Aussienot

When I was competing with the dog I had before, all I could obess about was what he was doing wrong. I knew in my head that I wanted a trial perfect robo dog. His 2% error rate kind of defined my relationship with him for a while. But once I gave up on trialing, I realised I had this beautifully trained, fantastic and really fun loyal friend. Our time togehter was far too short. I know it's a bit disapointing, but I think the important thing is to enjoy the dog in front of you, and to ignore the dog in your head. I had hoped Tarot could trial, and she possibly could, but I don't think she would enjoy it. Her nerves are not strong enough to handle the stress. Not sure mine are either.

Your vet is only looking at the heath aspects of your puppy. Yes, there is a small risk of exposure to disease, and so the vet would advise isolating the puppy until vacination immuninity is complete. However, your vet is overlooking the behavioural aspects of your puppy's development. I fully agree with Miranda on the benefit of early socialisation rates higher than potential disease on the relative risk scale. From as early as possible, take the puppy into situations you can control. Maximize exposure to people of all types and ages, sounds, other types of animals. Puppy preschools are an easy way to provide a recurring hit of 'safe puppies' on a disinfectable surface if you can find a good one. Avoid obvious risky spots, such as grassy areas and dog parks. Avoid introductions to dogs and puppies you do not personally know. Definately avoid communal water bowls.

Yes, I think it is "fair" to dictatate the play and treatment of the toys. I paid for the toys, I selected them, I denied myself something with that money. They are my toys that I loan to the dogs, and I expect them back in reasonable condition for the next time that I choose to loan the dogs my toys. Mostly they get toys that we play with together. Tug, fetch and go find. Other toys are ones they get to keep them occupied when I've got other priorities, but they still will be at least nominally supervised with these. With a puppy or young dog, I expect a certain amount of developmental chewing and distruction, and I'd prefer to choose the item that they exercise their teeth on. And for every dog, once in a while, it feels good to denude, desqueak, and destuff a toy. So yes, some of the toys I give them are earmarked for distruction, and I think that's only fair!

I don't see anything necessarily cruel in the device itself, but am wondering, to those that have used them, how do you get the dog to generalise that the stack position on the posts = the stack on the ground?

A tester needs to be trained and certified before having access to the material. No responsible group would post detailed information about the test on the website for any yahoo to use without the theoretical knowledge.

So you want shelters to break the law?

I know what you mean: should you praise the stopping of the unwanted behaviour? I struggled with this a bit too with a dog who had a laundry list of bad behaviours and very few good behaviours. Does the dog know you mean Yes, good for stopping? Or does the dog think that the bad activity is a way to trigger you into attention/praise? I think it depends on the dog. I can see a very smart dog learning to engage in the activity to get you to praise him for stopping. In most cases, after the dog stops on your command, immediately redirecting the dog into another activity, be it a game of fetch, a game of chase, or some sort of "praiseable" training activity like a sit or a drop works the best. And maybe sometimes, praise and attention. I'd mix it up so the outcome is not predicable.

It took quite a long time (several months) to make puppy Tarot understand that cats in the house are not "prey" even when they are running around. Just constant vigilance and encouraging her to be gentle. It helped that the ginger cat was determined to be friends.

Yes, Triangle of Temptation will help. Also look into the Nothing in Life is Free program and start immediately. This is one of those situations where your dog is looking for you to be a Leader, and he's not seeing it. One of the NILIF rules is that the dog cannot ask you for affection. You give affection and closeness when you want to, not when your dog comes up and thrusts his nose into your lap. I know that may sound harsh, but it works. You can still be as affectionate to your dog as you want, but you need to be the one dictating the terms.

Hard call. My first reaction is that you have set up a great routine and schedule for him, and he's learning how to behave independently in your home. If you are going to cause an upset to his routine (by going on holidays), it would be better for him to be a completely different location with different people handling him. So I'd vote for the dog kennel. Change everything about his day. That way, when he does return home with you, nothing will have changed about his home rules and it should be easier to slip back into his known routine. Assuming you know and like the kennel you have chosen and they have a good understanding of dogs. He may do better there than you think he will. With a pet sitter in your home, you are changing just one thing- you will be gone. Leaving the environment the same, he is likely to be confused and anxious about your absence. Overall, you have made great progress with him, and your committent to him is wonderful to witness.

Taking your dog to a Dog Park is not socialising. It is throwing your dog in at the deep end and hoping he can swim. What you are doing with Madelaine sounds more like socialising. Controlled environment and happy experiences. I am very sorry about the loss of Chester, and glad that you found a little girl who needs you.

I did a house move with an old, deaf, blind and feeble dog. She was really ancient (16 or 17) when we moved. The biggest thing that worried her was when there were boxes everywhere, furniture in the way, movers dashing around and general chaos. She couldn't find the new paths to the doorways and to me. She gave up, found a clean bit of floor and just sat there for about six hours. It wasn't until things were sorted out a bit that I had time to 'orient' her to the new house. In just a day or two, she was alright. She lived for another five years - who knew? So, if possible, have someone care for them in the old house for a few days until everything gets cleaned up a bit. Apart from that tip, as long as the vet thinks he could cope, I'd say bring him with you and see how he goes. You can always make the decision to put him to sleep after you move; but if you make it before you move you might be second-guessing yourself in future.

My 'neutralised' dog was exposed to heaps of other puppies and dogs as a puppy and adolescent and regular exposure continues to this day. As a puppy and adolescent, she was allowed to play in a controlled manner with other puppies and "safe" older dogs occasionally. More often, when there were other puppies or dogs around, I would engage her in games and training with food rewards and cuddles. From an early age, (6 - 7 weeks) I could call her away from playing with others and get her to interact with me and this became a learned behaviour. I made sure she was comfortable in the presence of other dogs, but I intentionally devalued the presence of dogs. So she became accustom to focusing on me, my food and my toys rather than the dogs around her. As an adult dog, occasionally I do give her permission to greet another dog, but only when I know the owner and the dog and am certain the other dog will be socially receptive. So yes, I think she is reasonable fluent in dog speak, or at least as fluent as I want her to be. She's never shown any fear or aggression. She has seen fearful and aggressive dogs in training classes so I think she can recognise those kind of body postures and vibes. But she's never been allowed to interact with that kind of dog, and we only get as close as the distance where she doesn't feel the need to defend herself. I think it does go back to what kind of outcome you want. If I wanted a dog to go to the dog park with, I would have pushed her into a puppy free for all on a regular basis and left it at that. What I conditioned for and now have is a dog who is perfectly comfortable with other dogs around, but finds interacting with me much more engaging.

I think some people confuse socialisation with "play". I do not expect or want my dogs to be the most popular dog in the dog park. I do not want them to think every dog around them is a potential playmate and a reason to act stupid. I do expect to be able to take them out in public and have them behave, especially when other dogs are around them are not behaving. My definition of a dog-socialised dog is one that has learned to be comfortable when near other dogs, and to pay attention to their owner despite the presence of other dogs. And I don't believe that you can create this calm state of mind in the dog using corrections. You also can't create it with a dog that has been confined to a backyard and never meets any other dogs.

When two dogs are playing, they will change positions constantly. Mouth grips will be repositioned quickly. You will see one dog be the attacker and one dog be the attackee, and every few minutes they will reverse roles. As long as both dogs are moving, and the play seems to be equally balanced, there's no reason to worry that they will hurt each other. Fur grows back. They are grabbing fur to avoid grabbing skin. But if you see one dog dominating for the entire game, or if one or more dogs freeze or look away from the other dog, then I would break it up and give each dog a breather in separate areas. Play can tip over into actual aggression in some dogs, especially those who need to learn self control. As long as the play stays clean, I think it's up to you to determine how rough and tumble the game can be in the house. I have a "timeout" T handsignal that I give, and both dogs know it's time to stop. One thing I don't allow is for them to knock into me (or bowl over the cat) when they are playing. It's disrepectful.

The reason that there is no peer reviewed scientific evidence on raw feeding is that there is no money in proving it works. No multi-national company is going to fund a study to prove there's another way to feed your pets. And expecting vets to fund a study to prove the effects of a diet could decrease vet income, well, that's unlikely to happen soon. Just like there is no "scientific" evidence on the effect of feeding processed food that isn't funded by the manufacturer. (There might be some profit in proving that it doesn't work, but that hasn't happened either.) I don't think a survey could be "scientific evidence". It would be collection of emperical data that could be used as basis for feeding trials, but it would not prove anything. There are a number of environment, genetic and health-related issues that need to be factored in to isolate what role diet plays.

I think if the dog is used to shaping training and freely offering behaviours it is much easier than if you are starting with a dog that is new to shaping or have used to luring or compulsion methods previously. My other dog has never freely offered a behaviour in her life . . . and while I probably could have converted her, at nine there is no behaviour that I am willing to be that patient for! I completely gave up shaping with her after the '101 things to do with a box' fiasco. (After one hour, the only behaviour she had offered was staring at me.)

One of the keys to 2X2 is that from the beginning shaping is used rather than luring. You get the dog to offer the behaviour of correct entries. When the dog offers the behaviour and is rewarded for it, the desired behaviour is made clear to the dog much more quickly than if the dog is lured into the correct entry. It requires great patience in the first training session. You may have to click/treat for looking at the poles, then c/t for any movement towards the poles, then c/t for actually doing it. There may be 8 or 10 incremental steps from looking at the poles to the dog going into the poles. Once the penny drops that entry into the poles is the desired behaviour, things move along much more quickly. You can start increasing the criteria for reward to moving quickly and finding the correct entry from a number of different angles. Don't be in a hurry to add poles 3&4 (or 5&6). Get the foundation skills of finding the correct entry and strong drive to the poles really, really solid with just 2 poles before adding more. I used this method with my current dog, and loved the results.

I once read some very good advice on a Rhodesian Ridgeback site. The best way to train your dog not to counter surf is to keep clean counters. The jumping up to see what's there is reinforced everytime there is something to eat. If there is never any food to be found, eventually the behaviour will stop. The only problem with an adversive correction is that you have to be present to do it, and most dogs learn to only counter surf when you are not there to stop them. So keeping clean counters is kind of a human training solution, not a dog training solution.

Metacam was a daily godsend to my badly arthritic Labrador mix Jody, allowing her to live relatively pain free from age 15 until her death at 22!. I'm sorry your dog was one of the small percentage that had an adverse reaction and glad that she recovered.

The Long Down is listed in 'Dog Training For Dummies (which I think is a very good book) as a way to manage aggression with a dog that is getting too pushy. It is not suggested in the book as a puppy training tool or a routine preventative measure. I think your intentions are great, and encourge you to enjoy the puppy months.