poodlefan

Not long now. I head down tomorrow morning.

Hi Kirsty, Is your dog interested in eating other food? You need to establish whether she's lost her appetite or being picky. Offer her some roast chicken - that will tell you. The diet you describe is not balanced. It contains no bone, which is an important part of a decent raw diet. You may want to do some reading about that. While your dog is convalescing, I'd be more interested in getting her to eat than anything, try some canned fish eg. mackeral or tuna, perhaps some chicken wings?

Your friend needs to talk to a solicitor. A letter of demand for the cost may produce results. If not, it's off to court. She could take the groomer to the Small Claims Court herself but a solicitor will do a better job. Gawd, any of the pro groomers I know would have taken a clearly injured dog straight to the vet THEMSELVES.

I don't feed chicken necks beyond the puppy stage. With the initial feeds, they are crushed with a mallet. Same goes for introduction of the larger poultry pieces. My dogs get RMBs two meals in three and I've never had a choking incident. There is no bone left after most meals and if there is, I collect it and dispose of it.

Obedience training (formal or just manners) will tire her out just as much as exercise. You own an intelligent, working breed. I'd suggest you think about regular training in some form of dog sport, even if you never compete.

As long as it's not hydrogentated (or partially so), it seems to be OK. However, I'd probably be more interested in feeding oil for Omega 3,6 and 9 benefit rather than as an energy source. I feed a human grade blended oil called Mega Oil. My dogs seem to find it quite palatable but I blend it into their food.

Percy, she'd do well to book one session with K9 and to travel to Sydney. You really don't want to muck around with this stuff.

another thing Poodlefan (and i hate when you read quite the opposite to what youve been doing lol but ...) what about the theory that negative reinforcement can make these kind of pups more aggressive...? depends what you mean about neg reinforcement i suppose - just a choker chain correction, a sharp 'no'? definitely no alpha rolls hey lol If you put a pup in a position where it feels the need to defend itself Percy, then I would agree with that. Aggression is tricky stuff - that's why I said your friend should summon a professional. However, there's a big difference between ignoring aggression and punishing it in manner that may provoke more of it. Make sure she gets in someone who's experienced. If she was in Sydney, I'd suggest K9Force. Sometimes folk will insist that a pup growling is "only playing". Regrettably this isn't always the case.

Tony MC: One weighs hundreds of kilos. The other doesn't. When you fit a halter on a horse, the noseband rests on bone and nowhere near the horse's eyes. Standard fitting advice is that you have to be able to fit your hand between any part of the halter and the horses head. The lead rope generally falls from the bottom of the halter and at a point that is higher than the lead hand. So the guidance comes from below the horses head. So now we have a device fitted tightly right up near the dogs eyes, a very nerve rich area, more often than not with the lead hand being used above the animals head and with the person leading the animal usually heavier than it is. Oh yes, it's just like a horse halter. :D

Thanks. Do they make crates that are open on the top? All the ones I've looked at so far are closed on the top with front and/or side doors. If they make them I think I'd prefer top opening for ease of popping her and her food & water in and out. Thank you If you want something like that, then a puppy pen is what you are after. Some folk use the wire sided compost bins you can get at hardware stores. However, if it's low enough for you to bend over easily to put food etc in, then it may be low enough to encourage her to jump up on its sides to try and get out. That's not the result you are looking for. You can get some dog crates that open on the top but you shouldn't have to be feeding her in it. She can have small breaks to eat and toilet. ETA A Securapen from Ccrates would be perfect but they aren't cheap.

Alphas don't tolerate poor behaviour. They use negative reinforcement to set boundaries on what is and is not acceptable. Sounds like it could be dominance related BUT your friend would benefit from some decent professional help. the earlier she gets it, the better chance she has of sorting this out. I honestly think that a 'no negative reinforcement' approach may not benefit this dog but that doesn't require her to get heavy handed. I wonder if he has any dingo blood.. wild dogs are a very different to domestic breeds.

Constant pressure from a dog leaning on a halti or walking with its head angled (quite common) can cause permanent damage to the upper neck resulting in serious ongoing movement and coordination problems. It seems that a tool originally intended to be step towards walking on a flat collar is viewed by many people as a kinder alternative to long term control. How many dogs do you see outside clubs walking on a halti, a flat collar and two leads (or a double ended one) Now we see them tied up wearing them or even worse (for the reasons above) being walked in a halti and a flexi lead. I think they shouldn't be made available to the public from any place other than a trainer or club.

Buy her a crate. She will be securely contained and you can move it around to be where you are.

If his coat looks patchy, that's when I'd suggest it. When are they due for their annual check up?

If it keeps up, you might suggest they get his thyroid levels checked. That can also be a cause of excessive shedding.

No, he didn't. His coat has always been lighter than Odin's. Undercoat too?

Obvious suggestion is that the other dog developed a thicker coat over winter and therefore has more to shed. Stress can cause shedding but that seems unlikely here.

Much as some trainers don't fancy food as a motivator, the majority view at our club is that the worst you can do is make a dog fat. Flat collars are pretty hard to abuse also but you need to advocate something that will give a handler sufficient confidnence and control to actually try to walk and train the dog. Our club tends to use flat collars. Haltis are advocated by some instructors and there is a discussion about their pros and cons active at the moment. Some, like me prefer martingales. Harnesses are used to some degree but a lot of folk find the control ones a bit fussy. I think you really have to look at the dog and the handler before you can make a decent recommendation. I'm no fan of haltis but in some circumstances they are the best fit. We can't use e-collars in the ACT so that tool is unavailable to us anyway. So are prongs.

Personally Cosmolo, I'd prefer not to use either. I think both have their uses but neither are ideal for your average pet owner and both have considerable potential for misuse.

The answer is ignorance. Many trainers are convinced head collars are "kinder" than other methods of training. They don't stop to think that a dog experience discomfort from them whether it's performing desired behaviours or not. They do operate to suppress drive in a lot of dogs but people don't stop to question how. Many of those condemning other training tools as 'cruel' have never seen them or seen dogs trained with them. Any assertions about training need to be backed with facts and education, not opinions. Sadly there is a lot of opinon in trainer education.

Ah isn't hindsight is a wonderful training tool! .

A healthy dose of common sense is all that you need to see that naturally occuring behaviours will occur whether or not you put them on cue. If you want to extinguish them except in the presence of the stimulus, then you're going to have to use aversives or control what stimulates the behaviour completely (that's "management") Dogs will do more of what they find rewarding and less of what they find you don't. For puppies, they tend to offer behaviours they know you will reward. That's why you'd be getting a spike in barking I reckon. Of course you could simply have a barky dog. I don't generally encourage my dogs to bark.. I spend enough time and energy discouraging them from doing it in the first place. Lily will do bark to the cue word "cows". That's because she'll do it when she sees Herefords (only Herefords make her bark.. long story) and I added the cue. She'd do it whether or not I gave the cue though.

hmm I'm curious - PF - what would you do in that situation and also what do the 'purely positive' trainers recommend?! Never really asked others that one before Leo I'm not a purely positive trainer. Luke W is right .. .they would try for an incompatible behaviour like a recall. No one in their right mind is going to put stock chasing on cue in the hope that it can be prevented at other times. Luke did you see what I read about cueing barking.. same deal as cueing sitting don't you think? My view is when a dog has a history of highly rewarding stock chasing aversives are called for. The other option much loved by the purely positives is to manage the behaviour to ensure that the opportunity to chase stock never occurs - that's not addressing the issue directly and frankly not always possible. Some pragmatic positive (not purely positive) trainers consider this one of the few justifiable reasons to use an electronic collar aversively. The reason is simple - the dog's life and the safety of stock are at risk. The behaviour is so rewarding to the dog that strong aversives are needed to deter it. That sure beats a bullet. If you've tried to make yourself more interesting and offer a reward than prey, you can see why its so hard to deter chasing.

So if he was jumping up or nipping you're just supposed to ignore it?? As I said before, its nigh on impossible to use such methods to extinguish behaviour the dog finds self rewarding. If he finds it enjoyable, he'll keep doing it. I don't think its coincidence that most 'problem' dog behaviors fall into the self rewarding category. It's only IF he finds the behaviour brings consistent negative consequences that you'll see it diminish or extinguish. You don't have to be abusive to make behaviour unrewarding. Removing yourself or him could be enough. I always smile to myself when purely positive trainers suggest that putting a behaviour on cue can cure problems. Barking is the classic example. My dogs sit on cue. That hardly means they don't sit at other times though now does it. Ask a purely postive trainer how to cure animal chasing.. and don't hold your breath on a practical response.

Sunlight soap. Rub it in and get a good lather up. Then rinse and wash with a blue shampoo.