mosstheboss2000

If he is still looking for a home let me know we can help network. Thanks Cindy Www.bordercollierescueont.com

I sent them last week, so they should arrive any day!!!

We have limited sets of our 2008 'limited addition' Holiday Cards still available. 10 cards for a $25 donation. All donations this year are going to help Rocco a 10 month old pup in our foster program. We also have a contest for NEXT years card! Pictures accepted till March 2009. Check it out on our site www.bordercollierescueont.com Happy Holidays!

We are all sending our love to you and Nell.... What you did for this dog in the short time you have had her is extrordinary. Thank you Jo.

Jo, I had Simcoe on a combination of Tramadol and Medicam for his pain relief with his cancer. I know you will know when it is time. Give that pretty girl a big hug from Chris and I.... Thank you for giving her the best summer EVER and the chance to be able to enjoy herself again. Thinking of you. Cindy

Maybe she(Your BH) is not stubborn and spiteful..... but rather she has learned to reinforce herself by her actions. Sound like things that BH's instinctely would enjoy... SNIFFING, SEARCHING ect Work harder to manage her and show her that YOU have a alternative to offer that is just as reinforcing to her as her actions. Managing her actions will stop her from self rewarding herself and help to decrease the behavior.

We are thrilled that Quincey will be coming on trial tomorrow! He is the perfect compliment to their young girl as he does not need the extra training work, just love and exercise Cindy Border Collie Rescue Ontario www.bordercollierescueont.com

Ah 'urge to herd' .... DITTO!

I would use cottage cheese instead of 'cream' cheese! Also try plain yogurt with a peanut butter a little honey and even banana! You can mix these things with some kibble too, then pop them in the freezer they will last longer if you give them to the puppy frozen. I also stuff my kongs with Trippet. Tripe in a can!!! The dogs LOVE it!!!

Blanche is great... this weekend is regionals so wait till next week! Cheers Cindy http://www.bordercollierescueont.com Dreamweavers Dog Training Blanche Cooper 8041 Observatory Dr., RR3 Granton, Ontario 519-225-2821 blanche@dreamweaversdt.ca www.dreamweaversdt.ca Agility/puppy/obedience/clicker training

I really have no idea what you mean by this. If you think that by giving a verbal correction and then allowing the dog to choose to do something else is creating avoidance behavior, then I suppose this statement makes sense. But I view avoidance behavior differently, as in a dog who gives some other behavior to *avoid doing a behavior the dog doesn't want to do* and that's a huge difference Yes... I am not sure what I meant by that either now... Thanks for all the feedback! Personally I don't know how doing any clicker work could hurt you when you go out to work sheep?

Ruling out medical conditions I would use a Belly Band. Basically just goes around and velcro's together and covers his penis. If he pees he will pee on himself. Dogs HATE this ... I use them alot as I get alot of intact males into rescue who have no problem peeing on the wall and already have learned to avoid me! It works like a charm Cindy

Cesar was choking out his dog! Read the first post... Has he turned over a new leaf?

Working Sheep?..... If I was working a dog on sheep and they would not lie down I would walk through my sheep towards my dog and using my stick would stop my dogs movement till they lay down. This may include repeating the command or changing tone. I 'personally' would refrain from hitting the dog with a object (not saying any of you do...) but would toss something down in the dogs path to deter the dog from moving in that direction if they got up. So YES I would use PP to suppress my dogs behavior. When my dog lay down I would praise and let them have their sheep again OR if it was to get a hold of them and they didn't understand to come off/job done That'll do. I would walk over to them and pat and praise. This is of course in a small area In a big field I would sure as hell hope that my dog listened at that point, so might try repeating my cue(whistle or verbal) again possible change of tone or this might end in me running down the field like a crazy lady. If they were still not listening a good choice here might be taking my dog of the field. Again as I said I may not do this OFF the sheep. OFF the sheep I would go back and generalize and proof my behavior. If I was at agility and my dog broke a sit. I would go back and re-train this what I don't have to worry about is the safely of my sheep which could be my livelihood and what I don't necessarily have working for me is fixed instinct for my dog to want to continue to do it, although at some point agility does become a very valuable conditioned reinforcer for some dogs doesn't it! I also would probably not put a dog on stock unless I gave it at least a basic understanding of a verbal DOWN. Not that it will necessarily mean they will actually lay down once out, but it would definitely help set them up for success. Also as Bill pointed out Down doesn't always mean Lay Down. But our dogs do learn from our tones when we mean it don't they and we still rely on them in this environment to be working off their fixed instincts. So questions for the poeple who work their dogs for a living or recreationally I guess.. do you work your pups off the sheep first giving them any skills? Do you think that working dogs need to learn to take a correction and this is why you would initially teach behavior with correction or would you? I have spoken to a number of people who work their young dogs and many do believe that puppies need to learn to take a smack get yelled at and keep going. I guess because my goal is to have a dog that is focus and listening and wanting to work with me. I would like a relationship built on trust and I would try not to do things that might encourage my dogs to avoid me. Especially so that if I did use punishment that my I would not ruin my relationship/trust with my dog. I also do not use my dogs to work sheep as my livelihood... I know that some working trainers believe that a dog with too much focus on us will ruin them as a working dog as they will check in too much. I must say from what I have seen fixed instincts definitely come into play here... even a top obedience dog may not lay down or come when on sheep. It almost seems like avoidance behavior to some degree in Working Dogs is a good thing to have???

Sometimes I can just look in a dogs eyes and it seems to understand what I mean. And that is because Bill you are a common sense trainer who has learned to train dogs through hands on experience...and I have no doubt like me you are very aware of your own personal boundries of what you are willing to do to make things happen. Sure we all do things that we might not 'feel' good about but you are not go to be influenced by watching CM to think that you should go choke out your dog for not listening or by me saying well I would prefer to take away something then add a punishment. You are not the general population. I sometimes take for granted the things we naturally do with the dogs, it is not until you see that same dog in the hands of someone else or try to move it on and get some major behavior issues that you start to see this in the hands of someone who doesn't read things well. I great example of this may be if you took a young dog out on stock you probably can see things WELL in advance and stop a rodeo type event from happening. Where a someone who doesn't have that ability to see or read this would think all was well till the rodeo hit! And while 'terms' may mean nothing to you... because you just get it when working with the dogs some people just don't get it. There is a reason why the things you do work though..