Snoopy21

She never escapes out the gate - just the front door. Our front yard is not gated and cannot be (council regulation). It would be possible to gate the front door off, but difficult and expensive (there are 2 access points). I would prefer to train her. Do you think it is possible? Even if she had good recall otherwise, would she still do this?

Sigh.....I'm just so frustrated with my dog. Willow is a 21 month old cross breed (bull arab type) dog (that's her in my avatar) who is just lovely. She is intelligent and loving and very happy. She has fitted in well with the family since we rescued her at 5 months old. But she has one shocking habit - she bolts whenever she gets out the front. She just runs off careening wildly down the street, back and forth across the road, up and down people's driveways etc and no amount of calling or whistling or running or waving of arms will attract her attention or get her back. It is scary! We do try hard not to let her out of course and our yard is secure, but we have little kids and often she just gets out. Her recall is excellent in the yard and house and good at training (on lead). If she is calm and attentive (in a down stay e.g.) her recall is also good. I take her to obedience training weekly with our local club, so she knows her commands. We have tried improving her recall using a long line, but TBH it is very difficult with either her or I getting yanked off our feet when she hits the end of it at a run. HELP!! It is making our lives miserable.

I am so sorry. She looks like such a lovely old girl. Much love to you as your mourn the loss of your beautiful friend.

Not much helpto you because I'm in Tassie but I can get tails (usually chopped up) or spines (with pelvis attached) for our dog. She loves them!! The tails are nice and meaty (at the body end anyway. She is happy with the spines too though and eats most of it. I get them at the doggy butcher. I don't worry so much about tapeworm because we have wild wallabies here and she eats their poop and whatever else she can scavenge anyway.

How awful! I'm so sorry for the loss of such a beautiful girl. Be gentle to yourselves as you grieve her.

She's been really good! We will go back friday to have the dressing changed and the wound checked. It must be pretty comfortable because she is leaving it alone and walking normally on it. I have been bagging it to keep it dry so she can go outside briefly, otherwise she is snoozing the days away in the sun near the window, so I guess she feels fine.

Thanks Vehs. We took Willow to the vet and he cleaned and banadaged the cut. It is long but not too deep thankfully. He gave her antibiotics just in case. It doesn't even seem to be bothering her so that is good. She is more upset about the bandage than anything else. I think it will heal just fine. Does anyone have any ideas about how long it will take to heal? A couple of weeks since it isn't too deep?

Our dane cross girl has cut the big pad of her rear paw right across. It is bleeding quite a bit but not gaping open. I have bandaged it for now and I am trying to keep her off it until I can get to the vet tonight (no car). Is there anything else I need to do? She ripped it on a nail I think, but it looks pretty clean. What will the vet do?

Thank you. I might look at grabbing a tick collar for her since she has already had Advocate applied for the other stuff. I wasn't sure about down here because this is our first summer with a dog in the south of the state. It seems hard to find local information? I will have to ask the vet next time I am in there.

We live in southern Tassie on a bushy block. Our neighbours are close and have dogs, cats, goats, deer and horses. I found 2 ticks on our girl last night but they weren't the usual dark brown dog ticks I pull off the cat. They were greyish green in colour and still very small, so difficult to get any further details. Can anyone tell me what they are likely to be? Do we need some tick prevention for the pets? What is most effective? Willow seems fine today and was her normal self last night (fidgeting and grumping because I made her sit still to get them off).

Thanks Dory and Erny I just wanted to make sure it OK to continue allowing her to interact that way. I don't want to have to worry about DA later if I don't have to. She is such a sweet girl - I want her to stay like that.

We have a 14 months old dane cross which we adopted from rescue in January. She is a lovely friendly girl who gets very excited and wants to play with other dogs when we are out and about. She is always on lead because her recall is pretty bad. Recently (the last 2 months maybe) I have noticed that her body language when she is being approached by another dog has changed. She either drops to the ground (just crouching, not turning over) or lowers herself and kind of slinks toward the other dog. Once she has sniffed and circled them she is fine and will play bow or leap in the air inviting them to play. Is this normal or something I should be worried about? Is she being submissive? If it is something I need to watch for, how do I encourage more appropriate body language?

I'm so sorry for your loss. What a gorgeous little man he was. How awful for you.

I use a rubber grooming mitt on our dog, cat and lounge. It does a pretty good job on the dog and an awesome job on the cat and is fabulous for removing hair from furniture. Cheap too....so maybe get one just for the upholstery?

I hope this trainer suits you both much better deelee. Good Luck!!

I might have to go in and have a look....they sound great! It might be a stupid question, but how do you know what butcher's put in their pet mince? Do you just ask? I look at it sometimes and it seems really fatty? Or is that just because it has bone minced in too?

I get fresh stuff in there sometimes but I like to buy the big bags of dry food which they don't have. I wouldn't have thought they were that much cheaper than the animal tuckerbox or pets domain when I looked at their prices though? I haven't been in there recently. I can get chicken necks and wings cheaper at the supermarket but our girl loves the roo tails and that is the only place I have seen them.

The new animal tuckerbox store in the city is selling pups and kittens. They have cages built up against the windows so everyone can goggle at the pups. So far the store at Derwent park still just has birds, fish, rabbits and guinea pigs.

I totally agree. If anyone has any good advice on how to bond with our dog then I would be really grateful. I think that my dog is totally more interested in other dogs than in me. That is one of our main issues. I think that if we had gotten her younger and she hadn't been in a rescue situation with loads of other dogs but not much human interaction, then it would have been better, but it doesn't matter now, we need to build a bond....but how? I also agree with this but at the moment it is hard to get out many places with our girl because she is so silly and difficult to control at times. We have kids too, and going somewhere with 3 kids and a loopy, leaping, slobbering and very large pup is not very easy. I feel exactly the same. Help!

You can hijack all you like deelee....it sounds like we are struggling with the same issues anyway. :rolleyes: Willow also loves corned beef, but it doesn't work once we leave the yard. If I wait for her to give me eye contact I would be waiting all day. Once out, she is focussed totally and completely on everything else and not me. I'm just the weight at the end of the lead. We have outgrown puppy classes and are moving up to beginner obedience next week. I am affeared At least she had the excuse of only being a puppy at puppy class. Now she is just a naughty dog and I'm a slack owner who can't train her dog. I try....I really try and she is so good at home. How are you finding the martingale? I am thinking of getting one to help a little with the yanking (although she is improving) and to stop her from slipping her collar (done that twice now and it is scary!).

I use a similar one on both my short haired pup and my cat and they LOVE it. It works really well. Definately worth a try.

Our pup does it too. Not her own, but the cat's and any wallaby or possum poo she finds about. It's gross isn't it? She comes and tries to kiss me with poo stuck in her teeth Search the forums for copraphagia....there was a thread on it not too long ago.

I'm not very experienced in the puppy owning thing, but we certainly managed to teach our young boys (5 and 3) to turn their backs and cross their arms when our pup jumped. She was jumping and grabbing at their arms with her teeth which was obviously unacceptable, and it only took a couple of weeks of back turning for her to figure out that it wasn't a fun game anymore. We just showed the boys over and over again what to do and practised until they got it. But as sas said, it is probably better not to put a child in that position in the first place. Maybe teaching your daughter to turn her back would be possible as a back up plan? It is probably a good thing for her to know anyway. I leave my kids at home when I take our pup to training, they find it really boring and want to touch all the other pups all the time which is distracting for everyone. We let them help with training at home. Congratulations on your new pup. I hope he brings you much joy.

Thanks all. I will definately give TOT a go. Those articles are really helpful too thanks Helen. I realise that she will still have a little settling in to go yet, but she is much more at home than she was even 3 weeks ago. The lack of attention is spilling over into other things like pulling on the lead and a total lack of recall under any distraction. I feel like once we have her attention we can work effectively on the other things (the loose leash training is going OK, but the recall is going nowhere). All that being said she is a sweetheart and worth any amount of effort!!

Well I'm glad it's not just me. It is frustrating. I know how well she can do when she is paying attention, but none of it is any good if she will only do it at home. I will have another look at the TOT thanks 4paws.