koalathebear

Your dogs are so smart! I thought about teaching Elbie this but I had a terrible fear that he would eat the bell. So we've just taught him to stand at the back door and give one woof to be let out. In the old days he used to stand there quietly and pensively as if we could read his mind or something.

Yes .. Sometimes DOL can be a terrifying place. If I ever decide that life is too much and I would like to shuffle off this mortal coil, I shall announce in the general forum that I am intending to set up a pet shop that specialises in purebred Akidadoodles, Pit Kelpies and DoberDoodles. These dogs are designed to be left in the yard all day, stimulated only by choking hazards and have only 3.5% recall (measured using the RecallMeasurement-ometer that I bought from Kmart). My death shall be swift and painless as I am smothered by the outrage of a thousand posts … Weeeellllll I am trying VERY hard to persuade OH that when Elbie’s old enough we need a red and tan Noonbarra female kelpie … Check out the location. I won't hold my breath though, he is currently horrified at the thought that I would even consider a second dog - Elbie is already SUCH a handful. Also, where are your photos of Ruby?? We haven’t seen any in this thread yet – from wee pup to The Blanket Chewinator …

Hi If you take him out after all meals, drinks and sleeping, the ‘bombs’ should be less, although little puppies seem to be able to keep such a lot of wee and poo in them. When he was a very young puppy, we confined Elbie to the kitchen using de facto dog gates – we have proper dog gates now. You could try a pen as well. Then as he gets better toilet-trained you can increase the area that he’s allowed to access. He had quite a few accidents on the way to the door but it’s promising that he heads towards the door. That’s really the most important thing – that he knows he’s supposed to go outside and ask to be let out when he wants to toilet. To be honest, you should prepare yourself for quite a few more indoor messes before he gets it right. I tried to use puppy pads when we moved house i.e. I wanted to show Elbie the ‘new’ area where he was supposed to toilet. It didn’t really work because he just wanted to play with the puppy pads. In the end, all that worked was taking him out on a leash to Poo Corner and hanging around with him until he does his business. In the early days, there was a lot of waiting but these days he gets to his business first and then goes to play. Good luck!

Yes ... I sympathise. When I wrote this, the person got offended but I really wasn't meaning to be rude - it just genuinely is difficult to know what is right by one's puppy. What is good for one person is dangerously irresponsible for another. I was a bit gobsmacked this week to find out that teaching tricks was disapproved by some, yet I can imagine that others would condemn me for failing to sufficiently stimulate my puppy intellectually. People keep telling me that kelpies and kelpie crosses need to have their brains kept occupied but how does one do that when one does not have sheep? Where are you in NSW/how far from Canberra? We're going to be taking Elbie for additional training/possible herding training in Braidwood. Perhaps there's a midway point that we could all have a get together one day. ETA: As to stimulating my dog's brain, I know that walking is good yes but if tricks are bad and I don't have sheep, I suppose I could also read Proust and Dostoevsky to him to stimulate his mind.

Oh dear... That sounds very unfortunate It's not the first time a DOL thread has jinxed my puppy (*thinks about the house-training thread ). Now that we're not giving Elbie peanut butter kongs anymore, he seems to be a lot less gaseous. He's very evil with his flatulence. He'll dart over and be affectionate, let off a silent and deadly one and then dart away and stare at you from a distance with innocent eyes. Once he let out an audible one and looked around as if to say: "Who did that?" He has some hilarious expressions - he always looks so serious for the camera but sometimes he looks positively demented and distracted. Keeps us laughing all the time. kumaakita & wuffles: Forde when it's deserted sounds the way to go - and the reserve sounds really lovely, too. Where is the local reserve? Elbie will be fine as long as we distract everyone with toys and balls and that sort of thing. I think he just gets tense when he's being chased the whole time, which is dopey of him because to be honest, he can run pretty fast if he puts his mind to it. ;) Does Satch chase? If there were three dogs there and we brought toys for distractions, I think it would be fine - he seems to be much more used to Ava these days anyway. I just don't want him to be rude and growl at her lest it damage their relationship. I promised OH that this weekend would be relaxing with not too many Doggy Duties and Koala Family Duties so at this point it's looking like Sunday morning might have to be the day his weekend anyway. HmmmMMMmmmMMM. Perhaps we can have a group get-together at some point - BDOC grounds would also work when there's no training on.

We tried so hard to get a photo of Elbie and Ava together. Ava behaved, but Elbie did not Almost! (BTW - OH is not pulling Elbie's ear - he's holding a piece of devon near Elbie's head And here is Elbie now - in his dog bed peering at OH and at me. We have never actually taken Elbie to a dog park. :p He has been in the offleash area of the Dog School heaps of times but the only time we went to the Belconnen Dog Park, we went sans dog to check it out. As with many things, DOL has made us terrified of the dog park experience. Reading DOL makes one terrified to do anything ... I now have visions of our puppy being disembowelled by hordes of vicious DA dogs while choking on chicken bones, a kong and being strangled by his own collar We haven't made up our mind about the dog park yet but the Forde one seems to have agility-esque equipment there and if we can go there when it's a bit deserted, Elbie and his nervous owners might be ok :cool:

Because Elbie was struggling with his heeling positioning during his assessment, we have been working with him. He is very funny though - check out this . He basically bounces into position.The other thing he failed was the sit-stay because he was hot and kept dropping instead of staying in a sit. So since then, we've been making go into a . He drops easily from a sit, but we discovered that it wasn't quite so easy to get him to go into a sit from a drop. He's getting much better at it but the problem with Elbie is that he likes to anticipate so he'll be bouncing up and down like a jack in the box. Last night, we wanted him to drop and he stared at us intently - waved at me. Then when that got no reaction, he turned to my OH and waved at him, too. We both burst out laughing and Elbie looked so offended. Of course the danger with making him go into a drop into a sit is that we run the risk of weakening his drop. Ayah In terms of dog farts ... Elbie's been pretty good for the longest time now. Today he did a flyby fart at me. :p Turns out that the OH had decided to buy Elbie some delicious lamb meat-balls. Farts aside, Elbie LOVES them and has been incredibly focussed with lamb meat balls to motivate him. I've never seen him heel so beautifully. :cool: lilli_star: we've given up trying to bring the clicker to training ... OH and I are too unco I can't hold leash, manage treats, pay attention AND click. Some photos ... Here's Elbie trying to make his other ear stand up using the power of his mind ... Some of Elbie's classmates from Dog School. This is Harry, regrettably he didn't pass bronze. The elegant whippet is Shelly. Next to her is Cally the GSD. They both passed and will be with us in silver classes. Cally with her paw up, begging for treats Love Shelly chilling out on her mat

Wind Beneath My Wings? For us, we're thinking of going the agility route for Elbie because it might be more interesting for him in the long run - and us with all the variety - tunnels, beams, hoops etc. I worry about injuries in flyball and also poodlefan mentioned to me once that flyball can be quite tough on the dog - which makes sense even if the dog masters that swimmers turn thingy. Also, apparently the dogs get revved up to crazy levels of hyperactivity and barking which I do not want with Elbie because we actually want him to become a calm dog one day instead of the little tornado he is now ... We're going to do obedience classes until gold level and then might supplement his classes with a trainer that we know in Braidwood but I doubt we'll go obedience trialling ... I suspect OH, Elbie and I would find it a bit boring just trekking around a field doing sits, drops and dumb bell throwing. Also, I'm unco - knowing my luck, I'd hit and kill a judge.

Oh they are sooooooo cute ... and they're so good at posing for the camera. Are they looking at food or are they naturally model-esque for the lens? I think that's cute ... Elbie puts his head on my leg and looks up at me with puppy dog eyes and then when that doesn't work, I get a nudge with the snout ... which is bad because he nudges me in my side when I'm sitting down and I'm quite ticklish :cool: I love their expressions in this photo: Same here, Pepper in particular looks mesmerised by something What a coy little miss ... she could give the flirty Ava a run for her money Both of them have such gorgeous colouring! I haven't had a chance to take any photos of Elbie recently - we're hoping to take him to the dog park at Forde over the long weekend so maybe we can get some nice photos there.

Daisy is so cute - the constantly wagging tail and the way she looks up at you for guidance. I also adore the chatting - sooo funny. I had never thought of beagles as happy-looking dogs because they often look so plaintive - but Daisy looks very happy while heeling

We didn't use a clicker, just treats and praise but if we'd had a clicker at the time, I'm sure we would have used it

I was also a bit surprised, too. Sometimes I feel that there's an element of judgement from some people about teaching dogs tricks but to be honest, as I've said in another post, dog-raising appears to be much like child-rearing in the sense that every person has their own views about what is 'right'. I know some people who believe that desexing, any sort of training or house-training is 'wrong' because it is unnatural. I'm a bit baffled that some people will say: "house training and obedience are ok but tricks are not good because they de-dog the dog" etc - when I suspect it's more like: "This is right because it's what I choose to do." As I've said, my dog is very happy and entertained. He likes his tricks and I believe his cheeky, hyperactive personality comes out in his tricks - the way he bounces and boings into the heel position is hysterical, his exuberant spins and high fives ... I like to think that the tricks not only occupy his mind and give him something to do but they allow us to learn more things about our dog's personality. Tricks and training aren't suitable for all dogs but for the dogs that like it - I don't see any harm in it as long as they enjoy it and aren't injuring themselves physically.

Vidding is fun!! You also get to see what people's taste in music is. About the teething - I think it can vary. Some puppies seem to go through a very gruelling time during teething - discomfort, pain, chewing ... Have you been giving him cold things to gnaw on? We were lucky with Elbie that he had a bit of bleeding but he seemed otherwise unfussed. We have a handful of teeth up on the windowsill retrieved from when he was teething. OH jokes that we can use them to clone Elbie one day

I forgot to answer this! The wobbler is a North American thing only I'm afraid but it is available on ebay It's extremely cool and Elbie has a lot of fun with it. We alternate between the tucker ball and the wobbler and he's deeply entertained.

I think it's interesting to watch - the dog looks so doting and adoring - but I suspect I'd trip over my dog if he was that close to my leg I suspect trial work is out for us

Tangential note, I'm not sure why tricks are often seen as being any worse than some elements of obedience training. For instance, my OH are a bit conflicted about the formal 'heel' formation. It's amazing to see the dog with its head tilted up attentively towards the handler, not even looking where it's going - but we can't help thinking it must be jolly uncomfortable for the dog to have its head at that angle for such a long time. ETA: Yes we're still committed to teaching Elbie to do it as part of his obedience but we'd never make him walk like that outside of class.

There's a related thread over here where I gave my reasons why we teach Elbie tricks. Dog ownership is such a personal thing. I know people who never take their dogs to obedience, believe that dogs should be 'natural' i.e. no tricks/training/desexing/even housetraining etc. I met a guy at work today with two purebred Rhodesian Ridgebacks that he says are bad-mannered and have never been to obedience. A girl at work has four dogs and none of them have done obedience but apparently they all walk very nicely on a leash and have manners at mealtime and that's what's important to her - I think one of them also works as a pig dog (tracking the pigs). Other people just want their dogs for companionship and just need some very basic manners from their dogs. Quite a lot of people (including members of my own family) judge us for the tricks we teach Elbie, but at the end of the day - we just want to keep our dog happy and entertained. He's a mutt that probably comes from a working line kelpie and a working line border collie - this could be a disastrous combo in a suburban backyard but so far he seems very happy and non-destructive. We're also intending to take him herding again - just to keep him entertained. We were also told to distinguish between "commands" (sit/drop/stay/wait/come) and "tricks" like shake hands, drop dead, spin etc. Anyway, it's easy to feel a bit sensitive about it but we've decided that dog-raising is much like child-raising and every parent/owner seems to have his/her own philosophy and so as long as the dog's happy, healthy and well-adjusted - it's really no one else's business. ETA: Elbie's too young for agility/flyball etc and will be for ages so we have to keep him entertained in the interim

Elbie knows quite a few tricks ... My OH was initially opposed to teaching him tricks because he felt that it was unfair to make the dog perform for our entertainment. Our problem was that Elbie is a very active little kelpie x ... we're in the suburbs and we have no work for him to do, he's left in the backyard when we are at work and we can only take him for a walk every couple of days. We discovered that teaching him tricks tired him out in a way that nothing else seems to. He seems to really enjoy doing tricks - when it's 'trick' time, you can see how focussed and business-like he is about it - he delivers up various tricks in an attempt to have the right one. It means that he doesn't engage in destructive behaviours (no excessive digging/chewing/barking/escaping etc) and he seems very happy to hang out in the yard until it's time for him to come in the house. If we didn't teach him tricks, I'm not sure what we would do to keep him entertained ... In terms of tricks like putting things in a box or telling left from right, it's quite fascinating to watch him 'learn' and 'understand' what it is we want him to do. We don't teach him tricks like limping which would require us to wrap a leash around his leg and make him limp for a bit ... we try to teach tricks that he can either learn by imitation or by capturing his existing behaviour.

Elbie is a master at doing Puppy Dog eyes. Here's a recent one:

Like wuffles said, the dog should be taking instructions from all in the household but it can be tricky if OH is away on work etc. Things you could do are, when he's back - he takes over the mealtime training sessions and you have him practising making her wait while he goes through doorways first etc. Just little things to emphasise to her that He Also Matters We actually have a similar thing to you. We always attend class together but Elbie is more used to seeing me on the sidelines. Sometimes he fusses, but generally he's calm even if he sees me across the field. The same doesn't go for when OH is far away - Elbie will fret and whimper so part of the reason we're going to share handler duties for silver class is to get Elbie used to seeing both of us Far Away ...

Perhaps just at the early stage anyway. OH and I are intending to share handler duties at silver now that bronze is done. Also, I should add that even though we had OH as the bronze handler, we both showed up to all the classes so we knew how Elbie was to be trained and there was consistency. I think it might be difficult for both G and your OH to 'dive' into the obedience if he's been away for work etc. They both aren't quite sure what is being asked of the other. Also, there are some people who just don't enjoy obedience classes as much as others! Is OH going to have to go on the road again soon? If not, I think it's probably good for you to share the handler duties at some point. Alternatively, if he can't go to classes with you, you can tell him about them. Then again, if he's anything like my OH he'll roll his eyes and go: "Oh gawd - more dog stuff????"

If you are lucky, dancinbc may visit this thread - she's very knowledgeable about border collies and has also illuminated certain aspects of Elbie's character for me. Maybe change the title to "Two questions re border collie x puppy" in order to catch her eye We're lucky with Elbie - he loves the ball but he's not obsessed by it. The only sign of ball obsession we see is that when we're playing: "put it in the box", if there are several toys he will pick up the ball and keep putting that in the box above all other toys It's possible that it's because we started out teaching him "in the box" with a ball, but no idea ... As to the terrier thing ... that is an interesting observation. We have all sorts of dogs at our dog school - big and small, fluffy and non-fluffy, purebred and muttley. Elbie generally gets along with all of them during class - labs, JRTs, etc but: 1. there was one black min. schnauzer that always lunged at him and seemed to want to kill him. In time, the two have become used to each other so the schnauzer no longer lunges. Weirdly enough, the min schnauzer has a twin who has never had a problem at all with Elbie. 2. one time in class, a terrier got distracted and lunged at Elbie, Elbie lunged back and both got booted out of class for being distracting I'm not sure how representative the above two incidents are given that Elbie's fine with all the other dogs, including an airedale terrier that was in the class but it was interesting that his only two negative encounters at dog school have been with terriers. I hope you resolve the issues! More photos of little Max please, I have been wondering how he is.

Yup ... Elbie's speak command is a cute trick to show other people and he looks very cute when he's trying to bark on command, but it's not been useful for us to stop him barking. Thank goodness, he doesn't tend to bark much generally

As everyone else has said, your puppy is only 8 weeks old and is capable of very little right now. People have given you a lot of useful links to read. Basically: - make sure you take your puppy outside after water, meals and sleeping - take your puppy out every 2-3 hours at night to do toileting - take your puppy outside on a leash to do toileting and guide it to the right spot of the yard where you want it to go to the toilet - when the puppy goes, you praise it and also use a word eg quick quick/pooppoop/toilet etc. In terms of training, as everyone has mentioned, puppy class is the way to go. Also, if your puppy every accidentally does something you like e.g. sit - praise it like crazy so that it knows that it has done the right thing. A puppy that little doesn't need to go for walks yet and you can just play with it in the house and the backyard. You have a long road ahead of you but puppyhood doesn't last forever and it's very rewarding as long as you have patience and take a break when you get frustrated

I gather that some dogs are just a bit more barky than others. There's a sibe x in our class at dog school and she barked once and her owner almost fell over: "I've never heard you speak before!" he exclaimed gleefully. "Speak! Speak!" he said in an attempt to capture the behaviour. It was hilarious. Could we have some photos of Stanley? We used to have an Airedale Terrier in our class at dog school named Bobbi and she was soooooooooooo beautiful. Funny thing was that she was so fluffy and cute-looking that I didn't realise how big and strong she was! Her handlers came as a couple and usually the husband was the handler, one week he was away and just the wife came and she seemed to be struggling a bit, so I offered to hold Bobbi's leash while she got her training card - I almost got pulled off my feet! Just wasn't expecting all that strength. Regarding the boredom, if he's anything like my dog, the size of the backyard is irrelevant. I find Elbie only wants to play in the yard when we're there with him - otherwise he's just chilling out near the back door being a couch potato. In this thread I've posted some links to a tucker ball and also a Home Alone Ball which some people say is useful for entertaining dogs when they're in the yard. I find that Elbie also loves empty juice bottles and can play with those for hours. In any case, good luck and don't forget to post some piccies! ;)