koalathebear

Something's gone wrong with Hoover. I think he thinks he's an Australian Shepherd.

Yes! It's so dog by dog! Even in Hoover's litter, his breeder said that two of his brothers were very high energy and one of his sisters was a bossy cow - Hoover was the most chilled and laid back of the lot. I had very long conversations with the breeder about what sort of dog we wanted.

Yup, but Kelpie people find it impossible to convince non-Kelpie people of this despite plenty of video and photographic evidence I was home yesterday, my dogs spent the whole day snoozing. They could and would easily run 80km but their favourite thing is to be with their humans.

Yes! Thank goodness you understand The Back Seat Buddy is excellent but is not All Powerful - I swear the fur seems to have a life of is own. We have a Seymour in every room when I sweep up with the microfibre cloth :p I can't blame it all on the dogs, I have long hair and that seems to show up in the dust bunny piles, too ...

Kelpie hair is insidious stuff :p It floats around - gets in around the sides. The middle parts of the seat that are fully covered are fine, it's just around the edges of the buddy. We actually have car seat covers, too but they occasionally slide as well so we end up with dog hair around the edges - also through the holes in the buddy where the seat belt buckles go through.

I am resigned to dog hair, too now although I was kind of horrifed the other night when I looked down in my 'clean' mixing bowl and discovered a dog hair in there. The hair must have been floating in the air and landed in the bowl as I pulled it out of the cupboard It's the car I'm anxious to try to de-dog as much as possible for those instances when we need to give people a lift etc. Yesterday because I couldn't de-dog the backseat enough, I ended up covering it with bath towels so mum could sit there without getting dog hair on her clothes :p This is our 'third dog'. We call him Seymour :p He is an interesting dusty grey colour

Thanks for showing it to us, TerraNik - that was really helpful. My two stay in heel and turn around with me but the passing around the back looks like fun. How do you teach it? I could imagine that done wrong, I'd just end up tripping over my poor dog

Thanks kyojin, greymate & secretkei - these are all great ideas and I'm definitely going to have to start adopting them. Sometimes we have to drive people in the backseat and it's embarrassing to see how much dog hair there is :p I would love to completely cover the backseats with a blanket/sheepskin or something like that but the problem is that we need to be able to have the seatbelt buckles come through so that they can in turn slot through the holes in the backseat buddy - because both of our dogs travel in the car wearing car harnesses that buckle into the seat belt. Right now we use a car seat cover plus the backseat buddy but they're not doing a very good job. I will definitely be buying large mats for the footwells in the back seat though once I finish the mammoth task of vacuuming it up. Hoover sheds a lot more than Elbie does but Elbie definitely holds up his own! Maybe I should buy them both full body snoods when they travel in the car :p

Our two dogs shed quite a lot. We don't have carpet so the laminate is really easy to clean-up - combination of Swiffer (microfibre cloth) and Dyson. Clothes are also fine as are the sheets that we lay on top of things so the dogs can lie on them - once through the washing machine seems to fix those. The things I am having trouble cleaning up dog hair from though, are things like the car seat covers (which are kind of more clingy and velvety) and also the car seats themselves. Running the vacuum cleaner over it several times doesn't work. I ran the car seat cover through the washing machine and it still came out covered in dog hair because of the 'cling'. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to banish dog hair from more clingy surfaces? Or will I have to go very basic and use sticky tape to pull the hair off? Thanks very much in advance!

It's always consensual eating, though ...

I also normally don't recommend breeds because I am biased (and not that familiar with other breeds) but since you've already mentioned Kelpies in your list ... The right working line Kelpie would probably suit you and your pack :D Elbie my Kelpie x Border Collie cross is a bit sensitive and doesn't particularly enjoy playing rough with other dogs but Hoover my Kelpie from a WKC-registered breeder is definitely capable of very boisterous play. He modifies himself to whatever the behaviour is that is going on so he is extremely happy to body slam with wuffles' dog Ava but he usually doesn't have body contact with other dogs he plays with - except when playing bitey face with Elbie. He loves all dogs. As woofen has said, with Kelpies you have to be super careful to pick the right breeder because some can be over the top and unmanageable in a home environment (which is why they often have such bad press) - the right one can be so wonderful, though. Hoover's so bomb-proof and despite having only left the farm at 3 months old, never been in a car before, never met a washing machine, electric mixer, blender or any other household appliance before, he is curious and brave. Despite never having been in a house before the age of 3 months, he was so easy to house train - a well-bred Kelpie is just really easy to teach and they love to learn and to please their humans. As for exercise requirements, our yard isn't huge but the two are very happy to play in there - we definitely don't live on a farm/on property with a large yard. This video is from when we first got Hoover. You can see that they still that they still play like that from . They're both obedient and smart. In the hands of the right trainer, I know my dogs would be amazing - alas, I'm not dedicated or experienced enough so they're just chugging along. Nonetheless, Kelpies can definitely be wonderful at agility and obedience. My two LOVE going to obedience class and never seem to get bored during class even though so much of it can be kind of boring. Elbie loves agility. Training them is fun because they both love learning and will learn from watching each other. As for an off-switch, you'll see from MOST photos that I post, the dogs are very happy to laze around the house doing not very much at all. If we're walking around, they might follow us. If we're on the computers/having dinner/watching tv, they'll just chill out and do their own thing, whether playing with each other or just lying about. They wake up/get out of bed when we do and they go to sleep when we do. When my father was ill and we were at the hospital all the time, they went weeks and weeks without a walk without any noticeable effects on their behaviour (bad or good). We do spend a lot of time on enrichment with them though - tricks, playing with them, training them a mealtimes etc. They can also endure being dressed up: Also, here is a video from a playdate on Australia Day - in the video are one Australian Shepherd, two Border Colllies, one Kelpie, one Kelpie/Border Collie cross, one Akita and a Big Black Dog Play ranged from boisterous to laid back. Biggest downside of my two? They shed like crazy .... So much dog fur :p Have fun, whichever breed you pick - all the ones mentioned here sound like they could be fabulous

I have a recent thread on a similar topic here. Someone has also recommended Langlords Kennels at Collector but when I tried phoning then, I couldn't get through. I've been trying to contact Yass Pets, too - phoned but they were at the stables so asked me to email but I haven't received a reply to my email yet. Will try again this week.

Thank you, KA Time really flies, I can't believe my 'little' Hoover turned one today. Like Elbie, he got a carrot cake. Licking his lips Elbie was afraid of the sparking candle but Little Hoover is fearless Happy Birthday Little Hoover! See you & Kuma tomorrow, KA

OH tucked Elbie into his dog bed. Elbie heard me get up so came to investigate - bringing his blanket with him.

I adore that photo of Mars. Can't wait to see the finished product :D And when Pepper can do it, you'll have two dogs being shy I think Max#1 has a great video of Max doing shy while on his side. I can't for the life of me remember the youtube channel though

This is such a hard trick. It took us ages to get Hoover to do it but now both dogs do it happily. I'll try to convince Clastic to post photos of her Mars here because she has a classic one with Mars and a face full of sticky-notes

Heh, great photos. Max#1, you definitely need a second dog. OK, at the risk of looking like a bad owner, the doggies' Drizabone coats arrived today. I mainly wanted a coat for Hoover but of course I couldn't just get a coat for one without the other, so here we go: Hoover: "WHY????" Elbie has such an Elbie Expression on his face in this one Little Hoover Elbie

I can tell it's excitement. Last night, Elbie did two jumps in a row, correctly jumped over the jump that was at a 90 degree angle to the other jumps, then turned right to clear the broad jump - then he bolted and did a victory lap before coming back to me. Then on another activity, he waited, then when released he ran ahead of me as instructed and cleared the 3 jumps in a row, returned to me - then he decided to celebrate by doing a victory lap. My dog is not the only dog who bolts and all of the other handlers are really, really nice about it but I know how annoying it must be for others. Elbie is doing really well at agility except for the bolting Thanks PF. Those are all good suggestions and we have a separate little field at BDOC that I can use during class to do the additional tossing and retrieving. You're right that running away from Elbie will probably work too because he will follow if his humans try to go somewhere. He has a couple of toys that he just loves but I can only use them before class because I just can't seem to carry everything on my person - treat bag, leash and two toys ... I need more hands!

Running before class wouldn't work for me, that doesn't settle Elbie. He takes some time to snap into 'focus mode', when he does he's fine and almost freakishly focused but until then he's bonkers and hyperactive. We can go to obedience a little early on Sundays to do the focus time before class but the problem for me is that agility is 6.15 pm. Even leaving work early on Wednesdays as I do, by the time I dash home to get Elbie, I usually get to class late so I'm setting up equipment and then there's a brief time for warming up the dogs, but it's not really enough time to snap him into focus mode. And unfortunately he does try to play with other dogs, as wuffles can attest. He usually does 1-2 bolts per class, during which he playbows Ava on a weekly basis :p He does a jump, than a happy zoomie i.e. he is too fast for me to catch him and pop his leash back on. Oddly enough he is ok when other dogs come and jump on him, there's a Golden Retriever that will usually bolt as well and jumps all over him and he will stay on the spot - it's his own zoomies that are the problem. wuffles - will try your suggestion. Are you doing all your oval training on the weekends now? It's too dark in the morning - can't see a thing at the oval so can't really do anything except some basic heel work when I take them on their walk. By the time I get home, it's already pitch black so I can't take him to the oval then. I'll probably try the distraction work at the oval with a long leash, a rowdy soccer team nearby and pieces of raw beef to see how we go.

Thanks. I'll see how he goes next week when the weather isn't crazy. He's fine during obedience (on the same field) so it may be that I work on recalls on a long lead to the side during agility for the next few weeks (so I'm working with him in the place he finds distracting) until he stops zooming - that way he doesn't disturb other dogs. Also, I do keep him on lead between exercises and he's usually quite focussed after the initial 15 minutes. Last night he was just bonkers though.

Does anyone else's dog do dog zoomies during agility? Usually, Elbie will do one bolt during a training session but will then return to his spot and concentrate. Last night, we were training while it was cold, windy and a bit rainy - Elbie was a wild thing. He did constant zoomies. He'd do his jumps then zoom about the field like a crazy creature, then come back do whatever he was supposed to and then run around like crazy. Because of the foul weather, only 3 other people showed up last night so it wasn't too bad but I was very embarrassed when Elbie was jumping along side other people's dogs :p What is the best way to 'reprimand' this sort of behaviour? Would you just put him back on the lead or would you tie him up at the fence? In the end, training was cancelled after only about 15 or 20 minutes due to the rain and he had settled down by then but was wondering what people suggest to cure the zoomies :p When he returns after each 'zoomie bolt', he is super-focussed and attentive but I'd like to stop him bolting at all! Thanks in advance.

Elbie sometimes sounds like Chewbacca, sometimes he sounds like a dying Tauntaun.

I am aware of that, but there were comments above which implied that it was a good thing that crossbreeds were excluded in Queensland. As you know, I'm in ACT so none of that matters anyway. Also I don't compete anyway, so I will shut up now. I had been so good about staying out of these threads. ETA: Also, I am not talking about people wanting the benefit of support from registered breeders or Kennel clubs etc. I'm just saying that conceptually, it seems fair that dogs should be able to participate in dog sports regardless of breed ...

i.e. I understand why people on a purebred forum don't like Oodles/Crossbreeds (as discussed above), I was just trying to look at it from a dogsports point of view when the breed shouldn't really be relevant anymore so long as the dog is desexed etc.

I think so, too but many people who compete tell me that it's not until you face the tension/stress of competition that you really better the level of your training to a high level. At present, I'm happy to train at the club and not compete, but I like the idea that ACT offers the flexibility to permit my doggies to compete one day if it is appropriate. I am not trying to argue with you, I completely understand the antipathy held towards Crossbreeds and Oodles but from a dog sport perspective, I really think that the breed should be quite irrelevant and that at the end of the day, the criteria should be about ability.