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RealityBites

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  1. Weeeeeeell looks like I am going to be the proud owner of a Deerrhound puppy! :rolleyes: So excited! I pick him up next week. Am going to call him Erik. Will post pix when I get them THANKYOU so much to Jacobite Kennels!! :D
  2. We have 5 kids, 3 boys two girls, the eldest is 12, the youngest is 1 year. We have a doberman and I am looking at getting a deerhound. The dobe is great with the kids, loves playing and chasing them around but respectful of them too. We did a fair bit of formal training with him as a youngster tho. The older kids can walk him by themselves altho I don't usually let them He has an easy care coat with minimal shedding. Teddy's are not safe from him however! :D
  3. Oh my goodness ! You should not have done that to me! WAAAAY to cute! I am in love already and haven't even met them
  4. Fingers crossed that's what I'll be able to do And thanks for the website link, very interesting!
  5. Can't help you much but I am so sorry for your loss. I lost a 12 month old german sheperd to liver cancer and contacted the breeders we bought him off. They were obviously very distressed and offered us $200 off a puppy from an exact same mating if we were interested. We did that and that dog is now 4 years old now with no problems. I don't know how prolific your breed is, but $2000 is too much money to just walk away from, I'd be chasing it up! RIP little puppy
  6. Have read this with interest as i am both a dog owner and a parent of 5 children (the youngest is 12 months) We have a doberman and are looking at getting a deerhound.Our kids are taught to ask before approaching strange dogs, BUT I also think dog owners HAVE to socialise their dogs to all situations. Children are way more important than a pet, they are our future, and as a good parent I try and do everything I can to keep them safe. BUT if my youngest happened to wander off (Heaven forbid and highly unlikely!) It would be nice to be able to trust that any dog they approached would be suitably trained and socialised. Our kids can do anything they want to our dog because he has been taught to put up with it! He is also allowed his own space and the kids have been taught their responsibility towards him as well. I would advise everyone to socialise their dogs with kids as accidents can happen, and little humans are our most precious possessions
  7. I am going to look at Jacobite's doggies on Monday Can't wait! Am hoping that one of these lovely dogs will fit into our 'organised chaos' of a household :D If we get one it will have to put up with 5 kids, 5 cats, two guinea pigs, 2 mice, numerous fish and a doberman :D oh and 2 horses!! Am after a couch potato really as my dobe is hyper and he's 4 years old now and still hasn't grown up I have always loved the deerhound, hubby wants a dane, but I think he'll compromise on a hairy big dog instead
  8. This is completely off track, but something I have been thinking about after reading this thread. I have a very boisterous 3 year old dobe, that at present CANNOT be an inside dog due to his high energy levels, and the fact that he destroys anything he gets his paws on BUT I am planning on using the e collar as a correctional tool when he is inside to teach him some manners, as I would like him to be an inside dog. I have been using K-9's method of stim before command when using the e collar in training, so am wondering if there will be any adverse effects of using the e collar as a punishment, maybe on a higher stim than I would use in training? Or do I still use it on a low stim, stim him BEFORE his mouth wraps around the teddy bear/cushion/clothes and then release when he leaves the item?? Sorry if I am confusing things
  9. Cool, looked jup their website and will pop along on the weekend for a look, thanks!
  10. Yes, up in the Dandenong Ranges, but within travelling distance to Rowville, Knox etc etc
  11. Would like to join a local obedience club, but wondered if anyone knows of any in or around Belgrave. Will travel but am 7 months pregnant so would prefer to stay close to home
  12. I have used a prong collar on my large male doberman and can see how they work very effectively, and are not the cruel tool some people seem to think they are. However it did not work for us, and after having tried a few different things (Decided after being dragged along on a flat collar at a million miles an hour at the neighbours pomeranian while trying to entice him away with food, that it was not an option for me ) Have now started using the Black Dog Infin8 head halter. They are absolutely brilliant. They attach to the back of the dogs neck, so do not pull the head round at an unnatural angle, so cannot see how they would harm neck muscles, the dogs (Both dobes) have no problems wearing them, and I can now walk them both at the same time, easily and happily! I think it has to be what works for you, and works for the dog. Edited to ad, I think if you start off with a puppy the way you mean to go on, is the best option. So if you use a flat collar, start a pup off with a flat collar etc etc
  13. I would think you would start by teaching the dog a kind of 'send away', i.e teach it to move towards a specific spot and stay there. Then once that was taught, have people stand or sit next to that spot, but ignoring the dog until it was used to just being next to strangers, then introduce the patting, with the stranger giving the dog a food reward? You can train them to target a hand, but you would have to be sure the dog wasn't wary of strangers because the excercise would probably make them uncomfortable :D
  14. Do you have her complete attention at home? i.e do you train using food in the backyard and have a 100% reliable recall, sit, drop or whatever? Is she comletely focused on you during training when you are in the backyard? I would suggest having some private lessons at home with her first, and build up to trying to train under heavy distraction (Which is what being around a whole lot of other dogs would be!) What area are you in? Erny, on the forum is excellent, I have had several private lessons with her which helped immensely :D Sounds like she is starting the teenage era of testing you out, but until she's 100% reliable at home where you can bring in distraction gradually, you wll probably get absolutely nothing out of taking her to a training club (My last 3 dogs were GSD's and I had no luck with them at all until I switched to private lessons for about 6 months before I took them out!)
  15. He is getting the dog to stay completely focused on you no matter what is happening, you notice that more during his heel work, where he changes pace and direction suddenly and the dog is immediately slowing, or quickening. Once the dog is past the level where he's jumping around it, then he trains it near other dogs. I would assume that once the dog is used to having people act like idiots around it, and completely ignoring other dogs, it's ready to cope with anything you could throw at it on a trial day :-)
  16. Oh Myszka just pointed me in the direction of this thread, where do I register to come along?!
  17. Where's your club Jeff? Probably not in Vic I would assume the jumping around is distraction. I have been taught to jump around my dog when doing stays, I star jump around him, crouch down, run backwards and forwards, Lie flat on the ground in front of him. (He thinks I'm a moron, but he won't move for anything now )This is all part of training for distractions?
  18. I have only watched the tracking one so far, but don't like the way he teaches tracking in sand, and then says the dog does not follow vissual signals?? What could possibly be more visual for the dog than great big footprints in sand?! LOL Yeah did take me awhile, been busy with work and human kids! But think little miss is old enough now to begin her training.
  19. Why do we use head collars on horses and not on dogs? Is it because we would have absolutely no control over a horse if we just had a lead around it's neck?? I do not understand why people are so aversive to head halters. Especially if you have a large breed dog that PULLS (Yep in capitals! LOL) I have prong collars, and have been told and shown how to use them correctly, neither of my dogs has ever had a large correction in one, and yet both run if they see me coming with it, and I have to chase them to catch them to put it on! So I will no longer use them and look for alternatives that the DOG is happy with. And if they stop pulling, I am happy. I have never heard about horses getting neck strain or other injuries from being led by head halters, and I am a vet nurse! And I know I got slightly off topic there, mind must be rambling in my old age, guess what I was trying to say is, there is NO ONE METHOD that works with every dog. Keep trying, try a few different things, and use the method that suits both your self and your dog :-)
  20. Let me know if anyone has had success with these collars, I am looking for something similar. The prong works on my dogs, but they do not like them at all, so am looking for a suitable alternative. Tried taking both for a walk just on flat leads, and seriously had the soles of my feet covered in blisters from pounding he pavement so hard trying to stop myself from falling over! Will not do that again!
  21. In very basic form Balabanov trains using drive, very similar to K9 Force, but he uses no correction whatsoever,there is no stress on the dog, and he teaches the dog words to know when it is doing the right thing and the wrong thing (I.e key word 'yes' or Good' when the dog is on the right track, release word when dog has performed correctly such as 'ok', and he uses 'no' to tell the dog when it's not on the right track) Dog is rewarded with a game as in most usual drive training (With The Game having very set and clear rules too), but behaviour is modified by ignoring incorrect behaviour, or telling dog No, and starting entire excercise over again. That's the pretty basic explanation, it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's very clever, and the end reuslt is a dog that can think for itself, is smooth and animated in it's work and distraction proofed. I was very impressed and keen to start!! Actually Myszka, could see where the TOT would work very quickly to get the dog to understand release words and watching, as opossed to Ivan's methods, will end up using both I think!
  22. Have started watching Dildey's, but some of what he does doesn't make sense to me,and contradicts what I think I know about some basic stuff! LOL (If that makes sense) But when I watched Balabanov, it was just like, "YES, this is IT!"
  23. I didn't so much 'sack' my male dobe, as decided to leave him alone for awhile! LOL I started in on him the second he came through the door at 8 weeks, he was doing 5 min drop stays by 16 weeks! We also did 12 months of schutzhund, but he just doesn't have the drive for that, and he just seemed to get bored with everything. So he is having some 'dog time' now, He's been taught a few tricks which he does quite happily, but apart from that he is not doing anything else. He's nearly two, so I am going to start with him again in another few months and see if some time off to mature has helped. Am experimenting with my new girl, she is nearly 8 months old and has not been touched at all. Not even taught her to sit, or not jump up or anything She's never been told no in her entire time she's been with me, and I don't know if it's that or because she's just completely different lines, but she is so tuned into me, it's like she looks at me when we are out saying 'For dog's sake, teach me SOMETHING!" So have found a training method I am happy with, will start with her really slowly, and by the time she is two and a half, see which way worked best! Then when the NEXT pup comes round, I will have the balance down pat :rolleyes:
  24. Just finished watching this guys two current DVD's, and WOW. I have finally found the training method I am going to use. Downside is, the guy is not Australian, makes it kind of hard to get hands on info, problem solving, further training techniques etc. Have emailed him directly, but wondered if anyone knows someone that teaches, or follows his method of teaching in Australia? I have not touched my 8 month old dobe bitch AT ALL! LOL For several reasons, moving a couple of times, and not wanting to muck her up, or start something I wasn't going to finish, so hope that she is a clean slate ready for me to start training, now I have found a method I am 100% happy with
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