Mrs Rusty Bucket

I think the RSPCA use the term "irresponsible breeder" (avoid) vs "responsible breeder" (seek). http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-a-responsible-companion-animal-breeder_327.html PS - the first breeder described fails on point 2 - about "are given the opportunity to exercise, play and lead a normal life."

Here's the TNS stuff or why you want a breeder that tests for this... http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/238882-sick-border-collie-pup/ http://bordercolliehealth.com/TNSdatabase.html You probably also want to avoid "exercise induced collapse" tho I'm not sure if there is a test. And those other things. There's great working line and show BC breeders but also many crappy ones. And it's really difficult if you know of one line - where one dog is winning at agility and the other can't compete because it's essentially crippled - joint problems and EIC. Not easy.

boot scooting... My dog does it occasionally - mostly it's to "wipe her bottom" ie she's got a dag from not chewing up the grass she ate enough... Or there's hair that stuck there - from grooming goes all the way through. If she was a cat she'd be hacking fur balls. The most tell tale signal that the anal glands need doing is a gawd awful skunk dead fish smell when the dog gets a bit excited, and jumps or barks or farts. Worse than regular dog fart. And it doesn't happen just the once, but a lot. To the point where you don't want the dog jumping up on the couch with you. Then it's time... I worry that getting the dog's glands done might lead to them needing to be done more and more often... but I'm not sure if that's true or it would have happened anyway, ie what ever was causing the problem (old age? bad diet?) - isn't affected by how often they get emptied. But I don't know.

Yes a good remote sit or drop - our drop is best, is great for helping to catch naughty dogs. Again - I have no idea why she will do a drop stay when I ask and not the recall, and then with the drop stay - she will let me walk up to her and clip the lead on. But it works best if we practice it often and everywhere. The other thing my dog adores is start line stay practice... I have no idea how I got this part so right, but she just loves it. I watched someone who is much better at dog agilty than me - and she has a dog that does the creepy ups on the start line and she's yelling and cursing and has no idea how to fix it. I can't get a rear cross, but I can get the start line. And mostly it's because I know the thing my dog finds the most rewarding is the chase... So every time she moves, I put her back - collar grab, small circle and I laugh at her for "getting it wrong" (planned failure), and we start over and I work pretty hard at faking her out... in fact she does a better start line stay if I try to fake her out on my lead out than if I walk up there being all calm and not flappy... If I'm jumping around and pretending to start running, she can't take her eyes off me and she's so excited, but she stays... Until I release and whee... tho sometimes we lose the value for the jumps and she runs around them all on her way to me. And then she gets mad at me for not running... Most frequent reward is a tug toy or my hat taken on the run, and then she does a "victory lap" with my hat wrapped around her face like the creature from Alien... Doggy joy. All the way. So sometimes my recall signal is me waving the hat and pretending to run... but that doesn't always beat the playground hoover temptation. So we have some work to do there. It really helps to know what the big distractions are because then you can work on "proofing" them.

I thought that about Frosty and many things... but sometimes she surprises me and times where I thought there was no way... I get a brilliant recall. But I find towards the end of a walk when she's getting a bit tired - stuff stops working, and I might as well put her on lead. She gave me the blow off the other day and went hoovering in the playground. Not good, because there were kids in the playground too tho she wasn't the least bit interested in them. And soon it could get me fined - because they've changed the rules at our dog park. My main mistake was - I know vaguely where her threshold or zone of obedience is around that playground and I let her cross it off lead. In fact I even threw a ball for her to fetch across it, and she picked up the ball and just nicked off. Oops. But we have AMAZING recalls at the beach. So it's about working on little bits often and then setting limits ie we will do three recalls at the park and then we're back on lead or not doing any more calling. I find lots of collar grab helps a lot, and paying attention to rewarding only "average or better" performance. Ie for us, it's not a collar grab if she doesn't put her neck and collar in my hand. So sometime I can use that as a recall signal - I stick my hand out, she puts her neck on my hand... phew, great, wow! I think that "average or better" thing is key too. And it does my head in still, ie the harder they have to work for something the more they want it. Apple phone marketing knows this. But I keep thinking I have to offer something she wants - aka Luring. Which invites the blow off. Ie I don't need or want this today...I've got better things to do.

* ***************** ALERT ********************** hopefully all the right people got emails but there's two more coaching calls this week, H360 and IC Peeps. coaching calls H360 4pm July 30 Toronto Canada time. which is Adelaide Thursday, 31 July 2014 at 5:30:00 AM (Ouch) IC Peeps 31st July 6:30pm Toronto Canada Time which is Adelaide (Australia - South Australia) Friday, 1 August 2014 at 8:00:00 AM http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Yes - you can see some of it in the last coaching call for Recallers 5, where she uses hand targetting to get the dog into position for RZ (reinforcement zone, heel work). This is really tricky... there is a balance that you kind of build up gradually - where the dog understands the task eg recall, and has value for the recall (it feels almost as good as getting a treat), so they will do stuff to get the treat - which might be the recall cue. I don't think my dog feels that way entirely about recalls yet. But she does about other things. Or maybe I haven't figured out when she's training me. A few examples where I've noticed I'm being trained... Or my dog is an absolute fibber... I tried using LAT with the lawnmower man but I got the timing wrong and handed out treats for her being EXTREMELY EXCITED in front of the lawn mower man - instead of waiting then counting to three and rewarding CALM sitting placid sleepy behaviour. (cf egg and bacon boy coaching call) Also - my dog will do the whole play bow let me off to play with other dogs routine, and I used to let her off. And she'd go foraging in the playground - leaving a very disappointed wanna be play mate dog behind... Oops. And she's well learned - poke my hand - get treat (repeat). Ie we will be off lead at the beach and she will initiate poke the boss's hand for hand outs... She's also worked out that she almost always gets a good treat for recall but she has to nick off for there to be a recall... that's if I'm not falling for the poke hand treatment. SG is really good at picking when there is a back chain forming... I'm not so good at that. I think you have to see it lots... Pretty sure SG agrees with this, but then you have review your training again. Remember our dogs are not supposed to be off lead in an environment where we need to recall them, until about day 18 "field trip" - are we there yet?

Petplan are backed by Allianz not Hollards. Most of the rest are backed by Hollards. You can tell which ones are hollards at the moment - they all have 20% "co payment" and the insurance should cover the other 80% but all "bilateral" problems are excluded eg if dog needs cateract surgery - only one eye is covered and you have to pay for the other one. Tho I have heard of some retailers paying out the 80% anyway if it's a single op - depending how the vet presents it. I'm thinking self insuring would be cheaper...

I was scared to look. But happy I did. Glad it's not like a Siamese twin corgi... Very cute the both of them. every time I see a cute corgi - I think of the kibble dance corgi...

yeah it's tricky problem. SG and LOH and Derretts have not come up with a good answer either. I keep thinking when we do figure it out, someone is going to say - that's obvious...

And you can post video in a supportive environment and get everyone to help... Not that I do that enough...

They have a bit of trouble figuring out 100% means. A bit like the phone companies and the word "unlimited". They're backed by Allianz - which I'm completely allergic to since I had a custom car policy with a lot of extras added on to my 4WD and they wouldn't pay for those (the custom luggage cage, the roo bar, the roof rack, radio fittings... etc). There's only two companies backing pet insurance in Australia - Allianz which has an excess and Hollards which has introduced the 80% 20% rule. pet insurance seemed like good value when I first got my dog over 5 years ago but I'm really not sure about it now. And the premium seems to go up by between 30% and 60% each year (for hollards). And Hollards can be niggly about paying for subsequent but similar items tho sometimes their retailers stuff up and they have to pay eg if your dog has six lumps - Hollards will try to pay for only the first lump off and then you have to pay for the next five even tho it's the same operation. Why the vet itemises it separately I don't know. But if you get a quote from the vet and then ask your insurance how much they'd pay - they say 80%... and you're covered. Sort of. It becomes less and less worthwhile if you have to claim for any injury on a body part your dog has two of eg does one ACL - no cover for the other one. Needs cataract surgery? only one eye is covered... WTF.

I've got friends who are into tracking dog competitions. The scents are usually only a few hours old not days or weeks. And they don't want their dogs to follow fresh kangaroo or rabbit or other critters or other dogs in the competition... I know in the movies - you wave a sock or bit of bedding with the right scent on it and the dog is supposed to follow that - but in practice - it's a bit more difficult. I think I could get my dog to track the chicken lady... tho it would be helpful if I had an old sock of hers to get my dog started... but usually all I need to do is say "where's Linda" and off she goes. I don't think she'd have the same joy in tracking a scent of a dog she doesn't know.

yes her dogs sort of point at the ground and then look up to say "can I go now?"... I'd rather the dog stopped and looked at me... not the ground... and held until I gave the signal. I think (could be wrong) the point of the 2o2o is to manage ? excitement on the dog's part ie give it something complicated to do that makes the good contact obvious for the judge and if the complicated breaks down a bit in competition, that doesn't matter as it's 3 layers on top of what you want. I just think it's slow and possibly a bit damaging. It looks "wrong". There must be a better way. I don't know what that is but I'm sure if I keep thinking - "what is a better way" it will come. The best thing about the contacts was the concept of reward for running not jumping... If only I had a dog I could reward with a tug thrown in position... Victory laps are us.

Susan Garrett's online courses have been way more helpful than my face to face dog club. Yes you have to find the balance between spending time on the computer and actually putting the stuff in to practice - ie getting out there with your dog. But I'd be still dragging my dog to the local park by a chain around her neck if it wasn't for internet classes. I sure as hell wouldn't have a jumping dog title with her.

I think since you can't leave him inside, setting up a limited space with a comfy bed, that's warm, maybe with a talk back radio playing... people noises... and somewhere it's ok to mess up because he's not going to be able to hold on long enough when he's so young to last while you're at work. I think I was getting up twice between 10:30pm (last pisstop) and 6:30am until my puppy was about 14 weeks and then she could hold on all night... and I was very vigilant during the day about taking her out. I think you might need to train an ok to pee inside here spot. one time - and one time only - my dog peed in the floor drain in the shower - which I could get that again... It does help to supervise peestops - on lead - with a command word from very young so you can take the puppy out - give the command - and they will do their very best to empty... instead of puppy that's used to going whenever it pleases because it's outside all the time or has a dog door. Dog star Daily has a lot of info on how to set that up since it's more Europe/ North America / Apartment / snow in winter / dog has to be inside more of the time kind of website. For toys to keep dog occupied - kongs stuffed with frozen food, if you can't get home for the midday feed this might help. I think you can get auto dog feeders that operate on timers. My dog likes a bob a lot - which I like better in the soft sided crate - tho she dug through the bottom of it playing with the bob a lot - it's very noisy on hard surfaces. cow hooves work well for us, but bones do not. What will work will depend on what your dog does with the toy or food - you don't want to leave anything he might choke on when you're not home (why we don't get bones or chicken wings)... crate training is fantastic for helping with toilet training and also for limiting the opportunity for destruction. You could also use a large play pen - tho with a BC it won't be long before he can jump out if he wants to.

Nice work Kavik Contacts - deciding what to do has kind of held me up... I can't see how driving down a slope and then smushing a dog's nose into the dirt (or worse, grass that dog is allergic too) is a good thing. I've got great hand targeting and I've taught mine a chin tap in a drop pos... which might do for see saw - if I can get her to not freak out when it tilts... She's fine climbing all over wobbly planks in the back yard... and it can be hard to keep her off the see saw - "look at me, I'm the king of the castle---oh $#!+"... and then she won't go near it...

For the mental trick training, there is a method called "Shaping" which means you reward a dog for steps that progress towards the trick you want - like what kikopup does.. here's a list of tricks to try - building on a dog's natural behaviours and offerings... http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/02/idea-list-for-shaping/ And dogs are good at it too, especially the brighter more intense breeds like herders... and small terriers... and small white fluffies... dammit - all dogs are good at shaping and the cuter they are and the more you want to shower them with love and kindness (aka spoiling them) - the better they are at it. http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/09/whos-shaping-me/

I tried PBJ towards a bowl of kibble (ok a tablespoon of kibble in her normal dinner bowl)... And she was oh what - normally I have to do a really good sit stay for kibble - what's this "fire me at it" business... but she caught on eventually. I find the harder I make her work for kibble - the more she wants it. And she's go a bunch of wicked tricks to make me hand it over without thinking too. sometimes I feel like the food dispensing machine with the handle the pigeon has to peck to get the food...

This is the Vic code for small breeders Pet shops may not sell a puppy under 8 weeks of age either. http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/pets/domestic-animal-businesses/breeding-and-rearing-businesses/breeding-and-rearing-code Also your puppy may need vaccination boosters - most puppy vaccinations require three shots - ie the main one and two boosters plus two weeks before full immunity is achieved. And after that will require annual vaccinations for some diseases like kennel cough and maybe 3 year vax for some other diseases. I always forget which is what and just get the C5, but have just found out about a local vet (goodwood road near Edward st) that does titre testing (woot). there are good reasons why a puppy should stay with its mum and litter mates until at least 8 weeks. just because you trust the breeder - doesn't make what they say true. That's how people get scammed.

It is handy having some level 10 distractions where you have some control over where you are relative to them... Eg a pond full of ducks where you can work at a distance is great. Trying to explain to your neighbour what you are doing to his cat - not so easy.

It's illegal to sell / rehome a puppy under 8 weeks old in Vic too and they have to be microchipped.

I think you only need to get things right about 80% ie four out of five times. So the occasional mistake - as long as you and your dog not traumatised should be ok. I can't stop level 10 distractions from happening - they like to fly low over the back yard going Ark ark ARK ark aaarrrrkk... near impossible to ignore. Evil hound is quite apologetic for getting distracted these days instead of me having to rugby tackle her. I watched the coaching call this morning. Hope everyone who missed it has patience until it's back up again. I learned something too - that you can't "rewind" using Android internet or Android youtube to watch it, but you can with firefox and windoze... ie not all platforms are created equal. SG and her team mostly use apples. But the ipads won't play the live (youtube) video unless you specifically install something extra (flash). Once they load it up - I think they put it on a different website so playing it back is not so much of a problem. And you're stuffed if you live in Germany which for some reason blocks live youtube streaming. And live youtube is not the same as regular youtube... And the chatroll channel seems to have a 250 person limit and more people wanted to be on than was available. Half of that is technical problems of scale - ie it's hard to find a broadcast channel that will securely broadcast to a couple of thousand? people of your choice around the world. Even Oprah can't quite manage it - and she's got a team of people building stuff from scratch. Not sure what universities do with their internet lectures.

sarsaparilla I think it's a sort of universal anger we get when we're sprung doing something "naughty". And the off lead dog owner tends to redirect the anger outwards towards anyone but the person who deserves it ie themselves. Like the parking ticket - some people - get angry with themselves and apologise to the inspector, and some people yell the inspector...

What a bully. This is on a par with abusing the parking inspector for giving you a ticket when you've parked too long. All dogs in off lead areas are supposed to be under effective control and they're not to harass (injury or not) other dogs, animals or people. It's hard to tell if the café is in an on or off lead area. I'm guessing off lead - but the dogs are all still supposed to be under effective control and not harass or attack anyone or any dog or any other critter. So do you quit going to a café because it's frequented by bullies who can't keep their dogs under control? I guess it's a risk. Could you carry a golf umbrella and inflate it in the bully dog and people's faces? Or maybe talk to the council animal management people about checking up on dog behaviour around that café - tho, in the first incident described - everyone would have been in trouble. As for hubby - from earlier posts - he seems like a risk also. I know one person who lost her heart dog because "hubby" didn't follow instructions and let that dog off lead and it got run over. Broke the relationship too. Hopefully your hubby is more caring and careful.