Brandy

Our female dog jumped over the kennel fence to get to our male when she was in heat in July. When pregnancy was confirmed we had the vet give her a pregnancy termination treatment; two injections over two days. Now some one month later it's clear it didn't work; we estimate she will have her puppies in about a week. Now we worry: can the treatment have hurt the puppies? Also: she already had a litter this spring (which is why we did everything to avoid her having this litter, sigh...). Anything special we should think of for this very unfortunate second litter within one year, to do everything we can to ensure her health and safety?

I would like to download/export my Facebook statuses for example to a spreadsheet or text file or similar. The apps I have found for this don't seem to work anymore.... Any suggestions?

I have a dog club that meets several times per week. I try to vary the lessons, and always end with some games that we play all together, owners and dogs, like "Follow the leader" and "Musical chairs" (last one to have the dog in a down-stay and join the others in the middle is out).

But I need some new inspiration; surely all you people out there doing dog training and holding puppy classes have lots of great exercises and games to keep your lessons fun and interesting; please, share!!

I have a farm and all my dogs (border collies) work outside with me all day. They are in excellent shape with great fur, but as the days are getting lighter I have noticed that the fur of my youngest one, my only red dog, really suffers from the exposure to the sun. The colour has become really washed-out and the ends are split and dry. It is not a big issue since I know he is in great shape, but it makes him look shabby and I feel I need to explain to visitors that it's not that he isn't fed properly or is sick, but just "California surfer's" hair. Does anyone know if there is anything I could do to protect his fur a bit? Lotion, conditioner, sun screen...? (We are far North, so he is not suffering from sun burn of the skin, just the fur.)

I am teaching a dog class in a club and wonder if you guys could share some fun games that you play with your dogs, preferably ones suitable for groups of handlers and dogs. (E.g. musical chairs: when music stops, make your dog sit-stay and run to take a chair. If dog breaks position, you have to run back.)

Good games for puppies are also appreciated. Thank you!!

Any herding people on this forum? I am working my 4 border collies on our sheep, and would like advice on how to proceed.

One of the dogs is much too close to the sheep; how can I make him keep a larger distance?

Another is getting very good at keeping the sheep with me. How do I now start teaching him flanking (circling the herd and then herding in other directions than towards me) without confusing him completely?

Finally: my star herder has lost all confidence as the sheep has gotten calmer. He stays much too far out and applies no pressure on the sheep; folding right away if they turn around to look at him. How can I get him to be more confident and engage with the sheep?

Whenever we take the car Teddy whines, pants heavily, paces back and forth, climbs on the walls and drools rivers all over the place, litterally soaking the interior and our other dogs. If there is any added excitement, like windshieldwipers, someone passing us outside, or anyone opening one of the windows, he goes ballistic. He is stressing us all out, including our other dogs, to the point that we all dread taking the car anywhere. Looking just at the behaviour I would assume there was an element of fear in there, but Teddy loves taking the car and jumps into it any chance he gets. We have tried keeping him by himself in the trunk, in the front or the backseat, with the other dogs, leashed, talking to him, scolding him, stopping the car whenever he starts whining, making him sit or lie down.... Nothing calms him down. During a recent 10 hour trip, he paced during the whole time, never even sitting down. I have thought about a kennel, but I am afraid he might hurt himself in it....

I have several rescue border collies. Most of the year we train and/or compete in agility and herding and also do several sessions of tracking, bicycle joring and pulling per week for fun, but these months around Christmas it is too dark and cold and the ground is too muddy to do any of those activities safely during the week and sometimes even during the weekend. I still walk them four times per day and give them bones and stuffed kongs etc, but this doesn't give them nearly enough mental stimulation and challenge and they are bored and antsy. Any ideas for activities that could help us get through this dark and loathsome period?