lovemesideways

Gosh if only we were allowed to take this approach. There are always at least 2 sides to every story - desexing in male dogs will eliminate the risk of testicular cancer but will also statistically increase their risk of bone cancer. Additionally, their fur doesn't seem to be quite as nice or glossy - it tends to get a fluffy/frizziness to it and larger dogs tend to look long and undeveloped when desexed early. This is just in my experience though. It doesn't always happen to every dog, as I do know one GSD who was desexed early due to possessive aggressive attitudes with other males (which the desexing didn't fix btw) and he is the best looking shepherd I know. That said, mentally, the owner doesn't believe he has matured properly - and regrets her decision. I really noticed a transition from child to teenager to adult, and I do wonder if the owners of desexed dogs notice that too - or to the same extent. But I wouldn't know because I have never had a desexed dog. Cropping the ears on my dog will enable him to hear better and reduce the incidence of ear infections, but people have decided that's unnecessary surgery, and I am no longer allowed to make that choice. Or the poor boxer breeder lady I always see down at the park, and almost always one of her boxers has a broken, bleeding tail, but after 20+ years with the breed, she is not allowed to have their tails docked as everyone else has decided it's a cruel procedure. To the OP though, I do not desex my male dogs, the health benefits are imo outweighed by the detrimental effects both physically and mentally. I am able to put a lot of effort into training them, and have not had any serious behavioural issues that training alone could not at least greatly reduce. He plays with other entire male dogs, and the one time some idiot brought a female in heat down to the park, I was able to keep him sitting and calm on a lead. Once we were on the other side of the park, he ignored it. But many of the dogs didn't, and ended up nearly killing themselves by running up onto the road where the bitch had just left. So I guess if you do not have the time or inclination to do training and obedience work, desexing can make it easier, but otherwise, imo, that's an unnecessary surgery. What causes her boxers to have broken bleeding tails? And why would you bring any dog that is so injured to a park?

PM me email and I will mail it to you then you can do whatever you like with it

Lots of reasons. Because the research is contradictory & we're not yet sure exactly what early desexing does in many cases (some effects are known, but others are just conjecture at this stage). Because some vets left vet school a long time ago and aren't necessarily up with the latest research (hence they may not know about the issues associated with early desexing, the same way that some vets are apparently still unaware of the risks of vaccination). Because different people put different values on the known pluses and minuses of early desexing (e.g., rescue organisations often encourage people to desex as soon as possible, since they see far too many "oops" litters). If it were my own personal dog, I'd do him after 12 - 18 months, if at all. If I were desexing a female, I'd probably leave it as long as I could before her first heat (as far as you can guess) - as far as I have researched, this timing is IMO the best compromise between increasing risk of mammary cancer & decreased risk of spay incontinence, which are the two most common negative side effects connected with early desexing in bitches. In rotties & other breeds very predisposed to osteosarcoma, I think you can make a good case for leaving it even later. Unless I learn more between now & then, this is what I will most often be advising my smart looking clients to do when I graduate (you know, the clients who look like they are going to be able to prevent their dog breeding willy nilly. The clients who look like they won't make any effort to prevent unwanted puppies might just get advised to desex their dogs a little earlier...) ETA: oh, I just saw your decision. Didn't realise this thread was an old one! Yeah. Old thread someone pulled up! He's not getting desexed till at least 12 months, and then I'm not sure when I'll do it :D Why would you desex early? If you don't mind me asking!

I PMed this also? a few days ago? I guess you didn't like it. Was done very quickly

Oh look its my old thread! Not sure about Bulldogs. My boy is still entire, and fantastic. I decided he's going to stay entire until probably a year or maybe longer.

My 2 get Greenies occasionally. Haven't had a problem yet. But then again they are always supervised when eating things like greenies or bones. Have had vets and some trainer friends recommend them and they do not sell them so they get no money from the sales . Does anyone have a link to some information about what is wrong with them? I would be very interested to hear it. Don't like to think I'm giving the dogs something that is unhealthy for them.

Not in the wrong because you had Mindy under effective control, where as her puppy was not. Ignore her and move on. Though one thing to remember, even if you believe someone is completely wrong in saying that the play is "really aggressive" or "Inappropriate", it is their right to ask for you to take your puppy away. (Which you did aussielover )

Are you doing the NDTF course by any chance? Done it. Trying to refresh my memory.

Flat collar for both. Though Rover occasionally wear a martingale, because his Labrador buddy Milly is very very skilled at taking off any other type of collar! Now I personally have no use for a retractable lead, and I would have been the first one to say how silly they are. I have however learned that they can be useful! For example, When my friend walks her 2 poodles at the park, she had problems with them so she will keep one on a retractable lead while the other is off lead. She is very very careful about the lead, stays away from other dogs, and the retractable lead allows her to play fetch with her poodle on lead. She keeps the lead locked when walking near the road and does not just allow the dogs to roam around. Pays very close attention and really is just exceptionally responsible with the lead. I think they can be a useful tool when used correctly and responsibly!

I would suggest reading a book called "Click to Calm" by Emma Parsons! A lot of good explanations about getting your dog to associate something they don't like (other dogs, or cats ) with something they love (food!). You change the behaviour, and it leads to a change in the emotion behind the behaviour

I think its finally making sense!!

My 2 will cuddle, but it depends on Rover. He gets hot easily, where as Riddick will go and lie infront of heater or on someones feet if possible Riddicks first day home

My understanding is basically what you said. But I don't really understand it, I'm kind of just parroting what I hear or read. Can you give me some examples of both? Is using a clicker classical conditioning?

Now I do vaguely know the definition and difference of both classical and operant conditioning, but if someone can simplify it for me with some examples, or has a link to a explanation I would be most grateful!!

Sounds like the perfect time for a new puppy ;)!

Going off topic, but a small worry that came to mind when I read this. If you're that far away, that you can't get to your dog to stop it simply humping another dog. What happens if he one day tries to hump a dog that attacks him? You're so far away by the time you get there, huge amounts of damage could already be done? Whats to stop another dog attacking your dog before you could do something about it?

Thank you for the reply Nekhbet!!! Really interesting

Hope your classes go well!!!! and, All discussions and arguments aside, Curious to the reasons why you wouldn't use food Nekhbet, and I'm not asking in a "rar rar rant you should always use food!" way, just curious and interested in potentially learning more about working with other drives If you had a dog that was so obviously insane for food far beyond everything else, would you try to work with another drive or just use that one?

Going by some requests by people, I'm going to do a second video showing how I'll go from the long handsignal, to just a word . And that's my point - if you are putting clips on youtube to teach people tricks for their dog then you need to be actually teaching the trick properly. Teaching tricks is not about simplifying them but about building the behaviour so that you have a solid trick at the end of the training. I can teach my dog to lure into a bow in about 30 seconds but it will take several more sessions (always a max of a couple of mins when teaching new behaviours) to then add the command word, then increase the bridge and then ask for the behaviour without lure. There is more than one way to teach a dog the same trick Different methods work better for different dogs. Having perosnally seen Riddick and Rover perform their repetoire of tricks I can assure you that LMS does know what she's doing and the methods she uses definitely work! In don't think LMS was indictating that the trick could be taught in one 30 sec session. I will be attempting to teach my little monster this trick this afternoon Wouldn't it be great if a dog could learn a trick in 30 seconds? unfortunately is does take longer. As you can see by the fast-forwarded part of the video, practice makes perfect! Try and take a video of Mindy doing the trick and then you could post it on youtube !!

Who really knows how this line will click with the German Shepherd line. There is going to be a fair amount of genetic unpredictability in how these pups will turn out. And that seems a bit scary when aggression is a strong trait in at least one of the lines, and these are going to be big powerful dogs. But some people do not think it is ethical to cull healthy puppies, no matter how badly bred they are. It is a breeder's decision to cull or not to cull, and only a breeder can make that decision at the time. I certainly wouldn't be wanting to have to find responsible homes for a litter like that. I was wondering though, what if that ad on petlink had been worded differently? Would it have raised so much anger? What if it had been written like this? Dutch Shepherd x German Shepherd pups for sale. Ready for new homes in September. Desexed, vaccinated, wormed, micro chipped and vet checked. Parents health certificates available for viewing. If you think you can provide the right sort of high-energy home for one of these dogs please send us an email with your contact details and let us know a bit about yourself and what you are expecting from your new dog. I know if it had been written like that I wouldn't have had such a problem with it. Interesting point. Do you think aggression is really a trait that can be bred? Or is in more the tenacity and energy that could be aimed at aggression by its owners? Very very worrying thinking of what kind of dogs these are going to turn into in the the wrong hands! Giving a working line Shepherd to some douche with a credit card? Scary. At 6 weeks old too.

Oh lord... wonder how long this thread will survive, though it is a fair enough question! I don't know if I've read what you guys have said wrong or something, but I wouldn't ever kill puppies at birth just cause they have the unfortunate luck of being cross bred. That to me is like killing an unwanted baby when its born, just cause there are lots of children already in the foster system. They deserve their own chance at a life. Its your responsibility if a accidental mating happens, killing some innocents just because you where a idiot who made a mistake seems like a cop out in my opinion. Aborting them is a different matter.

I agree, there are some tricks I would never teach with luring, because the outcome will be much better with something else, but for others I find luring to be a great method. Haha Riddick is also a huge fan of socks. I will often find dirty docks that where in the laundry tend to Magically reappear on his mat. He'll be lying next to them with a angelic expression "What sock? Oh that sock! Oh I don't know how that got there *halo of innocence*" I love hearing the different ways people taught a trick! Riddick will naturally bow when playing with another dog, but trying to mark that would just be silly. This was for me the best way to get him to do it. He'll throw himself onto the ground in a down position fast enough, so keeping his back end up required some kind of block . My friends labrador Regal however has to be taught that Down didn't equal Ass in air Different dogs, different methods. Indi is gorgeous btw!!

Did you see the clip at the very end? That is my older dog rover bowing on a voice cue, I taught him the same way I'm teaching riddick. I say "Take a bow!" and he bows down. And in the last video, with Shake it does show that he knows the hand signal (as he lifts his paw when I offer my hand), just not a voice cue. You have to remember that the point of these videos is really for the general public. Simplifying tricks in a easy way that someone can just find this one clip on youtube and from there, teach their dog to bow. Since there are quite a few videos on free shaping different tricks, as opposed to luring, that is why I'm using luring. I think for someone who is not really dog savy, or just has awful timing (like my mum, who hates using a clicker or even marking something as she always gets the timing really wrong!) luring is a easy option. Easy to understand, and easy to execute.

Thanks guys ! It took Riddick less than a day to learn. He picked it up so quickly! (as opposed to Shake which took him like a week ) I start incorporating the hand and/or voice signal when I'm 100% positive that he is going to bow every time. So at the stage hes at now I will start bringing in the the voice cue If he broke the down and tried to lie down or stand up. I would just say "woops! Silly boy" and get up, walk off, then come back to it. The point of constantly treating is to basically keep them bowing, and reward them for doing so. They learn that this bowing thing is really good, I get food, and I get food if I stay bowing to! You can also train it by increasing the bridge between marker and action. Thats a different method though, (I would use it for sure if I was training with toys rather than food). When you start of, you constantly treat. Then you gradually have longer and longer bridges between action and treat . I used the same method when I teach anything where I want the dog to stay there, and anyone who's met him will tell you that Riddick stay is really really fantastic. and yeah I've seen that video! Theres a few really good ones using the clicker ! Awesome dane in the video, and I love how she bows to the dog as a cue! (may steal that )

So I've made a second training video. How to train your dog to bow. Would love some opinions be gentle though.