deafbat

Poor Boy! I hope everything turns out ok (and that the vet will get back to you sooner, rather than later). In the meantime, e-hugs your way!

oh man! these sound especially fun!! er... i mean interesting. you know, for the sake of science and what have you (and i'm not even little or a boy) nik- glad everything went well.

my fuzzbutt generally starts the night off on my (excuse me, HIS) bed, cuddled with me. he then migrates to the foot of the bed, and then sometime in the middle of the night, he'll either move to the area right in front of the bedroom door or the carpet at the foot of the bed, and then by morning he's back on the bed, generally up against me and trying to take over the pillows, the little monster. gotta love them, though. when i first brought him home from rescue he was relegated to the crate at nights and when i was away until he got potty trained.

oh man. that sucks. my prayers are with you and yours.

Hi Joe Anne- I'm in orange county, CA. All the trainers I listed are in the area (I got them from the socal aussie rescue site). They all say that they train w/ positive reinforcement (which is the same as positive feedback from my understanding?). I guess i'm just looking for specifics on methods and what sort of animals the trainer has experience with (fear aggressive? shelter/rescue? etc)

now that i've finally got solid obedience at home (without distractions), i think it's time that we started going to obedience classes, so that we can practice when there are distractions around. Here's a list of trainers/places i've been looking at in my area. Has anyone heard anything about these people? Laurie Zurborg Vickie Marx Lore Adams (but i think she only does in-home) Patty and Paul Thurner I think i'm most interested in Laurie Zurborg...

how awesome!!! go Solo!! and brava to you as well, Melanie, for all the effort that you've put into him.

not having gotten my bc from a breeder, i couldn't tell you with certainty, but it seems logical to me that the paperwork you would want regarding CEA and HD would be from the vet. Actually, whether you decide to go through a breeder or a rescue (which I strongly encourage btw), you would want to see the vet paperwork anyway, to make sure that whoever you're getting the dog from actually takes care of them. if I'm mistaken about the CEA/HD paperwork, I hope someone can correct me? (as this would be useful information to have in the future)

I think the question being asked was how do you tell the difference if the two very different problems are manifested with the same type of behaviour. or something to that effect

thanks for all the info, everyone. I'm hoping to eventually get into either obedience or agility w/ Ben, so I'm looking into it ahead of time. hopefully, as he gets stronger and healthier he'll become more active and less like the couch potato that he has been for the past couple of months.

When you trial w/ obedience, agility, etc, what associations/societies do you trial at/work with? the only ones I can find are the AKC and the UKC. Are there any others?

Perhaps the reason show people don't understand why the rest of us are frustrated is because we put on the frozen smiles and don't let on that we're insulted...

haha they said the same thing about the barbie collie last night too. Granted, the best of breed border collie was cute...it just doesn't seem to represent the breed(but then, it isn't really a BC by the standards of anyone other than show people). do they even allow working dogs into the show ring? anyone know if there are unspoken rules about that? I mean, it seems to me that all the BCs I've seen (rescues and farm dogs, mainly) are a lot rangier (and much less floofy, even those who are rough-coated) than show collies. How can a floofy dog possibly represent a breed it doesn't even closely resemble? I think I'm beginning to understand the frustration w/ the AKC and other show clubs. I'm probably not even coming close to what you all must experience, but I think I've made a dent in my comprehension.

I'll admit watching it. I wanted to try to figure out how they judge these dogs. so far, i haven't been able to understand how the process works. all I have to say, is these people are all kinds of screwed up. there's just no understanding it. i give up. also...it's amazing to me how vastly different a working collie and a show collie look. I definitely like working collies more The show collies look like Bernese mountain dogs (only smaller). While I like BMDs, they aren't BCs, now are they? Why should they look alike?

LOL! is *that* what that is?? I keep staring at it every time I go to the pet supply store and trying to figure out what purpose it serves. The two dogs I've had in my life were never insanely interested in toys. Ben rarely will touch one, and my old dog Coorain only liked sports balls--he actually taught himself to play catch--so I've never really needed to get creative with toys. Well, well, you learn something new every day.