koalathebear

They are sooooooo cute together and i admit when I watched the video and saw the grass, i was thinking: "Huh? That doesn't look the same as wuffles' latest photo ofher yard - oh ... Ava is smaller there." Hmm, I think the true test will be how are they if YOU go away for a week ... My OH is to Elbie what you are to your doggies. He spends heaps more time with him and does the majority of walking etc ... I'm kind of like the person who helps feed, helps clean up (we share poo picking duties) and also plays with him sometimes .... not even a twinkle in my eye right now until my hyperactive, bonkers, jumpy, demented puppy becomes a bit more subdued Can you imagine Elbie at a trial? Bouncing around over everyone, possibly doing the occasional happy wee?

Ah ... the cat references. When Elbie was very little, he looked like a little cat which pleased my husband to no end since he was originally a cat person :D We weighed Elbie last month (at six months) when he was going in for his heartworm injection - he was about 12 kg. We can still heft him under one arm. I suspect the lab in Max will make him a bit bigger than Elbie at the same age. I have no idea how bit Elbie will end up being when he's fully grown. We both have cross-breeds that aren't trendy designer dogs. They're so untrendy they don't even have a funky portmanteau name ... Max could be a Border Labracollie? Elbie could be a Border Kelpie or a Border Colpie? :D I'm jealous. Today is Elbie's first full day at home by himself. I have no idea what to expect when I get home. *sympathy* dog + mud ... Also, even though Elbie is short-haired, he has been shedding like nothing else and there are tiny hairs everywhere. It's a bit gross. As to the holes in the garden, we refill the holes because Elbie piles the dirt up beside the holes. wuffles said that they're going to have get the dirt from elsewhere to fill up the holes - I have no idea where her dirt goes! Ha ha', he's not L.B. the Little Bastard for nothing ... Like James he's pretty good inside - doesn't chew cables and destroy things. Sometimes he tries to gnaw on his bed and he knows we don't like that and when we reprimand him he will either lick the bed defiantly or put his paws over his nose, stare at us angelically while chewing on the bed beneath his paws :D In the yard, he mostly only digs in his section of the yard. There's not a lot else for him to destroy (touch wood). Our biggest fear is that he's going to be a jumper - he can jump very high but so far he seems to prefer to stay close to home. Our neighbour freaked us out by telling us that their dogs used to escape the yard and they didn't know because the dog always made sure it got home before they did. Thanks ... I know Elbie's going to run around and around the house looking and looking and looking. We play hide and seek with him a lot so he might think my husband's hiding somewhere - or he may just realise that he's not there. I think he suspected something was going on this morning when my husband was packing.I was preparing Elbie's brekky and normally just The Sound of Kibble is enough to make Elbie come running and do his I Am A Good Dog Sit but this morning, he was hovering very nervously around my husband while he was packing, anxious not to let him out of his sight. I hope I don't have a Hachi-ko on my hands :D We have a really large number of Leaning Tower of Elbie photos. I'd say it's the ears creating an optical illusion I hope that we can have more photos of James soon - even Naughty James is probably Über Cute and his "drop dead" was studiedly stylish! No way ... All puppy chatter is welcome but to make you feel better, I modified the name of the thread :D In any case, there ARE plenty of photos in this thread.

Yes! the click of the camera also wakes Elbie. It makes me wonder if Elbie ever 'truly' sleeps because the tiniest sound or movement seems to be able to wake him from most sleeps. Our problelm is that we usually just have our desk lights on in the study so it's too dark for photos. Last night he was sleeping in his dog bed with his head hanging out over the wide - literally dangling with with his nose touching the ground. When we turned on the light for more brightness - he of course woke up Fortunately he likes the camera though - he knows camera = treats

Max#1: How are Max's ears today? I showed my husband Max's video and he thought it was super-cute - also impressed by the ears. I'd be quite happy for Elbie to have wonky ears for the rest of his life - they're extremely expressive. Also - when my husband created my DOL signature - the wonky font for 'elbie' was a tribute to Elbie's wonky ears I kind of have a similar 'proud' sit from Elbie but it's nowhere near as proud and straight as Max's. Our photos of Elbie frequently have him on an angle for some reason - it's like his ears make him tip over. They also move around when he's puzzled or startled and if he's on alert, they stand up almost straight. As to teething, Elbie didn't go gummy. He seemed to get a new tooth almost the next day after he lost one! It was a bit freaky - as was the blood on his toys. He didn't seem distressed or more inclined to chew though so I suppose we should count ourselves lucky.

Ooooh, I didn't know that there was a bowing smiley ... So useful! Even though this thread may deleted, I have learned something new!

tlc: synchronised sleeping positions! Soooo cute mrs tornsocks: those photos are so meltingtly cute ... I would never trust my dog with a bean bag ... he'd either try to play with it or hump it For completeness, here is a photo of my sleeping puppy when he was drooling - it's only happened once.

anne: I'm guessing that because the title of this forum is 'General Dog Dicussion', it has been deemed that unlike most contracts, "headings DO have legal effect" so anything off-topic should be in the off-topic section. That being said, if the post was about the surgery and walking dogs (I didn't see the original post sorry) - then it does sound like it is on-topic. Kate: For clarity, the topic perhaps should have been: "looking after your dogs after you have had surgery" ... or something Then it should be relatively unassailable ... unless you say something like: "Looking after your designerdogadoodle (that you knowingly and unrepetentantly obtained from a BYB petshop) after you have had surgery". Then I don't think it would get through

Oh .. that's so unlucky. Sorry to hear that. I've seen lots of posts before asking about how to keep their dogs entertained during the post-surgery period or when they're sick/bedridden etc and those posts seem to survive ... As to the rest, I can sympathise - I had hand surgery in July (carpal tunnel release) and my right hand is still very weak and sometimes sore. I find it quite difficult to restrain my puppy when he's excited so the next two weeks of obedience class are going to be testing for me given that my husband's in Toronto for two weeks. Finding ways to restrain and exercise the doggies when one is slightly incapacitated is a real challenge.

I doubt it would have been auto-removed without a complaint and if someone complained then it would have been removed because it's OT. Don't worry Kate, I suspect you'll have enough posts soon to have access to the Off Topic section where (almost) anything goes. Perhaps you could have made the topic have a dog nexus i.e. 1. has anyone had the surgery? what was it like? 2. how did it affect your abilty to walk/exercise your dogs? Then no one could argue that it was OT

*snatches puppy and runs away* So cute ... Proof is needed.

I know!!! He blamed it on a stressful day - how can people like that want to have a dog? Someone on my facebook breeds border collies and she said that one of her dogs was returned for rehoming because it chewed up furniture. :D Did the owner think that a dog was a doll that needed no training and guidance? I feel so bad when I read about poor dogs treated like that. Oooh he really has gone into his naughty, selectively deaf phase. Elbie's still got his pitiful, "I've done wrong" look. When he's naughty, we use his leash to tie him to the kitchen pole for about 30 seconds and his shoulders slump, his head droops down and he stands motionless and stares at us with the most heart-rending look. I know that they say that dogs do not feel guilt or remorse and that they have just learned appeasement behaviour but honestly - Elbie has the most ridiculously wide range of emotionally manipulative looks Does James dig or destroy other things? wuffles has a photo of her yard after rain that makes it look look like a sodden moonscape. Heh but I'll bet other people are saying: "Oh he's grown!" but he looks the same to you. I'm sure he's great at obedience. We have two chocolate labs in our class who are absolutely adorable and they are so well-behaved. It's not just his tail that wags, when he's excited he does the most extraordinarily energetic bum wiggles that he almost falls over. People laugh at him because he looks so silly with his bum wiggling. The tail wagging doesn't hurt but he has a blue rope toy that he holds in his mouth and shakes from side to side like it is deadly prey that must be vanquished - sometimes he accidentally whacks us with that and boy does that hurt. Our neighbours are all really nice but in this case, we went over there today and asked them if they'd let us know if Elbie barked The reason is that till now, my husband's not back at work yet so has been at home. Thus, even when Elbie's outside, he knows someone's home. My husband has to fly back to Toronto tomorrow for 10 days because of a bereavement in the family. Elbie's going to be left in the yard alone all day now while I'm at work - something he's not used to yet and we want to know if he barks all the time. Hopefully he won't because we'll scatter kibble, put his toys out there and his tucker ball ... but still. Embarrassingly they said: "Oh yeah - he barked the other night blah blah". :D Elbie will pine though - he's closest to my husband and it's going to be awful because he's going to be running around the house looking for him and wondering why this game of hide and seek doesn't have an end. :D As for why he barks at night - it's our fault. He's just not used to be outside after dark. :p Heh heh. I'm sure it's fine with your two Elbie is very pushy and we have to ignore him because apparently it can be a dominance thing :p I can't wait to meet Pepper and Mars - they are so cute and I saw that video with the giggle ball!

My puppy ... We tested him out sleeping in his new soft crate last night and he had a very restless and unsettled night - that could be why he's sleeping like a log now ...

Niques: That is the second time today I've read about garden reticulation! The first mention was that awful man who drowned his dog in an esky (that poor POOR little puppy :D ) and I didn't for the life of me know what it was. After reading your comment I have googled what garden reticulation is and now know. Regarding naughty James ... I think we all have our trials and tribulations with our lively doggies ... Sometimes I pretend to envy the dogs that are placid as cows, but there's something very lovable about a smart and cheeky dog. I hope that James settles for the sake of your poor garden! Our latest problem with Elbie is that while he's pretty well-behaved outside during the day, if we go out after dark and leave him in the yard - he barks. Our neighbour told us that he barked for 1.5 hours the other night when we were picking up my brother from the airport. :D We'd normally crate him if it's night time and we're not going to be out long but sometimes it just gets dark while we're out and then the pup gets barky :p Fortunately we have HEAPS of dogs on our street and I don't think there are any evil dog baiters but we are going to try to address the Darkness Barking problem soon. Can't wait! He must be getting very big now. What does he do when you reprimand him for his naughtiness - does he give you looks? Touch is funny because sometimes I'll have my hand just dangling and Elbie will come up and touch his nose to it under the mistaken belief that I am prompting him to do a nose touch. His 'paw' is also really funny because when he's excited, he is totally spazzy and over-enthusiastic with his 'paw' action. Max#1: :D I was laughing out loud at the photos and the video. 1. The upright ear is AWESOME. Are you sure that's a border collie ear? It looks like a crazy kelpie ear or batman! 2. I LOVE his proud sit - he looks so serious and sentinel-like as he sits there so straight with one ear sticking up like that! Those sits are going to get him a lot of praise at dog school, particularly the fact that he does the auto-sit when you stop. In bronze class the dogs are supposed to auto-sit when you stop. Also in that first photo - Elbie gets that expression on his face, too. 3. in the video, I LOVED how promptly he jumped to attention - it was like he had a spring inside him. 4. the back-chatting is sooooooooooo cute. Elbie doesn't do that - he makes a range of funny noises but usually not during his tricks. How very funny! I think so. I showed Elbie that talking husky video and he was intent and when I'm watching videos on youtube he'll frequently sit there and stare at it - he loses interest after a few seconds though. One day Elbie was sitting there staring at me a short distance away. I held my hand up and said: "We come in peace". I did it a few more times and then he copied me. I'm not sure if you can get Max to 'copy' you. if not, what you can do is hold your hand up and give him a high five prompt from a distance to prompt him to raise his paw. You may find that that works better. Elbie does that to my husband. I wear slippers so he ignores those. He does have a really bad habit of getting his toys and nudging us with them which I know is bad dog manners but well ... :D tigers12: any luck in your hunt for a puppy?

There are no off topic items. Here are the wave videos. .Some people teach it by modifying the high five. I did it by holding up my hand and saying: "We come in peace". Elbie then copied. My husband made me change the verbal cue though Right now I'm trying to teach Elbie left and right which is fun. Aren't we due for a new James video soon???? His fans are waiting!

I'll observe him for other things. I think he prefers the left paw for high five and shake and we have to tap his right paw if we want him to use that one but I think that I might have been the one who conditioned him because I started with his left paw and so he developed a habit. Similar with his "wave". He learned wave because I held up my right hand and jokingly said: :"We come in peace". I did it twice and then he stared at me and copied me. Made me howl with laughter. Thereafter he usually uses his right paw. Since you seem to know about such things - is it normal for a dog to learn tricks by copying human gestures? That's how Elbie learned high five, wave and high 10. Our life would be so much easier if he could learn all his tricks by imitation. At obedience, I pointed at the GSD next to us and said: "Elbie - crawl like her!!!" It didn't work. Ahhh ... Body Integrity Identity Disorder... I've seen that on House and maybe CSI NY or one of those sorts of shows. I think sometimes they can convince the people to strap up their arm or leg rather than actually amputate but some people desperately want it amputated ... It sounds so strange to me but the human mind is a random and strange thing sometimes. Elbie has an intense stare like Paddington Bear. He can sit and stare for ages and ages and when he wants to, he can concentrate. Usually I do a lot of the tricks training at home where his concentration is good and my husband handles him at obedience class where his concentration starts out bad because of the distractions but then improves. It's going to be tricky this week and next though ... my husband has to fly back to Toronto on Friday for a couple of weeks because of family reasons. My right hand is still a bit weak from recent hand surgery so I'm not sure if I'm up to handling Elbie's boisterous tugging on the way to obedience - if the dog fails bronze assessment it will be my fault ;) You like challenges and you like to ponder the complex psyche of the spitz? As for me, I would love a shiba inu but they're too much dog for me ... wilful and I'd probably go bonkers. Elbie's very lively and hyper sometimes but he does have an off switch and as you say, he IS a lot of fun. Oh by the way - Elbie still attacks his leash on the way home but the other day a funny thing happened. My husband set out for a walk with Elbie, Elbie did an incredibly big, stinky poo and my poor husband had to do the rest of the walk carrying a bag of poo because there was no bin nearby. Approaching the house, Elbie turned to do his usual leash-attack, saw the bag of poo dangling from my husband's hand, recoiled and then walked home placidly.

I would never consider it 'hijacking'. I welcome all interesting information! :D

The results of day 2 of Elbie's Left/Right training is . Corvus the answer to your question is within ... although notwithstanding the video evidence, part of me still thinks that Elbie has a tendency to want to go to alternating sides. :D Yes!!! That happened to Elbie yesterday when we tried making him spin the other way. He got all spazzy and almost fell over Thanks JulesP! Elbie does all the hard work! Do your girls know left from right and how long did it take for them to learn? paddles: thanks for the tip - sounds a bit like Erny's one so we'll try that as well to reinforce Elbie's sense of direction! Did it take long to 'stick'? Thank you! We have switched to small hankies for now that he can just paw at because we already have far too much dog-related laundry. My problem right now is that he could work on his tricks forever but we don't want to overfeed him so we do his training at meal-times, doling out 1-2 bits of kibble at a time. It means that he trains for almost 20 minutes at a time and it's clear he could work longer - we just run out of kibble and don't want him to turn into a chunky monkey. ;) He will work for tug and toys - but doesn't have the same degree of motivation. We also think he's cute even though to many he's just a mutt Teaching him tricks is fun because he seems to really enjoy learning. Usually, the difficulty we have is trying to let him know what we want him to do - once he figures it out, he's always extremely happy to oblige.

Thanks, that's very helpful. is where he's at right now. I need to find targets that don't fall over so easily. I clicked too late because I find it hard to hold the camera and click at the same time. I'll keep working with him tomorrow - for a bit there, he was doing it right on purely voice cues but then he relapsed. Oh well, it's his first time trying it.

Heh, we'll see how we go! When I was looking for something 'easier', it was no offence to your method - it's just that I'm a novice dog owner so need easy peasy guides to training. The dog is smart. Me? Not so much. He is 100% spot on with pointing and even jerking my head - but 'right' and 'left' aren't quite there yet. I do like the idea of 'labor' and 'liberal' though. Interesting question. I'm going to have to observe more closely - I had assumed that he was just gravitating towards whatever the last direction was but I hadn't really focussed on that because the main problem I am having right now is that he keeps trying to pre-empt me so he'll dash left or right before I even give the cue. ;) Worse - he dashes to both left and right and nudges them with his nose in the vain hope that that will be acceptable. :p

Hi there Absolutely no need to apologise. And there's no hijacking - I'm always happy to help if I can :p Here's the official Border Collie 101 Thread. The general chat thread is here. There would be a lot of breeders so you could ask on that thread. Alternatively, there's a lovely lady named dancinbcs who has always been very kind to me. You could message her and ask her about good breeders - she used to breed BCs and while I think she might be taking a break now - perhaps she could point you in the right direction? Hope that helps ;) PS: Sure you wouldn't like to try a kelpie?

That's so cool!! I've set up two items (err paper towel rolls that sometimes double as obstacle course on the left and the right and Elbie is running and touching his nose to one or the other depending on whether I say left or right. The problem is that he cheats and follows my eye movement sometimes rather than listening to me...

Funnily enough he does know the wait command and I used it for the first time in relation to loo time yesterday I wanted him to wait while I ducked into the bathroom and a few minutes later he was still sitting there waiting patiently. It made me laugh at the time.

Max #1: It's very addictive. Feel free to post here if you're shy about posting elsewhere - you're always free to use 'my' posts wuffles youtube channel is very good and Ava is a beautiful, beautiful dog. Keep the videos coming - such a shame you're in Vic, I'd love to see Max in person tigers 12: you're so kind! Thanks for posting and I'm glad you enjoy the Elbie updates. he's very dear to us and we get a lot of fun out of him. He's smart and good with tricks but he's still a little/big monster at times ;) Great choice with border collies - they are beautiful dogs. I've become a kelpie person and if I could persuade my husband, we'd have a Noonbarra kelpie for Christmas Hope to hear from you soon that you have a new puppy :D

Heh heh. Training with Elbie is always fun. He's just learned how to and he gets very excited about it - staring at us expectantly after he dunks the object. Problem is we haven't been able to teach him to distinguish between 'ball' and 'rope' yet and the ball always holds him mesmerised. Sorry to hear about your previous dog ... what a shame she lost both facilities at the same time :'( Elbie's being taught 'touch' (nose) and 'paw' (uses his paw). The problem is sometimes he cheats and pounces and puts both paw and nose on the object at the same time ETA: Problem with 'paw' is that I'm Australian and my husband is Canadian. I say 'paw' to rhyme with 'pore' and he says 'paw' the American way ... rhymes a bit with aaaaaaw or 'pa' - definitely doesn't rhyme with 'ore'. Thus, he objects to my use of the word 'paw'

Thanks. I'm open to trying the clicker method but wanted to consider other options, too. Sometimes with Elbie, a combination of methods works - he's also good at learning by imitation so I would prefer the simplest method Now that you mention it, when we took Elbie to herding the trainer used the phrases: "come by" and "away" to give 'clockwise' and 'counter clockwise' directions to his dogs and they were amazingly responsive. Also, Elbie only spins and rolls one way so I should probably teach him both ways ETA: I am so sorry, I meant to post this in dog tricks but it ended up in general training/obedience.