kristinavb

On most other boards i'm arooroomom (houseful of Huskies here) but I didn't think that was actually appropriate for a BC forum. My identity is my name for the most part.

Gotta love the dogs

Personally if I were you i'd be looking for a smaller BC or small Aussie. I prefer to have an equal male/female ratio but it's much easier to do male/male if you get the newcomer as a pup, not an adult. Just the other day i met a very very small BC female at the park, her drive/energy/work willingness was so much greater than Seamus I was floored! JRs are nice dogs but I wouldn't recommend one to a home with small children. But that depends on just how small the children are and how they interact with dogs.

Were south Florida... Davie. Around Ft. Lauderdale area. I didn't think anything would be very close (less than an hour.) Odessa is about 4 hours out from us. Ah. We need to move

Hi all- Just wondering where I can get any sort of herding practice or direction in Florida. Google doesn't help much... Seamus' old home had said he showed great interest in sheep when they went to trials in KY. Any help appreciated. Thanks! He's also off of bed rest from HW and is slowly getting back to normal

Seamus is classically marked and i don't know who COULDN'T identify him as anything other than a Border Collie... Even with his extra weight. The other day at the park: Random person: Oh hey look at that! There's one of those australians with a tail! Myself: Seamus is actually a Border Collie. Random person: Is that what they call the australians with a tail? Myself: No, he's a Border Collie. Different breed entirely. Random person: Oh yeah? Whhaatt??

I can actually help out a LOT here! Huskies are born to pull. So to break this when i needed them to walk like civilized animals was important! Here are a few things that we did: I bought prongs at first, but the dogs would only not pull when the prong was on. If they weren't wearing it, i didn't matter. And i didn't want to use it as a crutch forever. So i gave it the boot. Prongs should only be used intermittently for training (in my opinion) they shouldn't be used as permanent walking fixtures. I began to teach the dogs to get into the heel position (seated at my left side looking at me) and added a word cue (used the German equivalent: Fuss) you can use whatever you'd like, that doesn't really matter. Once they were in position i would begin to walk, if they would break or begin to pull i would verbally correct, if they didn't respond i would stop and give them the command (Fuss). If they didn't listen i would take a step back and repeat. I kept walking backwards until they got it. Praise. Walk again. The first walks took some time. But they begin to become very irritated that the only direction they're going is backwards! I now just use choke collars to walk them but it's rare that i ever need them. You have to be consistent. That's really the key to anything!