mrenee

A lot of dogs aren't whining for any particular reason, they are just vocal dogs. It doesn't sounds like there's a problem that is making him whine, just that he likes to do it. Since he's not doing it for attention ignoring him isn't going to extinguish the behavior. The only think I can think of is to teach him to speak on command, then you can teach him to "shush" on command. Instead of teaching him to bark maybe you can teach him to whine and praise him for it, then reward him with a treat or another high value reward when he's quiet and he learns being quiet is more rewarding than being vocal.

My grandpa uses, "Tell me about it" to get his lab to speak, I've always loved that one. I've always like "with me" instead of "heel" My friend's dog does this really cute thing where he'll just walk up to you and lay his head on your knee. We are working on adding "Awww" for the cue word for that behavior. I want to to my dog to do pay at his face when I say "Aw, shucks" like he's embarrassed. You could also use cue words in a different language. I know some French so I've considered that. I've considered using opposite commands for my dog, like "sit" for come and "come" for down. just so if I'm at the dog park or somewhere in public it would look like my dog was not listening to me at all and confuse people when I praise him. But then I'm afraid I might confuse myself, haha!

I would say green, like a dark hunter green.

I don't think Fly is a girl name, I know numerous male dogs named Fly. I also really like the name Koda. I never really pay attention to the syllables. I typically like names that are from books. I'm getting a pup in August and my number 1 name right now is Rochester, from Jane Eyre. Some other ones I've thought about: Skylar Aidan Tristan Asher Loki Ajax Dodger Huan Fable Nova

So, is this suggesting that dogs might not need any vaccinations past their last ones at 14- 16 weeks?

I didn't know that about Puppy food and All Life Stages food, thank you. And I like the idea (and word) of switching around airtights. My family's dog lived on Ol'Roy, all of our leftover table scraps, and whatever they hunted out of the woods (mostly rabbits). They lived happy, healthy lives. So I know dogs don't have to have super premium diets. I do wonder if the variety they had helped them with their health. I want to give my dog the best I can on my budget. And switching around foods doesn't seem unnecessarily complicated for me. I like to research different brands and then test them and then I'll see what my dogs likes and does best with. I also think it will be better for my budget which is going to be a concern for me.

Also, do you all start your puppies on puppy food or use a food that is for all life stages?

Gideon's girl, I'm the same as I am on here, mrenee Seeing what's on sale is an awesome idea. I have quite a few stores that are reasonably priced here in Lexington, so I'll be able to shop around. I'm excited now to start shopping around and seeing what brands and flavors I want to try instead of narrowing it down to one. I keep trying to find stuff to do in preparation for my puppy so I don't just dwell on the fact that I want him right now! haha. TEC, when you say airtights what do you mean? So besides wag.com are there any other good (as in cheap) dog food sites? And if you all have any other brand recommendations, please let me know.

I would recommend both of you read the book "For the Love of a Dog" by Patricia McConnell, it doesn't deal exclusively with grief in dogs but that is included. In it she tells story of how her BC, Lassie, reacted when her father Luke died. It's a very interesting read and it might give you some insight into what your dogs are dealing with and how to handle it. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dog-Understanding-Emotion-Friend/dp/0345477154

Thanks for the input, guys. The more I hear about it the more I like the idea of rotating food. prairegirl, that's good to know. I've heard good things about it and I work at a boarding/day care place that sells it so I can get it pretty cheap with my employee discount so I really hope my dog likes it, haha. Gideon's girl, are you by chance "Gideon's mom" on the All Border Collie Forum? If so it was actually one of your posts on there that got me thinking about the rotating food idea. Like you said, no kibble is perfect. Also if I rotated I would be able to add in some more expensive brands that I wouldn't be able to afford if I solely fed that. For instance, I love the idea of Brother's Complete, but there's no way I would be able feed it all the time. And if there was a recall or something like that I could remove that food and switch my dog to something else with no problem. Do you all switch back and forth between grain free food as well or do you stick with one or the other?

Hello everyone, I'm getting a puppy in August and I'm trying to decide what to feed him. I know he won't be on a raw food diet because I plan to train him to be a therapy dog and the organizations in my area don't allow dogs who are raw fed to be therapy dogs because of the risk of salmonella. I think I've narrowed it down to Nutrisource and Fromms both easily available to me and inside my budget (which is pretty minimal, my dog will probably be eating better than me, haha). After scouring tons of old topics on here I noticed that a couple of people (couldn't manage to find who exactly, sorry) have mentioned they rotate their dogs foods. I was wondering how you accomplish this? Do you stay with the same brand of kibble and switch flavors? Or do you switch brands? I also wondered if you feed solely one type of food and after that bad is gone switch to the next one or slowly switch over (i.e 1/4 of Kibble 2 and 3/4 of Kibble 1) etc. Thanks in advanced. Can't wait until my little guy gets here.

I've noticed that for whatever reason a lot of people mix up blue heeler and catahoula mixes, maybe because catahoulas aren't as well known as heelers. If the mom is said to be a heeler mix it could be she's actually a catahoula mix. And also, are you certain the dad is a tri color BC? If this is the result of an accidental breeding it could be there is more than one father to the litter. Regardless of what breed they are they are adorable puppies, I'm very jealous, I can't wait to get my puppy.

This was my first thought, too.

So cute! They are both adorable. I'm sure you'll have tons of fun with him. I'm getting a puppy in August and I can't wait for him to get here!

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/travel/practical-traveler-when-dogs-must-fly.html Here's a good article about flying dog. Check the regulations of the particular airline you are flying with. I would not under any circumstances trust the information you received from the person you made your reservation with. I have never heard of an airline that will fly a dog under 8 weeks and you must have the health certificate to fly them and that will have her age on it. My advice would be to either drive and bring the puppy home in a vehicle or wait until the puppy is 8 weeks old and then you won't have to risk getting caught disobeying regulations trying to fly her home. The breeder shouldn't care to wait a week for you to pick up the puppy since 8 weeks is the optimal time for a puppy to leave its mom.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I totally didn't even think about Jack Russells beings bred for varmit hunting. I should've thought of that. Granted we don't know that he's part JR, but that's our best guess. I've included a picture of him, what do you all think? They'll be in a two bedroom apartment so it definitely won't be a problem to keep them completely separated. Also JG never lets Fiona out in her room if she's not there. They were just looking for some ideas to teach Grover to ignore Fiona so he won't be so obsessed with getting into the room. I will give them the ideas of teaching JG's room to be off limits and and work on impulse control and 'leave it'. Also the idea of putting the cage up high is really good idea so if he were to get in her wouldn't scare Fiona too much. Again, thanks for all of the input.

Hello, A couple of my friends (MC and JG) are roommates and they are looking to figure out how to teach their dog and rabbit to get along with each other. The dog is names Grover and around a year old and best guess is a Border Collie/Jack Russel mix. He was a stray that showed up in MC's mom's neighborhood and MC took him in. For a stray he is remarkably well-mannered in the apartment and on walks. He gets along great will all other types of dogs, I'm not sure about cats. JG has a rabbit that doesn't live full-time with them now, but will in the fall. Currently when Fiona (the rabbit) comes to stay Grover constantly tries to get into JG's room and will do his best to squeeze in anytime someone opens the door. They've not tried introducing them yet (and I've not seen the behavior myself) so they don't know if he's just really stimulated by Fiona or if he would possibly harm her. He is also highly distracted by rabbits he sees on walks and it could be possible that he had to hunt rabbits while he was a stray, there's no way of knowing. Basically they want a way to manage the situation. JG and MC aren't ever going to leave them together and unsupervised. They just basically want Grover to ignore Fiona so he's not constantly trying to get to her. Before this came up I had been working with Grover on basic obedience and self-control exercises (sit-stays mostly). Mostly, I just wanted to pick your all's brains and see if you have similar experiences in introducing BC's or any dog to small family pets like cats and rabbits. I want to figure out a safe way to introduce them and I was thinking about working on a LAT or even leave it command for Grover so he wouldn't bother Fiona.

Does he have really good sit-stays and/or down-stays? If he is acting impulsively working with him on those and making them really difficult (i.e. 15 min out of sight sit-stays) could help him increase his self control and maybe start thinking before he acts.

Just from your post it almost sounds like there's something up with his depth perception or something similar. Maybe he doesn't realize how high these things actually are? Have you ever had his vision checked? Like waffles mentioned, all of these things are extremely dangerous, but not things that a dog would inherently know were dangerous. Almost sounds like he just gets excited and/or anxious and acts impulsively instead of thinking about what he's doing. I definitely don't think it's suicidal, though it is strange. If you don't think it's health related I would definitely look into a behaviorist. You shouldn't have to be referred to one by a vet. It could be that be behaviors are anxiety driven. Or it could even be that you're inadvertently reinforcing these behaviors (i.e. giving him more attention when he does things like that). I think it would help to have someone with an outsiders perspective come and see his behavior. Granted, I'm not an expert or professional in dog behavior or anything (though in a couple of years I will be, =) ) this is just what I take from reading about the behaviors.

My friend's Boxers, Jake and Duke (the two best boxers in the whole world) aren't allowed on the bed when Stanley (her bf) is home. Even if Stanley isn't there you cannot get Duke (the older of the two) to get on any bed under his own volition. However, Jake will hop up if invited and when I spend the night he always sleeps with me in the bed downstairs whether Stanley is home or not.

I live in Lexington and I am so excited to go to the Bluegrass Classic. I've never been to a trail before. I've heard it's amazing and I can't wait to see one. If any of you all are coming to Lexington and need recommendations on where to stay or what to do besides the trial just let me know. =) P.S. if any of you that want to spectate bring your dogs to Lexington and need a place to board them/want them to hang out in daycare for a day look into Uptown Hounds (it's where I work, haha) Also, Sue for some reason the links in your post aren't showing up for me. If that's the care for others here is the full website: http://www.bluegrassclassicsdt.com/

I don't know about training but I had a BC mix who ran free on our property and he taught himself to hunt rabbits, he would go up in the hills for a few minutes and come back down with a rabbit and eat it (guess we didn't really have to buy dog food, haha) He would even hunt deer (though he never actually caught one). So I would imagine that it's entirely possible to train one to hunt.

My roommate owns two year-old >5lb Maltese. She got them when they were about 8 weeks old and they have manged to chew up most of her expensive nursing books, pee and poo in every room in the apt numerous times, tear up her carpet and dug a hole in her dry wall. I did mention they were both less than 5lbs, right? I have years of experience training dogs, and I've tried to help her yet she refuses to listen to anything I do, she won't crate them because that's "mean" and the only reason she leaves them in her room when she leaves is because me and our other roommate make her (we don't want to pay for the damage they would manage to do to the living room) One of the also pees anytime someone new comes into the apartment because they never left and met new people the first six months of their life because they were "just puppies" and she didn't want to take them outside. What bothers me is that I can't have a dog because we have a 20lbs limit and I don't think I'll even own a dog less than 40. I can assure you any dog I own will not cause that much trouble or damage anywhere I live. So, after living with my roommate and her puppies (who are supper sweet, and I do love them) I can see why landlords do no want people to own dogs. Yet I think weight limits are ridiculous. Someone with a well trained Doberman or even border collie would not be able to live here. Those two little dogs would give any big dog a run for their money in damage.

I don't think there are any recuses for Border Collies in Kentucky. (Something to add to my future projects list, haha). The problem that I have been running into with many rescues is that they have a blanket "no adopting to people in apartments" rule, and I will be in an apartment. I hadn't heard of many of the rescues you mention, so I will definitely look into them. Thank you. And of course I will be keeping an eye on local shelters when the time gets closer.

Thank you all for your help and stories. I'm definitely open to adopting a young adult dog. I'm leaning more towards a puppy right now, but I'm still quite a few months off from getting one so I'm open to anything. I'm also a huge advocate for adopting, I used to work in a shelter. I will be in the Kentucky/Indiana area. Is anyone else from that area or would know good resources from that area?