Your favourite bits about your pastoral breed :) General Chat

I sure hope so, too, Brandiesnap, but it's always better to be safe than it is to be sorry!

Another useful one is "Leave it!", which I use to keep my two off rats. I don't give a toss about the rats' wellbeing, but the beggars carry lepto and will bite if cornered. Both BCs are vaccinated against lepto, but I have no desire to test the vaccine unnecessarily! When I shout "Leave it!", I get a truculent blue-eyed glare in return, full of defiance, but they leave the rat to go about its undesirable business, keeping its nasty germs to itself

Snorri

Thanks Snorri, for yet another remarkable escape for Kali then, I'm sure your relief of getting to him safe and sound overcame the original feeling you had when you realised he had escaped in the first place! I can imagine how mad (and worried!) you must have been.

One day many years ago when I had my old girl Tara, and Sacha was only a little puppy, we had a guest house and I was upstairs making the beds, and Tara was barking like mad on our driveway, not the same bark she would do if somebody had come to the gates, but just a constant regular bark, bark, bark. Luckily, I had never heard that type of barking from her before, so I looked out of the bedroom window. There she was down on the driveway with one of the gates half open! She was standing there across the open part of the gate in front of our little puppy, pushing it back onto the drive, staring up at the house doing this strange barking! Needless to say, I raced downstairs and gave her the biggest cuddle ever and promptly shut the gate! Can you imagine, I could have lost both of them! Btw, it wasn't meeee who left the gate open, but a workman we had in doing some repairs downstairs - obviously not a dog owner himself! Also needless to say, he got the brunt of my anger and promptly left the job undone!

Tara was a gsd I rescued, well I was given her by a friend who used to breed them but decided to breed collies, and she had to get rid of Tara because she went for one of the collies when the collie was reprimanding one of her puppies, so she knew how much I loved her so she just gave her to me at 18 months old. She had a cabinet full of cups she had won in the obedience classes so she was one very clever dog indeed. 3 months down the line she came round to see us as she missed her so much and wanted her back! Can you believe that?! Anyway, she realised how very happy Tara was with us and how much we loved her so decided against it, thank God! Actually Tara ignored her and sat at my feet all evening, so I think she got the message!

Yes Snorri, that's another brilliant command that all dogs should know. A few months ago before I had Georgie, we were walking across the downs and I suddenly noticed Cassie had got something in her mouth, so I immediately said "leave it", she dropped it, and it was that very long sharp bone that you get next to the leg bone in a chicken! Wow, can you imagine if she had swallowed that! It must have been a rabbit's leg that a Fox had left behind, but what she had in her mouth was just this long thin sharp needle type bone. Again, my heart went in my mouth! I'm sure these dogs will be the death of me one day!

Wow, Snorri and Helen, you have such remarkable dogs! Snorri, I can imagine how you must have felt seeing that car heading towards Kali. Well done you for getting that down in place

Helen, again wow, I can imagine how you must have felt too with Cassie being so close to that van. And wasn't Tara a clever girl to stop the pup escaping

I think I'll work harder at getting Barney's down better, it might just save his life one day.

Thank you for sharing these remarkable stories

Well guess what I spent 1 1/2 hours on the beach doing this morning? Yes, practicing 'down'. Cassie will sit for a treat without being asked so practicing down from there at close range to start. She did it every time with a treat in front of her nose, so will progress from there. Not bad for a first day

Great stories!! So gald they all had happy endings

Well done Cassie (and you too Wufflehoond) !!

Brandie does not seem in the mood to do anything today
But her down from a distance is coming along. She will do it once she has sat first
Hopefully that's a good sign

Can't believe the workman left the gate open Well done Tara! I always check our gate beacuse my dad has a habit of leaving it open Luckily it only goes into next doors garden. But it's still a bit embarrassing if she wanders in They have a dog though so it goes both ways really we sometimes get a visitor!

Thanks you guys, if I search deep enough I expect I have quite a few tales like that to tell with my past experiences.

Well done Wooflehoond with your excellent training with Cassie, she will pick it up very quickly I think, they are smart dogs aren't they.

Tj, you won't have any problems either I don't think as Barney is at the right age and you've done so well with him so far, I'm sure you'll teach him the technique, and as you say, it might just save his life one day, you never know what can happen.

Brandie sounds like she can do it anyway even if she does sit down first, maybe you should do it at least once a day when you're out on a walk with her and it will come as 2nd nature to her when she hears it.

Btw, just a tip. Tara that gsd I had who had won all those obedience cups, well she would lie down at a distance with just a hand signal, and you never know, if your dog is quite a way away from you they may not hear your "down" command, so maybe it might be an idea to teach it whilst you're out, with a hand signal to go with it if you know what I mean! Blimey, here's me saying all this and even my two present dogs don't do a "down" command! Well, they do indoors or at the vets, but not out in the fields from a distance! I too am going to practice this with them all week now! They will both stop dead at a "wait" command, but I want to teach them the one Tara knew, which was to lay flat on the ground from a distance with a hand command. She was absolutely ace at doing all of the commands, but of course, I can't take the credit for teaching them to her, but she loved every minute of it when I used them. Good luck!

Thanks Brandiesnap and Helena. She was good on the beach this morning but a little mare on the way to the college field this afternoon, well I guess teenagers can't be good all the time can they?

Thanks Helens I will try using a hand signal as well. And I'll be practising on each walk I need to do things with Brandie while we're out any way otherwise she gets gets bored and finds trouble


Lol at wufflehoond! Bless her she has to show you up sometimes

Well Barney is starting his bronze good citizen tomorrow and we'll definatly try teaching hi the down command. He'll do it with a sit first but won't yet go down from stand. he gets so excited when he does his training he gets in such a faff and just doesn't listen properly. he likes to second guess you if you know what I mean?

Aww good luck to Barney!

Brandie does that too sometimes. Tries to do what she thinks I'm going to ask
I'm sure he will get it in the end though sounds like he's well no the way.

Barney and Brandie, and of course Cassie sound like real characters to me, that's another thing our dogs have I think, real characters, mine are always making me laugh too!

Yes tj and Brandiesnap, that's called "anticipation", a well known word in the horse world as it's a big "no-no" when schooling your horse that they anticipate what you want to do next! I just call it keen and eager myself! Don't they love it when you do some training with them, my two go quite "mad" afterwards as they are so pleased with themselves. Mind you, it's a lot more difficult for me with 2 big dogs to try and teach them new things, especially when we go out together. I may have to shut one away and do some special training in the garden I think, otherwise it just turns into a big game! You know what they're like!

Talking of shutting one away, I invested in a child's gate yesterday as I'm so fed up with Cassie pestering me to go out as soon as I've got out of bed in the mornings, I'm not allowed to drink my tea ya know!! Sooooo, I shut her in the bedroom this morning for the first time ever with this child gate, and bless her, she just sat there for a while (quite a long while) and then decided to lay down, but not a peep came out of her! Heaven! The trouble is it's cold and wet now in the early mornings, but she insists on laying on the driveway next to the car as soon as she gets up just in case I might forget to take her with us. Anyway, my brilliant idea has now put a stop to that, I just have Georgie lying by the back door now whilst I drink my tea in peace! After all, I AM the boss in this house you know, even if she thinks she is most of the time! I wouldn't have her any other way though.

No time to practice today, Cassie's poorly:-( :-( :-(

Ooooh nooooo wufflehoond, what's up with her? Has she got diarrhea or something or being sick? Have you posted somewhere, I've missed it, if not, I hope she gets better quickly and hope you don't need to take her to the vet. So sorry to hear this.

Hand signals are good, too! I didn't teach them consciously, I just realized I'd been emphasising commands with my hands, and that the dogs had simply picked up on them. Sometimes, so much so that now Snorri will often only obey if he gets the signal AND the verbal command ( a bit like computer messages like "Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?" (I feel lkie answering "No, you stupid machine, I just clicked "shut down" to see what would happen.............")

"Down" = a call of "Down!" with hand held out flat, then brought down slowly. On the occasion in question, Kali didn't even need the command, it would seem that he just associated an oncoming car with going down. Thank God he did - my heart was in my mouth for a few seconds. Whilst I was annoyed at him going AWOL in the first place, I was very proud of his show of "common sense" (which never seems to be all that common )

Snorri
:smt038

Thanks Helena, yes I posted it in health. Was up all night with her, sickness and diarrhoea, wouldn't even drink this morning which is what worried me. Spoke to emergency vet and she set my mind at ease. She wanted to go for a walk this afternoon, stood looking at the lead so took her for an easy one. Since then she's been drinking, had marmite on toast and just scoffed a boiled chicken breast so think whatever it was has cleared her system. Had me worried for a bit and OH is away this weekend...nightmare. Need a good night's sleep now.

Thank God for that Wooflehoond. I know the feeling well, I had it last week with Cassie didn't I! Why do they keep getting sickness and diarrhea like this nowadays, I can't fathom it out when I never give mine anything different to eat day in day out. I think they must be using some strange new pesticides or something out in our fields nowadays, either that or there are a lot more nasty bugs going around from dog to dog, but I don't want to stop my two from meeting other dogs as it's all part of their enjoyment of their daily walk isn't it. Anyway, Cassie is on the mend, hope you get a good night's sleep tonight, you obviously need it after that!

Wufflehoond, I saw in the health section that cassie has sickness and the sqirts, sorry can't spell the other How is she now? Give her a hug from me

Helen, yeah Barney is definately a right character When he's training and you tell him to sit, he'll sit but his bums going like mad here he's wagging his tail it's soooo funny

Snorri, I think Barney has picked up on hand signals too cos when we train we use hand signals without even thinking about it, luckily we both use the same ones and sometimes you don't have to say a word, just use the hands and he'll do whatever the signal requires Well he does at home but out it's a different matter

He did well at training but I'll post more in the training section

Thanks Helena and TJ, don't know what it was. Didn't take her anywhere different or feed her anything dodgy yesterday. Didn't start til 10 last night right through til 5 this morning. A lot brighter in herself now, she must have thought all her birthdays had come at once with that boiled chicken! Thanks for asking though

I'm glad Cassie is feeling better now. Hopefully you will get a good nights sleep tonight
Brandie was the same recently but I think it was a dodgy cow poo

I agree that our dogs have lots of character It can be so funny and it just makes me love Brandie even more :smt049
Brandie has picked up on her "sit" hand signal so looks all confused if I've got a toy in my hand instead or perhaps she is just being stubborn