poodlefan

Silentchild: Physical appearance in most cases would tell you. Let me post an example: Working line English Springer Spaniel (my preference in this breed) Bench ESS The bench dogs are usually bigger, have more coat, more body, longer ears and frequently looser eyelids.

Could be her second fear period. Toss everything Cesar Milan does right out the window. You don't "cure" aggression with agression - you run a real risk of heightening it. If it keeps happening, seek professional help but I'd be working on building confidence.

Lo Pan: The short and rather obvious answer to that it that its better to risk the life of the dog than the life of a police officer. And the other side of that coin is that a bite sure beats a bullet if you're on the receiving end.

Oh shite.. healing vibes headed your way. Poor old bugger - hope he pulls through.

Jed, in most cases dogs were working long before they ever graced a show ring. If anyone's lost the plot, its not the working line folk IMO. Some have simply stayed true to type. Some bench line dogs are so exaggerated - more coat, more loose skin, more height, less height, longer ears, more angles and if anyone ever thought about what the dog was bred to do, they'd toss the lot and start over with working dogs. Yes, a dog that can work and win in the show ring might be the ideal, but the dog that has lost the form needed to work is not the direction we should be headed. Breed standards were developed for many breeds to describe the form that could perform a function. Some of the dogs in the ring today are so far from their original form that its tragic. So few are shown in any sort of 'working condition' either. No wonder folk want 'working line' dogs in some breeds. Temperament has gone down the toilet in more than a couple too.

Not a challenge, but I'm genuinely curious. Have you or anyone else ever seen that happen? I know a couple of adult mouthers and they do it very occasionally, very gently, and only to people they know very well. Kivi is one of them. He is unbelievably gentle when he does it, and it's usually coupled with near social ecstasy. Given there's only a couple of people in the world he adores enough to be ecstatic to see on occasion and they feel the same way about him, I never saw a need to stop it. I've never seen him mouth a stranger since he grew out of puppy behaviour. He licks strangers, but that's it. I know another dog that is about 6 years old that is the same. A very different temperament, but mouths extremely gently when in social ecstasy, and the only ones that get that treatment are the immediate family. I know a poodle cross thing at the dog park that mouths strangers in play. She's not especially gentle. I was quite surprised when she did it to me. I'd never seen anything like it before. I'd be interested to know how common it is. I'd rate it as not uncommon. We've seen a few at the dog club whose owners have failed to teach bite inhibition/no mouthing to. One was a 10 month old Lab that grabbed hands and arms when excited and grabbed them hard. There have been a few dogs other that have mouthed when excited also. Most were gundogs. I'm sure rescuers could fill a book with dogs that haven't been taught these lessons. Its what sees some dogs surrendered in the first place.

Corvus: Most, but not all. Those puppies are growing, their jaws are becoming stronger and most importantly, their littermates don't discourage mouthing just mouthing that's too hard. Despite what we may or may not tolerate from our dogs, we don't live in a social vacuum. A dog that hasn't been taught that all mouthing is unacceptable may mouth a child or a stranger and its behaviour will almsot inevitably be misinterpreted and potentially reacted against somewhat violently. We owe it to our dogs to keep them safe. Some pups are persistent hard mouthers living with families that have neither the time nor the expertise to shape alternate behaviours. Furthermore shaping an alternative doesn't teach the dog that mouthing is unacceptable. That's a lesson that all dogs need to learn IMO.

IW4ME: Thanks! Howie's never been much of a barker. He'll scream like a girl if he thinks he should be with me (and can see me) but he's got two barky poodle boys to do that job. Apart from 'roo roo roo' in games, he saves barking for when visitors turn up. Now as a wood chipper/paper shredder -he could work for Visy!!

I'm not.

I'm impressed at your self control SSM. At no stage during this saga have your appeared to shout the words beloved by most dog owners. SHUT THE F*UCK UP!!!!!

I had the pleasure of meeting Norskgra at a Pet Expo a few years ago. She was good people. Her family must be devastated.

She had a brain aneurysm. RIP Norskgra. I have no words. :D

Oh my god. I'm stunned. I don't have off topic access. What happened?

:D ;)

No, you need lemonade scones for one of those. :rolleyes:

I must be Stewarding for the wrong shows or my $100 note has blown away. Next time swap scones with the judge.

Put your dogs in kennels overnight. Safer for them, better for your neighbours and a hell of a lot easier than trying to change a dog's play habits.

Rottsup: No, I think they should refuse all offers of food and drink for fear it influences the judging. Are you serious? If morning tea is delivered to the judge and steward in the ring, who really cares who delivers it? And hats off to the exhibitor getting off their arse to help the show committee. Next thing it will be exhibitors writing cards who are influencing results.

Moselle: And I can't help but get the feeling that, without a shadow of a doubt, that's one of the more thoughtless and insulting posts I've read here in quite some time. If the pet shop profits, the petshop continues to sell. Exactly how many YEARS do you think it will take to shut down the suppliers of these pups Moselle? This IS a purebred dog FFS. Where's the 'loss of a sale to a DD' here? No purchase from a pet shop is a 'rescue'. All they are is encouragement to those who breed and sell these dogs to continue. And while that encouragement is given, dogs both pure and crossbred continue to suffer to supply the trade.

Crate beside the bed. A pup won't learn to eliminate outside if its allowed to pee and poo in the house during the night. Laundries and bathrooms are heat sinks - the coldest places in the house. Where will this pup sleep eventually - you should start as you intend to go on.

The condition clears with treatment by antibiotics. What you're seeing is bacterial growth in excessive moisture. A holistic vet I now says is often an indicator of an issue in the dog's head or neck with gum and tooth issues being a primary cause.

Maltese Luna: It may be "normal". So are dental issues and obesity in dogs these days. It's not healthy and its not inevitable with decent husbandry. A lot of folk love their dogs and want ones just like them. The irony of that is if they buy from a registered breeder, they can go back and get one from the same sire and sometimes even the same bitch. What's the old saying "if you like the dog, look to its father for another".

And my point is there are plenty of GSDs who aren't cut out to 'work' owned by people who'd never be able to 'work' them. So advocating that the same methods be used isn't particularly helpful for a 5'1'' pet dog owner with chronic back pain, nor for a lot of other folk. She doesn't need her pet to be as 'reliable' as a working dog. She needs a dog she can walk safely without endangering other dogs or people. You've already provided an excellent description of how desenstisation can be sometimes be used to produce the same result as stringing up. For THIS dog owner which do you think is the more viable option? Lets not forget that under most state law any trained 'working' or security dog automatically attracts a dangerous dog designation along with all the restrictions that applies. That's a tag most pet dog owners actively aim to AVOID.

My point, I suppose was to question the usefulness of discussing training a working dog in a thread started by a pet owner to discuss dog aggression. All GSDs are not working dogs and nor are all of them suitable to be. I wonder if this had been a Labrador, if the subject of working dog training would even have come up. The issue of producing reliability in a working dog is irrelevent to the issues raised here. The comparison simply doesn't fly IMO. This dog is not a working dog and more to the point, it doesn't have a working dog handler.

And this is a baby puppy that could grow up to be quite different. Nope. He's a crossbred that could have inherited any combination of his parent breeds. What's the other part of this cross? If you wouldn't give a home to a JRT then taking on cross is unlikely to make you happy IMO. What ARE you looking for in a dog. There will be plenty of rescue dogs and pups that might be a better fit for your home.