FOSTER HOME NEEDED URGENTLY

TDBCR needs a foster home in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland area that can whelp out a purebred border collie bitch who is in danger of being shot.

She is a CBCA registered female who was accidentally bred to a registered male, so the pups will be purebred. They will be neutered before adoption.

If you live in the Lower Mainland and have a secure, safe environment to raise a litter of pups, please contact us ASAP! This is a time sensitive situation and we need to get the bitch out of there fast.

TDBCR covers all expenses, including food (they'll be raised on raw, which we will provide), supplies and veterinary care. We will be responsible for the placement of the pups and the mum when they are ready to go. This is a minimum 3 month commitment and a wonderful way to help rescue dogs. Please email us for more information, asap!

Oh, the DRAMA

Sofa is such a drama queen.

"Oh! You gods, why do you make us love your goodly gifts, and snatch them straight away?"

Yeah yeah. Tell it to the judge.


I am Cashew. I am the judge.

See how serious looking I am?

As you can see, Sofa has recovered perfectly from his near drowning of last week (:eyeroll:).

However, he has lately come to display a brand new behaviour that neither Mr. Pickles, nor anyone else at the park, appreciates. It's kind of complicated, so I'll see if I can explain it in simple terms ...

Oh yes, here we go.
The Sofa is an asshole.

He has taken up a new hobby of being a randomly aggressive nincompoop and getting quick tempered with other dogs. As near as I can figure it appears to be a form of 'possession aggression.' The things he found valuable enough to aggress over today include: dad's truck, a stick, my pocket (where cookies sometimes live) and occasionally whatever dog he was currently playing with. Normally the Sofa is a very goofy guy who enjoys playing games my dogs find abhorrant, like ear tugging and wrestling, grappling over toys and "chase me" games.

This is the "normal" Sofa, playing gently with an 8 week old Lab puppy (so cute, right?)

But as of just lately, he has been fighting with other dogs (never people) over resources and perceived insults. Is this common in dobermans? Is it a function of his oncoming maturity? Any suggestions for nipping it in the bud, so to speak?

You all were so helpful with the recall issue, maybe you have some insights for Mr. Pickles.

Who needs to GET OUT OF THE SHOT, PICKLES!! Yeesh. He's as bad as Tweed!

Speaking of the recall, I was interested to hear all your suggestions and insights. Someone asked how The Food Lady would work on this problem, and I was sort of surprised that nobody offered anything similar to the approach I would take.

Liam's recall issue is not a "fear" of coming when called, nor is it a communication problem - eg., it's not that Liam does not understand his recall command, but rather that he chooses to disregard it in favour of his freedom. To me, this makes Liam a very smart dog - one who can make decisions on his own. But it also makes him a frustrating dog, especially if you're in a hurry, or he escapes the leash in a dangerous situation. That's why in my world, "come" is not negotiable*.

*unless you're Mr. Woo. Because if you are Mr. Woo, you look like this and therefore, are immune to all directives:


Over the last decade, I have fostered a couple hundred border collies, and I have without fail taught every one of them a fairly reliable recall within about two days. And I have done this using the age old art of putting pressure on the dog.

Pressure is the language that a working dog understands. There's a reason Open handlers don't clicker train their sheepdogs - for centuries, shepherds have used pressure to make their dogs understand what they want and need them to do. When a dog is working sheep, he is putting pressure on the sheep, and the shepherd is putting pressure on the dog, and the dog is constantly adjusting his stance, pace and position in relation to the pressure of the environment he's working in - gates, fences, escape routes, panels etc. Border collies are very sensitive to pressure of all kinds, and it's pretty easy to make it work for you.

When I teach a dog a recall, I loose him somewhere and let him do his thing for a bit, and then I call him, ONCE. If he does not immediately respond, I then proceed to "walk the dog down." Purposefully, and silently, I walk straight toward the dog - I do not run, I walk. I do not change my pace, and I do not get angry and I do not yell - I simply walk. If the dog goes left, so do I. If he skips off to the right, so do I. If he takes off in the other direction, so do I. I am relentless in my pursuit of the dog. But usually I only need to be relentless for a couple of minutes, because pretty soon, the dog always - ALWAYS - stops. Usually he lies down and waits for me to reach him. This is pressure - the dog feels the pressure of me coming for him, and succumbs to that pressure. Border collies were bred to be very sensitive to this.

When I reach the dog, I take his collar and say nothing. I lead him back to where I originally called him from, sit him down and look him in the eye, and quitely repeat "come." Then I loose him again. Almost without fail, the next time I issue the recall, the dog comes flying back to me as fast as he can, to avoid the pressure of being "walked down" again. Then I throw a party for the dog's success and rewards aplenty are issued - praise, food, a toy or whatever it is the dog likes.

I've found over the years that this only takes 2 or 3 repeats over 1 or 2 days before I can reliably have the dog coming to me on the first command every time. They are smart dogs, and they learn quickly how to avoid the consequence of not coming when called. I suppose that in the vogue of positive reinforcement, this would be something negative, but I have to stress that it is not punishment. My dogs LOVE to come when called, and they LOVE the praise they receive for it. But they instincitvely understand pressure, and yield to is appropriately, as they were bred to do.

Interestingly, toward the end of our photo shoot, Liam's mum got annoyed with her dancing-out-of-reach wayward canine and without knowing she was even doing it, she walked him down. She walked him down straight into the Fraser River, where he sat down, and then he lied down, and then he walked up to her and did a *perfect* front-finish sit and let her put his leash on.

Oh Liam knows what a recall is, there have just been too many rewards for ignoring it, and not enough consequences for disobeying it ;-)

Did you call me?

You know, faces like this:

...do NOTHING to abate my puppy lust. NOTHING.

This one didn't help either.

Oh and look what else I saw! An Irish Setter. I didn't even know they made those anymore.

Thanks to you all who offered to help be Cataxis for a day to get Donut's American cousins over the border. It looks like we have all the legs in place and as of Saturday night, the kitteny goodness will be upon us!

Donut has her own song (as do all my pets). It goes:

You've got kitteny goodness
So much kitteny goodness
You've got kitteny goodness
In those kitteny eyes!

I realize it makes no sense, but she likes it when I sing it to her. I think. It's hard to tell with these damn cats.

I hope you're all ready for some kitteh pictures!!

Also, on Saturday I hope to be in Laidlaw, BC (there's a sentence I never thought I'd say!) at the ASC of BC Stockdog Trials. I'm hoping to take photos of Aussies doing their thang. There'd better not be any puppies there! Come on by if you're in the area and say hello! The Trio Of Terrible will be with me. Mr. Woo wants to get in touch with his Aussie roots.

Kitten Express

Thanks for all your suggestions and observations about retraining a recall on a recalcitrant border collie. Keep 'em coming if you got 'em!

In the meantime, some kittens need some help. There's a mama Scottish Fold cat and her itty bitty kitty committee of two that need to hitch a ride from Seattle, Washington over the border to Canada. They wuz abandoned and need some TLC from The Food Lady and her hoard of merry Fold lovers.

This little trio of kitteny goodness is coming from Oregon on Saturday July 11th. They need a willing driver (with current passport) to get them from Seattle on that afternoon and whip 'em over the border to moi. I have no current passport, but I can be waiting eagerly (doing a little happy dance) just this side of the Canadian border to snatch 'em out of your hot little hands. I'll even been waiving gas money to distract you from their adorableness.

Can you help a sistah out?

Donut thanks you for helping her peoples out.
Please email me at info@bigairphotography.net if you can give us a hand!

Big Air Anywhere

Woo needs no dock to get air!

Of course, to get this shot I had to shoot him out of a cannon. Don't worry, he's just a little singed, but hair grows back!

I asked Tweed if he wanted to go to MacDonald Beach, and he said:

So we went to MacDonald Beach. When we arrived, I asked him if he wanted to go swimming, and he said:

I asked Piper how she felt about me taking all these photos of Tweed, and she said:

And then look what washed up with the tide!!

Man, that cannon must have shot him real far!

We were also at MacDonald Beach to photograph two of our neighbours to the East. Banny and Liam came all the way from Edmonton, Alberta just to have a photo shoot done by Big Air Photography! Okay, maybe to visit their grandma as well, but I'm sure that was a secondary consideration ;-)

Banny is a lilac coloured border collie rescued from the Edmonton shelter, where he was dumped after being abused and starved. Now he's living the life of Riley, and just got his agility starters title.

Oh hai! Nice to meetz you.

He also has something called dilution alopecia which is something not terribly uncommon in dilute coloured dogs, ie, lilacs and blues. This is what happens when you breed for pretty colours instead of solid health and working ability. Of course, it doesn't make Mr. Banny any less fantabulous, just a little light in the coat.

Banny's brother Liam is one funny dude. He has a frisbee stuck to his face. Permanently.

Okay not really. Eventually we tackled him and got it back so that his photos wouldn't look like he has a very strange and lively growth on his face!

Banny and Liam have a special bond. A familiar bond. A very familiar-to-Woo-and-Piper bond.

So here's a question for you all, smart blog readers: what would YOU do about a dog who, as soon as you let him off the lead, takes off and stays out of catching distance, ignores his recall and puts on the afterburners when you go after him to get him?

No, I'm not talking about Woo!! (for a change). Wootie may pretend he suffers from a permanent case of "I can't hear you" but when I walk him down, he comes back in a hurry, or he sits down to await my arrival and takes it like a man. He actually does respond to his recall about 75% of the time on the first utterance.

Liam, OTOH, shoots off like a rocket the moment he is unleashed and dances out of grabby arm range for hours at a time. His mum is quite frustrated with him - she's had border collies for 35 years, and this is the first dog who will not come back when called that she has ever raised. Liam is very good at Rally-O and has lots of obedience training, but the word "come" sends him scuttling off in another direction. I know what I would do, but I would like to know what you would. So would his mum!

Because The Food Lady still is jobless, photo shoots are keeping her in grocery money at the moment, which is a blessing, because Mr. Woo eats a lot. So does The Food Lady. Earlier this week we went to Ladner and photographed a whole mess o'border collies.

Missus MoneyPenny:

And you're pointing your face-box at me WHY exactly?

Mr. Whoa (whoa) Bo!

Hey man. S'up.

And the Amazing Spinning Cracker Dog!

MINE!!!
(Penny! What are you doing back there?!)

They are very graciously playing host family to Rhys, the DFKA Bear, who came to us from Alberta when he didn't get adopted from the shelter. And we are all mystified about why he didn't, because Rhys is practically perfect in every way, a la Mary Poppins - he is a small male, he has tons of drive to play ball, he has a geat off switch and in the house can usually be found ... in your lap, and he likes every other dog he has ever met, ever. There is not a single negative thing about this dog, period.

The very handsome Rhys:

Please pay attention to us now. The Wootie Toy is getting lonely.

Princess P is still doing fabulous after her two scary episodes, and played for 4 hours today without incident. This is a happy tired dog instead of a passing out dog!

The only one of us in danger of passing out is ME, because my agility teacher is a sadist.

And Tweed, despite the beatings and abuse I visit on my dogs on a regular basis (:eyeroll:) is his usual goofy self.

I think Tweed needs a mini-me, and I so desperately wish I could adopt this superduper puppy to make that happen:


This is a 12 week old border collie X Aussie puppy available through Ravensgate RFescue. Doesn't he look like he has a little milk moustache?? WANT!! I haz the worstest puppy cravings EVAR.

Alas, it was not meant to be :(

And finally, this is just a little plug for an awesome dog named Chance.


Chance is the dog I picked up in Princeton BC in February of this year, on an 8 hour road trip. He has been in rescue since then, and he has the worst adoption luck of any dog on the planet. First, nobody was interested in him at all. Then he got adopted by a marine mammal trainer who seemed to be completely perfect for him, but developed severe allergies to the poor guy and was forced to return him since he making it hard for her to breathe.

Then we got a really nice sounding application for him from a guy who first failed to show up for his meet'n'greet, and then turned out to not live where he said he lived and has since vanished. Who does stuff like that?

Anyway, Chance really wants his own home. He is such a neat, loyal, smart and fun dog and he doesn't deserve all this bad luck. Do you know anyone who wants an awesome friend like Chance?

Oh but one last piece of good news - Cinder got adopted this week!



OMG, would you shut up and stop blogging already?