Tassie

What a sweetie. Lots of fun ahead I think.

Oh that is great news, @sheena.

Assuming you are in New South Wales, Sydney Animal Behaviour Services and specifically Dr Kersti Seksel would be a "go to" for me. As a vet behaviourist specialist, she is best placed to assess your little dog and advise what treatment routes would likely be best. With such a stressed little dog, I personally would not even consider a board and train. I would also have expected some pharmaceutical intervention before any training solutions were attempted .. but I am not a vet and can't see your dog. And I totally agree with @Rebanne … you are not failing your poor little girl. You are doing the best you can, and I'm sure you will continue to do the best you can for her and for the family.

Agree with all that's been said. Kudos to you for paying attention to what Missy was telling you …i,e, that she was not comfortable with the situation .. (and probably that she would like you to increase the distance between her and the other person … so backing or turning away). Never be worried about advocating for your dog and her needs. So things like saying "Sorry, no, she doesn't like being patted" and straight away moving away if the would be patter keeps coming. Turn and go is a very useful strategy, particularly if you see an out of control child making a beeline for Missy and there is no parent to apply some control. As you do all of this, you can just slide your hand gently down the lead, (without tugging on it), so that you have closer control of Missy's head, just in case you need that. Try to do all this smoothly and without panic. Don't worry what other people might think .. your obligation is to your own dog. Agree too about the benefits that might come from a community obedience class, if you're interested in doing some more training. Just make sure it is a club that uses positive reinforcement/reward based/relationship based training, and don't hesitate to mention that Missy is probably not happy to be approached or patted by strangers. Many community clubs will have student or concession card holder discounts for annual membership .. our club for instance is $25 for a year, and $4 a class.

Just the BEST news!! So lovely that so many people were keeping an eye out … and that she was comfortable enough to come to you and the car.

I had to have a chuckle at this .. remembering the time our lovely holistic vet was wandering through his (empty) waiting room, munching on an apple as we finished our hydro session. My fruit loving BC was gazing at him hopefully, so he offered her the core to eat .. saying he normally ate them himself but he would give it up for her this time. His view .. technically that might be true, but a dog would have to eat an awful lot of apple seeds or cores to have a problem. Mine (10 and 2) have been eating the windfalls and half bird eaten every day for months .. as they did last season .. and the 10 year old agility boy for all his life. I do try to limit them to a couple a day.

Oh that is such a worry .. you poor things. Just a thought .. you could try putting a post on the Bendigo Dog Obedience club Facebook page .. they do have a number of people who do tracking .. and its's possible they may have some suggestions .. do it as soon as you can though. I do wish you luck. Bendigo Dog Obedience Club

Oh that's so exciting. All the Havanese I've met have been loving, fun dogs .. and don't let anyone tell you they're not trainable .. friend is working on her boy heading towards Rally O .. he's a smart little lad .. not as quick as her girl .. but a lovely confident boy.

The feet are OK on the BCs cos I trim the under the foot fur before I start on the nails (they have to be done anyway.) It's the leg feathers I have trouble with .. need to get some sort of hair clips to pin them up out of the way. First world problems

Interesting. Thanks for posting the link, @Boronia.

Thumbs up for this one .. thank you @Papillon Kisses. I had seen it before, but forgotten about it, and I revisited it thanks to your post. My BC boy with only 1 white nail got his done this morning .. trying to use the methods shown. I do have a nice small pair of clippers like the ones Dr Leslie was using in the video. I think that's key .. easier to do the whittling, and they don't bruise the nail. No blood was shed by either of us .. and not even too much objection... mind you they weren't too bad. Now I just have to make sure I keep up the good work. I do have a mini Dremel (and a big one) but the puppy ate the charger cable for the mini ..and it's hard to keep BC feathers out of the way.

IMHO as far as the age for having puppies leave the litter depends on a number of factors. Under ANKC regulations, and the law in many jurisdictions, 8 weeks is the minimum age. This is probably based on a mixture of the sort of research Stanley Coren is talking about, but also on the 2 week interval after the first of the core vaccines in the AVA protocol. I believe many breeders of small breeds do not let their puppies go to new homes until a bit older - 10-12 weeks. There is so much variation in the way puppies are raised these days. IMHO the best breeders (at least of the working and gundog breeds being raised for pet and performance homes .. but also some of the other breeds) use Puppy Culture or similar early enrichment/early neurological stimulation programs, so that puppies are raised with all sorts of exposure to the sorts of things they are going to be meeting in the outside world even before their eyes are open. The pups that I've seen raised in this way are confident, socially competent little dogs, well ready to transition to their new homes by 8 weeks. Many of these breeders will introduce crate training early, and particularly if pups are going to fly, will have them sleep separately from the littermates for a couple of nights. My current dogs did not arrive from interstate until they were 10 weeks, since in both cases they were being run on while the breeder decided on the show pick. They were not kept solely with the dam for those extra weeks .. had plenty of exposure to other dogs and pups and other critters. I recently went with a friend to pick up an 8 week old pup from an interstate flight, and that pup, raised on Puppy Culture sort of protocol, was calm and confident straight off the plane, nad adapted very quickly to life with a toddler, a cat and an adult dog.

Love it!!!! And yes .. definitely worth getting the list reviewed I would think. It must be such a fun thing to do .. I've seen the original set up at KCC Park .. and there are trials here in Tassie, but I haven't had the chance to watch one.

Here's the ANKC list of eligible breeds .. includes Associates of those breed types. 1.4. Eligibility of Dogs (Amended 10/14, 6.9) Dogs six months of age or older and registered with the ANKC Ltd are eligible to participate in earthdog tests, as are spayed and neutered dogs with Limited Registration provided they are classified as eligible breeds. A dog of an eligible breed with an accepted foreign registration number is eligible to participate subject to Chapter 11, Section 1 of the Dog Show Rules. The following breeds are classified as eligible to participate in ANKC Ltd earthdog tests: Dachshunds, Australian Terriers, Australian Silky Terriers, Bedlington Terriers, Border Terriers, Cairn Terriers, Dandie Dinmont Terriers, Fox Terriers (Smooth and Wirehaired), German Hunt Terriers, Glen of Imaal Terriers, Jack Russell Terriers, Lakeland Terriers, Manchester Terriers, Miniature Pinschers, Norfolk Terriers, Norwich Terriers, Parson Russell Terriers, Portuguese Podengo Pequeno, Scottish Terriers, Sealyham Terriers, Skye Terriers, Tenterfield Terrier, Welsh Terriers and West Highland White Terriers. Dogs on the Associate Register that are of earthdog type are also eligible to participate. These dogs must have successfully qualified in the Earthdog Instinct Test on at least one occasion prior to being eligible to enter the Novice Earthdog Test. In as much as Dachshunds and Terriers are hunting dogs, dogs disfigured as the result of accident or injury but otherwise qualified shall be eligible provided that the disfigurement does not interfere with functional movement. The regulations for Earthdog Tests in Oz are here.

Oh that's good to hear. So my question is … does your pup bark at you at other times when he's in the house? Or just at this specific time? And a few follow up questions …. what do you expect the dogs to do when they come inside in the evening? What do you expect them to do when they're inside at other times? And for me .. the biggie … do you or your husband spend time with each dog one on one? teaching tricks? teaching other training? playing with the dogs? Inside? or outside? Thinking as I type .. this could actually be your pup's crazy zoomies time (in his mind) .. when my BC girl was younger, the evening was her completely crazy time. And that was even though she'd had plenty of attention and training and play at other times of the day. (She grew out of that … the crazy time is now the morning.) So it might help to think about it this way. Your pup is doing something he finds very rewarding .. barking at you. So what could you do to replace that with a behaviour which is also rewarding to him (because you will pay him for it) .. but is also acceptable to you. So that might be a bit of trick training - for treats … and then teaching him to settle on a particular mat or dog bed … gradually building up the time he can stay there. If you're doing that, you need to have a 'release' word to give him permission to get off. That can be the same word you use for permission to go out a door, come in a door, get out of the car .. etc. You would be gradually building up the time he stays on his mat starting with quite a short time. ..

They really are the most amazing little dogs. We had a local version here in Oz - I remember seeing him in Victoria about 11 years ago. Agility Champion all heights .. when you had to have wins so beating the top 500 and 600 and 400 dogs on the same course. Super handler and super dog .. he was known as "the Pap on crack"!! They can do really well in Tracking and Track and Search too .. amazing when to get their Tracking Ch they have had to track for 1200 metres through bush, up hill and down dale.

That is such a little dog thing to do .. standing on top of the A frame and the Dog walk to see how many people are admiring them .. and for the better view. @persephone, I think she was a little overwhelmed at the start, but then she was "performing" , I think.

You've done a good job observing and recording her behaviours. From this, you could probably go a step further and actually maybe make up a sort of table with her triggers and responses in columns. This will be helpful for you, but also for the professional help I would be getting .. not just your GP vet, although lowering her general sensitivity level is probably a good start. Good for you for the steps you've taken to help her, and to protect others. I personally would be going a bit further, and for the moment, not take her to places where she has the possibility of being approached randomly by other dogs. I would recommend that you have a bit of a look on the internet for information about 'trigger stacking' to see why. Also for the moment, I'd keep going with your idea of sending her to her safe zone before visitors come in, to reduce her levels of stress/anxiety/over arousal .. it doesn't really matter which, they'll all have the same effect. You could certainly try the treats when there are arousing things/people/dogs in sight outside, but you really need to be in a position to do that all the time .. so that she doesn't sometimes get the chance to bark at them. In training terms, you want to reduce or eliminate the chances for her to practise the behaviours you don't want to see again. Having said all that, if she were my dog, I would not just be treating it as a training issue. I would also be getting some professional help from a skilled and confident vet behaviourist who is also a skilled trainer .. if you can find one. If you can be a bit more specific about your area (WA is a big place ) people might be able to point you in the appropriate direction. ETA I just had a quick look, and it looks like there is a possible (on paper anyway) vet behaviourist operating out of Murdoch Uni. But you might want to ask around and see if anyone has had success with this or other vet behavioural services.

My Kirra's litter sister (B/W) had blue eyes . very rare for her breeder .. not sure when exactly, but definitely by 6 week eye check which BCs had to check for CEA before the DNA test.

@HunterDoggy, have a look on YouTube for training ideas. I know he's not technically a puppy, but you can look for ideas under puppy training. Some suggestions .. have a look at Kikopup and Donna Hill. And you can grow the toy game you have at present, with encouraging him to chase you .. especially if you have another toy you can swap. Dogs usually like playing chasey games .. for our sake .. we should always have them chasing us, and rewarding (with play is fine) when they catch us.

The chewing could be caused by anything .. we can't ask the dog (unfortunately),, so we can only guess. A question .. does he only steal and chew things while you're out, or while you're home and watching him? I guess in any case, I'd be looking at management so that you can try to nip this in the bud before it becomes more of a habit. If he were my dog, I would be buying a metal x-pen that you can confine him in when you can't actively supervise. I'd be feeding him via a frozen feeder of some kind after he's been outside for early morning toilet. Then when you leave, he goes into his x pen with his frozen food, and maybe a safe chew toy or a meaty bone. When you come back from your walk, if you can't actively supervise, I would be having him either in his x pen, or outside. If you have the time, I would be doing some training with him .. teaching him tricks for instance. Then when you go out again, back in his xpen with a frozen treat. Without seeing your dog, it's hard to know, but I'd be applying one of the basic rule of dog training … try to avoid having the dog rehearse behaviours you really don't want to see again . You haven't said where he sleeps at night .. I would be inclined to have him sleeping in a crate .. again because you can't actively supervise. At his age, he will get through the night just fine, as long as you don't give him access to water too late in the evening, and you take him out for bedtime toilet. Treat for when he goes to bed is fine.

Oh well done @koalablue. That sounds like huge progress. You're doing everything you can to help her and show her what you like her to do, and it sounds as though she;s really responding beautifully. (From experience, it can take them a while to be 100% reliable, so you'll need to be monitoring for a while yet, but you're definitely on the right track. In case you're not aware, the excitement and/or submissive dribble wees are not really under the dog's control, so have a think about whether that's what's happening, and then just see if you can make visitors coming etc. a calmer experience .. that will help her to not experience the involuntary dribbles. You should be so proud of yourself and your dear little one.

Yay for Teddy. That eye is looking so much better .. it must feel better .. and as you say, even a tiny bit of vision must make him fell better.

So while that sounds idyllic, all it does in most cases is to limit the times and areas where people who want or need to walk their dogs safely on leash, can actually do so. People think it's OK to have their dogs off leash whether they have a recall or not .. they're busy chatting to their friends or gazing at their phone, and have no idea about respecting the rights of owners of leashed dogs .. if they even hear the requests to call their dogs back, they're just as likely not to do it, or worse still, abuse the owner of the leashed dog for causing a problem. Oh, and they have zero sense of time or place … so for them off leash time is all the time, and off leash section is apparently everywhere.

Naaaww, bless her. She's still having fun "cheating" .