[Paul B]

has she got a coat? just wondering if the statueing could be due to a dislike of cold and wet, its a pretty common thing among sighthounds as they dont have much meat on the bones.

Yup. It's a bit of an odd one as she walked fine on the lead at the rescue (more than once), fine on Day 1, we did a big loop on Day 2 (1h30 perhaps, no issue apart from kissing gates), Day 3 - the local school rang their hand held playground bell and that ended that walk, Day 4 - Statued in the alleyway etc. This morning she hid upstairs when she saw her lead (and pee'd)... Backwards progress... (and I'm quite confused).
Last night as we were aware she needed a No.2 I drove 10 mins away and kicked her and Nat out as she'll happily walk BACK to the house!

[Fiend]

lifting (26.6kg!).

DO YOU EVEN LIFT BRO??

Actually isn't that 2XBW for you? Get the deadlift tick.

Interesting stories about her learning to settle in. She has got a great look in that photo

[Will Hunt]

Jesus she sounds like she's got some issues, the poor lass. What do they do to these dogs at the races?

[Paul B]

Jesus she sounds like she's got some issues, the poor lass. What do they do to these dogs at the races?

I don't think it's necessarily that they all have bad lives (I'm sure it varies HUGELY) it's more that you're suddenly asking them to understand a completely different life/world (and rules which they didn't really have). Imagine for instance Saturday was the first time she'd ever encountered stairs and it took Nat and I 15 mins to coax her up (1 paw at a time, literally). A few times later and BOOM, no issue.

I think the main problem rescues have with the sport is that the 'exit strategy' for retired races goes something like pro racer, local racer (flapping tracks), working dog, end. If you're sh*t at any part of this the end may come sooner / you get bumped down the ladder. If we were all to go Vietnamese this wouldn't bother me so much.

[moose]

One of my uncles is a greyhound trainer / breeder (and builder).  I recall that when he bought a dilapidated house to fix-up / live in, he immediately built luxurious heated kennels for the dogs, but was content to live himself in a caravan in the yard for several years.... his wife and baby were not impressed.

[Fiend]

Heads up if anyone - or anyone you know - in the south Manchester area needs a daytime dahg walker, I can unbiasedly suggest:

https://www.facebook.com/heatonzoomiesdogwalking/

I have personally witnessed this person walking dogs, and can testify to the positive reinforcement approach and level of care involved, to the extent she often gets mistaken for the actual dog owner.



Full disclosure this is not unbiased at all. But it is honest.

[Paul B]

We're onto our second dog walker (the first got married and moved away). Neither have managed to get Nina out of our rear yard (that's 3 years now).

[peewee]

We're onto our second dog walker (the first got married and moved away). Neither have managed to get Nina out of our rear yard (that's 3 years now).

TBF you and Nat struggle doing that.

[tomtom]

We're onto our second dog walker (the first got married and moved away). Neither have managed to get Nina out of our rear yard (that's 3 years now).

So being your dog walker is basically turn up - sit down, watch TV, have a cuppa then go?

Winning!

[Fiend]

We have loads of big beaches nearby which I think would be fine, but there are also lots of woods near our house and I wonder if a whippet could be trusted to explore off lead and come back?

I won't post anymore after this one as to not derail the thread but plenty of climbers have whippets. A few climbers have had lurchers from Lurcher Link and Kaye is very good at matching people to a dog that fits (Mark Katz had woodie, 'the General' and he was an ace dog that was why we looked at sighthounds in the first instance). We've got a greyhound and you can be 99% certain on recall (that she'll ignore you and do what the hell she likes). We'd both agree that getting her as a rescue has been the best thing we've done.

I'm generally not fond of dogs but Paul's greyhound is a totally non-objectionable canine. It has the activity level and attitude of an opium addicted C18th poet; carried between routes, sprawled out and langouress. Reminds me of my late Grandad's dog, a whippet / Beddlington terrier cross, that would refuse to go for walks for weeks at a time when it was cold out (she had a fantastic ability to constipate herself).

Continuing here for kingholmsey....

Gapescrote's / MuscleCoach1000's / AGreenhorne's / JCorbot's whippet Pippin is a lovely thing and I can vouch for her being a good and peaceful crag dog (apart from around sheep and other furry things which seems to raise disproportionate bloodlust). Oh when I was renting a room in Bristol the landlady had a whippet also called Pippin who was similarly a gentle soul.

GF has experience of vizlas (they're all over bloody south Manc) and they can be great fun and nice dogs but also seem to be a one dog riot for the first couple of years.


Also....

It has the activity level and attitude of an opium addicted C18th poet; carried between routes, sprawled out and langouress.

Sounds like you doing a coaching session, teaching Shark how to climb faster 

[Fiend]

Bella is an okay name for a dog. Alfie is fairly terrible, as is Lucky.

Christ. What was I thinking. I know know / have known 3 lovely Alfies (including one RIP, the wee one at bUK, and biscuit's old boy).

[Paul B]

So being your dog walker is basically turn up - sit down, watch TV, have a cuppa then go?

Winning!

The second dog walker, Lynne, finally managed to get her out. Lynne was married to a farmer and they had working Collies which she brought round to herd Nina out. However, mostly she just sat and shared her lunch with her (her daughter took over this 'duty' after a while).

Nina is almost 10 for reference.

[Oldmanmatt]

We added a working collie to the family New Years day, two years ago.
She came straight off the farm, Dartmoor, her Dam and Sire were both working cattle dogs. She was the runt and too small to be trained to work.
We already had a soppy, good natured, Goldie and a one year old Sprollie pup (at least, she was supposed to be a Sprollie, she was rescued at 6 weeks old from a puppy farm in south Wales. She looks far more like a Auzzy Kelpie, is mind numbingly fast and can (has) bite through a car seatbelt in one chomp).
The Sprollie is so good natured and perhaps the smartest dog I’ve ever known, mothers and disciplines the other two. The house regulator.
The Goldie, was lazy and seemed to be ageing too fast, she’s eight now. Since the Collie arrived, the constant playing and chasing each other, has done wonders for the other two.

But, a Collie is hard work. She’s by far the most affectionate of the dogs, actually cuddles, given half a chance. The hardest to train and control, selectively deaf and so protective of her “pack” (us) we’ve had to adapt our behaviour, because no training method or pharmaceutical intervention is as effective as a lead and cloth muzzle. She has no interest in livestock or other dogs, when off the lead, only playing with us and her sisters, but a problem when on the lead, when she gets snappy with other dogs that approach her (hence the muzzle). Despite her wearing two different “caution” bandanas and leads etc, you still have to tell people not to let their dogs too close.
So we avoid taking her anywhere we might have to put her on the lead for too long.
You need a lot of garden, time, energy and patience for a Collie.
But, we absolutely stopped taking the dogs when climbing.

Oh yeah:
Goldie is named Poppy.
Sprollie, Darcy.

Always chose the name before the dog arrived, so when we drove up to pick up the Collie, we had gale force winds and driving rain...
The youngest child chose her name, sounded a bit cool and different from our usual selections of pet names.
Should have known better.

We called her Storm.

[James Malloch]

We’ve had our cocker for 7.5 weeks now. Hard work but great fun!

He is approaching peak teething age apparently so we’re preparing ourselves for the behaviour problems... he’s generally great but gets really bitey in the evening when he’s tired. Think more of a routine is needed for him (crate at 7pm or something) rather than hoping he’ll settle in front of the fire. I think we’ve got many years of that ahead so we may as well make use of the times we can crate him and get some peace...

If only we could take him on longer walks now though...

I wondered what people think is appropriate For puppies? We’ve been loosely sticking to the 5 mins/month of age, twice a day rule. Probably doing a bit more but not too much extra.

There seems to be so much conflicting advice on walking time I never know what’s best!

[El Mocho]

We’ve had our cocker for 7.5 weeks now. Hard work but great fun!

If only we could take him on longer walks now though...

I wondered what people think is appropriate For puppies? We’ve been loosely sticking to the 5 mins/month of age, twice a day rule. Probably doing a bit more but not too much extra.

There seems to be so much conflicting advice on walking time I never know what’s best!

Hip dysplasia isn't super common in cockers but over walking a young puppy is going to increase the risk. Do you know if the parents had hip (and elbows) scored? I'm not sure what the average is for Cockers but with our dogs we wouldn't breed of something with a hip score of more than 13 or so without a really good reason (and wouldn't breed of anything without a completely clear elbow score, so 0).

We have always stuck to the 5mins/month thing and have told all of the people who have had puppies from us to do the same, there have been the odd time we have gone over it (ie once a week max and not over it by very much) and I know some of our owners have done similar. It's even more of an issue in bigger breeds, or obv breeds where dysplasia is more common, and also the bigger or more lumbering puppies of the litter - we've had girls who have been really neat movers from young and a couple of boys who have been really loose jointed looking (ie that typical puppy look) for much longer and we've always been even more careful with them. Really avoid letting him jump in/out of the car and going down steps - anything more than 1 or 2 steps and you should be carrying him.

I know the attraction to going for longer walks both for your sake - more enjoyable walks, and also to tire the puppy out and stop them being a pain. There are loads of good mental games you can do with him in the evenings. 15mins of brain training will tire him out way more than a 15 min walk would. Obv any training you may be doing anyway - sit, stay, come etc but the games we use the most are sniffing games (our breed are really nose orientated but a cocker should be as well). A couple of good (and easy for you) ones:

Sticky chicken (assuming he is not allergic to chicken, a surprising number of dogs are) chop up chicken, or ham slices into small (1cmx1cm) pieces and stick them around the kitchen - on the cupboards, in a corner on the floor etc and then let him go find them. You can get more creative with where you hid the stuff. This is essentially what you would do for the first few weeks of a scent course but hiding the stuff more elaborately by the end - on vehicles outside, in buckets etc. Listen for the dog sniffing - when you can really hear them sniffing they are working hard.

Similar to the above but without having to use chicken/ham or worry about cleaning the kitchen: we have 30 or so of those mini cones they use for football training etc (about 2" high 6" wide with a hole in the top) and we lay them all out in the house and hide small pieces of treat/kibble in about 6 of them and again let the dogs hunt for them. The advantage is you can use the dogs normal food (if they like it and are motivated to find it) and there is the added excitement of the dog having to get the treat from beneath the cone.

I'd say you are getting over the hardest time but if I'm honest they can be pretty hard work for the first year, esp if you have one from working stock rather than show.

[Oldmanmatt]

Ah yes, teething.
 This is what a Collie can achieve, at peak teething, if left unsupervised for 15-20 minutes (note to self, next time you leave a 13 year old boy in charge of dogs, take away PS4 controller before you leave).



Same damn dog, also spends hours talking to the Budgie, all a bit Disney, but what ever they’re saying, occasionally upsets the Sprollie and she monitors them closely and then tells them both off:



We found ours all prefer to swim and living by the sea, fetching a tennis ball from the waves is a favourite. The Goldie will follow me (in her lifejacket) on long ocean swims, though she’s getting too old for scrambling up cliffs to get out these days. The Sprollie and the Goldie love long, fast, moorland runs or Yomps, the Collie gets seriously hacked off if I go past 15-20km and positively goes on strike at four hours, regardless of pace.

[James Malloch]

We’ve had our cocker for 7.5 weeks now. Hard work but great fun!

If only we could take him on longer walks now though...

I wondered what people think is appropriate For puppies? We’ve been loosely sticking to the 5 mins/month of age, twice a day rule. Probably doing a bit more but not too much extra.

There seems to be so much conflicting advice on walking time I never know what’s best!

Hip dysplasia isn't super common in cockers but over walking a young puppy is going to increase the risk. Do you know if the parents had hip (and elbows) scored? I'm not sure what the average is for Cockers but with our dogs we wouldn't breed of something with a hip score of more than 13 or so without a really good reason (and wouldn't breed of anything without a completely clear elbow score, so 0).

We have always stuck to the 5mins/month thing and have told all of the people who have had puppies from us to do the same, there have been the odd time we have gone over it (ie once a week max and not over it by very much) and I know some of our owners have done similar. It's even more of an issue in bigger breeds, or obv breeds where dysplasia is more common, and also the bigger or more lumbering puppies of the litter - we've had girls who have been really neat movers from young and a couple of boys who have been really loose jointed looking (ie that typical puppy look) for much longer and we've always been even more careful with them. Really avoid letting him jump in/out of the car and going down steps - anything more than 1 or 2 steps and you should be carrying him.

I know the attraction to going for longer walks both for your sake - more enjoyable walks, and also to tire the puppy out and stop them being a pain. There are loads of good mental games you can do with him in the evenings. 15mins of brain training will tire him out way more than a 15 min walk would. Obv any training you may be doing anyway - sit, stay, come etc but the games we use the most are sniffing games (our breed are really nose orientated but a cocker should be as well). A couple of good (and easy for you) ones:

Sticky chicken (assuming he is not allergic to chicken, a surprising number of dogs are) chop up chicken, or ham slices into small (1cmx1cm) pieces and stick them around the kitchen - on the cupboards, in a corner on the floor etc and then let him go find them. You can get more creative with where you hid the stuff. This is essentially what you would do for the first few weeks of a scent course but hiding the stuff more elaborately by the end - on vehicles outside, in buckets etc. Listen for the dog sniffing - when you can really hear them sniffing they are working hard.

Similar to the above but without having to use chicken/ham or worry about cleaning the kitchen: we have 30 or so of those mini cones they use for football training etc (about 2" high 6" wide with a hole in the top) and we lay them all out in the house and hide small pieces of treat/kibble in about 6 of them and again let the dogs hunt for them. The advantage is you can use the dogs normal food (if they like it and are motivated to find it) and there is the added excitement of the dog having to get the treat from beneath the cone.

I'd say you are getting over the hardest time but if I'm honest they can be pretty hard work for the first year, esp if you have one from working stock rather than show.

Sorry for my later reply to these - I read them and took the advice on board, just life seems like there's a million things to do at the movement and this completely slipped my mind.

I don't think that the breeder had any hip/elbow scores measured. It sounded like an accidental litter between two friend's dogs who go shooting together. I definitely wasn't the most knowledgeable buyer and hadn't heard of that until you mentioned it.

We're still sticking the the 5 min / month thing with the odd exception now (though more by accident than intention). And picking up for steps wherever possible. Not that he won't come across a drop and launch himself off it on a walk!

I've incorporated some scent games into his day now - sitting him in the middle of a room and then sending him in the direction of 10 hidden treats, getting him to come and sit again between each one. I like the idea of the football cones but he would almost certainly destroy them at the moment!  He's happy doing it with just his kibble at the moment - though he certainly enjoys it more with chicken!

I guess scent is important on walks too. We have him off lead most of the time where possible. We don't generally take toys unless we want to try and train something with one instead of a treat. Based on what you said I suspect this is better than just taking him to play fetch? It will probably make it easier in the long run too when he will just run around and entertain himself and we can concentrate on other things rather than playing.

Ah yes, teething.
 This is what a Collie can achieve, at peak teething, if left unsupervised for 15-20 minutes (note to self, next time you leave a 13 year old boy in charge of dogs, take away PS4 controller before you leave).



Same damn dog, also spends hours talking to the Budgie, all a bit Disney, but what ever they’re saying, occasionally upsets the Sprollie and she monitors them closely and then tells them both off:



We found ours all prefer to swim and living by the sea, fetching a tennis ball from the waves is a favourite. The Goldie will follow me (in her lifejacket) on long ocean swims, though she’s getting too old for scrambling up cliffs to get out these days. The Sprollie and the Goldie love long, fast, moorland runs or Yomps, the Collie gets seriously hacked off if I go past 15-20km and positively goes on strike at four hours, regardless of pace.

We've luckily not had any of that yet (well we've had attempts but we've been there to stop it)! That's quite an effort by the dog! But he's normally in his crate when alone - he gets barky when left out of the crate don't think he's understood that means he can do what he want's yet!

He's 19 weeks tomorrow and seems to be good so far. Doesn't chill out in the evenings which is frustrating as it means he either gets tired and bitey or is forced into the crate. He's pretty good in the day when you're working though.

We've got him for 90 mins a week at a local dog trainers day care. So he gets a bit of training but mainly so he can play with the other dogs. Last week he was a bit too dominant with some of the other puppies, so he's going in with the adults tomorrow - hopefully they'll do what we can't and start to teach him some bite inhibition!

[Fiend]

BUMP.

Can we have a new UKB rule that all new-ish (or otherwise) dagh owners have to post pictures of their woofos fluffos scruffos longbois lowriders roundbois puppos etc etc in this thread for people to admire.

Calling out Mark20, Fatneck, Bradders etc etc....

[James Malloch]

BUMP.

Can we have a new UKB rule that all new-ish (or otherwise) dagh owners have to post pictures of their woofos fluffos scruffos longbois lowriders roundbois puppos etc etc in this thread for people to admire.

Calling out Mark20, Fatneck, Bradders etc etc....

Here’s mine.

One on his first car camping trip and the other is at the moment when he’s feeling sorry for himself after having his balls lopped off

He can often found at Kilnsey.



vietnamese font download

[Fiend]

Awww. And the Cone Of Shame, bless.

[mark20]

Nessa20
Collie x Huntaway


Likes: running, jumping up at people, strokes, chasing tennis balls
Dislikes: DIY/drilling/bolting, Graeme Hammond because he didn't stroke her, Rubicon because she fell in the river

[Fiend]

Top analysis, also those ears 

[Oldmanmatt]

How about new photos of old dogs, because.