The Spotted Devil

Understand. I think the really important thing is to take things at the individual pup's pace. Yes, we know there are fear periods but they are only defined from a scientific point of view - like seasons timing is fluid and every pup seems to deal with stuff differently. Let them approach new situations, people, nice dogs etc without pressure. We had a thunderstorm when I first had Sky home and she was understandably a bit shaken. By the end of it she was competing with my adults to see who could sit first to get the cheese when the thunder clap came. Fireworks the other night and she slept through it :laugh:

I have a friend's pup for a month - no PPS but she's been to a variety of training grounds,water, cover, Uni twice, agility trial, weekend of camping and retrieving trialling, agility classes, had people and dogs stay with us, lots of car travel, positive visits to the vet etc etc. Sometimes in her crate/outside alone/out and about alone or with others - mix it up! She has been exposed to so much yet I have continued to train her in the process (recalls, retrieves, whistle sits etc) so new, exciting stuff also equals work. So far anyway :laugh: BTW I run PPS classes on occasion and hate free for alls with a passion. Greetings between well matched pups are fine but I generally prefer to have both social and shy pups work on recalls etc using other pups as distractions. Even confident pups can get a fright and/or develop too much value for other pups.

It's complex but the look command becomes a bit of a problem as it ends up creating a behaviour chain and reinforces being distracted. And holding the treat up high is simply luring - it often appears to give good results but becomes a crutch. I prefer to play (physical, tug, tricks etc), work briefly, reward and release to sniff. This also encourages the dog to re-engage. The problem with some classes is that they ask the dogs to hold focus for way too long without building enough value and a varied schedule of reinforcement.

And now I'm getting photos messaged to me from up the back block :laugh:

I can tell Mr TSD is ready for a new pup....he just arrived home, told me all the cute things Sky got up to this morning as he was getting ready for work, went outside to cuddle her as soon as she was calm and quiet, waxed lyrical about her muscle development since she's been with us and has now disappeared up the (very steep) back block to race around with her :laugh: He's going to miss her when she goes to her new owner!!!

"Ideal" is definitely flexible...like DC I do a lot of dog sports so I want my older dogs to be at some sort of maintenance level before I get a pup. Zig is 7.5 and Em is now 4. Perfect split age wise as I just keep Zig super fit and don't do a whole lot of training with him. I started a pup for a friend a few years ago and that was lots of work because Em wasn't that far advanced retrieving wise. I currently have a pup for a month and I'm doing a lot of work with her - the breed doesn't really suit us but she is very sweet and it's quite easy in that my dogs are happy to sleep the day away until we go training. I can see myself with a pup of my own in the next 12 months provided life works out. My training approach tends to improve with more dogs as I'm time poor and have to be very specific about what's important.

Oh I agree. But I think caution is warranted. It's like using the correlations between entire dogs and shelter admissions to say everything should be desexed.

My general issue with the spay/neuter studies is that they are retrospective and not experimental. Dogs are not randomly spayed/neutered and there may be other causal factors such as how the dog is raised, it's conformation, it's purpose, owner knowledge etc.

The heartworm treatments kill the microfilaria when they are very small which is not a problem if they are in tiny amounts. However, if the dog has full blown heart worm killing all the worms in one hit would risk causing clogging of the arteries and heart failure.

Yes, the training is the same but the motivation can be stronger.

Entire male Dally here - has not been used at stud but is a HUGE marker. If he's not training or exercising or sun baking he is inside. Lifted his leg once indoors at 9 months and I just went back to puppy inspired toilet training. The only other time he was tempted to mark indoors was when we moved house - again I just went back to taking him out every time he had been sniffing previous dog smells. He toilets on command which is a huge bonus. My ESS bitch does drive him silly when she's in season of course but he has never marked indoors. He also wouldn't dream of marking on the deck or balcony as I treated that area as indoors for the purpose of training. I've had a young male pup for a few months and have a friend's desexed male staying for a week with no problems but I would not pressure him with another entire adult male. It's a bit nuts when you have girls in season but I really enjoy the balance he lends to the pack, apart from the fact that he really is a lovely lad.

I know my dogs very well - I have a puppy here at the moment and all 3 adult dogs (mine plus a visitor) growl at pup VERY appropriately. If she doesn't take notice it's my job to remove her. The visitor growled at Zig when the former had a bone. No correction. However I did go and pick up all the old bones lying around and hit myself over the head with a rolled up newspaper :D

I have 3 adults and a pup in my house at the moment - it is less of a handful than we were expecting as everyone bundles into the car for training and exercise. I have a crate on the back seat for pup with one adult next to her on the seat and two in the back in the custom cage. That way we can drive to multiple venues and focus on one or two dogs at a time getting the training/exercise that suits them.

Yes, he could have been cold! My Dally really feels the cold but my Springer in the same room would be too hot!

I've got a GSP pup here for a month and I sympathise with the screaming She's really good at night because she barely sleeps all day. Obviously make sure he's had a wee and a poo but also a drink. This pup is a water baby so I don't leave water in the crate as it ends up everywhere. When you get him up to wee be very quiet and calm so as not to over arouse him. When you put him back to bed give him a puppy Kong filled with his dry food and a little something gently stuffed in the end eg chicken mince, 4 Legs, scrape of low salt peanut butter or similar. Crate next to you is great. Moving it outside will make it worse. It will get better!!!

I didn't write a list of 2014 goals but I kinda had one in my head. However! I certainly did not think I would be re-training agility using a whole new handling system for BOTH dogs but a great big tick to that anyway and I'm thrilled with the results! Both dogs getting faster and so much more confident. To see a huge reduction in Em "stuttering" and crashing into jumps is sensational - turns out it wasn't her eyesight but her uncertainty! I certainly did not think Em would have finished 3 All Age trials and come close on a few others. She really has done some super work thus far. Still working on her recall when free running around ducks :laugh: To see Zig running harder and injury free at nearly 8 years old is pretty darn special too. For myself, I am having more fun than ever before and am becoming a better handler in both agility and retrieving. My training sessions are getting smarter. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

There is limited research suggesting that pure lavender oil drops on a small piece of absorbent material placed near the travelling pet can help reduce travel sickness.

Stan, you are The Man!

I have tried RR - for myself and some of my rescue kitties. I suspect there is a decent placebo effect. Which can be surprisingly helpful! Nothing wrong with Clomicalm and similar if used wisely and in conjunction with behavioural therapy. It really depends on how serious the problem is.

Thanks for posting denali. I would probably follow that Dally advice with caution but, then, I am probably overly cautious. Some of the dark, leafy vegetables they mention are higher purine than others and I personally avoid beef and lamb for Zig.

Hi Yonjuro Dalmatians can only have a low-moderate purine diet. Every Dally has the gene with a propensity to form urate stones. It's kind of like gout in humans. Anchovies, sardines and tuna are all higher purine than salmon according to my sources. I feed my Dally a really good quality chicken based dry (Artemis) plus chicken frames and healthy treats. I don't feed organ meat (especially liver), beef or lamb as it is reportedly higher in purine content. Brewers yeast is another problem ingredient in dry dog food. Eggs are brilliant! Raw salmon would be fine but I have only used tinned salmon as a treat so only specified tinned. Raw salmon for human consumption is bloody expensive where I buy it from :laugh: Hope that clears things up.

Today… Em - all about concepts! Double mark and warm blind. First time around, get the blind, then get the 2 marks. Nailed it. Second time around, pick up the 2nd mark, then 1st mark, then blind. Nailed it. Third time around, double rise and double fall. Needed one stop whistle and handle to get her off the double fall but needed several handles to pick up the double rise. Did not send for the double fall. Repeated this exercise and she acknowledged the double fall but did not swap but again had trouble on the double rise. Decided to leave it there for the day and will simplify tomorrow. In between each run, Zig was doing some obedience training and Sky was doing recall games with Mr TSD and me plus we started her on very basic walking singles She was super although I have to remember to not recall her too early as she just drops the dummy and sprints back to me :laugh: She was super cute and had a great time….followed by LOTS of zoomies there is a reason why she is now fast asleep in her crate! Not before we did some conditioning to thunderstorms though :)

juice, I feed tinned salmon as a treat - it's lower in purines than tuna so have a look at some different types of fish. I would't feed sardines. It isn't easy with the Dally diet! Also, eggs are a great source of protein for Dalmatians.

1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes :) You might want to post on a non-dog forum for balance!

Super