jesomil

Wow, that is rather an emotive response. How is the ear pinch any different from prong collars or check chains? They can all be misused and need appropriate training and experience to get the best out of them. There are many methods of training dogs and i think all good trainers need to be open minded and to make claims only based on solid experience. BTW, i have never used the ear pinch, nor do i know how, but there are trainers who i respect greatly who use it and get fantastic results.

Thanks for the link Vickie. Very interesting reading. Its also interesting seeing what traits are inherited only and what traits can be trained. I liked this bit at the end.

Wow, well there goes my theory then The wire is a brilliant idea . I was horrified one day to find my Kelpie balancing on top of the 6ft fence being patted by tradesman next door. He was balancing just like how a cat does. So he can jump our fences but luckily there is nothing interesting on the other side so he doesnt do it.

I definately think you can breed for drive and other working traits. It is proven consistantly in working lines of any breed. I have been reading a Schutzhund book and it has a section on puppy selection. In the book, it says that you will never get a pup that is better than its parents, so it is best to go with parents that have the traits you are after. High drives become more important in sports that dogs need to have certain genetic traits and high drive or they wont be able to compete at high levels, such as schutzhund, retrieving etc. Not sure if you mean this with working traits, but if dogs are working bred and some are heavily line bred as well, then you can pretty much guarantee that most of the pups in the litter will be good. You will not get outstanding workers out of ordinary dogs. As poodlefan said, its because most of the dogs he would be testing have been bred for other purposes first like showing. If he was testing only dogs purely bred for working it would be a completely different story. That will work as long as you are after dogs with an average sort of drives. It is a bit hit and miss. If you are after a highly driven pup, your chances are better going from proven lines where both parents have the traits you are after rather than getting a pup from average parents and hoping it will be more driven than them.

Just a thought. I may be on the wrong track for your situation, but here goes . Do you think that toileting inside may have become a habit? As dogs are creatures of habit, they tend to get stuck in their ways. The more often he successfully toilets inside, the more his habit is being cemented. In his little head, he may think that the house is where he is meant to go. If only they spoke english!! Can you completely restrict his access to only a tiny area inside so that basically he has no choice but to toilet outside? The more often he toilets outside, the more likely it will become a habit. He can start having more freedom in the house once he regularly goes outside. I think that if you allow him full access to the house, he will be very hard to train as you cannot watch him every second of the day.

Training, training, training. I agree with what Rhapsodical78 said. At a guess, i bet the dog has absolutely no training and probably isnt aware of his place in the pack. He probably has less than adequate exercise as well. An an lead walk every day would do little to satisfy his physical requirements. What active dog wouldnt try and jump the fence if they were going brain dead in the backyard. These types of dogs need a purpose in life. She needs to first of all spend time every day training the pup. It needs to be mentally tired. Things like kongs every day that he has to work for, or hiding food around the yard, chaining a bone to a tree. It would also be great to get a recall happening so she can take him free running everyday. Just a few ideas..... there are many more though. Obviously the yard has to be fixed up so he cant escape too.

I definately think it would be possible. Chooks are very receptive to training.

Thanks for letting me know. Well done in the encourage . Shame about it being too wet on the sunday. That would have made things very difficult. I was trialling out at Colac and it was extremely wet and windy. Not a great weekend to be out and about!!

Hi all, just wondering if anyone went down to Welshpool this weekend? How did it go?

Does she get alot of exercise and training? Alot of working bred dogsl become obsessed with balls etc if they have no where else to redirect their energy. There brains and bodys are designed to work, so when they dont, they find something to put all their energy into. My boy is very keen on balls and i have used a ball with great success in his obedience training. He will switch off it when i put it away though. It would probably help her alot if you used her ball in her training and she learnt that she cant have it all the time but she has to work to get it.

When i got my pup from the breeder, she had diarrhoea. She then had it for about 5 weeks and it was driving me crazy. She was at the vet every week and had every test done to see what was going on. We tried a few things that didnt work. In the end, I put her on an adult food and didnt give her anything else. She had a course of antibiotics and protexin granules twice a day (really good for the gut) and that all finally cleared it up. I thought she may have a sensitive gut but since then, she has been perfect and i feed her lots of different things. The vet never knew what the problem was. She was also happy and bouncy and growing well even though she had squirting diarrhoea. Good luck with your pup. You should ask the vet about protexin. Not all vets carry it but it is a great product.

Wow, that course sounds brilliant Thanks for sharing your experience.

I think anyone with a theory about dog training is very game to tell the world about it because they will always get hammered by a whole lot of people. No one will ever agree on dog training and behaviour as there are so many methods and people generally only speak from their own experiences. I think alot of that article has been dramatised. They are basically saying that anyone who is not purely positive uses violent practises it also mentions aversive, abusive practises. It sounds like some extremely positive people who are very anti anything negative. I respect their methods of training but not the way they slam anyone who chooses another method. Cesars tv shows are generally dealing with extreme cases. But the underlying message on how we should deal with our dogs on a daily basis is great IMO. What he has to say is not new. I have been treating my dogs like this for years and there are tonnes of great trainers out there that do the same. There is no abuse. It just leads to a harmonious life with your beloved dog because everyone knows their place and the dogs have boundaries. By the way, i certainly dont agree with everything Cesar does and some things he does makes me cringe but the underlying message is what i agree with. I think if more people handled their dogs with calm assertivness and were good, respectworthy pack leaders, it would help alot of probs.

Cant wait to read it but i am still trying to work out Amazon . I have never bought from overseas and am not very computer savvy so will find someone to help me and then i will get it!!

Is it available in Australia yet? I was going to buy it off Amazon.

I am have just been going through this with my pup. This is how our club does it. We start with luring with a piece of food and clicking and treating when down. We do this from a sit and stand position. Once they get that, we start to slowly wean off the signal so the pup does it with command only. We click and treat while pup is maintaining the position several times till we release and they can get up. Teaching it on the move comes later.

Ditto LP

My adult Kelpie I dont think has ever barked at home. The girl does the odd bark and I just call out Quiet!! and that stops her. She knows that if she doesnt stop then i will come outside so she will generally stop on the first call. We have a very enclosed back yard with trees etc so there is not much to bark at excpet the odd possum ggrrrrrrr.

I always had terrible back trouble when grooming but since i have stopped it has been perfect. Grooming is so hard on backs even when you have all the safety measures in place.

Hi JeffnCel, The Schutzhund Australia website has a calender of events. The address is www.schutzhundaustralia.com Hope this helps.

At a guess it sounds like he was trying to get a game happening. She sounds like she has absolutely no leadership qualities and that would be terribly confusing to a dog. Chances are they gave lots of affection when they got him instead of making sure they asserted their leadership status. He may now feel that he is being forced into a leadership role because no one else seems to be taking charge. He sounds like a normal happy dog that has landed with someone that needs to learn a few tips about being a dog owner.

I was going to suggest this too. I competed in Obedience with a Pembroke and she was awesome. They are sensible dogs that still have that working dog nature in a smaller package. My girl had (still has but she lives with mum), fantastic drives for training and was so keen and easy to train. She is now 10 and will still bust her guts to be put through a heeling pattern as she loves it so much. There are several Obedience Champion Pembrokes. Many of them have excelled in tracking too.

Erny, you are great and we all know that. Ignore this poor, sad person.

I think alot of dogs out there that have no training or leadership will be more likely to snap at someone. I think the dog could have done alot more damage had she been serious about it. Could this be due to the fact that she has no strong leader? With a new knowlegable owner who will put in the time with training she could turn into a more stable, happy dog. Kids should never be unsupervised around dogs so this was her owners biggest mistake. I hope she finds a wonderful home.

Yes, i believe it is that simple but as someone said, being the leader and being calm and assertive does not come naturally most people so it takes a bit of work. I have just got his new DVDs so have spent alot of time this week watching him. While i dont agree with everything, I think he is great.