Smalahundur

This is not the same forum I signed up for ten years ago.

There are no discussions about stockwork anymore, an the influx of new people interested in training stockdogs has completely stopped. A few years ago I noticed this decrease in stockwork related content, and opened a topic about it. Since then it has just gotten worse.The only topics opened in the expert forum are offtopic, posted there by misstake. Anything related to stockwork is a request for information about trainers, or the announcement  of a trial in a continent I am not likely to visit soon. It's mainly a pet/sports forum now, and I am not particularly interested  in either. 

It's a pity, I really liked and enjoyed this place, lot of knowledgeable people, I learned a lot. Many people who were prepared to answer newbie questions in depth, I am grateful for the time and energy they put in it. So it is absolutely not with bitterness or resent I am leaving this place, rather with gratitude, not in the least for the people who kept this site running. A shame that people seem to look elsewhere ( I blame facebook) because I personally prefer this format over other social media.

I will no doubt look into the archives now and again, but I wil sign out and stop posting after this topic has run its course. I feel at the moment time spend taking part here is rather wasted. 

Have fun! It would be cool to visit, but the travel distance is a bit prohibitive. Also still tied up in the last part of lambing season.

1 hour ago, iLLt3cK said:

Such a great topic!

I'd be interested to know how you all selected the land / plot that you ended up on. What criteria did you use? I recently moved back to where I grew up only to find out that my dogs have a hard time with the humidity we get out here. This has me looking elsewhere in the US for greener pastures and lower humidity.

For those of you on a farm - did proximity to sheep / cattle trials play into your decision at all?

Anyone willing to share their experiences about making the transition from suburban life out to the farm?

Thanks in advance. This information is fascinating to me.

The farm next to the one we used to rent was for sale, an opportunity not be missed. It meant we could move with our stock (strict rules about that here), and we graze them free range on amost the same area, ideal! Same roundup in autumn, with the same people.

Proximity to trials did not play a role at all. I have working dogs for my sheep, not the other way round.

The biggest transition was when I moved from my home country to Iceland (about 23 years ago), almost immediately bought a couple of horses, and it has been a slow but steady process to fullblown country life since.

Good for you. And no, I am not a vet but next best thing (guess). Mileage may vary and all that, but if you as my vet would try to convince me to do expensive diagnostics on a symptomless dog (bad breath as indication for x-rays, come on) you would lose a customer instantly.

Interesting, but I would never x-ray my dogs because their breath is a bit stinky. If the dog's teeth look fine, they eat well and don't show any discomfort I am not going to dig for problems. Dogs generally don't live long enough for dental problems to develop into a serious condition, given the conditions I stated in my second sentence. 

Funny video, but as you are not teaching her to catch a sheep, this is in the wrong section ( this is the stockwork part of the forums).

Is that actually a thing in your country, returning a dog like this to the breeder? This would not be an option where I live, and nobody would think twice about putting  down a dog with a bite history like this (drawing blood on several occasions).

1. Attack; "I didn't react"

2. Attack; "I kept on walking until my partner took him off me".

3. Attack "I stayed very quiet until he let go and then moved myself back a bit"

4. Attack "didn’t punish, we simply ignored him behaviour and put him on a shortleash "

Get rid of this dog. This is NOT going to end well.

Cute pup. Bet you won't change his name, sure looks like a Benny to me....

No experience, but that is because there is no scientific research that supports the claimed effectiveness for these kind of supplements. 

A lot of money for something that is not much more than a placebo imo.

I would prefer it, if I would care about looks in my dogs (I don't). Same for pricked ears, tricolor and a smooth coat.

That said, my current dog-in-training ticks two of the boxes, a prickeared smooth coated dog 

5 hours ago, GentleLake said:

Having seen the difference between my dogs' teeth before I started feeding raw and now, I can see a big difference, regardless of your disparagement. As I said in my earlier post, the difference it made in a dog with heavy tartar buildup was significant, and remarked on not only by myself but also my vet.

Scoff all you like, but it's been published that most dogs in the US have gum disease by the time they're 3 years old. At 7 and 13 mine still don't.

 

"Most dogs in the US" lead lifestyles very different from mine ( and most likely yours). Most pet dogs for instance are also obese. This makes both our statements about the state of our dog's teeth just anecdotes. Most if not all the claims that raw feeding has beneficial effects compared to kibble (healther, longer lifespan better teeth etc) is just that, anecdotal. Nothing against raw feeding if you prefer it (and know what you are doing) but there is no single shred of evidence it has a significant effect on the health of dogs compared to normal good quality kibble.

My dogs eat kibble, never had any problems with tartar buildup. I think generally the raw feeder's anecdotal narrative is "poppycock" (what a lovely word btw). 

Any dog of a certain size can kill a calf. Certainly if there are two of them. Hanging tree cowdogs are afaik strong aggressive cattledogs, so sure, they can potentially kill stock. A newborn calf, easily. I feel I am stating the obvious here, the question is of course did your dogs actually kill that calf? The state of the carcass should hold clues to that riddle, you don't say much about that. It has been stated before on this forum, NEVER leave stockdogs unattended with livestock, especially un- or only partially trained ones. Sorry for your loss.

Never. I think it is nonsense.

There is usually a third option; nonsensical. It won't do anything for your dog in relation to stockwork, even if (and that's a big if) he realizes he is  looking at sheep, there is obviously nothing he can do with them. I don t see any reason why one would try to make a dog interested in sheep on a screen.

If you tried this on your pup and you noticed he was interested in this chances are it was just the moving stuff in front of his nose. And not unlikely any video would have had that effect. I would not want my pup to become reactive to any moving thing in its surrounding. So good, certainly not. Bad? Could be, so why even risk it? Plenty of usefull stuff to do with your dog ( personally I think every activity that makes me put the bloody phone away is great...).

Anyway, you are posting in the stockwork section, are you planning to do that with this pup?

My suggestion would be  a sturdy walking stick.  But if the worst happens, the terriermanblog had some good pointers on how to handle a dog fight. Had to implement that information once, and it works.  Here is the link https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2011/08/knowing-what-not-to-do-in-dog-fight.html

She trains you well...

Cute, did it work?

It's called brace, and is a special sort of trial. Not all dogs are cut out to work together like that, and it is rather advanced stockwork. You need to be an experienced handler with excellent dogs to pull it off.

Everything depends on the dog's current name...

Three words. Put Him Down.

Though there is one word that jumps out  from your story, the "force free" trainer. Does this positive only approach go for your entire interaction with this animal? He is clearly the boss of all of you, and this behavior is pretty much ingrained by now. He even  confines you in spaces in your house, and you let him out of fear of being bitten, that pretty serious. A dog bites me only one single time "with intend and force"; immediately a ton of bricks will come down on his head! Off course one would ideally not let it come to that...

Your story is very detailed about how the dog is pushing everyone around, including the trainer ( bitten multiple times?!) I read nothing about what consequences there are for the dog when he has just bitten someone. 

To be honest, I don't think you have much of a chance to change this dog. You would need imo a rather draconian approach, nothing in life for free, you call the shots. All the shots. All the time. At the moment your dog is the boss in your household. His aggressive behavior will worsen first  when someone will try to put him in his place. And you are afraid of him as it is, even with him doped up. Hence my rather harsh first sentence. I do agree it is not an option to rehome the dog.

EDIT; Looked up your history on the boards, and see you had a topic on this, called "biting". I even posted there arguing for a more corrective approach. Sorry to read things have escalated this way.

I think keeping alligators, crocodiles, pythons and so on as pets is a great idea, you know, from a Darwinian point of view. https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2182428/indonesian-woman-eaten-giant-pet-crocodile-after-falling

37 minutes ago, mont4 said:

I like "fuzzy lurcher" tho that could describe the walk home from the pub.

Figured it would be a Kennel Club thing.        I'll stop now before I start ranting again.

Probably a good name for a cocktail too, for some reason something vile like jack daniels in red bull springs to mind.

Hm, in that case I'd like to propose "Fuzzy Lurcher"