Bubitty

Oh my poor baby girl was desexed today as well! She is now fast asleep in her crate looking very forlorn! Her brother has been sitting in front of her crate door, facing us and giving us very dark looks!

At least you are animal-ish though!!! I don't even seem like the type who should have dogs!!!! Its a miracle my breeder sold me anything at all

Update! She was bugging me to tug like a banshee tonight so I tried something with her. I got a bit excited and skipped ahead but I think it was ok! I tugged with her and stopped a few times. Then I made her stay and then I put a toy 10m away from her in the yard. Then I sent her out to fetch the toy and when she came back and gave me the toy I waved another toy at her (one that is good for tug) and played tug with her. Then I asked her to stop, rinse repeat. She was a bit confused the first two times but soon got it! We wafted off and had a couple of smooches on the porch and then she managed to do it 5 times in a row, each time with me waving the tug toy at her and playing after she has run out to get the other toy!!!!! She does not seem to be distracted anymore!!!! When I was doing it with food she had lost it and was always off waving a toy at me! Plus she was rather mad hatter with the tugging after she came back with the toy!!!!!! Ohh I am so excited!!!! She will be desexed tomorrow so we won't be doing anything more for a while though.

Ohhh I just found the right link with the phone number to Working Gundog Club in NSW. Err what should I say to them? Just ask about Bitty's tugging predicament and fetching etc?

Aiden I googled the working gundog club to try and find a phone number which was how I landed in the forum and was stunned! Yup I am still following that website with all the levels. I definitely would like to do more with her! I guess my next step is to take her to formal obedience and see if she will work in public with all the other dogs and distractions around. She works in an empty park but who knows! I'll give both of us a chance and see where it leads us and see if I have discipline and commitment to this type of activity! PF: I feel much better when you talk about rouxs and basting! Now thats my kind of language! :rolleyes:

I honestly don’t know why I think that PF! I think its because I read the threads on here and you all sound really serious about what you do and I read about this principle and that principle. It makes me think that I can’t just had my dog a cupcake when I feel like it because it would have repercussions with training as it conflicts with some principle or other! There are seminars??? What happens at seminars?

Hi Guys I am a bit confuddled! This is going to be ranting to bear with me. How do you guys balance training with everyday life with your dog? I initially started training Bitty at about 8.5 weeks purely out of the fear that if I didn’t she would grow up to be naughty. I don’t know much about training and everything has been done basically to stop her from wanting to chew up my stuff or bark etc. So we spent heaps of time learning to do stuff! However lately it appears that she seems to have more potential than I bargained for. I really enjoy training and playing with her and would like to continue but when I read the threads on here I feel REALLY intimidated with all the theories and principles. Everything seems so disciplined. All of you seem really disciplined! She’s a gundog and a great fetcher. Yesterday I ventured onto a message board with all this working gundogs training stuff and I was blown away! So much theory and……………stuff! I guess my question is, if I were to work with her and get her to do the really hard gundoggy stuff, will I need to make lifestyle adjustments? I am torn as I enjoy training her and OH thinks that we would have a lot of fun giving her a chance to do what she was bred to do but on the other hand I wonder if I would have to buckle down and treat her differently if I was to successfully train her to work properly. For eg I don’t think you can fluff around and still have a good obedience dog! I want to work with her and maybe compete formally but I’d still like to fluff around! Gosh I hope this makes sense!

Not Victoria Erny! Sydney unfortunately!!!!! *wails*

Poodlefan: I am at this phase with her where I am trying to work out what to do with her and how to do it. She’s a gorgeous pet but a little wasted on me I think. She’s very different to Bubby (in a good way). Before she lost the plot with this tugging obsession she used to run up the yard on command and bring back a row of 10 toys, holding each one in her mouth and waiting before I asked her to give it to me.

Thanks Erny!!! Its going to break my heart to say no to her but I will be tough and control myself!!!!! She just looks so adorable and joyful when she bounds up to me toy in mouth, looking ever so hopeful! I feel so awful saying no!

Thanks heaps Tassie!!!!! That makes perfect sense. So once she is reliably playing and stopping, should I then go on to do what SecretKei suggested and use it as a reward to train her? Does this mean that she will learn to make less “advances” towards me for tug or is this her personality and she’ll always be begging for a game?

Okies just saw link! Thanks Aiden!!! I’ll need to register and read it tonight! Although I would be really grateful if someone can also tell me what to do just as step number one! I find navigating around all this training and theory very difficult at times and wish someone would just tell me: Go home, do this with your dog. Come back when you are good at it and I will tell you what to do next!

Thanks Erny!!! I saw a flyball demo once where after these border collies ran and did their flyball stuff, their owners would swing them around on this big tug thing. Is that their reward for doing the flyball thingy? So do you mean that I am to train her to do something (eg fetch an object) and then instead of clicking and treating I am to play tug with her? Or should I start playing tug with her for say 5 mins and then stop and ask her to give me back the toy and then put the toy away and do this a bit for a few days? Please help me by spelling it out what you mean by making my terms clear? Can you tell me what I am to go home and do say tonight?

Hi Folks I am really hoping some one can help me. Bitty is now 10 months on and is a pretty good girl. She’s well mannered and obedient but in the last month or so I have noticed that she has lost it a bit when it comes to tug. Basically the problem I have with her is that every chance she gets she will pick up and toy and entice me to play tug or to chase her around. We no longer can train in the backyard because she just keeps playbowing me. I have tried packing every single toy away in the back yard but then she tries to entice me to chase her. She is better inside when I pack all her toys away and will try to learn new things but as soon as we are done she will playbow me and I know she wants a game of tug. I don’t think she is being “disobedient” because her recalls on walks etc are wonderful and in normal life when I ask her to do something (eg move somewhere, go out, go in, stay in one spot, leave something etc) she does it happily. Just that whenever we front up for a training session she will get that glint and beg for tug or try to make me chase her. Also even in her normal life when I am going about my business she will come up at every chance with a toy in her mouth to beg for a game of tug. I enjoy tugging with her but would like her to stop asking me to tug at every chance and to find a way to get her to be able to train in the backyard again. Please help!!!!!

My next dog will be from my same breeder now. So will all the ones after that until the breeder retires! I really like their lines and am not keen on deviating from these!

My baby girl LOVES fruit!!!!! If she sees us peeling some sort of tropical fruit she's like "ohhh Am I going to get to try some of that Mummy?"

I feed mackeral, mullet, leather jacket, red spot whiting, sardines, salmon heads and body, trevally. They basically eat any fish thats cheap!

Oh wow that is an amazing tree!!!!! Do you eat the quinces?

Awwww HAPPY BIRTHDAY Darcy!!!! What a gorgeous boy! Aren’t you glad you picked a golden!!!!!

Bit Bit is 9 months and still very much a puppy in my eyes! She is also still shamelessly exercising that puppy licence on Bubby!

I avoid anything with the “known baddies” eg sultanas, chocolate etc but my kids pretty much enjoy everything in terms of cakes! A favourite birthday cake at our place is lemon cake with lemon cream cheese icing. Bubby also adores citrus so he’s also had lemon meringue pie as his birthday “cake” in some years. Or you can do a strawberry/raspberry cream sponge which my kids also love!!!

I have made a will leaving my dogs to their breeder. We have consulted our breeder on this who is more than willing to take them back should we come to an unfortunate demise! They also baby-sit the kids 4-5 times a yr so unfortunately they just can't get away from the dogs they breed!

That's an interesting point. So do you think there is a cognitive process going on when that happens? When I remember back to when my dogs were pups I can recall things like digging in the garden, and Django spontaneously coming up and digging beside me. I would point to where I wanted him to loosen the soil and he would dig there. Off topic but can you please tell me how you taught him that? I would love for my dog to be able to do that!

Hi Archieboy Have you tried other brands such as Interceptor and Sentinel Spectrum? My dogs have used both without issues. Especially my puppy who has been on sentinel since I took her home.

Oh CW I’m so sorry to hear that. Good luck on your search for a friend for Charlie!