Aidan

Glad you could understand it!

Yes, but it is not something a pet owner undertakes on their own nor does the science lend it much credibility for the long-term. Solid cages, padlocks, and some fun activities to make use of those drives are a much more reliable solution.

was it always this way? from the day you added a 2nd dog? With this line of enquiry, just keep in mind that attachment needs to occur first. This will rarely be something that occurs on day 1, and may even take months. Zug Zug, it might be worth using the "Calming Yo Yo" exercise outlined in this article: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1556 In your situation you would tether the dog suffering from SA and have your other dog on leash with you. I would make it at least a daily exercise.

This is what I'm trying to determine, Chewbacca said "only people suffer from seperation anxiety, who ulimately cause undesirable behaviour in dogs" - which reads to me as a statement that SA has it's basis entirely in "nurture". Certainly the statement itself leaves no room for "nature". Yes, which is why I jab the hot poker a little when I hear people say stuff like "it's anxious owners who create separation anxiety in dogs" or "dogs aren't born aggressive, they're made that way". It can cause a considerable amount of personal guilt and anguish in people who really just have had the deck stacked against them. I've also seen people rule out what would be an appropriate use of medication because they don't understand that some dogs just can't cope normally even if their environment is in order.

Regardless of how many degrees of separation from natural evolutionary prey behaviours or what environmental factors contribute to fetching, it can't be ignored that for many breeds (or their ancestors) it has been heavily selected for by man.

So what about owners of two or more dogs where only one dog suffers from SA?

Unfortunately the RSPCA are basing their policy on opinions rather than sound science and this will not result in the best outcome for dogs. I have some concern that this endeavour is also outside their mandate, which would be taking resources away from the job which they have been entrusted to carry out.

"Only people"? That's a rather arbitrary limit that excludes a lot of the evidence available.

There are a few reasons but the biggest concern is that it does inhibit what would otherwise be NORMAL communication. If a dog bites another dog but causes no real harm the dog who was bitten learns that he is not in immediate mortal danger and the other has said his piece and can get on with life, also knowing that the other dog isn't going to do anything too drastic should a future disagreement occur. Put a muzzle on a dog and neither dog knows what is going on and things can get out of control very quickly. You use a muzzle when the horse has already bolted and you need safety. There are some exceptions to this rule but that's a discussion for another day. The bite to the eye might have been intentional but it's a funny place for a dog to aim a bite so my guess is that it was accidental. If you can imagine if you were a dog intending to cause harm to another dog, why would you bite near the eye when it exposes your throat to your victim who will use lethal force to defend himself? The attack on Pepper sounds horrible and malicious. Take care with that neighbour's dog!

The crate is a good idea for several reasons, but from what you have written I wouldn't be using a muzzle with Tango. Muzzles can be useful where there is some probability of an UNinhibited (damaging) bite. A small injury near the eye is likely to be accidental, the alarm bells start ringing for me when the attacking dog is biting legs, stomach or throat (in nearly all contexts, this is not a complete list). I also have concerns if a dog is ignoring normal social signals from the other dog, particularly if play or discipline becomes excessive. Tango seems to be learning how to fit in pretty well. If you have any concerns about his behaviour while you are not there to supervise then by all means separate them while you are not there but otherwise these infrequent little spats that get resolved quickly without real injury or obviously abnormal, antisocial behaviour are pretty much just par for the course. The bite:fight ratio here (from memory of your reports) appears to be pretty good, no damaging bites out of several [brief] scuffles.

One approach I use I explain as "scaffolding". I teach the mechanics of the behaviour in a low distraction environment using food. Free shaping can be a bit laborious with tug or fetch. Then when the behaviour is well understood I start using tug or fetch as a reward. With some dogs who have a lot of drive for games food ceases to actually be reinforcing while they are in drive for a game of tug or fetch.

If you want to test the theory, you could try a "Differential Reinforcement of Lowest Intensity Response" strategy. Blow the whistle at a quieter moment, it depends a bit on the pattern of fighting but most dogs will pause at some point or stalk or even "point". Whatever they do that is the "lowest intensity response" in the repertoire of fighting behaviours, that's when you blow the whistle. If you get more pausing or stalking or pointing then OH is right! Bummer! The side-benefit is that you get less fighting and more pausing or stalking or pointing. (So you could probably keep OH in the dark and then just tell him he was wrong, you got less fighting, even though you secretly know he was actually right all along.) If you get more pausing, or stalking or whatever, then you can begin to increase the duration of that. You might eventually completely shape out the fighting, at least when you are home.

You know the saying "it takes a village to raise a child", if the kid doesn't understand the consequences then ask a stern but friendly copper around to explain it to him. In most places they have resources for parents who are having difficulty raising their children (my mother works for an organisation that helps with this sort of problem). A mother who is unable to stop their child from bouncing on a trampoline with a sharp knife or throwing a knife certainly needs help and it's not always a case of telling them off (they just go and take their risky behaviours somewhere they don't think they'll get caught).

http://levels.honkersoftware.com/

I think you're right about the northern branch being on the coast. In that case Hobart might be about the same distance? If I'm coming up at some point I'll let you know. I am trying to come up for a beginner's retrieving trial next month at George Town but I'm not able to commit to anything at this stage.

Hi kiesha09, I began using the Levels when they were first published (some years ago). I also own Sue's forum for the Training Levels, but have not had much involvement in that for some time. I would say I have learned more from Sue than any other trainer or behaviourist. There has been very little change in the program since then because it is (IMHO) just about perfect if you are clicker training and enjoy working with your dog. The progressions are well thought out, everything is broken down into achievable steps. I don't know of any notable examples of someone not being able to do something that was in the Levels with their dog except where the dog is not physically or emotionally capable of doing something that it requires (e.g if you have a dog-aggressive dog you might have difficulties with the recall through milling dogs). I left out most of the optional stuff, like Contacts. I didn't bother with the Finish at the time. I didn't do the formal retrieve (although I wish I had now that I am doing retrieving). If you want to get the most out of it you keep using it even after you have finished with it. For e.g. I'm currently teaching sit at a distance, facing me. There are lots of ways to teach this, but seeing as my dogs will already go "around a pole" it's easy enough to have them sit once they get around the pole. The main drawback is that it isn't a private lesson or class with Sue. If you are attending classes or working with a club you won't be doing things in the same order or the same way. I think it's still worth pursuing if you have the time though.

I'll make an educated guess as to why this is: When you walk them alone it is relatively easy to stop or back up if they pull, reward when they are in position. When you walk them together it is exponentially more difficult (still possible, but more difficult) to give them the contingencies that result in loose leash walking. The excitement that you have already identified is of course a factor, but the solution remains - don't let them get anywhere whilst pulling, reward when they are in position. Or use an aid. My suggestion would be to also invest in double-ended leashes attached to their normal flat collars so that you can reduce reliance on the aid, using it only when necessary. Just in case that was unclear, you attach one end of the leash to the flat collar, and the other end to the training aid on the same dog.

Oh! Wow. I think science just died a little.

Hi Spottychick, I think you've done a lot for this dog, it's doubtful that even with more help these people would have been consistent enough to stop Buddy killing that chook. If they were really committed to Buddy he wouldn't be on a chain, and he wouldn't have been allowed to get to the chooks. There was a lady at the Lost Dog's Home in Hobart who had a mastiff, she might know mastiff enthusiasts. I don't think it would really matter which LDH he ended up at though, Hobart or Launceston. It's a bit of a journey to Hobart.

I'm not sure that appeasement gestures, even if they do involve great eye contact, make for very beautiful heeling I like the thinking though, turn it around straight away, reinforce the good. Just be careful not to reinforce sooky behaviour, maybe ask her to do something else then reinforce that instead. The alpha-female is simply the breeding female. This sort of appeasement could happen towards any member of a pack, or another pack, or in this case - another species entirely.

Simply asking the dog to sit again, then making sure you are asking for an appropriate duration (not going too long) will teach the dog not to break about as fast as anything else. Aim to work durations that the dog will succeed at at least 80% of the time (i.e failing fewer than 1/5 trials). If you get more failures than this, decrease the length of time you ask the dog to sit before reinforcing. One way to automatically set an appropriate criterion for duration is to use the "300 Peck Method" - see http://positivepetzine.com/300_Peck

That looks like soemthing that Molly would like... Do you know how I find out if there is a Club or Team in my area? You could call your ANKC affiliate (DogsWA?) Flyball is an ANKC sanctioned sport so they will know of any clubs in your area. Some of the obedience clubs run flyball teams. Check also the "Dog Sports" sub-forum here, there may be a flyball thread.

If you jump on to a gundog forum it's a bit like being parachuted into a foreign country where you don't speak the language Actually talking to someone who does it - and who knows you are a beginner - is a very different thing, which is partly why I suggested that you might like to contact the working gundog club (the other reason is that any of them would kill for a young pup who will retrieve 10 items in a row with little in the way of formal training!) Unless you have plans to attend formal shoots or compete in open tests I wouldn't worry too much about raising Bitty as a working gundog. My Goldie is 9.5 years old, he's spent his whole life playing fetch at the beach and tug when he comes back with the stick. I've broken every single rule in the book every day for 9.5 years. I started re-training him just last month, and I plan to compete in a beginner trial next month. One thing I've learned about dogs is that if you're taking things too seriously they will knock you off your perch every time ;-) We just have fun with it, I throw a few dummies (seriously, just 4 or 5) after our walk each day or work on something like stop and sit to the whistle. It's a real pleasure for both of us, his jaw chatters with anticipation sometimes, and this is after a 45min walk beforehand. I've spoken to some of the people at the gundog club here and they are fully supportive of my modest and, honestly, rather unlikely goals and have offered no end of assistance. You'll find it's the same with many obedience clubs too, if that ends up being your preference. We all have to start somewhere and anyone worth talking to or listening to will realise, through their own experience, we all have to start at the beginning. Are you still following Sue Ailsby's Training Levels? I don't think you can get a better introduction to the practical application of positive reinforcement training than that. Sue has put just about every conceivable title on some of her previous dogs with just a little bit of specific training after they have completed the Levels foundation.

It's generally regarded as a good thing if you are interested in training your dog. If you haven't already, sign up for agility, obedience, flyball or something of that nature where an instructor can show you how to use the force for good instead of evil. When I was a teenager my piano teacher had a GSD who was a mad retriever at heart. He would spend the entire piano lesson dropping little bits of soggy leaf or wool (piano teacher was a spinner) or a toy on the stool then waiting furtively for you to finish your piece so that you were free to throw it for him. With half a dozen or so students each afternoon I can imagine the dog was quite satisfied by dinner time.