis ball. Needless to say I wasn't that impressed and took the ball, put him back on his bed and went back to bed myself. At least he's starting to play a little I guess...would just be nice if it wasn't at sometime in the am.

It's bizarre, we just took our time and built up the frisbee distance, now he can bounce it off his nose and still catch it. Tennis ball is proving a bit more of a challenge, although he's never been allowed to play with a ball so that might be part of the issue. Fortunately the retrieve thing is OK/really good - he brings it back to me and gets to play with his squeaky toy - nothing is better than a squeaky toy!! It's just the catch we have problems with. I might try the food idea too - he's very food motivated. We did some more practice on the box last night and he is getting better, you know those moments when a switch seems to come on in their head - last night was one of them. As for broken dog he was nearly broken last night when he started barking at some undogly hour because he had found a tennis ball and proceeded to drop it under a chair and wanted me to come and get it - not sure who the bigger idiot is - me for leaving a ball out or him for barking at me in the middle of the night to come and get a ball. Needless to say he didn't get the ball back, but it did disappear. See you Thursday Laffi. T

I don't know how to solve your problem with the two dogs, other than to say, you are not useless and are doing the right thing trying to understand the problem and sort it out. Although I don't have two bitches I do have two young dog who went through a bit of a 'stage' where we had 2 or 3 similar instances inside the house. One was over a cricket, one was over a scrap of paper and I have no idea what the other one was over but I had just come back after obedience - only one gets to come out each week. Fortunately it has all settled down now and with the exception of the occasional 'strangeness' is all said and done. (fingers crossed) Sorry I can't help and good luck, but please don't feel inadequate, you are doing everything you can to get this sorted and that's what counts.

Hi all, I'm sure I have the only ball obsessed border collie in the world that can't catch! CK is 14 months and I've just taught him how to use the box and he's picked it up quite well. Only problem is that he really isn't great at catching the tennis ball, whether it be from the box or thrown to him. It's not an eyesight thing - he can catch a frisbee 40m from me, but just doesn't seem to be able to catch the tennis ball. Aside from heaps of practise and big praise when he gets it right does anyone have any ideas to sharpen him up? Cheers. Tony

You've just described by girl to a T. She's a small (470mm) BC bitch (on a number of levels). To anyone who doesn't know me/her she is completely submissive to me. To those who do know me/her she is a headstrong little cow with an evil streak. She's a lovely dog, but just works very hard to please me and get what she wants - not necessarily in that order. A couple of trainers have picked it up very quickly and pointed it out to me so we work very hard on not letting it happen. Classic example on the weekend - She's had an injury so I pulled her out of flyball training early to avoid over using her leg, she whined for about 2 run and then got really cranky and started barking at me. While the other dogs bark at the game in excitement she seemed to be barking at me because I had 'forgotten' to take her out to play with her mates. It soon stopped once she realised it wasn't going to do her any good. Dogs are anothe story though - she is VERY submissive to the point of being timid in that regard.

My boy who is being a bit of a teenager with other pups at the moment met the little swf from up the back yesterday. They played very nicely for about 15 minutes!! Didn't stop the little terror from barking non-stop for 3 hours while the owners were out - just a small case of S.A. methinks. Lucky I've gone 'dog deaf' from flyball! lol. CK has also worked out the flyball box!! Now i just have to get him to learn to catch - imagin a ball obsessed BC that can't catch! Xena seems to have all her confidnece back as well - I haven't seen her retrieving like she did in the park this morning for a long time - she even declined to give CK the ball where normally she drops it if he comes within 2m of her.! All is good again after an ordinary week last week. Happy monday everyone.

WOO HOOO!!!!!! CK went really well at flyball last night. He managed a send away over 2 hurdles, up on the box and back over all 4 hurdles!!!! Another couple of weeks and he should be right for a full run. We had him passing with the team dogs as well and had no problem until we swapped lanes without showing him properly and he crossed over into the other dog's path. Luckily they didn't collide, but she did take exception to it, CK on the other hand couldn't understand what all the fuss was about - he's not the brightest sometimes! At least he didn't really react to the situation like I thought he might. Xena is better again too - she should be back to training tomorrow!!!! All seems to be coming around. Cheers and have a good weekend everyone! Tony

This is how I crate trained my two and it worked for me. Rule no. 1. The crate is NOT a punishment tool, it is the dog's safe and happy place - your job is to help them understand that. To do this I started by letting them get used to the crate and having it around - just put it there with the door open and let them see it is not a threat. Next I started to lure them in to it with treats. Once they were in there - HEAPS of treats and praise. Next step was to feed them in there so that it becomes a really happy place. (Find me a dog who is not happy when they are being fed!) Once all that happend I started to close the door on them when they were being fed. Then I began letting them feed in there and stay in there for a while afterwards. Final stage was to get them in there and leave them for increasing periods. Around this time they started sleeping in there as well. They don't sleep in their crates any more, but when we have visitors with kids over the crates always go up and by the end of the night that is where you will find both dogs. Shortly after we got to the point of increasing the time we went away to a 'dog friendly' property that really wasn't and the dogs spent the best part of 3 days in their crates - crash course/finishing school we jokingly called it. Hope this helps. Cheers. Tony

I'm sure other people get sick of me waffling endlessly about my dogs so this is a great way to release. I rolled over at about 4:50 this morning and snuck a peak over the edge of the bed to see which one was asleep on the dog mat beside me. I didn't sneak quickly enough because it was Xena and she saw me. Clearly this gives her the right to be in bed beside me :D ......time to get up. We went for our walk down to the dog park and threw the frisbee for a while with CK (Xena can't at the moment because she has a sore leg). until a little lab puppy (14 weeks) came in and said hello. I mentioned to the owner CK isn't overly tolerant with puppies (particularly labs as he was monstered by one when he was 4 months old) and shortly there after he told it off for being in his face while he had his frisbee. The pup was pretty full on as even the submissive Xena nearly had a snap at it. All three dogs went on lead and greeted each other nicely after that - no harm done. Lesson learned though - CK goes on lead around puppies that are not black and white working dogs. Miss Xena was far from impressed at not getting to play frisbee , but soon got over it as we started to walk home. I'm actually hoping this will get her keener for when she starts back, but is breaking my heart at the moment to see her sitting watching. I left CK outside and fed him, while Xena got fed inside (not allowed off lead out side atm). After about 15 minutes Mr CK had had enough solitary 'confinement' and decided to ask to be let in - he just scrapes at the door once. If I ignore him he barks and then does it again in about 2 minutes this increases in volume and duration until he is let in. If I tell him no, he goes and sulks on the corner of the deck while waiting patiently to be let in. :D I left for work just after that, but got a lunch time treat as the puppies came to say hello (with OH) because I had left some work at home and needed her to bring it in for me (I ride a pushy to work). Now i know they are sleeping the afternoon away waiting for flyball tonight. Miss X is going to be far from impressed again because she will only be allowed to do the obedience stuff and will miss out on the fun side of it. CK is not too far off his first full run so hopefully we see him do it tonight or next week! Now I just have to count the minutes until I can get going!

First thing to check is that there is nothing wrong with Patch - by the sounds of it you have this one covered - my little man stopped liking his walks and it turned out he had an injury. Next I guess it is really up to you - if you are happy to have him sniff then let him go for it. If not then I think you have two options - first is just keep walking, he'll soon get the message that unless you let him know he is allowed to stop he doesn't stop (my boy still tries it on at 14 months, but he is learning slowly). The second option is to make whatever you have more exciting - this works better with my boy - have his favourite squeaky toy with you and use that to distract him from whatever he finds interesting. I think there is a difference between having a look around when out on a walk and ruling the walk which is what your boy sounds like he is doing. Just another thought - if he stops to sniff and won't walk further just take him home, no walk, no fun. Again - will soon get the message. Hope this helps. It's just my experience with two young pups, not a qualified opinion. Cheers. Tony

My girl used to have bloody stools occasionally and upset tummy quite often. I've tried a few differnt dry foods with similar add ins to yours and find that since we have changed to RC sensitive she has been excellent. Only the very occasional soft stool and no more blood or lovely mucous (sp?) coated ones. Also - my boys coat is much better since the change as well.

Are you different somehow, and he is picking up a different vibe? Was this a new situation and therefore he had no memory to use as a guide to his reaction? So he thought about his response and based this on the newer skills he has now? I'm not sure I'm different - I try to be consistent no matter what we are doing. His behaviour is the same not just in this environment, but in all 4 training environments he goes to. He's quite reactive on the street, but never at training. This one on the weekend is the one I was concerned about as the dogs are in a really high state of arousal and can lunge/bark etc. It is a newish situation. Although he has trained consistently on these grounds for the last 10 months he hasn't done these activities or with mature dogs before.

I've posted a couple of times about my 14 month old BC boy. On our walks he does like to 'eyeball' some other dogs or at least watch them very closely until they are past. He is getting better at listening to me and is ignoring other dogs more and more as he becomes more confident, but it is a concern at least for me, but probably not at a level many people would even worry about. On the weekend we gave him a run with our flyball 'team' dogs instead of his beginners class - just the recalls and passing exercises as he is only just beginning box work and send aways. I was a little concerned about how he would behave because there are a couple of quite dominant males in the group and these are the type of dogs he tends to eyeball. These particular dogs do not take kindly to other male dogs, especially if they are eyeballing. My little man was perfect! We started with obedience which he hasn't done for months and used to have a bit of a problem weaving around the other dogs - he was focussed on me, except when he passed his kennel mate. Then with the recalls/lineups and passing exercises his eyes didn't go near the other dogs, despite the high energy environment and barking dogs all around him. I still kept a close watch on him, but there was no inkling of a problem. My question is this - how does he know/why does he differentiate between a situation on the street and one at training where I would have thought there would be more cause for concern?