Jump to content
BC Boards

juliepoudrier

Registered Users
  • Posts

    13,708
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by juliepoudrier

  1. Sorry for my slow response; I don't get here as often as I used to. Willow was older when diagnosed with mitral valve problems and I think she was already retired at that time. That said, we still took long walks, and she raced around with the rest of the pack without any problems. J.
  2. I used both enalapril and Vetmedin for Willow. Given the expense of the Vetmedin, I'd opt for the enalapril first, but then age of the dog and other financial factors figure in to that. I don't remember at what age Willow was found to have a significant murmur, but she lived to be just a few weeks shy of 16, even though she was not on Vetmedin the entire time she was being treated for the murmur/heart enlargement. J.
  3. I guess my experience is different. Until I moved where I live now my dogs *always* shared space with my free range chickens. They were taught from puppyhood that chickens (or chicks) are not to be chased or bothered in any way. Teaching them to leave the chickens alone (unless directed to do something with them) never affected their willingness or ability to work the chickens if I asked them to do so (and they were willing to work poultry). It certainly *is* all about management, but I disagree that a dog can never be left alone with the poultry. My multiple working border collies (from 4-5 weeks old on up) always coexisted with my poultry without anything getting killed. Just my two cents. J.
  4. I remember seeing old trial programs (early days of trialing in the UK) where an entrant was simply listed as "bearded" as in not rough or smooth, specifically, but bearded. It was used as a descriptive term for a particular dog in that program similar to how different dogs are described in Barbara Carpenter's books, just as descriptions of the individual dogs. Remember that Lassie collies were once part of the larger sheepdog/border collie gene pool. I don't find it a large leap of faith to believe that someone took bearded border collies and continued to breed them for a distinctive look until they had what is now referred to as a beardie in KC circles. No different than the development of the Lassie collie. If you go to the gallery and search on beardie, you should find at least one or two threads with pictures of working beardies in the US. Most are Polly's/Suzanne Craddock's dogs, but they don't all look exactly alike, even when all related. Sirius is the offspring of Polly's Lily and James. Lily was a smooth coat and James was part beardie. Only a couple of the pups in the litter, including Sirius, were bearded. Rachel, some years ago at the Fall Fiber Festival and Montpelier SDT, someone showed up with a show type beardie and asked to run their dog. The run was much as you described except that this dog never even made it out to the sheep. It was all rather strange. J.
  5. I just add a couple of capfuls of bleach in. J.
  6. I also use bleach, but I just add a capful or two. It seems to work quite well. J.
  7. A round pen, a smallish field for transitioning from the round pen, and the rest wide open. A shelter of some sort, and either a chute, stall, or small pen (or combination thereof) for ease of catching/treating sheep (and of course a dog can learn a lot pushing sheep through a chute or holding them in the corner of a small pen while you do what you need to do with the sheep). I'd leave as much wide open as I could to be able to practice large gathers, blind gathers and the like. I'd probably use portable fencing (electronet) if I wanted to mob or rotational graze just so I could leave the open spaces.... J.
  8. I can't add any more, really, so I'll just say ditto to what everyone else has said. Get the hell away from that trainer. I'd probably go one step further and tell the trainer exactly WHY I'm dumping him/her, not that it will necessarily change their training philosophy, but you never know.... J.
  9. Is the heartbeat suppression dose dependent? That is, is the risk in overdosing? J.
  10. I like Facebook because it's an easy way to keep up with the activities of family and friends, and to reconnect with old friends. How much you allow it to intrude on your life is entirely up to you. J.
  11. My neighbor used it (Sileo) with her very fit agility border collie who is so thunderphobic as to practicality try to kill herself to escape the noise. She had used Sileo all weekend for the fireworks and we gave her dog a dose last night before the big storm (owner traveling) we had and she's a different dog. She is giving slightly less than the recommended amount for her dog's size. I intend to try it on my youngster who is thunderphobic, I've been that impressed with her results. J.
  12. My neighbor is trying the Sileo with her one dog that is extremely thunderphobic. Today is her first try and her dog is barely reacting at all, basically came downstairs briefly when she heard thunder, then went back upstairs and got on the bed. Granted, the storms are skirting us, but if it works as well as it seems to be so far for her it'll be a life changer for her dog. J.
  13. My old Boy was on proin the last couple of years of his life. It worked just fine for him, no noticeable side effects. J.
  14. I use flanking exercises to help improve my young dogs' stops. I will randomly flank them, asking for (off balance) stops around the circle. They are required to stay on the correct path of the flank, and the second they stop, they're immediately flanked (same or opposite direction). This combines several training items: proofing flanks, making sure they don't spiral in or out on a flank, and crisper stops because they know stop isn't the "end," but often just a prelude to another flank. It can also help with the tendency to clappiness because the dog will anticipate being asked to move again quickly once stopped, J.
  15. They did this at Rural Hill, NC, but I would have said 2010. Maybe it was later. Alison Ruhe was collecting blood and Suzy Hughes was doing BAER testing. At the time I had all my dogs BAER tested, and several also gave blood. Because I had epileptics in a litter that was more my focus, but my understanding was that the blood would be used for DNA for both studies (epilepsy and EOAD). So I wonder if it makes any sense to donate yet more DNA samples from those same dogs. Alison told me that they sequenced Phoebe's genome (I guess because I could provide samples from so many relatives, affected and not). I have younger dogs who have not been tested, but can I assume the dogs previously tested are already "in" the study? Anyone know? J.
  16. I would think affected is affected, no matter the dog's point of origin. J.
  17. Liz, That's why I said it takes deep knowledge (and mentioned shepherds, rather than trialers). I don't think anyone else would interpret what I wrote as meaning I was including any sort of novice breeder. J.
  18. You can get insulin syringes without needles. That's what I use. J.
  19. If you talk to old time breeders/shepherds they will mention dogs and bitches who were/are good *producers* although they may not be the *best* workers/trial dogs. Of course it takes deep knowledge of lines and individual dogs--as well as a willingness to test one's ideas--to make these sorts of breeding decisions, but it is an example of a standard practice that does NOT involve breeding the best to the best. And I don't think it's all that rare. J.
  20. I use the 0.08% sheep drench at a dose of 0.3-0.5 cc/dog, depending on the size of the dog. I don't use the minimum effective dose because the amounts are so small and it apparently tastes bad so you don't want to dog missing a dose by managing to spit/slobber it back out. I use the same insulin syringe over and over until the rubber starts to fail. I just pour out a capful of ivermectin, then draw from that, not so much because of contamination, but for ease of drawing up the dose. But a capful holds enough to treat all 8 dogs. You can get a small bottle, which you still won't be able to use up before it expires, but art least it's pretty inexpensive. I'd hesitate to regularly overdose ivermectin by a great amount. To control intestinal parasites I dose with Safeguard (fenbendazole) 10% cattle dewormer quarterly, or as needed. J.
  21. I also agree with going the rescue route it at all possible. FWIW, when my now 14.5 year old was a young dog running in nursery, one of the dogs competing against her had had surgery on both hips, I think FHO, but I don't remember. That young dog was running a full open level sheepdog trial course after surgery on both hips. I also had an open trial dog who didn't have any noticeable issues from her terrible hips until she was quite old, 13-14 or so. Clearly she won't make a service dog for you, but she still might make a great pet for someone else. As for the Berner doodle, honestly, I'd keep looking if I were you. Bernese mountain dogs aren't known to be long lived and the ones I've known have died quite young from various genetic issues. The fact that it's a cross might make a difference in that regard and it might not. Depending on how large a dog you need, I'd consider something along the lines of a field bred lab or similar--at least a breed that's not known for genetic issues that can be quite expensive to treat and that can affect longevity. The last thing you need is to put a bunch of time and effort into another prospect only for it to develop something and be unable to do what you need as well. J.
  22. Red is recessive, so a red dog bred to a black dog won't produce any red dogs unless the black dog also happens to carry recessive red (Bb vs BB). Merle is dominant, so the red merle could pass on his merle gene to produce merle puppies, but if the dam didn't carry red there would have been no way for red merle pups to have been produced. J.
  23. If it's dragging severely enough, Jester could damage (e.g., develop sores) on the part of his foot that he's dragging. I had to put a boot on Kat to prevent damage to the top of her foot; the speed at which she wore through the canvas/leather was rather astounding. So keep an eye on his foot/toes to make sure he's not getting raw places. J.
×
×
  • Create New...