Wobbly

Also, protection "sports" is just that - a sport, the dogs aren't attacking in deadly earnest, they're trained to bite a bite suit. In the past dog training was almost entirely corrections based, the dogs back then might have been fear aggressive and thus very dangerous, but it's not so now. These days, rewards based training is the new paradigm, the top level dogs are swinging round on that bite suit by their teeth in the same way the kids down the beach swing their staffy round when it's jaws are clamped on a frisbee. I've met plenty of collies ACDs and Kelpies who love the game of tug and have the nerve to not be faked out by the decoy's aggressive posturings. Viva La Border Collie Schutzhund revolution! The prohibitive thing with Schutzhund isn't breed, it's temperament of the dog and the training skills of the handler.

Video yourself with food and toys, a big variety of food and toys. Go through the video and see which things your dog likes best, what makes him strut, or even better is there anything that gives his eyes a steely glint of determination - something he would swim a kilometre to fetch? I'm going to assume your boy has a good solid temperament and you'll have done no lifelong harm with the corrections, he's so young so it's not like he has years of hard corrections in varieties of situations behind him, just those emergency "DO NOT clamp down hard on my arm! pup instances" (holy crap, I can't even imagine how much that hurt, even with puppy teeth - they're sharp!, and i too at first was informed that the only solution was hard correction, did it and regret it - it's absolutely not the best way - sticking a toy in the dog's mouth and reinforcing that is best (assuming the dog is biting from frustration, being over excited and too young or green to understand what's acceptable behaviour yet). He's really young, start with whatever he likes best (I'm guessing squeaky fluffy toys on a flirt pole) or whatever, and make it the funnest you can for him, make every game of tug or fetch the best time of his life! If you think more energy from you is increasing his enjoyment, then go faster and sound more excited. But don't overwhelm him with high spirits if he's just not into it, that is - don't put in a ton of energy dancing round if he's low energy, stop, do something else he really does like. Throw some awesome smelly food (cut up grilled sausages or something) or hide it in layers of boxes he has to tear off to get at the food, if he shows a love of tearing cardboard (mine does) you can play tug of war with that - tearing it up together into little pieces is really quite satisfying for the both dog and owner I find! Don't withhold food from him for too long - not a whole day (IMO) think about how hard it is to focus or give energy when you are hungry, it's the same for him. But it is a great strategy if you do it for shorter periods - a few hours after meal time, my dog might not get breakfast till early afternooon if we are going down the beach and I want her to be keen to take food as a reward. You can withhold tug/fetch/play rewards and only give those every few days though. That'll help you consistently be able to put in the energy you might need to to make those sessions the most exciting fun thing in the world for your dog, and rationing play like it's a precious resource will definitely increase it's value provided you can develop some initial value for it (which you have I think already?). Identify environments and activities where he's really confident and comfortable - Play with him and feed him there. I feed Jarrah for heeling on the beach because she loves the beach and feels really confident, focused and happy when she's heeling there. Vary the rewards a lot, experiment with food types, toy types, play style types - a confident dog tends to love novelty, figure out which your dog likes best and in what orderso you can vary effectively. Again my picks for resources on increasing your dog's motivations to work are Steve K9Pro, Denise Fenzi, Michael Ellis - they all use Belgians though, for us, Diane Jessup is a really great authority, she gets Bull breed dogs titles that traditionally go to the Belgians, Dutch or German Shepherd dogs if that's where you might like to head with it. I Agree with you on the no protection for our breed. It's such a shame - i know my dog has very solid temperament and she loves a game of tug, so a full body suit tug would be her idea of heaven, she'd adore protection sports. But the symbolism of it.... dog appearing to attack decoy in this BSL climate... IDK, if i could be assured of my skills enough to do it at a really high level I would totally, but since I know I don't have the training skills for that, I've never considered any protection training due to public perception vis a vis BSL laws.

Haha I had to respond to your post. Similar dogs. I got mine from the pound though, so imagine your dog as an adolescent with the "bite hard and hold" instinct totally uninhibited with dogs and and limited bite inhibition around humans, I still maintain a no off lead around other dogs rule, no incidences in over 7 years, but it's a promise I made myself. We were bloody and bruised from her biting in the first couple of weeks, my husband remarked "what if we wake up one morning, and she's killed us in our sleep?". She never clamped down with humans like she did with a dog, but it was a big worry of mine that she would in the first weeks of owning her. When she'd jump up and bite, I'd hold the lead up so she choked until she calmed down and stopped the biting frenzy, I was calm about it as it was a tedious regular occurence in the first weeks. Most definitely Not how I'd handle it today, but the only way I knew at the time. Pretty harsh, but it didn't supress her generalised "drive" at all, nor her appetite for human forearms. I was fortunate that a couple of months after I got my dog, I went to one of Steve Courtenay's "Training in drive" seminars. My dog behaved horribly at the seminar, so I didn't get to take notes or take in everything that was said, but I walked away with enough to know making my dog a fetch or tug obsessive was probably my best shot at any decent form of control, punishment had got me nowhere much. And all the methods I learned at that seminar worked, she turned into a really great dog once she learned appropriate toys were great outlets to vent the need to chase, bite, tear, tug and shake. So that's really my best recommendation to you, if one of Steve's drive seminars happens again, jump on it. He does (or did do) long distance packages I think? http://k9pro.com.au/ Also Denise Fenzi is worth looking up, she has a lot of info on her blog http://denisefenzi.com/ No face to face contact as she is US based (though she has visited and done motivation seminars in Aust, highly recommended) but she runs online classes, some of which address your issue. http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/ Michael Ellis is always great too, but he tends to presuppose a level of experience I don't have, so I thought Steve and Denise were easier for the layman. Diane Jessups site is great for ideas too, specifically catering to the peculiar bents of the Bull breeds, where most of the others are all very Belgian forcussed. The sheps don't seem to be into some of the stuff our dogs love - hanging off spring poles and the like. She has info on training and conditioning for our dogs' temperaments. Pointers for the interim, I'm gonna go ahead and say you probably won't ever reach the potential "drive" he had as a pup. The general rule is the more you use it, the stronger it gets though, so you can most certainly strengthen what's there if you want. I think you are going to need to really read him closely, you want to see what enthuses him most, what does he really really love above all other things? Is there anything that he will intently focus on to the exclusion of other things, can you get intense focus out of him at all? What with? If he's worrying about avoiding correction or intimidated by you, you may find fetch is a better option than tug because he won't have you looming over him. Fetch is also good if your dog is like mine - she caned her teeth so hard as a youngster that I'm hesitant to play a rough game of tug now she's older, lest she damage her remaining teeth, she has inadequate self preservation responses when she's excited, a breed feature I think. Try fetch, in many environments - there'll be some environments he's more comfortable in than others, and with different objects - fluffy toys is often a great one, usually the softer, the nicer it feels in the dog's mouth, so the better for a more hesitant dog. Does he like squeaky toys? Fluffy squeaky toys? Dies he delight in tearing them up? you can work with that for sure! Try a flirt pole, which will also give him some distance from you. If he goes for any of those, you're in! Make these games the funnest thing you can, a few minutes a session - short amazing awesome sessions, end on a high. Correction free, just ignore his mistakes, don't want him worrying about being wrong. Keep a close eye on his demeanour, if he's looking avoidant or excited - try to see what triggered each state of mind so you can adjust your approach. One of Steve's tricks is don't walk him one day, or even two then play fetch/flirt pole or tug, he'll be likely to put his pent up unspent energy into it if he enjoys the game. The more he has a vigourous game and enjoys the hell out of it, the better. You're on the right track. Videoing a session can really help you see how your dog is feeling, often we don't notice important clues in the moment, from the angle we're at. Buy a tripod for your phone off ebay, or commandeer a loved one to film. Videoing a training session can make what you are doing right or wrong a lot clearer, as well as being something you can submit to trainers for feedback. Here's one I did (was fat and bald from chemo at time of vid, am getting healthy have hair and lost all that steroid weight now!). I picked this vid specifically because in this one I am sort of working on the same thing to you in but in reverse. I have often had trouble getting my dog to accept food as a reward in a new or exciting environment. But I found an exploit, you know those little quirks of your individual dog you can exploit to get what you want out of them. Look for those! I have this one: My dog associates heeling on the beach with fetch/tug rewards, at this point training on the beach is rewarding in itself for her, it's like a tertiary reinforcer - heeling predicts a Yes which predicts a reward. So Heeling is great to her mind. So I'm exploiting her love of beach heeling by feeding her lots while we do it, I want her to strongly associate food with the beach heeling, it increases her interest in food a lot! She can go a long time without fetch rewards now and I omit them entirely sometimes, (it took me a long time to get to this point), which means I can concentrate solely on the food rewards. Last time I went to Steve Cortenatys, as Huski saw, Jarrah wouldn't take roast chicken :/ but I'm about 95% sure she would now (5% uncertainty because it's far easier for me when there's a body of water as her initial drive was developed with swim/fetch/tug, so that strong association "I love to work and eat near water, because swim fetch tug" will always linger. In retrospect it's not ideal to have the environment rather than a command dictate that frame of mind, but I can work with it so it's fine, and its a done deal now anyway, that's her long term conditioned emotional response, so I have to work with it). So you go through your own videos slowly in 5 second increments, and identify what you need to address. On mine we start with the dog jumping up on me. I'm not going to punish beyond that verbal..squeak? whatever it was... as this session is about drive building, she knows that, which is why she does it. I should have not bothered with a verbal emission that I knew she'd ignore, instead I should've stopped the session. Bad behaviour = you don't get to train, it's an unignorable punishment that causes her no social pressure like a physical or stronger verbal corretion. I use training session witholding to correct and find it doesn't have a negative impact, but be aware it might for some dogs, so YMMV there, gauge your own dog. She jumps again after a release at about 10 seconds. This jumping is really a problem isn't it? I hadn't noticed it was so prevalent, and my reaction so ineffective. I will in future address it with negative punishment, withholding training sessions or fetch for a minute or so when it happens. Thats why videos are great! You can see all your mistakes and figure strategies to correct your own mistakes and responses. You see me waving her away to give her brain a break, I do that every so often, so she can look around, check the environment. She ends up turning round to face me quickly enough, and is delighted to come back after having decided I am the most interesting thing in this environment and above all else she'd like to work with me. Decisions like that are crucial, give your dog plenty of opportunities to opt in himself. Release, let him look round as soon as he focuses back on you call him back. If you've set it up right, he'll decide for himself he wants interaction with you above whatever the environment holds. Make sure you get a verbal command in before he comes back and works, i missed that bit at first and believe me when i say a dog who thinks they can hassle you into training is a total pain to live with, keep it clear that only humans have power to begin these sessions. I also change pace a lot to keep it fun for her. These videos are so important to gauge what causes enthusiasm in your dog, what diminishes it. I look at this and see a litany of errors in my handling that I didn't notice at the time, and more importantly now I can see what my errors are are, and have time to consider my response I will be able to address them more effectively. We are very sloppy, that's why I need food rewards to be effective, it's a much easier reward to deliver, and much less exciting so it'll be better for finetuning stuff like forging, lagging, crabbing going wide etc etc etc. Ignore my form, it's terrible, I was pretty ill, I still need to reward in position better too. But the dog is doing great - that body language she has - ears up, so pleased to be working she's strutting - that's the effect of the tug/fetch rewards on her attitude! That's exactly the picture I want to see in my training! To start, just play I think. If you think the body language of the dog is keen and enthusiastic enough on a video, then start to add in training between games. I have found that making my dog work hard for the reward actually increases the desire for the reward, that is a real effect for a lot of dogs, but you may not be at that point quite yet. It's a balancing act - video a trial and see what you think, is your dogs enthusiasm for play increasing by adding work? if not, stop, it's too early for that. Wait till the dog decides he really LIKES your reward, fetch, flirtpole, tug, whatever your prey reward may end up being before you make it challenging. Pace the work-reward to be like a computer game paces reward-work, you want to be manipulating your dog dopamine levels in much the same way a good game's developers manipulate ours. If you get nothing out of the fluffy toys, fetch, flirt poles, try food as a play thing, throw it, buy something delicious you can play tug with like jerky, or attach to a flirt pole. People say not to mix the dog's desires for food vs tug, but I think this might be individual to the dog, I've had great results in increasing food drive mixing it up with play. Perhaps it's not entirely appropriate for a serious competition level dog, but if that's what you get the best response from your dog with, and it'll help you achieve your goal, then I'd go with it. You may have ideas for approaches in mind, video them so you can gauge whats going on clearly. Even post one here. You'll likely get some good responses. The main thing is, we all make mistakes, look back on our past training and wished we knew then what we know now. But it's never too late to fix things, you might not get as good results as whatyou would have if you started earlier, but you'll get results, old dogs do indeed learn new tricks if you care to teach them. Your dogs gonna love this stuff, playing like this will strengthen your bond with him enormously, it'll be a whole new dimension of awesome for him. It's well worth the effort. Happy Xmas everyone!

I eventually read Terrierman's post. He says a lot of stupid stuff, there's some worthwhile points there too, but his brushstrokes are too broad. In some respects he's correct, for example the "American Bullies", a new breed that's come about that emphasises a blocky shape to an unhealthy extreme. It's an animal purposely bred to have a shape would lead to a life of pain, because the breeders think that misshapen conformation is aesthetically pleasing. I agree with him on that, it's cruel to purposely create a creature with shape will inevitably condemn it to live a life of pain. If you scroll down on this page about American Bullies and look at the blue dog you can see - look at the placement of the dog's shoulders, they don't support his weight in any kind of functional way, that animal must have some pretty awful shoulder joint issues being that shape. http://americanbullydaily.com But then he adds Aussie Bulldogs to the same list, which is absolutely barking up the wrong tree. Regardless of whether you agree with the creation of yet another breed, Aussie Bulldogs, as I understand it, are an effort to eliminate the genetic health concerns that can affect English Bulldogs. To make a healthy dog of sound conformations yet still preserve the look and the temperament of the English Bulldog as much as possible, because they're an iconic breed and they have their staunch admirers. The English Bulldog can have some health issues related to it's structure, (though nothing as bad as the American Bully). In a country like Australia, the excessive heat of summer isn't kind to an extreme brachy face, the Aussie Bulldog has a bit more length to his snout for easier breathing. His body is a little less extreme. It's an effort to breed a dog of sound, healthy conformation for people who love English Bulldogs, but who also want a dog that's happy about being out and about on hot summer's day. Focus on breeding for health and soundness like that can only be a good thing. And as Mel says, a lot of those young guys with their Pit Bulls are fantastic owners. Terrierman is generalising, there are some great owners and some crap ones. The dock diving days I went to were all overseen by a young guy (covered in tattoos) who owned a lovely female Pit, a champion dock diver who adored her sport. He was a great owner, and notably very stringent about ensuring all dogs in the area surrounding the pool were all leashed and kept 5 metres from each other, with only one dog at a time in the fenced diving area (yeah that was at Farmer Dave's - the leash rules for the dock diving I went to were really very sensible, funny that the Pit Bull Owner was the responsible staff member ensuring that all dogs were leashed and controlled so there was no chance of injury or fighting, make of that what you will....) Ultimately Terrierman's article is just another uninformed diatribe about Bull Breeds, written by someone who has never owned a bull breed and doesn't really have a clue. Irritating, but common enough.

And a correction to that last comment where I endorsed Farmer Daves' I was this morning directed to this thread - http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/263197-channel-7-news-tonight/ Detailing an incident where a dog was mauled to death out at Farmer Dave's in an incident that would never have happened were a skerrick of common sense utilised. The courses I did were fun, and I never allow my dog off leash around others so I had no issues, but there really is absolutely no excuse for what happened there, so I absolutely retract that endorsement. An incident like that should never have occurred, pure and simple, there are no excuses for it. Edit to add: Don't go there. That facility should be left to die. Allowing a bunch of big dogs to run free with little dogs like that isn't a "live and learn" scenario, it's a level of stupidity that noone with any real claim to an understanding of dog behaviour would have allowed to happen. No second chances for stupidity of this magnitude, it was inevitable that something like would occur when big dogs and little dogs are let loose together en masse. I can't believe it was allowed to happen.

I like Bull Breeds, I don't really care about anyone else's perception of that preference. I picked the cutest dog at the pound, now I am a hardcore full blown Bull Breed addict. They're great dogs, but of course they can be high maintenance and they aren't for everyone. Like any other breed temperament varies, unscrupulous breeders produce dogs with dodgy temperaments and good breeders produce dogs with stable temperaments. I prefer the more athletic "terrier type" bull, because I love the athleticism, my dog is older now, but in her heyday she was the pinnacle of fit, muscle rippling athleticism. Amazing to watch when she was after her fetch toys, leaping and twisting in defiance of all known laws of gravity and physics. When she got a good bite on her tug you could you could swing her round in air borne circles, we used tohave so much fun. We're both too old for all that now, we're rather sedate in our dotage, she's snoring at my feet now and we'll have an amble later on as opposed to the hardcore exercise we used to do. I can't be arsed reading terrier man's column sorry, it sounds like it'd annoy me, and I want to move onto reading the news before I have to get a wriggle on and make a start on all the productive stuff I need to with my day. I really only posted here because Farmer Dave's name came up in the thread, and he probably won't ever see it to defend himself, so I figured I'd put my 2 cents in - he's a really good guy. He does dog training courses out at Box Hill in NSW and I've taken my (terrible bogan bull breed) dog out there to do a noseworks course and some dock diving, both of which were lots of fun. My (terrible bogan bull breed) dog and I enjoyed our days there immensely and so I whole heartedly recommend them. Especially the noseworks course, it's fine to be an autodidact and learn stuff for yourself, but it's really a whole lot easier and you learn a whole lot faster when you have objective, knowledgeable people to help you out. Box Hill is unfortunately a long way away from me otherwise i'd do more courses there, but if you are close enough to go here's the website. http://www.farmerdave.com.au/

I use the Terrigal Pet Resort, which is affiliated with the Dural Pet Resort, same ownership I believe. I find Terrigal to be fantastic, my dog loves the place, she's quite demonstrative about what she loves and hates, so the fact she's always happy to go there says a lot to me. A friend of mine uses Dural, she's happy with them, her dog is in there now as we speak.

Inevitably in life we find ourselves having to deal with difficult, unfeeling or high conflict personalities. Unless you're an accredited psychologist or psychiatrist you can't diagnose psychological disorders, but it can be useful to develop a "working hypothesis" to manage interaction with these difficult, empathetically void or high conflict personality types. This woman displays personality traits I'd consider to be strongly suggestive of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. We have only a limited glimpse into her psyche here - a pattern of serial dog acquisition and abandonment and her attitudes and justifications. There's clear displays here of the self aggrandisement, excessive sense of entitlement, and exploitative relationships that typify Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I don't care enough to read her other articles, no doubt they re even more damning. The hallmark of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is empathy deficit. Lack of empathy is a core trait in other personality and mood disorders too (eg Anti-Social Personality Disorder) so you have to consider the entire context to develop a solid working hypothesis. It's worth noting that Borderline Personality Disorder can sometimes be mistaken for Narcissism at a casual, surface glance, but Borderline sufferers have a huge capacity for empathy, their volatility is borne of unusual emotional sensitivity, don't mistake one for the other. I have a friend who is BPD (professionally diagnosed) and she is an incredibly awesome person whom I love dearly, one of my oldest and dearest friends. I wouldn't tolerate a narcissist anywhere near me though. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a spectrum disorder, some cases are more severe, others are subclinical with only some traits, more mildly expressed. The sub clinical variety may be tolerable presences to some, they'll strategically and shamelessly suck up to authority, so they can tend to get ahead in life. Full blown narcissism isn't very common, but the garden variety subclinical varieties abound. Inevitably in the course of our lives we will run into a clinical case or two, and many sub clinical cases of narcissism. It's worthwhile knowing enough about their traits and habits to recognise the red flags when you see them and have some strategies to minimise their impact on you. Complete avoidance is the best strategy. Purdie and Blinkblinkblink, I am so sorry you went through that, I have a friend who suffered through a Narcissistic parent, the damage and harm inflicted upon her as a child is incalculable, the cruelties she suffered almost inconceivable to those of us who had parents possessed of empathy. I hope you both have good psychological supports now, I believe there are many groups for adult survivors of narcissistic parents that can be helpful. Perhaps it's worth googling, to at least know you aren't alone, that others have felt and do feel as you do, and perhaps they might offer tools and strategies that could prove useful? I'm sorry you went through that, all children are entitled to parents who are capable of empathy and real love and care, I wish you had received the love and care to which you were (and are) entitled to. Anyway this woman, this revolting dog dumping woman. My working hypothesis for her personality malfunction would be common garden variety subclinical Narcissism. It's not a set up, she's just another waste of space whose attenuated capacity for empathy makes the world a worse place, these people unfortunately are fairly abundant. Alas there's no cure for her condition, the best we can do is learn recognise people like her for what they are and try to limit the damage they inflict wherever we can.

I use a big solvit ramp, because I worry about my dog's joints leaping out onto concrete. When I first got it, she regarded it as a bemusing obstacle, so i had to back up and teach her how to use it. It was simple, I placed it flat on the lounge floor and lured her up and down it, then used it as ramp to the couch and lured her up and down that a few times. Back out to the car and she understood eexactly what it was for. I've had it for a month and I still lure her up and down with food, although I expect using the ramp will become conditioned behaviour and I can fade the lure to just a cue. I find there are pros and cons to the solvit, but since it's doing it's primary job perfectly - protecting my dog's joints, I can put up with the cons. Pros: Obviously far better for the dog's joints if your car is tall and your dog jumps out onto concrete or asphalt. Easy to teach the dog how to use it, the dog took to it very well once she understood walking up and down it nets treats and praise. Cons: If your car is very tall, as my Subaru XV is, the gradient of the ramp is quite steep even though we do have the longest solvit ramp. I live on a very steep hill, which further increases the gradient when I am parked out front of my house. The dog needs a bit of speed and momentum in order to get up the ramp, otherwise gravity will make her slip back down. I generally park the wrong way around (car back facing uphill) to reduce the gradient so we don't have to rely on momentum like that. I am thinking I need to look into other surfaces I could attach - the sandpapery surface doesn't provide quite enough traction when we're on a slope. I find the ramp quite heavy, I'm not the healthiest though. Most people wouldn't find this to be a problem. Folded, the ramp is just a bit too long to slip in the boot of the XV easily, it has to go in on an angle. I had initially hoped that when the dog was loaded in the car, I could slide the ramp in the boot (it's a hatchback, she's not in a sedan boot, mafia kidnap style!) with her, but alas no. The ramp must go in the backseat when dog is in the car I do have half a mind to design something similar that solves the solvit's cons. A longer ramp for a shallow gradient, a surface with more traction than the solvit's sandpaper (wood, rubber or similar slats 10cms apart). Folding rather than telescoping to account for surface change, and folding into 3 so it can be stowed in the boot along with the dog. A more light weight ramp, if possible. It'd take some time to design and custom build something that can incorporate all of the above, if indeed it could even be done. In the interim, the solvit isn't perfect but it does what I need it to do - saves the dog's joints from heavy impact. Ultimately I'd recommend the solvit if you feel your dog needs a ramp, it works and seems like the best solution short of designing and bulding your own.

Yay!!!! What an awesome thread! I am so glad I found it for my first read of the morning! What a beautiful and fun loving pup Ginny is, you're going to have your hands full that's for sure! I had an idea about finding good committed owners; in this day and age of phone cameras, people who have owned a dog recently should have reams of training footage and photos. These really show what people focus on with their dogs. People may regularly transfer them to PC, so there isn't neccesarily historical footage, but on any random day if you asked to see, it'd show a good example of an average day. Currently my phone is full of heeling (focus on precision, pivots, side steps) under high distraction at the beach (I cajole my husband to the beach with us so I can make him film our progress). Training in particular is something I tend to film to gauge progress, I bet most people do. We also have footage of bush walks and fetch in the dam (where she just gets to be a dog and have fun). By contrast, another friend of mine, who has more sedentary, less demanding dogs, has a phone full of her dogs sitting around at home on the furniture, or playing very desultory low energy games of bitey face in the lounge room. She's a great owner of that kind of dog, but wouldn't have the lifestyle to be able to accommodate a really demanding dog. Anyway, asking for footage and photos of prospective owners current or previous dogs could give you an idea of which have a suitable lifestyle and are thoroughly prepared for a dog that needs work. And which owners are likely to be a bit shocked and bemused by how high energy and demanding your pups are and want to give them back. I don't think it'd be too weird to ask Anyway, it's an idea. Well I bet you are going to have enormous fun today - you have no choice with a pup like Ginny! It's going to be high energy and demanding and you'll all sleep well this evening! Yay Em! Give her a congratulations belly scratch! and one for the beautiful Zig and greased lightning Ginny of course!

That whole wolf pack model base "Dominance theory" of dog behaviour that holds there is an alpha dog that the other dogs are submissive to is pretty thoroughly discredited. A social structure develops in any animals that live in groups. But it's mutable and unlikely to be impacted by who you feed first or any measures like that. Which dog prevails in what situation can be very fluid and may well swap around a lot. Think of it more like a family group. They're dogs and you're human so it's not a perfect analogy, primates and canines have different instincts, but it's the best analogy. You, controller of resources and and primary caregiver have 2 dependents who know each other well, have long established boundaries, trust and the nuances of their relationship are long established. They are their own little clique. Enter the interloper, ignorant of this clique's customs, the clique will be a little standoffish when she is inevitably on occasion not displaying what they regard as appropriate social norms. She, like any newcomer trying to adapt is probably a bit anxious about the new environment, new social dynamics to learn. Being a little insecure she might be a bit more strident than she needs to about acquiring and keeping resources. Aggression is usually based in fear or insecurity, not always, but very often. The wolf pack model really does dogs a disservice in this area - so many anxious, defensive, fearful dogs labelled "dominant" or "alpha wannabees" when really they're defensive because they're insecure, anxious or afraid. The wolf pack model is so persistent because it was the received wisdom for so long, it got repeated so often we all thought it was true. I remember buying into it as utterly as everyone else. My dog's behaviour made so much more sense when I realised "dominance theory" is very far off the mark in most aspects. It's probably more accurate to consider your household as a blended family, comprising two species, where the canines are the dependents and the humans the primary caregivers. In respect to resources, the dogs' interaction is normally aimed at reducing the chance of violence. If one dog really wants something, and another doesn't care so much, the dog who cares gets the resource. So 1 dog may get favoured toys, another favoured sleeping spots. Sometimes there's contention for a resource (food can be contentious), the more confrontation avoidant dogs will back down (a healthy hierarchy - noone gets hurt). It doesn't mean the more confrontational winner who gets that resource is an "alpha", she just wanted that thing more and the other decided it wasn't worth his while to back up his claim. In other situations he'll take precedence, he may veto her joining some social interactions. None of it's bad so long as there are no fights or bullying. It really doesn't matter what order you feed them in, or who goes through doors first or whatever else is supposed to propel one particular dog to "alpha status", you only set up a hierarchy for that specific situation - the chosen dog gets fed first, goes through doors the door first. But that won't change his standing in any other context apart from being fed by you and going through doors in your presence. Hierarchy is pretty fluid, dogs are opportunists, they'll take what they can get away with mostly. If you see no risk of altercation, no aggression, no bullying, I wouldn't worry. Separate if you think squabbles or violence might occur, you don't want any grudges developing. Keep an eye out for stiff body language, that slow ominous tail wag, tense faces etc (growling in play can be normal, especially tug games, look at the context and other acompanying body language to assess). If it's all peaceful and relaxed, open mouthed, you're good. Really it sounds fine, new dog is settling in, needs to learn the ropes, they just have to get to know eachother, and learn the accommodations they need to make for one another. They play together well with balls, you're pretty much there - thats a high excitement volatile situation, if they handle each other well there you're good I'd say. It sounds like they're all well balanced and emotionally healthy and there's no bullying or violence, so each dog's strengths and preferences will dictate the fluid, changing hierarchies that makes the most sense for them in different contexts. Here's a reasonable enough treatment of why dominance theory isn't really valid. http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/why-wont-dominance-die

Oh wow! THis is tailor made for me - my dog is a frisbee nut. I'm even there at Australian Canine Sports & Training Centre that Saturday already for Nosework 101 course! I best bring a frisbee! Unfortunately I'd have to miss the morning session on the Saturday since Noseworks is 11.30 till 1pm. Is it Ok to miss that Saturday morning session and still attend Sat afternoon and Sun?

Hi guys thanks so much for all the kind replies! Sorry I am so late to reply (broke my computer…. ) Good to see you too Raineth! Thanks for the support. :D I am not entirely sure how I am going to go, but it will be fun trying, and so I figured I may as well aim high. It'll be good for Jarrah, really stretching her brain tires her out enough to let her be relaxed and sleep soundly when I can't take on long walls and play frisbee with her. Yeah, definitely not giving her the idea she'll get rewarded for indicating actual people at all, I wouldn't want to risk her indicating when that person hasn't specifically requested, otherwise it would be intrusive and I don't want that. Definitely scented items only! Though I wonder if you couldn't remedy the situation with your dog checking your daughter's sugar levels with some professional help from someone knowledgeable and experienced in detection work, so it's nonintrusive for your daughter? The idea is a good one, it might be doable? Thanks for the well wishes BC Crazy! i got excellent news today, MRI scan says tumours have shrunk A LOT since chemo began! Yay I better get a crackle on with this while I still visit the chemo clinic every week to get samples! I wonder how fresh the samples have to be. I believe the smell stays for a very long time (at least in the bags) so I'm OK there. Hi Huski! Hope you and Wis are well. :D I'd love more info, Steve made Jarrah a good dog! I had already definitely decided we need to see Steve at some point for this! Why do you think pairing with food is bad? Jarrah can get a bit of excitement induced neural static when the toys come out, which can make it hard for her to learn new things for a toy reward, I've always taught behaviours with food initially because of that. Hey LBD, yes Steve Austin is really well known for scent detection work. Does he do individual work with private clients? For some reason I thought he was more about consults for official enterprises; quarantine, bomb detection and the like? I think he owns Terrigal Pet Resort, where I send Jarrah for boarding when needed, so his staff there knows Jarrah well., maybe they can put in a good word for her! Thank you for mentioning, I hadn't considered the idea he may take on private type jobs with essentially clueless pet owners like myself. "D Hi Bedazzled, I really need hands on help! Thank you for the tip, I will look into that too! Hey Nekhbet, they are so literal aren't they! Sometimes it's great, sometimes not so much… Yep, this is exactly my concern and why I realise I need help! Lots of help! I am such a rookie dog trainer that I don't even know the potential pitfalls, let alone how to avoid them. You're right we are definitely still at bare bones level here, as novice as novice can possibly be, and she does find concentration exhausting, especially learning new things. I see a lot of potential for me to set us back due to my inexperience, which would be a silly thing for me to do when someone knowledgeable and experienced could easily identify elementary mistakes we might be developing and help me avoid them. I am very terrible at Facebook, but I do have an account, so I will definitely contact you through there! Thank you so much for the offer. "D And I agree - this is the sort of situation where like explosives, it is serious, in the case of cancer a false negative could potentially give people the idea they don't need to do a radiology screen, and even if they only put it off 3 months, that time could well be the difference between curable and incurable. Absolutely can't be giving people an indication they are in the clear when hey are not. As such an inexperienced handler, assuming I manage to get a good accuracy rating in training (not a given!) it doesn't mean that will necessarily translate to the field in the way I am imagining right now, or even at all. Consulting a variety of people with real knowledge and experience in detection will be really, really necessary - you, Steve Courtenay, Steve Austin, Karen Pryor, and more. Hi Anne, thank you for the recommendation, I haven't read her book, but that's something I hadn't considered! I will look for her books. Thank you so much for mentioning! If it doesn't work out that's OK, but I am really keen to give it a go. Hey Puddleduck! Thank you and hugs back! I have been thinking of you too, and hoping the warmer weather is helping you feel a lot better than winter cold. Thankyou everyone for all your input and advice it is appreciated! I anticipate this will take me some time to do, and a lot of new information for me, so i won't be able to act on all suggestions immediately, baby steps for me first. I am going to need a LOT of help, so all these suggestions will likely be put in practice. I am honestly not sure how far I will get, but even worst case scenario, the effort i put in will at the very least raise awareness of the fact it IS possible, get people talking about i, and thinking about it. The further I get of course, the more the scope for the idea to inspire others too, so I am aiming high at this point!

I'm signed up for the Sydney one! See you there Mel :D

Hi Nekhbet, Thanks for reading and replying! Very good point, that's a problem that I was worried about too! Luckily for me, there looks to be a way around it - from: http://www.dogsdetectcancer.org/news/dogs-smell-cancer (love how it the pic there is a Labrador - it's Lab testing ofc. XD) I can't isolate the smell of cancer, but I do have access to a huge "library" of cancer samples (via my chemo centre, medical team and support groups). OFC for me, the big problem is being a good trainer who knows when to introduce the curve ball is the issue. I have signed up to this noseworks course in Box Hill (farmer Dave who originally gave me the idea) at http://www.lovesdogs.com.au/bookings/courses-and-events.html?task=view_event&event_id=142 hopefully that'll make me a bit better at training this. XD And ofc I am exploring other avenues of support and help to balance out my inexperience with dog training. Edit for linkies!

Hi DOL, it's been a long time since I posted, I was diagnosed with a stage 4 Kidney Cancer (TCC/UCC), so I took some time off from writing. But I missed you guys a lot, especially the people here and in OT. I hope you have all been well, I am well in my head, if not so much my body. I have been thinking (my brain's nearly stopped hurting from it now). About how dogs can smell cancer, they can smell a wide range of cancers at very early stages (as early as stage 0). They can do this for a wide array of cancers types - including those cancers that are often diagnosed too late to be survivable. Dogs can detect cancers from human tissue samples, condensed breath samples, sweat samples, urine samples, and presumably other types of samples too. Some information is found at these sites. http://www.cancerdogs.com/ http://www.dogsdetectcancer.org/ http://pennvetwdc.org/ The value of this is that it potentially offers a cheap early diagnostic screening method, something we are sorely missing for many types of cancer. Despite the billions of dollars thrown at cancer research, a cure is still a way off. Currently the only sure cure for any cancer is early diagnosis. By way of example, there are a lot of breast cancer survivors because there is an easy, cheap, early diagnostic method - look and feel for lumps, and there is a high awareness of how to perform this early screening. Unfortunately this is not the case for many other cancers - you can't look at or feel organs sitting in the body so they aren't found till late stage and thus many other cancers, including my own, have a terrible survival rate. So I have been wondering if I can train Jarrah to detect early stage cancer. She is very motivated to work for a reward, so she's a good candidate from that perspective. I am not a proficient trainer though, so I need some help from people who are, on the internets and in person. It takes apparently a few months to train a dog to detect cancer (it'll probably take me longer) I hope to survive another few years (I'm aiming for 5 years more life, I think that's possible, so I do have some time) to get this done. I will also need a very large array of different cancer samples. For this I will start at my chemo clinic, there are a huge variety of people who attend with different types and stages of cancer, and all on different medications, of different ages, some with other medical conditions, so I can get a large array of samples here to cover a large amount of variables. How many samples would I need? I believe with judiciously written explanations I can extend the field further and get more samples via my medical teams' clinics as well. In the first clip I linked you'll see the sample bags they are using are compact, easy to manage and presumably not prohibitively expensive, they could work for sweat, saliva or breath condensates, which at this point I think would be my preferred sample types to work with. My aim is as follows: - to be able to teach my dog to detect cancer of any type, at any stage, preferably via breath condensate or sweat samples as these are least invasive, and so it's easier to obtain samples for training and easier to ask the public to submit to testing. -to be able to take Jarrah to some cancer awareness raising events, eg the finish or start of one of the walks or runs for cancer awareness (so many of these). And take samples from the general public and advise them if they are indicated as positive for cancer. Credit for this idea goes to Dave the Farmer, who mentioned he was training a dog for this when I attended Terry Ryan's "Chicken Camp" seminar, and to Denise Fenzi, who when I attended her Seminar suggested to me that the best exercise I could give Jarrah when I was too sick to be really active with her, was some sniffer training. Now there are some problems with this, including the fact a dog's nose is far more sensitive than any medical equipment, so while the dog may indicate positive, medical equipment may not be able to detect the cancer the dog has found for some weeks or months later when the lesions are large enough for an MRI or CT to detect. A dog of course is not always 100% reliable, so my aim in testing is to let people know that if my dog has indicated they are positive, they need to investigate further - to tell their GP a dog trained to sniff cancer has indicated they may have cancer and that they require referrals and advice for further diagnostic screening, usually MRI or CT scan, a full body scan is Medicare covered, non invasive and doesn't take long. I will not be able to do wide scale testing myself, but as the saying goes "You can't save the world, but save one person and you save their world." And who knows seeing this in action might inspire other dog owners to try this with their dogs, and a volunteer force of more than one person could cover a lot of people. Perhaps inspire funding for wider scale awareness and use of this, it's such an easy, non invasive, potentially very cheap and accessible method of early diagnostic screening. Who knows, the potential seems very worthwhile exploring from my perspective. For myself I'd be happy to just get a few people into MRI machines to be diagnosed early enough for complete cures, the more of course, the better. I would be deeply indebted to anyone here who could offer advice, contacts, help (especially in person help, I can travel regularly anywhere between Newcastle, Sydney, and the Blue Mountains) and any good ideas you might have.

Hey guys "D big surgery is tommorow BC, the other hospital visit was just hor d'oeuvres. Tommorrow is the main kidney excising exercise. I'm procrastinating right now, I should be preparing all the stuffs I need. Good to hear you had a great time in Victoria Corvus. Wow it's hard to imagine Denise being tough on you, she was ignoring and redirecting human mistakes rather than critiquing. I can definitely empathise with you though, once I have a conflict with someone it's difficult for me to overcome a distaste for them, it can be done but needs a huge positive experience to neutralise the memory, and I am unlikely to give them the chance to redress. She probably would have managed that this time around with you and got you to put your previous experience with her down to a bad day or whatever. She mentioned the seeking system, only in passing, but in relation to why the hunting food game helped the nervy dogs. Oh I have to tell you, I developed a taste for Corgis, there were some really cool ones at the seminar, I imagine this covers Erik dogs too (he's not a corgi though is he? he looks like the same type though?), they're like Cattle Dogs with huge cattle dog ears, huge cattle dog attitudes but short, little legs, so very cute. XD I had never really met a corgi before, I'm totally sold on them now. BC crazy, the seminar would probably have been way to full on for Stella to be there herself, but Denise runs online courses where post youtube videos of the dog and get feedback. There's a lot of confidence building and a specific fearful and reactive one starting in August. The fearful one is with Amy Cook who I don't know. The video posting courses would be great for Stell, that way her reactions can be seen but you have a way better handle on her stress levels by being able to control the environment you video in, insstead of having to take her to an unfamiliar location for assessment. There's the link so you can have a look. http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses

Ruby, Denise picked nosework for me to work on. I explained my situation - a big surgery on Wednesday so I will be unable to a lot of the stuff i normally do with Jarrah for quite a while, so I wanted alternatives that were fun for Jarrah and easy on me. She'd seen us working, and suggested the nose work makes Jarrah work hard with her nose while I sit and watch her do her stuff. It was really fun! We just started with getting her to know the scent (anise I think it was) tin in one hand, and a food bribe in the other. When Jarrah chose to mug the scent hand we rewarded, swapping hands. After a little bit more practise of that she will be clear on what she is looking for and I can start hiding it round the house for her to find, I will have to do a bit of research to find out more about it, since it's very new to me, but that research is a perfect convalescence kind of activity too. We did some heeling exercises in between scent repetitions so I could work on left pivot and pocket hand too, and Jarrah could have a change of exercise so she didn't get bored and had some time to think about the scent work. Denise picked all the stuff we did, which was really cool because she is way better at assessing where Jarrah and I are and what's most helpful for us than I could possibly be. If you don't have a specific idea in mind, once Denise has seen the dog work, perhaps explain your situation - what you want in very broad terms (eg I explained I wanted activities that would suit Jarrah the super active when I can't be active with her). In doing that, keep in mind she is seeing A LOT of dogs (some people used 2 dogs, and there are different handlers on different days, so it really does add up to her seeing a lot of dogs in a very short space of time. so do it on the day your dog has worked so it's fresh in her mind rather than on the day of the lesson, it might help also to remind which dog (I only had to mention the alligator dog for her to know) the obedience day is a better day if you''re doing that day, since there is more time with each individual dog than on the motivation day where there is so much theory there's only time for a short assessment for each individual dog in the practical sections. I would still take both if I was you, so long as you have 2 crates and they're crate trained so they aren't noisy or disruptive when they aren't being worked, (or if they're noisy breeds/individuals make sure you have a management solution to deal with that - some of us brought campers (I did that), or others left their car open with crates in the car (vans and hatchbacks, there mostly but I imagine you could work tht in a normal car too since the weather is nice and cool right now. A few people brought 2 dogs. You only use one dog per practical exercise of course, you can't have two turns at each exercise, that would be unfair to other handlers. But having both on the day means you can use a different dog for different practical exercises, and you can choose which dog on the day, which may be especially helpful if you want to work a shy dog but you aren't how it'll cope with the pressures of all the other dogs and people around. or you decide you want to work the shy dog on the food hunting and the confident dog in the personal play or want to decide which dog after you've heard the practical. There was one girl there with a lovely shy dog who she wanted to work on the motivations day, but she brought her other dog for back up in case the shy dog was a little overwhelmed and not comfortable enough to be able to choose to work, as it turned out the shy dog was fine and worked well, but if it had been a bit freaked out she had an alternative dog to do the exercises with.

Wasn't that Standard Poodle beautiful! My friend who came along to pick me up with my husband was so impressed with him he had to have a phot opportunity with him. XD Very cute. River Star, plenty of people brought more than 1 dog, and swapped different dogs for different exercises according to what they felt each dog needed most, or how comfortable the dogs were about the environment. I'd say bring along both dogs, if the anxious one is happy to work great, but if not you can work the other one so you will get the best benefit you can either way. Ptolomy, if the dog really doesn't want to tug, Denise won't make him miserable by forcing him. There were a few dogs who just couldn't get into to the tug on the day for whatever reason, their breed, the distracting environment, personal history etc. Interestingly a lot of the dogs who didn't love the tug were really great at personal play, while my dog, the super keen, confident tugger was very poor at the personal play. We will work on that now I know more about it, I think she has lots potential there, but it's new to us, so I couldn't expect greatness until we have put some practice in and explored it some more. IMO the important thing to remember is that it's about motivating the individual dog, what makes him happy, forcing him to do something he's just not into is more a punisher than a reinforcer, so not very motivating for the dog. There was one Belgian (Terv I think) who wasn't into the tug at all, but she was chasing it to make her owner happy, she knew that was expected but it wasn't the toy that was motivating her, it was pleasing her owner. I was actually a bit jealous of that dog's total devotion to her owner, and her owner was a bit jealous of how Jarrah tugged, we both got a bit of a giggle out of that. Before the practical Denise gives all the theoretical information, which would help a lot for dogs who are a bit hesitant. I'd say bring a variety of toys, ones you know your dog likes the feel of in his mouth. There's lots of options for different dogs preferences, flirt poles, leather bite rags with lots of flappy bits that the more hesitant dogs might prefer to chase instead of biting a traditional tug. For a ball chaser, an orbee ball instead of a tug toy maybe? I have a good tugger who will tug on pretty much anything you offer, but there's definitely some surfaces she prefers over others. In Denise's lecture she says to start with toys the dog finds easy, and gradually increase the toy difficulty progressively until you get the dog onto the more rigid surfaces that are more practical as training rewards. And you can vary stuff to account for the environment too. I knew a good bit of the tug information already from Steve, and so did Roscoe's owner so we were both a bit ahead there, and also our breeds are naturally good at it. I brought a variety of toys to the seminar so I could choose one depending on how she was feeling on the day. Normally I use a firehose at home or leather tug outside the house in familiar places, or that hard unforgiving canvas frisbee surface (or sometimes the firehose or another synthetic for generalisation purposes) for swim/fetch/tug (Jarrah's true passion). Since there were so many distractions at the seminar I decided to lower the difficulty for her and used a french linen tug instead, it's a lot easier to bite and hold onto than the firehose, and a little softer than the leather, so she was really happy and keen and confident with that, which was good because it was a distracting environment and I really wanted to make it so she would win. If I'd felt I had to lower the criteria even further to get her loving it I would have - I'd brought along a squeaky, fluffy toy, and would have had no hesitation in starting there if I felt I had to (she's well beyond that really, she'll tug on anything now, anywhere really, but I brought it just in case). The stuff that was most amazing to me was the personal play and hunt instinct information, that was awesome. I just had a private lesson today with Denise on scenting, which was so cool, I had never considered that avenue before, but I'm really inspired about it now. That can be an intrinsically rewarding activity for a dog too. You know your dog, keep in mind a seminar environment can be distracting, so have a think about what will work best for your particular dog and bring the toys you think he'll be most happy with, you can always work up in difficulty over time if the dog is a tugger. If he's not, and as Inevitablue says, he might be a chaser or a personal player, or even something else. There was Collie on day 2 who had such a great work ethic and sense of responsibility about his work he really perked up and got motivated and happy to work simply by being reassured strongly his owner was really happy with him. Some dogs are really different and the usual reward rules don't apply to them. There was a little lagotto who wasn't having a bar of the tug or chasing games at all, but when it came around to the personal play, that little lagotto was amazing! Her owner must have been justifiable very proud. For me it was the reverse I was really proud of Jarrah's tug work, but we were probably least proficient of all at the personal play. But I'm glad I tried it because it's something I can work on now, and if we get good at it, that's great, but if we don't that's OK too, I'm not going to force the issue if it's not Jarrah's thing, I'm looking for stuff she finds genuinely rewarding so I won't persevere trying to make her do stuff she isn't into. Denise's whole thing is about giving the dog a choice to work, once the dog knows he/she's made a deliberate and definite choice, they are just so happy to work, that in itself is really motivating for them and so they try really hard. A really awesome realisation for me. Haha Dwynwen, she really is an amazing trainer hey, just as good at human psychology as a canine. Even though I did so poorly at the personal play, I am so happy I gave it a go, it may or may not work for us, but it's certainly worth a try for us to find out. I've a certain feeling it will work for us, I just need to practise a bit to get comfortable and work up to the same proficiency as the Poodle, the Lagotto and the Corgi and some of the other dogs who were amazing at it. You'll definitely walk away feeling really proud of your dog whatever happens, so don't worry if you don't have a hardcore tugger on your hands, you and your dog will have a great time anyhow, and you'll see your proficiencies and learn strategies to improve upon the things you find work for your dog. It's a really awesome weekend whatever your dogs temperament and preferences you'll get tonnes out of it.

O wow, she's beautiful Raineth! I haven't posted much here because I haven't been so well, but have have been thinking about you all and hoping everyone's dogs have been having some really good successes! It was so good to meet you Corvus, really fantastic to have a chat in person. :D And huge props for your flow charts on behaviours, all those little telling behaviours that I missed before, I'm noticing now I have them pointed out in context. Some really great insights for me, thank you! We went to Denise's seminar, I wished you were there Corvus, you would have really loved it for sure. Lots of the "D" word being thrown round, but I think you wouldn't have minded, because the whole seminar was so deeply based in giving the dogs clear choice. The correction people (not many, but a few) were very gently redirected, onto a more positive track (I don't think they realised that was happening, but all the positive people would have seen it). There were some really great confidence building exercises too. One of the best was a little exercise where you sit down (however is comfortable, I knelt) and hide a treat at a time around your body, and cue the dog to use his/her nose to find it. Just in a small area around your body, no more than a centimetre or so away. Starting with an easy one, eg if you are kneeling first one between your knees, then one to your side, and when the dog gets the hang of it, behind your back, then make it a bit more challenging for me, kneeling, inder the front of my ankle, or for people sitting with legs out front under the knee, or even on your body (depending on your dog's tendency to mug off you might not do pockets, i didn't). A cue "find it" and a praise when they find it. The dogs loved it and it made them much more confident, especially some of the shyer more unsure dogs were noticeably happier and more confident after a few minutes of it. Tails that were a bit tucked came up, and backs unroached and ears got a happier set to them. Denise said Jarrah was a very stable, confident dog, which was wonderful to hear of course and I always knew that, but great to have it confirmed. It also made me sad as well in realising how big the hurt Jarrah must have been put through to induce her fear of cats. But it confirms my suspicion that since she has a natural tendency to stability, she can really over come her cat phobia. I am going to do some nose work with her in a private lesson with Denise, to learn the ropes. I was really impressed with how engaging she found the little demonstration we did in the seminar, and so I'm really keen to explore it as another confidence builder for her. Also it's an exercise the handler gets to sit back and watch while the dog's natural instinct for scenting does all the hard work. K9 nose works is the formal protocol I think we will be using, a good explanation is here: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3276

It was awesome. "D I love Denise! Oh that was you with the awesome young ACD, he's beautiful, and so clever! I was trying to figure out who the DOLers were, Cleo'sCorgwyn dogs have turned me into a corgi fan, I never realised they were Cattle Dogs with little legs, such cool little dogs. Using Fred is a brilliant idea hey, I worry the neighbours are going to think I am completely crazy feeding my imaginary dog though. I love the ethos of giving the dog a choice to, it makes so much sense, the dogs are really happy and engaged. I only brought Jarrah to the drives and motivations day. She had a total blast, in the tugging section she did her favourite thing where she clamps down on the tug like a vice and then takes all the weight off her feet so I have to hold her in the air by the tug, she gets an enormous amount of satisfaction from holding onto the tug like grim death and making me work really hard. Denise told me to drag my alligator over and showed me how to hold the tug so it's comfortable and easy for me when she's putting up a good fight. Jarrah was a little conflicted at first, she really wanted to play tug, but she also really wanted to check out the other dogs too, because she does find fast moving dogs quite exciting too. So Denise got me to withhold the tug until she was giving full attention to me, so she was very clear about the fact she had made a definite decision that tug is what she really, really wants. Very important that she knows she is making her own clear and definite choice on that so she has no conflict about it. Roscoe the GSD & Jarrah were the most confident, keen tuggers I think (I might be biased putting Jarrah in there XD), it occurs to me it's probably no coincidence that both are Steve Courtney clients. Jarrah did her outs beautifully (I have like a 10 page thread here somewhere on my difficulties in getting an out, Steve finally fixed that for me) I was really proud of how well she did in that section, especially since Denise noted she was a very stable and confident alligator. Most interesting to see the different motivations and styles of the different dogs, the dogs who were disinterested in tug were often the happiest and most capable at personal play (play without toy intermediataries). A few dogs were a nice balance of both too. Jarrah and myself weren't so good in the personal play section though, I have never tried that with her before, so neither of us really knew what we were doing. I got her as an older dog and she was ridiculously mouthy, so I've always avoided playing with her without a toy intermediary, but Denise showed us some really good strategies that wouldn't remind her of how much fun she used to have being mouthy. Denise is a huge fan of personal play since you aren't allowed toy and food rewards in the ring, but if you have a strong foundation in personal play you don't need anything like that to give the dog a great reinforcer. Watching the dogs who were really good at it, it looked really fun, so I am going to do Denise's online course in personal play in December, and we will practice all the stuff she showed us on Saturday until then. The hunt section was really interesting too, I have never engaged Jarrah's hunt instinct on purpose, although she does it herself when we bush walk, so she took to it very well. That one was really beneficial for the shyer, less confident dogs especially, they all looked a lot more confident and happy with themselves after a few minutes of engagement in that. I have a private lesson tommorow, we are going to do some nose work, which I have never done before so that's really exciting and I'm looking forward to it. It's definitely something I think she could be quite strong on, I just never thought to try it before. Gotta give a special shout out for the food too! Homemade chocolate cakes and scones and jam and cream and biscuits, they were beautiful! I think I gained a few extra kilos to complement all my new knowledge. It was a really fun weekend, a huge thankyou to everyone who organised it.

Another vote for dogs can have a full and happy life with no need to be off leash at the dog park. I met a lady with a little miniature poodle a while back, the poodles best friend was a rottie, a lovely dog, who handicapped himself very effectively when playing with his smaller friend. Unfortunately the rottie, in the heat of a game of chasies, fell on the little poodle, and the poodle ended up with very serious injuries, multiple broken bones and fractures. Even if Carter is or was friendly with smaller dogs, the size disparity makes it too great a risk to take, add in the uncertainty of Carter's more recent attitude toward smaller dogs, and you really do want to avoid allowing him off leash around the littlies. Its the most sensible course of action, if Carter hurts a smaller dog, even if it's by accident, it's very likely you will have to have him put down. another vote for Steve here, especially with regards to issues of dog-dog aggression, which is an issue he solved for me very effectively with my dog some years ago.

I am so sorry to read this Ness, I had no idea Kenz was so ill. Big hugs to you both. :hug :hug I don't know anything about the condition, but my thoughts are with and hoping for the best for you both.

I don't think you'll get any joy out of the DNA tests, they're a bit of an iffy technology. That said BSL being what it is, I am half tempted to go and do one and no doubt it'll come up with some ridiculous results - I'd get a total kick out of it the primary breed came up as something like Bassett Hound or Poodle and I could reregister my dog as one of those, based on DNA evidence. Science, Yo. Yep, I think your pup's mum is a Pit Bull (or what passes for a Pit Bull in Australia anyhow). There's a metric crap ton of political baggage that goes along with ownership. As you'll go along you'll develop your own individual stance on the subject, as it affects you and your dog, and we all tend to disagree vehemently about how everyone else handles it. Some will identify their dog as Staffy or AmStaffy or a cross thereof, others (like myself) will choose the Pit Bull name in an effort to make people understand at a grassroots community level (the people we meet with out dogs) that they're great pets. There's really no wrong or right way, it's a matter of opinion. Be aware that the breeders and owners of pedigreed registered Amstaffs may get upset about unpedigreed dogs being called AmStaffs, and the same with breeders and owners of Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and they do have a case for that. Personally my view is that Pit Bull is a catch all term for American Staffordshire Terriers and American Pit Bull Terriers, so I go with Pit Bull, but there are plenty who disagree and will argue till they're blue in the face. The important thing to remember when you're arguing those semantics though, is that we're under heavy fire legislatively and for a little while we do need to stick together until Pit Bull type dogs are no longer under threat of arbitrary seizure and euthanasia. Once that danger is passed we can get back to punching on over semantics.

Tried so hard to resist..... Failed. :laugh: :laugh: