Aidan

No-one has said that, what they have said is that the odds are against you if that is the choice you make. BTW, taking aspirin involves risk management too. If you fit a certain profile, the risk of not taking it outweighs the risks of taking it. So no, I didn't take an aspirin today ;) I'm 33 and I play a lot of sport. Can I tempt you with a beer then You twisted my arm...

No-one has said that, what they have said is that the odds are against you if that is the choice you make. BTW, taking aspirin involves risk management too. If you fit a certain profile, the risk of not taking it outweighs the risks of taking it. So no, I didn't take an aspirin today I'm 33 and I play a lot of sport.

We can't tell how things will work out for any individual pup, but we can tell how things will work out across a population. And individual dogs are part of that population. If you look at extremes, dogs who were rescued with no socialisation who went on to win WUSV championships for e.g, you present a very skewed picture for yourself. Will every rescue who received no socialisation go on to win a WUSV championship? No, in fact, you aren't likely to see another for a very long time. Then we need to look at all the other dogs who have won WUSV championships, what were their up-bringings like? Vastly different, I would imagine. A lot of the studies are real world. I've just linked to one for you in my previous reply. Real world, looking at a population of dogs over time.

Risk management. Not socialising a pup carries the greater risk by far. The risk of getting it wrong is relatively low, genetics plays a large part in how that turns out, and not socialising that pup would almost guarantee a problem. You just have to be sensible about it. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/146321/1/kate_vbjcar_abstract.rtf (a longitudinal study)

Crate?

Ignore the science at your peril. http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/ima...cialization.pdf Depends who's science you prefer Aidan. The science to best avoid parvo and other life threatening diseases in a small vulnerable pup works best for me I was more referring to what we know about critical periods. Arguably, 14 weeks is already leaving things a bit too late and I certainly wouldn't leave it any later. There are differing opinions on how best to manage the risk, but setting up safe, sensible situations where pups can experience and deal with new things is regarded as one of the most important things you can do in the life of the pup. There has been a lot of research and it all points in the same direction, this is not just a matter of opinion.

Ignore the science at your peril. http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/ima...cialization.pdf

Oh Nuurse ! It's a good life

I usually end a game by having a small coronary, or throwing up.

Yeah thats what Im thinking.. I don't think they ever faded luring! ( I think it was a case of, the guide dog people will do it when they get him.) If he knows the commands, should I still start as if he is a puppy do you think? It wouldn't hurt, if it turns out you can raise the criteria very quickly at first then that is a bonus. I don't even put the cue on until I have to, no point changing what it means all the time until it's right IMHO.

Just go back to basics. If he will do it when you have food, then you need to transition food out of the picture.

Is $52M a lot of money to oversee and police the welfare of all the animals in our geographically large country? Honest question, doesn't seem like very much compared to a lot of other organisations with much smaller responsibilities. How much did we spend on our FIFA world cup bid, for e.g?

If you go to clickertraining.com and search "controlled tug games" there is an article of mine which covers this topic.

This forum necessarily becomes political at times, but at other times it oversteps the mark with needless remarks. There are extremists in the Green movement, but nothing shortstep has parodied is a Green policy and it was needless politicising.

The body will always try to achieve homeostasis, as I understand it. So if you have a big fright, your parasympathetic nervous system will need a bigger response when the threat has passed.

Thunder is tricky, it's not just the sound. There is a current thread on the "Thundershirt" that would be worth a look here.

Nothing beats a big meaty walk. Except maybe a walking bone...

It will. Advertising works. It just won't achieve enough.

The T-touch method requires a bit of skill, using a front-attach harness normally requires minimal skill. The front bit probably needs to be a little looser than you would expect of a normal harness. You can also adjust the position. They sit on the shoulder, possibly lower than you are expecting.

If the front bit is too tight or too loose they don't seem to work so well, maybe just play around with that? I clip the other end of the leash to the collar, btw. As I understand it the T-touch people have a special technique for using the balance leash which you have to learn.

You can't avoid other dogs, you need dogs around for the distraction to train alternate behaviour which is the problem most owners are faced with. You can train in a dog free environment some wonderful focus exercises with great success, but it's difficult to override a strong fear reaction in a dog with commands learned in a stress free environment. My latest intake began training 5 weeks ago. The two "worst" dogs in this group last week worked inside a group of five other dogs. One of them had a polite, on-leash greeting. The other walked between two other dogs 4' apart, then back again. For the first 4 weeks, one of them worked from behind a tarpaulin we had set up between star-pickets about 20m from the rest of the class. He poked his head out for 5 seconds at a time, working up to 30 seconds at a time with 1 min breaks between trials. 5 trials at a time, then back in the car for 5 minutes. Not a stress free environment, but pretty close and it got some good groundwork in. Admittedly, I handled both dogs last week. So there were no concomitant cues from the owners, and my training mechanics are unconsciously competent. Both dogs did have brief reactions, but were responsive to the cues given.

We are not talking about clear headed dogs of stable temperament ideal for protection work that are reacting with sharpness or social aggression, different ball game with a dog like that, than a dog who displays similar behaviour out of insecurity and defence I realise that, although I'm not sure how differently I would treat these dogs.

I've never tried it so I couldn't say. I guess you could try (if you had one handy :D ) but I think I would just opt for the calm use of severe and sudden force, it works for me in so many areas of my life

You just need to move in the right direction, what else can you do? If your dog is going backwards, then make every effort to avoid other dogs. If the behaviour modification is going well, this should not be necessary although the fewer set-backs, the better.