Border Collie

We had a wonderful day at the beach today. We had fun, the dogs had fun, and we made sure that the dogs didn't stop anyone else having fun. That may sound an odd thing to say, but I love being able to take Buddy and Star with us on a day out. They both adore the beach - having a paddle, enjoying a dig in the sand and so on. I am convinced that if dog owners allow their dogs to spoil the good time others are trying to have we will be banned from more and more places.

Now I know Border Collies are different from many other breeds, and need occupying, but I'm really not sure this is the way to go about it. Here you can read an article about Kirin who has been taught to do squat type exercises on command. All very well and good, except I'm not sure how good it is for her back legs. I always worry about dogs who are required to even walk upright on their back legs a lot, but standing on them and raising and lowering herself must be putting a ton of unnecessary strain on Kirin's legs.

She wags her tail as she's doing it, and do like the clever way she tries to find a handy wall or piece of agility equipment to lean on for balance.

Is it clever training? - yes it is. Is it good for the dog? - I wouldn't have thought so, but if any vets or other health experts reading can shed light on the subject, please do.

Take care,

Julie x

Stephen Foster is the author of Walking Ollie and Along Came Dylan. You can here him talking about his dogs and his books in episode 77 of DogCast Radio. Stephen was interesting and amusing to interview, and I enjoyed his books.

We've just got home from a highly enjoyable visit to Graeme and Maureen Sims. Graeme has a book out later this month, and having read it, I can thoroughly recommend it. Give a Dog a Home focuses on how best to settle rescue dogs into their new homes, and how to approach training them. Graeme uses two rescues dogs he has taken in, to illustrate how it can require lateral thinking to come up with a training regime that suits the dog. The interview we recorded today with Graeme will be in a DogCast Radio show later this year.

The book is a great read; Graeme is a brilliant

Keeping an eye on dog-related news items is part of compiling DogCast Radio, and it seems there have been some unusual mishaps recently.