koalathebear

Oh dear. Poor you. I really hope that someone comes up with a solution that works for you because it can be so frustrating when the things that work for everyone else don't work for you. One thing that didn't work for us but worked for a friend of ours with a Shiba Inu was to shake a jar of coins. I know some people don't like this approach but you could try it once to see if it works. Just don't do what we did and put it in a glass salsa jar which smashes because you shake the coins too hard Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I feel your pain and I was soooooooooo happy when Elbie's biting phase finally passed. I am so relieved that our second puppy Hoover isn't a biter. He does a little bit of mouthing but with almost no pressure at all - sometimes he just snaps at the air like a bizarre little snapping turtle.

Resurrecting my old thread. It took a really long time and so much work but we managed to finally make Elbie mostly settle down in the car. For a while, he was very anti-harness and once when he was a very young pup (a long time ago) he snapped at my hand when I was trying to restrain him in the car. Teeth met flesh albeit with no pressure but he clearly did not want to be restrained. He never did it again because we put a lot of time into getting him used to being in a harness and restrained. We tried out different harnesses and straps, worked with getting him in and out of the car without going anywhere etc. Eventually he was fine with being in the harness and getting in and out of the car but still barked like a maniac whenever the car was moving. Earlier this year, we managed to get him to stop barking but then he would whimper like crazy. About a couple of weeks ago, we figured out that if we rolled the front window all the way down, he would sit or stand on the back seat calmly and just watch the world go by - very quiet and seemingly quite happy even if cars whizz by, cyclists or pedestrians go by etc. There are 2 exceptions that still make him whimper very loudly and almost in distress: 1. Sometimes when he hears the turn indicator, particularly in certain areas where there are sharp turns. He seems to know/remember the areas where the turns are. 2. In the street or two before we come home. Admittedly there are some sharp turns but we've tried going home via a number of different routes but Elbie has memorised them all and starts to get excited and freak out a little on the home stretch. Thankfully his behaviour does not affect Hoover who is placid as a cow in the car and will sometimes even fall asleep in the backseat. I realise that Elbie's much more high strung than Hoover and we'll probably never get him to the point of sleeping in the car, but any ideas on how to address the two issues above? ETA: DAP doesn't work. In the early days, we tried DAP to calm Elbie down in the car and it had zero effect on him. We just had to work with him a LOT so we're almost there now but not quite ...

wuffles: how is Ava doing? Is she ok? I went to work early this morning and OH says he woke up this morning to the sound of Hoover throwing up tanbark again

Oh they are so beautiful. I love them both but there's something about Charlie's face that makes me want to squoosh him ... in a good way of course

So glad she's ok. It's always very stressful when our doggies are feeling poorly. Ava must have been exhausted after all that nausea/heaving. Give her a hug for me. Elbie always comes back for cuddles after he has just thrown up even though OH calls him Puke Breath

I feel so sad for these two naughty border collie x puppies. 1.5m fences. I'm 1.5 metres high! Wow. I can't imagine them jumping over fences that high! :D No, he was pointing at the OH holding Elbie's favourite frisbee. He loves his frisbee even more than he loves balls. The sad thing? We can't get Hoover to play fetch. He has little interest in chasing a ball! betsy: is that a sheepskin rug? Gorgeous photo and Ziggy looks very comfortable. lilli_star: Roo does indeed look innocent for a destructo dog, but then again, look at Hoover ;) Every time we turn around he's dug another (admittedly shallow) hole. He hasn't dug anything big lately but he has been a bit diggy still. We had planned to go to Bredbo to see the sheepdog trials but that was when we thought it was 45 minute away from Canberra. Apparently it's 1.5 hours away. Hmmm. ETA: Poor Elbie's got Hoover sleeping on his legs. He's going to have bad pins and needles when he wakes up! lilli_star it's funny you should ask about Hoover's ears. I was wondering myself if his ears would still be up but they were up when I got home from work today

In case anyone else is interested, here are details of the Annual Bredbo Sheepdog Trials. OH and I will probably be attending with our two monsters - as spectators not contestants. :D Although an hour and 22 minutes in the car is quite a long drive! I didn't know Bredo was so far from Canberra.

Thanks for the comments all. ness: beautiful photos and beautiful dogs! PF - I think we'll definitely be driving out to Gundaroo to get a real tree. Thanks for the link, it's very helpful! KumaAkita - I also feel sorry for OH :D It's hard to give up a traditional Northern Hemisphere Christmas for what's likely to be a somewhat miserable holiday season for the reasons you well know. Ah well. 4 kelpies: I love those photos - although you appear to own a rare white Snow Kelpie in that second photo! They all look so expectant. Waiting for prezzies?

Wow she's grown so much!

Hi I think you're talking about the Japanese dog Hachiko the Akita. There was some concern that with the release of the Richard Gere movie that akitas would become faddish but fortunately that fear doesn't seem to have been realised.

A little early I know, but the topic came up so I thought I'd post. This year, because of my father's illness, my OH won't be going back to Canada to spend time with his family at Christmas like he normally would. To try to make up for the undoubted lack of festivity, we're thinking of getting a Christmas tree this year (I normally don't bother). As a Canadian, he only likes the 'real' trees and the plastic trees are an abomination. Does anyone else here get a 'real' tree and if so, how does real tree fare with doggies? Is it dangerous? We'd try to keep them away from it but any stories/photos? And for Canberran DOLers – where does one get a good 'real' tree? ETA: Doggies wouldn't be left alone with the tree as they're never inside unsupervised.

You'll be fine! you guys are so good! Out of interest – what's the next level for you after this one? You'll keep coming back to train with Ava won't you? Elbie will fail silver this time around but we want him to generally do ok overall. He's actually doing well but we haven't worked as hard with him as we should have – partly because of Hoover, partly because of other stuff and so doing it a second time around will be good in terms of maturity and also his weak areas like controlled greeting/steady for pats and heeling.

Glad you'll come to assessement! I wanted to bring Hoover along for the fun but OH says that if I bring Hoover, then I can't go and watch him and Elbie because it will be too distracting for Elbie to see Hoover at the sidelines. I feel bad having Hoover crated while we're having fun though

Thanks all for the info about Cerebellar Abiotrophy. What a horrible, horrible condition. The story of Jane was just so sad. I really hope that the DNA test can be developed soon. It's just awful to think of such beautiful dogs being struck down by such a debilitating condition.

Elbie was jealous and tried but failed at making his ears Kelpie Out So he decided to point instead. He held this position for ages!!! The Flying Kelpie My monsters

The Kelpie Ears inspired him to do the Kelpie Crouch Here you can see his 'agouti' fur patterns on the back of his head Here he ponders his new ears some more Here he has Evil Overlord ears Pensive Ears "I Haven't Grown Into My Ears Yet"

**Ooops - photos corrected. Clearly I have many photos named 'ears'** Wow, everyone has been so prolific today! First of all, has been adopted! I was really chuffed to hear that because he's been languishing with Kate for ages and no one had been expressing any interest in him because he was a bit bland ... Apparently the family adopting him mentioned his music video and said that he "looked innocent but secretly naughty..." :D Niques: We've been woken up twice by Hoover retching and once by Elbie retching. It's the bizarrest sound in the world - makes it sound like something from an episode of Supernatural ... like some kind of monster is trying to climb its way out of my puppy's throat into this world. Not a good sound. Like you, we always have the dilemma of whether we let the puppy re-eat the vomit or whether there's a good reason puppy threw it up so we should be taking it away Sometimes, puppy takes the dilemma out of our hands and just gobbles it up as we stand there staring at him like stunned mullets. Exactly! Hoover and Elbie would lie on the back step all day if we let them. At least Hoover uses the outside crate and kennel sometimes - Elbie usually shows zero interest. It sounds like you almost ended up with a second dog today, Niques although perhaps next time you get followed home, you should specify that only house-trained applicants need apply! wuffles: I am ok reading about gross things. I just feel quite revolted when doing poo picks or standing there with a bag of poo in my hand. Feel free to describe away. I LOVE that photo of Satch peeking through the gate. It's very artistic and tells such a great story. I also love how characteristically happy and completely unrepentant Ava looks in her photo. Definitely not a sign of guilt there. KumaAkita: Safe flight ... hope it's not too tiring ... Will you be able to have a break from travelling soon? Thanks for your thoughts about Papa Koala. Clastic: Oh wow ... Mars is now a Quad-Coloured Border Collie! You've created a new colour craze!!! He looks so pleased with himself!!! OH wants to know why the paint is pink. On a more serious note, I'm glad that the lack of paint around his mouth indicates that he didn't ingest any of the paint!!! Max#1: Any photos of that? The thought of Mini Max in a washing basket full of clothes is quite adorable. lilli_star: Seriously .... I think you probably rival MavericksMission now in terms of Impressive Destruction Wrought By Dog!!!! First of all, Roo had an impressive number of toys there. Second of all, wow she was certainly busy! Third - is that lab butt I see in the bottom right hand corner? Also, please accept my condolences for Duck's foot. May he manage to adapt without the foot the way Poor Badger copes without tail and head ... As for my monsters, OH warned me that there had been Changes afoot and when I came home, I saw a strange shape/shadow ... Was that Hoover or some kind of mutant German Shepherd Dog? Look closely at the top of the bush ... More closely ... Are they prick ears? Yes, Hoover's ears have finally Kelpied out He's not entirely sure how he feels about the new ears He'd look quite handsome and Kelpie-ly if he wasn't still a bit bald on head and flank ...

Great tip, PF - although I am getting to the point where the freezer has more food for the dogs in it than food for the humans!!! (lamb flaps, bones, meatballs etc). wuffles – given how squeamish I am, you can imagine that I am a bit grossed out by the idea of putting the water dish in our freezer no matter how well scrubbed or 'bagged up' it is. I do worry too much about my doggies, I fear. I guess I wouldn't have worried so much about the heat if both doggies had been panting, but only Elbie was doing his dangley tongue thing. ETA: And I do think the fan cools down the room generally so is for the better.

Ruby's photo reminds me of this one of Elbie. He has a kennel with a trampoline bed but he chose to look pitiful and drag the door mat to the middle of the courtyard:

Thanks all. He has a dog door so can come in and out as he pleases so when the weather warms up again (today is still rainy and cool), I'm going to put ice cubes in their water bowl. He was pretty much a winter puppy so this is his first experience with the heat (and Canberra actually does get very hot!) so I guess he'll take some time to get used to the heat.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Hoover seems to be ok in the heat but Elbie (who is larger) does pant a lot more. sandra777: He's a Kelpie/border collie cross so shouldn't be prone to bloat but we were a bit worried because he also threw up some froth in the morning but then was fine as the weather cooled down... We're careful not to let him run around after eating and also not drink water too fast after eating etc but it's hard to know. But the tips about keeping him cool generally are helpful because he seems to overheat. Does the fact that his fur is black make a difference?

O poor Roo! She looks so pitiful - sometimes I wonder about our dogs. They have shelter and they choose to curl up in the rain or on a doormat instead of in their kennels. Perhaps she knows how cute she looks like that!

Yesterday, Elbie was panting quite a lot and his breathing was quite quick as he was sleeping. We were a bit anxious about him but he was totally fine today when the weather was much cooler so it appears that he's not very comfortable when it's very hot. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to counter the heat? He does not like going anywhere near the fan so we can't point the fan at him because he just goes somewhere else. There's plenty of water for him to drink any time he wants but that doesn't seem cool him down at all. Alas, we don't have air conditioning in this house - just fans ... Thanks very much in advance!

Slightly off-topic but perhaps sort of on-topic given that it's related to Kelpie genetics. I've been reading about Cerebellar Abiotrophy (ataxia) in Kelpies. It is a loss of Purkinje brain cells. A small number of litters are born each year with this condition but they are not restricted to one line of closely related animals. Studies suggest that the defect is recessive and widespread in the breed, with perhaps as high as a few per cent of dogs as carriers (have one good copy of the gene and one defective and are perfectly healthy but can pass on the defective gene to offspring). It is only when two carriers mate that a proportion of the offspring (one quarter on average) will inherit two defective copies of the gene, one from each parent, and manifest symptoms of the disease. It occurs in a large number of dog breeds and in Kelpies, the symptoms vary. There are severe ones where the animal cannot walk or even stand, to mild where the pup will have an odd stance or gait. Apparently, one characteristic sign is constant head bobbing while at rest. There's a video over at the Working Kelpie Council here that shows a few dogs afflicted with the condition. There's also a copy of a very interesting article from 1989 about when ataxia was first noticed in the breed. CA in kelpies occurs in both working Kelpies and bench Kelpies. One article says: Compounding the problem is apparently there's a 'code of silence' i.e. a “shoot, shovel and shut-up attitude”: Interestingly, the key isn't to PTS the carriers. Apparently the solution is to develop a DNA test so that carriers could be desexed and still used as working dogs and non-carriers of a litter could be bred and the positive traits of those lines passed on. What I find puzzling is that the Wilton lab has been able to develop tests for at least two different fatal diseases in Border collies. The Working Kelpie Council approached the lab to help them develop a DNA test for CA in Kelpies so that they could detect the carriers and avoid matings that would produce animals with ataxia, and eventually allow them to eliminate the problem from the breed altogether but this was way back in 2007. Reading the literature, the Wilton lab seemed to think that because they had already done so much of the hard work with the Border Collies, it shouldn't take them so long to find a DNA test for Kelpies - one item even said maybe just six months. We're nearing the end of 2010 and from what I can see, there isn't a DNA test for ataxia in Kelpies yet - or is there?

As posted in the Kelpie sub-forum, I have noticed the two Elbie clones at the Blacktown Pound. Elbie does seal-ears like this all the time. Elbie also does this 'mouth-breather' look This poor Elbie clone was dumped by his owners because they're expecting baby #3. Yes - I am Judging.