At 12:33 PM -0700 7/8/97, g. bisco wrote:

>1A) Puppies nipping legs:
>And a question about this behavior: do all puppies do this, or is it a
>herding puppy thing?

 i think this is a herding dog thing. I don't know what you do with a mass
of puppies. Stop running certainly, that takes the fun away. Stop running
and say "no" I guess. Then walk slowly and if there are any nips say "no"
and stop altogether for a bit. They will get bored and go off and then you
can start moving again. Repeat often till you are all bored silly with this
game.
>
>1B) Puppies with cats:

 Cats are pretty unbreakable and pretty capable of letting puppies
considerably larger than them know exactly where the boundaries are. Your
puppies are treating the cat like another puppy and not like prey - even
the chasing. I'd trust the cats to take care of this situation. I don't
think your puppies will grow up to be cat killers.

>2) Future problem:
>One puppy is probably going to a farm home, where it will have duties
>when it grows up which will make it impossible for to be in a fenced
>yard/on leash all the time. Any suggestions for teaching boundaries and
>"stay off the road"?

        The above problems are complicated by multiple puppies. This one
pretty much has to be one on one with the puppy. Put the puppy on a long
lead on the road side of the fence. Let him or her explore. Whenever s/he
approaches the road say "no" and encourage him/her to come back toward you.
Never let him/her appraoch the road without you and then on a tighter lead.
Walk on the edge of the road and when traffic approaches from either
direction say "car" and both you and the puppy get waaay off the road and
the puppy "sit/stays" until the car is well passed. WHen the coast is clear
"good dog" and back on the edge of the road.

        I have friends with invisible fence and it works pretty well for
their dogs. They still occasionally bust on through (probably gritting
their teeth the whole way) and the fence seems prone to problems of one
sort of another. Certainly it won't keep a determined runner at home nor
would i trust it to keep my bored dog home all day while i was at work. But
it's pretty effective. I don't know how it would work on even a moderately
ruffed collie though... the electrodes have to be able to send a shock and
i think all that hair might be a great insulator...

                jan


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