DogPaddle

You have not idea how relieved I was when I actually saw your post. When I read the subject I thought - "Oh please please please do not tell me someone be selling a dog on ebay!"

Dream When I got Kavik I ran into the same thing. There were two distinct groups of breeders of Border Collie in this area: 1) Breeders of BC from show/agility/flyball backgrounds who are registered with the only group that registers BCs here. More on that later. 2) Breeders of BC from working/herding background, many of which cannot go home with new family until the dog is 3-6 months old so that the dog can get its start working livestock or at least acclimating to livestock with the breeder. Most will only provide BCs to people with livestock. Some are registered. The Canadian Kennel Club (quite similar to the AKC) does not register Border Collies. I have inquired as to why and have recieved no official response but one breeder advised me that this was because the majority of the breeder's of BC either just don't care or would prefer their breed not be registered due to the possibility or working lines being compromised by people breeding to CKC standards that may or may not coincide with useful working traits. Regardless of which groups the breeders fall into most of the ones I talked too have spay/neuter agreements, certiefied hips/eyes/etc on parents, min 2 yr gaurentee, at least one parent on site, most were kept in the family residence, not in a run/barn/kennel, all were the only litter in that year often longer, all required that the new family not sell or dispose of the dog before contacting them and most working lines would never even discuss placing their dogs in homes without livestock to work. (Really the working line breeders were even better that the "registered" BC breeders as they would offer aid in training as relates to herding as well as all of the above for as long as the dog lived.) I'm not sure how people feel about this but it seemed to make sense to me at the time. I don't think, at least in this case, that non-registered meens BYB. I think this scenario MIGHT be true of many dogs that still have applicable jobs. Kavik by the way is from the first group - agility/flyball/show not working lines.

Oh dear, I thought that wolfdog business was mostly urban legend. When we took Tir from the people who had him tied to their back door (now refered to as the bad people) they tried to tell us he was half King Shepherd half Malamute/Wolf cross. We promptly dismissed that as being "my dog is big and mean" talk, especially given the circumstances we were taking poor Tir out of. He looks just like that dog from that tv show The Littlest Hobo only with bigger ankles and that dog was a GSD. Any one here have any first hand experience or reliable info on these crosses? I ask because Tir is a foster dog and we are at least in part responsible for deciding what forever home he goes too.

Thanks Yellowlabsrule. He is . . . feisty, not intimidated by the larger dogs at all. He has a sleepy look to his eyes. He will snuggle for extended periods of time. He has an odd stance, just a bit wider and weight further forward than I'm used too (maybe its some trait of one of the breeds.) Trudeau probably dosn't mean anything, its from one of our (Canada) Prime Ministers - Pierre Elliot Trudeau. I'm not sure I want to go with Loki, lest it become a self fulfilling sortof thing. A regular puppy is enough work :lol: .

Just got a new puppy from the shelter. We were going to get a beagle but apparently some retired couple adopted both beagles before we got there. They really like beagles I guess :) . There was only one dog and one cat in our local spca when we went there. Yeah :D !!! They do not adopt between Dec 20th and 26th either. Actually the sign on the dog area of the shelter said there were no dogs for adoption but as we walked pass the cat area I happened to look in through the window, and the dog happened to be out playing where I could see him and he just happened to be the same general sort of mutt my family had before. Anyway the shelter staff think he is a border collie cross, possibly with lab and "something else". He is 2 months, 5 lbs, mostly black with a touch of white on his toes and a small white blaze on his chest. I wanted to call hime Argo, Kip wanted to call him Loki, we both think Truedeau would be OK but we're open to any suggestions.

If your dog will roll onto her back for tummy scratches its fairly easy. Every time your dog rolls on to its back for whatever reason, give it the command, you can encourage the behaviour by offering tummy scratches. With enough reps the dog should roll onto its back when you give the command, rather than the other way around. Of course if your dog doesn't go for tummy scratches you'll have to explore other methods. The only other method, aside from the one suggested by HazelNutMeg, that I can think of is luring the dog with treats. Get the dog to lie down, hold the treat beside the dogs cheek, the dog will turn her head to get the treat slowly lure the dog further and further and she should roll some, reward and next time lure her further. You'll have to play with the distance you hold the treat from the dogs head to get her in the right position. Have fun.

My Dog Name: Kavik Breed: Border Collie, mostly black Age: 1 Favorite Thing: Kong on a rope, Kong with penut butter, Kong ripped in half, [b]wading[/b] for Kong, flying Kong . . . KONG!, oh and snuggles. Unfavorite Thing: [b]swimming[/b] for Kong, when Tir steals his Kong or his spot on the couch (beside me.) Our Current Foster Dog Name: Tir Breed: GSD/Malamute Age: 5 months Favorite Thing: Food, water, sleep, TOYS he's allowed to have and "toys" he's not allowed to have, galloping through the house. Unfavorite Thing: Tir is almost too laid back to have an unfavorite thing. He even tolerates Kavik's obsession with assigning everyone a spot. (Tir's spot is in front of the couch according to Kavik) He is not especially fond of healing or his halti.

Ummm . . . Listerine? Do the puppies wiggle or squirm when you do that? A couple years ago my brother sliced his foot open on the pier, we had no disinfectant in the house so he tried Listerine. He didn't get an infection so the Listerine worked but when he applied it he was blind with pain and made the funniest hnnnnnn, gurgle gurgle noises. I suppose its different if its just removing stitches as the big cut is all healed up. Good to know.

Thank-you Alicat, I don't know if the coating is lead free. I'll just go out and buy new ones, or maybe those metal ones that claim to be no skid/tip bowls.

Are ceramic/stoneware bowls ok? We use them because when the boys get playing anything is fair game and the ceramic bowls are very heavy and hard to tip. Also, we used to use a big plastic bucket for water but Tir tended to indicate that his food bowl needs filling by tipping his water bucket over. He hasn't done it with the ceramic yet.

A one year old GSD is not old, its still a puppy - albeit a very big puppy I'm sure. Even if the dog was 10 it could still be trained, it might just take a little more patience. What is it you want to train the dog to do or not do? What is its past history? If you think you may need help with his training research trainers in your area. Some may even have basic obedienc classes for non-puppies If you are worried about house training try making use of an indoor dog crate after getting reliable information on appropriate use and crate training.

Aurora, I'm so sorry to hear about Lily's problem. I know it must have been a hard choice but I think you made the right one, desexing her is probably best. When you take her into the vets I would mention the problem. You may want to see if a dog behavourist can work at Lily's problem first but giving your vet a heads up so you both can monitor the issue and discuss appropriate medication if it becomes necassary could be useful. Best of Luck.

Thanks for all your help everyone. There are no beagle rescues in the area but there is a beagle in nearly every shelter within 100km of me. Most of the shelters will not adopt dogs out over the holidays. Must be a very hard choice for them - they want to place the dogs but do not want people buying them as Xmas gifts. I think its a good choice. Also, it will give me a chance to see how the neighbours might feel about all that roo rooing etc.

Our dog used to eat stones as a puppy. We had to remove all access to them for a while - not easy. It passed. Never experienced any problems but a freind had to take her dog to the vet over a paticullarly large. sharp rock it had ingested. Cost some money but the dog was fine.

I thought this might have been a case of stubborn rather than thick. We have done some research into the breed and they sound very nice but we will have to discuss the braying, barking and wooing - doesn't bother me but we must take the neighbours into consideration. I had not heard of their propensity to run off but I guess it stands to reason as they are hounds. After the holidays we will go visit a couple of the little guys in the shelters around here. Thanks everyone for your help.

We are considering getting a second dog. We have a 1 year old male border collie. There are a few Beagles in shelters near us but we have been advised that Beagles are either thick or extremely stubborn. Does anyone have any experience with this breed? Thanks.

A freind had a similar problem with her cat. Same solution too. Switched to a higher quality food (either Solid Gold or Wellness or Wysong) and presto - all better.

Had a similar experience. Kavik was around 4 months old and hadn't peed in the house in weeks. He was walking towards the back door, and I was on the couch, he was no more than 4 feet from me and he turned his head while walking, looked at me and started peeing, sortof mid stride!? We scooped him up and he finished outside. He never did it again. My only conclusion was he was running an experiment of some kind. eg. Kavik thought - [i]Hmmm, I think I have this peeing thing all sorted out: outside good, inside bad. Maybe I just better double check. [/i] Walks past mom, makes sure he has her attention and - TEST! [i]Sure enough - outside good, inside bad. Glad I got that straigtened out.[/i] :D

I free feed (always food out). I think Kavik would starve if I didn't. He loves his treats and his yogurt but other than that he is not terribly interested in food. If the food wasn't available for him all the time I don't think he'd eat, he's too easily distracted. When we went on our canoe trip we could not free feed and we had to remind him to eat repeatedly, he lost 3 1/2 to 4 lbs in one week and he only ways 40 lbs.

Does your dog roll onto his/her back to have his/her belly scratched? If/When it does this say "Play dead!" or "Bang your dead!" Enough repatitions and the dog should roll on its back when the command is given.

He generally likes people, rushes to greet them, jumps up :oops: , wiggles excessively. Once he has developed any sort of distrust though - that's it, he will probably never trust that person again. We have one visitor; Kavik barks at and rushes him and hides behind me when Brendon comes over. Brendon scared him when he was a puppy, first time they met each other :x .

I have a BC, Kavik, I year old male, terribly smart (compared to my other pup), very cuddly.

What size is your dog crate? We crate train our dogs and this is the information we recieved from our trainer. The crate should be large enough for the dog to stand, lie down, turn around and that is it, no bigger. This will stop the pup from messing in the crate but a pup should not be left in the crate for too long. General rule is no more than 1 hour per one month of age, maximum of 6 hours if possible. (puppy will sleep in the crate while your away and at night so it can't be left too long) Its also good to leave A chew toy, but no food or water. If your using an xpen the rules are different. Best of luck.

After reading a couple threads on dog aggression I was wondering: where is the line between normal displays of dominance and dog aggression? I had always been advised that if neither dog is injured its best to let the dogs sort things out on their own and then not mess with their system - ie if one dog is dominent and will not let the other play with a paticular toy I'll only be creating problems if I give said toy to the submissive dog. I have a year old bc - Kavik, we are fostering a 4 month old GDS/Malamute cross. They play fine together and share a food dish no problem. Occaisionally Kavik will growl, snap and force Tir into a submissive pose, sometimes their play becomes very exhuberant and sometimes it turns to more growling, snapping etc. Neither dog has become seriously injured although Kavik has recieved a few scrapes or punctures from those sharp little puppy teeth, that seems to have passed though - we stop them if they seem to be getting too rough. Sometimes Kavik will not allow Tir to have treats, paticular toys or sit beside some members of the family, Tir never puts up a fight in these situations. So what is the verdict? When and where should behaviour be curbed? Thanks

I know its been a bit since you initially posted but - How did it go, did you take the pooch hiking? We have not gone on an overnight hike with or BC Kavik but we do take him on 4 hour hikes in the local conservation area. He does fine but the ground is very soft. When we took him on our week long canoe trip he was conditioned enough to do all the portages and cary his own pack in all respects but one. The pads of his feet were just not ready for all that hiking, rock climbing and being repeatedly wet and dry. He ended up with a dime size patch missing from the bottom of one pad and scraps on another. This did not slow him down or seem to bother him at all, but it worried me a bit. Do you know what its like trying to get a yearling bc to sit still and chill in the campsite, especially with all those sticks that need to be rearranged. Anyway I would suggest either conditioning the dogs pads or thinking about other foot protection. Bootties are a common option but there is a musher's wax/goo that is said to do a good job. I'll be trying that on our next trip.