B-Q

That is really handy. I'm going to have to work something out though because I expected to have my license by now and I don't. Question - did your pack arrive by the start date? Seeing as its meant to start today and I havn't got anything I'm wondering if I should shoot of an email.

We got approved for 4 dogs when we lived in Katherine, that was a house block in town. When we applied for our 3rd dog here we got rejected, the letter said to remove the 3rd dog from the premises within a week. Obvisouly we freaked, called the council and asked them what we could do. Turns out the letter was written terribly and we were meant to have the option to write a letter of appeal. We wrote one telling them about our life with our dogs, the training we did with them etc etc etc. Our dogs wern't registered here till we got caught, simply because we arrived here and then realised the councils rule was "one dog - 2 with a licence" considering we had 4 with us we just shut our mouths and tried to keep quiet. Its a total relief to have it sorted now.

one box of grooming gear in the bathroom next to the pile of dog towels. One box for leads, collars and harnesses. One box for toys (the biggest box) A small box in the medicine cabinet for their tick/flea/worm preventative. And a folder for all their paperwork.

What Pers said. I don't really buy into the dominance theory, dogs do what works. If biting and nipping at you is something he finds fun or like a game then he will continue to do it. If jumping up gets your attention then it works. A lot of these sort of issues can be fixed through just ending the game, if he jumps up just turn your back and wait until he's calm, if he's biting and nipping just remove him or yourself from the situaion. Biting = end of game.

He looks great and I LOVE his markings. Quinn wanted nothing to do with sheep when she first saw them at 5 months old. We waited 5 months and tried her again and now nothing is stopping her.

Wow, incredible. I heard of something similar happening China (?) because teh floods had brought in insects so that brought in spiders. Ahh... the circle of life.

Seeing as it starts next week, was just wondering if any other DOLers are doing it this time round? I'm so excited, I found out about this course when I was 15 and have wanted to do it ever since. Took me 6 years to get there but anyway.

Some people are unbelievable. I actually had a mother and son follow me and Buster into the vet a couple of months ago to ask if he was entire. I said he wasn't. And they said it was a pity, they had a blue bitch at home they wanted to breed. I said "no, he has DA and HD, he's a crossbred camp dog from the NT that was lucky to fall on his feet and land with us. He's a great dog but he's neither a cattle dog or a stud dog and the world doesn't need more of him" Seriously, I wouldn't even call him blue. His colour could eaily be heavy ticking like on a BC. And I think he's gorgeous but he is just another cattle dog cross with a messed up tail and the world doesn't need more of him.

I love them! The Puli pick is awesome and I love all the "mid-bark" shots.

I'm so sorry. Thats tragic. A couple of years ago 2 of our dogs almost killed Buster when a fight broke out and they ganged up on him. If the 4th dog didn't come and bang on the door to get my sister to com out to break it up they would have killed him. Its a scary thing to happen and I'm sorry for your loss.

Quinn has a 3 foot wire crate. She's about 20 inches at the shoulder but very finely built.Its big enough for her to sit up in and her ears just touch the top. She can spread out in it comfortably.

My sisters dogs got ridiculously long a while ago, they re all black and she had a couple of bad experiences and was terrified, so lots of training and small trims every few days and we've got them under control now. I got one of those cheap dremel type things which is pretty handy. I clip the nail and then run the other device over it in a few directions so its not sharp.

Quinn's is used for an extra bed, occasionally she'll sleep in it if she's being restless to make sure she doesn't get into something during the night, its where she's left when I'm out (max about 4 hours maybe once a month) I take her soft crate to training because its so much easier to let her switch off a bit by putting her in there. I feed her in there because she is a bit of a food guarder with the other dogs. And we use it for time outs, moreso when she's just getting herself more and more wound up, bouncing into the other dogs and the cat, annoying everyone and having them all tell her off, 5-10 minutes in her crate lets her re-wire her brain and get her sh*t together. Buster is 8 now and was never crate trained, he'll deal with it but he doesn't like it, Quinn was crate trained from her first week home and I couldn't imagine not having it for her.

I have no idea, never looked any further into it as I'm too far away. Why would it have to be started as puppies? Old dogs can learn new tricks.

I have found the bottom of my ones are quiet slippery, just don't step on them or you'll go down. Other than that, good value. Ones already had to go through the wash once. ETA - Just relised how offtopic my post looks. Just something I noticed. lol

I found this when searchign SAR a couple of weeks ago. Wish I was closer, would love to get into it with Quinn. http://www.sarda.net.au/

Finally had Quinns first Pre Ag class tonight with dogs... lesson learnt - NEVER leave a 10 month old Border Collie without a walk for 2 days then excpect her to crate quietly and watch other dogs run around. My perfect puppy just became an hour of horror. Good news, she can do everything we are learning but she needs SOO much work on her impulse control. I don't know exactly how to fix it, her main issue is watching other dogs work. She can't watch other dogs move sheep, she can't watch them tug, she can't watch them chase a ball. It leads to a lunging, barking ball of pathetic curly-tailed, puffy hackles. She just wants to be over there and INTO IT! I can usually keep her attention on me if I catch it quick enough but its taking out any use of the tug in class because if anyone else is tugging she just gets soo overstimulated so fast and flies of the handle. I try to get her attention before she cracks but its a bit of a struggle. I can't even think about her offleash until we sort it, ideas? I'm hoping maturity and more exposure will help but I don't want to rely on that either.

I hate that these lists say inteligence when they should say trainability. I love BC's, sure Quinn is incredibly trainable, more than any dog I know. SHe is smart but she does some stupid things sometimes.

Took Quinn out to see sheep again yesterday, first time she's been out of the roundyard. I really wish I had more of a clue, I can see why the instructor places himself where he does and why but I don't know if I'd be able to get there and know why myself. Oh well, will come with time and practice. I only really wanted to take her out a few tmes to see what she could do but the instructor is impressed with her, we did a short session in the roundyard yesterday and I can see that when I move around she does tend to bring the sheep back to me... with much gusto. I didn't think I'd have too much interest in herding, I just wanted to give her the oppurtunity to see if anything came naturally but now I think we could really enjoy it, so much of our training is "I say this - you do this" which we love but it would be cool to have a go at something where she has to help make the decisions. eta - The second we pulled into the gate she stood up and started yipping and carrying on, something she NEVER does and it was only the second time she had been there. And my goal for the next week is to teach my mum the basics of my camera so I don't get 20 wayyy overexposed pics that I can't use. However I do have this one, she was more than happy to be there obvisouly. 1 by Buster-Quinn, on Flickr

#486

my understanding is that red or "wheaten" are genetically the same colour, its like how goldens can come from deep red to almost white. I wish I had a better understanding of colour genetics, they fascinate me but I don't know very much.

I do think lilac's are actually quite pretty. Doesn't really look lilac though. I'd prefer a Black and white, black tri or choc and white though.

I don't think I can really help with proper answers but I love swimming Quinn. She LOVES the water and we have a small dam near our house that is perfect. I just take a stick down and throw it out a few times, I found it a great way to build fitness, strength and muscle tone while she was too young to do much hard excercise. I started just throwing it out 4 or 5 times, then built it up and now I'll run her down to the dam (about a minute jog from our place) find a stick ont eh way and send her out a few times, then play a big game of tug, back to swim a few times, play some ball etc and head back home. She's in such great shape at 10 months old now but we still try not to push the hard excercise so swimming is great.

People don't tend to want to talk to Buster when I have him out. He looks right through strangers like he doesn't see them and he's not the most lovey looking dog, having Quinn is totally different. She's quite shy but very pretty,she will smile sweetly at people but doesn't really want the attention - she will talk to people if they are polite (hold out their hand for a sniff, maybe a scratch under the chin) but she hates people coming down to pat her head - and everyone seesm to think that if she ducks away, if they scruff her up she'll want to play... hmm. We were at the markets a couple of weeks ago and a guy saw her bi eyes and wanted to show his wife, he tried to get her attention and when that didn't work he started hopping around like he was going to grab her face. Easier option... just wait. I'll stand beside you, ask for a sit and a a look and you can look at her oh so cool eyes if its that important.

I think the issue is that there arn't many quality merles around to breed from. I've never herd of silver BC's, lilac and merle yes and I've heard of slate but not sure if that fits in somewhere else.