caykuu

Oh yeah, Biola University is the one! I'm just now currently having some personal issues though that I'm at least not disclosing on this forum, so I don't know if I will end up going... but if I do, it will be to watch you all be cool. And to talk to Ballaholics.

Thanks much guys! ;__; She is definitely amazingly fun... she catches on to brand new commands in under 3 clicks of the clicker from the start. It's awesome. Oh hey! I'll be going to watch the tournament in La Mirada next weekend on Sunday... just to meet and talk to the flyball team that I'll be joining, Ballaholics. If you're also going to be there to race, I'll be watching. Oh yeah, I'm definitely not playing with the flirt pole 24/7. I realized that she actually has a very nice off-switch indoors and will instantaneously fall asleep in 5 seconds when lying down. 0 to 200 in a second though, LOL. Keeping the calm indoors in mind. I'm SUPER delighted!! She is the exact temperament that I've been looking for in a rescue dog. I discovered that she becomes very territorial when in this city-life environment (she comes from a ranch foster home in some quiet hills with little to no traffic), but it's not something that I mind in comparison to the rest of her. Just that the foster mom was misinformed/not aware of how she would react in this setting. Both my Aussies are also territorial, more or less. But other than that quirk, she is super perfect.

Yes... Yas yas yas! This. Girl. Came. Home. With. Me. Renamed to Signal!! She is definitely not a dainty little Belle... ahah. Longer-story-short: she is LITERALLY INSANE HAHAH, ball-driven, endless energy and never tiring, outgoing with people and dogs, literally learned 3 brand new commands on the car ride home in like 20 minutes, learned 2 new commands at my apartment in 10 minutes, crazy in every way and I LOVE IT ALL SO MUCH ALREADY. I currently lost my clicker, so I didn't even use that. She is literally insane. And agile as hell. She literally automatically goes NUTS over the flirt pole and can do actual backflips. I have never had a dog who can naturally do backflips. PERFECT Border Collie. I am cheering. slkdfjskldfklsdfjklsd Pretend I am totally normal and didn't use a bunch of caps lock and keyboard slamming in happiness just now. Also, last night I caught her nodding off. She was just lying there with her head up, when I noticed her head falling? And she would SNAP up again all like "Yeah no I am totally awake and totally border collie, not sleepy at all nope nope obviously--" *head falls again* I have never witnessed a dog nodding off before and this is 100% hilarious. I also discovered that she is also 100% not housebroken, but we will be working on that ahaaah.

The first two are exactly what happened to me. I admit that I'm an emotional wussy and cried the first time it happened- I had everything planned out with my adoption counselor to go and pick up the dog the following weekend... and then, wowie zowie, someone adopted him through another adoption counselor. The crappy thing is that she did not let me know that he was already gone, while I was waiting around for my scheduled adoption date. I agree, I was surprised at how unprofessional the ones I tried were. Man... I had so many attempts with so many rescues and shelters, actually, where something went wrong one way or the other. I'm going to stay skeptical even about this BC now until she actually gets on the car with me this time. But good good, glad to know that you guys worked out for the better!! It's what we deserve around here! And funny how you say that you weren't expecting to do flyball and agility haha... and now you're here on this forum being cool beans.

Thanks, you guys! I really hope I am not the unluckiest person in the universe and that my luck can just hold out for a couple days more... Oh congrats! I never realized rescues can be so complex and difficult to get an adoption to go through until now- plus my bad luck. From the sounds of it, she should be exactly what I am looking for! HAHA laughs a little and then runs to her foster home to pick her up ASAP. XD Oh man, Bodhi sounds like a ton of fun... water-loving dogs to me = 1000% fun. But the docks eh? I wonder if this girl is brave enough to fly off docks.

I've been having dog adoption bad luck for the past few months. I've been stalking almost every day for a flyball/agility dog in various rescues, applied to many. Something always goes wrong during the adoption process that is out of my control (dog was adopted before my adoption date was scheduled, dog suddenly not available, I've been approved but rescue suddenly stops replying to my emails, etc). It's been getting really frustrating and I did believe that I was cursed, but I think my luck might be finally turning around. 8__8 What is fate. I filled out an app for a BC rescue a couple days ago, and now the BC meet and greet/adoption date is scheduled for this Saturday for this awesome girl! She just turned 1 year old. I am literally stoked. Still keeping my skepticism, just in case I am literally cursed and something goes wrong again. But everything the foster mom described of her is exactly the temperament and ball drive that I have been looking for. ;__; She even likes playing in water, which is just a plus after the long list of pluses. Dock diving too? This is her! She actually was not even listed on their site yet, because the foster mom just had her for a week. She had me contact her directly after getting my application for a flyball and agility potential, loves small~large dogs, not territorial, outgoing with people, and of course... extremely intelligent and fast at picking up commands, as BC are. Pray pray pray pray nothing goes wrong before I go to pick her up on Saturday. It'll be a 4 hour drive. I'll keep my reservations about my terrible luck and won't cheer until she is literally ON MY CAR and on the way home with me. Crosses my fingers, crosses my toes, crosses my eyes and hair and arms and legs. I'm just making this thread in the agility and flyball section, because that's what I aim to play with her, if I am able to adopt her... hope that's not too weird. x__x And if my luck isn't 100% absolutely freakishly terrible, and something goes wrong before Saturday/on the day of the adoption... knock on wood.

I'd trust a reputable breeder's assessment of pups to an extent, but still with a grain of salt. Puppies at that age in general are a crapshoot, and their temperaments can change very drastically as they grow, depending on the dog. You may luck out or you may not- even the most knowledgable, experienced, and careful breeder may have a 7 week old pup who seems like one thing and then develop into something completely different. Since someone mentioned confidence appearing at 8 weeks old, I'd still say that it is one of those things to take with a grain of salt. As an example, Lancer at 8 weeks~12 weeks was the most unflappable, confident, testing, and slightly overbearing dog who would willingly fling himself into play with large dogs, scolding did not phase him one bit, and very focused- learned all his basic commands at 8 weeks old. I had him completely planned out for competition in agility and flyball. He was the most pushy and forward and largest pup in his litter, and "looked like" he would be one of those intense star dogs. Turns out that after his teen years (where he became extremely fearful of absolutely everything and had severe fear-aggression issues due to one negative experience), he is now an adult who is very submissive, cautious, paranoid, not confident in himself at all in terms of socializing and entering a new environment or meeting new things. His ability to bounce back from negative experience is next to nothing, but I put genetics at fault for that. His "traumatic experience" was frightening, in a way- crazy neighborhood Airedale barked her head off at him- but not something that a puppy/dog with seemingly strong nerves genetically could not overcome. But still very focused on work he enjoys. That's one thing that stuck.

So... I'm breaking all the rules and butting in my breed (Aussie) with BC tendencies. Lancer is also COMPLETELY NUTS for tennis balls, vain (mirror staring dog.. sigh), has an odd lengthy attention span to the TV (he can watch entire movies with me and gets all emotional and distraught if there is a sick/dying dog in it), and desperately chews up big rocks on walks.

Im probably not using a popular method, but this is what always worked for me. Even when puppy isnt intending to nip, if teeth somehow come in contact with skin, I literally yell "NO", fling my hand away from puppy, stand straight up, and tower over puppy with the most exaggerated expression and body language you could manage. Dont forget to look like the angriest, scariest thing ever (seriously, just fake it!) Then leave the room out of puppy's sight... for a minute or two. Puppy learns that nipping is both shocking and leads to no fun. Even the most stubborn puppies quickly learn that this nipping thing is the biggest deal in the world, even more than laying poo eggs on carpet. LOL. In addition, try to set the puppy up for success to begin with: when you see a possible nipping coming along, just stand up and walk away for a bit to let puppy calm down. Probably silly-sounding... and a little overwhelming for puppy, but thats pretty much the gist of it. Dont feel let down over this though- like everyone said, there is no deadline. It is all the individual dog.

Laurelin! I know you from another forum and I didnt realize youve adopted Hank so recently! This is kind of half a month late, but very informative thread too. Hank sounds so fabulous. You seem to have struck gold. Cant wait to see what you guys can do in agility or flyball. Ive always planned on adopting from either rescue or shelter as well, but GSD mix for sport potential. Though probably still need to wait a couple years. Im so glad it worked out so well for you two.

I'm kinda taking this topic from another forum, but I'm curious what border collie/Aussie owners use! Do you have a collar width or material preference for your dogs? On my 45 lb Lancer, I just use a 1.5" nylon collar that buckles, but I've been wanting to switch to traditional leather, maybe to 2" width.

Thank you very much for the replies guys! I think I will go that approach- finding and taking with an instructor who has experience with fear-aggressive dogs, and going to watch a class first. I understand your point that the general population sees these dogs as naughty, and it's alright. It's true, but I don't take offense or anything. I know my dog and his fears and issues and that's that. And if there is an instructor who hints that my dog is "naughty", I will know that they are not experienced enough. I'm also 99% sure that Lancer would do physical damage to the other dog, from the way he acted when put way over his threshold (I had no experience with how to protect him from situations, when this happened...). The experience happened when he was around 6 months old and he's now almost 16 months, but since he's only learned to "ignore" other dogs while on walks, I would assume that when faced with another dog a couple feet from him, he would act the same way. Thanks again for the information! It's a big help.

Thank you for the reply! Yes, Lancer is actually fear-aggressive. I won't go too much into the details, but he is a dog that lunges, snarls, and foams at the mouth AT the object of his fear in an effort to attack, if he is put in a situation that goes over his threshold. My other dog, Rara, is like Meg, was just fearfully reactive in a terrified, backing-away-while-yelping way, and very nervous. I completed an agility class with Rara last summer, and like you, we kept our distance and eventually let her sniff the calm dogs. She's recovered significantly now, but still easily reverts back into her fearful whimpering/screaming mentality if she happens upon another reactive dog. But she also easily reverts back into "I'm okay and other dogs are okay" mode, after meeting a few calm dogs. Yes, my question is with Lancer, with fear-aggression. I'm not sure where to find a behaviorist, but he has worked with three trainers whose methods just didn't help him. (I expanded on this on my blog here, probably too long to post here: http://lancerandrara.blogspot.com/2014/01/fear-aggression-turned-aggression.html ) I ended up discovering the way that ultimately got his reactivity on walks and at parks down, but I know a sports/class environment will definitely put him over his threshold at the moment. But my question here is wondering if anyone has experience with helping a previously fear-aggressive dog to be able to eventually participate in sports, and how?

Lancer, my 15 month old Aussie, became fear-aggressive towards dogs when he was around 4 months old. I've taken him to herding classes, which he took to very quickly, but avoided agility due to the close proximity with other dogs during waiting times. That's to say, the herding class I went to only had 2 other very calm dogs that were present at the same time he was, so he was able to calm down. But if any dog barks in such close proximity (not necessarily at him, but just hearing a bark form nearby), it would cause him to freak. I've been working with him on this issue for the past couple months, and he's actually improved drastically... when on walks or at the park. But I doubt he would be okay in an agility/excited class environment. Does anyone have or know a fear-aggressive dog trained well enough to compete in agility? How was the issue overcome?

Funnily enough, I have two "Mini Aussies" myself. They're from different "kinds" of breeding of Mini Aussies, but hear me out first before I get bashed somehow. One, I agree that the whole Mini Aussie rage going on now has ignited a whole other category of BYB fodder, and the fact that AKC actually recognized them as a breed during this critical time doesn't help at all. Mini Aussies originally ARE an obvious mix of various smaller breeds with the Australian Shepherd. The creator of the breed's first Mini Aussie (I didn't try finding the photo yet, but I've seen it somewhere online in the past) had that poofy pomeranian fur, big papillon ears that bent, and looked pretty hilarious. My female MAS, Rara, is most likely a byproduct of the whole small breed mixing. She's the black tri in my avatar, 13" tall at the shoulder. The herding drive is all but bred out of her (we instinct tested, and she just ran back to me), except for on humans, and she has poor health (explained a bit on my blog), obviously as a result from poor breeding... Unfortunately, I brought her home when I was still a naive high schooler (actually just a few years ago) and basically before I was informed about the issues and kinks of the dog breeding world. My other "Mini Aussie", Lancer, is a product of purely breeding smaller sized standard Aussies together. It's funny, because his parents are both 25~30 lbs, and Lancer is now 15 months old and weighs over 40 lbs, no health problems yet. He was a random breeding between an actively herding farm dog (not just for the sport, but on a farm... wow for me, living in a suburban area) and a pet. He happened upon the standard Aussie size genes still hiding in his parents somewhere, since there was never any papillon/pomeranian/spaniel added to his lines. His temperament, working AND herding drive is incredibly strong and "to standard" (I'm sorry for being very vague here), though his parents were technically attempting being bred toward MAS... so I just call him a standard Aussie now. People get confused when if call him a "Mini Aussie" now. LOL! I actually haven't read through every post in this topic yet, but I felt like I should add some input for now! Also, is there actually a mini Border Collie thing going on now (Uh.. god forbid...)? Or are we just speculating the possibility of it cropping up sometime in the near future because of the Mini Aussies?