jaybeece

I'd agree with this. My dog is banned from the kitchen, but he'll try to creep in sometimes when I'm not looking. Same goes for his bed. I usually see him out of the corner of my eye or hear his footsteps. I never look at him or pay any attention for him other to say "Out!" or "On the bed!" in a neutral tone. It's doubly effective because of the lack of eye contact as he seems to think I have eyes in the back of my head Once he's done as he's told he gets attention and praise.

Knox is probably a bit of a hike for you, but I really enjoyed going there. The instructors vary quite a lot in their methods and are very approachable if you have any questions. They're well worth the tiny subscription fee. They also score bonus points for having a bar- it's great to sit down and have a beer after a long training session

He sounds a lot like my dog, but minus the many months of work put into him. If she wants him to get any better, she's GOT to work on his obedience and the heirarchy in their house. The dog's got to be taught respect and self control, otherwise I can imagine this isn't going to end well. It's not too late to reverse his bad behaviour, but she's gotta have the discipline to keep at it and to acknowledge where she's going wrong. Has she considered taking the dog for a run with the bike? Or swimming? He won't be able to cause as much trouble away from other dogs and they could work on his obedience more with the fewer distractions.

Hehe me too Sometimes it pays to talk to other dog owners to find out what their dogs do that drives them up the wall! I remember sitting down on a bench with the dog at the dog park one day, balling my eyes out because I was so tired and sad about it all when another dog owner wandered up to talk to me. He owned a lovely, albeit hyper, border collie. We chatted for a bit and he admitted he was having a terrible time with his dog inside the house and in the car. Whenever she was contained she'd go out of her mind, regardless of how much exercise she got or what they tried. Taking her to the vet was a traumatic experience for everyone involved too. I won't forget that moment, because it was one of a few when I've looked over at my dog an silently thanked him for being so easy to deal with despite his aggression problems.

Sorry to hear you're having some trouble My 2 cents is that for one you shouldn't be picking him up- remove him as quickly as you can, but have him do it himself. I'd redirect him whenever other dogs cause problems and praise him a lot for compliance which will teach him that it's ok to simply walk away and to listen to you. The most important thing is to avoid any aggression (from either dog) and to keep his trust in you strong. With his roughness around small dogs, if he gets too rough, I'd take him away from them. He needs to learn where to draw the line with play and if the other dogs won't tell him then you need to step in and make it clear to him.

My dog's not aggressive towards people (just a little warey sometimes), but I had a lady at the dog park ask what the point of owning a dog is if he can't be safely around other dogs. She didn't mean any harm, but it hurt a lot to think about it that way and I burst into tears on the walk home. So I don't think saying that kind of thing is constructive at all. There's no such thing as a perfect dog so it's not up to someone else to judge if it's "worth" putting up with an issue as everyone has different levels of tolerance for different things. I'd love my dog to not be aggressive, but since he doesn't pull clothes off the line, bark much, hump things, get anxiety, cause problems at the vet or chew my shoes I figure he's not all bad! It does no good at all to focus on the negatives as it gives you less motivation to work towards positives. EDIT: to answer the original question, I'd draw the line at aggression towards humans, me in particular. I know I just don't have the skills or knowledge to deal with that and can't imagine rehoming would be a possibility.

My thoughts on it are that it's an excellent and effective training tool which I'd be fare more comfortable using than a choker. I've had a prong around my leg before (my brother had a go too) and we both agreed that it was a mild, but very clear correction. Because of the design there's even pressure applied with very little effort. We then tried the choker and my response was "Well, no wonder the silly bugger never notices a correction!". Basically, due to the design, I only felt a correction in the area where the rings are and that was it. I also had to yank on it fairly hard to feel that at all, which meant there was a lot more force being used.

Yep, I used to take my boy along every week and it most definitely helped him to ignore other dogs around him. Now we haven't been for a while I see the difference in that he's more easily distracted by other dogs than he was before. The biggest issue I had was being able to keep him from reacting week in, week out. It could be stressful for both of us and we did have slip ups when I didn't catch him early enough (usually due to being a little hungover), which would be a backwards step every time. Keeping him at a bit of a distance from the rest of the class was the best way to go as he wasn't quite so wound up, but we did participate in weaving around other dogs as long as none of them had any aggression problems. The other problem is that the class we're in involves a bit of offlead work which I'm not comfortable participating in for the time being so we do have to sit out on a few exercises. I keep meaning to go back at least once a month since his training is going extremely well, but the 8am starts on a Sunday are hard to get back into

Hey Julie, I'll second seeing a behaviouralist too. I'd also like to add that it can be worth perservering with obedience school. I've been in exactly your situation, but chose to stop going to doggy school for a while and I've regretted doing that as my boy has gotten a little worse at ignoring dogs nearby. On the other hand, If you find she's getting far too many opportunities to "practice" her behaviour, then it may be a good idea to stop going until you've got an effective training program in place that helps you to prevent aggressive responses. Building up focus on you is one thing that'll definitely help. Although it's hard to quit obedience (even for a short time), it's just not worth it if she's not getting as much out of the classes as she could be.

I called up a few doggy day cares, told them my dog's size and that he doesn't play well with others. One actually said "Oh, well we can just put him in there with a muzzle on and see how he goes!".

I'm so sorry to hear this has happened, I went through the same thing last year and it was horrendously stressful. Luckily my dog hasn't got quite the same determination as yours and heightening the wooden fence with trellacing seems to have done the trick for good. I'm also in a rental so limited with fencing options. He'd lived next to the neighbour's dog for 18 months before trying this too. The damn dog barks constantly, but it took a visit from my neighbour's cousin's new puppy to drive my boy to get over there so he could find out what was going on. I have a feeling that my neighbour's cousin may have been part of his motivation as well...it's hard to say. Good luck with everything, I hope it all works out ok.

I think that they definitely feel love, but a far more simple type than what people feel. I know a lot of behaviour can be described as pack drive or instinct, but I really don't think that's the whole story.

I've just started my boy on Eagle Pack Holistic since it worked out to be the same cost as the VIP supermaket stuff he was on (with the bonus of less poo and less packaging waste). I had the cats on it for a little while as well and was very happy with it so I think it'll be good for the dog. He had no problem about the change, in fact he's even more enthusiastic about his dinner now. Anything better seems to only be stocked by Pet's Paradise and I refuse to buy anything from them.

I'm a member there and most people are lovely Since all the trainers are volunteers they do vary a bit in skills and ability to instruct, but they're all very patient and willing to listen. If they don't know the answer to something they'll always do their best to send you onto someone who knows. Also, you don't have to use a check chain. All I've ever heard from them is that some form of training collar has to be used. That means check chain, martingale, head harness, etc are all acceptable.

Shinguards? My boy was the same at that age and he's gotten a little better, but he's still pretty crazy and rough when he's excited. I imagine that if you train her to have a decent recall you could call her back when she gets too nuts with other dogs and have her sit before she runs into you. You might still have to deal with a bit of bruising though, last time I did that with my boy he ran up, headbutted me in a place that makes me glad I'm not a boy and then bounced down to a sit

Honestly, you really need to reconsider leaving them alone together Just because the dog is muzzled doesn't mean she can't still traumatise the cat and get more worked up about him. Also, just because the dog will have trouble hurting the cat, the opposite is not true. Cats can do an appauling amount of damage to a dog's face/eyes if they so desire. As for dominance issues, you can't force it to go one way or another, however you CAN teach the dog that aggression towards the cat is not acceptable. My dog used to go feral (lunging, barking, snapping) if he saw one of the cats eat so it was far more serious that a snap or 2. A few sessions with a check chain and verbal corrections sorted that out so he can comfortably watch her eat without a problem now. Regardless of the current interspecies peace, I would NEVER leave them unattended I think you're pushing your luck letting the cat go near the dog's bed as you're just setting her up to fail and repeat the same aggressive behaviour towards the cat. I'd say that if you feel it's necessary to muzzle the dog around her then they must not be unsupervised. Why not crate the dog while you're out or lock the cat in another room? It's not particularly difficult to do. And from what I've seen muzzles most certainly can restrict breathing, especially in this hot weather.

Hehe, well he's so much better than he used to be, but I'd like to see more enthusiasm from him and sometimes he's still a little slow to get all the way down. Glad to hear Daegon's doing better. Sometimes it seems they just like to mess with our heads

Video, as promised: http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid...643584873592773 That is one very hot dog who really couldn't be arsed, although he DID drop pretty well in that take. The reject videos included dog tongue on lense, very unflattering views of my butt in jeans I didn't realise were so tight (which have since been deleted) and one of a dog that didn't want to do anything but lie down and melt. I think this proves that I am very crap at taking videos without a camera crew, decent lighting and someone to manage my wardrobe

I had the EXACT same problems with my boy for a while and Nekhbet is spot on I had trouble with sitting (forget dropping at that point) as he would never sit until I growled at him. It was really hard to do it at first, but I started giving a correction if he hadn't obeyed the first time within 2 seconds. The difference was enormous and I never have to raise my voice since he started to take me seriously. Dropping has also been tricky with him as he takes his sweet arse time doing it. I can't really correct him for doing it slowly as he DOES do it, he just needed motivation to get down quicker. I know you said that Daegon isn't interested in toys or food, but have you tried in different environments? My boy switches off prey drive completely unless something like a cat kicks into it, but I can get him hyped up over toys inside the house and it's been enough to work on getting a quick and reliable drop out of him for any occasion. I'll post a video when I get home if ya like

Ah you'll get there mate, it just takes time

Exactly what I wanted to say. thegownchick, I hope all is going well with your new birdy and you're feeling a little better. I'd be great if you can keep everyone updated with how his training is going and post some photos of the cute little bugger some time

:D Thanks to those who had nice comments about my boy I have a feeling I won't be able to put any more weight on the bugger for at least another couple of years so I'm glad he looks like he's in good shape now.

What? Do I see leg muscles on those labs? How unusual :D They look superb A friend has one that's in excellent shape too and he gets a huge number of compliments wherever they go.

and Those are the best examples I have at work. You can see his ribs, but it's not too bad. I was more concerned that he looks very skinny from above. And that poor dog Shmoo How can the owners not see that he's not happy like that? I'm sure he'd love to be able to bounce around and play, but he can't What kind of quality of life is that? Don't they understand how good it feels to be fit and healthy???

Never, ever listen to people who tell you that An animal's worth is in no way based on how much you paid for them or how easy it is to "replace" them. Every animal whether it's a bird or a dog is a living, breathing creature that is capable of emotion and love. You could never put a price on these things! My mother recently lost her budgie due to old age and I know she never saw him as "That free bird I took on when no-one wanted him". He was her little friend and she loved him very dearly. We lost a young guinea pig too many years ago when the dog broke into his hutch. I'm sure she only meant to play with him as he didn't have a mark on him, but it seemed that his little heart couldn't take the stress. She's a deerhound so the chase instinct was strong and he was a brave little guy who wouldn't have thought to hide, he ran right out into the open. It was heartbreaking, but accidents happen. Sending hugs and condolonces your way Just take it each day at a time and the pain will fade in time.