The Spotted Devil

You really do have a responsibility to inform her - at the very least so she doesn't put someone else in the same situation. I'm glad your beautiful girl is ok

Crikey Sheena :laugh: Yes I agree - focus on those that are willing to be proactive. I've got a lovely Lab in one of my classes - very, very busy girl with a voice to boot. Had a VERY painful first week and now we can get through pretty much 60 min class with only the occasional bark out of excitement/frustration. All thanks to LAT and teaching proper engagement. The owner is so so happy as she'd been trying to bribe/distract the dog with food which was always going to end badly.

I pick and choose the people I teach and I keep it as simple as possible, probably take a few shortcuts, never use a clicker and usually I start the dog off so I can nail the timing, demonstrate how to deal with failures etc. I think it's certainly a useful tool but I don't persist if people are disinterested - you can lead a horse to water and all that! Even more critical I think is teaching people to truly engage with their dogs through physical play, tug and food games.

Dalmatian or GSP similarly Mrs RB.

If that's the discussion to be had, it would be more appropriate to take it into a new topic and have this one cleaned up. I won't engage in these discussions in an online forum because it takes far too much of my time. If you want to become involved become engaged with a University research group so the processes behind decisions become apparent and you can make a valid contribution. For what it's worth our post-grad students consult extensively with people and professionals who work in our fields of study.

It definitely depends on the individual - Em is 4.5, trains hard, plays hard, runs hard, competes hard and is about to have her own babies but I still have a baby gate to stop her accessing cat toys, shoes etc and I have to "puppy proof" the living area. A leather wallet has a very short half life in this house...

Mr TSD and I are arguing the point...he's gone to check whilst I finish a glass of wine....ha ha! He just got the wrong pair :laugh: Back he goes... And the winner is...ME!!!!!! North Face Hedgehog :D

Yes I wear waterproof (gortex) hiking runners - my current brand/style aren't made anymore so I'm searching for my next pair. I wear them for walking and agility - warm, dry feet are blissful! I bought a few pairs in the US when the $ was good so now I have to face up to local prices.

With regards to the short coat are they prepared for shedding? Dalmatians shed twice a year….6 months in the Autumn and 6 months in the Spring :D Of course I love my Dally and my Gundog breeds but you have to be prepared to put up with their breed tendencies…on the upside they love to garden too :laugh:

I would guess that the isolation test is just a brief removal from the litter. Saliva samples give you data on cortisol and immune responses (indicative of stress). There would probably be behavioural obs as well. I would not venture to comment on the study unless I'd read the lit review and understood it more fully. This is undoubtedly a very small part of the overall research. Steve, the problem is we have very little scientific knowledge about dog behaviour - plenty of anecdotal evidence and knowledge of course - we may want to answer question 20 but we have to go back and answer questions 1-19 first. That is the nature of research. My own PhD research question seems blindingly obvious but we needed the data and it tossed us some very interesting info whilst we were at it. I will also say that trying to do research at any level on the smell of an oily rag REALLY limits what we can do. Scraping together my own money and begging for funding for 4 years wasn't a whole lot of fun. There are VERY few opportunities for companion animal research funding and it's not something I would recommend to many prospective students.

Trust me MAZNAT I still feel overwhelmed and I've had a number of puppies :laugh: Yes well said VM.

I am fortunate in that I work from home a fair bit so my youngsters are rarely left for longer than 4 hours. So I mix it up as needed when I need to leave them alone - indoor pen/indoor crate in general and they have adult dogs plus cats for company. If I had to be at work 8 hours plus I'd probably adapt one of the yards - puppy proof it - and leave plenty of things to do...clam shell with sand (another for water in Summer), frozen food toys, dry food scattered, cardboard boxes, variety of toys that change daily, appropriate training and exercise before and after being left alone...I prefer my pups not to practice "bad" habits so I give them stuff to do.

Happy to help and look forward to hearing of your progress! Did some training with Em tonight - just walking baseball with 3 dummies. It really is a bit easy for her but it's nice to keep it light. Can't just let her free run as her recall has COMPLETELY gone south. Little hormone ridden Springer Devil :laugh:

My dogs know that wake up could be 5am or 11am and adapt accordingly! Of course youngsters still get taken outside regularly but they learn that sometimes you come back to bed afterwards.

Yep, the routine in my house is that there is no routine. However there is consistency!

You wouldn't give a 12 year old the keys to the Ferrari is my motto :laugh: My dogs don't get freedoms until they've earnt my trust! I'm always asking my dogs what distractions they can work under. If you look it as feedback and information rather than a teenage rebellion it's much easier to formulate a solution. I think when we have a youngster and they are working really well it is easy to get lulled into a false sense of security and behaviours and criteria get sloppy over time. I don't mind my dogs failing at times (and in fact I encourage it!) but there is always a consequence (reduced freedom, no reward, stop training, train the other dog etc) and I work through the issue immediately. Once they nail that I add something else to the mix to up the ante :)

Thanks Eyolf :) Whenever you have a problem you need to break it down and make it simpler. You need to teach dogs not to cheat. Find a small pond and set your dog up in a sit really close to the water. Walk the opposite side and call through - throw the dummy on the line and party There's a hundred variations of that one. You might toss the dummy in front of the dog in the water. Vary dog distance from water. Vary handler distance from water. All done as separate exercises. Rinse and repeat on lots of different water and even cheaty cover. With your toller - yes definitely shorten up the marks. You want that dog super confident. Maybe go back to hand thrown marks so the thrower can help out if necessary. Make sure the dog is looking forward with real focus and confidence. Singles only. Check to make sure the marks are actually breaking the skyline. That can be a real trap. When you are trying to build confidence on marks DO NOT handle the dog. Have the thrower toss another one or call "Hey hey hey" and walk close to where it's fallen.

Jess, not that I instruct agility due to lack of Sunday availability but our club has various modules - think they are 4 weeks each and everyone starts with foundation and then you get moved around until you've done them all. There are some prerequisites of course but I think there is foundation, contacts 1, contacts 2, weaves 1, weaves 2, jumps (which is basic and probably could be split into several modules depending on handling system), then sequencing and intermediate. Triallers train on a weeknight. I really like how AP run their handling courses. Still 4 weeks but lots of foundations - really nicely integrated - bit of cone work, bit of jump work, big of putting it all together in each lesson.

What a shame I'm in Victoria! As a PhD student myself with a bitch due to whelp next month I would have been more than happy to participate. Good luck!

If you want to stay with something similar Proplan will have a regular puppy formula. I feed Artemis in general but my ESS eats all the prize winnings - Advance, Hills, Proplan - she does well on everything as long as it doesn't have corn. Photos please

So little Em is now 5 weeks pregnant but has not slowed down much at all! I'm keeping up her retrieving drills on the oval to get the energy out and I'm sure she'll let me know when she's ready to take it easy. I ran a training day for a club last weekend and Em got to do a fun retrieving demo. She nailed just about everything but the double fall in water needed a couple of reminders :laugh:

Gorgeous!!! What a sweetie!

And I'd also say that if you've had a few bitches over the years it's really easy to stuff up that sort of info. I'm breeding my first litter and, for some inexplicable reason, I had it in my mind that the colour genetics for the sire were one way when in fact they weren't. In my case it wasn't a misunderstanding (I studied genetics at Uni) - it just got stuck in my head that way.

Magnoplasm works really well as a drawing ointment. Not quite as messy. Did a super job on a grass seed in Em's paw.

Economy is wonderful if you were driving a Discovery prior Not to mention mechanic costs Now there's the perfect dog car if you have money to spare. And a tow truck