Kowai

I think there is an Obedience club at South Port isn't there? --Edit-- Oops thats been mentioned

My Obedience club reccommends choke chains. However they teach everyone to use them properly and they don't tolerate any abuse with it. Proper use is a quick tug on the chain so it tightens, and then it is immediately released in a loose position again. It is NOT to be used to choke at any point.. Its more the movement, sound and feeling of the chain. It is to be put on the dog in the correct position so it hangs loose around the neck and this is also helped by holding the leash loosely. I was always against the chains, but I've seen at my club they are used correctly and no dog is ever hurt or traumatised by their use. I still don't use them myself though, I use a flat collar. What I don't trust about farm stays is the fact that what happens, you don't see. How do you know your dog is being treated well? I would never expect my dogs to learn something in a week. Training takes a long time.

"Thisis Sparta CCD WWPD".. *sigh*

Thanks guys Zach has a degenerative problem with his knees.. ("Footballers knee"?) They've been damaged and theres a risk that if he continues to damage them he could tear his cruciate ligaments. The vet told me that he can't be allowed to have heavy impacts on his knees, from jumping down from high places, and he's not allowed to do alot of twisting and turning motion on them - like you'd get from weave poles or if he was chasing a toy around. The vet told me he should be allowed to continue doing agility, except maybe we shouldn't be using the weave poles. He said that the jumps are fine but of course I'd want to minimise the impact by having lower jumps.

Hey guys I've heard theres an agility competition division thats for older dogs, and that it has lower jumps? I was wondering if anyone could give me any information on the type of obstacles involved and if theres also a division for dogs with injuries? Zach loves agility and I'd love to be able to compete with him, but he's been banned from the weave poles due to bad knees. He's allowed to do everything else though - just nothing that involves such twisting and turning.

Weightpulling - Want to gain our Working Weight Pull Dog title Need three more passes.. Agility - Want to be promoted up in training and do as well as we can. Not allowed to use the weave poles anymore so I'm not sure about competition.. Obedience - Want to gain our CCD title.. We need all three passes though and alot of practice

Thanks Rachelle :D Zach was walked on a harness however its broken recently. (Too many trips to the beach I think) At the moment I walk him on a flat collar. He usually walks out infront of me and pulls only slightly when we're on casual walks. (He trots at the full length of the leash) If theres a body of water around, and he knows it, he'll pull like mad to get to the water. (He loves to swim) However at dog obedience he will heel beside me and is actually quite often too slow and lags behind

Thanks Sheree for the advice :D I'm just concerned because he never used to do this and also because he is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The last thing I need is people assuming he's dangerous He's actually perfectly fine with people, loves them to death. He also loves all the dogs in his life that he's lived with or known for ages/become friends with. Its just new dogs..

Alright.. Heres my story I've had Zach since he was a pup and he's always been socialised, trained etc. Infact I'd take him every day to see his doggy friends at the park! Last year I moved down to Melbourne. While I lived with housemates, we didn't have any other dogs, and this was the first time Zach had lived without other dogs. I also started dog obedience last year and I noticed Zach, while I had him on lead, would become grouchy towards other dogs that came up to him. I've noticed it gradually getting worse now. Before it used to be if a dog was especially boisterous and would jump on him. Understable I suppose.. However now its if a dog comes up to him, really close, and is more forward rather than submissive. The other dogs never show any sign of aggression. Zach's "grouchyness" usually includes a quick snap at the other dog and a show of teeth, however I'm afraid it's getting worse than that. I don't think he would attack another dog, however I don't want to risk that and want to stop this issue before it gets any worse. I'm not sure if this is because of the shock/stress of moving combined with limited socialisation with dogs last year. It pretty much only occurs while he's on leash with myself. (I'm not sure if he'd do this with anyone else because usually only I walk him) So possibly he's 'protecting' me? Just wondering if anyone could give me some advice or techniques I could use to nip this problem in the bud :cool: I have limited experience in this as this is the first time Zach's shown anything like this behaviour and of course I don't need a dog doing this! So far I seperate him from the other dog if it happens, by his collar, and give a good growl at him/ tell him "NO", and make him sit away from the other dog. However while he's safe because he's seperated, it doesn't stop it happening again later on. --Edit-- If you needed to know, Zach is 6 years old now.

Aww So nice to hear you had a good time I have an Associate dog on the register.. The best part is picking their name!

Our dog Toby has the soft pallete operation done if I'm remembering correctly.. Unfortunately it didn't help him I think he has alot of other problems as well which weren't fixed by the operation.

I used to use that Oatmeal shampoo/conditioner for my dog Zach too. I also gave him two flaxeed oil tablets a day and some sunflower oil on his food. All these things were suggested by my vet ;) I think the flaxeed really works.

Thanks so much guys!! You've all made me feel much better Omg bloody staffords is right! Zach and I are from Northern NSW, so I think he misses the warmer weather! While he didn't want to work in the heat, he sure did want to sunbake and roll around! I havent seen him have a good roll around like that for ages! Even though I was mortified at the time! Atleast the women I was next to took it really well that Zach disturbed their dogs. Luckily though their dogs did rock-solid stays dispite Zach's gallavanting I had no idea whether I had to go back and grab him or not or leave him... The judge eventually told me to go back and grab him though thankfully I wish the day had've been normal or atleast slightly cool.. Not too cold though, Zach also doesn't like cold weather! If the grounds too cool he wont do his drops Aww his poor tum! Dogdude if your idea works you'll have to let me know! Actually I'm reminded of a training session a few weeks back which made me nervous for the trial It was another really hot day and we were doing our drop stays.. Oh it was just so nice and warm out there that Zach just put his head down on his paws and I -swear- he fell asleep!!

I'd suggest just talking to some local clubs and see what they reccomend You'll probably find in the beginners class they don't allow dogs off leash really anyway, so it may give your dog a chance to get used to other dogs in that environment.

Welllll we kind of went badly! It was SO HOT out there on the grounds! I've always had trouble with Zach being a little slow in the heeling work but yesterday he hardly wanted to move at all! We started out okay but then ended up with him heeling right back behind me! The figure of eight was horrible because of it! When I would come to a stop he wouldn't sit and he failed to sit on the recall.. Otherwise he did a perfect stand for examination.. except a horrible heel up to it, and his recall was good apart from not sitting.. Normally with his stays Zach is rock solid! He did a great sit stay... But then with the drop stay I was nervous he'd roll over into dead dog because of the heat.. He normally loves to sunbake Well I think we were halfway through the drop stay when.. yep.. there he goes and rolls over into dead dog for a few seconds. Do you think that'd be enough? Nope.. Zach also -loves- to roll in the grass on nice hot days and yep away he goes, rolling around right next to the poor dog next to him! Then he jumps up and goes sniffing around between two dogs doing their drops!! Like I said he almost -NEVER- breaks his stays and if he does he always just comes back to me, never distrupts the other dogs! So I decided to scratch for the afternoon.. Zach just wont work in the heat it seems I guess I made the mistake of practicing before hand.. He worked great then, but then let it all go in the trial!

Just have to stay, its our first trial today ahhh!! Lets hope Zach and I do okay! If anyone else is trialling today, goodluck!

Atleast I got to go out later for a BBQ with my friends :rolleyes: I took my dogs for a walk late in the afternoon, about 5:30pm? I probably shouldn't have, poor Kapo (Husky) looked so hot I felt awful!

Just a little rant I guess Lol I was -so- looking forward to the last weight pulling competition of the year last Sunday. Zach did so well the time before and I couldn't wait to see how he would do this time! I was away in Sydney from Wednesday night until Sunday morning. The competition was at 10:30am on Sunday morning. I made sure to get up at 3:30am in Sydney to catch a 6:00am flight back to Avalon airport, to pick up my dogs, and drive all the way around the bay to KCC park! I get home, and lucky I checked my email, because the weight pulling was cancelled because of the heat! It was predicted that it would be about 31 degrees I think and it sure did feel bloody hot. I'm not angry cause they cancelled the event I guess.. I mean I wouldn't want to work Zach in that heat anyway! But I was so looking forward to it :rolleyes: Don't you guys hate it when events are canceled like that?

Kongs are great. Sucks that they're expensive, but its worth it when they're indestructable One of the few toys you can give a Staffy or similar.. Make sure you get the right one too. The red ones are normal kongs, pretty indestructable and are meant for most dogs. The black ones are more expensive and are meant for real chewers like Staffies. Then you've got Kongs like the water kongs which float in water, but wont stand up to -too- much chewing

Even if she were in a 'safe' room she could still choke on something like a toy she'd ripped up. Also, every room in my house has stuff in it - I can't lock her up in one. My house is -tiny- and every room could potentially have something she could chew on in it. Also it wouldn't be fair to lock her up in such small rooms. (I mean -small- rooms - they barely fit the beds/desks in them) I appreciate your concern though and its something I share as well, please don't think I don't. I let my dogs inside and out at all times as thats how I've always had it with my family, with no problems before this. I feel comfortable with them having the safety of the house to go to as well as access to outdoors. Every time we leave the house we try to make sure there is nothing she can chew on - we put the bin away, put objects away/out of her reach etc. However sometimes its the items we forget, like my shoes on the bathroom floor, or leaving the cordless phone on a bench.

If not bones, then how about leaving them something else that's OK to chew? Kongs, or rawhides. Or treat balls? Or big cardboard boxes to play in and demolish? You see, I'm wondering whether they're chewing all your stuff up simply because it's fun. If you give them something else fun to do, they might stop wrecking your stuff. Apart from that, if you don't want to crate them, and don't want to give them more stuff to chew, all I can suggest is to maybe shut some doors to keep them in less fragile parts of the house? Confine them to the hallway and bathroom or something! Oh I'm definately going to go out and get them lots of things to chew on! Its funny, she chews up our stuff, so I go out to 'reward' her with more toys!

It does help keep the house tidy! (As students we can be a little slack sometimes!) I think we just need to be even -more- vigilent with hiding things away where she can't get them! I never had this trouble with Zach, he can't reach the bench! I'd give them bones during the day but I'd hate to leave them unsupervised with them. Early on when we first got Kapo I had them outside alone with their bones while I was inside. Zach took a go at Kapo They're alot better now, thats the only time its happened, and I'll let them eat bones outside again, but I wont let them eat bones when I'm not home As for the couches... Let us pray she never decides to chew those! She -has- chewed on our doonah covers however! She chews the buttons off the end of them, and she even just plain chewed a hole through one of the covers! Solution I think?: Close the bedroom doors :rolleyes: (Luckily the couches don't have any nice buttons on them to chew..) Bloody mongrel dogs! Why do I love them??

Ah problem is I love letting my dogs have the run of the house (I know it contributes to the problem though). She's normally very good, but lately.. For example, my boyfriend and I went out to exercise this morning, were gone for about 2 hours, came back and the phones chewed up, a toy I'd just bought the dogs (one of those ball throwers so they're not supposed to eat that!), and my shoe had been chewed on but thankfully is okay. (I've had these shoes a few days, they cost about $100, and they're a birthday present!) The shoes were the only thing on the floor! (So my fault there) I'm fine with them running around the house It just takes extra steps by myself and my boyfriend to "dog proof" the place when we leave the house. --Edit-- Er, by "dog proof" I mean "Kapo proof". Zach looks like a freaking angel sometimes compared to her! :rolleyes: Also - 900 posts woo!

I have never heard it called that! I'm not sure how to help sorry On leash I normally tell my dogs to "leave it" and give them a bit of a tug on the leash. However off leash I'm not too sure?

Hey guys, Okay I was wondering if I could get advice on this one. We have a 10 month old Siberian Husky called Kapo. Kapo likes to chew things as puppies do. However she's normally very good when we're home and wont chew anything up except our Staffy Zach and her toys. Lately though she's taken to this fun game of "Chew all the expensive stuff I can find when mum and dad aren't home". Not only is she chewing stuff on the floor such as my nice new pair of shoes but she is reaching up onto the kitchen bench/table etc and getting to kitchen utensils, the cordless phone, food etc. So far we've been trying to keep stuff out of reach as much as possible, but of course we forget things sometimes and its hard when she can just reach everything anyway! (Like the phone). I've also realised that all her toys atm are things like ropes which aren't nice and fun to chew, so I've decided to go out today and get her alot of chewy toys to combat the problem. I was wondering though if anyone had any other ideas to stop the little horror? We can't discipline her of course, because we're never home when she does this! I'm going to buy more toys for her and of course continue hiding things away from her.. Is there anything else we can do? I've heard of putting Vix on the edge of the benches, does this work? Cheers guys!