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Rigby

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  1. I say keep doing what you're doing. That schedule sounds great. You're at a difficult time but things will start getting easier soon. I think it's fine to give him more yard time as long as this is safe and he'll not get into trouble, or move his crate to somewhere he'll be less of a distraction. Keep practicing him settling near you as you work though, he'll figure it out, and having my dog walk into the room and relax at my feet as soon as I sit at my desk warms my heart. It took time but she figured it out. Also see if you can't find a pattern to his naughty days. Is he better in the morning if you exercise him without playing fetch for example? This is true of my dog. She'll sleep a few hours immediately after a walk but takes about an hour to settle if she plays fetch in that hour she just paces around, bring us toys, harasses the cats etc. I'm not saying that's the case for your dog, but, it's worth paying attention to. You can also look into things like food dispensing toys and puzzles you could set up for him in his crate. I think he'll be fine without them, but, it's easier for me to crate my dog for a while, just for my own sanity if I can give her a frozen kong or something and she's excited to go in because she wants one of her crate only treats.
  2. Do they wrestle? Looks and sounds like slobber/dust.
  3. In my experience dogs that work cattle have lower natural bite inhibition. That's not at all to say they're all going to bite someone, and that bite inhibition cannot be taught and learned. But, I would be more cautious turning a dog from working cattles lines into a pet than a dog that works ducks successfully for example. I recently heard Australian Cattle Dogs described as Redneck Malinois and while it's definitely a joke, it's not without a little truth. While BC and ACD are different dogs for sure, what they have in common is that it takes a very confident dog to move stock, especially range cattle. Any dog from working lines will of course benefit from having a job that teaches him his human family are teammates in that work.
  4. Here's an unusual idea... Any small scale lamb producers local to you? I'd look that up and if you find one, reach out, ask if they have a collie they like, ask where they got it Local to me the folks with sheep are, or know, the people with the nicest dogs and if you reach out the right way (polite, not overly wordy, maybe when you're buying some meat? Maybe even wait until the second or third time you've bought some lamb ... ) They'll probably be happy to point you in the right direction, and may even know of a nice dog not cut out for the work that's looking for a happy home or let you know they're planning on breeding their dog in the future. The other thing you can try is looking up local sheep dog trail scores from previous years and then follow the handler/kennel names looking for dogs. This is actually how I found the person I did herding lessons with. I found a list of who was at a sheep dog trial, googled their names until I found someone with a website with an email, sent them an email asking if they offered lessons, and ended up with a new sport, a new friend... And wanting a dang kelpie (haha maybe someday, but not too soon...)
  5. I have a BC mix with hind dews. She's going to be two this year and so far they haven't been a problem. They are firmly attached and sit close to the leg so I'm not too worried about them, only downside of them really is how fast the darn nail seems to grow. I cut them at least weekly, the rest of her nails only get cut about every month or two depending on where we've been walking. I have zero plans to remove them unless they become injured.
  6. I wonder if it would help if you behaved a little less predictably occasionally. I don't mean act like a child all the time but I wonder if it would desensitize the dog a bit if you just shrieked now and then and then told the dogs they were good dogs. Ran past them and praised them for being calm. Waved your hands wildly around. Do a silly little dance. Making this all good fun of course while still having clear expectations of the behavior you want to see when the children do it. If you don't have kids around it seems to me you just have to be the kid however you can?
  7. It depends entirely on the dog, one of my dogs prefers clippers and one prefers the dremel. Either way though putting some real time and energy into conditioning a dog with cooperative care techniques will pay off for the rest of the life of a dog. I like to use food reward to desensitize and counter condition a dog to actually enjoy a nail trim. Step one would be to show the dog the nail clippers or grinder, and then give the dog a treat. Moving slowly over time (might take a few moments a day for a few weeks) You're not rewarding the dog for any specific behavior initially. Nail clippers or grinder makes treats appear. To avoid rewarding behavior you don't want the dog to exhibit you must not allow it to start by not pushing the dog. I really like to use the bucket game for this. If my dog is looking at the bucket I can trim her nails. If she isn't, I wait or stop for the day. She wants the engagement with me and the food reward and so almost always she's happy to participate. Oops forgot to link the bucket game http://www.allpetseducationandtraining.com.au/the-bucket-game.html
  8. Female, rough coat always. I kinda want a different color/markings each time, this is mostly a joke but I'd like to keep it going for fun if it works out. First was black and white with lots and lots of ticking. Currently have a black and white who's mostly white. Would love a tri or a merle for my next dog, but also want to rescue a dog that fits well with me and my household and that's of course priority over coat color. But female rough coat is a must have. Oh, perky ears might also be a requirement for me... I didn't realize until this pups ears didn't stand that I really really prefer a pricked ear.
  9. Just something for you to consider is that a dog may bark a fair bit in this outdoor pen. If it does will that be an issue with neighbors? I'm not saying it's a certainty or an impossible problem to solve, but it can certainly be an extremely challenging situation.
  10. You've gotten some great feed back already. I'll just add to remember to try and only change one of the three Ds at a time (distance, distraction, duration) When I started doing recall with my dog away from the house I started with her right by my side, when she'd look away I'd excitedly say "Winter Come!" And when she looked at me I'd take a big step back and feed her a tasty treat. This takes distance and duration back to zero so you can generalize the behavior around distraction. I also don't use my recall word if I don't think she is going to listen. I want "come" to have a 100 percent success rate so I'll get a young dog dog moving towards me happily, however I have to, before I use my recall. (I might run away, making kissy noises, squek a squeaker) I don't recall a dog that isn't going to come back. And I don't want my recall word to predict me dragging her closer with a long line. I want recall to very cleanly mean get to mom Fast for something Great. Also don't be afraid to really look like a fool when your dog does well. I think when we do a lot of solo training it's easy to be pretty low key but if strangers aren't giving me raised eyebrows I'm not making a big enough fuss over a challenging recall or other new behavior. My dog is almost 2 now and I'll still lose my mind with joy, run around, do all her favorite most exciting things for an occasional excellent response to a cue.
  11. Before buying something for hind end lift assist try out a towel, if you're happy with it there's lots of good options. Belly straps with handles work well for short term brief use, like your situation. Ruffwear makes some very good harnesses if you want to go the fancy route. This would be the Cadillac of lift assist: https://ruffwear.com/collections/dog-harnesses/products/doubleback-harness Another option from ruffwear would be the Webmaster or the Flagline which are still pricey, but more affordable options. Of course lots of companies make very simmilar, more affordable harnesses that wouldn't be as overbuilt for your needs and would likely be fine. These are just the ones I'm most familiar with.
  12. Anal glands is a real possibility. Also with his age I'm wondering if it's the kinda metallic, bloody teething smell you're smelling? I can't stand it. I've never found much to be helpful but it will go away soon.
  13. What have you done with him so far, any obedience classes? Does he know basic obedience commands? What commands does he know and honestly how reliable is he? What training style are you using, for example, do you give corrections with a leash? Are you using treats as rewards? Do you know what motivates him to listen (like food, play, praise or petting?) or what he responds to if you need tell him he's done something wrong? (Examples would be a Verbal "no", leash correction, or the game ending) I want to give you advice but I also want to know where you're starting so I don't wear out my typing fingers unnecessarily :-)
  14. @Mely If you are home and you just need to keep the dog off you/the bed while you recover from surgery I'd probably try just tieing him, with a leash, to a heavy price of furniture in the room you're in. Set him up so he's comfortable. I would not recommend leaving him tied if you are leaving the house but whole you're home it's totally fine and some dogs prefer it to a crate.
  15. If this were my dog I'd consider talking to my regular vet about using medication daily (lower dose Xanax maybe or something else with less side effects for him) to take the edge off a bit while you save up for the behaviorist and continue to practice with the crate on your own. One of the big challenges with turning a crate into a safe space with training or counter conditioning alone is that you put in lots of work all weekend and then mostly undo it all when you leave the dog to be uncomfortable in the crate on Monday. I've seen some success pairing training with medication to reduce the stress of crating or other scary things that must be encountered even while you're struggling with the issue. Some people think a dog can't learn and take meds at the same time but in humans we pair pharmaceutical, behavioral and other therapies quite often with great success. Also, heads up, some of the CBD products don't play nice with seizure meds and cannot be given at the same time. My understanding is that they use the same receptors in the brain and the CBD can block all of them and the seizure meds can't work. This is not an issue if they're given hours apart typically. Also, one more CBD caution, they can have some small amount of THC in CBD product, THC is rough on dogs and may be fatal in high doses, if you're using a treat be cautious that he doesn't get to the whole bag, especially true for your terrier if he's a little guy. A Chihuahua, 5lbs if I remember, may have recently died of THC overdose from CBD treats but it's not totally conclusive. Edit: Just reread and saw you went with CBD oil, that's great, I'm going to leave my comments about the treats I'm case they help you or someone else someday.
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