Jan B

Hi Amanda, I thought that I should update my inquiry about my young dog and balance. I was able to do a bit of training with her this past week as one of my training fields was free of snow and ice. Lo and behold, after her winter "vacation", "T" is finding balance on her outruns more often than not. I managed to get out with her 3 days and the 3rd day of stock work was the best. Not only was she finding balance but she was reading pressure and flanking on the fetch as needed to keep her flock together ;-) I guess she just needed time to mature. Jan

Hi Amanda, Last fall I started my young bitch who is very keen to work. I am pleased with the progress that she made in the 2 months of training that we got in before winter set in. She outruns in both directions, has a reliable stop and a good pace on her fetch. I've done a tiny bit of driving with her when the opportunity presented itself. My question is about her difficulty in finding balance on her outruns. When I work her close to me, she is better at finding balance but when I send her (in either direction) on a longer outrun, her speed at the top seems to cause her to overflank. I've tried helping her with a quiet "there now" at the top or calling her name quietly as she approaches balance. I hesitate to continually stop her at the top where I think balance is as I would like her to learn to read her sheep and feel the pressure. I try to situate the flock so that the pressure isn't hard to one side or the other. The snow in my area is melting fast and I anticipate that I should be able to resume her training soon and would appreciate your thoughts. When I left off last year, I just decided to not obsess about it and let her grow into her task but I don't want to let this "issue" go on too long and become a habit. Thanks, Jan

Hi Bob, Thank you for you advice which makes a lot of sense to me and will be easy for Moss to understand. It's good to know that I was on the right track as I had been doing what you advised in your reply to my query but, obviously, it is going to take some time. I never, ever train the same thing every day and have found that it is necessary to make the training interesting and challenging to keep Moss keen to work. No drilling for this dog. When the snow melts here in New England, I'll let you know how he is doing. Thanks again, Jan & Moss

Hi Bob, My 4 year old male Border collie has been running in ranch since last fall. I've been doing a lot of driving training with him during the past 12 months and he seems to understand the concept quite well. However, I discovered much to my dismay, as I was preparing him for a trial this past November, that his usual lovely outrun has deteriorated. More specifically, he is overflanking whether I send him to the right or left on his outrun. I had always been able to trust him to read his stock and know intuitively where to stop on his outrun based on where the pressure was. I've been told by other trainers that is is not unusual for a dog's outrun to suffer when you concentrate on teaching the drive. Any suggestions as to what I can do to restore my dogs natural sense of balance at the top of his outrun once the snow melts and we can get back to training?

Hi Laurelin, I just noticed that you have a papillon and wanted to let you know that I've bred, owned, trained and competed with papillons for 30 years. I still have my 3 retired agility papillons plus I now own 2 Border collies. I compete in pro-novice with a 3 year old male and am training a younger bitch for trialing. Both of the Border collies are from working lines and get along great with my paps and are so easy to live with. Jan Berger

Ooops, I misread the label. When I checked the label again today, it states that the copper is present in 7 PPM. And, yes, it is a mineral supplement manufactured for sheep. Thanks all, Jan

Hi All, I had a friend buy some sheep minerals for me at her local Agway since the nearest feed/grain store to me stopped selling them. When I looked at the content label today, I noticed that it contains a "minimum of .3457 PCT" copper. Is this amount likely to cause a problem with my sheep? Jan in Mass.

Thanks for the info Becca and Bill. I'll have the standard soil test with organic matter done and then go from there. I noticed today, while collecting the soil samples, that the soil seems to be very compacted. Any suggestions for rectifying that or is that not necessary? Jan (still waiting for those showers that were forecast for yesterday and today)

Due to the lack of sufficient rain thus far this spring in the area of Massachusetts that I live in (close to the coast) the grass in the sheep pasture has been very slow to grow. I am going to have the soil tested and, based on the test results, may have to add fertilizer. The U Mass. testing lab does a variety of soil tests and I am looking for some guidance on what to test for. I can have a standard soil test done that includes pH, Buffer pH, extractable nutrients, extractable heavy metals, cation exchange capacity and percent base saturation. Is there anything else that I should be testing for. Also, what is a good all around fertilizer to use that won't be too costly? I would appreciate any advice that I can get. Thanks, Jan (in W.Newbury, MA)

Her email addy is cherylmbailey@cox.net and, as you may have guessed, her name is Cheryl Bailey. She said that she would be happy to fill you in on all that she knows about PLE.

I have a friend here in MA that has been dealing with this problem in her papillon for several years now. She is a wealth of info about the condition and has been taking her dog to Tufts for treatment. If you would like to contact her, I can send you her email addy. Jan