Tassie

Sad to read ... although hopefully you've been able to get her to the vet today (why do problems always come up on a Sunday?), and get some answers for her. She'e obviously been getting the best of car and love from you to have got to that great age. Sending positive vibes to you and Stella.

And another who flew biggish boy BC in a 36" crate, and somewhat smaller girl in the size down .. 28". That was with Virgin, and crates and bookings organised through a dog transport company. You should be fine. And I'll pass on the tip that ness gave me ... to make up an info sheet with photo and information about your dog, with your contact details and backup contact. Put it in a plastic sheet protector and package tape it to the top of the crate. Just in case ... and at each end of the trip, the freight guys read the label and were able to greet the dogs by name. Thanks ness. :)

Just echoing the advice you've been given. Crate training for mine too when they're little. My just turned 8 year old Border Collie still sleeps in his airline crate beside my bed .. his choice .. the door has been open for the last 6 or so years , and in fact I took it off about 3 years ago. he could be on my bed if he wants, but only pops up in the morning occasionally for a cuddle. My old girl sleeps on her dog bed the other side of my bed .. again, so I can hear when she needs to go out at night. She's nearly 15 now, so we have some excursions. I take mine out on lead if they're going out at night for toilet. When they're young, it helps to keep them focused on the job at hand, and then straight back to bed in the crate, with a little treat for that. Solves potential problems of wanting to have play time in the moonlight. Or in the case of the adults, chasing pademelons in the moonlight. With little pups, I've kept them limited in the areas they can be in the house if I'm not there to supervise.

How generous and thoughtful of her people. Such a horrible problem .. and so thankful for the DNA test. My BC girl is CEA affected (from the days when the only way to find out parental status was a test mating .. suspected carrier to a hopefully clear dog). I had her blood sent off to U Sydney when Dr Alan Wilton was calling for samples from affected dogs. I like to think that helped .. but that's an easy thing to do compared with what these owners have done.

Well there's a surprise! The 48" are fairly pricey though. Crate covers at Vebopet

Lovely .. and I love watching the total efficiency of the Whippet's action. My previous BC boy used to like to lead a pack of dog friends running free, after a trial or something. Friend's Whippet would allow Fergus to lead for a while, and then decide to put on the afterburners ... Fergus had no chance .. his face used to be a picture.

:heart: :heart: Just gorgeous!

My Border Collies have travelled frequently on the Spirit. They haven't used the ship kennels since Rory was a 12 week old, 8 years ago. Yes, you do have to sign an indemnity .. absolving TT line of responsibility for everything up to and including World War 3. And I alsways pay for a kennel ( or 2 if I have to) so that I get the dog on board thingy that hangs off your windscreen, and you can insist on being parked on one of the two kennel decks .. 5 and occasionally 3. There was one memorable trip where I was parked down on deck 3 next to a big piece of earth moving equipment, and something else right behind .. I couldn't have got the dogs out to put them in kennels if I'd wanted to .. should have asked for my kennel money back, but couldn't be bothered. :) My dogs are secure in their wire crates, complete with dog beds and their water bowls hanging on the crate. I leave the car windows down as much as is necessary .. right down in summer. Yes, some security risk, but the decks are locked before sailing, and the security guys do patrol. I don't think the dogs sleep much .. lights are on all night, and it's a bit noisy, so I always leave a day between sailing and competing. But I haven't seen dogs really distressed .. some do bark in the kennels. And for a very large dog, I haven't seen a ship's kennel that I would consider big enough for the crossing. Having said all that .... it may not be an option for you if you can't book a kennel for the voyage .. I wouldn't travel without that yellow hanger thing that lets you insist on not being on Deck 6. I have flown my dogs across once since they were puppies .. had to do it in June this year, as the Spirit sailings were cancelled because of the floods. I arranged my flights at very short notice, and used an agent to get the dogs on ... very good service.

frazz ... I've posted a bit more in the thread in puppy... just wanted to say here .. as dididog said .. you are your dog's advocate, and you've obviously done quite a bit of reading and thinking about how you want training and life to be with your pup, so hard as it is ..trust your instincts. I would be trying to find a more suitable puppy school, but if you can't, please stay on the fringes of class and if your pup does get overwhelmed a bit by the situation, turn away and move away from the class a little bit to reduce the stress, and re-engage with your pup the way you want .. then reward, reward, reward attention to you. IMHO, harsh treatment such as the 'trainer' was doing, will simply confirm in the pup's mind that the presence of other dogs leads to unpleasant things happening .. not the message he needs to hear.

Quite the challenge .. but good for you for looking for positive reinforcement ways to train your big pup. You've had some great advice. I would probably add that you might consider using a crate or play pen (sturdy one) to make it easy for your pup to have down time .. that would be a place where he could have his frozen bones - provided you're sure he's safe with them. Trained the same way as everything else .. show the pup that there's great value for him in being in/going in his 'den'. It means then he's not finding self-reinforcement roaming the house finding things you don't want him to chew. A couple of thoughts .. although sometimes it may look as though dogs may be going 'good' things to please us .. the reality is that it's probably better to assume that the dog is doing behaviours which will bring pleasure to him. SO we use that, to build value for behaviours we want by rewarding him heavily with things he wants. That includes building value for doing 'stuff' with us .. and voila .. you have that lovely picture of a dog and handler enjoying 'working' together. All built up over time, by a mixture of showing the dog how to earn rewards, rewarding what we do want, either ignoring or managing what we don't want, rinse and repeat. Shame about the trainer saying to use "No". IMHO, your understanding was completely correct .. the word gives no information to the pup .. and even if pup does understand it means, don't do something .. pup is doing several things at any time // including breathing. KI do use interrupt noises .. like u-uh - pretty much immediately followed by a redirection .. showing the pup what you would like .. so interrupt chewing on forbidden thing, then redirect pup to allowed object. and yes, good to play a little to get him switched on to that. And as far as the collar grab is concerned .. I wonder if the trainer was teaching the 'collar grab' game .. I call it the gotcha game ... which progressively rewards the pup for allowing humans to touch, and eventually grab the collar. It's not done in anger or correction, but just desensitises pup to having the collar taken .. that can be a safety thing .. and it can also mean we can use a gentle collar touch to remind our trained dog that he needs to refocus. And do we get a photo of said puppy? :D

Hopefully some of the lab people will be along with more specific information .. but in general .. Since HD is not just the result of single genes, but polygenetic and significantly environmental as well, it would be useful if your sister could get some information from the breeders about familial scores and experience .. parent's siblings, other pups the breeder has bred .. etc. etc. rather than just concentrating on the parents' scores. Also, as I understand it, while the total score is relevant, (hips and elbows), of significance too is the way that score has been arrived at .. e.g. if the 9 is 4:5, with pretty much even points all the way down the list, that is a much less worrying score than if it were 8:1. And just to confuse the issue even more, it is certainly possible to have problems in pups from 0 score parents .. A friend's pup (from 0 scored parents) had to have surgery on his elbow before 12 months. My suspicion is that was partly environmental .. too much weight and too much racing round. The good news in that case was that the breeder significantly contributed to the cost of the corrective surgery, even though of course they didn't have to. And I totally agree that the way the pups have been raised, and the relationship your sister would be likely to be able to build with the breeder is very important.

Exciting times. My boy (now 8) had a long interstate flight. I'd borrowed a smallish crate for his puppy travelling (had bigger ones for later. My girl .. 6 at the time .. always came everywhere with me in her wire crate in the car, so she came with me to the airport for the pick up. I had some chicken in case the pup was hungry, so I sat on tailgate of the station wagon I had at the time, with the pup, and let Kirra sniff him and see him from her crate, feeding chicken to her .. and him if he wanted it. So she got the message that this newcomer came complete with yummy treats for her, which gave her a good feeling about him from the start. Then he went into his airline crate, and we all travelled home. Then it was supervision, crates, play pen etc. etc. It took her about 2 weeks of telling him who actually was in charge of the house, before she decided he was fit to stay, and demanded that he play with her. They've been best buddies ever since. I was lucky too in that he'd been well raised in his litter, and particularly by a grumpy grandma who while she was good with the pups, was a firm disciplinarian. :D Good luck with the new addition. And don't forget we need photos. :laugh:

Sorry to hear about your loss. I don't really have anything useful to suggest .. except that a friend in similar circumstances, used some Rescue Remedy on her surviving dog. Hard to tell whether it made a difference, but it's one of those things that if it does no good would probably do no harm. Other than that. I think you're right .. it takes time for them as it does for us. I had the same sort of thing with my BC girl when my then boy, 7 weeks older, died suddenly. She definitely grieved .. and it does make thinks even harder. not being able to explain to the pups.

Teenage .. usually about 8 or 9 months. But you're doing all the right things by making yourself the keeper of the rewards, including permissions.

It's hard when it's an all in one class situation. We have Foundation .. one hour class, broken into a variety of tasks. Then Skills Training .. where we do have people at different levels, and trial people can jump in if they find gaps to plug, Sequences and Patters (likewise can have 'remedials', but the trial training group is separate. We usually set up a course or partial course, but sometimes, choose one depending on what triallers have found they need to work on. We're trying to encourage what TSD is talking about .. individual responsibility, spotting for each other, record keeping .. yes I'm bad at that. With the numbers and mix we have, we don't really run into too many overtraining problems .. but we will limit the height if we're working on something that's going to be repetitive. Our big problem is instructor power, or lack of.

Great update!! I've forgotten how old she is ... but just a heads up that when she hits that teenage time, she may completely forget all she ever knew, and think the rules don't apply ... if that happens .. just go back and teach her again .. as if she were a baby puppy .. but it comes back a lot faster.

Bummer about Ziggy's problems Staffyluv ... but really pleased to hear how well this seems to be working for him.

That sounds like a much happier situation, Jess. And positive all round. Nice to see some students feeling confident enough to step up to instructing .. and foundation being appreciated.

Any specifics on the changes ... other than the introduction of the new range? Just interested as mine have been doing very well on current BH .. and cats on the cat one.

That's a great explanation and description, corvus! Thanks.

The marker . whether it is a clicker or a specific verbal .. is a bridge between the behaviour and the reward .. it's information that the behaviour was successful or met criteria and reward is coming. It should be a unique thing .. but of course can be followed up with verbal praise along with delivery of other rewards. For most dogs, especially in the learning phase, praise is not really reinforcing enough. I wouldn't be too quick to be trying to get rid of the food as a reward, although there's nothing wrong with using other reinforcers as well. The food (as long as it's not used as a bribe) is quick and easy and you can get in a lot of reps. Had to laugh about the socks .. but sure ..soft tuggies are great .. I'd just have them longer than a sock, though .. puppies aren't always all that accurate with their teeth ., oh wait.. senior dogs aren't either. :D Also, longer tuggies can be great for having the dog chase you and catch the tuggy while they're learning. Have a look at kikopup's Youtube channel to get some ideas about the mechanics.

mowgliandme ... can't help specifically .. I have treat and tug oriented dogs. But 'permission' as a reward is fine .. provided it is a reward. So you would ask for a known/easy behaviour .. maybe a sit, mark with your normal reward marker ..click or yes .. then OK go sniff. After a reasonable sniff, I would stop, wait for the dog to look at you to see what's going on, then mark either for focus, or again for a specific simple behaviour, mark and release to sniff. So the sniff becomes dependent on you. But I could be a bit off the mark. If The Spotted Devil doesn't see this thread, I don't think a PM to her would be out of order. She's one of the experts on behaviour theory and practice in the forum.

Sorry to hear that you've had to farewell your dear Jindi. Always such a sad time. Just wanted to say ... there are plenty of people on the forums with mixed breed and rescue dogs. As far as I know, the forum rules just prevent the advertising or promotion of non-purebred dogs, or breeding of them. I'm sure rescue and ownership of a non-purebred companion dog is fine. You're among friends. :)

He is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing his photos.