alligande

I change foods every bag with my adult dog, he gets bored with the same type, and as he is used to this I don't bother with doing it gradually, at the moment in rotation we have reindeer, boar, duck and lamb. He doesn't like fish kibble (loves fish) and his digestion doesn't like chicken. My puppy can only eat chicken or turkey at the moment, the adult dogs food just doesn't agree with him. So others have said it is dependent on the dog.

I have been planning on signing up for Slyvia Trkmans foundation class. BUT I have a slight problem, so much of her handling is based on CIK/CAP aka directional wing wraps but I am incabable of rembering which is which. So I am exploring alternatives. Her puppy class has been great, I like her way of developing behaviours and how she builds on them, and it has given me a great structure to work on Fenway's behaviours. The structure of a class is important to me, keeps me focused and provides structure. Living in Mallorca I don't have regular access to a top trainer, I am my clubs most experienced trainer/competitor and I still have a long way to go! PS I am not a Susan Garret fan, I admire her achievements but hate her sales techniques.

CptJack is that a regular NADAC agility run? It looks like they have done away with jumps.

Regarding what's normal among top competitors, I have two current examples. I have been taking Slyvia Trkmans puppy class, and planning on taking the foundation class when it opens next month. Dogs have to be 6 months to take the foundation class. The puppy class has lots to learn, it is trick based but some many of the behaviours are the foundation of agility, learning to control noise, controlling moving objects, body awareness. But she is all about puppies being puppies, playing with you playing with dogs just having fun. I also signed up to Daisy Peels puppy blog her dog is about 2 weeks younger than mine and I thought for $14.95 it would interesting to follow along. She is very like Slyvia, lots of tricks, lots of play, she has started to introduce some basic handling in her facility but most of it has been well away from equipment. Your analogy to the Russian gymnasts as I was talking to a friend about one of the Russian handlers at the EO, and he was telling me that the Russians do train their dogs in the same way as they did their gymnasts, they don't have long careers.

Tux is a great name for him, congratulations on your new boy he is very handsome.

Thanks Liz, that is really helpful. I think I might put a soresto collar on him for the rest of the bitting season and next year when he is grown see how he reacts, hopefully he won't be as sensitive and will have forgotten his bad experience with Vectra, and I can evaluate advantix better. I suspect he found advantix uncomfortable, but some of the reaction could have been because of his previous experience.

He is currently on leishguard and will get the injection next spring when he is one. My vet here, as do all my friends vets feel you need mosquito protection too, so you get double protection from the sandflies, as the reliability of the vacaccines is unknown. v My local vet has run out of ideas other than a sorresto collar or gallons of citronella . I was basically wondering if there was another topical treatment available in the US or UK that might also repel mosquitoes. Jovi, Fens reaction has been really obvious he was only 4 months when I first used Vectra and he hated it, a month later the reaction was much worse and I ended wiping as much off as I could, and it took 48 hours for him to be back to himself. This time with Advantix the reaction has been a lot less severe but you could see he has uncomfortable and has taken a day to get back to being a feisty puppy.

I am having problems with spot treatments for my puppy, he seems to be incredibly sensitive to them. Living in Southern Spain it is essential that he has protection from Mosquitos because of leishmania. So I am looking for suggestions, many of the same products are available in the US and Europe. So far I have used Vectra3d twice and that caused him a lot of discomfort, today I used Advantix and he is still bothered by it, just not as much. I am trying to avoid using a collar, but will if I run out of options. Natural remedies are not an option for us as leishmania is a very serious disease and want to make sure I provide the best protection possible. Thanks

Kristine do you have a link to All dogs parkour, google will not find me a website. I found your blog though when I searched .

One of my dogs seems to be able to find even small pills burried inside interesting goodies. I work on the one strick principle, one attempt with a goody, spit it out and I just pop it down his throat, which won't work for you . If you can empty the capsule then find something tasty like ground beef/turkey and give him that.

I can't say I over plan the trial or even care about running orders etc, I am very laid back about the travel part, but since moving to Spain I regularly take ferry rides to competitions, and to get to the mainland is 8 hours by ferry plus driving.

This is hearsay: A friend of mine in Yorkshire has a beardie that comes from working lines, she kept admiring a dog when out on walks got chatting to the owner who told her only to get a beardie from working lines, which is what she did (using the same argument we use for border collies). The dog comes from Northumberland and came from a farm that worked both border collies and beardies. He does not look a border collie and I have only ever seen him clipped so I don't know what his coat would grow out to. He is a pet, but what I have observed is that he has the same neurotic tendencies that border collies have, reactive, doesn't handle children well etc.

I have a friend you just signed up for her start line stay program as he now has a dog that sticks ... He has only just started but I can report back how it goes.

The rescue I volunteered (border collie only) with would not approve an adoption to a home where an e-collar was going to be used, if the home had used one in the past and did not plan on using one with their new dog that would be fine, they also did not like invisible fences for many reasons including the collar. They would adopt to a home without a fence depending on the dog and family and how they planned to manage the situation.

It can take awhile for a dog to settle into their new home and become comfortable, don't be surprised if his character is still changing in 3 months time or even longer. We often foster and if we have a nervous dog, or one that has some hang ups we let them just be dogs, with no demands, and just get a feel for what the dog is ready for. We had a young dog with us for 6 weeks, he arrived crawling on his belly so scared of people he would not take pate from my husbands outstretched hand, at the end of his stay he was a typical young energetic border collie full of confidence, all we did was give him space and a safe non threatening enviroment. He went to a home in Germany and we were really concerned about the flight, (2 hours) he got of that plane and has never looked back. If you want to read a really great rescue story go to the rescue dog section and search for Kelso. D'Elle fostered him and it is a great lesson on the power of patience and love. If it was me I would really limit his time on the balcony as it does sound like a border collie obsession. Many have them, my older dog is obssesed with tennis balls, sometimes they all just have to go away for a couple of weeks so he can refocus. I would also say don't worry about heel at the moment, it is actually a very difficult thing for a dog to learn, a nice loose leash walk is a more important skill, but even that is not a priority, remember he has only been with you 6 weeks and you have plenty of time to learn skills. Sometimes teaching silly tricks is a better way to bond and learn to train than a life skill, if the trick goes bad or the dog feels to much pressure, you can just abandon the trick and try something else and you have not caused any longterm problems with an essential life skill.

Nice find

I think your life style sounds very promising for a border collie. From my experience what border collies need is to be involved with their humans life if they are not working farm dogs, it is not about being "worked" or lots of exercise, it's about interaction. My own dogs have always learned to relax and chill, and everyone of our foster dogs has evantually realized that relaxing is good. During the summer it is sometimes embarrassing how few walks they really get, but the adult dog has a conditioning program we do, that for him is really lots of trick work and the puppy works for his food learning tricks and skills. With the adult dog we have lived in a city apartment with no green space for a summer and he was fine.

Table requirements depend on the venue, USDAA requires a down which is why ours is an automatic down, I believe AKC it is now your choice, it used to be judges choice.

My commands are: Front paws Back paws Up, for all paws standing on something Table is for agility and is an automatic down I don't have commands for individual paws, but I am adding that slowly.

We have a toy/ball/stick/anything obsessed dog, our management plan is to ignore the offered item even when thrown on you or at you. Evantually he will give up and start to relax but it can take along time, especially if someone hits the reset button by moving the object of interest. We do play ball but do not encourage the obsession, I often make him do silly tricks to earn the toy.

I had my old ladies teeth cleaned for the first time at 13. She had a cracked tooth and the vet was concerned about infection so we decided to do the extraction and dentistry. She came through with no issues. I trusted the vet's call on this as we had been going to her since Jester was 3, and she had never felt she needed any dentistry before, our previous vet had wanted to clean her teeth when she was 2!

We went to the vets and got some pain killers, he took them for 5 days which got us over the bad time and he is back to being himself. Our vet was concerned as that something else might be going on as well as it was so unusual, but he is a very serious little dog and just wasn't handling the discomfort well.

I will also say don't feel guilty about the size of your crate, I use soft crates that have built in curtains, I have never had a problem with the dogs breaking out. Rievaulx did unzip the door when he was young but that was solved by clipping a leash to both zip pulls. His crate his huge, he loves to sprawl and I don't see any reason why he should be cramped. I would add to the list: paper towel and baby wipes in the car (you just never know)

Thanks for the ideas, the problem is he doesn't really want to chew. He is just lying around being miserable and wanting cuddles occasionaly.

Fen has started teething and he is obviously not a happy puppy, he is not chewing anything, he is just sort of moping around and wants cuddles. I have to be careful about what he eats as he has a sensitive stomach, so frozen yoghurt and such I can't give him. Does anyone have any ideas that might help feel a little more comfortable.