nanna

We have the Home Alone. Shiva was really into it when she was younger (check out ) and she got lots of use out of it. We still hear her play with it occasionally, but not so much. She seems to enjoy it more for the tugging action (rather than the treats) so I think that the Bungee Chook may have been better. The Home Alone has a marble in it which actually makes quite a loud noise so keep that in mind if you have a dog that likes to tug at 6am!

I have read about this approach in Ali Brown's 'Scaredy Dog: Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog'. However, I think it's more about reducing arousal than about exercise/fitness.... Basically, Ali Brown suggests that before starting a training program with a reactive/anxious dog you need to keep it calm for a minimum of one week to allow the stress hormones to dissipate from your dog's system (for many dogs this would mean keeping them at home). She talks about how stress hormones can build up with each exposure to an arousing/stressful situation (in both humans and dogs) and that when stress levels are high, learning levels are low. So the idea is that by removing stimulating/stressful situations for a week, the dog will be more receptive to learning.

Blackdog has brace leads (in a few different widths/strengths) for walking two dogs on the one lead.

I'd recommend the training classes at the RSPCA in Weston. I found their classes to be more relaxed and enjoyable than traditional obedience training and more focused on practical life skills than preparing your dog for trialling. Their instructors are excellent and seem to have a very good understanding of how different dogs interact/learn. They also have a smaller class environment (max 8 dogs) which is good for dogs that may be easily excited/aroused. But, if you are looking at obedience trialling, or other dog sports (flyball/agility) then you will need to look at joining one of the obedience clubs.

BBQ chicken is great as an extra special training treat. Other 'high-value' training treats that I use include: hot dog, 4legs, cheese, cabanosi, schmakos (chopped into small pieces), sausage....

I haven't used her myself, but Andina Faragher (from Thinking Dog - Dog Behaviour Counselling) has been recommended to a few people I know. She is Delta-qualified and has experience in dealing with dog-aggression issues.

I've used a couple of the no pull harnesses (including both the sporn and gentle leader easy-walk harness) and haven't been really impressed with either. While the sporn harness does help to some degree, when our girl is focused on something (or freaked out) she can still lunge with quite a bit of power (the pressure under her front legs doesn't seem to bother her too much). As Monelite mentioned, I also found that it did wear the hair away a bit (both under the legs and it actually caused a small scab on her back where the collar piece fastens), and I had to adjust the sherpa sleeves a couple of times on each walk as they slid out of place. I didn't really like the gentle leader harness at all. It seems to have little effect on her pulling (but I may not have had it fitted correctly), and I found that she seemed to twist to compensate for the tightening of the harness. The most effective tool I've found has been just a standard harness (we use the Rogz beach bum straight jacket), but to clip the lead to the O-ring at the front (on her chest) rather to the ring on the back. You can also clip the lead to both the front ring on the harness and to the normal flat collar to give a bit more control. This hasn't been a magic solution, but I've found that when combined with the stop-start method, we've slowly been making some progress. The Rogz harness fits snugly and is nice and secure, so I'm not worried about equipment failure should she suddenly pull. Unfortunately, I think that sometimes you need to try a couple of things before you find a solution that works well for both you and your dog. Good luck

The Pedigree website also has a list of plants that can be poisonous to dogs - http://www.pedigree.com.au/puppy/care/plants.asp I think they're mainly a concern for young puppies, but you might want to avoid them just in case!

Thanks for your replies and advice. This morning I took Shiva over to the school car park near my house and did a bit of focus work (with lots of changes of directions) as 'TangerineDream' suggested. This seemed to work well and I can see how it takes the edge off their initial excitement as they need to concentrate on you and get into 'work' mode. I'm going to look at purchasing a longer lead and keep doing the same focus work for 10 or so minutes before each walk. I'll let you know how it goes....

I'm a big fan of the articles/resources available on the Clicker Solutions site, and have used the tips in this article on loose-leash walking when training my own dog, Shiva. I thought the explanations and strategies for the different development phases were really useful, but am interested in what others think about this statement from the article... If you have an adolescent dog, you must have a place where they can exercise themselves. A walk at human speed ain't gonna cut, and you're going to fight a losing battle against a pulling dog. Expecting an adolescent dog to pay attention and walk nicely BEFORE he has had a chance to work off some of his energy is setting you both up for failure. Certainly with my teenage kelpie I have felt at times that I'm fighting a losing battle in teaching loose-lead walking (using the "be a tree" method). Even though I'm pretty sure she knows what I want her to do, sometimes it seems like she just can't contain her excitement and energy For others with teenage dogs (or who have been through the teenage phase with their dogs), what are your thoughts? How did you manage loose-lead walking, and does anyone have any suggestions for how to work off some energy before-hand (without letting her off-lead)?

I mostly freeze mince in Shiva's kong, but also use peanut butter, bread, cheese, kibble etc. She cleans them out pretty quickly so freezing them makes them last a bit longer. I've even jammed chicken necks in there (I really had to push them in) and she manages to somehow get them out!

Polapaws (http://www.polapaws.com.au/) have 20cm sticks in larger bag sizes. It also looks like you can get the same product from the Vet Shed for a bit cheaper ($88 for a 1kg bag). If you do order from the Vet Shed I think it's worth ringing or emailing before hand to make sure they have it in stock, as there is no out of stock indicator on the website and they only tell you that the product is on back-order via email after your order has been placed and paid for. Otherwise I've found them good to deal with.

Try PetsPlus. They have a good range of treats and have bully sticks in different sizes I think. I've used them a couple of times and stuff has always arrived on time.

Hi Ben, I have a one-dog household so I don't have any personal experience, but I recently went to a dog-aggression seminar which had some really good tips for keeping the peace between dogs in the same household.... The vet/behaviourist who gave the seminar stressed the importance of the owner deciding how you want your pack/household to operate. You're the leader and in charge of the pack so it is not necessary to promote or encourage dominance relationships between the dogs. Once you've got a picture of how you want your dogs to interact then you reward when you see that behaviour in action (like both dogs sitting quietly on mats inside, or waiting politely for their food etc) and prevent any behaviour that's inconsistent with that picture. The presenter was big on the use of 'time-outs' as a way of dealing with inappropriate behaviour. For example, when she's playing with her dogs in the backyard, if one of them is being pushy or not waiting their turn, they just get quietly taken by the collar and put inside for a few minutes while she goes back out to continue to play with the other dog. So her dogs appear to have learnt really good self-control as they know that if they act like a goose, the thing they want (a turn at playing with the ball, hose, whatever) will be removed. With the feeding, she also suggested having a really high-value treat in your hand and giving it to the dog at the end of the meal. So that way the dog learns that when it finishes eating it comes to you as opposed to hassling the other dog. Obviously, you may need to do your feeding separately at first so they figure it out without distractions. Good luck!

Hi Nic, One thing that we've done with Shiva is to make a treasure hunt for her every morning when we leave for work. She now gets really excited when we leave (in a good way!) and it keeps her occupied while we're actually leaving so she doesn't seem to notice us go. It doesn't have to be complicated - we do things like dry food scattered around the garden, chicken necks or lamb flaps in empty cereal/tissue boxes, dry food in empty soft drink bottles, yoghurt tubs with a bit of left over yoghurt etc etc. And we make her wait on the deck as we run out and hide them (on chairs, in tree branches, under toys/buckets etc). It doesn't take long to do and is a good way to reuse your recyclables (as long as you don't mind collecting shredded bits of cardboard from all over your lawn ) We've found it to be much more effective for keeping Shiva occupied during the period while we're leaving than just giving her a kong or a bone. Obviously we don't know what she's like once the 'hunt' is over, but I think it gives her a bit of mental stimulation and at least we feel better about leaving her as she's not at the gate looking sooky! Might be a bit harder when people are coming and going during the day though.... Good luck!