The Spotted Devil

Feeling scared as you say is a behavior and rewarding that fearful behavior gives the message that being scared is ok. Only reward dogs when they are relaxed confident and doing the right thing. I am personally not a fan of constant food rewards.Praise and positive voice / body language speaks volumes to a dog. Sorry Purdie but feeling scared is not a behaviour. Feeling scared is an emotion. Biting someone (triggered by feeling scared) is a behaviour. I use food rewards extensively with my clients' fearful dogs. If used correctly they are extremely powerful - much more so than praise.

I would definitely recommend seeing a professional - there is too much going on here for diagnosis over the Internet - sorry!

Just a note - you can't reinforce an emotion only a behaviour. So you can't reward him for feeling scared but you may reward a behaviour that occurs in response to him feeling fearful. Food rewards are a valuable part of changing how an animal feels about its environment.

How long each day would pup be indoors in the pen? How many dogs of each breed have you met? What age were they? Are there any body corporate restrictions (regardless of whether you own or rent)? I had a GSP pup for a month - training her for a friend who was overseas - she was lovely and talented but nothing would have convinced me to keep her (my friend was looking for a breeders terms home for her). I have a Dalmatian and 2 working Springers but this girl was hard work... constantly cried when left alone and incredibly persistent and "in your face" with my resident dogs and cats until my bitch refused to go outside with her and one of my cats held her on the ground by her ear for several minutes.....the cat won that round but pup did not relent. Pup is grown up now and living with an older gentleman on a large rural property - only dog, lots of Gundog training and exercise plus close to 24 hour companionship indoors and she is loving it. At the end of the day, if you try hard enough you will get a puppy of the breed you want. I could have sold my litter of Springers several times over but talked a number of potential homes out of them. Some of those people allowed themselves to be educated and realised a Gundog was too much for their current situation. Others refused to listen and bought a pup from the first person who would sell them one. There's plenty of people out there who will sell anything to anyone.

When a dog is so aroused or fearful that they won't accept treats, you need to increase the distance between the dog and the scary thing or the distraction until they can deal with it. Certainly the vast majority of the 100s of shelter/rescue/problem dogs I see have received little or inappropriate socialisation rather than having been abused. There can also be a genetic factor of course.

The Ear That Defies Gravity. I swear Em is saying "WTF is going on with your ear Zig?"

OMG.. I need one!! Hell yes!!!!!! Pondering just how sloped the site can be....

Have you tried calling him through the open dog door to go outside to toilet? You need to set up a behaviour pattern for him. With regards to noise, reward quiet, cover pen with large sheet for noisy, remove sheet, wait for quiet, reward. Don't feed everything in a few meals but spread it out as training.

I've got soft, sweet working Springers - 2 entire bitches, mother and daughter, 5 yo and 11 month old. They receive a LOT of exercise and training. My PhD is in dog behaviour. I train dogs and compete in 3 sports. I never leave them together when I go out. They get on really well but pup can be annoying and they are both due to come into season. I am risk averse at the best of times.

1. Anecdotal reports are not evidence. It's like the folk who live to 100 on a diet of cigarettes and coffee. 2. The study analysed a random sample of products and compared them with (I imagine) NHMRC nutritional guidelines. 3. There is an assumption that you would feed these diets exclusively AND that the nutritional content doesn't change batch to batch. I suspect close to 100% cats in the past were outdoors and supplementing their diet with mice, birds and geckos. And there's a lot who still do.

Tummies and tongues

The tongues

I only watched a smidge of this. dont they teach dogs to walk at heel anymore? I think some of them were very young/green dogs, barely more than puppies really Agreed - a lot of youngsters at the beginning. I really enjoyed watching the relaxed obedience and bite work by the experienced dogs.

Great display!!! And Springers! :D Sorry, going off-topic here but TSD did you see the Adrian and Caroline Slater gundog display? I was thinking of Em and Muppet the entire time! :D Starts around 4:15:00 mark: Love a bit of crazy Springer action :laugh: Em moves like the bitch that's for sure...think Ginny Muppet has a bit of Setter in there somewhere lol

Great display!!! And Springers! :D

Great update SC Boy do I know that feeling of exhaustion :laugh:

Very civilized hour. Good girl!

I will put my feelers out again in a few more months in here then, and see what's around. preferably under $1000 though and has to be within 200km of where i live, so i can go and visit before making any decisions, just to be safe. (I am sure all breeders on this site are awesome- but i have been burnt too many times in the past to take any chances) Thank you for your advice though. Makes sense to wait til my blue heeler is older and better trained before introducing another pup. Just to give you an idea - it COST me nearly twice that per puppy to health test, breed, whelp and raise my litter of 4 very robust puppies. And that didn't go close to covering my own time. You do get what you pay for. Agree with everyone else - I wouldn't have 2 pups if you paid me!

Ah! The redecorating stage.... :D

Nice!

Yep, thought it may have been dropping last night, but up again this morning. If I happen to catch it (and it really doesn't matter if I don't cause we are ready anyway) I expect it will drop later today or tonight. *waiting, waiting, waiting* :laugh: :laugh: do de do, taps fingers. I've gone out in sympathy. Got the Karcher going outside for Spring cleaning :D

Yep, thought it may have been dropping last night, but up again this morning. If I happen to catch it (and it really doesn't matter if I don't cause we are ready anyway) I expect it will drop later today or tonight. *waiting, waiting, waiting* :laugh:

Are you taking temperature?

I got SOOOO much cleaning done when Em was nesting...it's catching :laugh:

How exciting! Hope everything goes incredibly smoothly!