daisyandme

"Away To Me follows five top ranked international competitors from South Africa, Canada, Ireland and the U.S. in the lead up to, and during the 2011 Soldier Hollow Classic, one of the premier sheepdog trials in the world, held annually outside Park City, Utah." http://www.sheepdogmovie.com/

This is exactly what I have started doing, however I say she is probably a working border collie and not bred for looks. The only problem with saying probably as I found out yesterday is it gives the person a loophole and then the guessing game begins.... Since Daisy is a rescue and I have no idea about her history, I was trying to be honest about it. Most days, I have to say, I do get is that a border collie?

Got a new one today....mix with Irish Setter Say what? Irish Setter? Get outta here.

So, I have to add my experience from today to this list. Let me start by saying, when I go out with Daisy, oddly enough I am often asked right away if she is a border collie. However, sometimes because people think she is too small in size for a border collie, they will say oh she must be mixed with something, maybe sheltie....which makes what I am about to say weird and somewhat funny... I was with Daisy at petsmart walking around. As I walked by a couple, they began looking at Daisy and the woman said that is a pretty dog. The man replied yes and then said that is a border collie...then a long pause...mixed with a german shepherd....I looked down at Daisy and said well Daisy that is a new one. I think the man was trying to figure out why she has tan.......

So cute!

Gosh it sure goes by fast doesn't it!

Great job Brodie! You are so handsome. How old is he now?

LOL! Sorry I shouldn't laugh since he did just have surgery. Poor guy. A very creative solution though! Maybe you should add one of those flap like things that pajamas have in the butt area....

When Daisy gets old enough, I would like to introduce her to agility and maybe some other dog sports, but I live where there are not too many options when it comes to classes locally. 40+ min from Sacramento (not good for traveling in winter due to very bad fog). 1 hour+ to San Francisco and about 2 hours to San Jose. None of this would be so bad, but as it stands right now Daisy is scared of the car (started during winter due to the windshield wipers). So I need to find a location that is not so far that she is completely worked up by the time we get there until I can get her over her fear. I found the Napa Valley Dog Training Club which is about 30 min away, but I don't have very much confidence right now with picking trainers due to my last experience (you can read here) Has anyone heard of this place or do any of you see any red flags? I have looked over the site and had some trouble finding what kind of training methods they use. I could have just missed it though since they do have a lot of information on their site. Thanks!

Daisy just reached the six month mark and is weighing in at 28.6lbs (that was at her vet visit two weeks ago). I am betting she has reached the 30lbs mark though or is very close to it. She is a little taller than 20inches. Everyone who sees her asks me: Is she a border collie? and then always followed by she is so small (almost to ask if she is a mini BC). For some reason based on the reactions I get, people seem to think these are supposed to be BIG dogs. I wonder where that comes from????? I don't know how big Daisy is going to get. My guess would be one or two more inches in height. I don't think she is going to end up on the very low end of the spectrum in size, but definitely somewhere in the middle low end, maybe. Found these measurements doing a google search, but I don't know how accurate they are: Height: Dogs 19-22 inches (48-56 cm.) Bitches 18-21 inches (46-53 cm.) Weight: Dogs 30-45 pounds (14-20 kg.) Bitches 27-42 pounds (12-19 kg.) Based on above Daisy seems to be developing into average size. The rescue told me she would reach about 40lbs, but I don't think she is going to make that.

I figured the reacting to running children, bikes, etc was border collie, but what has thrown me is her reaction to bikes is new. She just seems hyper sensitive now. Since I encounter dogs more than children. I think I will start with that. Not so many children in my neighborhood. Time to take a deep breath and start over again. Thanks Liz and everyone else for your responses. I will call the training facility for the wallflower class and ask the suggested questions and post the response.

What about placing Daisy in a class like this? ARF-Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation It is the class titled "Wallflowers" ejano, the only thing is she had a problem with barking at dogs and that it seemed to have started after being charged at on two separate occasions when she was somewhere between 3-4 months old while I was taking her for a walk around the neighborhood. She was already quite shy and nervous to begin with. I still am not able to go back to one of the locations without her having some kind of reaction. Usually frantically looking back and forth for the dog or wanting to walk as fast as possible past the house. She reacts to children running about, she reacts to skateboards and after yesterday children on bikes, she reacts to unknown dogs. And the reaction is barking or running away and barking while looking back. Sometimes she just refuses to move. We do have another dog that Daisy plays with. I can also take her to the park where some friends bring their dogs (maybe four dogs or so). She loves playing with them, but since her recall is a work in progress, I have been cautious about doing this much. She is also outgrowing them in size.

Just wanted to say thank you for all the replies so far. No, I did not know she was going to do something like this since I made a point of telling her of Daisy's problem her response seemed to indicate a more positive oriented approach by saying Daisy would tell us what is too much for her. She even said that we may find out that Daisy is not yet ready for a class. So I thought something like the method you mentioned for that BC in your class would be taken. I think that is why I thought later on that I was missing something with Daisy's body language. But I think what I am describing is fear. Yes, it did make me uncomfortable and as soon as it happened my thought was Oh no, I hope Daisy doesn't process that as a more negative association with dogs. I was so afraid the rest of the night that she would process it that way. Especially when she hid under my chair a lot of the night and her body language changed to be uncertain about the trainer. When we were trying to do the first of four activities, the assistant thought Daisy had broken down and was too overwhelmed because Daisy was refusing to come out from the corner. When we tried to bring her out she stood up and pushed on us with her paws and pulled back. Her tail was tucked between her legs with her ears back and she wanted nothing to do with the treats in my hand. The assistant got the trainer and said I think this dog has "checked out" (by then the the assistant and I had gotten her out of the corner and were attempting to work on the exercise). The trainer then replied no, Daisy does not understand what you want so she started by placing the food on the floor to get her to stand from the sit. It began working. BUT I thought ok, but you also didn't see the struggle to even get her out to try this exercise. Usually she is so interested in working for food. She loves learning and will try to think ahead and go through her tricks. She was not very eager at all in this situation. My family has had dogs my entire life and so I am not new to owning a dog, but I have never had a puppy that is so afraid. She is a "puppy" at home, but once we get outside of that she is the most "non puppy" puppy I have ever had. I wish I had understood more about Daisy's body language in this situation and removed her from the class. All I knew was I was feeling something was not right. Majority of the other puppies were so excited and so interested in the trainer and her food and Daisy could have cared less 80% of the time. I don't know if a group class is appropriate for Daisy at this point. My guess would be yes with the right trainer and the socialization would be good for her. But I really don't know where to go from here with picking another trainer.

Yes, there is a backstory, but I was not sure about sharing it until seeing if everyone thought squirting Daisy was bad or not. I wanted to be respectful of the trainer. So here it goes: Daisy had her first obedience class this week. Before I signed her up, I told the trainer that she had a problem with barking at dogs and that it seemed to have started after being charged at on two separate occasions when she was somewhere between 3-4 months old while I was taking her for a walk around the neighborhood. The trainer thought that since this could have been sometime around a fear period that this situation might be hard to get her over but since she was still young it is possible that she might get over it. The trainer then told me that Daisy would dictate what she felt comfortable with. I arrived at class early so that I could get Daisy situated to try and keep her as calm as possible. I was surprised at how easily she went in the building and she seemed to feel comfortable with the trainer and her assistant. (On a side note, I have noticed over the last three weeks that she is getting more comfortable with people. She is a bit shy and nervous overall). As puppies arrived, Daisy began barking. I would settle her down and she would bark again and again and again. The trainer had chairs set up in two columns with four seats to a column. Once the everyone was pretty much in, the trainer took Daisy down the center to see how confident Daisy was. Daisy was unsure and barked at the other puppies. The trainer started with verbal correction and verbal praise, but Daisy would go back to barking and also did talk back. She came back to me and said you have your hands full with her, but I like her personality. I do know that I have my hands full because Daisy can be rather opinionated, hardheaded and manipulative. But I do think I know the difference between those qualities and fear. So, for the first 15 min of class Daisy was barking on and off. It was at this point that the trainer squirted Daisy in the face once. Daisy stopped then barked. The trainer squirted her again and Daisy stopped but then seemed afraid/unsure to approach the trainer for awhile. Shorty after being squirted, the trainer told us as the start of every class, she lets the puppies play off leash and told us of some ground rules during this activity. When we let the puppies off leash all the other puppies started interacting with each other for the most part, but Daisy remained in the corner unwilling to venture out. It took her a very long time to venture out. She made her way maybe two chairs out staying close to the chairs and avoiding the puppies. she quickly ran back to me. After this some puppies became interested in her and she began barking. At this point, the trainer asked me to get up and move away from Daisy to see what she would do. Daisy had her tail between her legs, ears back, hackles up and barking. She began following me trying to hide behind me. As she did this I moved away from her each time so that the trainer could watch her behavior. The trainer asked us to leash the dogs and go back to our seats. Daisy was shaking. The trainer wanted to go over some of the things she saw so that we could all understand and watch out for certain behaviors. She said that Daisy needed more socializing and that Daisy and one other puppy might benefit from day care so that she could pair up dogs that would be appropriate playmates so that they could learn how to interact with other dogs. She also said that Daisy and this other puppy were being kind of bossy because they had figured out what behavior keeps dogs away from them. Meaning that Daisy and this other puppy are over reacting to the situation. This made sense to me actually. She said that it would be a good idea to bring Daisy to a monthly puppy play date for more social interaction. I did sign her up. When I left the class, I was very concerned about Daisy being squirted because I was afraid that this would only increase her negative association with dogs. Up until this point I really thought Daisy was making some progress. I had been doing what you suggested echoica as well as giving her treats for just looking at the dog and not responding. We got to the point where I could go in the center of a track and have dogs walk around us with Daisy watching and not reacting at all or only very minor under the breath barks. Today was not good. Her reactions were way over the top. It was almost as if she was over sensitive. I notice today that she now barks as soon as she hears a dogs collar. What I find really odd is that dogs she met before those two charging events when all her barking issues started (I believe), she loves playing with, but any new dog she barks. Aside from the squirting, I thought the trainer was pretty good. I only had wished she waited to squirt Daisy until seeing her behavior off leash because I think it better demonstrates how Daisy is around unknown dogs. She acts very submissive a lot of the time with the dogs she knows. Actually, I think sometimes way over the top submissive. She urinates, licks inside the mouth, rollover on her back and/or stays very low to the ground with her head to the side. I know I am not an expert so maybe I am missing something with Daisy's body language that the trainer picked up on. What should I do? Anyway sorry for the long post and I hope I got all the information in. I don't know if I should go back to this trainer or not. She does have a website if that would help. edit: found some spelling mistakes and unclear sentences

If a dog is barking at other dogs because of fear, is it ok to squirt the barking dog with water? I don't know if there is a clear cut answer to this, but generally speaking if it is ok to do this, I will just assume Daisy and I had a bad day today and try again tomorrow. But if it is not ok to approach her barking and fear problem in this manner, I would like to add more information about what occurred and will probably ask for some advice on how to handle things from here on out. Has to do with an experience with a trainer. Feeling so defeated right now

I think I am just surprised since she is only 6 months old! Maybe I am just selfish and silly, but I love the way my little baby looks and I don't want her to change. LOL

Have you had a puppy that developed random white hairs in the black areas of hair? I have noticed over the last month that Daisy has developed random white hairs and patches of 3 to 7 hairs in clusters on her forehead and the top part of her muzzle. She also has a few random white hairs on her body. The lower part of her muzzle near her jaw line is developing a mixture of white and tan (almost as if the tan is spreading along her jaw line and moving up). Maybe since she is still a puppy her body can't decide which color she wants to be...maybe she is going to have white spots...she has the black spots under chin. I thought that pigment was pretty much set after birth but now that I think about it, my brother went from almost toe head at birth to dirty blonde/brownish as he got older.

How funny. Reading this turned my frown upside down! Thanks for sharing, I needed this.

My dog use to carry the collar around in his mouth and follow us until someone would put it back on him.

Thoughts are with you for a speedy recovery. Please keep us posted!

Maybe it is not just the motion, but the sounds the car makes? I have a dog that reacts different ways depending on which car she is in. And I think it is because one car makes many more sounds/vibrations than the other because it is older and lower to the ground. She is also terrified of the windshield wipers in that car. Anyway, just a thought.

Thanks so much for the reply. I will try what you suggested. In regard to the resource guarding of toys. I tried doing a google search before posting, but everything seems to be more geared toward resource guard v. people. I will try a search again. Maybe I was not wording it right.

So puppy Daisy has some issues with our other two family dogs when it comes to sharing toys. She makes a beeline to the dog with ANY toy and takes it. If the other dog stands up to her, things quickly escalate to aggression from both dogs and becomes unsafe to remove the toy. In the end, Daisy always seems to win the toy. What is the best way to handle this situation to try to communicate to Daisy that this is not acceptable behavior? She seems to respond best when I remove her from the room and give her a "time out". It make take her two or three times to get her settled down, but she does settle down. The only problem is the other dogs don't even want to touch the toys at that point. Holding her back when I see her giving the eye to the other dog while the other dogs are playing with the toys only makes the situation worse and she becomes more set on taking that toy. The other issue is possessiveness of people. Although this one seems to be getting better. So far, any time Daisy does this, I remove myself from the sofa and ignore her. As soon as I do this, she stops right away once she realizes I am no longer there. Should I be doing anything else for this? Daisy shows no other possessive behaviors toward me. I take her toys, her food, anything and everything. My family is also able to take everything from her. Oh this is so frustrating because I feel so lost with this issue. I just know I am doing something wrong.

Lewie'sMom, What we did with Sammy when it came to treats was reward him once so that it did not discourage him and then we taught him the "all gone" command. He eventually caught on to how many times it was ok to push for a treat. I guess the "all gone" command would be similar to "that will do".

Welcome! Your puppy is so cute!