poodlefan

PW, your sister needs to do something about her dog's behaviour. The only thing you can control is your dogs and children's interaction with that dog. I would politely inform your sister that, under the circumstances, her dog is no longer welcome at your place. I'd not be taking my dogs to hers. She needs to act. Her dog's life and the safety of others depend on it.

Why must "corrections" involve creating fear? Not all corrections need to be physical or painful. A "no reward" is a correction. A verbal "ahhh" is a correction. Correcting for position by body language or verbal cue, is a correction. I am a positive trainer but I will do all of those. Purely positive trainers are few and far between... some people just don't think what they are doing is "correcting" their dogs.

Sorry to hear of this Hopenfox. I'd be going the minced frames option. It's what I'll do if any of mine ever end up toothless old crumblies.

I'd say no patting until dog is willingly accepting treats. Keep kids stationary and let dog approach. Now that he's concerned ALL initiatives to approach need to come from him. If the kids won't abide by your rules, no interactions allowed. Agree with Sidoney's suggestion to start with the kids tossing treats and progress to hand feeding once the pup is more confident.

If you are at all unsure of his reaction (and with children you don't know I would be) then I'd say no. It's your dog's behaviour you need to focus on and until you can access a few dog savvy kids to help him, I'd tell the kids that he's shy with kids he doesn't know and doesn't like being patted. You also save yourself potential grief from an adverse reaction to inadvertant rough handling. Your dog has nipped a child before - better safe than sorry. ETA: I have one dog who is scared of kids. However she's more than happy to sit for a treat from them. I control it by providing the treats. You might try that if you think he can handle it.

What Sidoney said. Kids that torment dogs need to learn that their behaviour has consequences. I'd tell them that due to their behaviour, your dog doesn't like them anymore.

How much is the pup in the bedroom unsupervised?? If she wants the pup to sleep on the bed, does she get up EVERY time it gets restless at night?

And here I was thinking two Designer Dogs had made T Ch. Congratulations Dogdayz.. .one hell of an achievement.

C&R: Not necessarily. The problem I find is that most people, no matter how well you train them, don't use the halti properly and that, once fitted, its the rare handler that ever weans the dog off one. How often have you seen a dog being walked with a halti and a double or two leads? That's how they are meant to be used. Dogs DO learn to pull on them and DO end up being jerked around on them. I don't dislike halti's because I'm unfamiliar with them. I dislike them because I see them being misused a lot by people who are told that they are a "kind" alternative to other correction collars when they simply aren't. I'd never say I'd not recommend one under any circumstances but I'm definitely not a fan. I do not see any reason to fit one on a dog that's less than knee height or on most pups, that's for sure.

Ayra: This is why I got into agility.. a wonderful way to build teamwork and confidence.

Focus, control, responsiveness and athleticism are prerequisites for the dog Dogdude. Whether your dog knows what heeling or a straight front and finish is don't matter.. A good dog trainer is generally a good dog trainer regardless of what pursuit they are training for I reckon although you do need to have bloody good timing to handle well in agility - there's basically no margin for error at the higher levels.

I found it telling that the trainer asked Monie to use the head collar/leash to pull the pup to his feet when he lay down. If I'm teaching a dog that the lead is always meant to be loose, I'm hardly going to reinforce that by hauling him to his feet on it am I? That action alone on a young pup's head/neck is not a healthy thing. Monie if you start a separate post in training asking for trainer recommendations in Brisvegas, it may get more attention.

Dogdude, to me the most effective place to learn focus and control with a dog offlead is a training school that emphasises precisely that. In my experience, not many do. Some go as far as to only allow training over agility equipment onlead, which IMHO is a completely ineffective training technique. My first response made it quite clear that offlead reliability was a PREREQUISITE for agility training. At my club we test for it before allowing a dog to enter agility classes. In my experience the people who have dogs that are reliable offlead are those that place emphasis on training for it on a day to day basis, and not just rolling up to weekly classes. It's not uncommon for dogs to go through a "zoomie" period in agility where they loose focus and it's the handlers that work hard on reliability that get past it. I am not 'bagging" formal obedience. What I am saying is that training for it is not necessarily the best way to ensure a reliable offlead recall. I don't know many people who've not cut it in formal obedience who've ended up in agility. If you can't train a dog to do obedience, you've probably got bugger all chance to train it to obey your cues 20 feet away, at high speed and moving away from you don't you think? I can tell you that for 6 of the past 8 years, the highest award for dog sports achievement at my dog club has gone to dogs who have both formal obedience (UD) AND agility titles. No bail outs from obedience there. Perhaps things are different where you are.

I think having a clicker trained dog is a very successful way to train for loose leash walking because at the moment the leash loosens you can get that marker in. Frankly a couple of one on one lessons with a decent private trainer would be the most effective method of achieving this.

In this case, Monie I'd be suggesting a limited slip collar and a serious effort to teach him not to pull. Is he clicker trained?

I think we have a terminology problem Dogdude. You do not have to particpate in a class that focusses on preparing a dog for obedience trialling (that's what I call "formal obedience" in order to train reliable offlead control. On the contrary, I can identify dogs with UD titles whose control outside the obedience ring leaves a fair bit to be desired.

Your boy clearly finds the halter highly aversive. Ask yourself if you want him to experience a highly aversive tool that's doing that to him whether he's pulling or not. I've linked this before but this article pretty much sums up my views. Any trainer who has to slap a head halter on a 5 month old pup to stop it pulling doesn't rate with me. That this particular training tool rates so highly with the "purely positive" brigade defies logic.

I don't think formal obedience training is essential either Vickie.. just a high standard of offlead control under distraction. Formal obedience training is no guarantee of that I'm afraid.

Not all humping is sexually motivated. Dogs also hump in an attempt to assert dominance. Personally I don't think desexing is going to impact on this scenario one way or the other. However, if you aren't planning on breeding him or doing dog sports there's no reason not to. I'd be keeping him away from those kids. If they're nice as pie to him when you're around and tormenting him otherwise, it's only going to confuse the hell out of him.

Darcy gave me the finger at training last Wednesday night and gave me a wonderful day of trialing on Sunday - we got our first ever Masters Jumping Q. Dogs don't hold grudges. Just make sure you learn from it and go to your next training session a little wiser.

A dog needs to have a good offlead recall and to be generally controllable offlead. You don't train obstacles on lead.

No. If a dog has aggression issues, I recommend people see K9Force in Sydney.

What does your behaviourist recommend? One thing you need to be mindful of with an aggressive dog... dog obedience clubs have a substantial number of members who are oblivious to the 'personal space' issues of other dogs. At our club, despite the constant barrage of information about giving all dogs space, they allow their dogs to approach dogs tied up and don't watch their dogs around others. You could see a lot of hard work go down the toilet.. I'd not be doing it unless your behaviourist agreed with it and gave you some strategies on how to manage it.

Ayra it can be very suble changes in body language that convey your stress to the dog. I've had this problem (started trialling with a dog that heeled wide and lagged) and it was most definitely me. Soooo, you have to learn to relax. SMILE - it will relax the muscles of your neck and shoulders. Look at your dog and smile when you can. Have some rescue remedy. Change your trialling objective. If you start to think more about making time in the ring a positive experience for your dog and less about qualifying then your focus and behaviour changes. My oldest boy reads me like a book. If I'm stressed, he's worried. He wonders what's wrong. I had to completely change my focus and attitude to get past that. You can retrieve a performance that's going down the drain if you focus on making it positive for the dog.

If the dog is displaying displacement behaviour due to stress (and I'm only guessing because I haven't seen the dog) then Arya I suggest that something YOU are doing IS different in the ring. I don't believe dogs get "ring wise". I think handlers change and look to their dog to explain why the dog won't work. If the dog is not working in the ring, you've blown the trial so I'd be saying to the judge.. .I'm going to train her and TALK to her... and make it a more positive experience for the dog. I don't have a problem with corrections in the ring... no point in allowing the dog to do a crap job. The first thing I'd suggest is that you work on some "duration training". Start with short periods of very high intensity heel work (trial standard, no talking, the best you both can do) and huge reward at the end. Then slowly build the duration of this heel work until your dog can do 10-20 minutes of good heel work without verbal encouragement. Obedience trialing is a TEAM sport. Two members of that team have to perform. Get someone to video you training and trialing and have a very good look at your handling. I'd put money on the fact that something you are doing is signalling a difference to your dog.