4leggedvariety

Looks like you are making progress. I think as long as the whole family is consistent, little Molly will learn what is or is not acceptable very quickly. It is so hard to be kind & firm . isn't it?

You may also want to try to break up the "Drop" into smaller steps instead of aiming for the whole drop in one go. With some dogs you may not need to do that, some may need it, just require a bit of patience. Reward head down, reward further head down, and remember to move your lure hand very slowly straight down to the ground. Once you have her head down, then slowly bring your hand slightly forward a little bit and wait for one of her front legs to move forward. If that happens, reward that and progress to slowly move your hand slowly forward until her chest touches the ground. Then BINGO, got it, mark the behaviour & reward. Do not worry too much about the verbal command as yet because language does not mean anything at this stage. Once you can get the dog reliably following your hand down, then pair it with the command so correct assocaition of command & behaviour can take place. Once the dog gets rewarded a few times in the "Drop"position, they quickly get the hang of it. As for training treats, you may want to experiment with similar ingredients that the Hills prescription diet is made of, may be in the raw form, in very small doses to start off with. Boiled chicken is uaually quite safe but not sure. My recent addition to my family, a Mastiff x Dane , also had a very sensitive stomach as I was told by the previous owner. She told me definitely no bones. He had been on Hills Sensitive Stomach all his life (4 years). I feed my other 3 dogs a raw meaty bone diet (BARF, i am sure there are threads about that somewhere). I just very gradually add raw meaty bones to his diet, starting off with 1 or 2 chicken necks mixed with all the dry food. Bit by bit, add other stuff like beef, chicken, lamb mince with veg, cottage cheese, yoghurt & whatever the BARF diet recommends. He is doing very well on that.

Good to hear you have had some success. I think what you did was correct regarding the nipping behaviour. Just remember as Jed said it is like 2 puppies playing, just not on human skin & clothes. Once she calms down, redirect that play behaviour onto a toy and you initiate & finish the game on your terms and then put the toy away. Good to hear that you are contacting K9 force. Since she is not aggressive with food when you hand feed her, for the time being, it may be worth trying handfeeding her all the time so as not to inflame the situation anymore until you seek professional advise. One suggestion may be for each bit of food, hold the food in your hand and only give it to her after an 'OK' command. Think in your head that the food belongs to you, the dog can only have it if you say so and do not let puppy decide when she can take the food. I think this is the basis of TOT. Think confidence & you will project confidence.

Littlelabrador, I think by now you would have found that different people will give you very different advise. IMO there is a serious rank issue here and your puppy is probably the hyperactive nervous type. Not enough stimulation, it gets into mischief. Too much excitement is just goes over the top. Very hard to find the right balance for someone who may not have had this type of dog before. Your previous retrievers are all probably mild tempered. Since it has been so sick since it was a small pup, you and your whole family would probably have catered to it a lot more than normal & it is only understandable, but dogs see that very differently. You do need professional advise. Just a word of caution though. You mentioned that you can't afford home consults by professional behaviourists. I can tell you even if you can and you see a few of them, (which i have had with my first lab), they will all give you different opinions. Also beware of the title 'Behaviourist'. Someone who has done a lot of studies with letters behind their names do not necessarily mean they understand dogs. I would not pay money to any behaviourist who does not own, train, handle dogs or have no experience in living with a pack of dogs. If I was to consult any of them now, I would ask them to bring along their own dogs. You can judge how worthy this person is by the control and behaviour of their own dogs outside of their own homes in strange envirnments. If they refuse, they are not worth listening to.

why do you think she doesn't bite at you but your husband or your daughter? there must be something different between how the dog sees you & how it sees your hubby & daughter.

I tend to agree with blacklabrador. Boisterious, excitedness in puppy yes, but biting, growling at people over food, I don't think is acceptable puppy behaviour and I doubt if it is normal 'puppy behaviour' if it is living with a pack of dogs. I have observed my own pack of dogs, usually between 3 to 5 dogs, and different combinations of dogs with different breeds, different sizes. They only seem to growl at other dogs they see as lower ranking than themselves. If a higher ranking dog comes close, they either scoff it down as quickly as possible or they pick up the food and runs away with it if it is a bone. Does anybody else have similar of completely different situations? My dogs have never growled at people when they approach their food and I have not done any of the "hand in bowl & give more yummy food exercise".

Try Vicki Austin(Formerly Vicki Bourke). She does home visits as well. She and her husband Steve Austin (well-known ) Trainer run Pets Resorts Kennels at Dural. Central Coast dog Obedience Club run by Darrel Turley is good too.

I, too contacted the breeder when I had trouble with handling the my puppy. Because I was such a novice I thought whatever the breeder said must be right (she has been breeding for donkeys years). All she told me to do was everytime she misbehaves, wack her on the nose with your hands, and I followed that. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. Beware of bad breeders.

I couldn't imagine how devastating that is. Bubba looks so cute. I am so sorry .

She looks very much like my first dog ever, also a very hard to handle female lab. I did all the wrong things with her, no leadership and very harsh training techniques. She turned out to be people aggressive when she gets older. That was 17 years ago and since then I have had 8 dogs, learnt a lot more so you need to do the exact opposite to what I did to my poor lab. So do everything you can to EARN respect, and that means everyone in the household has the same rules for this pup and stick to it. DO NOT give her too much priviledge, it may sound harsh because she is such an adorable little pup & we humans find it hard to resist being too 'cold' to the puppy. Think about what an adult even temperament dog would do if a pup crosses the line. They would not tolerate it.

Implement as many as possible the leadership rules as sheree_e4 suggest. This lab puppy needs rules. Yes, lab puppies aren't always the easiest puppy to handle, especially if they are not the middle of the road temperament. Temperaments that gravitate towards either end of the spectrum need strong leadership and the owners must earn the dog's respect. Have very firm rules and try to project calm & assertive demeanor. Obedience training ie, teaching dogs how to respond to commands will help(reward based training), but do not confuse that with permissive training. Reward the good and correct the bad. We must first earn the authority to lead then obedience train them and that authority comes from how we live with the dog on a 24 hour basis. Control all priviledges and do not ever lose your cool or get angry at the dog.

Yes, I have personally known 2 dogs, both shepherds, having bloated after eating chicken wings. Whether the raw food is the issue no one really knows, may be they would have bloated anyway.

For many years, I let my dogs out on the full length of the lead, usually 4' & they are allowed to sniff or do whatever as long as they don't pull on it. If they do, I give them a pop on the collar (flat collar). Nowadays, I don't. I usually walk 3 dogs at the same time and together they weigh 85kg . I put the 52kg dog on a figure of 8 head collar & he is as light as a breeze. I put the others' flat collars up high behind their ears and have it quite tight so they won't slide down to the shoulders and I shorten their leads so they are by my side. If they pull & tighten the leads, a give them a sideways pop. No saying nothing, just pop and release & keep moving on a short loose lead. I usually walk very fast initially to make it easier for them. Once they have expended a bit of energy, I can slow down somewhat. They have to walk at the pace I am walking. They are not allowed to sniff or pee until I say ok, so we walk in this controlled fashion for a little while, have a sniff around and then controlled walk for a while and so on. This way, they are still getting their exercise, they are still having a chance to interact with the environment but most importantly it puts me in control of their behaviours. I decide what they do, when they do it and that helps to create respect for me. I learn that from Cesar Millan ' The Dog Whisperer', and have found it made good sense.

I also do the flip finish as I find that easier to get a straight sit. It also helps with the left about turn for the dog to move its rear end. To get the leap, which I think is supposed to happen as Rebanne said, I stick my left leg out at an angle so the dog has to jump over it when I am teaching my dog. I find this more motivating than the go-around finish.

it seems like a lot of people whose dog had had lymphoma had some success with the holistic approach, I certainly have and probably well worth a try Chelby. Just remember that you are making decisions with the dog's best interest at heart. Once I made the decision not to give her chemo, I wasn't stressed out anymore and really enjoyed the time I had with Cindy. When you are comfortable with the decision you make, the cancer did not seem to matter anymore. Wish you & Chelsea well in your journey together to fight this disease.

Hi Chelby, Srry to hear that your dog has been diagnosed with lymphoma. I had a dog called Cindy, mastiff x, big girl, that was diagnosed with the same this time last year. No symtoms, just found a lump in cheek bones at annual checkup. Lymph nodes in neck slightly bigger than normal. Did biopsy, lymphoma. The vet gave her 4-8 weeks from diagnosis. I seriously considered chemo, but was talking to a friend who put me onto a herbalist in Bathurst. His name is Robert McDowell (you can google him). I discarded the chemo option very quickly after spending a lot of time looking at his site, and you will probably find that very helpful. There are a lot of testamonials from people who have used his herbal treatment with great success. The good thing is this herbal stuff does not harm the dog in any way, they boost the immune system instead of depleting it. I put my girl on the Maritime Pine Bark + Lymphoma Support and she lasted 8.5 months after diagnosis. Not a sign of illness or sickness at all during these months, she had excellent quality of life and most of the time I have forgotten about her having cancer. We had to put her to sleep at the end of June this year because she became paralysed in the hindlegs in one day. I am glad not to have done chemo and let nature take its course. Dogs don't understand what chemo is for and I don't want to further stress her out. I was very happy to have 8 more months with her. You can check out our testamonial on his website. Give your dog a big cuddle for me.

Vickie, as a matter of fact, the sheepdog people teach recall from sheep using what behavourist called'negative reinforecement'. Different people look at it from different angles. They call the dog's name & immediately follow it by pops on the collar towards them. The dog has no option but to come. Other people look at it from the 'drive' aspect, they call it switching drive, and the pop is to switch the dog from one drive to another ( may be in this case from prey to pack, correct me if I am wrong). They may not see that as negative as the dog is high in drive (focussed on sheep) and you want the dog to be focussed on you, the leader, for directions.

Back tracking a bit, I also taught my dog to go into the crate just by putting him in and closing the door. I suppose is some sort of mild compulsion, i am making the dog go into the crate. There were no food rewards or even a good dog. Very quickly, he goes in by me pointing to the crate. I crate him just before training sessions and also when I am training my other dogs. I am not sure if he finds the thing self-rewarding, I suppose it is pretty neutral. Is just what I want him to do & he does it. However, it could be a conditioned reinforcer though, 'cause everytime he comes out of the crate, he has his training session with positive reinforcements, so he learns that good things follow his short stay in there. I agree with Erny, it will be pretty hard to get a dog to do something it does not like without reinforcements.

Working setters has given some very useful advise. You need to control the environment to start off with. Have realistic expectations as to the level of distractions your poodle can handle. I must say the recall is easy to teach, hard to perfect. If you have access to smaller fenced off areas (like some off leash dog parks when it is not too busy). take her there, either long lead or get up close and personal before you call her. Pick the moment that you think you will be successful and call her. If she comes, reward & release. If she doesn't, hopefully you are not that far away from her that you can walk up & show her you mean business (keep your cool though). If she is on a long lead, then pick it up from the ground & pop her towards you. You have to repeat that many many many times with increasing level of difficulty. I have found the obedience recalls too far fetched from normal everyday life. Dogs don't generalise from that to recalls while it is running, playing with other dogs, from sniffing etc etc etc. You do have to practice in everyday situations. I have also found a good recall is somewhat tied to good leadership. Respect from the dog is needed before the dog will pay attention to you, especially in distracting situations. When we think about it, dogs will do things that benefit them, for them to come back and ignore distractions, they have to know that you mean business and the act of coming back brings positive results, and vice versa.

I am now teaching my newly acquired 52kg Mastiff X Dane to Down. This is how I plan to do it. Start lure from sit, no verbal command yet. Once down, mark, treat, and a few more treats while he maintains down, then release & treat. Then repeat same procedure putting my other hand on collar to exert a little downward pressure while luring. I found this necessary to prepare the dog for later when I phase out the lure to remind him is a downward motion I want. This in not a jerk. Then repeat the same from standing. Once proficient, then add verbal "Drop" before any hand & body motions. Still same reward schedule, treat while downing and also treat after release. Then phase out lure. If dog needs help, then a small downward pressure on collar. Reward as before. Then start to reward less while in the down position ( always use verbal praise), but always rewards after release to teach him he has to maintain that position until released, then he will get his reward. Then every now & then, test to see if he understands the verbal alone. For that to happen, the verbal & hand signal has to be clearly separated, verbal before signal, otherwise very hard for dog to learn verbal alone.

I have used prong collars before on my lab & cocker and found them to be of great benefit. They are supposed to be used with very gentle hands, slight turn of wrist is all that is required. However you can also deliver a massive correction if it is used like a check chain. It is usually not the equipment that is the subject of controversy, but the manner it is used, depending on what you are trying to achieve. Is a bit like the gun issue, if it falls in the wrong hands, it can do a lot of harm. Why can't people use a piece of equipment properly the way it is intended to be? people are the culprits.

Good on you Jesomil, very well said. If more people could be more assertive with their dogs without being aggressive or abusive or permissive, then we will see less behavioural problems that we have to end up fixing. I have found the trend towards positive training has gone too far, it has turned into permissiveness. Confident projection and an aura of assertiveness and quietness is what dogs respect. So call animal behavourists concentrate too much on learning theories and tend to ignore what I call 'inner strength'. If you show fear to a dog, it will bite you. What you project to the dog is important. not just positive or negative reinforcements.

Jesomil, I am the one that said you can get it from Amazon. Finished reading it already, just can't agree more with his philosophies. This man understands dogs, quite unlike a lot of positive trainers who trains dogs like they train a laboratory rat. First establish leaderhip than teach them the meaning of 'commands' with positive techniques, exactly like what John Fisher ( England) said years ago.

Has anyone read Cesar's new book ' Be the pack Leader'? Damn good reading

Hi, new to this but I am a Cesar fan. I tried Cesar's techniques on my pack of 4 dogs. I am finding I am gaining more respect from them than ever before. Not a lot of talk but a lot of body language to convey to them "I" own everything and control everything. I am a positive trainer and I found combining that with leadership (no harsh treament) works wonders in our pack. Proper leadership does prevent most problems before they beome problems. It is the calm energy we want to project, and for some people it has to be learnt. Cesar demonstrate that very well because it is very hard to describe in words.