How Often

[oz0707 65]

How often do you lot get out each week? I try and get out every day for about an hour.

[wi11ow 2,657]

everyday they dont learn sitting in a kennel

[Guest foxpack]

every day ,after work when it cools down bout half 7 ,8pm..weekends either first light or evenings again .as willow says thet dont learn sitting in kennel.keeps them ticking over even just an hour out will do.even more so if ya have young stuff coming on .

[Flacko 1,756]

1st thing about 5 then evening about 8-830 settles them down better atb Flacko

[Blackdog92 2,047]

All day everyday depending on where im working im lucky to have a job i can have my dogs with me 90% of the time.

[oz0707 65]

Yeh mine comes work n all. Struggle to get out for more than an hour each evening though. Loads to do!

[squab 2,875]

As flacko says keeps them steady if mine wasn't out everyday the type dog he is would be climbing the walls I reckon

[leethedog 3,071]

Every day got a good patch 20 foot from me house very lucky only rabbit and few wood cock

[brenner 773]

Every day, bar one or two. Also i try alternate the times to keep them settled in pens. My dogs never know what time they will get out at or expect to get out every day. I find it keeps dogs from getting excited and whining or barking at certain times cause they know its time to get out. Learned that the hard way because of unforgiving neighbours

[morton 5,369]

Quality time is better than anytime,a dog will learn more from 10 minutes on land abundant with scent than 3 weeks on land with little.Not everybody as the lifestyle that dictates they can offer the mutt more freedom from the kennel confines,do what you can,when you can and try to zone in to the land that best suits a mutts education,it may take a tad longer to get some dogs up to speck,patience is a virtue.

[Truther 1,579]

Every day, bar one or two. Also i try alternate the times to keep them settled in pens. My dogs never know what time they will get out at or expect to get out every day. I find it keeps dogs from getting excited and whining or barking at certain times cause they know its time to get out. Learned that the hard way because of unforgiving neighbours

 

I had that problem when they got used to a routine, i do the same as you now mate and keep them guessing at times, and miss random days.

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

 

 

Every day, bar one or two. Also i try alternate the times to keep them settled in pens. My dogs never know what time they will get out at or expect to get out every day. I find it keeps dogs from getting excited and whining or barking at certain times cause they know its time to get out. Learned that the hard way because of unforgiving neighbours

I had that problem when they got used to a routine, i do the same as you now mate and keep them guessing at times, and miss random days.

I have experienced this too.

 

Used to take mine out at 6am every day. Alarm would go off, up and out with dogs for hour and half. Well you are stuffed then when you want a lie in or can't take them for whatever reason. The dogs are howling at 6am.

 

I've worked nights for the last 14 months and I've been alternating the times. Some mornings after work, can be any time between 3am and 8am. Other days when I wake up at mid-day or late afternoon.

 

But they get out everyday and have the chance to mooch about in cover and knock the odd bunny out.

[Neal 1,930]

As above, I vary the routine as much as possible. However, as they're kelpies they're pretty good at switching off when at home (though the pup still has a permanent hose-pipe fitted to the run as he's more of a barker). The other benefit is that I don't have to worry about only taking them out in the cool of the day when the temperatures start to rise...sometimes they get so hot they'll even have a drink!

[Blackdog92 2,047]

As above, I vary the routine as much as possible. However, as they're kelpies they're pretty good at switching off when at home (though the pup still has a permanent hose-pipe fitted to the run as he's more of a barker). The other benefit is that I don't have to worry about only taking them out in the cool of the day when the temperatures start to rise...sometimes they get so hot they'll even have a drink!

How do you get your kelpies to switch off me and my dad have brother and sister and all they want to do is work and if you dont have anything for them to do they go and find something to do there proper little grafters them kelpies. Are yours the same?

[Neal 1,930]

Blackdog, I'll try to keep this short else I'll bore people with kelpie pedigrees.

 

I've found all my kelpies to be very full on as pups and also to take a long time to mature. I remember somebody once describing old Rusty as a wall-of-death rider. However, when he reached maturity and "found" his final character he was very laid-back and could work/walk all day but switch off when at home. Amber was the same. Scout will now switch off but it's taken her longer and she's always been the most "worky" of mine.

 

When I looked into getting a replacement for Rusty, I looked at his breeding and felt his character came from a dog called Boanong Oscar (as all the similar types I knew were also descended from him: he's Rusty's great-grandsire). So I found a litter line-bred to him which is where Noggin was from. He has five lines to Oscar but, after getting him and doing even more research, I discovered that Oscar's character came from his grandsire: a dog called Abernant Jim. I then discovered that Noggin's sire had five additional lines to Jim (working name Bob) via his dam.

 

If I hadn't had Rusty I'd be assuming Noggin was a full on nutter too but he does seem to be almost a caricature of Rusty and I often get people telling me they can't believe he's a pup as he's so easy going and laid-back.

 

One final point...the nurture side of the coin...I remember reading an article in the Shooting News/Countrymans' Weekly years ago about using collies for pest control and the author advised spending a lot of time with them just sitting down and soaking up the scenery rather than always allowing them to be full on and I've found this helps too.

 

Incidentally, Amber had some Jim in her but Scout has none...and Rusty hasn't needed replacing yet though he's now so old he's stone deaf, barely gets out further than the garden and skates across any tiled surface like Bambi as his back end has gone.

 

Apologies for going off topic.

 

Edited to add: what do you know of the pedigree of your two? I know a couple of great sites for researching kelpie pedigrees if you're nerdy like me.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Neal