koalathebear

lilli_star: sorry about the dead fridge. What a pain! What did you do with all the food? Also, you will definitely have to join facebook - I suspect that that's where KumaAkita will post her Vietnam holiday photos kyliegirl: You sound like you've been very cautious! I fear that there are things that the dogs could snag their collars on in the yard but we'd have to be really unlucky. I was talking to a girl at work today whose golden retriever died because she was eating a lamb bone and it went through her throat - the dog had been eating the same sort of bones for the last 10 years with no problems. It's not possible to protect against all eventualities, I fear. Hoover and Elbie will wander fairly freely through the house if we're home - although if they wander off too far, we will call them back. They are also sent to their crates and dog beds fairly regularly. The increased access is a fairly recent thing, we used to have a baby gate which kept them contained to the study and kitchen. They've been very good, though and earned their increased privileges. KumaAkita - I hope you're feeling better! I've had a frustrating day. Work is generally exasperating (but there shall be a change Very Soon) ... But for the immediate frustrating stuff - 1. We've wanted to fix our front yard up for ages - it's a mess. At least three of our neighbours have made less than subtle remarks about it, telling us to follow up with the landscaper etc etc. It's been months since the initial quote because of an apparent shortage of Large Rocks at the quarry - long story. Finally the landscaper comes by today and does part 1 of the landscaping which is pulling out some weeds and spraying weedkiller on others. Tonight one neighbour came to speak to me and I thought she was just being friendly until it became apparently that she's worried the weedkiller is hazardous to her children and may affect her chickens' eggs - the chickens are in the backyard. I've explained that the spraying was a one-off. Argh we can't win! 2. Elbie and Hoover have been perfect with their loose-leash walking in low distraction zones (backyard) so I thought it was time to let Elbie move to the front yard. He walked on a loose leash and at my side but his focus was clearly elsewhere, so I kept stopping until he paid attention and looked up at me. He was doing quite well for a while - until I heard a car. I tried to head back into the house or at least back up the driveway before the car went by. It was a misjudgement as I wasn't fast enough. Elbie saw the car, wanted to lunge, didn't lunge but instead went into berserker mode and started attacking the leash ferociously. Sigh. Unless your dog goes into Berserker* Mode/prey drive overload, you won't know what I'm talking about - it's like they're possessed. Hoover has never gone into berserker mode. Anyway, he snapped out of it pretty fast, looked ashamed and OH was able to get him back down the road, walking around, ignoring a car and then back into the house without berserker mode returning, but alas, my first week's email report back to K9Steve was a woeful tale of Stupid!Koala Misjudgement. Ah well Let's hope week 2 has less Stupid!Koala Misjudgement in it ... ETA: Was reading one of the threads about low drive dogs. It's really interesting about the pros and cons of high and low drive dogs. Elbie when he is not in berserker mode is so amazing - heels so beautifully. Perfect posture, so attentive, walks at your side. He's just amazingly responsive. Hoover's far more lazy ... attentive but not quivering with focus like Elbie - but far less exhausting .... *Berserkers (or berserks) were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk.

That is soooooooo cute and funny. Thanks for sharing. Love that look on her face before she goes headfirst.

OK, you're right. PTS! PTS! Crossbreeds are evil! kyojin: We leave collars on our monsters, too. There's a strangulation risk yes but I've thought about it and on balance: 1. The likelihood of one of them getting strangled is possible but relatively low. That's entering into freak accident territory. 2. The chance of one of them getting out of the yard is also low but more likely than strangulation and if that's the case, having the collar means that they're much more likely to be returned to us safe and sound. Yes they're microchipped, but most people would be more likely to send them to the pound rather than take them to a vet for scanning - you kind of have to be a dog owner/be in the know to know about microshipping of animals. Once at the pound, they would be in for a miserable time and Canberra pound has had 3 (maybe more) outbreaks of parvo in the last year or so. If they have a collar and tag, people are far more likely to grab them and phone us ... It also makes it easier for someone to grab the dog - our two are like slippery little seals without collars. ravenau1: Our two used to get up really early. Elbie used to get up at 5am - drove me bonkers. The good thing is that now they wake up with our alarm and even when awake, they're happy to chill out in their crates or dog beds as long as we feel like sleeping in. Perhaps Astrid will become less of an early riser later And yes, sadly the breeds you see at the pound are the more common breeds and I guess they're the more problematic dogs if they aren't looked after ... We've been doing training with the doggies following the consult with K9Steve - baby steps in the backyard. What I love about it is that it doesn't involve food so I don't have to be messing around with meal portions etc. We'll move to the front yard and our street soon but for now it's going well. Also, as well as heeling on the spot (turning on the spot and dog stays in heel position beside you), re-inspired to revisit the rear-end awareness training. We've only done it for two nights but the dogs seem to be enjoying it a lot. One dog is in the crate watching, the other dog is training. I started out with the Yellow Pages on the floor but tonight switched to the white pages. I use 'round' for clockwise pivot and 'turn' for counter-clockwise pivot. Hoover has a lot of natural rear-end awareness - he was the first to put both paws up on the book and wait. Elbie's much better at pivoting in a counter-clockwise position, Hoover is better at the clockwise pivot. No idea when they'll be able to pivot without a lure and without the book on the ground to guide them but we are all having fun. Hoover has an incredibly cute habit of sitting very proudly on top of the phone book as if that's part of the training I've also been working with Hoover's drop stays and stands. His drop stays were shocking on Sunday but he's doing them from a distance now and staying even when I go into another room. Using Elbie to motivate Hoover for the stays has proved very effective and Hoover (at least at home) is going from a drop to a stand on the spot without moving forward and without being lured. Let's hope he can do it at dog school! Tonight there was a possum making hideous noises outside, totally freaking out the dogs and making them bark - and freaking out the neighbour's chickens. OH went out and threw an ice cube in its general direction to get rid of it. Finally, some great news. The red and tan Kelpie girl at Singleton Pound has been rescued! Also rescued is Rufus, the darling, darling little pup with the HUGE ears. Here are some photos from the Australian Working Dog Rescue website. Isn't he absolutely adorable? Poor baby is so thin But so proud, sleek and Kelpie-ish I'm so happy he was rescued - he was scheduled to be put to sleep today so it was very much an 11th hour rescue.

How cute is Echo? And so attentive!

A Blur of Kelpies or a Storm of Kelpies

Oh - so do you think it's real??? I thought it was a cued trick!

He is so cute! I said he looked like a mini koala bear (the real kind, not the me kind). OH said he looked like a mini-ewok I've never seen a Schnauzer Puppy before. Gosh I wish I lived near a breeder so that I could play with puppies on a regular basis Thank you! They are cute but they can be Monsters The thing about that thread is that while the original poster comes across as being a little naive and imprudent, a lot of the breeders replying just seem a little intolerant and unkind. All are diminished ... Max#1: We're actually working on suppressing his prey drive right now .. once he's calmer then we'll look to reigniting it in a controlled way and hopefully directing it towards his training. We have been working on amping up the value of the Pack so today OH spent time in the study but closed the kitchen doors so that the doggies could have access to the backyard and the kitchen but not to him. As far as he could see, they chose to snooze the day away in their dog beds in the kitchen. Too funny. We went to the local oval today - I walked Elbie there and OH walked Hoover, then once we got there we swapped dogs and worked on recall with long leashes. Hoover comes bounding back with the goofiest look of enthusiasm on his face. It's very comical. I always wonder why people bother doing that in threads like that when some DOLers make a point of quoting back the entire post just so that the original poster can't go back and delete posts ... As to the withholding water post ... I would never post in that thread but Elbie and Hoover drink and drink as much as they like until we go to bed - anywhere between 11pm to midnight. They're taken outside to be wee'd and then zipped into their respective crates. They're soft crates so we do not put water in the crates. They emerge from the crates at around 7.30am on weekdays and are wee'd then. I don't really consider it denying them water because they are asleep all night. When Elbie was very young and we were housetraining him, we used to reduce his water intake at around 8pm i.e. just put a bit of water in his bowl. OH is very tender-hearted so he would usually let Elbie have as much water as he wanted and even Hard-Hearted me would give Elbie a bit of water when I wee'd him at 3am ;) ETA: I have 4 more rescue videos to make. 2 of them are of dogs here in Canberra and OH and I visited them on Sunday to take photos and video. I haven't started making the videos yet - just sifting through them but I found some rather gorgeous footage of Ginger - a happy, exuberant little whirlwind of a doggy who just loved being around people. See .

I was just looking at the original photo again - is that tape around the dog's legs?

It works again ... updated link. No idea why it was taken down in the first place

This thread will go KABOOM!!! Always a bad idea to post on DOL when the person about who you are writing can show up and retaliate! Also, I am not saying I sympathise with the original poster, but threads like this bring all the Hairy Scaries out of the woodwork. The more I read from some registered breeders, the more I go I can't believe one would be precluded from ever entering the purebreed world simply because one owned a crossbreed. What if the crossbreed was rescued or inherited? The video works again ..

ravenau1: Can't wait to see Astrid doing the dying cockroach. Elbie has a dying cockroach, too from the early days of learning how to play dead. While he does a beautifully lengthy and convincing dead now, in the beginning we had: . . .They were a bit cockroach-like in their delivery and made us laugh sooooooooo hard. I deleted because I realised there was just way too much text and people would probably be bored bored BORED! Please do feel free to PM me about it – it was really extremely illuminating and I feel like I understand Elbie a lot more now than I did! We tested it out in stages. For instance, Elbie's crate is in the kitchen so we tried out leaving him with crate door open in the kitchen overnight to see if he wandered. He did not. Then it was the kitchen and study … After that, tender-hearted OH just leaves the crate door open so he can wander at will and he has been fine. We tend not to do it on days we want to sleep in because Elbie will come bounding to the bed and we'll be woken up by a wet-nosed doggie with hopeful looks, licks and seal-ears We started doing that last month when Elbie was about 11 months. We've accidentally left Hoover's door open, too and deliberately done it a few times and he's now 7 months, almost 8 months now. Both are house-trained now and will head out the dog door when needed. At 5 months, although house-trained - they were both still having the occasional slip-ups (particularly in rooms like the lounge where they don't often go) so it was a bit too early for us to let them have free rein of the house. Good news, it looks like Edie (the red and tan Kelpie girl) and Rufus (the cute little Heinz puppy) at Singleton Pound may be on the verge of rescue. In the case of Rufus, he is literally being snatched from the jaws of death! I am so relieved because I was feeling quite disheartened - I had found a foster carer for both here in Canberra but couldn't get any of the logistics sorted wizzle: after much deliberation we have picked the bathroom as the sin bin because it doesn't matter if they end up not liking that room. We used to tether them for 1 minute in the kitchen but that doesn't work because they're still part of the 'pack' and the kitchen is where they hang out. Tethering in the courtyard worked but now we tether them for lamb flaps there so that doesn't work so now it's the bathroom when they're naughty. wuffles! Good to see you again! Look forward to hearing about how the wedding went and seeing photos – whether here or on FB!!!

Edited so that there is less text ... aussielover: The thread on DOL is here but to be honest, the video that really taught us how to do it was . Tab and his GSD Solea are just so amazing. You could try bigger loops of sticky tape or find a food that she likes and stick a cube of it on her muzzle with peanut butter/vegemite. It took both Elbie and Hoover a long time but Hoover in particular took a long time. He swiped at the sticky tape perfectly but then without it, he'd just stare at me. Then I'd pretend to stick tape on his face and I'd give him a very light tape on his muzzle where the tape used to be to 'remind' him and then he'd swipe. His first dozen attempts he would tape at the ground or scratch the ground. We'd reward him as encouragement but eventually only rewarded him when he did the proper muzzle cover. Here is the video of .ravenau1: Astrid reacts to roses the way Elbie reacts to OH's Robo-Panda. Glad you were able to socialise her to it. Elbie is now fine with the Dyson and the electric mixer but Robo Panda still makes him very barky. I hope Astrid's foot is all right! When we first got Hoover, he occasionally yelped in the backyard when he put a paw wrong but he seems more coordinated these days so there's no more yelping. About 'shy' - there's no reason Astrid can't do 'shy' on her back if she's pawing at her muzzle while on her back. That's quite cute. Our dogs sometimes do 'are you shy' while lying on their side. *sympathy* Perhaps you could ask the instructor if you can do the demo last so that you have plenty of warning that your turn is coming up For some of our tasks, we go around the group one by one. With Hoover ... sometimes when it's our turn, he's not ready and still not focused. Then there are other times when we're last and it's hard to keep him settled and focused while all the other dogs are doing their thing. By funny contrast, OH and Elbie have been on a dream run for the last two weeks - apparently Elbie has been almost perfect during his training for the last two weeks, much to OH's delight. As for a session with Steve, I definitely recommend it. I really wanted the in-person consult to satisfy my myself about certain things I had been worried about. You're right that herding is a modified prey drive and it's funny but Elbie appears to have more drive in him that Hoover the purebred Kelpie kyliegirl: You sound like you're doing great work with Echo! As to the water thing, none of my two appear particularly enamoured of water. Probably too reminiscent of bath time ... ;) OH glanced over and was disapproving of so much text, so some photos ... Dark photos but when Elbie and Hoover play tug, Hoover lies in the dog bed and holds onto one end of the tug. Elbie grabs the other end and it usually ends up with Elbie towing the dog bed and Hoover into the entrance room We leave the bed there during the day because the dogs love lying there with a view of the street. We get a funny view, too Elbie looking for kibble - Hoover's in the background trying to push in Hoover's still pushing in Elbie looks so resigned And for those that don't read other DOL threads, here is the hilariously cute video Finally - has anyone heard from Niques? She seems to have vanished ... ETA: Yes those are muddy paw prints you see on the floor. It's been raining and the dogs' paws were muddy. I have since cleaned up the muddy paws. I explain this because in another DOL thread, someone said: "When someone posts a photo of their dog, do you judge them if their house is messy/dirty?????" Also, posting a "What Am I Doing Wrong?" thread on DOL is just dangerous!!!

I loved the accusatory head turns and then the very guilty sidling off by Maggie

is so cute

Thanks He has the ability to sleep on anything! Usually you just need a USB cable to transfer photos- or you could email it to yourself? ETA:

Echo is so cute! That collar is the same colour as Elbie's puppy collar. We've had a big day - we finally made our pilgrimage out to see 'K9 Steve' as my OH calls him. We left very early in the morning but because of road works, ridiculous traffic jams, our Darth Vadar GPS misleading us once about getting on the Westlink M7 and then us taking a wrong turn on the very last road and had to go down the hill and come back again ... we ended up there about 15 minutes late! It was an extremely illuminating and helpful session and we have learned lots of useful insights about Elbie. Hoover was just along for the ride but got some bonus tips, so that was most appreciated Elbie isn't broken or weak-nerved despite his anxious face and crazy noises. Contrary to popular opinion, Elbie's crazy hyperactivity isn't due to his crossbreedliness (OMG PTS!), it's a lack of fulfilment of his prey drive and we will be working quite conscientiously to address this. Not surprisingly, it's not Dog Defect, it's more matter of Defective Handler. I'm sure a more competent and experienced handler would have been able to get more out of Elbie - but we're working at it, and we love the little monster. He is a smart cookie and has a lot of potential so we're very hopeful. Steve had Elbie and Hoover loose-leash walking in minutes ... it was a bit gobsmacking. K9Steve's training field is so great - I was filled with envy. OH liked it, too but only if it came with a gardener The dogs were very well-behaved! Almost 4 hours in the car on the way up and then almost four hours on the way back. Hoover as usual was an angel in the car. Elbie mewled and whimpered for a lot of the trip there but was quiet and well-behaved for most of the trip back. Hope all are having a great weekend! ETA: Elbie's original name when we got him was 'Thor' :D OH remarked that it was just so not the right name for Elbie. eg. "Behold the mighty Thor!"

Elbie thrived on the DOL-reviled Hills. His coat was shiny and beautiful, his poos were firm. He was healthy. Despite its DOL reputation for being Not Good, we had no problems with it. The only thing was that when we got Hoover, he didn't like it and rather than feeding separate kibbles, we decided to switch both to Royal Canin which both liked. The funny thing was that by the time we made the full switch, Hoover had come to LOVE Hills - but we'd already bought bags of RC and that was that! You'll never get consensus on this sort of thing. Which kibble? Dry vs raw? Bones (good for teeth and an evil choking hazard), kongs (good for some, dangerous for others), inside/outside dogs etc etc. As everyone else has mentioned, if your dog likes it and is healthy on it - then it doesn't matter what other people say. Someone remarked that Hills was more expensive for what you pay but I've never compared the prices on the various dog foods so don't know about that.

cleoj: OH has dedicated this that he saw today to sweet Shandy

sandra777: thanks! Will definitely explore the issue further. As for the original topic, I love seeing dogs at work. At the airport, I love seeing the police dogs with their handlers and the quarantine beagles and on television, it's so amazing watching the search and rescue dogs at work. They look just as conscientious and committed to the task at hand as their handlers - although I have read that that dogs also get 'upset/depressed' if they don't find people alive .. I forget which episode of "Extraordinary Dogs" it was, but the rescuers were saying that a dog could sweep/clear a zone much, much faster than humans could and this was in an urban setting and also in a wilderness setting. I also found the distinction between tracking dogs and air scent dogs fascinating. Made me look at my own dogs and wonder how overwhelmingly we must smell to them given how sensitive their sense of smell is ...

Surely my thread is entirely non-contentious. I don't think anyone could do battle about something like SAR dogs/sniffer dogs! Border collies apparently make great search and rescue dogs which is why I was curious about why there weren't more Kelpies out there, but border collies are more famous internationally.

That's interesting. I had been pondering at one point how one gets into scent detection training as a 'hobby'. Elbie's got a terrible nose but Hoover's nose is freakishly good so part of me was wondering if it would be possible to develop him further and train him in the area. I'm sure he'd find it fun even if he was never going to be good enough to do 'work'.

I found the issue interesting because some breeds are bred for a certain purpose but then later it could turn out that they can multi-task and be good at various things – presumably this is a good thing. Some of the purists might not like it – for instance, some of the Kelpie breeders don't like that working Kelpies are being used for agility because they think that it can diminish the 'true purpose' of the breed. If dogs like Kelpies started being used for their nose and searching abilities rather than herding, would that be a bad thing for the breed? I take your point about many of the professional dogs being bred for the purpose from specific lines, so that is in large part why we see the same breeds in certain 'professions'. Edited to fix typos

The earthquake is horrific but I do always love the idea of search and rescue dogs because I know that if I was trapped, there would be something incredibly comforting about being found by a doggy ... How about Aussie Shepherds - would they be good at SAR and sniffing? Hmm, I need to start a proper thread on this

This photo of a Japanese search and rescue worker and his dog in Christchurch got me thinking. I know that certain breeds are typically used for search and rescue/sniffer detection duties because they're predisposed to be better at it. German or Belgian shepherds, Border Collies, Golden or Labrador retrievers for search and rescue. The Stanley Coren book "Why We Love the Dogs We Do" mentioned somewhere that actually any dog (including a poodle) could be used for detection work but some of the handlers didn't quite feel like it was in keeping with the image etc. Some dogs might not be suitable for certain types of work because of physicality (too big/not agile enough/too delicate) etc but e.g. Kelpies are bred to be herding dogs and while some DO do search and rescue, there aren't that many and they're not really the "go to" breed for that sort of work. Is there any reason why dogs like Kelpies wouldn't be appropriate for SAR work or detection work? What about other breeds like Australian Shepherds, cattle dogs etc - medium-sized and agile and used to working with people.

A bit random but I love this image of a Japanese search and rescue worker with his dog in Christchurch Kelpies have been used for SAR but not that much. I wonder why that is - is their sense of smell not quite as good as other dogs?