Stitch

If all else fails....Metronide works wonders. We caught him eating something in the paddock. I will try the two small meals though after the Metronide course comes to an end. Thanks everyone.

No spinal nerve problem that I know about. He does have luxating patellas but the vet treats that with injections in the colder months and currently he is managing well. Personally I think he does it because he can....but that's probably a bit harsh of me. Maybe I should feed him a different time??? What do you think? If it takes 24 hours for food to pass through maybe feeding in the middle of the day?

I have a small breed dog that I inherited from my mother. He would be about 13 years old and he is happy to be crated overnight. I have had him for over 12 months now and recently he has started randomly pooing in his crate overnight. There has been no change in his diet all this time but every week or two he will poo overnight. He is regularly vet checked so no obvious unexpected problems other than old age. I feed him every morning about 8am. Seeing as we can't work out any obvious cause I wonder if there is a better time to feed him so that he poos during the day rather than overnight. Any ideas would be appreciated as I am not fond of early morning surprises to clean up.

OK so I have tried on several occasions and mostly all it is doing is delaying the happy dance in some instances. He will be mildly distracted by the high value food but leave half of it so he can leap in the air and lick me. It is very frustrating seeing as I feel there must be a way of communicating with him but in this instance I just can't find it. Problem is I can't be fully prepared for this as he always makes his run up from behind me and it is not always predictable.

Interesting, yes I can do that. Thank you so much.

I have a large breed dog that has come a long way in his training but one issue remains that I have had great difficulty addressing so I need some help from you. He has always craved attention and one of the ways he shows it is to jump up and sail past my ear, giving a lick at the same time. It sounds funny but it ceases to be humorous when a 40kg dog goes flying passed your face. It can be quite confronting and occasionally dangerous. I have done many exercises designed to keep his feet on the ground but there are occasions when he still does this behaviour, in partucular at the end of the exercise when he is released. The release is usually accompanied with a sudden burst of energy on his part, followed by the flying launch to show his joy and affection. Can anyone suggest how I can achieve my desire result of him behaving in a calm manner with his feet remaining on the ground please?

There is a dog grooming product which stains the nose black. It is primarily used for cosmetic purposes but I used it very successfully on a dog with DLE after specialist vets advice wasn't really working. My theory was that it wasn't going to do any harm and that it might just give more permanent protection than was available. Yes it is off label but it is formulated for use on dogs noses and as you have found nothing much stays on dogs noses before they lick it off. I made up a cardboard slide that would stop the tongue licking the nose until the product dried. It worked very well.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Interesting about Selsum blue. Not something I would have thought could be used on dog skin but there you go. I will get some today.

I have mostly used Aloveen on my dogs over the years but I was wondering if there is a better shampoo to keep away the doggy smell the longest? What do you think?

Dammm....not boding well for the future. Thanks everyone!

I am going to 'inherit' my mothers 12 year old Tenterfield Terrier soon and he has a few issues. A few years ago he had crystals in his urine and he has been on R/C Urinary ever since. I will have to take him to my vet when I get him as I don't rate his current vet but in the meantime does anyone know of any conditions that cause hair loss as he sheds white hairs at a rapid rate of knots. He doesn't have any bald spots but you can always tell where he has been because of the white hairs left behind and I don't fancy them all over my floors so fixing the problem would be great. Can anyone help?

Dogsfevr, agree....after so many years of having to think out of the box with terrier training I have to start thinking differently with this dog. I spent years trying to explain to obedience class instructors that terriers are totally different to train than say a working dog or whatever. Now I feel that those years of training are counting against me as I am stuck in 'terrier' mode....if that makes sense. I have this dog walking calmly on a lead which was my initial goal....but it has to be on lead. I tried giving him a big box to investigate yesterday as I think he needs to use his brain a bit more to tire him out. He really enjoyed it. Your idea of giving him more brain games is one I will start today and see how he goes. Thank you for your help.

OK I watched those videos thank you! Home School the Dog. I have done about 6 weeks of lessons on that but got a bit lost wondering how I was going to adapt it to the type of excitable behaviour he has. We have a lot of land here and I don't have any trouble with his recall....except that I might get bowled over when he comes galloping in!

Thanks for the videos which I will review shortly. I have been challenged with excitable and sometimes aggressive terriers for many years as well as having my share of large dogs so I am not new to this but this particular dog is off the scale with excitability and he combines it with being a 40kg flying missile sometimes, so it's like terriers on steroids but one you can't pick up or manipulate. Eg. yesterday he was doing his loops on/off the dog bed and he flicked the dog bed hard into my shin bone. I have a big bruise today and walk with a limp! Dogsfevr can you tell me how you are training your problem dog? My boy is almost 12 months old now so roughly the same age.

Does anyone have anecdotal evidence that these kind of excitable dogs get over it? I have never had a dog that I couldn't talk to or pat and it's hard. I guess I am asking for a light at the end of the tunnel. It has been good discussing this as I have clarified things in my mind. I can now say that (1) I want the feet on the ground and (2) I really want to be able to pat him and talk to him without him turning into a complete idiot.

Thank you all for your responses. Diva, I do try not to interact with him when I go out the back door during the day but it can still bring on the air leaps, etc. so I am gathering this would not be the best way for him. I will try the food scatter and see if the leaps improve but you are right when you say his current behaviour is dangerous. I have to find something that works for him. The leaping and jumping behaviour started at his breeders, so he came to me like this and even though I have improved some aspects, this leaping behaviour remains. I will look at that Fenzi Dog Training site. Spotted Devil, What I want him to DO is to keep his feet on the ground. I would be immensely happy if he would just do that! I have him heeling well & calmly on lead, sitting on command, standing, dropping, staying...all on lead....but all I really want/need is for him to keep his feet on the ground! Pers, I will have a look at that link to Steve's website....thank you. Tassie, I have learnt over the months that I can't talk to him in anything other than a very calm voice. Even that sometimes winds him up. So yes, will remember that one. Dogsfevr, I will try to make things a bit more fun but fun usually means over the top behaviour so we will see. .....and I will be starting things off with the food scatter. Cheers,

He is not jumping up whilst I am facing him so I don't know if the solution would be the same as in the videos Pap.K. I am talking a dog that on his hind legs is over 5ft tall so almost as tall as I am. He never tries to jump up when facing me. He waits until I am walking away from him and then he will criss-cross behind me whilst leaping in the air so that his tongue can get my ear, shoulder or head. It is VERY annoying. However on a more positive note I have trained him to go 'on the bed' before he gets fed so I don't get mugged. eg. he hears me making his food and immediately sits on his bed waiting for me to come out the back door and won't leave the bed until I release him (perfect). That's for his food BUT the 'on the bed' doesn't work well for me to put his lead on before a walk TBD as he gets very excited. He keeps doing circuits which include the bed but he doesn't remain on it. Getting him to stay still to put a lead on him is very difficult as he wants to lick me and not in a gentle way but rather pushing himself onto me. Now I could go back inside if he doesn't stay on his bed and wait until I get the still behaviour and then come out again, until I get what I want but quite frankly that is going to take ages to get through to him as he just can't contain his excitement. I am hoping that there is a better fix for this over excitement problem. It is very sad as I can't pat him except when he is on a walk, because when I do he just goes overboard in his response wanting to lick me and generally overwhelm me with enthusiasm. He is however very calm on his walks as I have put a lot of work into this area of training. He is a dog of extremes and I have only half the answers at the moment.

The impulse control is considerably better since my last post but one behavior remains and it is extremely annoying so I would really appreciate any ideas you can suggest. A large running dog enthusiastically leaping into the air and sailing past the back of my head or my shoulder isn't my idea of fun and this happens most time we walk outside. Seeing as the dog stays outside during the day he can get very excited when we walk outside to do something and then the behavior surfaces. It's not that he is separated for long periods as we are home most of the day and he has a bed on the verandah right next to the back screen door. I train him every day but obviously me issuing verbal correction when he does this behaviour isn't enough. He is also over affectionate....I am not a fan of being licked to death. Big dogs certainly learn early what they can get away with as I have no answer for this. Can anyone help?

Thank you both for your replies. I will sign up for the Home School program. It sounds great! Physical activity presses all my dogs buttons. His brain leaves his body and he is very easily distracted.

I now have LOTS of time to devote to training so I would love to hear any ideas to improve low impulse control in my young boy. We already do all the usual things like waiting for a release to eat etc., sitting on his bed to wait for things, waiting to walk through doorways. He has issues controlling his happy dance, his brain just seems to switch off so there are times when I have 35kgs of dog sailing through the air around me. His exuberance is sometimes quite scarey.

Ahhh, you haven't seen him in other situations....but yes I am also, now, not a headcollar fan. The first time I have tried it so now I can speak from experience eh!

Yes, I do believe I will 'make it so'. Thank you for the blessing!

No slap down Pers. I have used martingale collars for years, I really like them, but this dog was such a very big handful at training classes (I had a large martingale on the dog) they recommended I use the K9 bridle and me, not being one to rock the boat and always willing to try new ideas, went along with it. 30kg dog and growing...wilful and not at all like my previous dogs. This one is a training challenge who is even now capable of great naughtiness. The bridle does give more control but how anyone could think it is easy to put on a large 6mth old dog that doesn't want it on beggars belief. The trainer also said that the dog would get used to it quickly and stop trying to scrape it off on my leg. Nup, still does it every day, even after 4 weeks training.... every day. I think they call that passive/aggressive. It is these times that make me wish the Koehler method was still in vogue.

I now have two sizes...the small is a bit too small and the medium is a bit too large....but I also have to say it is NOT easy to put on, especially on a large young dog that won't keep still. I have been known to lose patience with the damn thing at this point.

I have used Advantix on my dogs for many years and always found it very good. Because of the rain we now have a lot of mosquitoes and I was thinking of buying it again however I came across masses of complaints on line saying that it had either killed or adversely affected many dogs. Does anyone have any experience of this? I know that there will always be the odd dog that will react to medications but the number of complaints absolutely amazed me. Also has anyone recently noted that Advantix actually does repel mosquitoes?