Wobbly

Thanks for all the advice Persephone! I really appreciate it. "D The vet did discuss pulling it out yesterday, but he was worried it might really hurt her, and it looked healthy (you could see the bed under the nail) so he elected not to. I just got a huge pack of various tug toys in the mail the other day, but I haven't been able to use them yet, they're just sitting there waiting for her to get all healed up. I'm waiting on my husband to finish his work for the day, to come to the beach with us because I might need him to carry her a bit. It doesn't look like there's blood engorged spongy tissue there atm, but it's good I know what to look for now, thanks!

She's not licking it or worrying at it either, which I'm taking to be a really good sign of imminent healing. You should have seen the size of her toe when the infection set in, it was really enormous, poor girl. It's a good healthy proper size now - happily the infection is all gone and we're definitely on the road to recovery, I just want to make sure I set the stage for the new nail to grow in healthily. Poor girl, she's been in the wars a bit lately, not too many months ago she had a soft tissue injury to her shoulder, now this. Very irksome stuff for a dog who lives for high energy activity.

Yep, it looks clean and dry. We betadined it (with cheese distraction XD), but didn't wrap it since she's inside the house right now. I'm not sure of whether I will bandage it for her swim, probably not, we can just carry her over the gravelly bits to get to the sand and water. Fingers crossed it heals ASAP!

I vote for Amstaff! It sounds like the breed suits you. The new dog will have a very different personality ofc, but all the things like energy levels, trainability, discipline & affection requirements etc would be the same as you're used to. Other breeds you might have to change your lifestyle a bit to accommodate for.

OK I have betadine and gauze bandages so I will try that. At the very least she'll have a ball chewing the bandage off. XD O I'm glad you are experienced with this and think a beach walk would be good, I will get my husband to carry her over the gravel. :D I will go check that nail now, when I betadine it, to see if i can tell if it's a new white nail growing in or just the nail bed. I'm not sure. That's an important point. The vet yesterday said it was nailbed we could see. Lol, poor Jackson, he doesn't look pleased with his new apparel at all. Ah yes, it is quite warm today, that's a good point to take into account if she will leave the bandage on.

O yes and the one really important point - if she gets excited she will ignore pain. In fact she tends to ignore pain anyway, so it doesn't serve her as a warning to take it easy, like it does for other dogs. She is happy snuffling in the grassy yard atm.

So I have had a bit of a problem with Jarrah's toe nail the last few weeks. Long story short, it split up the middle, we went to the vets and got her painkillers and antibiotics, but still it got infected. It's been something of an ordeal for us, yesterday's vet visit was visit number 4 over this problem. Well finally this morning the nail has fallen off, exposing the nail bed. The nailbed is a healthy looking white (she has white splashes on the underside of her paws). I assume the nailbed is quite tender, so I'm uncertain as to whether it's a good idea to walk her in case it gets damaged, the vet did say any damage to the bed might compromise the possibility of a new healthy nail growing. We'd really like a walk though if it can be done with no risk. Even our play time has been cut to nothing since all our games are pretty hard on her feet. We have a dog beach nearby where she could swim (also a dam, but I am concerned about the possibility for infection with that). The only issue with the dog beach is that she has to walk across some gravel and then the sand to get into the water. Does anyone have any suggestions, advice or knowledge to share. I have marrow bones and toys for her, so she's OK without a walk, but she'd love one and so would I.

WTH are you talking about? What an incredibly stupid assumption. Every Pit I have ever met (and that's a lot of them, they're very popular in my area) has a happy loving home. I do subscribe to the maxim "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity", so I understand your problem is not malice. But be quiet now, you know nothing about the topic, there's nothing wrong with that, why would you, you don't own one. But since you know nothing, you really have nothing of any value to add, so best leave the topic alone.

Hi Sheena, I'm going to use aus (german for out}, because it's familiar to me in this context (German dog owning friends, training vids etc) so will be easy for me to use naturally, and won't be confused with anything else, which I guess are the main things about picking a good word for a command. Hi Erny, Thanks for the input. I have never taught her an off switch. My bad - she was certainly a dog who could have used one when she was younger! Better late than never though, i will put it in here. You're right about keeping it simple, if it's too complex I will get overwhelmed & put it in the too hard basket. For the balls and kongs, I couldn't make them go dead at all, and similarly, it's very difficult to make the frisbee dead too, there's always some enticing floppyness about it because of it's size and composition. Her order of toy/food preference is: 1) Frisbee [swim/Fetch, toy she doesn't have free access to, used only on walks and always with high excitement and fun factor] 2) Food 3) Balls/kongs/rope tug [Her toys, she has constant access to these, they live in her toy box] It's very easy to manipulate where any given toy falls on this scale as I found when I left her with friends to look after for a week. They gave her unrestricted access to the frisbee around the house and it dropped in value from a number 1 on the list to a number 3. When I returned it only took a few days of restricted access and high excitement fun play to re-establish it as a very high value resource again. I am hoping (though I'm not sure) that I can put the nylon bar tug in number 1 place along with the frisbee, after I get the "out" in place. I'm pretty clear on what I want (it certainly helps to write it down here to clarify it in my mind too): -I have come to rely on the frisbee drive to be strong enough that it holds her interest and focus above everything else for keeping her attention on me in very distracting environments (other dogs playing excitedly, cats teasing her etc). This has become such a fantastic control method that I really want to preserve it, above all else. -Beyond that, playing is one of the best things about having a dog to me, and this is the game we both enjoy together the most. Getting the frisbee off her can be a bit of a fun and challenging game in itself, but an effective "out" would be better for the control aspect. Play for dogs and humans is so often practice for handling serious scenarios in a safe, fun way, so I'd like to make the play really reflect the ideal behaviour I want from her in a true life serious situation. Where we are with it now, it's adequate for control but not ideal. I'm getting to it late because the current state of affairs is adequate for control. I never wanted to devalue the Frisbee fun at all so I never got to the "out" with it. Really I never expected her to build the drive she has - when we first started it didn't look like she was a high toy drive kind of dog, so I didn't forsee that "out" would be an issue. How very, very mistaken I was. XD You know she was quite a difficult dog when I got her as an adolescent from the pound, we did see Steve K9pro in the early days - we really, really needed to! She has come good now, despite me. XD Anyway I'm hoping this issue works out the same as all the rest - that I manage to understand and implement the advice I get enough that she "gets" it. I don't think this issue is problematic enough to necessitate the extent of another trip to the Blue Mountains - it's a long way from here, but I am seriously considering getting a private lesson with a local trainer to start me off. I've found a lady trainer up here called Gail Hudson who I have been to some group obedience classes with and she's very good and purely positive, which I think is a great approach for this since I don't want to apply any sort of correction that might reduce drive. I think I will be more confident and effective if I get some experienced and knowledgeable in-person guidance to ensure I start off on the right foot.

Could be habit - it's a time of day I enjoy playing with her, all my responsible adult stuff is done for the day and I can just relax and play, so I've certainly made something of a routine. Other times of day she knows she's liable to get a flat refusal to her playful overtures. I've also accustomed her to a lot of exercise, so it could just be that she gets a bit ansty without it in the same way a gym junkie gets a bit antsy without their regular gym session - they're accustomed to the chemicals a lot of exercises releases. Yeah Weasels, I'm with you on wanting the acreage - how cool to be able to take your morning coffee and dog for a walk out the backdoor, instead of having to drive to the walk spots. OK I should shut up now, I have no experience with anxious dogs so I have nothing of value to add to this thread really.

Actually just an addendum to my earlier post - I'm really talking about when she was younger - without the exercise she was WILD. Now she's older and generally calmer, so she doesn't go wild without a day's exercise anymore, but those past experiences are just so indelibly burnt in my brain I tend to assume they're present reality too, but they aren't. But if she hasn't had a walk, it still seems she's a bit physically uncomfortable by the end of the day. If she's not walked that day, then after dinner (always after dinner - why is that?) she'll be at me, dropping toys in my lap and racing round the house with them in her mouth trying to convince me we NEED to play and we need to play NOW. Half an hour of fetch or tuggy will satisfy her, then she'll go sleep again.

O yeah, I tried with the balls and kongs, but I have to actually reach into her mouth to get them so there's just no way of making them dead. She did eventually drop it (and ofc I missed the exact moment so didn't get a "good" in fast enough. So once she drops the ball, I reach for it and her whole face lights up like she's thinking, "OMG you really gonna play more with me??? Yay!" and she grabs the ball faster than me. Experiment not really successful yet. It's terrible that my dog outwits me so often, I can't even imagine what having one of the superbrain dogs like a Collie, Kelpie or Poodle must be like.

Mine's not anxious at all, quite the reverse in fact, a bit more caution would be a good thing, so my experience may not be so relevant. But, it's a law of my universe that the more exercise my dog gets the calmer, better behaved and happier she is. Without a serious run everyday she's like a small hairy tornado of mischief and destruction.

Great video, thankyou. There are so many different methods that work effectively. I'm still going to go with Megan's idea, since it's so easy to incorporate into a normal evening play session, but I will think about how I can add some of this guys ideas too - I'm just concerned if I do it as he does it, using the same comand I'd be creating confusion with what the Aus command means to her - does it mean food on the floor or does it mean the tug is no longer fun. In other news, I just realised the synthetic tugs ("great for dogs who won't out") float as well! Once I get a good "out" in the house with the synthetic tug, I might substitute it for frisbees on our walks - if they float that means they're perfect for swim-fetch, so I can maybe make it swim-fetch-tug again. I was sad to have to give up the tug portion of frisbee swim-fetch, but I just couldn't have her winning all the time like she does with the frisbee, the synthetic tug can eliminate that problem and let me decide whether she wins or not. The tugs are also easier and cheaper to source (the frisbees I get shipped from the US), if this works the way I'm hoping, the age of the frisbee may be drawing to a close. Yay for the imminent dawn of the synthetic tug ("great for dogs who won't out"). XD Hurry up with my order Aust. Post!

Yeah I hope she did too. I'm not surprised she hasn't reported back here though. Imagine owning a puppy, then someone chimes in about how they gonna LOVE sentencing a litter of puppies, exactly the same as your own pup, to death. :/ I didn't post here for the last few days either after reading that either, I don't want to be around people who uphold a law (a stupid, wrongheaded, unjust law) as a higher moral authority than an elementary understanding of the difference between right and wrong. A bad law is NOT a substitute for a moral code. But people are such sheep, they can't think for themselves I guess, so they rely on the govt. to do it for them. It wouldn't surprise me if the OP doesn't return. Anyway R8chl, if you ever do return, I really hope it all goes well for you with the behaviourist.

You'd love to be responsible for having a litter of puppies killed? (what else do you think will happen to that litter if you report it? If he can't get homes for them his only option is to have them PTS) People's callous attitude towards animals never ceases to amaze me, I didn't expect to see it in a puppy subforum though. I really have no words. What are you actually doing on dog lovers forum anyway? Since you wrote that yesterday morning I assume you have already reported it. Sleep well tonight mumof4girls, secure in the knowledge you have done your best to ensure a litter of innocent puppies will be denied the chance of a loving home and so will almost certainly be put down. R8chel is clearly a responsible owner as evidenced by the fact she is asking for advice om a dog forum, and has subsequently done the research to find a behaviourist - no easy task when you live in a regional area. The dog is obviously a beloved pet, with an owner determined to do the right thing by him, and he deserves a chance. Yes he's restricted, I'm sure she knows that. And if by some strange chance she didn't it's been pointed out numerous times already. She's asking for behaviour advice, not legal advice. Edited (for about the 50th time) this time to add: sorry if I seem harsh Lavendergirl, but the post prior to yours has really upset me.

I have no idea about prong collars, I just saw your sig and wanted to say Oscar is one amazing looking dog.

I'm pretty disappointed Sydney got cancelled too. I think it's not apathy here, it's more that NSW isn't as draconian with BSL enforcement, and where it is enforced it's not a death sentence, I've only met two people forced into the temperament assessment and both their dogs passed with flying colours, so no restrictions were imposed. Here, so long as your dog is good citizen (regardless of breed), it's pretty much OK for it to be any shape. My area is full of people walking Pit Bulls - they're very popular round here. Sydney has a certain tendency to break laws they find to be obviously unjust. I remember when the X-city tunnel was opened, people refused to abide by the new lane changes forced on them. You'd see soccer mums in their BMW 4wds, tradies in their utes - everyone in the city - all refused to pay the excessive toll and made a certain illegal turn to avoid it. The police refused to prosecute people for taking that turn too - it had always been legal before, they were staging their own protest there I guess. In the end people's non compliance forced the govt. to change the lanes back to how they originally were, there was too much community resistance, the govt had to give up on it. I'm actually really proud of Sydney people for that attitude - the law is respected where it's a good law, (and most laws are), but if people think a law is unfounded and unfair it'll be pointedly ignored. I imagine if we were backed into a corner like Victorians, and felt like we were under siege and forced to fight for our dog's right to survive you'd see people out protesting in force.

Yeah Mixeduppup, its actually more a problem with my trainability I fear, the dog is fine, she's really good in fact, I've always thought a good trainer could do a lot with her. It's me who gets easily confused. XD Yeah it's a good problem to have - for me it means that I have a fail safe recall, I'm really happy she has it, it's one of those features that make the bully breeds (and all the terriers) great pets for the average owner - we may not be much at training or dog psychology, but we don't have to be, the dog compensates for what we lack. I know if there's a cat across the other side of a busy road and she gets loose or anything potentially awful like that, I can easily get her to come. Jarrah was hesitant to tug initially too (got her from the pound, not much idea of her background really), I read a bit about drive training, went to a K9Force drive training seminar (where she behaved abominably and I was utterly mortified, I'd only had her a month or so at that point I think XD) and applied as much of it as I was able. Earlier on in the piece I really didn't think I'd have that much success, so I'm quite amazed at how insatiably keen she's become about it to be honest. She is frisbee mental, she yaps her head off as soon as I take it out. It's definitely a breed thing I think, I'm no great dog motivator, it's inherent in her. OK check on the "Udder" tug being udderly (sorry, tried to resist that, failed) inappropriate for us. The synthetic one you've linked looks perfect for us. I will order one tonight. Since it's "great for dogs who won't out" I think I will go the middle road in terms of her drive for it - I will only play with it in the house, so she doesn't get to associate it with the sheer awesomeness of swim fetch and go totally nuts for it, but I won't leave it in her box or let her have free access to it either, because I don't want it to be a "take it or leave it" kind of toy to her. That way I can increase or decrease her desire for it more easily as needed (in theory anyway...). Hahah I don't think that's anthropomorphising - maybe he saw it the same way you did, it's funny how they're amazing at picking up what we mean from what we do. Maybe what your action said to him was the doggy equivalent of "Don't worry, it's not going anywhere, you can even keep your eye on it", so he understood his precious resource to be safe even if not in his direct possession? Wouldn't work for Jarrah, she'd sit there and gaze longingly & fixedly at it, and probably yap until I got annoyed enough with her to give it to her. Which is what happens when balls roll under the sofa here. XD I was kind of thinking it might be made of udder leather or something. XD OK so I will order the bar tug tonight! I'm going to have a little play with some of her low drive toys tonight to see if I can apply any of this to her with them. She's actually trying to entice me to play now by pushing her ball into my leg. XD

I sucessfully trained my pup to steal undies, bras and socks this way! Whenever she stole something, I'd swap for a treat to get it back, so she started stealing them and standing in front of the treat cupboard waiting for her treat :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Ahh yes, I knew there would be a way to use this too! In fact I already use it to get the frisbee off her right now, but I've been a bit unsuccessful in using it as an actual training method, I just wasn't sure exactly how to go about it.

So good to read you say you don't think I've made a mess of it. I was reading your tug thread - we have the opposite problem to eachother - our dogs really need to swap notes on this isuue. :laugh: What sort of toy would you suggest? I was looking at those udders that were linked in your thread - they look like they might be the job. Perfect! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this Megan, it's exactly the sort of direction I need. I am going to read it a few times today to make sure the process is firmly cemented in my head. Between your explanation and Kavik's suggestions I think I can do this! :D OK I need to pick a new word that means playtime starts now. I like Persephone's idea of giving her a treat too - she knows all about treat training, and loves it. Would a treat after "out, good out" be appropriate too? "Good" means "treat incoming" in our world. My training is bribe based, maybe not the best way, but it's always worked for me. XD Would the Udder tug be good? I will start immediately I have a complete accurate visualisation in my mind of the process and I have an appropriate toy that she has the right attitude to. I can manipulate her desire for a toy by making it available to her at all times for low drive or for high drive I make it like the frisbee - limited availability, and complete engagement in really fun way when I do produce it (only once per day, high excitement context like on our walks). I think her breed makes her really, really easy to manipulate in this respect. So to make a low drive toy we will play with it in the house only & it can live in her toybox so she has access whenever she wants. A new slobbery thing for her to put in my lap while I'm doing other stuff. O goody. XD Her favourite food is.... Everything! Well raw egg is one she goes for first above all else given a choice, not really easy to use as treat though. I will use some kind of chopped meat I think, chicken pieces are a definite favourite. XD Yes, I have to pick a word. Aus I think will be a good one, it means out in German. I don't really use "Out" much for Jarrah because she's an indoor dog, my backyard is a strictly under supervision area for her, so as far as she's concerned going outside is a treat. But I do like the idea of Aus - German for dogs and french for horses, as they say. For making her drop something, I usually just employ an inchoate roar of mock rage "rarrrrgghhh!" is probably the best phonetic description I can give you. This comes from her habit of picking up dead stuff she finds, and they're so revolting, I really have no words - just "rrrraaarrrrgh!!!". She drops it and gives me an injured look, like how could I possibly be mad at her for finding such a wonderfully dead smelly possum or whatever it is she's intent on bringing to me (probably thinking we'll be have a wonderful game of tug with this excellent new aromatic item she's found). You know, reading your post it occurs to me I could have picked a lot better word than "Raaarrrrgh!" for this purpose. XD That's hilarious. XD Jarrah used to be a thief, but she's stopped now. She only takes household goods I give to her personally or stuff I put in her toybox, she knows her toybox is the "go to" place for interesting stuff to chew, I randomly put new things in there when she's not looking so she checks it regularly. I don't know how I trained her out of thieving remote controls and all the stuff she used to love eating, but somehow she's very good about that now, she's a chewer, but only on stuff that is given to her or put in her toybox. One of my lucky flukes I guess. XD OK I'm going to reread all the advice a few times, and take her for a walk to think about it and digest it all. Then reread when I come home to consolidate it in my mind again. Thank you so much! I really appreciate the advice! :D :D :D

It can be tough to find specialised services when you live in more regional areas. The police dog lady sounds like she might be a really good first step. I am not sure whether Police Dog trainers would be NDTF accredited? I would tend to assume so, but to be honest I don't know. For additional help and advice you could also call them - http://ndtf.net.au/ I think you're right about about not taking him to the group dog school at this point, it'd just be a nightmare for you both. I remember taking my girl to one of those places when she was at her most crazy adolescent stage, and it was soooo embarrassing. She carried on like a flea, leaping around like a maniac and being a general distraction and annoyance to all and sundry present, the trainer had to spend pretty much all the time with us and I was mortified, being dragged around by my uncontrollable dog and fervently praying that the ground would open up and swallow us. O the bad old days :laugh: But I took my girl to her first group obedience class not so long ago, and she made me so proud. "D Hopefully you get there too! No one can diagnose your boy over the internet, calls to put a beloved pet to sleep without giving the him the chance to be helped by a qualified, good quality behaviourist are unfounded. He needs an in-person assessment by a behaviourist qualified to deal with him, and take it from there. Good luck & let us know what the behaviourist says.

Here's a picture of her playing tug with my husband, and one of her cow print fabric frisbees. She really puts her all into it. Her favourite trick, when she thinks she's got a really good game of tug going, but she's getting too tired to shake and pull is to take her weight off her feet so you have to take her entire body weight. :laugh: She really is quite impressive, you could lift her entirely off the ground and she wouldn't let go, but I'd be too concerned about her teeth to ever do that. We have a lot of fun with the frisbee, but it would of course be lot more fun if I could teach her the "Out". XD She's passionate, really, really, really passionate about her frisbees (and tug o war in general, but the frisbee is the ultimate toy of all toys). So I have to make this passion work for me rather than against me in teaching the out. I wish I were really good at dog psychology, it would help a lot. But I'm not, so I'm hoping you guys have some good advice for me. XD

O it is a Karst Shepherd Lhok, you win. That particular dog's photo is in the Karst Shepherd Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst_Shepherd

Carpathian Shepherd Dog?