Ms James

We were using dry treats and had limited success, and we tried to look for low fat type stuff because our dogs have a tendency to be big gutses when it comes to food :rolleyes: I try to save what we've got left over from roasts (chicken, lamb etc) and they go nuts for that. We try to put a little variation in their treat bag for training, so on any given day we might have a few bits of twiggy sticks (one for you, two for me! ), cheese, some chopped up bits of roast chook from the night before etc etc. The thing they go absolutely nuts for is fresh mushrooms (I kid you not), so I always pop a few slices of mushies in there for them - I get the pre-sliced ones from woollies because I'm too lazy to do it myself ;)

My dog, that was just heartbreaking to read.

What about genetic aggression? Is that something that's cureable? I'd be interested in what the trainers have to say on this, interesting topic! :cool: I know with my problem child I haven't given up on curbing his wild ways (he's dog aggressive) and I'd go to the ends of the earth to help him overcome this and even though improvement is slow, there *is* improvement. I think no improvement in cases like my guy's is probably more a reflection on me and my training skills (or lack thereof, or lack of motivation etc etc) than anything else. That being said, he's shown that with a trainer he can behave perfectly in any given situation - he was put into one of those training kennels & they basically had a ball with him & he showed absolutely zero aggression after one day (he was there a week). That means that now I have to be able to learn to replicate that which is a long & slow process for me considering I've only been a dog owner for 18 months! If ever it got to the point that I couldn't ever cope with him because of my terrible handling skills, I'd be left with two options: never take him outside unless I was guaranteed there'd be no dogs around or rehome him with a trainer or extremely competent handler. At this time, both these scenarios are waaaaay on the backburner & it would have to be an extreme circumstance for me to seriously consider these options - I won't give up on him or me until I have irrefutable proof that I'm crap at handling him and have exhausted all possibilities. I'd never, ever, ever have him PTS, that option would be unacceptable to me. Now, where I *have* given up is teaching my other dog, Bella, to catch food in her mouth. I've resigned myself to accept the fact that she'll always just watch the food bounce off her nose *sigh*

Gawd! I know what you mean! I've been trying with my guys for ages, & they always get this look on their face as if to say "I think I need an adult here...this doesn't feel right...what's your hand doing???" I'm gonna try some of these tips

At our club, it's always drummed into us to ask the owners before you approach another dog, so it's a good practice I've gotten into at both the club & when we're out walking, it's just the polite thing to do. I've gotten to know the dogs that walk around here when I'm with my sociable girl (Bella), so I know which one I should cross the road for & say a gday from there & who's up for a chat. Usually it's people's kids that give us big grins when we walk past, we always ask the parents if they want to come & say hi, but then again I like being neighbourly We've got orange leads for the problem doggies at our club, and people usually respect that & keep a nice distance from us when we're with our problem child.

I want both, first & foremost I want good quality instruction - however, the success & results of that instruction usually comes from us & how much we've been practising with our guys. I also like to have a chinwag with the people at the club. I wouldn't classify them as "friends", just people I can catch up with once a week

It's the complete opposite at my place, the cats have us trained extraordinarily well Leo's soooooo cute!!

Moreover that it might be confiscated by customs. You need a permit to import them. Oops, yeah, I forgot about that! In Victoria I don't think the "it's for personal use, maaaan" would wash well with the authorities

I got mine from K9 force (http://www.k9force.net). Better to get it through him otherwise you might have to pay a packet, what with international shipping rates & currency conversion

Hellooooo wonderful, wonderful trainers! My lead holding technique is where I'm failing my doggies at the moment, and I was told today I should practise, practise, practise so that it becomes natural. I'm definitely not fast enough when it comes to looping the lead up quickly, and swapping lead to my left hand when I'm giving a hand signal with my right (when dog is on my left) - I'm still in the "thinking every step through" stage, I also have a stupid habit of holding the lead up over at shoulder height when I'm bending down to pat Now, to practise without the dogs, I thought I might need a bit of weight at the end of the lead to simulate something at the other end of it. I thought of attaching the lead to MrJames, but he wouldn't go for it Maybe I could put a small weight at the other end of the lead & put the weight onto a chair to practise that way. I also thought of putting a little jingle bell near the hand-loop so that my ear would hear it as soon as my hand strayed anywhere near my shoulders. Has anyone else ever had to practise their lead handling techniques? If so, how did you do it and what visual cues (if any) did you use? Any help would be appreciated

Good luck, Beth'n'Bear!

Dominance is such an over used term. Who told you that? I think Erny put it better & more succinctly than I could have ;) I'll try to explain, sas, in relation to what I'm experiencing with my dog, but I do want to stress that I probably over-analyse and interpret behaviour as dominance because that's what we've been focussing with our guys so much. With our guy, Roggie, we've been implementing the NILIF and the TOT with him to curb his wicked ways (he's dog aggressive, used to have a tendency to get over excited, jump up, rush through doorways etc etc). One of the things Roggie used to do a lot was come up to us while we were sitting (eating, reading, on computer, breathing) & either whack his head on our laps or jump up, paws on our lap & basically would nose our faces. As you'd imagine, this grew rather tiresome! I did some research, got him into some private training, & finally understood that this behaviour was a no-no, later implemented the NILIF programme and started to see much improvement in his attention seeking ways. Now, one of the things we use with Roggie to implement NILIF is for him to perform a trick (his best one is "paw", he can "paw" for Australia now! Does high fives, and we're currently working on "roll over"). In the initial phases, we'd ignore his initial attempt at getting a pat, recall him a minute later, ask for "paw" and he'd get mucho loving. Now, this is where my (mis)interpretation of "dominance" might come in: lately, what I've noticed is that he'll happily trot up to me, sit, then offer his paw to me, leaving it hanging in the air as if to say (and yes, I know I'm anthropomorphising here!) "ok, I've done what you want, now PAT!". Now, for a training noob such as myself, I'd interpret that as him testing me to see if I'll be consistent in my giving affection on my terms, or reverting to past behaviours that showed him that he got attention when he put his head on the lap only now he's proferring a paw, knowing that he gets attention when he does that behaviour. The difference being that I haven't asked for the behaviour - so he gets ignored until I'm ready to give him attention on my own terms. I have to stress, though, that this is in the day-to-day interactions, and not during any training and learning phases. He's usually pretty good when we're training & will only do as asked. Except for rolling over, he's in the "I like rolling over when I'm dropped" phase. Sheesh! Hmm... I'm probably being clear as mud here, and more than likely my experience has absolutely nothing to do with the OP's experience. Sorry guys!

I was told that anticipation can be a form of dominance & attention seeking. Just like sas says, ignore her & don't treat until she settles down & performs the command asked :D

Way to go, Cosmo!!! I miss Cosmo, she's just such a character

Our club allows us to use the best method to motivate for our dog's personality - one is completely food obsessed, the other loooooves her squeaky. I love that they give you guidelines & teach the individual dog, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

I remember a friend's little doggy did the same thing, & it passed no problem. But if his tum is sore and tender, definitely give the vet a call & see what they say.

note to self, do not munch on a bowl of cocopops while browsing DOL! She might be a little off-colour for a while, as Warley said, rest her tum & small meal at dinnertime :p If she doesn't seem to get any better by tomorrow, or if there's any distressing...er...projectile type stuff, give your vet a call

We use advocate, monthly pipette thingy which does fleas & worms.

I've never been to one of these things, is it ok to go only as a spectator? Obviously I wouldn't bring my dogs

Rom, I reckon you're right, most of the research will be from US & EU where they're fairly widely used out there. Most of the decent research will only be available in research journals in libraries, so it'll be a quick trip to the uni library with a photocopy card! :p

Erny, I'll pop down to the uni library & see if I can do a search using my cousin's login. I'll email you what I find

Hmm, I've been looking at the Vic legislation, & I think one of the main stumbling points of the pro-prong debate might just be quantified research. So far, it seems that the pro-prong submissions have had only anecdotal evidence as to their benefits, conversely the anti-prong gang had a wealth of published research to back up their claims. Now this poses a problem because the powers that be will always rely on the word of one article in a published journal over 100 testimonials. This makes the inclusion of a pro-prong journal article (peer-reviewed etc etc) a must. Does anyone here have good access to a university database?

Erny will kick my bottom if I don't recommend her j/k Erny :rofl: We're seeing Erny now & she's whipping us into shape like you wouldn't believe.

Every day I check my mailbox to see if my prong has arrived from K9, I can't wait!!! Are you going to include pictures & xrays in the submission? Hopefully some nice vets out there can help you out with some to factually demonstrate the effects check chains have on the muscular/skeletal structure of the doggy's neck. In my mind, a picture will definitely help to strongly illustrate the need for prongs & the relatively minimal effect they physically have on the dog. Once I've got Roggie up & running, did you want me to write a testimonial? We'd only be happy to do so

great vid!! Go Tia!