lrayburn

Very interesting Laura. Thanks for posting. Lisa

I think Donald McCaig was asking a rhetorical question

I run with my dogs. They do tempo and interval runs with me and they aren't allowed to stop and sniff along the way. I usually correct them when they first look like they are going to get distracted. Mine know "leave it" so I tell them leave it and keep moving along. I feel that it's important that he learn that you won't stop just because he did. I realized the other week that mine have learned additional cues from our interval training - "let's go" means we're going to run now, "hurry, hurry" means we're sprinting and "let's walk" is kind of self-explanatory. Also, make sure you don't let him pull during your training runs as it can affect your stride if you run with him a lot. Lisa

Here's a pic of Pheobe (rabbit) trying to initiate play with Ben. Ben was quite new and couldn't figure why the rabbit was touching his foot. Pheobe loved dogs, cats and her pet guinea pig. Pheobe and Cleo (aka "The Cat from Hell") used to play and snuggle on a regular basis. Lisa

Vicki, Is there a particular reason that your mother wants her pup to go through a heat? I've always erred on the side of fixing females before their first heat based on the increased risk of mammary cancer. Just wondering. Lisa

Well my dogs spend their whole lives in the "boonies" so tick control is critical for us year round. One of my dogs and my dogsitter's dog have both been treated for Lyme disease so it is a real threat. That said, I can't say good enough things about the PrevenTick collars which do a great job repelling ticks. I don't remember ever finding an embedded tick while using the collars. Embedded ticks get removed the quick and easy way - I grab as close to the skin as possible and pull it off. Lisa

The frustrating thing is that I am at a community college so I seem to either get the ones that weren't ambitious enough to go to a four-year college or they went, partied too much, dropped out and wound up back at home. YAY! They also don't understand why I expect proper grammar and writing structure in my classes because my classes are horticulture classes not English classes . Bcnewe2, Many of my students are very smart but totally lacking a work ethic and unmotivated. I'm not surprised by that girl's sentiments at all unfortunately. Lisa

Oddly enough, I will fail a human pupil in a heartbeat (much to my boss's chagrin) but no puppy is ever left behind in one of my dog classes Each puppy simply progresses at his own speed (or more accurately, at his and his person's speed). The humans in my people classes however are expected to progress at my pace. Apparently many of them make it to my classes based on someone socially passing them below though . Of course, my puppies just get a bandana and a box of cookies ~ no diplomas... Lisa

A friend of mine used a grass mat very successfully with his Aussie pup. He cut a piece of real sod and put it in a cut-down cardboard box and put that in the pup's (oversized) crate. He removed any poop daily and changed the entire sod mat every couple of days. There wasn't the same issue that you have with papertraining or pee-pads since the substrate (natural grass) was consistent. I imagine that if your pup is spending significant time alone you might have an issue with boredom and chewing. Good luck with your pup! Lisa

My dogs used to wear their chip collar tag because if they were lost, calling the company would provide more information than just their normal tags. Their normal tags have my name and number but the chip company has multiple numbers for me, my home address and multiple numbers for my backup contact. After the problem with Nellie's chip tag, I took them off. Lisa

As I said, I have my dogs scanned whenever I can think of it (annual checkups, animal shelter/rescue events) just to make sure the chip is in the same position and still working. I had one shelter worker tell me that Pip Squeak wasn't chipped and didn't find the chip until I said, "Oh yes she is" and they scanned her a second time and more thoroughly. I don't count on the fact that my dog would be scanned if lost or that, if scanned, the chip would be found but they are all chipped and collar tagged in an effort to cover all my bases. Lisa

Yes but if you have a dog that was chipped by AKC/CAR before the split in 2005 and have your original tags, someone calling the tag number will be told that there is no record of your animal in their database. As I have expressed in an old thread, I think it is only appropriate for people to be referred to the registry that was split off rather than told that there is no record of that animal. I have two animals chipped with AKC/CAR chips before the registry split and despite up-to-date contact information was never sent updated tags. I wasn't sent updated tags after Nellie was lost either despite requesting them. I realize that it is not AKC/CARs responsibility to update my tags at this point since we should be listed under the other registry (who I did request updated tags from) but if they cared about animals being returned to their owners, they should refer callers to the new registry and not just act as though these chip numbers belong to people who never bothered to register their animals or update their information ~ especially since that is the organization that the animals were originally chipped and registered with. Right now, I rely on my personal ID tags and hope that the chips, if scanned, will still be sorted out through the correct registry. So my situation is different than the OPs but I feel that the AKCs behavior during this process indicates a higher concern for money than actually reuniting owners and their lost pets. I'm glad this thread was posted becaused it has encouraged me to look into this situation again and make sure that my chip information will indeed get my dog and cat back home to me. Also, I make sure that my dogs are scanned each year at their annual checkup to make sure their chips are still readable. Just something people need to think about ~ chips may not last the life of the animal. Nellie's chip is 6 or 7 years old now. Lisa Lisa

Nellie got lost (she ran in a thunderstorm early one morning) and the people who found her called the yellow tag from CAR/HomeAgain. They were told that the database had no record of her number. Luckily she had her regular collar tags as well (she got lost on the OBX so people assumed she belonged to a tourist visiting the area) and when they called my cell number I was able to go get her. I still don't know what would have happened if she had lost her collar and had the chip scanned. When I called the CAR number on her tags, they said that they had sent out new tags after the change but I never got one. Thanks for the reminder though because Nellie and one of my cats have the old chips and I need to check into getting them updated. Lisa

Okay, I'll admit that I skipped a lot of the posts but here are my two quick thoughts. The first is that maybe Ebby's quirkiness was not so obvious when it was just you and your dogs. Secondly, you may be more stressed overall (yes great things have happened but change is hard either way and there are more people/dogs in the mix now) and you are focusing that stress on Ebby. I have two dogs that can be difficult for different reasons. I find myself getting frustrated with them when I'm already stressed by other things and their routine starts to break down and their behavior gets more difficult to deal with. Both of them are very easy dogs when they are alone but the more people/dogs in the mix, the more difficult both of them become. Sometimes when I'm in a situation where I compare them to easier dogs, I get more frustrated with them. When it is just us, I rarely do just because I don't think about it. One thing that has helped for me is realizing that I have made progress with both dogs but I am never going to *fix* either one and that is okay. The other is trying to maintain a routine. For my Ben, exercise is important. For Nellie, a little alone playtime is what she needs. For Ebby, you might try thinking about more physical exercise (structured in a way that she can tolerate it of course) and enrichment activities to keep her mind working. My Pip is very physically needy similar to how you described Ebby and I have done a couple of things to change our dynamic. You might try removing attention when she gets overly excited (I know you are sending her away but you might try getting up and moving away from her instead ~ teaches a slightly different lesson) and also rewarding her with attention and petting when she moves away from you. Send her away and then go to her and reward her with attention. Good luck working this out. Lisa

It's hiding under the title "Beginner Agility Questions". Just make sure you aren't drinking your coffee while you read it. I laughed out loud.