Podengo

Elsie sleeps in a soft crate with two crate mattresses, a polarfleece blanket, a mink blanket and some other blanket...

A friends ex considered a Malinois because mine were so well behaved - her logic, it doesn't look so hard. This was a girl who could barely look after 3 siamese fighting fish at the same time without a lot of assistance. So one day I stopped commanding my dogs when she visited and gave them to go free command ... mind changed :laugh: I had similar with my malinois - Envy was only 10 weeks old and my sister in law was giving her a cuddle and had spent about 10 seconds with her when she announced she wants one of this breed, what breed is it again? And okay, either one of these or a mastiff. A toss up between the two. She wasn't so keen on the malinois anymore after a few more minutes when she was being chewed :laugh: We have some really lovely friends that we stay with when up in the North Island competing or attending seminars. Because of why we're up there, Elsie is normally pretty exhausted and well behaved when we're at their house. They said they are going to keep an eye out for collie/terrier mix litters and rescues, because they are SO well behaved compared to all their friends naughty golden retrievers!

I use the word "in" for sit in front of me, for obedience recalls.

If I say "Elsie COME" I expect Elsie to immediately stop whatever she is doing, turn and run back to me as fast as possible. It works, I can call her off chasing prey animals, or other dogs. If I whistle that is just to get her attention and move her back in my direction, I might be changing direction along a walking track or something.

If my dogs/cats were killing native species I would have a problem with it. For introduced species (which unfortunately is just about every bird species in the city), more power to em!

Well when you think of the time and effort put into them... If they were horses they would certainly be worth a lot!!

Dad's Dobe hangs out with the chickens, as the magpies seem to enjoy dive bombing the chickens then Lottie takes her opportunity and *crunch* scores herself a magpie!

My dad's Dobe gets magpies now and then, and often kills sparrows, black birds, thrush, starlings and swallows.

Walking through a dodgy part of town and I had a guy follow me for awhile asking some questions about Elsie... Fair enough... Then he asks me if I would like to sell her as a pig hunting dog as she looks really game. I've had 4 different people offer to buy her as a pigger from me! The guy that followed us was very nice though and when I said no he said ok, can I give her a cuddle? And he sat on the pavement and had a snuggle with her. I did make sure no one followed me home though :laugh:

When I was helping with my friend's litter I would crate the puppies while cleaning inside, when they were outside I would keep them away from me with a puppy pen.... Nothing worse than trying to scoop poop then having puppies jump into the poop them claw your legs with their tiny poop covered sharp nails!

Elsie is left inside when no one is home, she doesn't really spend much time outside at the moment actually as our chickens have made a giant bloody mess of the garden and it's all mud and chicken sh*t at the moment and I refuse to bath her daily LOL so she just has access to the patio and a tiny bit of garden. She only wants to go outside if its sunny so she can nap in the sun, but the weather has been really yucky lately

I like dogs that enjoy cuddling and like sleeping under the blankets with me, and having always owned Dobermans up until now that has always been fulfilled Elsie is a BC/JRT and is very snuggly and cuddly, but can sometimes be too active to really enjoy a good cuddle, but then again I really enjoy her active, cheeky personality, she is a bit of a monkey really and always up for doing anything with me. We had a German Shepherd growing up, and I found him quite boring, like he had no personality... He was always well behaved, but if you didn't 'need' him to do something he would always sit outside on the porch and watch the street. Brilliantly well behaved dog, but not my cup of tea.

I live in a pretty nice area, which is a little island surrounded by less nice areas. In my suburb we have a lot of mini schnauzers, a lhasa, quite a few malamutes and huskies, a springer spaniel, a couple of labs. Surprisingly few designer dogs in my area, but the better areas of town have a heap of them. If I venture to the parks outside of my area we see a lot of staffy mixes.

As far as I am aware you couldn't get a 6 month old puppy here anyway because of the rabies vax stuff, the earliest they can be here is 9 months (unless they're coming from one of the very few rabies free places) so will be a pretty big dog by then anyway! I have a friend that has imported a number of dogs from Sweden and she went and stayed with the breeder for a few weeks when they were competing in agility in Europe so they had a chance to meet her, and the dogs she was getting. She has since gotten two more, but didn't go to meet them.. Just trusted the breeder would send nice ones :) Good luck, the beauceron is a breed I have been interested in too (also a dobe person lol)

You get people at the end of your tracks? OMG, screw doing that LOL! Can't imagine being out in a freezing cold field at 8am on a frosty NZ winters morning waiting for the dog to find you......

So had a win a weekend ago, followed by 6 eliminations in 6 runs this weekend just gone! Damn agility!! Have told Elsie she is either going to become an obedience dog, or I may sell her to the gypsies as a hunting dog cos she sure isn't being a good agility dog (though she was AMAZING at training last night of course...)

Elsie had a good weekend of rally and agility, bringing home two qualifying certificates in first place in rally Novice A (including one on 100/100 points!) and earning her RN title as well as top rally novice dog... And a 1st in starters and 3rd in jumpers C

Elsie's 2013 goals - Train reliable weaves - Train reliable running contacts Changed this to stopped contacts! - Start agility! - Win out of starters agility 1/2 wins gained - Win out of jumpers C - Start working trials! - Start tracking trials! - Qualify for level 2 tracking, 1/2 legs gained. - RN title, 3/3 legs gained. - DONE! - CDX title

I'm glad to live in an area where I feel safe walking my dog - there are sometimes a couple of dogs loose, but I know them well and Elsie enjoys her mid-walk visit from those dogs. I'm very thankful they aren't nasty. I used to walk my friends large breed dogs for her, but have quit now as I have had a couple of near encounters with unfriendly dogs (she lives in a not very nice area, which of course has a lot of bully breeds with lazy owners that are unable to shut gates). One time I got out of her street to encounter a large mastiff x a few houses down in one direction that was apparently having a stand off with a staffy x across the other side of the street. I promptly turned and took the dog back home to play ball instead. The idea of having one of my friends large dogs get into a fight is pretty scary too; even though they could defend themselves unlike a small breed, there is nothing I could do to put a stop to anything, I would have to drop the lead and look for help! I can't physically wrestle a 45kg out of a fight.

Looks like a fast, fun dog. Would be interested in seeing it on some more difficult courses - there are some quick labs around here that do well in the lower levels of agility with those big open courses, but don't have much of a chance once the courses get tighter and harder at higher levels.

I read an interesting article about dog feeding and energy utilization that suggested feeding in the evening is better. If only I could find the darn article now! Elsie is raw fed, and only fed once a day in the evening...

Elsie's 2013 goals - Train reliable weaves - Train reliable running contacts Changed this to stopped contacts! - Start agility! - Win out of starters agility - Win out of jumpers C - Start working trials! - Start tracking trials! - Qualify for level 2 tracking, 1/2 legs gained. - RN title, 1/3 legs gained. - CDX title

It worked! Elsie nailed all 8 weave entries (and the whole weaves FWIW!) yesterday! She had some moments of brilliance and got her first agility clear round, and a win :) It wasn't a proper competition as it was the Zone Team trials, we didn't quite make the team, but had some great runs and I am definitely feeling better about agility now!! Some photos too :)

Motorhome for sure!

I think we've done all the weave training we can manage! For the last week we have trained twice a day, every day, in 4 different locations working on entries with me running, me still, rear crosses, calling through, and with 1 jump there (I can't carry more than 1 jump and 6 poles down to the park lol). Weaves were looking spectacular at training this week at club, and this weekend we have the trials for the team to represent our are at nationals. Think we'll give weaving a rest tomorrow & Friday, and hope some of it sinks in :) If we miss all 8 weave entries this weekend, I think I give up :laugh: