Hi I just thought I'd introduce myself as it seemed rude to gatecrash the party and remain anon!  My name is Karen, I live in West Yorkshire with my boyfiend. We have Max, a German Shepherd/Husky cross who is 3 and a half and a real character! We have 2 Bengal cross cats named Chili and Loki. Loki thinks she's a dog so I thought it apt to mention her on here!! This weekend we added a new addition to our growing menagerie in the form of Tosca, a 7 week old Border Collie. She has settled in well and the other pets have taken to her very nicely. We are crate training her so any advice would be particularly useful!! In the past I have owned a number of dogs including a Standard Schnauzer, A Great Dane, a Great Dane/Black Lab cross, (looked like the biggest Lab in the world!), a Neo Mastiff /Ridgeback cross and a Border Collie. They have all been fab dogs with their own quirks and traits and I just can't do with not having any dogs around me!!
I am thinking of holding a puppy party at my home when Tosca has has her vaccs, as I am only too aware of the need for pups to be well socialised with other animals. What do you think of this idea? And also would any of you who are local be interested??

Wow, i think a puppy party sounds fantastic! - Great fun and im sure it will give her chance to make some new friends. Puppy partys are big in America, they take gifts and all sorts to welcome the new addition - For some of us our animals are our children so it makes sense really :D

Welcome to the board, im sure lots of other members will be along to say hi soon :)

Roxanne

best dogs in the world!!! ;)
is she an angel or a terror?
any particalar exciting breeding in her lines ?

oh & welcome!!!!!
my gang send tosca a woof (or two)

Hi and welcome smiffschik :)

Well, she is absolutely gorgeous of course, and generally she is an absolute angel!! We are having a few 'teething' problems with the crate training but no doubt it will pay off in the end.
She isn't a pedigree per se, but she is pure working collie. Not KC material as she has probably too much white in her but nonetheless she is an absolute star and we love her to bits! She already has the herding instincts and she tries to round our cats up and nips at our ankles!! I saw both her parents when I collected her from the farm, and they were both workers, mum was tri colour and dad b/w, both very friendly too so I have high hopes for this little one. I am hoping to get into agility/obedience with her and win us some trophies!!

Hi and nice to have you on board :)
Congrats on your new baby - the puppy party sounds like a great idea.  In slightly different circumstances we had a "puppy and pizza party" - it was for our first litter and we had my daughter's friends round en masse to play with eight puppies, who were about 6 weeks at the time  (the pizza proved to be an unnecessary bribe :D).  Worked great for socialising.

Best wishes, Teri ;)

Hi Karan and welcome, where in west yorkshire are you from?

I 2nd the where in West Yorkshire are you? not sure about the puppy party but we would love to meet up and take the dogs for a walk with you. I own a 10 month old Boxer and a 6 month old German Shepherd and Im from Leeds in West Yorkshire.

Congratulations on Tosca! Isn't it exciting bringing a new pup home! Puppy party is a really good idea, and very highly recommended by Ian Dunbar, as someone else said, they're really good in america but haven't taken off so well here. Some vets do them I think.

I am in Huddersfield for my sins. Must have done something wrong in a previous life!!

Ohh yay another BC person i have got a 12week old male BC plus a 2 an 3yr old
A puppy party sounds like a brilliant idea let me know if you go ahead with the idea as id be up for it if my dad could be blagged into traveling

Well I'll have to keep you in mind if we ever decide to have puppies then!! Where are you in uk?

Im in Staffordshire but travel isnt a big issue my dogs are spoilt when it comes to travel we took them to Wales last sat just so they could run on the beach, They loved it. Hows your pup doing my horror is going to be starting his good citizen awards in January the club im starting him at goes all the way from puppy to gold and they do all of them i cant wait

What are the good citizen awards? Not heard of those. Tosca is doing really well. She has settled into the crate routine at night now which is a relief. During the day she is ever more boisterous and playful, but she is also having loads of 'accidents' so I am always to be found with a cloth n my hand at the mo!! It would be fun to meet up with another BC fanatic thats for sure! I need tips on training!

They are awards you do with your dog you do puppy bronze silver and gold normally you do a 6-8 week course of training and then take the test if you go onto the kennel club site theres more info about it on there

I shall have to go and have a look at that one then. I'm looking to enrol in puppy classes in January. I want to eventually get into flyball. Do you know much about it?

Flyball is great fun - my Border Collie ADORES it and there are clubs all over the place now :)

Is it difficult to train a dog to do flyball? What level of obedience would she need to be at to start??

No it's not hard at all, especially if it's a ball orientated dog.
I would not train for flyball till 12 months of age though.You need a solid recall and general good control of your dog :)

Kewl thanks for that. I will be aiming for flyball in our training now with a view to taking it up when Tosca is 12 months old!