Casima

Hi Skip I was wondering how your dog search was going and was about to email you. Just to add to the thread here is my experience. My first dog GSD "Benny" and second dog BSDxBC "Raffy" were both pound dogs bought as pets a few years apart. Raffy is a very biddable boy and he got me into the sport of agility, once he got a few titles and I was hooked on the sport, I decided I wanted to get a more competitive dog to trial with, although I didn't need another pet I did want another agility dog. Since my first 2 were rescues I thought I would get another rescue as I decided I wanted a border collie, and there are usually plenty of nice BC's in rescue. I found a lovely 1 yr old working border collie girl "Anna" at a local pound, she was super friendly, I liked her build and structure for agility, she was very outgoing and energetic and she instantly got on very well with my boys... sounds perfect? I thought so, so she came home with us. She was great for the first few months, then when our training started to get a bit tricky she started to shut down when training, she also started to develop some annoying little obsessive stress behaviours at home which got worse over time and she is very sound sensitive and reguarly develops more fears of things she asociates with loud noises, and as she came with me to trials she got flatter and flatter in the trial environment. I started competeing with her about 2 years old, sometimes she is better than others, ranging between really stressy and slow to moderate speed, now running at masters level. I've done alot of work with her, and learnt soo much, she has inspired me to learn from some brilliant international trainers, 2.5 years on she is steadily improving, and I think in a few more years time she will actually be a good agility dog but its been a long hard road with a long way yet to go. All that said however, I love her dearly, she makes me laugh every day, she is the sweetest most lovable dog in the world and I wouldn't trade her for anything even tho she wasn't the dog I wanted, she has taught me so many important lessons which will benifit all my future dogs. Now I feel it is time for me to add another dog, this time I have looked at the dogs in agility which make me go "Wow" and have chosen a litter from the same lines, from parents I love. My new border collie puppy's litter is 1 week old today. While I'm sure there are plenty of rescue dogs out there that could be the amazing agility dog I want, and I do feel slightly guilty not getting a rescue this time around, I think a well bred pup is going to give me the best chance of having the dog with the potential to be great, not because I want to win, but because training and handling a very fast enthusiastic dog is so much more fun. I don't think there is anything wrong with chooseing a dog/breed specifically to do agility with, and know many people who do so at agility, so long as either the dog suits your lifestyle, or you are willing to change your life to suit the dog. Not saying everyone should get a BC/kelpie, not everyone will enjoy having these breeds around, just make sure you choose a dog you will love to own 24/7 not just at agility time.

I had a dog with a wound that looked like that, only I didn't find it under all his fur for about 4 days when my border collie cleaned it up for him and I checked to see what all the licking was about. It looked nasty and sat right open so off to the vet we went sure we would need stitches, anyway the vet said he could stitch it if I wanted but it would heal by itself (which I found a bit hard to believe since it was sitting so open but do prefer to let things heal by themselves if they will) and gave us some AB's and instructions not to let it scab over. So I watched it, Anna made sure it didn't scab over and sure enough, day by day it closed alittle until a week later it was totally closed over.

I've noticed the Staffy/Stafford thing too. Also seen a similar thing with Husky vs Siberian, again the registered breeders trying to distance themselves from the shonky bred dogs? not sure. My favorite nickname for a breed is the Borzoi shortened to Zoi, beautiful dogs!

My 3 current dogs all came from rescue and were all chosen based on breed and temperament, although I must admit I was alittle hesitant to adopt Raffy due to being all black and plain looking. Anna didn't sound that promising in her pound write up but I am rather partial to tri's so went to visit her anyway but may not have if not for her little tan points. I am now looking at adding another BC to my dog family, a puppy from a breeder this time. I've looked around and found lines I really like, then looked at the upcomming breeding plans and choosen the litter with the parents I like the best. While there are certain colours/coat patterns in the breed which catch my eye more than others, honestly I don't care what colour my pup will be, or gender either, I do hope to get a puppy with a temperament suited for what I want (agility and herding) and structure that will allow the puppy to have a long, sound and hopefully sucessful performance life as well. My puppy mummy is pregnant now, due in a few weeks, really hope there is one in there for me! Can't wait

Glad to hear other peoples dogs are looking after them too hope you are feeling better Tlc Whenever I'm having a bad day Raffy and Anna wont leave my side and Benny will increase his guarding tendancies to keep me safe or something. Anna is especially wonderful when I am upset, she will jump onto my lap and lick up all the tears and cuddle until I am feeling a bit better, then she will hop off and get all bouncy trying to get me to play, and I can't help but smile.

I've been trying to decide if I should take out insurance on my oldest dog before he turns 9 (seems to be the magic age)or if I would really just be subsidising other peoples dogs who are poorly bred, fed supermarket food, obese or allowed to run around on the street or just got really unlucky with health stuff. Touch wood mine have all been very healthy and none have incurred huge vet bills, I do my best to keep them as healthy as I can. I am leaning towards just putting money aside for my current dogs, tho will probably insure any future puppies for the first year or 2. A very hard call tho.

Hi all, As I understand it, you can still go back and fix your weaves without having to leave the ring, from a DQ or not point of view it is no longer preferable tho. Also it seems that those dogs you see who occasionally miss a gap in the middle and then continue weaving will be DQed as soon as they restart to weave? not sure from the new rules

I will be there :D Can't wait!!

I consider my dogs well socialised once they are happy and confident in the presence of all types and temperaments of dogs, can read other dogs well including leaving another dog alone if it is clearly not interested in them! (Sounds like your friends dog hasn't mastered this one yet if they were pestering Charlie when he didn't want to play, I consider those types of dogs to be pretty rude) Wont resource guard their toys/treats/me when strange dogs are around, and wont react to another dog, even if it is reacting towards them, and can politely join in other dogs fetch games. (or don't join them at all is even better but difficult with ball obsessed dogs) I don't expect my dogs to play with others unless they want to, infact as they are competition agility dogs, I rather they looked to me for their play when we are out and about rather than other dogs. They play occasionally but it isn't something I ever really encourage, I rather encourage playing tug/ball with me when around other dogs. I do reguarly visit dog parks, I think it is a great tool to teach your dog what is expected of them when in the presence of other dogs, mine have all learnt a great deal from these visits. I watch my dogs and give them feedback on what they are doing so that they learn, not just let them run around and do whatever as many people seem to.

I am another who does the long drive down to South Coast club for agility since moving to Sutherland recently... I have attended a number of agility clubs throughout Sydney over the last few years and South Coast is by far the best I've found. Very well worth the drive!!! Great training and Great people I also train at PICSI (Parramatta) and have for the last few years, also a good club with great people, but I don't think their beginner classes are as extensive as SC club. (also the drive up there through the peak hour traffic can be a pain from here) I haven't attended Sutherland club in years, but I was pretty put off by their obedience section and the yank the poor dog around on a chain training, I did alittle agility there before I moved away but that was years ago so I don't know how it is now, I see some of the Sutherland Ladies at trials and they are nice but I don't think I would train there again.

I used to live within a few blocks of the hospital, police station and fire station... my GSD would howl at all the siren's, I love his howl! My others never howl but Mum's Corgi sometimes does except he has to do a few very terrible high pitched barks first which spoils it!

I couldn't pick just 1 favorite but here are a few that I have found to be great for training my youngest dog from the ground up. Foundation, no equipment... Crate Games - Susan Garrett - suitable for any age, a great thing first thing to start with a baby puppy or to go back to with an experienced dog, this is her foundation for self control and motivation, sets the dog up with the skills for a great start line stay, self control under distraction, drive ahead to an obstical, understanding for finding "blind" obstical entrances as well as a dog who settles nicely in a crate when at home or trial. Agility Foundation Training - Greg Derrett - suitable for any age, teaches dogs great start line stays, building toy drive under distraction, understanding of following your body language when running with you, left and right verbal directionals, fitness for agility. Foundation with equpiment... Sucess With One Jump - Susan Garrett - teach your dog what all of your handling cues will mean with just 1 jump, I highly recommend working through this dvd before moving to more equipment, the difference it makes in the dogs understanding is amazing. Note, Susan uses Greg Derretts handling, so the dvd teaches these handling cues, if you wanted to handle another way its still worth watching and working through this but you will need to modify the different cues to suit whatever handling you intend to use. Great Dog Shame, About The Handler - Greg Derrett - teaches your dog to front cross, rear cross, pull through, push through, serpentine, 180, 270, post turn etc etc on small sequeces. Equipment skills... 2x2 Weave Training - Susan Garrett - IMO the best weave training method out there, teaches amazing weave entries, understanding and independance by shaping the whole weaving behaviour. Foundation Jumping - Susan Salo - Using a series of jump grids teaches your dog how to jump with great style and efficency, increasing the dogs speed around a course and reducing the incidence of knocked bars and jumping related injury. There is also a puppy and an advanced jumping dvd, I haven't seen them but I've heard they are great, and the puppy one can be started at an early age. Handling... Great Dog Great Handler, The Winning Combination - Greg Derrett - explains Greg's handling system and is full of handling excercises to practise your handling, timing and positions. I usually compare the prices at these places. http://www.agilityclick.com/ http://airdogs.com.au/agility/home.php and sometimes clean run too, but postage can be pricy http://www.cleanrun.com/

Hi Staffy Lover, sorry I didn't get to say hi, come and say hi next time Yep running 3 all in different things makes for a very busy trial hopefully it will be better if Anna ever gets to Masters with Raffy, less courses to walk and remember I loved the veterans event, the old dogs all looked so happy to be in the spotlight again Anyone else here doing Goulburn next weekend? :D

That is terifying to think that an impounded dog (no matter why it was there) could be PTS by accident. Enough to give me nightmares. Poor dog and family.

I Notice some difference between my big 600 Belgian and my 500 Border, the 500 is way faster through tunnels and can turn much more easily, but they are still fairly similar to run, basically it feels like they are running and I am just steering their line in different directions. I've also run my Mum's 300 Corgi, he is not much slower than my big guys (and on a tight course can often beat the 600 time wise) but he feels totally different, more like hes chasing me around the course, commitment points are much later and hes nowhere near as good at independantly finding his line, turns brilliantly tho! I'm not fond of the barking I plan on getting a Papillion as my next dog, to experience training and handling a little guy (I also think they are gorgeous )

Future agility dogs... 1. Working Borders (Anna has sold me on these, plenty more to come!) 2. Papillion (next dog! ) 3. Belgian Terv 4. Toller 5. Sheltie 6. Working Kelpie 7. Pyreanean Shepherd [smooth Face] (not in Aus AFAIK) 8. Kooikerhondje (Also not in Aus) Non agility future dogs... 9. Bernese Mt Dog 10. Borzoi 11. Maremma Opps that is 11

I will be there too! great fun

Eeeep I'm moving to Sutherland in the next few weeks, will keep an eye out, thanks for the heads up!

Raffy, Anna and I will be competing in the agility on both days :D

No idea about other states or disiplines, but for Agility in NSW it usually says "vetting for entire bitches only" on the entry information. I don't own an entire girl, so not really sure if they really do do it, but I've never noticed any dogs vetted at any trial I've been to in NSW or ACT (maybe I'm blind?) and never had my desexed girl (or my boys) vetted ever.

Glad your dogs are all ok Robbi. It took me awhile to get the hang of walking 3, occasionally I will still end up all tied up still but most of the time we are good. Hi Erny, what kind of snap hooks do you recommend? is Brass better? My BC has broke one before when she was alittle too excited getting out of the car, no harm done but I wouldn't have guessed that the old nylon chewed leash was stronger than the clip that broke! Might be time to replace some leads and/or clips!

Good luck everyone and enjoy the dinner

While a nice looking website is great, I know that most breeders arn't breeding dogs as a business, so I forgive alot of the crappy websites (within reason, some give me an instant headache ) So I look mostly at the content. I want to know what the breeders breeding goals and priorities are and what their dogs are like. A good breeder website will have... - A page for each dog (including old retired ones who are related to their current breeding dogs) with acheivments, temperament info (more info than just "friendly" I want to know if the dog is: active, calm, confident, aloof, social, independant, driven etc compared with an average dog of this breed) health info (bonus points for being honest and putting in the bad as well as the good ) pedigree (great if links/pictures to dogs included) info/pics about any past puppys, a variety of quality pics, if the dog is a performance dog I also love video of them working. - A page for Current and Planned Litters which is updated reguarly (bonus points if they have explained why they have choosen this mating) and includes things like where the puppies are raised and what socialisation they will have while at the breeders. - A page about the breeder, how long they have been in the breed, what their breeding goals are, why they love this breed etc - Easy to find Contact and Location info - Links page, to quality links, other breeders (especially if they have related dogs) clubs/associations, rescue, forums, breed information etc - Past dogs, especially if they are related to the current dogs, I love to see temperament and health info from older related dogs and how long they lived. - Dogs at home page with how their dogs are kept (eg in the home, kennels, together or seperated etc) and what they are fed, if they live with a cat or livestock etc. Other stuff, like breed information, grooming, training etc is nice, but not essential as it can be found elsewhere and generally isn't specific to this breeder and their breeding program. I don't like websites that have tons of show wins and stacked photos, but don't make any mention of temperament and or health of their dogs. To me this says the breeder really only cares about the show ring. (whether it is true or not, I don't know, but that is what the website says to me) I think most future pet people, and myself who is interested in dogsports are much more inclined to choose a breeder who appears to be very fussy about the health and temperament of their breeding dogs. Websites that give this impression will not get put in my "shortlist" no matter how beautiful their dogs might be. I also don't like websites where the dogs seem to be just some beloved pets, with just alittle showing/performance on the side. These people to me seem more than alittle kennel blind or something, rather than breeding top quality dogs. Same goes for breeders who emphasise what (rarer/more popular) colours are expected in the litter as being their main selling point with no other reasons given for why they are using this dog to breed with. I have since learnt that some of these type websites I've rejected as being registered BYB/Colour breeders are actually great breeders with quality dogs, they just haven't put the right stuff down on their site!

The whole first year I had Benny I hadn't ever seen him wag his tail, it just hung limply behind him. Anyway one day I was sitting at the computer and hear this "thump thump" behind me, I looked around and there was Benny, fast asleep on his side, tail wagging. I cryed, I was so happy to see him wagging. It has happened a few more times over the years, always makes me smile! Anna is the only one who seems to have visable dreams very often, she will twitch her face and feet for alittle while, I like to think she is dreaming of running fast, as she loves to run when awake.

ROFL! I better email this link to my Dad the engineer