Anissa

Sorry, I always struggle with the language... That is a much better than what I wrote. I have read most of the learning theory stuff in german and can't properly translate most of it.

linky please e.g this book: Dorit Feddersen-Petersen: Hundesport und Ausbildung von Hunden, in Das Buch vom Tierschutz, Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, S. 659 but I will have a look later what I can find.

And there is no pain with the sporn harness? Contless people in this thread and many other threads said that they have put the prong collar on themselves and there is no pain.... Perhaps you dont know how to use the collar correctly? Its the same in Poland where I come from. I wish it was the case in Australia as well. They have actually put the prong collar around their neck and jumpt in it with the same force a dog does????? I have seen some studies (in german) about the sever damages these collars caused in dogs (like damage of the thrachea). Truely, I never used (and will never use) a prong collar.

1) I definately use negative reward (the removement of a reward) which is something completelt different than punishment. Have you read some books about "learning theorie"? There are 4 ways reacting to a behaviour: 1. Positiv Reward :giving a reward (like giving a treat for wanted behaviour) 2. Negative Reward: taking away a reward (like ignoring a dog or taking away a "recource") 3. Positive Punishment: "giving" a punishment 4. Negative Punishment: taking a punishment away (for example pulling the lead until the dog sits and immediately releasing the lead when done so) I don't train with positive or negative punishment but certainly use positive and negative reward. I ignore my dogs for unappropriate behaviour and also certainly they are trained (with the clicker) to the command "leave it". 2) I do train my dog to NOT do very self rewarding behaviour (hunting and fighting other dogs) since I got him (3 years ago). It is a bit off topic and will definately take me quite a while to write it all down but simplified I keep him always on the leash, classically condition him and operantly condition him to a more appropriate behaviour. You are absolutely right that no reward I can ever offer will be better than e.g. chasing therefore I have no choice but make sue that he is NEVER doing so. By the way: there are some very good books available from James O'Heare regarding this type of training (solely with positive rewards").

Thanks! Have you managed to change this behaviour using just the clicker since the above post? Or is it a behaviour that you have just decided to manage with a harness? Not completely but at least to a great deal, I am constantly trying to establish a more "appropriate" way to behave when spotting something "huntable". Since his behaviour is completely driven by instinct and heavily self rewarding it is quite hard work. But we are now at the stage that Manu is just doing the "sit" when spotting something and as a reward he is allowed to watch it. Occasionally he still jumps into the lead (maybe once in 14 days) when his "prey" is too close. Don't know. For me it is the best and simplest way to train. That is definatelt true but neither is a prong collar. I personally would try to find a more suitable home for the GSD. The dog will surely develop more behaviour probs over time and she will be even less able to handle him. If you are physically not able to handle a specific dog sometimes for both, owner and dog, it is better to look for a new home. I know, that is a heartbraking solution but most probabely in both their interests...

I would suggest to look for a good behaviourist/dog school and to learn a great deal about about dog training myself. I don't think that "knowledge" should be an argument. As a dog owner (especially with a dog that has behaviour issues) IMHO you should learn how to deal with it. In Germany (where I come from) it is completely normal for 90 % of the dog owners to study how dogs learn, about behauvoiur training, health, nutrition etc. and all dogs go to the dog school. I own dogs now for over 20 years and I have constantly tried to stay up to date with studying and learning how to train my dogs, about nearly everything relating to dogs and their needs. My Greyhound has some severe probs with other dogs for example and therefore I read loads of books about that topic, go to a dog school and a behaviourist and train, train, train. But in this case I think that a prong collar would just increase my problem since I have no idea in which way my dog relates the punishment (with me, with the other dog or maybe with his behaviour). Additionally a dog that is in a stage where it starts jumping into the collar it is probabely quite agitated and it is most likely that it won't learn anything I want to teach him (like not doing this), the additional pain just increases the unwanted effects. It might help to make you able to hold your dog but it is NOT a training aid. To train for example the aggression you will have to take a completely different approach. But since this is becoming a bit off topic...

Hi Rhi, this is usually a quite difficult problem to solve since your dogs' behaviour is definately self rewarding for him (he seems to enjoy it ). You have to ignoring it since every attention from your side will further reinforce the behaviour. In which way have you trained your dog up to now? Positive reinforcement? Cheers, Anissa

I personally can not see ANY reason why I shoul use a punishment on my dog when it is simply MY OWN FAULT if he hasn't learned to do want I want. If my dog is pulling I am teaching him not to in a positive way. It is simple as that. I donn't even use any sort of collar (only harnesses) to prevent my dogs of getting injured (or any sort of pain/uncomfortnes) just in case they do jump in the leash (which they both don't do). I can't see ANY reason to use force or punishment on my dogs since I am working solely positive (I am a "clicker addict" for 10 years now). For me force/punishment etc starts where knowledge ends. Both are very happy, creative dogs that alwas want to please and as soon as they understand that a behaviour is not appropriate (and therefore simply not reinforced by me) they won't do it again. There are ALWAYS other ways to deal with a situation and up to now I have never had one where there are no other options than punishing/forcing my dogs.

If you want to prevent you Grey to get degenerated joints later one good thing to do is feeding for example joint guard (but start at a very low dose since many dogs have to get used to it and can easily throw up the whole food (or get diarrheia) when you feed to much. Another in my opinion very important thing would be to feed no corn at all and if possible gluten free food since this food increases the possibility to get arthrosis. I have a (now 11 year old) Collie whose familiy had lots of arthrosis probs but she is still perfectly healthy. I feed raw food (without corn or any cereals) and she gets 1 Tblspoon of Joint guard every day (since she is 2 years old).

I bought a blender for all the veggies. So I put 1 carrot and some lettuce in the blender (add the supplements) and some water and make some kind of veggie smoothy. I mix that stuff with meat mince or yogurt. You can add the whole egg in that (will properly crush athe shell). It is important to produce a fine "smoothy" since the dogs cannot digest the bigger pieces so well. To safe some time you can prepare the veggie stuff for the whole week on the weekends and just stuck in the the freezer in small portions.

First of all I would fast the dog at least 1-2 days to see if he settles than. If tha is the case I would start feeding (raw) chicken with some rice in small amounts 3-4 times a day. A very helpful treatment for upset intestinies is slippery elm! You can also give that (a mix of slippery elm with warm water like a kind of porridge) instead or additionally. But as I said first of all stopp feeding at all! That will definatelt help the most to get everything back to normal!

What sort of veggies and fruits do you add? The diet should constist of 30% veggies. Because your dog is senstive anyway I recommend to go for the organic veggies/fruits (carrots, apples and lettuce for example). That's a very good treat to use. In most cases it is not just one allergy but the whole immune system is not working right. But it usually helps to provide a healthy diet with less industrial food (you'll never know what is in there). Since the AB seems to help, the skin problems are propabely caused by an bacterial infection. Therefore the immune system of your dog is not working like it should. In this case it is VERY impotant to stay away from any sort of chemical treatment (vaccines, anti worm and flea treatments, cortison ...) since they alway heavily suppress the immune system. After finishing this AB medication it is impotant to build up the immune system by continuing to give healthy food (as less industrial food as possible!!!) with immune supprting supplements (Vit. C, MSM). Also add some oils like olive, canola or even fish oil every now and then. Also feed raw whole eggs (including the shell for the phosphor/calcium balance). (My dogs love tho eat them just like that.) To re build up a proper flora in the intestines give some good yogurt for a couple of days. You should get it in health food stores, chemists etc. Mostlt it is mixed with Glucosamines (it helps with joint probs as well) but try to get some without. I found a couple of internet stores that sell it: Look here for example Cheers, Anissa

Hey, I would only add 10-15% more food to the normal food portion so that the weight very slowly increases. Like for us humans it's not very healthy to put on too much weight in a short time. You can also add some oil (canola, olive ...) to her food but not more than 1 tblspoons a day since an overdose of vit. A (which these oils contain) can be poisonous. You can add some high fat yogurt, whole eggs or even cheese to add calories.

You can add some food supplements. For example a (natural) vitamin C source (dried, ground dogrose is excelent). Also things like kelp contain a lot of minerals and vitamins. Another good supplement helping the immune system is MSM (Methylsulfonylmethan) which is a natural source for sulfor helping the body to decrease the tendency for inflammations. Do you feed any cereals, wheat, rice or corn? They are known to cause allergies in dogs. So if you feed those I recommend to stop feeding them for a while. Just stay with fruits and veggies additional to the meat. Sometimes a specific meat source could be the cause of allergies (very often the common ones like beef and chicken). Changing the protein source could help as well (try roo and lamb or even horse meat if available). Hope that helps a bit. Cheers, Anissa

You should not use oils on open wounds. But apart from that it's great. I can also recommend Calendula. Best recipe is 200 ml boiling water, add 1 tblspoon of seasalt and 1tblsspoon of Calendula essence. As soon as it is cooled down you can use it on wounds and itching skin. I alway keep some of the above mixture ready to go in a glass spray bottle.

Hi Miriam, I would also suggest to do an elimination diet but stay with the raw food because you can never be sure about what's in the industrial food. Many allergy problems and skin problems are caused by cereal food so I woul recommend not to feed any sort of cereals at all. I would start the diet with a protien source like roo meet combined with a vegetable like carrots. Feed this for 10 weeks and have a look if the problems will get better than you can gradually add nwe things one by one. For the diet time don't feed any treats or anything apart from the diet just to make sure that you exactlt know what your pup eats. I would give any sort of other treatment, no vaccinations, worm or flea treatments because they can heavily increase your problems!!! I had quite few patients with similar problems and with a diet and no "chemical treatment" combined with a classical homoeopathic treatment they became (and still are) very healthy. Very often problems like this are caused by vaccinations and too many other chemical treatments. The immunsystem of the dogs get really confused and overreacts. Cheers, Anissa

Hey Mel, you can try and check for homoeopathic therapists over here: Australian Homoeopathic Association

Very often promblems like this are caused by the wrong food. Especially cerals are causing a lot of allergies on dogs!!! My first advice would be to completely remove any sort of cereal food (wheat, corn...) from his food. I would recommend raw food (meet and vegtables). Maybe even an exclusion diet would be a good idea. Another thing could be a homoeopathic treatment of the dog! Problems with the skin are usually easily fixed combining these two things. Unfortunately I don´t know if there are any homoeopaths in Sydney but you can check it here: Australian Homoeopathic Association

Hi Mell, I personally don´t think that Traumeel is very usefull. It is actually a mix of some common homoeophathic remedies. But since the basic principle of a homoeopathic treatment is the individualisation and the very personal treatment of every dog or human a (so called) complex remedy is usually not the best choice. It is like using a lead shot gun for killing a fly: maybe one lead shot will kill it but what about all the others??? It is a common mistake that homoeopathic remedies cannot do any harm! Actually they CAN!!! I would suggest to go to a classical working (animal) homoeopath for the treatment. You can get very good results with homoeopathy. (One of my own patients in Germany (a 6 year old Samojede) has hip dysplasia and arthrosis and doesn´t need any pain killers after beeing treated with homoeopathic remedies.) Since I just lately moved to Australia I don´t know any colleagues over here yet but maybe you can find someone in the www?

The word "Schutzhund" simply names the dog, the sport itself is called "Schutzhundesport". It is always very funny for me to read german expressions over here! Here are some pictures of the german Shepards of my friend (she is a breeder in Germany):