Aidan

Hi Ashley, have you considered training Pete to alert bark, or simply to bark on cue (as a deterrent)? Use a reasonably discrete cue so that it's not obviously a "trick" to an observer. I am constantly amazed that one of my dogs will wake up and look at me if I look at him while he sleeps, but I wouldn't rely on a dog "picking up a vibe" about someone. What we do know is that people who are doing things that they shouldn't be doing usually give themselves away somehow, and an animal with more acute senses than ours can usually pick up on that. As PF has mentioned, good home security and lighting is your best defence.

The biggest problem I found was getting the dog to cough up his share of the rent each week. Apart from that he was pretty good to live with, let me watch whatever I wanted on TV and never complained when it was my turn to cook. We both did equal share of the cleaning - nothing.

An object that is targeted can be a discriminating stimulus that elicits drive-related behaviours (both operants and respondents).

This might be an option: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...mp;hl=treibball

I guess we must just have different experiences with veterinary behaviourists? Although I do certainly agree that some of them seem more akin to "psychiatric pharmacologists for dogs". I think that's a bit of an illusion though, they are the only ones qualified to prescribe medication. The local veterinary behaviourist refers dogs to my classes where appropriate, and only one of those dogs currently is on medication. Another will probably end up on medication, but was given a trial with me first. The veterinary behaviourists I've spoken to seem to be keenly aware of the needs of high drive dogs, it's not like they live in some sort of academic bubble! I'm a city boy with no experience with herding dogs and I was the first to recommend herding as an activity for this dog's needs, I don't think common sense is in that short supply amongst those in the field. The diagnosis regards whether or not the dog has developed a stereotypie which may possibly be very difficult to treat without medication. At the time of the suggestion, very few details were known except that the dog was getting more exercise than most, was obsessively chasing reflections and his breed. Having known a dog who was put to sleep for similar behaviour it pays to be cautious. This particular dog lived in the bush, his owners were an athlete and a dog trainer. Not a high drive dog either, although a kelpie cross. Despite a very physically and mentally active life this poor dog was beyond help, unfortunately at that time his options were not as broad. It's great when dogs just need a few lifestyle adjustments, but how do we know that will be the case from a short post on the internet?

So cynical! For a proper diagnosis, which could not be made from the information at hand when I made that suggestion (and shouldn't, strictly speaking, be made by anyone else).

Ouch! That sort of thing can lead to overuse injuries in the medium to long term. How long do you want to give him? I'd get on to it now, start being consistent TODAY and don't stop. Think of it as a life-time investment, which it genuinely is, for the life of your dog. If you follow Tassie's written instructions, also watch my video as they are pretty much the same thing. Find a different way to provide exercise until you're confident with the method. It won't take so long, just don't be afraid of a very high rate of reinforcement early on. Click as soon as the head turns back, click before the dog can get out in front of you, that's the stuff I constantly repeat in classes. Going to a schedule of reinforcement (reducing the frequency of reinforcement) is easy when the dog is truly ready.

That's utter rubbish. Howard can definitely spot the new shoes.. its all he seemed to munch on when I was stupid enough to leave them out. That dog should be awarded for his contribution to the Australian footwear industry. :D The really advanced ones can not only detect the new shoes but also the most expensive I actually give my dogs my old shoes, mine can't tell the difference between old and new shoes but they can tell the difference between the ones they have been given and the ones that are left by the door. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else though!

It's not a big step from here: http://positivepetzine.com/loose_leash_youtube ... to walking nicely on a loose leash. If we can condition the dog to come back to us when we stop (and we stop because the leash goes tight), then we have a polite dog. But you must be absolutely consistent. If you only get down the street before it does your head in, fine. Don't feel conflicted, take her somewhere safe and let her run around off-leash or play some fetch, there are hundreds of ways you can exercise a dog.

Observations of wolves in the wild suggest that submissive wolves can and do guard bones against more dominant animals, including the alpha (Mech, L. David. 1999. Alpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs. Canadian Journal of Zoology 77:1196-1203) -- so if we are to accept the premise that you have a pack hierarchy problem, it wouldn't necessarily follow that solving this might solve the resource guarding issue. I think if you can go through all the steps outlined in the article I linked to earlier, instead of swapping a "chew treat" you could attempt a swap for a bone instead. Just don't force the issue and if you have any doubts, seek professional help.

As a practical matter, I think it's good to be able to take things from a dog's mouth at any time, should it be necessary (and it so often is!) A more serious concern is what would happen if the dog was eating a bone and a child approached? That said, I don't think we should bug or pester a dog who is trying to eat, nor worry about this as a sign of dominance considering that submissive wolves in the wild are allowed to resource guard against more dominant wolves. Training and maintenance are required, daily pestering (as some people do, particularly with pups) is not. Here is an article I wrote that your friend might find helpful: http://positivepetzine.com/food_guarding

Great thread, Cosmolo

My goldie was similar when young, but nothing happened to him. He was just born that way, then he became one of the most sensible, stable dogs you could hope to meet.

Sending PM

With this sort of case, because it has the potential to get quite serious, I would suggest you see a veterinary behaviourist. Certainly limiting his access to reflections is a good idea. Walking and jogging are excellent activities and I'm sure he does come back from the farm physically tired, but dogs also need mental exercise, problem solving work. Being a BC herding is the obvious choice, but you can look at almost anything, agility, tracking etc

Hi Steph, my best advice would be to enrol in a good puppy class with a qualified and experienced instructor, your local vet is a good place to start your search but I'm sure if you state which area you are from some locals can recommend a good one. You will get a lot of helpful advice and it is a great place to add to pup's socialisation experiences. The "dominance" model used to be very popular and some people still like to use the sorts of rules you are talking about but it's best not to take it too far. For e.g, cuddling into your neck is not a dominant behaviour. Sharing dinner from the dinner table can encourage begging which some people find very annoying (myself included). This is a practical matter and my suggestion is to have her laying down on a bed or mat nearby, and that you only "share" when she is laying calmly on the mat. I wrote an article on this which is at clickertraining.com , there is also a free video demonstration. The growling as you have described it is most likely just playful but I wouldn't reinforce it with attention or continued play. A good puppy instructor seeing it in person should be able to give you an opinion. Rotties are not particularly difficult dogs to live with except for obvious things like their size and ability to drag you around so you need to teach good, consistent leash manners. Socialisation is very important. If you go to siriusdog.com there are free puppy raising manuals from Dr Ian Dunbar which are an excellent instruction manual for all the things you need to do to raise a happy, well adjusted pup.

Sounds similar to what happens if someone plays Nickleback near me. Violent rage directed at the responsible person.

So if the stimuli that elicit these respondents (adrenaline etc) is paired with no prey (classical extinction), do you think you might have a shot at suppressing the response to those stimuli? I like to walk in the bush. Worse than that I often end up walking the dogs at dusk, or even after dark, when all the animals are coming out. Every so often I chuck something into the scrub behind us without the dogs seeing, then I let them go to investigate. Pretty soon they stopped investigating, including similar sounds made by real prey.

Field-bred spaniel too! I like

One thing I like about the video with the Boxer, even though it's going REALLY well, the trainer has not got too far ahead of the dog and when the dog is offering lesser criterion she keeps on reinforcing - which is correct in my opinion. You keep the criteria at the level where you can maintain a high rate of reinforcement while still moving ahead. Had she waited for too much more behaviour (dog going into full bow) I think things would have broken down pretty quickly. Notice also the initial accidental head-bob that got things started, that is the sort of thing you need to be watching for, just something for those who are new to this to watch out for.

A nice, clear example of a session going really well with a "clicker savvy" dog:

I eat raw eggs.

Hypothetical. I was trying to suggest an example of something in domestic canine behaviour that could be measured as opposed to something that was subjective. Barking in a vet clinic can be measured. Let's just leave it at that.

In a shelter at least the animals are there longer than a day, in most cases, so "you" might get some idea on whether music etc does make a difference. Don't see how you can get a true reading from new animals every day. I don't know why you bring this up, and it's a long way off topic at this point, but what if I'd extended the period to 5 days? In one study (in shelters) it was discovered that Classical Music played for 1 hour per day for 5 days resulted in reduced stress in the animals. Handy to know, and at least one study has actually measured it. As for "new animals every day", if you run the experiment for long enough (to get a large enough sample size) you're going to end up with a population that forms a bell curve even if you get new animals every day, or every minute. Does that ring a bell? (Pardon the pun!) I was coming up with an example, not a research project submission. The point was that if we want to find stuff out we have to have some way of measuring the relevant data (and qualifying that it is, indeed, relevant data).