Emelie M

Thank you all. We have had a little break now because of the cold weather and snow. But today we began our training again. Almost no commands at all (just some smaller vocal corrections when he became a bit insecure with the situation. You'll see it in the short movie when he tend to run a little to fast sometimes towards the sheep), He was "on his feet" almost all the time. (didn't want to command him at all, just walking around the sheeps without any high demands, just wanted to see what he would do if I didn't do anything to help him. Very intresting) One of the sheep was on a bad mood today. But altough she tended to challenge Yim a bit, I think he solved it pretty nice. Still, it's only his 8th time on sheep, and he thought this was very HARD. (I could see that in his eyes) *very proud owner* He was a bit tired when we recorded the clips in the short movie. (recorded at the end of our training) I have a lot of help from my friend. We are both novice though. Hope to contact another coach too, with perhaps a little more experience. Just to get another ones point of view. But im very very pleased to just be training with my friend too.

Just have to say - im not against crates at all. My dogs love their crates, and I see a lot of good things in it. The laws were written when people had their dogs in the crates day in and day out.. Some people was abusing crates, ruining it for the rest of us. I guess. So now we can't use crates. Even if we have a dog that's tearing down the house. They just say: get someone to take care of your dog while you are gone.

We can only have our dogs in crates in the car , and when we are on competitions. (but then they have to go out every second hour if i remember it correctly) And when I meant crate I meant "with a floor, walls and a roof". Like a smaller crate that you have in a car. If you need to have a crate in your house, the "animal police" recommend you to take away the door. (with means, its impossible to "keep" the dog in it) You may seperate rooms with gates, but even then (if you would get unexpected visits from the "animal police" (I dont know how to translate it into english) they will get suspicious and questioning (actually happened a friend of mine when the inspector came for a visit when he saw she had some compost grids leaning by a wall). You may of course have a kennel. But have to check the dogs every 5th hour. (its a law that says that we can only leave our dogs alone for a maximum 5 hours = very hard for many people to get or keep a dog if you want to follow the law) So... well... I grew up with all of these laws. So it's not so wierd to me. But I am usually training my pups right from the start to feel comfy in a crate. Just because we travel a lot and so on. We do most of that training when we are on competitions or at the training areas. We havn't had a natural disaster for.. I don't know. (Never?) We have had a cold winter, a smaller storm, but not a big disaster. Yet. Think the laws probably have to change if it's necessary.

it is illegal here in Sweden to keep your dog in a crate. Even for just a minute. So no, I never leave my dogs in crates. I never had to, and I never will. (I hope) Perhaps I'm just lucky. But my dogs (Border collie and shelties) have never chewed on furniture. Thank god for that.

(sorry for my bad english) First of all a little presentation about us. My name is Emelie, im 19 years old, and Yim is my first border collie. Hopefully he will be able to work on my aunts sheepfarm in the future. (they are in a desperate need of a herding dog - but they don't have the time or knowledge to have one. They have about 100 sheeps today on the farm) Me and Yim have began our training, and I think Yim is doing great. But I don't know what it should look like in his age. Whats good - less good, and so on. (many people have told me he don't have that much "eye" - but I find him very easy to work with anyways.) Many people have also told me a merle dog can't work, that I should get another border collie with another colour instead. (I didn't know this before I bought him) I don't know, perhaps that's true. But I find it hard to believe that ALL merles can't work. Yim: reg. ISDS. Hipscore: A-A (free) Elbows: 0 (free) Patellaluxtion free 0/0 DNA normal for TNS DNA normal for CL Eyetest (2012): clear I would love to get some training tips. This is our 7th time on sheep.