Seita

In regards to crate training and toileting, I also have an 8mo bc pup and she is perfectly able to hold on all night without needing to go... it may take a bit of training to get your pup up to this but it is do-able. Also on this, if you haven't already, a good command to teach is the 'toilet' command, so that instead of standing outside for ages till the puppy goes you just give the command, she goes and off to bed nice and quick - this will also take a bit of training but I personally think its a fantastic thing to have! :D

I got my first dog (mind you I was 12) because I wanted a dog, I ended up with an interesting bitzer who I unfortunately lost quite early on. I took her to training because I wanted a "smart" dog (keep remembering I was 12) but I got hooked on obedience... hence came the border collie cross, who unfortunately didn't turn out to be the obedience dog I wanted. I got him to compeition level obedience (with much effort!) but because non peds were not yet recognised at this time (1998ish) I decided to get a purebred (of course a border collie) to compete with. I love doing obedience and agility and the borders just fit this hobby. I'm also contemplating doing some herding in the future as my current pup shows a lot of potential, but thats more of a the hobby matches the breed thing rather than the other way round. My next pup will be picked based on its level of drive and suitability to the type of training I use. If I ever get a different breed I'll probably consider taking up a hobby that suits that particular breed, but for the time being its bcs all the way!!

Well having only just got back into dogs this year its been a quiet year in regards to titles and things like that. I picked up a foster dog with a truck load of bad habits at easter and just last week was able to take her out to a bbq with lots of other ppl around and she behaved herself beautifully! She no longer drags me down the street on walks and she comes when called. Next year I hope to find her a new home which will have a little more time for her. I also got my long awaited border collie puppy (it's been two years since I lost my last girl) around july. She has started be trained for obedience comps and I hope to have her novice title and have her in or through open by the end of next year. She has also started showing and managed a baby puppy of breed at her first show but I've only managed to take her to one other show since then. Next year I hope to show her a little more often and see how she goes.

Oh sorry I misread your post! Could you try practice drop at a distance in the backyard, say you're hanging out the laundry ask him to drop and then go over and reward him for dropping.. and just get him doing it well there before moving to say the front yard and then out on the street. Also maybe don't give him the command when you're out in public if he is not likely to do it thats just wasting a command. Get it 100% at home first and then outside in low distraction - the whole time before distance before distraction thingy again! This is the method I used to teach my last dog to drop from a distance, just random commands in the backyard and go over to her a praise her and do that a few times each day and build it from there. I appologise again for not reading your post properly the first time!

Hi!! I always teach drop on the move rather than from sit or stand as you end up getting a faster and better drop. I tend to move at walking pace becuase Im a bit unco at times and then I usually use a treat or a toy and simply bring it down in front of the dogs nose to the ground between its legs, usually its head will follow the lure. If it doesnt then move the lure towards the dogs chest on the ground still this will make the dog drop its shoulders and then gently with your other hand press lightly on the dogs shoulders and push the dogs chest to the ground, the bum will usually follow if not push it down as well... say drop as the dogs chest hits the ground. I find this way gets a neater drop rather than the old sit and pull the dogs legs out from under it method... the dog sort of colapses nicely into a drop. Once the dog gets it you can skip the push and just put the lure to the ground and as soon as the dogs chest hits the ground give it the lure. It will click pretty quickly! I just started my pup this way yesterday and Ive already got the drop without the hand over the back today. I expect that I will have a drop on voice command by the end of the week! Goodluck!

I can sympathise with you about the scratchs and bruises also! I've been real slack with the toe nail trimming lately and my pup scratched my ankle the other day with her nails - the scratches were red and angry looking for several days! And then the many bruises and cuts up and down my arms and hands were teeth have accidentally got me!!! :D

Myszka: Yeh my puppy does similar things - she's a real expert at backflips while trying to get closer to whoever it is that she thinks is interesting!!! As for free stacking, I'm not up that yet! I've only just started showing and am still a very big newbie at it and with a phycho pup like this its going to take HEAPS of focus to get us ready to do free stacking! As for gaiting, Ive started using the command showing for the show ring and for gaiting and will be using heel for heelwork in obedience... its just going to take some time get her to associate those words with the actions!

Myszka: Sometimes I wish I had a half asleep puppy to drag to the ring - she might be calm enough to behave for once!!! Regardless of how long shes been in the crate for, as soon as she comes out shes a livewire and ready to go!!! ROM: I'm not entirely sure how a touch stick works. If its what I think it is (its getting the dog to target the end of the stick right?), then I suppose it might work - teach the dog to target while in drive, build on that till you have gaiting and after some time you can probably remove the stick altogether, right? As long as you use a different command for this then why shouldn't it work? Other ppl with more TID experience please give feedback!!!

Congrats Shekhina!

Hey Myszka I know exactly what you mean about a prey item - at Ellas first show I had nothing with me... there were NO leaves or anything so I had to pick some grass and lure her with that! She worked lovely for the peice of grass and took baby of breed for it!!! I also taught her stand first before anything else but that was before I started training in drive so now Im teaching sit for focus and stuff like that. As I am not planning on showing her till next year now I do have plenty of time to train the stack in drive before she gets shown again. She is very good on the stack at home with me and is used to standing but Judges in the show ring are always too exciting and they make those noises to try and get the pup to show expression where all the judge needs to do with this pup is look at her and shell bounce all over the place!!! Ill get her stacked up nicely in the ring and the judge will come within 3 feet of her and shes broken the stack is on her hind legs giving the judge a kiss!!! This is why I was thinking drive might help me!!! :cool: Ahhh... the fun of training dogs!!! And I also am not a very good handler, at least not with this TID stuff Im sooo uncoordinated! Just yesterday Ella managed to wrap the 15 ft leash around my legs and I was walking backwards trying to get out of the leash and not let her get the ball and somehow I trip over and landed quite ungracefully flat on my back - pup thought it was fantastic - couldnt decide if she should grab the ball while I didnt have it or lick my face!!! ;)

Tollersowned: I haven't actualy worried too much about training anything for the show ring yet -real slack of me! And as shes going a nice ugly stage at the moment I'm going to use this time to focus on training her. Myszka: I was at K9's workshop in Gympie a few weeks ago and have since done the drive building stage and have just started adding focus so yep the sit is the first thing I've taught and I'm working on focus for that. I will be teaching her stand and that type of thing soon though so I thought I'd ask now before I start training her and decide what I want to do! Thanks for your reply and btw - I too use leaves as bait in the ring, the pup thinks their awesome!!!

Wow! More replies thanks guys! Myszka: I'm currently using an orbee ball and I've only just started training drive - been adding focus for 2 days so far! The reason behind me asking was mostly just curiosity on whether ppl used this form of training for the show ring. I have a very excitable puppy who is highly distracted by the whole show atmosphere and thought maybe TID would be useful for getting her focus. I know that I can train focus and the whole show thing out of drive with obedience but was wondering whether there would be benefits to using drive. I can see pros and cons to using drive in the show ring mostly due to the focus (ie - for gaiting you want the dog looking ahead not at you, but for the stack you want the dog looking at you or even the judge) so perhaps I could train just the stack in drive and leave the gaiting out of drive... although I suppose that you could train a dog to gait and look ahead in drive... Argghh the options!!!

Tollersowned: sorry I didn't realise that you trained in drive- misunderstanding on my part. So do you just use TID for obedience and just general obedience for the show ring? ROM: Congrats on your results! When you work out what you're going to do can you let me know! I have yet to decide what I'm going to do with the pup as well, I've got several months to train her up for the show ring (she's going through that super ugly stage!) so I'll see how we go and wing it I spose!!

Rom: thanks for your reply I will remember that but at the moment I need to hold on to her as she bounces all over the place when the judge comes near her! My statement was actually related to gaiting the dog but it also goes for the stack. You're training your dog in drive aren't you? Are you planning to use drive for the show ring as well? Is there anyone out there that does train their dog in drive and does show their dog as well? I'm really keen to hear ideas and experiences!!!

Hi thanks for the responses so far. Its nothing to do with the fact that she does/doesn't enjoy going into the ring, in fact she loves it a little too much and gets far to excited and distracted by the ppl, dogs and noises everywhere. I know this is a training thing and with a bit more training and practice she'll get over the excitement. I know that with training in drive she will be very focussed on me which is a good thing in regards to her getting distracted or not, but it also means she'll probably be looking at me rather than straight ahead which is not such a great thing in the show ring. I'm keen to hear what other ppl who train in drive do for showing!!! ps - I don't use a squeaky or anything noisy and with training drive so other dogs wouldn't even need to know that I have a toy, the important thing is that my dog knows I have it and that if she does what I ask she'll get it!!

Hi, does anyone here train their dog in drive for the show ring? I've just started training my pup in drive but wasn't sure if I should worry about using it for the show ring, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas, thoughts or experiences to share with me! Thanks in advance!!!

Hi, I suggest using TOT if you aren't already as it sounds like Nova may not be respecting you enough.

My 4yo GSD X ACD gets one cup of bonnie working dog mixed with approx 300gr vegie/fruit pulp for breaky then approx 400/500g raw meaty bones for dinner (whatevers cheap!). The 6 month of border collie put gets the same for breakfast but currently gets double the meat for dinner and I think I need to up that some more, I just can't keep up with this girl!!! They get fasted on sundays although do sometimes get a recreational bone then. They also get sardines, eggs, salmon and various other bits added to their meals throughout the week!

Thanks K9, thats what I started doing as well! I just wasn't sure on the reason.

Ok I have a question as well, after being at K9's workshop in Gympie a few weekends ago I started drive building with my 5 month old border collie pup. Ive been teasing her with the toy several times a day for abit over a week now, when we started she was really REALLY keen on getting the toy and would just spend the whole time lunging for the item but over the last few days shes slowed down and she watches the item the whole time but doesn't lunge and doesn't seem to be in drive for it? Could it be that I have done or am doing something wrong? Oh I forgot to mention, that when I take her out to tease her she starts out fairly keen but then slows off after a minute or two.

Ok, going back to the post with all those different foods and how much vit E they contain... is that iu amount per gram?

Thats a really good question MyRani, I didn't think to ask that! I'd like to know the answer too please! :p

Bloss344 - thanks for that info, very muchly appreciated

Wow! That's impressive, thanks heaps for that... do you by any chance know if sunflower safflower oils have the same kind of effect on skin as say cod liver or flaxseed, ie. helps keep it healthy and not dry and flaky cos I currently feed either of those two oils but if sunflower or safflower have a similar effect then that would basically be acheiving two things with the one item. Thanks!

Hi all, does any one here feed vitamin E to their dogs and if yes how much? I was recently told that its good to feed them a bit extra but I was unsure on how much. I have a 22kg GSD cross and a 7kg border collie puppy, both are fed BARF so I don't know if I even need to feed it to them? Thanks in advance for your knowledge