Richard Bingham

Hi Doris, I shouldn't be saying anything about subjects I don't know a thing about, except that you might find it interesting how our Socs dog has become more agile since he was 8mos. (he's now 18mos.) Particularly the last 6mos., he's jumping higher than ever to catch the frisbee, my son can make him do "spins" for another throw; he's taken to jumping the gates (a couple of times back and forth) before I open them, and likes to climb things to get a better view. He also jumps into my son's arms on command! It may be a while yet before your pup starts to show signs of being an acrobat! It's certainly a lot of fun to see how active and agile these dogs are, "formal setting" or not. I don't know if any of the foregoing has anything to do with agility training, but Socs is certainly agile!

Kaykay, been there, done that! I think a lot of obedience types come from a point of reference of handling rather bone-headed hunting types; at least there were always alot of hunting dogs in basic obedience. Methods that don't psyche those breeds can devastate a sensitive collie, and seconds to Bill's comment about late maturity. This is a real plus, as it's also the root of their boundless energy. I've never had a collie that didn't turn out well . . . . eventually.

Would someone be so kind as to define osteochondritis for me ?

Sounds to me like your dog is "soured" on the agility thing - to correct, you have to guess what it is that lost his interest; how intensively and from what age has he been trained for agility? Is there anything in his health/management/environment that may be distracting?

This probably seems likea non-answer, and I'm no dog-handler, but I've owned dogs all my life, and never had "impossible" problems like these. I'd say that largely the trouble lies with the lack of contact. Our BC (15mos) seemed to want to dig all summer long, but I was always there when he started digging in places I didn't want him digging, and he stopped after only a few tries; if he wants to dig up the ground squirrels that are getting too close to the vegetable garden, that's OK with me - it terrorizes the little varmints, and seems to "steer" them. We also have a Sheltie who would invariably chew my wife's shoes if she was left alone for any length of time. She eventually outgrew this habit, and I think a lot of pups get over their "bad" behavior in time if they have enough direction and positive experience. After all, there is hardly anyone else in the world that is so concerned with pleasing you as your dog!

Steph's Blue: Sounds like your pup is really intense. We have a male pup, 1yr July1, and he behaves similarly. Problem is that people encourage him to jump up: "That's OK, I like dogs" is the usual reply. He comes to work with me in my sign shop, and some people don't like it. I have modest success with simply telling him to come back to me, and not to jump, but visitors are undoing my training. I think that in time, he'll obey me over the encouragement he gets in the wrong direction. As to herding cats, I'd guess maybe your dog doesn't have enough to do. We have a similar problem, in that you can't break your dog's attention when it's herding cats, I have trouble getting "Socs" to come back to me if he's run cross field to check out "something".