Tassie

Good news! Have lots of fun :D .

True :D - but hey - if anyone was looking for a nice PhD topic ..... ;-)

FWIW - this is what Snopes has to say about it.

TSD - in one of the groups of tourists we talked to yesterday was a lady who asked did I mind if she took photos of the dogs, as her sister back in the US (obviously another crazy dog lady :laugh: ) loved to see photos of dogs in different countries.

Depends. I'll often smile as I'm looking in the general direction of the dog (not at the dog). That will often prompt the owner to smile back - and then if both the owner and the dog look encouraging, I might ask if I can say hello. Needless to say this is all done from a space respecting distance. :D My two Border Collies enjoy talking to people who don't have dogs with them. In fact my girl is a little embarrassing - she mugs people with her eyes, and hypnotises them into responding to her. :laugh: . She'll sit and bat her eyelashes at them, and then lift a paw - all at a respectful distance. (Obviously, I don't let her do this unless I get an acknowledgment from the person that they might be receptive to her.) We had a lovely walk round the wharf in Hobart yesterday - tourists everywhere - cruise ship in - and we had some really pleasant greeting sessions and chats with some very nice people - all of whom were dog savvy and polite. Several of the tourists, having done the smiling thing, then said something along the lines of - we're missing our dogs - could we say hello please. :) I was thinking I should see if we could get a job as official meeters and greeters for dog-deprived tourists .

Hi, and welcome. Just as a first thought, it sounds as though Taj might enjoy Flyball. Don't know if there is a club near you that offers Flyball training, but it might be worth a try.

What fun TSD :-)

That's too darned hot, Ptolomy! We've been taking advantage of holidays and nice weather to do little bits and pieces. Polishing the Broad for Open (yes, I'm old fashioned :laugh: - I quite like it as an exercise, actually) and also the COP. Working on not coming forward on the doown>sit - so a little bit of platform work to encourage him to stay in position and just sit up - and to strengthen his muscles to do that. Playing with DOR, OOS stays - mainly in familiar surroundings and just with Kirra at present - playing with a few FS tricks with both dogs, and we even had a little play with beginning treibball - we're really just doing little bits and pieces, just for fun, with a little bit of 'serious' occasionally thrown in - holiday stuff. Oh and playing a bit with the metal - preparatory to playing with SD. Kirra's doing a bit of Rally, and a little bit of FS. We're having fun, although I could end up with confused dogs. Never mind :laugh:

Thaks for the feedback - glad it was a positive experience all round. :)

Good on you, whitka, for taking on the challenge. :) My recommendation with a Border Collie, especially one which is inclined to be a bit shy, is to use reward based training - in short exciting bursts. Try to be very clear about what you want from her, and what you don't want - for the don't want, think of alternative acceptable behaviours which you can redirect her to. My feral agility girl is a confirmed wannabe car chaser (BCs are very motion oriented as a rule). So for all her nearly 11 years, she has been classically conditioned that when she hears/sees a car she would want to chase, she looks at me - and gets a treat. In the early days, I would actually ask for a sit - now I don't bother with that, but I do reward the head turn to me - sometimes it will be a verbal, followed by a somewhat delayed treat - but in the early stages, you would want the treat to be delivered quickly. I don't kid myself that this is anything other than management - so she doesn't get the chance to practise any car chasing. You'll get various suggestions for the loose leash walking. First thing is to have a clear criterion in your mind for what is acceptable - for mine, it is not havng tension on the leash that is uncomfortable for me - they can walk in front or to the side, as long as they're not actually pulling me. Occasionally they'rll forget their manners, and start to pull (maybe to get somewhere they want to go), and then I'll do the stop and wait, or maybe even the back up a few steps (penalty yards). For them that's enough - but for a youngster it probably wouldn't be. The technique I really like is the series of sharp changes of direction (no pre-warning to the dog) to a different direction from the one the dog wants to go, then just keep walking purposefully in the new direction, and mark and reward as the dog's head turns to look at you (to see what's going on :D ) - the leash will have slackened at that point. Then you can keep chatting and occasionally rewarding the dog while the leash is loose, and change direction if the dog starts to pull - rinse and repeat. Most dogs actually really like this game, and they start paying more and more attention so they don't get caught out. :laugh: . I think a key is not pleading with the dog or saying anything when you change directions - just keeping on going until the dog makes the choice to notice and pay you some attention. You can set up a slalon coiurse using cones or garden stakes, and walk through it - rewarding the dog for paying attention - many dogs quite like this one too. You would be using this technique at the same time as you were doing lots of other relationship building stuff - teaching focus (there's a recent/on-going thread on this), teaching hand-targetting stationary and then moving .... teaching all sorts of tricks. This sort of relationship building can also help with the shyness thing. She will learn to trust you - and in return, you will respect the feelings she is showing you, and try to keep her below the threshold where she starts worrying about things. Hope that makes sense - I'm sure others will be along with some more ideas. Oh, and I don't know how far east you are, but I'd probably be thinking about your local obedience clubs too - explaining the situation to them, so that thy will know that you may want to take new things easy with her.

Clover- that's a bummer - on both counts. It does set you back a bit - good luck with the rehab - of both kinds. Lollipup - I loved reading your goals - like Tumbleweed, I thought they were awesome, because you're looking at what your dogs need, and what you need to get a nice firm foundation for them. That is so important, and sometimes we're guilty of forgetting that in the pursuit of the letters before and after their names. I know I can be. We'll be looking forward to progress reports. :D

Thanked you in General DBS :) - but it's good to have it here too. Could we ask Troy to pin this, please?

Thanks so much for posting this DBS - We're lucky down here in that the percentage of paralysis ticks compared with the total tick population seems to be quite small - but that could well change with climate change. We don't use ongoing tick protection, but that makes it all the more important to have clear information should treatment be needed.

Things not going well for them, Clover?

And have a look on the net for some puppy foundation training you can do .... Little and often will help teach him that working with you is fun. Have a look on YouTube for kikopup ..she has some great stuff. Frozen stuffed kongs can be great for alone time.

Some good advice here. I would add a couple of things. You might find he's more interested in soft treats..easier to use in training as they can be delivered more quickly and are easier to eat quickly...and usually tastier. Things like small cubes of chicken loaf, low fat cheese, Devon sausage ..a whole variety of things can be used....it's good to have a mixture. At his age, he'll be starting to test boundaries, so you might want to have him on a long light line ( not a retractable) when he's in a park...that way he has plenty of independence, but you have control and he doesn't learn to run off.

zeebie wrote Sometimes I think it's random. I've had 3 CR parcels in the last couple of months - one opened by Quarantine - it had a lot of the foam balls (toys oon the free shipping list) that did smell very strong. No problems - they'd just opened it for a look. The other 2 parcels - also toys of various sorts - no problems. Over the years I think I've only had 2 CR parcels checked - out of .... ummmm ... quite a lot :laugh: That said, I don't buy food or medicinal products.

I would have thought slow was OK with an older dog. Unless you just can't get enough moves in, I suppose.

:laugh: kallistar ... it's a long list . Working on Open ob, and possibly working on some agility - depends on a friend's availability. And of course trying to catch up on a year's not done jobs around the house and jungle. At least it's really dry here, so the grass has pretty much stopped in its tracks - the downside is more watering. Never a dull moment. But seriously, I do hope to get over there again next year - but not necessarily for DWD. You're going to have fun with your youngster, and Tux will enjoy 'working' anyway.

What a great initiative :) .

:D On the list for the summer holidays - but a little way down the list. I am soooo very uncreative - But I might just do some playing with teaching/polishing some more moves, and hope inspiration strikes :laugh: .

TSD and Vickie. Handler focus on/engagement with dog is sooooo important. I always remember Suzanne Clothier saying years ago at a seminar - "Always be available to your dog" - such good advice - and if you can't, then park the dog somewhere where s/he can chill out - on a mat, a crate, in "park". There's an interesting discussion going on in a Rally forum at the moment about the dis-engagement that some obedience/Rally handlers show - really noticeable in Rally where handlers are allowed, and encouraged to talk and interact with their dogs. Hmmm - TSD - when we've had an oops on course, I'm usually busy apologising to Kirra for bad handling as we get ourselves going again. :laugh: In some ways, I see an oops of some sort as an opportunity to really gun the rest of the course - try 'risky' manoeuvres I might not have done if we were still on a Q .. things like - more distant sends to weaves, and so on - so we end up having great fun.

:laugh: That's right TSD - go on - rub it in!!! But that's great. Hope you have a wonderful time over there - gonna be COLD in Ohio :laugh:

Just checked my parcel - ordered and shipped December 7th - attempted delivery down here in the south of the Apple Isle today - can pick it up from PO this afternoon .... 12 days, at Christmas time - and free shipping Clean Run, USPS and Australia Post.

She ismaking significant recovery - though still a long road ahead. Latest update from Susan's site is here