koalathebear

betsy: like you, I'm glad that the Thread of Toxicity is gone but part of me thinks it's a bit of a shame given that: 1. it was started with good intentions by someone looking for a puppy who was genuinely puzzled at how difficult it was to get a response 2. there were sooooooooo many people on that thread who hadn't had problems who seemed surprised/almost incredulous that others had had problems/encountered a lack of responsiveness from breeders 3. there appears to be a disconnect and lack of consistency between what some puppy buyers think breeders want and what some (not all) breeders want. I don't see any solutions for it because it seems very case by case, breeder by breeder but given how 'shocked' some people were at the mention of any difficulty in getting some breeders to reply, there was some value in the thread before it imploded with its own toxicity … Now, alas, we're left with the usual threads saying: "Make sure you get your dog from a registered breeder!" When does Ziggy turn one? Elbie will be one year old on the 15th February. We have nothing planned for him except he'll probably get some more dog toys and treats or something ravenau1: I think we were very lucky with the teething thing. Both dogs got through without any problems. Then again, Elbie at about 11 weeks went through an incredibly frustrating and annoying mouthing phase where he was constantly attacking our jeans – thankfully he got over it and never mouthed again and Hoover's never been mouthy. I love Astrid's dog tags. I think it's funny to see the different dog tags – shows all of our quirky preferences. OH would like Astrid's zombie tag – he bought a game recently called "Last night on earth" which I think is about a zombie invasion Regarding the post betsy mentioned regarding fear period, try this post called Puppy Development Calender, What to expect & watch out for... Niques: Elbie was fine. To be honest, as long as the vomit isn't froth then I'm usually not too fussed. I've read far too many scary stories about frothy vomit, bloat followed by death so the Normal Kind is most welcome although messy ;) Fortunately in this weather, everything will dry super fast. Hoover always looks a bit exhausted. He really would have made the most shocking working dog – flopping down in the shade to rest every few minutes … As to chocolate labs, I think it's interesting that the chocolate lab craze is considered much more acceptable than other colour crazes (presumably because there's no compromise in health/conformation?) lilli_star: I think you're mistaken about how evil, Evil Koala is! I actually don't like arguing but some threads/posters out there say the most gobsmacking things sometimes that I just can't help myself … I suppose it's just lucky that the worst threads get deleted so my snotty comments get deleted along with them So sorry to hear about the cracking clam shell! Overcome by heat? Hopefully you have a Bunnings nearby with more … Yesterday's heat was a shocker … we left Hoover's crate door unzipped and open so that he could move about more given the heat and every time I looked at him last night (on the frequent occasions I woke because of the heat), he was in a funny position – sometimes cockroached in the crate, sometimes half in and half out of the crate – at one point he was halfway between the crate and the bed and then he was back in the crate again

I can't help with the kids thing sorry, but bonjosie - our dog Elbie started nipping like crazy when he was 11 weeks. It drove us absolutely bonkers and we had tried a lot of the usual techniques. I received a lot of helpful tips and support here. We thought it would never end but fortunately for us, by about 14 weeks - he stopped nipping at us and actually hasn't mouthed since ... to our great relief Good luck with your puppy - it's very frustrating and every puppy is different so it's just a matter of finding the technique that works for you and persisting.

It happens in Canberra, too. You can choose to drop the dog at the pound in which case owners can look for it on the "impounded" page or you can keep the dog with you and notify the pound, in which case a listing will show up on the found dogs page with the contact details of the person who found the animal.

I read this, too today. Very fascinating - just makes you appreciate how incredibly keen a dog's sense of smell is. It's weird that to them, we must be an almost overwhelming set of smells ;)

Not yet, but it probably will ... ETA: To get back on topic ... Elbie appears to have eaten something that didn't agree with him so in the middle of our dinner, he starts throwing up on his dog bed. Alas, although the cushion is waterproof, he manages to aim directly at the zipper. When we pull the cushion out, we discover it's all stained and gross. We decide to throw everything in the washing machine until we notice that the cushion has a hole in it - at precisely at the vomit-stained bit so if we put it in the wash, the stuffing will come out So I have to do some very quick, rough and ready stitching to patch up that disgusting bit so that the cushion and cover can be washed. Meanwhile, Elbie decides he would like to breathe on me and try to give me kisses and the poor doggie's breath stinks ... Ah doggies ... He is fine - the dope appears to have eaten tanbark again ;)

OK ... upon reflection, perhaps not "Hoover of Arabia". He was asleep when we put this cool cloth on his head so he just looks a bit goofy May we have a photo of young James with his towel? I'm sure it's an extremely cute image. You should see it now. It's positively freaky ... I was telling OH about it today - how a newbie puppy buyer just can't win ... email too long (annoying for breeder), email too short (also annoying for some breeders), email asking too many questions (annoying and insulting to breeder), email asking not enough questions (stupid and bogan - shows buyer is not serious and has not done research), email sent to too many people (annoying because breeder does not feel special), email in comic sans-serif (ok it's totally understandable if a breeder refuses to sell you a puppy on the basis of this, font is important - check the backlash to the Papyrus font used by James Cameron in Avatar), inquiry made by email even though breeder has an email address (breeder doesn't know how to use email and doesn't like to check it too often - annoying to breeder), prospective buyer asks breeder to call back on a mobile (this is rude to breeder), prospective buyer asks breeder to call back on a landline (this is annoying to breeder because breeder does not like Telstra/Optus etc) ... Man ... I am so glad I now Know People who Know People so that I never have to cold-call a breeder or recommend someone who is mean to someone who asks me where to get a puppy ... There is a Network of Nice out there .. The good news is that the cute cattle dog (dumped for being an Untrained Puppy) is safe with rescue. I am shocked about the JRT, though... I am a bit shocked that people colour coordinate their dogs like that ... I was wondering the other day about whether it was bad to choose a dog on the basis of appearance. There are some dogs, I am ashamed to say, that I would rule out of ever owning purely on the basis of appearance! Yes, I am a shallow creature. I am not saying that they are bad dogs. I am just saying that I could never own one because of the way it looks!!! I shall not list them lest I be flambéed by Lurkers. Clastic: So glad OH is ok! I guess you'll have to juggle both doggies during Dog School this week??? Heh heh, he dotes on the doggies soooooooooooooo much despite his denials :D I am ashamed that he actually ends up with the heavier end of Dog Duties :p So many threads are like that. At least you're sensible and don't leap in and post like I sometimes do. :p I can't believe you post THAT and don't share a photo. The image is adorable. Genevieve is such a character. I am generally a medium-large dog person but I swear, I would make an exception for a cav, especially one with as much personality as Genevieve. Or should that be doginality because dogs can't have a personality ... ;) ETA: Oh wow. That thread. I am so sorry but Evil Koala had to preserve this post before it ended up being deleted ... The witty repartee! The banter! The needle wit!

I have to confess that for me, feeding of bones is one of the trickiest things about owning two dogs. For normal meals, OH and I feed the dogs separately - he takes one and I take the other. We alternate so that we both take turns at feeding each dog. The dogs are totally fine eating kibble/treats pretty much anything near each other and show no signs of resource-guarding or being thingy about their food. The exception is lamb flaps and bones. These are messy so must be eaten outside and not in their crates/in the house. We would never leave the dogs unattended with bones and lamb flaps so what we do is OH stands at one end of the yard with one dog and the bone/lamb flap and I'm at the other end of the yard with the other dog and a bone/lamb flap. This can be very time-consuming because sometimes they take ages ... :rolleyes: Both are fine with us taking the bone away from them (to check if it's still safe for them eat) and we give them the bone straight back but Elbie has a habit of grabbing his bone and bolting away out of reach. I'm not sure if this is normal or if it's something we should be worried about.

Also, please forgive my typos. I cannot edit posts when at work :rolleyes:

cleoj: I really hope that we end up in your class this term! Barbara gave me a puzzled call last weekend asking if I'd changed my mind and wanted to put Hoover through beginners because apparently she had put us in bronze but then someone else had put us back in beginners – taking up a valuable beginners slot! I said we definitely wanted to be in bronze … I guess beginner classes are filling up with new puppies or something Anyway, I'm hoping that there will be a nice new card for the red and tan monsters and me! I think you should totally enter a DWD competition! Shandy is such a beautifully behaved and focused dog and you two work so well together that I know you'd go wonderfully. wizzle: so sorry to post a snake photo when you're snake phobic. I probably should have just linked to it or perhaps made it smaller … As to Genevieve in a towel, Elbie tosses the towel off but I sometimes put a little wet cloth on Hoover's head and he looks like "Hoover of Arabia" – very cute. :rolleyes: lilli_star: I think the doggies fare ok with just a fan so long as they get lots of water. I share your Lack of Air Conditioning Woes and every day I debate whether we should phone an a/c company for a quote or not … As to snakes … I agree Leroy is a cool name. There is no way 'Auntie Koala' is going to be holding her 'Nephew Leroy' though … ravenau1: I know … Hoover has grown up very, very quickly and his bandicoot ears make him look even more grown-up, although he hasn't quite grown into his ears yet. He still has a puppy's behaviour and exuberance and I hope he keeps that for a while because it's sooooooooooooo cute. Part of me wonders if OH and I will start fostering Kelpie puppies when our two are older so that we can get our 'Kelpie Fix', although Canberra actually doesn't see that many Kelpie puppies abandoned – mostly big brindle boofers. We were lying in bed this morning and both doggies know they're not supposed to jump on the bed so they just rest their heads on the edge of the bed and stare up at their humans as if to say: "Why are you both still in bed???" Sooooooooooooo cute. The way people can mistreat their dogs like that completely horrifies me. Dogs are so trusting and the whole dog-fighting perversion is such an abuse of a dog's natural disposition towards wanting to please its master. I wonder if any dog can ever be truly rehabilitated following that sort of horror and suffering. I really admire people who bring those dogs into their lives and homes. I feel like a coward but I wouldn't have the courage to do it even though I do believe that those dogs deserve a second chance. I agree. That "Puppy enquiry" thread makes me feel very perplexed. On the one hand there's this huge (justifiable) condemnation of puppy farm, pet shops and BYB-sourced dogs and people are constantly being told to get a dog from a 'registered breeder' and here we have heaps of registered, presumably so called ethical breeders saying that if you don't contact them in exactly the right way they want, say exactly the right things and not annoy them, then you won't even get a reply … How is that of benefit to anyone? I totally appreciate that breeders put 'blood, sweat and tears' into breeding and raising those puppies and are perfectly entitled and should choose the best homes possible but you would think that responding to an email or query isn't THAT hard even if it's worded badly …. Anyway, there's nothing I can do about it. People like that just make it that much harder when I try to tell people I know not to buy from a BYB/petshop. For them, they want the dog NOW or at least they want to talk to someone nice/helpful who can give them information and let them know WHEN they can have a dog. Thankfully I now have a pretty good list in my mind of breeders I would recommend and people from whom I would run away from screaming like a maniac ... If they're this horrible now, how do know they'd be any nicer when I had a problem and needed their help??? They'd probably reject my email because I used the wrong font. Elbie had some bleeding when he lost his teeth but he didn't seem to be in much discomfort. We gave him extra chew toys and he was fine. Hoover was funny though because he didn't have bleeding or discomfort but sometimes we would turn around and we'd find him staring at a little lump on the floor and discover that he was looking at a tooth He seemed to get his adult teeth almost overnight – I loved his spiky little puppy teeth, they were so cute. Now both dogs have Big White Impressive Teeth. Yesterday, I was worrying that Elbie had plaque/cavity because there was some blackness between his teeth but after he ate a bone, his teeth were perfect white again! Instant tooth-cleaning! For Astrid, you could try soaking a cloth chew toy and freezing it. A lot of people like frozen carrots, too. kyliegirl: funny you should mention that people don’t know what Echo is. I thought I knew what a Doberman looked like but on another thread there's a photo of a red and tan Dobe and it looks an awful lot like a Kelpie, especially with the Kelpie eyebrows. Echo is beautiful and I forgot to mention that I love the name although I always think Echo is a girl because of the myth of Echo the Nymph and Narcissus. I read a LOT of threads … I wish I could change the colour-scheme on DOL to trick OH because he'll glance over and say in a long-suffering voice: "dogzonline again…" I TRY to restrict myself to posting only to the more positive and happy threads but I do skim through a LOT of the threads in all of the sub-fora (except the show ring sub-forum). There are a lot of really nice, helpful and knowledgeable people on DOL, there are a lot of people who are knowledgeable but not so nice. I know people aren't always going to agree … that’s just life. The whole 'humanising dogs' thread though was quite baffling … I don't think it's inherently dangerous to gift wrap presents for doggies or call them fur children or whatever kumaakita: re the OBD Markets - I wanted to go because it's the 'last time' we'll be able to go since dog school starts again this Sunday … although apparently they close at 4pm and after 2pm, all the bread is half price or something Maybe you and I should go there together given that OH was ok with the place but he's not really a marketty person … I want to wake up early enough to go to the Farmers Market, too but I am such a lazy sloth in the mornings That's a relief that they ask. I know someone who is super-paranoid never lets children pat her dog because she doesn't trust children and is afraid that if anything goes wrong, her dog will end up being taken from her which is true because regardless of what happens, it's usually the poor dog that suffers. I feel pretty confident that my dogs would never bite and kids would never be in a position to torment the dogs because we're there to supervise. We HAVE put up a green screen mesh across the front gate, though so that the dogs aren't so visible. We are very close to a school and wouldn't put it past little ratbags to walk past, torment the dogs and stick their hands through the gate. You'll be with Clastic, Pepper, Mars & Mr Clastic then! It's a shame we won't see you on Sundays anymore but hopefully we can arrange for doggy playdates at other times. Pepper & Mars have made cameo appearances on Sundays before Finally, I'm still working on rescue dog videos for the ex-Blacktown poundies. I've been very conscious of a lot of the criticisms of rescue for not being upfront about a dog's shortcomings so I do try very hard to be honest in my videos. This is the latest one, a dog named Sassie. Video is here. She doesn't get along with some dogs and she doesn't like cats. Some people would probably have her put to sleep but to be honest, I think that there ARE people out that that could offer her a good home so long as they know about her shortcomings and can work to manage them and perhaps even overcome them. Lots of people don't have cats and never intend to have cats. At least this way the rescue group will only be contacted by people with their eyes wide open and who know what they're getting into … I think that she at least deserves a chance... Also – OH, who monitors this thread, says I have misrepresented him and that he didn't put the mat there for Elbie to use as a pillow. He put it there in case Elbie found the dog futon in the crate too warm and preferred to sleep on a mat instead OT - for other booklovers, the next Lifeline Bookfair will be in March. I'm thinking of geeking out and showing up for the 'opening' at 10am on the Friday so that I can pick out the best books and jigsaw puzzles and then being there for the final 2 hours on the Sunday when it's a $10 per bag affair ... So much fun.

BDOC or the one in Narrabundah? If BDOC, you'll see a bunch of other DOLers there ;) We all start back this week!

Elbie sometimes lies in the soft crate with his head poking out. Soft-hearted OH doesn't like to see Elbie with his head on the ground so last night, he put a small dog mat outside the crate so that Elbie could rest his head on the mat if he chose. What happened? Of course our naughty little red and tan monster took possession of the mat Unrepentant and cheeky little red and tan monster At least there's still room for Elbie to rest his head ;) When I first came into the room, it was so cute - they were lying there face to face.

Clastic: Yoicks. I am sorry about Mr Clastic's finger. I know someone who fractured her hand when she accidentally left the electric mixer on and tried to remove the blades. Ouch. I hope that Mr C can get all the treatment he needs tomorrow ... hope Pepper and Mars don't pine too much at your sister's house. I'm sure they'll miss you. Did the pen make much of a mess???? Thankfully our two seem to have stopped their destructive streak. They don't dig holes anymore, they don't chew on the clamshell anymore and when we occasionally hang laundry out tantalisingly on the pergola, they leave it alone. We've started letting Hoover have more free run of the house - both dogs have been trotting around the house now that we've opened the kitchen door and the baby gates. So far no damage or unauthorised toileting Cross fingers it lasts. Max#1: Elbie is very intense about the ball and frisbee but he sometimes doesn't like surrendering it. You can see how conflicted it is - on the one hand he wants to drop is so that we will throw it again, on the other hand he wants to keep it :D If we have food, he'll drop it immediately - and then not even want the food and retrieve for the pleasure of retrieving. He's a bit bonkers ... wizzle: today was broiling ... We got up to visit the Old Bus Depot markets at Kingston where I ended up buying a lot of bread, an apple pie, some little raspberry tartlets, merino wool for OH's mother and some Australian flowers for Papa Koala. Then we had lunch with Mama Koala, then went off to the markets to buy some treats for the doggies and also some bones from the organic butcher there. They had some bones but were out of lamb flaps but promised to have a bunch of lamb flaps ready for us on Thursday for the doggies. We also picked up a gift for my brother and sister-in-law's latest pet - Leroy the Diamond Python. My SIL got her reptile's licence late last year and so was quite excited to finally have a snake. I am not phobic but I'm not into reptiles. OH is quite chuffed at the idea of playing with a snake. Then we got home and promptly melted ... the doggies have been snoozing and playing all afternoon - they seem quite happy despite the heat. ravenau1: good luck! I hope everything will be all right despite the cyclone approaching... hope it doesn't happen... This really is turning out to be a year of natural disasters ... Very worrying really. OH keeps rolling his eyes when I keep talking about evacuation plans but I've read that there might be some flooding in Canberra in February. I have a friend with four dogs, cows, pigs and chickens and she's got no clue what she'd do in the event of an emergency ... That's great news about Astrid - glad she had such a good time. As to the patting without asking, it's pretty common. I'm relieved that neither of our dogs is skittish/aggressive because the number of people who just pat without asking is mind-boggling. The thing is, if a dog bit it would be the owner's fault and the poor dog would suffer. Astrid's clamshell is so nice and clean. Ours is grotty and full of dirt. I keep meaning to scrub it down. We inherited it second-hand, complete with dirt. SammiS/Minxy/Niques - if there is a walk featuring a black lab, an Akita and a Frenchie, i want videos and photos It will be so funny. We definitely can't do walks with others. I have to walk our two separately right now so we definitely can't for for walkies with others. Plus I am, quite literally, The Slowest Walker In The World so the rest of the walkers in the group would be swearing at me. All of our photos of China are photos taken by me of Oh Up There and OH taking photos of me Down There ... I can never keep up because of my non-existent lungs. betsy: I'd love to take the doggies to the beach some time ... never knew about the whole beach-diarrhoea thing before but now I know (I saw the other thread in Health). I mainly worry about recall issues - that something will catch their eye and that will be byebye doggies ... Niques: your dream. You must have been speaking with our vet - they call him The Dog That Does Those Tricks. It would be a lot of fun if Elbie and James were in the same class. I think that they'd have a lot of fun together and you and I would probably get in trouble for talking in class. Dog school starts up again next week and I'm pretty excited. I think Hoover's going to love dog school. OH keeps joking that he'll be a Nigel because all the other dogs in bronze will know each other from Beginners and have bonded already and won't want to play with him Threads of the Day ... there was a crazy thread (since nuked, no idea why) in which someone was basically implying that suburban dogs were miserable and depressed compared to dogs on large acreages. It must have gone nasty or something but it's gone now. Humanising Dogs: this has the usual, "this is what I do, you don't do what I do, so you're not as good as I am/I don't do that but you do, so you are stupid" sort of stuff in it that makes me roll my eyes. Toxic rescue thread that did my head in. Someone told me once that a lot of people in rescue aren't in it for the love of the dogs - but if not, why not and why do they argue so much??? I still haven't given up the idea of fostering rescue Kelpies one day but gosh rescue people scare me and Kate the person I have been helping out with for the videos is moving to Darwin ... A more positive thread. This amazing PBS video about where Michael Vick's dogs ended up is so touching. I feel soooooooooooo sorry for dogs used for fightings, I feel so much anger at the humans that abuse their trust and I found the story of the saving and rehabilitation of many of the dogs very touching. ETA: I am baffled by this one. 10-12 months old cattle dog. Adopted from this pound as a pup but returned almost 6-7 months later because 'he's not trained'!?!? Err ... whose responsibility did they think it was to train him? I am baffled by people who think that dogs come with pre-loaded training ... like pre-loaded software or something.

I've also heard about Yass Pets - does anyone have any feedback about them?

It would be hard to punish my doggies when they look guilty so perhaps their appeasement behaviour works. Admittedly, Elbie as a pup did it when he didn't quite make it to the door in time and wet on the floor. He was never punished for soiling inside but I think he just wasn't happy about the mistake. Haha. The extreme angle of that in humans is psychopathy - an abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct but masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal. Apparently intelligent psychopaths have learned to mimic human behaviour and empathy (including appeasement behaviours) in such a way that you'd never know they were psychopaths unless you knew what to look for. I wish I did know exactly how much my dogs 'felt' and understood. They certainly seem to feel happiness, excitement, boredom, frustration, irritation ... But as you say, we'll never know until Dr Dolittle comes along ..

This is very true. I've read that dogs do not feel remorse/guilt and that 'look' they get when they've done something wrong is simply appeasement behaviour but honestly if you saw Elbie after he has done something naughty - he looks extremely guilty and remorseful and if it's appeasement conduct, it must be in his genetic code because he certainly never learned that appeases us

At the end of the day, my view is that we should just live and let live unless someone's mistreating their dog ... We call our two dogs monsters, little bastards, puppies, doggies whatever. Sometimes for a joke, I call them our babies. They're not our fur kids or our children and we aren't thrilled when obedience class calls us "Elbie's Mum" or "Elbie's dad" but we're not overly fussed (especially since it's just because at dog school it's easier to remember dog names than human names ). If people want to call their dogs their children or their fur kids, I think that that's totally fine so long as they're not feeding them a human diet and letting them play with their 'skin kids' unsupervised. Nomenclature is just that and calling something something doesn't make it so and it's certainly not inherently dangerous or ignorant in itself. If an owner is poorly educated or lacks appropriate judgement, I think that dangerous behaviour will manifest itself regardless of whether he/she calls his/her dog a dog, a fur kid or an artichoke. For some people their dogs are their children (or at least a substitute) and that's fine so long as they're forgetting to attend to the needs of the dog as a dog. We don't dress up our dogs except as a joke at Christmas but don't have a problem with other people dressing up their dogs if that's what they enjoy and it doesn't impair the dog's health. We choose not to let our dogs in our bed but have no problem with other people doing that. Similarly, unlike a lot of people, I think it's totally fine for people to have outside dogs so long as the breed in question can live outdoors safely and is provided with sufficient enrichment and entertainment. Some doggies are more aloof, some like being cuddled more. For presents, we give our dogs 'presents' but we regularly buy them 'stuff' just because it's as much fun for us as it is for them. They may not understand the significance of Christmas or birthdays but they certainly understand when things are for them to play with or eat. Elbie has a bad habit of assuming that ALL deliveries from the delivery man are for him. Sadly enough, many of our delivered items are dog-related (toys, furminator, medicine etc) By many non-DOL people's standards, everyone who frequents this forum probably babies our dogs far too much and don't treat them as dogs enough. So many people I know don't take their dogs to obedience, think we're bonkers for worrying about dog diet when dogs should just eat table scraps etc. Then you come to DOL where there's an amorphous, non-objective hierarchy of 'I treat my dog like This so I am more cerebral/enlightened/Right/responsible/intellectual and appropriate than x who does not'. Some people like lickers, others do not. Someone I know who is very dog savvy is find if their dog is paws up and jumps up on tables - we are not. I think it's totally fine to discuss our differences, I just feel uncomfortable when people feel like they're in a position to be judging other people just because other people don't behave in exactly the same way they do. We all have different viewpoints, perspectives, moral compasses and ways of doing things. We wouldn't do those things if we didn't truly believe that we were 'right', but at the end of the day - who is to know? At the end of the day does it really matter so long as everyone's happy and no one's being harmed ... ETA: Pet ownership is such a personal thing and how we choose to interact with our dogs is very personal. Then there's the whole "pet" vs "companion dog" argument. Some people get so angry if you refer to your dog as your pet...

Avenpart are recommended highly in the Parsons book "The Kelpie" - he seems to think very highly of Mary McCrabb Congratulations on your titles!

Don't worry, there are heaps and heaps of threads about similar topics around here - most people aren't fussed About your particular scenario - alas, I can't help you there because I haven't experienced it. I'm sure someone more experienced will come along and share their views. I'm sure they'll talk about temperament-testing, safety, how trained the second dog is, how pack hierarchy will pan out given that the first dog is younger and smaller and the second dog is likely to be older and larger etc etc Good luck!

Hi there, this thread here over in the puppy sub-forum might be helpful as it covers similar questions. The majority view is to go for a greater age difference which is probably wise because the first dog will be more settled and hopefully be trained up to a level with which you are comfortable. We choose to go with two pups so have two male Kelpies that are only 4 months apart - an 11 month old Kelpie/Border Collie and a 7 month old Kelpie. We're very happy with the way things have gone and haven't had any problems. Having two puppies was a lot of hard work for the first month or so we had Hoover (getting him settled in, house-trained, yard-trained etc), but it's been fine since then. It's possible we were just lucky but our two get along so well, having Hoover's been great for Elbie and Hoover adores Elbie and being of a similar age, the two love playing with one another but don't get overly rambunctious. Anyway, the other thread goes into things in more detail and you'll see differing views. We've had an extremely positive experience with our two pups and regret nothing but some people haven't enjoyed having two puppies etc so it's good to get the different views. Good luck whatever you decide - there aren't really any hard and fast rules and you have to make up your own mind based on your own situation and what you think you can and want to handle

I think this thread is slow-moving because it's just the Breeds 101 thread. The main Kelpie 'chat' thread is here. Not that active but more active than this 'information only' thread. Very cute photo of a Noonbarra puppy in the Kelpie thread.

Is that because they're still painting the equipment and hampered by doggies drinking out of their water buckets? I felt so sorry for that person on the weekend who kept trying to fill up those buckets with water and then she'd be surrounded by thirsty doggies with floppy tongues I have no doubt that Elbie would be great at flyball - he's so fast, loves frisbee and the ball ... but he's already so highstrung, flyball would probably send him into an implosive frenzy Will probably try agility first for both and see how they go. I've heard it's easier to transition from agility to flyball than the other way 'round. Also, I showed someone the Australia Day doggy video and they said: "How nice of the herding breeds to let the akita play with them." Wouldn't it be funny if poor Kuma grew up thinking he was a herding dog and then he saw a photo and went: "Hmmmm ... why do I look different? I thought I was a Japanese Border Collie??"

This cracked me up! I hear that dog sports people do shout at their dogs a lot on the field!!! OH and I are still undecided about what we'll pursue for our doggies. I like agility, OH likes flyball. Trialling is likely out because that's probably something that is more interesting for me than OH or the doggies and even I'm not entirely sure how fun I'd find it.

Thanks for sharing that video. It was amazing - very moving and uplifting. I know that they said that the dogs were pit bulls, but a lot of them appeared to be Staffordshire Bull Terriers, even purebred ones ...

As mentioned, it's pretty firm with little residue. We haven't had fly problems before but since it got extremely hot – we get a lot of flies early in the morning. It seems to get better late in the day and I'm hoping that with a change of weather, the flies will cease to bother us. Before, it was perfect to do clean-up in the afternoon because all the poos were dried up into shrivelled, hardened, non-odorous objects that were pretty easy to clean up. As mentioned, the fly traps seem to help a bit. As to attracting flies, I doubt we could have more flies in Poo Corner than we already do! Our dogs concentrate most of their toileting activities to Poo Corner and I guess the flies know that Crossing my fingers that the fly traps continue to work. We do at least two poo picks a day but I've been doing an extra one just before dark so that there's very little that's around first thing in the morning when the flies are at their worst.

Just an update on how this is going. We bought a fly trap container and the 'liquid' and it's working pretty well. It's attracted quite a few flies to it. Fingers crossed it keeps working.