Noonbarra Merida was bought by a lovely lady with a small farm in California, USA. Mary Mairs already had experience with Kelpies as she has owned two working Kelpies bred in the USA.

Letter March 2001:"I can't express how thrilled we are with Chance. I have been smitten with him since I brought him home from the airport and still can't believe how lucky we are to have been sent a wonderful dog like Chance.

Chance's vocabulary is growing daily. He totally understands when he is asked to do something and he will not only comply but will also wait for his release word to go back to doing whatever he wants to do. At times I forget how young he really is.

The little daily things we do like automatically sitting at doors or for me to take his lead on or off, sitting and waiting for release word. Wait is a command I use frequently, wait when the door is open for permission to go out, solves the problem of rushing through the door. Wait is also used in the truck for the same thing. When I open the door and get out he has to wait till I release him to come out of the truck.

He is calming down around the horses. He still wants to bark at them at inappropriate times but we are working on it. Yesterday while we were at the barn sitting in the aisle, Chance was watching several of the horses when our yearling popped his head up startling him. Chance jumped backward about two feet, I called softly to him, reassuring that it was okay, Chance was great, he looked straight at me walked up to me then turned to look at what scared him. Not long ago he would have barked wildly at a horse that scared him.

Chance and I have truly bonded. He constantly looks to me for approval even with my husband. Michael will call him and Chance will look to me to tell him its okay, go. He is my shadow. Everywhere I go in the house, he watches. Even when I think he is asleep if I get up to walk out of the room his head pops up to watch. If I go in a room and close the door Chance is waiting right outside the door for me. Michael says he is totally MY dog, and he is right!

We just had two training sessions to stop Chance from pulling you off your feet when on a loose lead. I expect to be able to hold the lead with two fingers and not have it pulled out of my hand. Really comes in handy if you're bringing bags of groceries in the house. Halfway through the first lesson Chance would modify his pace without a lead correction. The second lesson using voice only (lots of "good easy") Chance would slow down just enough for slack in the lead at one point I said one loud "EASY" after that whenever he felt tension in the lead he was self correcting.

This is what I love about Chance, he learns so quickly. I try to stop unwanted behavior as it crops up. For instance, all of a sudden he thought the easy chair would be a great napping place, well furniture is off limits to dogs. Or for about a week Chance decided to forget about being housetrained. I did a urine check just to make sure no infection and then kept a really close eye on him. He is now back to trouble free in the house. The one thing I still am on guard about Chance is popping up with his nose into your face, it hurts! I try to sit on the floor at his level to discourage that and he already understands that I don't like it but still can't trust that he will not pop someone petting on him.

The other night I was eating fast food in the den, had Chance at his station, well the cat kept teasing Chance by popping his head around the door. Chance jumped up after the cat a couple of times and I put him back down, then he tried rising slowly, (like maybe I would not notice) and I just said his name and he went back down, finally he decided to just take a nap. I try so hard to be consistent. Michael and the kids ask me sometimes why don't I just put him outside or in his crate, I explain to them that he won't learn that way and the problem will still be there the next time.

NOONBARRA MACOIDH

Noonbarra Max X Noonbarra Jessie II

Born 8th May 2006

Owned by Valerie Steir. U.S.A.