Tommy Coyote

I have to watch the light reflections on the wall - she takes off after them. And help us if there is a fly in the room. I never watch TV so she hasn't see it. But yesterday I turned it on for a few minutes and she thought strange people were in the room and started barking. She is just ultrasensitive to stuff. But I need to give her more structure. And that I can do.

Point well taken. Actually, she is home with me a lot so she is not by herself all day. And she loves to play with the older dog. And I have been letting her just go outside to play in the afternoon so she gets enough exercise. But she is so sweet natured and soft that it is very easy just to let her do her own thing. I need to get out there and do everything with her. We are working on her everyday manners three times a day - just here and down and sit and stay. I will start picking up those sessions so they last longer. And start making her deal with me and behave when I'm there instead of just kind of doing her own thing. Thanks - that's great advice. Will be working on it. Mary

How am I supposed to handle displacement behavior? Tommy is just 7 months. She is really intense about everything and tends to be obsessive about stuff. When she discovered squirrels she developed a path around the back yard that checked out ev ery squirrel siting. It also included checking with both neighbor yards for the 2 labs on one side and the boxer on the other. Then she would just run that path over and over and over. Then she discovered that if she sits and looks out the window that she can see things. Now when she comes in she makes a beeline for the window, jumps up on the bed and sits and looks out. She is very intense about looking outside. Then yesterday she started a new thing. If she is sitting on the back step and I come outside she runs out and then stops and freezes and starts looking intently for stuff on the ground. Then she moves over a few feet, stops and stares again, then movers over another few feet and does it again. She is out of two trial dogs so it is not a big surprise that she is intense - probably to a fault. Do I just try and break up that behavior? Any ideas?

Science Diet does not rate very high on the good dry dog food list. People still buy it because of its name recognition and lots of vets still recommend it. It is not considered one of the better foods any more. Same with Iams and Eukanuba. They all used to be the food of choice but not any more.

A firend of mine is a vegetarian and hates to handle meat. But she does fix it for her dogs. But she still cooks most of the meat. I really don't worry about the dogs getting sick from raw meat. Their digestive systems are so short that those bacterial organisms never get a chance to get started. I wouldn't give raw to a sick dog. And they say not for young puppies. But think about it. Wild dogs just eat almost anything and then just barf it back up for the puppies.

I'm not so sure its the worst. A couple of kinds at the grocery store come in really low - Beneful is one that is right on the bottom. And they do tons of advertising trying to make it look like this is a really healthy dogfood.

Wow. I am surprised by how many people here are feeding top of the line kibble and raw. Most of the people I talk to have never even heard of it. If I saw I am feeding the dogs raw meat they just look at me like I'm crazy. But I have no problem with my dogs eating raw meat. And they love it. My biggest problem is that the high quality stuff really gets to be expensive. My EVO is $31 a bag - and I think that is 16 pounds. Anyway, its not a very big bag. The raw I buy for them is already mixed up so it is balanced - meat,skin, organ, ground bone and fruit and vegetables. It costs about $12 for 32 steaks and I use 8 steaks a day. So they don't get the raw food every day. One of the women I talk to fixes a big pan of food and then freezes it. She throws in a whole chicken from Costco, a couple of turkey legs, some brown rice or quinoa, some organ meat and then some vegetables and fruits. I'm not sure just how she gets the calcium in their diet because she won't use even human grade bone meal - says bone meal is just too polluted. I think she gives raw bones. I worry about the diet being balanced and that is why I feed Evo every day. I just don't feel comfortable trying to do this myself when I don't know enough about dog nutrition.

I'm just curious. I have got caught right in the middle of the raw food fight. I have to wonder if dogs really do better on raw food. These people do not believe in kibble of any kind - not even the really good stuff. I feed my dogs Evo in the morning and raw food in the afternoon (its a mix of raw meat, bone, organs and then added vegetables and fruit). And my dogs love it and seem to be doing really well. But its expensive. But I also have to say that as a pet sitter I see dogs that are fed just about everything under the sun. Sadly, most of the dogs I take care of get Pedigree and that is not a very good food but its cheap. A lot of the dogs I see that eat grocery store food look good. There coats are shiny. They seem to have a lot of energy. I'm just wondering how you feel about this.

One year a bunch of the top obedience trainers in out area actually went to see the Nationals in St. Louis. That was the best thing that could have ever happened. They just stood there with their mouths hanging open. Those dogs that day were so incredible. I really think that was the first time those trainers ever really understood what was meant by "working." They were just astonished at the level of training. Well, to be fair. Everyone was astonished that day.

Most of the heelers I have seen were owned by people who had no idea what working is. They were most likely AKC (are heelers allowed in the AKC) and were really just pets. I'm surprsed the man who had the clinic even allowed them. I saw a rottweiler in one clinic that was so aggressive that the owner warned everyone to just stay away from him. The handler actually got out of the ring because the dog scared him. That dog took one look at the sheep and would have just killed them all. Fortunately the owner got him out and just put him back up. Don't you usually have to pay for any sheep that your dog rips into? That is one aspect of a clinic that has always bothered me. I always feel so sorry for the sheep. I really don't like animal abuse in any shape.

I personally like dogs that are a little soft. I couldn't any more handle one of those hard dogs than fly. They just scared me. The guys training them just hit them over the head to get them to back on out. I also didn't know squat about working dogs at the time so my recollection could be off, too. But I feel the same way about heelers. I have seen a few of those come in to clinics and they just bite so hard. And they seem so hard headed. I saw one poor sheep get her udder shredded. I just hate that. As far as I'm concerned that is animal abuse and I wish they wouldn't allow cattle dogs or those really hard dogs into sheep clinics.

I'm just curious how people feel about this. I live in Kansas City, Mo. Just south of me, down around Springfield, there are a lot of cattle ranchers that breed a very specialized kind of border collie. They are really hard mouthed and very fast. And they are specifically bred to work cattle. And they are a very tough dog. These dogs look just like regular border collies. And they are definitely working dogs. But you would not dare put one on sheep. They would tear sheep to pieces. They are tough enough that they can work range cattle. Now, in all fairness, I think the breeders and owners of these dogs are very upfront about what they are like. They bite hard and they are very fast and they are not suitable for sheep. Oh, and they are kind of hard to train. I've seen them. They are so fast and go in so hard that it takes a pretty stong handler to do anything with one. So, is this kind of breeding any different than breeding especially for agility? The other side of this is that breeders of really good working dogs will all tell you that a good working dog can work both cattle and sheep. That you don't have to have a hard, biting dog to do the work.

Exactly. And I think that is why there have been so many just plain weird dogs that have come out of these breedings. The same thing happened when these same people started breeding for color. They just ignored everything else and they got a lot of weird colors and dogs that often were a real mess healthwise and temperment wise. But my thought is that the working instinct was culled on purpose. It got in the way of people training for obedience. And probably for sports, too. These people wanted this dog that was bidable and fast and smart but didn't care about the working instinct at all. So they just tried to breed it out. Or ignored it.

I wish the show dogs were considered a completely different breed. They really should be. The ones I've seen kind of look more and more like small Newfoundlands or something. Lots and lots of coat. They are pretty to look at but they sure don't look or act like sheepdogs.

I know of one case where some people lost one of their really good dogs to a horse. They were at a trial and had tied the dog up in the pasture there. They did not know that there was a horse in the pasture. And the horse just stomped their dog to death. It was awful.

Years ago there used to be a man in Oklahoma City who trained his dogs on ducks. And he did very well in trials. He lived right in the middle of town, I think. I don't know how many ducks he used but he was successful. He probably had access to sheep so his dogs could get some practice before a trial.

I just can't stand that. I immediately think AKC I guess. And when a "breeder" says "borders" I go on alert really fast.

Oh, he sounds adorable. These little guys really liven things up in a hurry, don't they?

One thing that I have seen work. When people take their dog to a clinic and see the other dogs work. And then their dog just stands there and does not respond to sheep at all. That is really when the difference between a really well bred dog and one that is not is most evident. Or their dog is just plain crazy out there - and completely uncontrollable. Or it is so keen that it just runs straight in and tries to kill the sheep. The breeding is so evident.

My dogs quit having problems when they quit hearing the storms. Shoot, maybe you should just say "thank you, thank you" and break out the champagne. (or however you spell it) Thuinderphobia is such a pain in the rear. I actually had one of my dogs die in the thunderstorm - heart attack. It was always such a relief when the dogs didn't hear them any more.

Right now she is busy digging in the back yard. I had a mole burrow thru the back yard last year. It started kind of down by the house and then went clear up the back, under the fence and into the neighbor's yard. Tommy seems to be trying to dig out the mole path.

Fortunately I have only really had serious problems of this nature twice - where several dogs jumped one. Usually it is just one on one and they just work it out themselves after a few seconds. I haven't had much luck with water. When my own two got into I just turned the hose on them right in the face. And they didn't even slow down. I worry about this when I am walking dogs. The dogs I have are always on lead but you just never know when you will run up against a loose dog. We have a lot of pitbulls here in Kansas City and some of them are really dog aggressive. That is really a dogwalkers worst nightmare.

She doesn't pay one bit of attention to a thrown ball. Sometimes she will chase it and then just leave it - she just likes to run.

I have never used Prozac but I have used Xanax with really good results. I had a couple of dogs with severe thunderphobia and that stuff was like a miracle. Didn't put them to sleep - they just didn't care any more. But you have to be careful because of those drugs - like valium and ace - will make an agressive dog even more agressive. Honestly, if I had a dog with problems that were that severe i think I would give the prozac a chance. My last four border collies were all rescues with emotional problems due to all kinds of things. That is miserable to try and deal with. And it was my experience that those problems didn't improve much over time. Gosh, good luck.

If you can predict them. These dogs hadn't ever done this before - not when they were all outside. I think the thing that set it off was that the owner was not there. She always kept the energy under control. But as soon as she was gone the dogs had their chance to go after the dog they didn't like. Boy, in the future I will never let the dogs out at the same time. That is one of the dangers of pet sitting. I often don't know who has trouble with who. And owners tend to try and play that down. I would much rather they would tell me right up front who fights so I could keep those dogs separate while I am there. Then the owners can do whatever they want when they get home.