The PAT standard.

[Mariji]

the latest trend is among the elderly who live alone is to want a companion.

 

This makes me furious. My latest little girl, i picked from a photo from a place called Townsville way up north in QLD, Australia. Her dam was owned by a family which knew exactly what they were talking about when it came to collie and genetics. The sire was owned by a elderly man who didn't want the dog anymore. The family with the dam offered to take him as he's a beautiful choc tri merle and he would be sure to attract idiots for his colour and the fact he wasn't desexed. The elderly man offered to breed the dam and sire so the family could keep a puppy because the sire owner's daughter wanted the sire. Anyway that is how the litter with my girl came around. Then a couple of weeks ago he was up for sale again. I was furious. He was selling him because he can't "walk" him. He was selling him as a full male, which is so wrong because he's basically telling people they can breed from him which of course people will because of his colour. This should NOT be done because of his last litter and the patterned white problems in the litter which are because of his colour not the dams. If your elderly or lazy go get an old dog from the pound or something like a greyhound, they are beautiful but extremely lazy.

 

I also agree on the poor quality training classes. My agility clubs are wonderful but the puppy classes are terrible. I recently refused to participate when my instructor told me to smack my puppy on the nose and yell "leave it" to teach her to leave a piece of food she was sure the handler was giving to her. She wouldn't listen to me saying that i shape all my behaviour and i wasn't trying to stand up to her but that is completely unacceptable. If i had done that just once that would have undone all my shaping training with no corrections. Since then i have been using my older girl in the class and only involving Echo when neccessary. They focus too much on the behaviour and not teaching you how to work with your dog.