http://www.kuvaboxi.fi/julkinen/2cn3v+sikk...sakuu-2009.html

From this link you´ll see some (maybe new races for you also) photos from our pumi and puli-clinic days. As you see helper-dogs Muffy and Weedy are brakes,speeders, holders and gathering-dogs when new and less experienced dogs start their lessons.
Sinikka

Muffy looks like Australia should be proud of her! Looks like she is doing a great job. It's so weird seeing a Koolie in such a different landscape-but Muffy doesn't seem to care-not while there are all those SHEEP.

I know- and even sheeps speak Finnish she understand what to do:)
By the way I was laughing when someone told on this forum about "doubletrouble"-koolies..Muffy doesn´t care about fences, when I put her in behind dog-fences and she sees that I start working, I suddenly have a koolie there also, she just jumps and climbs over!I wonder if there´s also kangaroo in her bloodlines:)
Sinikka

Probably has a bit of kangaroo behind her-and worse than that too, knowing Koolies

Well..I´m still waiting for the "worse" part

I do already know that she likes to chew everything..for example washing-machine´s wires. She also opens boxes of my grooming-table and eats well my grooming-equipments (all my dog-show-clients look me without saying anything- but certainly thinking in their mind- that I have to really poor for using brushes and combs in that kind of shape:)) And what else..she prefers sleeping on dog-rooms tables but certainly not on floor (maybe she has nightmares of snakes I saw on Tv from Australia? Cause she is very intependent she also can open doors- also in night-time and my daughter wakes up freezing.
But I think that kind of stuff is just mark of intelligence- OR maybe you have something to tell me more about strange animals in your country (that are involved in koolie´s pedigrees and do same stuff?)? Kerrie, oh Kerrie..you didn´t tell me everything about these strange dogs
Now I have to run and start heating sauna, tomorrow (and next week) will be full of herding cause Australian sheperd-breeder has booked whole week for her breedings.

Sinikka

well yes i have some koolie cross roo's here to Quin, Connie and Coopers will go over fence's if i start working another dog while they are of their chains so i just make sure they are tied up before i start.

I think Kerry must breed a bit of crocodile in as well as the roo. Seriously, both my dogs were bad chewers untill they were about one year-then it stopped. A puppy symptom I guess.

Haha, i think raz has crocodile in him lol, he is Destructo puppy atm, he is slowly getting better though :) hopefully this shall pass

It will-bang on 12 months-you wait. Give him a dinosaur bone to keep him busy till then-oh, and don't leave your remotes on the couch!

Okay Ceejay must be broken. She was not a real chewer more of a dragger out of underwear, a couple of broken bras but nothing major. She doesn't jump fences, she got through a fence once, loose pailing. I came home and she was waiting patiently at the gate to be let back inside. I asked her where she got out and she showed me. She can jump but knows to stay within our boundary. She chews sticks, balls (tennis balls do not last) and toilet rolls, always have toilet rolls spread around the house and yard. So does that mean Ceejay is broken.

My dumbos always confess and show me where they got out or how they got something down too. Dunno if you'd call it broken-they're just getting bad legal advice I reckon.

OOh I shall go and hide in the bushes.
So sorry Sinikka,
I'm am confident under your excellent training she will grow out of it and will make you proud.

Of all the Koolies we own and have bred or rescued it is rare that you will get any that are bad, usually the Koolie has missunderstood and the behavior hasn't been picked up soon enough so the behavior has become rooted and it can be difficult to correct, but with patience and a good calm hand they all come around.

Puppies chew and can be bitie, if they truly bond with you then they will feel their place is always with you and they will become Houdini's to accomplish this.

Koolies are extremely smart and yes at times this can be problematic.

All our fence are around a meter and just normal ringlock, nothing special.
But we have hotwire (electric) fencing on every fence and gate way, so this persuades the Koolies to stay in their yards.
We also feed lots of bone which takes care of the chewing.
And they are active until they go to bed.

Hang in there Sinikka, love your photos, it's terrific to see how well she is doing.
What do your handlers think of her.

I would love to print your Koolie journey in our newsletter which goes Australia wide and Internationally, many Koolie owners would love to know how you have enjoyed raising and training your Koolie and what methods you have used.
I asked Satu as well,Please!!!

Haha Ceejay sounds very cute, we have low fences, i wonder if raz is choosing not to jump...or hasnt thought of it yet?

hopefully he wont ever cause then we will need money to make them higher :S

Oh do not go and hide to bushes!!I think she´s a wonderful dog with all her mind-ups and so does Satu of Tage:) And also all people that comes to visit us! So race is making lots of new friends during every clinic and camp!
Of course I prefer compliments of working-skills and chatacter more than "oh how sweet she is":)And I get them a lot of her!
But now I have to run and start making breakfast for clinic-people, today it shall be +26 degrees heatness (in Fahrenheits I don´t know how much it is) and lots of herding to do...
Tjukurpa: Of course we´ll write you about this "journey"!!

Sinikka

You know what-the simplest and most effective chewing advice for new Koolie owners with new pups has to be BIG BONES-THE BIGGER THE BETTER. For working dog, Kongs are a bit lame really. They WILL chew when they are pups, but if people had common sense, big ol'bones would take away alot of the damage. Just me talking anyway. Funny, chewing and escapology seems to be the two biggest issues with Koolie pups, and they are both sorted out with a bit of cunning.

yes i dont get raz many big bones, i gave him kongs and bottles and boxes to destroy. As well as frozen treats in water etc, just to keep him busy, i always expected him to chew, i didnt expect to go through 4 beds already though lol

so 1 bed has been put away for now :)

Oh thank you Sinikka, I am thrilled about their progress and love to hear all about them.
I look forward to receiving your story and know every Koolie member will too.
All the best with your clinic, wish I was there.

Funny, Dice never chewed at all, or dug much in the way of holes. I caught him at it once, and told him off, and he didn't do it again, unlike Ashley, who dug bomb craters around the place, and still digs bomb craters in the orchard, but thankfully not at home now.

He did jump the fence to join Ash and I training agility a few times, but a few telling's off, and he cut that out too.

I know you get tired of me sending you links about Muffy but now I received some photos only of her:)So if you want to see, you´ll find them here
http://www.kuvaboxi.fi/julkinen/2comi+sikke-muffy.html

Oh how days can be hot right now, + 29 degrees..How in earth you can survive from heatness there!

Sinikka

Bring on the photos, more photos, say a big thanks to who ever took them, I can see one for the next koolie calendar.
Muffy looks just like her mum Breeze, only Breeze is much much fatter, she can get fat on air.
Dice is a good boy Penny he would never do anything to upset you.
He loves you and only want to please you, just like Muffy.

I´m so angry..Mrr..
I put a link to Muffys working-photos on Finnish Herding Club´s forum and someone has comment them:
"Oh, they looks so nice. How sad that they have in race as much differences in their working-capasities as differences in their looks!!"

Well I don´t mind, I knew that BC-people will have lots of comments, but I wish you give me answer in questions:

Are individuals in koolie-race mostly good workers?
How many pups of annual litters are still sold and still taken for working dogs?
Is your race (in your country) obvious and number-one choise for working-dog in farms? Why?

How much koolie-pups there borns annually?

Sinikka

What a strange and nasty thing to put up on your pictures. Maybe it was someone trying to make trouble and get you upset. A lot of people seem to find some sort of pleasure in posting things that can upset people on some forums. The anonymity of the internet makes it easy for these people.

Koolies are not a commonly seen breed in the cities, unlike border collies and kelpies, both of which have become popular pet dogs. Few people I've met know what they are so I would say the majority of puppies are used as workers in the country. I'm sure others will give you some more detailed answers to your questions.

That sounds like a malicious comment dressed up as innocent to me. I don't know. Just respond with a link to official information from the club site-perhaps explain that the variation in looks is precisely why Koolies are overall great workers-because they are bred for temprament and ability rather than looks conformation. Keep a cool head on. Maybe some BC breeder thinks you are going to take over the world! Or just ignore it.

I also answered that for me the variety of looks tells that breeding has stayed in more important characters- like in working abilities:)
I´ll close a link on herding-club´s forum about koolie club- I´m sure people get real information that way!

Thanks!

Sinikka

Some people can be snide, especially when it comes to dogs and horses I have found.

Looks are not important in the koolie world, it is their ability to work and think that is most important. And even if they don't work on the farm situation, they are brilliant at all other disciplines too. I would just put a link to the website and educate the person that way. Chin up, people with little intelligence put comments with malicious intent.

most koolies are sold to working farms / stations, Koolies have been breed to have very hard feet where border collies pull up lame after a days work in rough country and cannot work again the next day i have seen this with my own eyes my koolie bitch has run across a very large patch of cat heads (a very large nasty burr that we have over here) a not even notice them but my border collie pulled up fast and i had to go and carry her out and pull the cat heads out of her feet spice has also run across sharp rocks and cactus and broken glass and has never pulled up lame were my other dogs border crosses have come back with cuts and spikes in there feet koolies were bred to work in hard conditions where the borders and kelpies fail. koolies have between 6 to 10 pups a litter and come into season twice a year their looks all depend on what type of work they have been bred for small or lighter framed dogs sheep work, the heavier more compacted dogs cattle work the long legged koolies where breed for both sheep and cattle work in more flat open country the smaller dogs tend to come from hilly or mountain country a big dog would find it hard going in thickly scrubbed hills where a medium size dog would be able to slip through the scrub faster and still be able to jump up out of gullies were a small dog would have to go around or become stuck at the bottom the large dog would be slowed down to much by the scrub. i hope this helps you to under stand why the koolies seem to look different

Yeah TJ, he goes out of his way to avoid offending me! If I tell someone else off, he comes up grovelling and going "sorry, sorry, I didn't mean it, whatever I did wrong" The others are much more relaxed about being told off :-p

I stepped backwards onto his tail today, he had sat down behind me while I was working and I didn't know he was there. :-( He screamed, I screamed in reaction - I can't help it! The guys working in the other part of the orchard were calling to each other "what the hell was that?"

Poor Dice had this horrified look on his face, all wide eyes, tail between his legs, and "what did I do to deserve that???"
I felt so rotten...

Gave his tail a rub and the rest of him big hugs, then told him it was all better now, and he could get over it. :-) So he bounced off all happy again. :-)

Jeez, I missed a whole page of answers when I wrote that! I thought I was replying directly under TJ's post!

Some people are so small minded, just because a dog isn't their favourite breed, they have to put it down. I'm sure you'll prove them wrong over time, with your working Koolies.

I'm sure people in agility are waiting to see how Dice works, before they say they like the breed...

Love those individual photos of Muffy close up, she is looking fantastic :-) you can easily tell which ones she is switched on and working, and which ones she is just hanging out.