Aidan

What else have you tried? How many times have you spoken with your neighbours about this problem, and are they receptive to suggestions?

I would speak to Andrea Bratt-Frick, apart from being very experienced with functional -R procedures she also trains a lot of rabbits.

What did you want to know?

What theory is that?

I commend you on wanting to take a proactive approach in managing your girl's behaviour around other dogs. I would recommend some professional help, though. Unfortunately a muzzle can escalate aggressive behaviour if not introduced with some consideration, and while the risk of a bite is minimised, the experience for both or either dog can still be very traumatic in a muzzle fight. K9pro.com.au sell good quality muzzles and would be able to advise you further. Overheating is a concern in hot weather so you are probably limited to a wire basket muzzle, and finding one to fit a Bullmastiff correctly (so that it will stay on when it really counts) can be a bit tricky. You will also have to deal with other people's perceptions. My GSD looks like a typical police dog, is clearly under control, and does not play with other dogs, so I've only had favourable comments. A BM who is approaching other dogs or off-leash in the same area might draw some criticism. I mention none of this in a judgemental way and would not be surprised if you had already considered many of these issues, but I mention them because it is prudent to do so in this forum.

And John Q Public just turns away and walks off, with his opinion of purebred dog breeders confirmed once again...

This is the really low-budget version: But I prefer to rely on star-pickets and dog-wire when I want to protect young plants.

Yes, and without wishing to offend anyone I wonder what John Q Public would think if he stumbled across this thread?

Oh wow, that's incredible progress in one day! Well done :-) Plus he is backing up to do it, which is another layer of difficulty. Obviously you're doing something right and he's picking it up without any trouble, but if I had to be picky I would tell you to click much sooner, as soon as he touches the target. It doesn't seem to have impeded his learning, but there will come a time when you will be glad you practised clicking at the right moment for the right criterion. The next step would be to have him go out away from you to the target which is quite a different behaviour. Then you will be able to start adding distance to your targets. Given that you will only be able to go so far with paper towel rolls now is probably a good time to change the target items too. One suggestion is to use a towel and have him go to the towel and down or sit on top of it. There are two reasons I suggest a towel. The first is that by teaching him to down or sit on the towel, you have the beginnings of a "drop on recall", an emergency "down", or even a "stop" for herding or retrieving. Also, a towel is easy to fade out. You begin by folding it in half, then thirds etc until you're just using a scrap of fabric from the rag bag. Then it disappears, so the dog is no longer looking for the target but listening to your cues instead. Cute dog!

Hi ktb, there are a lot of different ways to teach this but the method in the article is a method I used with a class once, not so much to teach left and right but to teach a bunch of other foundation skills. It worked well and we knocked it over in very few sessions. The 300 Peck method for increasing distance or duration appears a little daunting at first, but once you learn it you will find yourself using it to add distance or duration to all sorts of things. So it's a very handy method, and actually very simple. Same with targeting, very simple, but very useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Canadian trainer, Sue Ailsby's last two service dogs have been PWDs. Amazing dogs. Sue is a remarkable trainer, and both dogs are service dogs with a solid foundation, but here is a list of their achievements after 2-4 weeks of specific training for each event: "Rally - Scuba and Stitch, less than a week each. Both had perfect scores, by the way. Obedience - Scuba 3 weeks, Stitch, 4 weeks. Scuba averaged in the mid one-nineties, Stitch around one-ninety. Draft - Scuba and Stitch, 2 weeks each (plus conditioning time) Agility - 12 poles in 12 days, by golly. Water - Scuba 4 weeks, Stitch 3 weeks. Herding - Scuba 3.5 weeks." Fairly good all-round dogs I would say!

Hehe, the Wheatens they used could be causing their problems! Lots of breeds have type issues, go to a dog show and look at the GSDs, and that is just (presumably) the ones bred with conformation in mind.

We should also not forget that originally they were using Labs from proven seeing eye dog lines, so it wasn't that they wanted the "lab temperament" as such, but they wanted a proven line of many, many generations of selective breeding for these particular traits. The BYB or commercial breeder slapping any old Lab and any old Poodle together is obviously not achieving this, whether they are taking advantage of buyer ignorance or not is another concern.

They tried "Australian Service Dog" but I'm not sure what happened to that registry? Was that with the goal of the labradoodle being a guide or other service dog? (Sorry. never heard of the registry so can't help) Yes, and I believe it was an attempt to distance themselves from disreputable breeders and also an acknowledgement of the fact that they were not lab / poodle crosses (other breeds were used as well).

I thought the man who originated the cross for low allergy guide dog pups went public a few years ago saying the whole exercise was a disaster? That would be an exaggeration, but certainly they are not being produced as Guide Dogs in Australia any more. That is not to say that they have never had a purpose or been bred to a standard as set out by a breed club, or that they are not still being used as low-allergy (some people find them tolerable) guide and service dogs. Personally, I wouldn't want to be responsible for trying to develop a breed that met the very high standard they were looking for - low-allergy dogs with a high suitability for guide and service work. It's a big ask! It's a big ask for Labrador breeders too. This does not in any way excuse the greedy money-grubbers who just see a market. But I think it's a bit unfair of those who have said they are were not developed for a purpose, represented by a breed club, breeding true to type etc

They tried "Australian Service Dog" but I'm not sure what happened to that registry?

No doubt many breeders are, but the cross was first attempted (successfully, too) to provide a low allergy guide dog and breeding did continue for that purpose for many generations. Other breeds have been used in the program to achieve the type they have sought.

We don't know that it has. It might have been a once-off.

My parent's neighbour had a BC mix who would swim several kms each morning, very fit. You could teach him to retrieve, start on dry land. It would give him a purpose and you some off-leash control, send him out to retrieve, then he has to come back to bring you the dummy or ball.

He might not have been "vicious".

Socialisation is where dogs learn appropriate social skills. If it is uncontrolled then inappropriate social skills can be learned (and you do take that chance even at the best of times), however if a dog is more interested in other dogs than the task at hand surely that would be a training and motivation issue rather than a reason to avoid socialisation? My personal opinion is that the best socialisation comes from walking with other dogs. Even if you're not walking with anyone specifically, if everyone keeps moving dogs don't get themselves into as many troubles. Socialisation need not (should not?) be devoid of training that is appropriate for the level of development of the pup in that situation either. With regard to the OP's problem, if your dog is well socialised then you have a good buffer against this sort of problem. The majority of dogs will learn to discriminate between dogs who are comfortable with them and dogs who are uncomfortable with them. My preference for breaking up a dog fight is to grab the back legs of the dog who is holding on and pull up and back very hard and sharply. If you're concerned about breaking a leg you're using about the right amount of force. If you pussy-foot around you will make things worse. Then keep walking backwards so the dog has to work to stay on his front paws. Many dog fights will end more quickly and more smoothly if everyone just stays completely calm and backs off (good luck with that). You need to make a quick assessment to see if serious injury might occur before you decide to step in and risk making things worse.

To some extent, but at the end of the day we're still dealing with smelly stuff! Sawdust usually smells pretty good, absorbs some of the odour, and due to it's high carbon content it sucks the nitrogen out of the urine or feces and the decomposition process begins. Same with straw, shredded paper, chaff etc. It depends a bit on what you can get hold of.

Sawdust, straw, dry leaves etc

Can it be both? I think so. Abrantes is an ethologist so he would have his own bias. Freud said sex and aggression were the two primary drivers of behaviour. Mind you he was talking about humans, and specifically the repressed, middle-class women who made up his clientele. Presumably they found hunger and thirst fairly easy to satisfy.

We'd hopefully be talking about dogs who over-react to normal things, but it does seem to be an over-used term. "Over-reaction" is open to interpretation, but "keen" and "alert" are not usually over-reactions. Most young Border Collies, for e.g, are extremely keen and alert and maybe they over-react to certain stimuli but it's not problematic behaviour and perhaps more importantly, a normal person who has owned a dog before and understands their needs would be able to handle any problematic behaviour that arose out of these traits. So I think it would be a mistake to put a label on this sort of dog. Then again, sometimes people need a label or a diagnosis to get off their bum and start taking things such as walking and training the dog every day seriously, and if they haven't been doing that then they probably are experiencing problematic behaviour. I agree, if your dog is likely to hurt someone then it's better to over-state the case in no uncertain terms than to take a risk on a pop-psychology term that people will probably only learn in dog training class (if they've been recently) or hanging out on forums like this. I also agree that you are responsible for that dog.