Wobbly

OK so we went to Jet Pets today, here's the breakdown so you can join us in Tuscany RnB Got the crate, it was $265. Its all airline approved. Got the rabies Vacc, it was $110, it's valid for 12 months Got a bilingual English/Italian certificate of rabies Vacc for Italian customs The vet also scanned Jarrah - her chip information will be forwarded to AQIS & Malaysian airlines to make sure there will be no problems. Also the vet took about 5 photos of Jarrah to make up for Ruth not being able to photograph her because it was raining. Not really, the photos are for Malaysian Airlines - that is to do with her being chipped as an Amstaff, it's not normal procedure for other breeds. Veterinary check was done, that was a freebee, another will be required, and a cert will be issued for that - their vets are AQIS approved. Still to go we have (jet pets will organise all this for me, but I'm putting it here in case you though you might do it yourself): Flight booking Customs Clearance AQIS Approved Veterinary Health Check AQIS General Health Certification Customs & AQIS Export Permit Basically all I have to do is bring Jarrah in for another health check (not sure how long prior to the flight, I imagine I would want to do it a few days before), and then bring her in a few hours before the flight. The crate has no wheels, so it will be forklifted on and off the plane with Jarrah inside. Jarrah will be walked onto the tarmac by Jet Pets then loaded into her crate, obviously this isn't possible or appropriate for every dog, but it's what they'll do with Jarrah since she's too big for her crate to be easily carried & she's happy to be walked by anyone who picks up her lead. As far as I know that's pretty much it, once we get to Italy there's a few fees to be paid there - a customs handling & release fee & another one - all up I believe about $300. Jet Pets doesn't organise that. I have to pay. Then customs in Italy hands me Jarrah over & we go on our way. So it looks like there'll be no issues, it's just we are very limited in our choice of Airlines - I think basically we are restricted to Malaysian & KLM because of the Amstaff chip. If I could go back to the day I picked her up at the pound & have told the guy who did all the paperwork to chip her as "unknown cross breed" I would, it would have given me more choice in airlines & less uncertaintly with AQIS, and would have been a more accurate description too. So no photo shoot today with Ruthless Coz the rain didn't stop. & I'd bought Jarrah's frisbee for awesome action shots & everything. But thank you for the tea & cake & soup! I forgive you for saying Jarrah's a fatty :D :D (she is too - blame the boarding kennel, I'll get her back in form for the collar modelling, shouldn't take more than a fortnight or so more of proper exercise & diet :D)

O i missed the auction Got another copy? Do it again do it again Please please please

Haha RnB, it is beautiful there, so IMO you should definitely make the move!! I will get more info tommorrow about exactly whats needed, the bureaucracy on the Australian end looks daunting, but on the Italy end relatively simple. Thanks Tybrax & more especially thanks on the IADCRO link - Spain was where we were going to move, but the BSL law there put me off, even Amstaffs & SBTs must wear muzzles there, & so we decided on Italy instead. But with Italy repealing their BSL law & Spain & Italy being so similar in culture & language, I wonder if that might have a positive effect on Spain, especially since Spains law is so patently ridiculous - their list of banned breeds is huge, much bigger than Australia's - surely they have to see some sense or every pet dog in Spain will end up in a muzzle. Ruth is gonna take photos of Jarrah modelling collars tomorrow - but Miss Jarrah's not looking her best atm - i just got her back from the kennel on the 19th of this month, she was there for 6 weeks while we were in Italy & Spain & the kennel didn't feed her her normal diet of chicken necks, cow hearts, marrow bones & sardines there, only Origen dry food - so her coats not as shiny as it normally is yet, and her muscle tone is not so good as it usually is either. Much like her owner - zomg the food & wine is so good in Italy - much pasta & pizza & no boring vegetables "D so thats both of us with no muscle tone atm - we are in dire need of our normal healthy diet & exercise schedule right now! Both of us are panting at the end of walks that would normally be a breeze, but we should be fit again in a few weeks. XD

Hey RnB - yes its a permanent move, there's no quarantine for Italy as far as I can ascertain, as they already have rabies & Australia doesn't. But there's a quarantine for coming back into Australia and it's a long one, which I wouldn't put Jarrah through so we won't be coming back here. She's snoozing on the couch now entirely unaware that she's going to have to learn to yap in Italian. "D It is horribly expensive - the quote I got, all inclusive of every detail except customs clearance once we hit Italy is $2900. Ouchies, teardrops on the keyboard at that! But I'm not going without her, so I'll just have to eat noodles for a bit! We'll be going to Tuscany, near the Pisa area, once I've got Jarrah's flight all sorted, next project is to get a house rental organised. Yeah ABPT, there really is so many beautiful Pits there. And they all walk the streets, no muzzles, & they sit outside cafes with their owners drinking coffee, coz Dogs are allowed to sit with their owners in the outside parts of restaurants there I['ll take Jarrah to cafes like that for sure, but I think we'll avoid the restaurants coz I can just imagine how much the smell of Florentine steaks in restaurants will make drool. She'll start trying the triangle of temptation out on the waiters. Yes Ruth! I'm there! Around 3pm!!

Hey DOLers, very long time no see! I haz been very busy & not been intarwebbing much. But I had to share our latest adventure with you, coz it's one one DOLers will understand: So if you were moving to Europe. How would you decide which country to settle in? The one with the most sensible dog laws of course! Sif there'd be any other considerations. XD Italian legislation recognises that ALL dogs can be dangerous, regardless of size or breed. It recognises that the single greatest influence on whether a dog is dangerous is the owner, and so it holds the owner entirely accountable for their dogs behaviour. The sanest, most sensible dog law that could possibly be drafted. YAY!!! Viva Italia! :laugh: Once upon a time, Italy did have BSL legislation, the list of banned breeds blew out to 92 I believe, until they finally realised that banning breeds wasn't stopping people being hurt and mauled by dogs. BSL simply didn't work. A dog is just a dog, it can't understand human mores & morals, it just does what seems most appropriate to it's fuzzy little doggy brain at the time. You can't hold a dog, or its breed, responsible for breaches of human law, only the owner can be held responsible for their dog's behaviour. Italy now puts the blame where it belongs - if a dog bites it's because its owner is guilty of criminal irresponsibility. Italian law won't discriminate against my dog because she looks like a Pit Bull, and I can't prove her parentage to be otherwise, but will instead hold me 100% responsible and legally accountable for her behaviour. As it should be. Hopefully, just hopefully this piece of sane, sensible dog legislation will spread to other countries, including Australia. I'm not sure if there was any concerted effort by Italian dog owners to fight BSL (I imagine there was) or whether that had any influence on the repeal of BSL in Italy. I will try to find out. My Italian is still pretty woeful though, so it might take sometime to find out. Now the problem is getting her out of Australia. The Airlines practise breed discrimination too. Since she is chipped as an AST, rather than the "unknown X-bred" she should rightfully have been chipped as, my airline options are scant. I am using a pet travel service called Jet Pets to navigate the hoops I have to jump through on this & they are great, I'm taking her to Sydney tomorrow to get Jet Pets vets to scan her & send her information to Australian Quarantine to see if they will have a problem with her breeding (or lack thereof as the case may be!). And of course to buy her an airline compliant crate so I can & start putting treats & marrow bones in it to make it the BEST place in the whole world, in order to reduce the stress of travelling as much as I possibly can. And one last time - VIVA ITALIA!!!

Jarrah's a "Pit Bull type" as targetted by BSL. If you stop to consider the brutal reality of the situation - that a dog like this might well try to drown a small child in slobber or beat someone to death with her tail - its really quite terrifying.

I don't often come into this forum. It saddens me that I am pretty much a criminal because I went to the pound & fell in love with a dog without papers. It's depressing that there is so much fighting in this forum, often it seems to me this forum makes us enemies of each other & when of all issues BSL should be the one to unite all dog lovers. I just have this to say: Please stop fighting. They've come for the APBT, they're going for the Staffies & Rottis, the media is looking to victimise mastiffs too now. Please support all of us whose dogs are jeopardised due to an unjust law. We really need all the help we can get at the moment. Divided we fall, united we might just stand a hope in hell.

Edit: Removed, the fire doesn't need any more fuel.

;)

That actually made me laugh out loud. Talk about leaping to wildly erroneous conclusions without bothering to check the simplest facts. Also I'm rather fond of poodles. He has the puppy already, he's asking for constructive help & advice on how best to care for her, not hysterical drama mongering.

Ah NSP I always wondered if you were Beau Its a forum populated by about 16,749 women - of course melodrama is going to be the prevailing sentiment! :) Recap on the tactics for arguing with women: The Women's Rules 1. The female always makes the rules 2. The rules are subject to change at any time without prior notification. 3. No male can possibly know all the rules. 4. If the female suspects the MALE know all the rules, she must immediately change some or all of the rules. 5. The female is never wrong. 6. If the female is wrong, it is due to a misunderstanding which was a result of something the male did or said wrong. 7. The male must apologize immediately for causing said misunderstanding. 8. The female may change her mind at any time. 9. The male must never change his mind without the express written consent of the female. 10. The female has every right to be angry or upset at any time. 11. The male must remain calm at all times unless the female wants him to be angry or upset. 12. The female must, under no circumstances, let the male know whether or not she wants him to be angry and/or upset. 13. The male is expected to mind read at all times. 14. Any attempt to document the rules could result in bodily harm. 15. If the female has PMS, all the rules are null and void. 16. The female is ready when she is ready. 17. The male must be ready at all time. 18. The male who doesn't abide by the rules can't take the heat, lacks backbone, and is a wimp.

yay!!! That is fantastic news :eek: I am so glad you got him back so quickly The pound is a horribly traumatic environment for many dogs, but sounds as if he's recovering from the experience quickly now he's back home

Oh MizzPiggy how awful :rolleyes: I hope you get your dog back. I am not sure what advice to give, but I know if it were me, I would be looking at launching legal action right now. I think the first thing I would be doing is contacting a solicitor to find the lawyers who successfully won Darryn Willis and his dog Rusty's case. From there I would arrange a consultation with Mr Willis' lawyers, and see what they suggested - whether they would be happy to work with me in my state, or whether they could suggest a lawyer in my state with whom they would be happy to share information. Pursuing justice through legal channels would be expensive and arduous for sure, but the precedents have been set in favour of dog owners, so I'd be fairly confident of a win, and it would dissuade the council from bothering me, or anyone else in future with this crap. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you get Aztec back home safe and sound as soon as possible. ETA: A thread on Darryn Willis & his dog Rusty's success in court is here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=150734

Wow, how scary for you (not that a pup is scary at all, but the prospect of her exhibiting aggression to you & others when she grows up is terrifying) You definitely need to seek help, if you let it go & she attacks someone when she's full grown someone could be really hurt. There's an amazing dog behaviourist in the Blue Mountains - Steve Courtenay of K9Force Send him an email detailing your problem Here's his website: http://www.k9force.net/

You already got some awesome advice - lots of practice is the key. One thing that isn't mentioned that I've found really good (it was taught to me by a malamute owner - by reputation the mals don't have a great recall, but this one did) is to wave your arm over your head when you call. You don't have to do it all the time, but often enough so the dog can associate it with a recall. I find this one is great because sometimes when Jarrah's offlead and there are other people around, she's not to sure exactly which one I am (she's no sight hound) so if she's looking a bit confused as to who to run to, I'll give her my wave when I call and she knows instantly which person is me. For the lead one, I often call her, treat her, put her on lead for a few minutes then let her offlead again, so being put on the lead doesn't necessarily mean the funtime is over.

Big feed in the morning and small one in the night time here. And yet more Jhonen Vasquez with a Wobbly headed Bob "These hands!! I can't get them off my wrists" user title & "Spinning Ball of Waste " location here.

Im so sorry for your loss, She was a beautiful dog, it's good that she knew she was loved & adored when she left.

When you only have 1 dog, it's easy to intensively follow all behaviourist instructions to the letter and spend time practising training, recalls etc everyday. But when you have 4 dogs and a full time job as well... Staffy joyfully bounding away, grinning wickedly over her shoulder could be an invitation to play??? "Chase me, chase me, pleeeease chase me!!!" If you're a soft touch your dog knows it - I was a sucker, putty in Jarrahs paws One thing that worked well in increasing respect for us in conjunction with NILIF was the variations on the TOT. The TOT as written here on DOL is the basic "for starters" package. When you saw Steve K9Force he would've told you how to up the ante on the TOT I think? I found that worked really effectively, really fast. Jarrah had the basic TOT down pat - the sit/stay/look was rote habit, a predinner ritual she was doing on automatic pilot - kept her supremely polite and & self controlled in the presence of food, but didn't engage her brain anymore since she know the drill so well. If you up the ante (and keep upping the ante, then lowering it again, then upping it, make her pay attention ;)) she has to really focus on your commands to get her dinner. There's the TOT for recall too - you'd want to have Steve go through it again to make sure you get it right from inception, maybe get a run through of it at the aggression workshop? Post content disclaimer: I'm really novice at dog training - I'm just going on advice about Jarrah specific stuff, so may not be appropriate for Angel?

K9: Spot on... There is no better advise than what Wobbly has written... Nice to see you remembered it exactly as I prescribed it & its working for you! Yeah Steve - she got over her "adolescent rebellion" about 3 days after we saw you ;) Quite amazing - I'm thinking I can replaster & paint the door frames she tore holes in now & they'll stay painted. She's stopped trying to entice Mr Wobbly into playing with her by mouthing him too She brings over a toy and sits down in front of him now. She's also going really well in drive building - she'll hold onto a toy while I swing her round in circles all four feet off the ground. I inadvertently made her new call name "Hey Wagglyhead" though, I was just concentrating on building drive with no commands, so I'd say "Hey Wagglyhead" to get her attention when it was time to play. She's got a super reliable recall with "Hey Wagglyhead" now. She'd always come for food before, but nowhere near as passionately or quickly as she does for tug o war. There's still a few bits of your other advices we have yet to implement properly though - I'll PM you! She's really easy these days :p Thankyou :p

I would love to know what's going on in their heads - Whether Jatz is letting him know she's in control, or whether she remembers this behaviour spurred the bigger dogs on to play more intensely and the game got more fun and she's hoping it'll ramp it up with the littler dog in the same way it did with the bigger dogs, so she does it again & again, hoping the little guy will eventually get the point? I know Jarrah's been trying to teach the Pit Bull cross she plays tug with to chase her with the stick - she reefs the stick off him & runs away looking back over her shoulder to say "C'mon, chase me!". While he's left standing there wondering why the hell she's run away when they were having so much fun playing tug. He doesn't get it all, he's not a chasey dog. But since the Mastiff boy she plays with will chase her (not very convincingly, he's not built for speed or stamina at all but they still have fun with it) she keeps trying it with the Pit X in hopes he'll eventually "get it" and give chase too. I'm not an expert - Jarrah's the first dog I've owned as an adult, but I'd imagine that regardless of Jatz's motives, keeping her on leash for play and stopping the game when it gets out of hand would teach her the boundaries that you want her to learn and respect.

LMAO I just noticed the "no" in your sig next to Angel's name. Jarrah's was protest wees too, I think I posted it in another thread, the OH & I went to Tonga and left Jarrah at home with OH's two sisters to mind her. We hadn't had Jarrah very long - about a month or 2 I think, but we had house trained her. One night SIL was in bed, having a very realistic dream about a warm shower, and woke up to Jarrah squatting next to her in the bed providing her with aforementioned shower. :laugh: She was just awful when we got back, widdling in front of the spare room where the girls were sleeping. I'd never catch her in the act, so I just started scolding the wet spots - I read it here - it seemed better than doing nothing, maybe it just helped me to think I was taking action or maybe it worked. I dunno, but she did stop weeing in the house. Agree with command for toilet - I am working on that now. I say "toilet... ....good" ("good" being secondary reinforcer denoting impending treat) just as she's finishing up and give her a treat when she's finished. I've only been doing it in the back yard though, I should probably do the same on walks as well. Will be very handy to have a dog who wees on command for car trips and visiting people etc.

:laugh: I'm guilty of spoiling Jarrah too, everytime Mr Wobbly catches me giving gratuitous snuggles he pulls me up so I'm slowly learning to make her follow a command before I pet her, it's tough though - such nice soft pettable fur and funny goofy faces when I scratch her behind the ears.

This is one I read on DOL & used when Jarrah "forgot" her toilet training a few times when we had guests staying. Make sure Angel is watching you, then scold the wee very, very sternly, get really angry with it (you're probably really angry at the whole situation anyway, so channel the rage at the mess). I felt like a total goose raging away at a puddle of piddle, but Jarrah hasn't "forgotten" her toilet training since.

Sounds like a great tool Imagine if they got really popular - you'd use it at the park to call your dog and end up with 15 other dogs sitting at your feet waiting for treats.

My other post is full of typos, it was 2am so my brain was a bit broken when I wrote it. Your dogs are gorgeous Shoemonster I'm glad to hear the same method worked for you too, gives me hope one day Jarrah will be able to contain her excitement enough to play off leash with any dog (like maybe when she's 15 yrs old ) Yeah Deelee - I read your thread where you discussed Evie doing it, that's when I thought OMG Evie & Jarrah = soul sisters! We had 3 instances, after the third time it was really difficult to disengage her mouth from the other dog, I followed up on the dog she bit, poor thing got a huge fright, but fortunately didn't end up with any fear issues about playing with other dogs. That was my big worry though, that she'd scare someone's dog into fear issues. She's been really good lately - she got over her "adolescent rebelliousness" about 3 days after a consult with Steve K9Force That pinning by the throat - it looked like it was part of a great game & she just got carried away, but when I think about it, and has been pointed out to me - dogs communicate via body language, and pinning another dog by it's throat is a pretty clear gesture of dominance. Kamuzz - Jatz's behaviour sounds quite different to Jarrah's because she is pinning by the back of the neck, not trying to force the other dog onto it's back, and not holding on either. Molly's rough play also sounds quite different to Jarrah's, but the "no more playtime if you're too rough" method seems pretty versatile. Like Shoemoster, I pull Jarrah away at the very first hint of roughness rather than let her build up any momentum with it so she learns to not even start getting over the top. I'm pretty inexperienced though, so I'd still love to hear what other experienced trainers think if any will chime in here.