ZAUBISTAR

Inside or outside dog: Most likely a bit of both, I would assume inside to sleep but would need to confirm ( I hope so anyway). Will they take it to training: Possibly, They're very interested when I tell them about trialling, probably more interest in agility/fly ball type activities. What sort of level of coat maintenance will they be willing to keep up: Yeah, from chatting I would assume low to medium, although I would have thought schnauzers required a fair bit? Is this a tick area: Typically more in the eastern side of the state but they have been found migrating recently. This is very north west of Tas so as far as I know they're not a huge issue. I've never found one on my guys but we are about 150km inland from where the family live. Any ideas?

Hi Guys, A good friend from work and his wife are looking for a pet dog. They own a house on the beach and have 3 kids, a girl 12, a boy 4 and a baby girl just 1. They are a fairly active family, do heaps of bush walking, running around etc. and the dad runs marathons. However, I would think the dog would stay mostly with mum as dad works my hours and travels from family where as my dogs stay with me. They love my GSD's and might consider that but I'm not going to push that either way. I think while they appreciate the working dogs a lot, they might want something that doesn't need that much mental stimulation. I at first suggested golden retriever which was also on their top 10. Other breeds they like but I have no idea about were: weimaraner schnauzer (standard) and a little while ago Dalmatian. I did suggest that dogs like Shetland sheepdog and whippet would not be best suited to very young children, I assume this is still right? I would love to get a list of breeds well suited so if you can help please paste your suggestions in and I can look up the breed standards and go through it with them. Cheers

Great work Kyzer, Jess, Xena, Kavik, and well done Ziggy at the nationals! (dogs names are easier ) OMG, I just watched the vid, Pap on Crack is right! What a little dynamite!

Well done on the mock trial. Sounds like she gave you a great effort. hehehe.... don't think this one would work for us Sounds good. We had a great training session today Heeling: spot on COP: did the full drop sit come from about 3m, perfect (clicker has been a god send) SFE: um..... as good as you can get with one person. I left him did a lap of the room approached did the exam and returned. DOR: WE GOT ONE!!!!!!! :D and I mean a full one not the run full bore and drop last minute but clean and smart now back to normal recalls and rehearse distance drop. Retrieve flat: BIG arch on first return NEVER seen him do that before but I did throw it crooked. Next two were good and much less mouthing with the heavier dumbell. Stays: Good but very short about half time, he broke both stays last time. prior to that the issue had been in between sit and drop was when he I was going to hide something he had to find ;)

She sounds like a real sweetie wish I had room for a goldie. I'd be using the suggestion above of getting her to carry objects for you. Great fun for the dog and very rewarding to teach your dog something useful. Do you do any formal obedience with her? Just think what she could do

Well done BB and Luke :D ah ha......so it's not just Acteon that swaps one task for another then! Congrats Nes, sounds like she's doing well on the retrieve

Thank you I've been thinking/planning this for about 10 years so I'm rather excited. I changed my username then thought, oh.... probably shouldn't have used capitals, didn't mean to yell. But it does look heaps better in upper case

Got my prefix approved so decided to change my user name. Just in case you were wondering

Hey, I'll swap you one who lurvs obedience, so much so you can hear us in the car 4km before we get to the ground We're working on it

Wow, BIG stuff everyone, congratulations! I've got OH on it for you, he works mostly on website design but does also do a bit of building/re-building as well

Thanks I'll look it up

Oh dear, I just assumed they were dog ppl Hows your drop on recall going? still doing the two food trick? I started this with Acteon and got good results, we just have issues progressing from that to something more formal. :D

Where do you get a "Ping"? Yeah, sort of figured I'd need one on one help, so far a lot of good starters advice here. I might run a bit of a scan over clicker classes, if any exist down here. Also something to look at :D Thanks Jeanne, I do something similar with Acteon, however now that there's competition in the car I need a quicker more precise marker. I think it's going to be a slow process with plenty of reinforcement time with each individual dog. Thanks to all of you, helps me keep to the right track. Any good books to follow up on?

Ha ha.. Just read that one, well done! I'm most impressed with the girls, good start to the year indeed

Well done girls!!

Yeah pretty much where we are at. Roxy had no formal training when I got her so I'm happy with her working how she is. I'll map the progress with Acteon and If I change my mind and decide to clicker Roxy then I might seek some more advice then. Thank you

So.....How'd ya go? Wish I could have been there, working :D Trials far apart? Tell me about it! I'm working, working, GSDCT (April) got cancelled (last I heard), then I'm working again! (going to try and get the weekend off for Ulverstone). I might get to one some time this year but with the few there are...... Maybe you and I should start up a North South club BG, we could host a trial every other weekend, while we're at it why not throw in a few more ET's and tracking trials too

This is more of what I was afraid of. My problem is I need to rewarding Acteon for calm behaviour, this of course is exaggerated for both dogs when for eg. getting one out of the car or getting the collar to take one for a walk. I guess what I should ask is this: If I progress with training 'stay calm' with Acteon this way, what is the best way to AVOID reinforcing Roxy if she's playing up. Do I only clicker train him and ignore her? As she is normally quieter, this is what I'm doing at the moment. I just don't know how to go from click=good Acteon vs click = Roxy getting worked up because she's staying in the crate. Am I getting more to the point? I'm finding it really hard to get across my fear of positive for one dog could be unintentionally a) reinforce bad behaviour in the other due to the timing and situation for both dogs or b) de-sensitize the other dog to the effects of the clicker because to her click does not = treat I don't know, is it actually more simple than this?

Yes, I should know truth is I've only just started thinking about clicker training. My thing is, I want to use it to create a desired behaviour in Acteon. While he is very quick to learn, he gets very excitable. I can still get him to work very well when he's 'up' but the noise is too much at times. Verbal lessons to learn 'quiet' and 'settle' only work in the house or when we're out by ourselves, I need this when he's in the car and getting Roxy out or vice versa so I've started clicker training him. Little bugga knows me so well that he understood click = treat after 2 clicks, I had him working quietly round the house in 5 mins so he is learning mum + click = focus and quiet. :D that's all I've done because I want to really reinforce this behaviour (start we something we know). so....... How do I progress to working in and out of the car/house/crate with the other dogs around? If I start rewarding Acteon using this conditioning, what do I do with Roxy? She is really very good, quiet and at most does a little dance for me but rarely plays up when I leave her and take Acteon. If this does change how do I not accidentlly reinforce bad behaviour? If I do want to start using a clicker with her, do I get a different tone clicker or does it only work with one dog at a time? Thanks in advance, and yes, I think I will get some books

Maybe Ulverstone in May but we'll have to see. Last year when everything was going well I was planning on getting him into Open at the GSDCA Nationals Vic. but I just couldn't justify the cost of getting there and then potentially embarrass us both Not sure for much of the year in advance due to work but I could easily look it up. We really don't get many OT down here Ok if you do agility as well but I'm almost at the point where I start looking for another job just so I can move the dogs and family to a more active state Does your friend train at one of the Hobart clubs?

I think you just quoted my session on Sunday morning I must add: First time on that ground since Sept last year, First time in formal class since Sept last year, First time I have taken both Acteon and Roxy to do some work (I only had the one before now). Well...... DOR ended up as run really fast, ignor the down signal look confused and return to mum COP, excellent, but only to about 2m away ROF, good except for my dumbbell landing only 3m away (he has reverted back to mouthing beofre presenting it) Stays, I'm still impressed with his stays, we did a couple of formal ones and then I did one where I just wandered off around for a bit and came back Roxy's first class was brilliant, I am very happy with her for her first formal lesson

I've got two GSD's at the moment and an old kelpie X (have had GSD's previously). Our yard is a fairly reasonable size but our dogs are inside when we're not home any way. About an 1hr walk a day preferably with a bit of a run is what I'd recommend as a minimum for an adult. Puppies need much less and a lot of off lead frolicks (not pushed exercise). Good points earlier about socialisation too, any dog regardless of breed needs to be exposed to all social possibilities in a controlled and relaxed manner to have a well established adult. I agree, ppl can be worried about GSD's which at first can be upsetting but you get used to it. Plenty of other ppl like them Your friend is right about mental stimulation being equally important with this breed as physical. I have my dogs inside with me and constantly engage them. I do obedience so they get bits and pieces of that everyday as well. One on one is also really important with these dogs to help shape desired behaviour but, they can get very attached to their person. They will tend to pick a person in the family who is just special, all family members need to follow training and make pack order clear at all times. Good luck to your friend, I hope they intend to go to a well respected registered breeder.

OMG, leave the web world for a few days and I had 3 pages just on this threasd to scroll through! :rolleyes: Well done everyone, you know who you are

Geez Smisch, you're making me feel lazy Well done kids!

You hit the nail on the head! I know, I can't believe the difference between then and now. I never thought we would get to here! At least not this quickly! I think I owe Jedi's vet dermatologist a HUGE thankyou! That is fantastic! Congratulations! And I thought two passes in one day was good! Nice work Soaks, well done!