Tassie

What Perse said!!! That is great news. Keep up the good work Mya.

I was fortunate enough to learn to work sheep with my conformation bred agility Border Collie girl on the property of a person who has working ISDS registered Border Collies, and sheep, and was an all breeds herding judge. My girl was a bit gung ho ... would never have made a 3 sheep dog, but became what the stockman called "a handy little farm dog", capable of gathering and yarding a couple of hundred sheep, and working them through yards and a drafting race, putting sheep up onto a truck .. etc. But ... I had a good trainer, with some well-dogged training sheep to practise on, and I was retired at the time, so had time to make the hour+ trip a couple of times a week at least, and spend hours walking through paddocks with her learning to balance small groups of sheep to me. Most importantly, with those hours of practise with different groups of sheep, I learnt to read sheep a bit. That training was mostly about setting the dog up for success, so substantially positive, with the reinforcement being the chance to work .. BUT, I worry about 'recreational' herding, as unlike most of the other dog activities we do, there is the concern that there are non-consenting participants ... the sheep or ducks or cattle. I am comfortable with the use of mild aversives when necessary to protect the stock, while you're getting the dog out of the situation to apply the consequence of "no work". I don't take my dogs to stock now, as I don't have the opportunity to do the amount of practice and work that I personally would consider necessary to do the job properly. ETA ... I don't consider my dogs to be under-employed .. we compete and train/have competed in agility, obedience, Rally O, tracking, track & search and Dances with Dogs, and the boy still shows in conformation occasionally :)

Lovely to read about his improvement.

ne Great post mowgliandme. Love kikopup's videos, and I hadn't seen the calming one ... perfect for this situation. And to the OP .. sounds like you have a perfectly normal 15 week old - still adjusting to what play that was OK in the litter is not OK with humans (poor thin skinned creatures they are :laugh: ). And as others have said, Spitz are probably on the slightly less naturally biddable end of the scale .. doesn't mean they can't be trained .. just means you need to find out what really floats his boat in the way of treats and play. Personally I don't find it helpful to think in terms of dominance. Growling is a really important mechanism in pups and dogs to tell others that for whatever reason, they are not happy with what's happening at the time, and if it keeps going, they may bite. "Treasure the grown" . In the particular instance, the slightly loud noise or call to let pup wake up properly was a good thing, but I'd make a mental note to put ... making touching/handling him when he's asleep (not randomly, but when you really need to) rewarding for him .. make it worth his while. As well as the kikopup youtube clips, you might also find some useful information if you google Absolute Dogs .. Tom Mitchell and Lauren Langman have some useful information on relationship building and so on. You did do one thing "wrong" though .. :D .. no photo of your adorable fluffball. :laugh:

Adding good wishes for Mya and you teekay. And thanks to Shoelace for the heads up on Metronidazole (Flagyl). It seems to be a great tool in the tool kit, but really valuable to know that there can be a downside .. but reading one of the articles on it, it does seem that it's reversible, and faster with diazepam.

Thank you :) Could you please tell me more about the breeders in Tasmania? Agree with checking out Lancefield show weekend. Not sure if there'll be Tasmanians there this year .. I know a couple went to SA recently for a big specialty. Not sure if anyone in Tasmania is likely to have puppies in the relatively near future, but you could enquire. Will send you a private message. :)

Second that from the ones I've seen. And there is a breed club, which seems as though it's pretty active. It would be worth contacting them. Corgi Club of Victoria. Good luck .. they are super little dogs. There are a couple of great breeders down here in Tasmania too. :)

Thank you very much Tassie! I've enquired to both Aquapaws/Dogs in Motion to hopefully start some physiotherapy with either one. You're welcome. Hope you get some good results.

That looks good too, Jess. One to tuck away for the future (hopefully not needed.)

Hi twopuppas. Jumabaar is a bit busy today, but in the meantime .. not sure where you are in Vic, but it might be worth making an enquiry with these people Aquapaws who are in Southeast Melbourne. I would think they would be happy to answer some questions you might have about options. If it were my dog, I would be getting on to it as soon as possible. Good luck.

Mine are crated at night when we're staying in dog friendly accommodation .. usually for about 6 or 7 hours, so no water in crate. If I have to leave them in their crates in the car overnight .. as for example when driving across the Nullarbor, or the Bass Strait ferry crossing ... then yes, they have water in their crates.

Hi Perse My experience was 2010 (driving across to Agility Nationals in Perth. No special entry requirements for dogs anywhere on the way (except coming back into Tasmania, where hydatid tapeworm worming is required). At the border crossing into WA on the Eyre Highway, the Quarantine officer was very careful to warn about the risk of 1080 poisoning from aerial baiting .. her advice was keep dogs leashed at roadside stops so they didn't pick up a bait.

What a loved boy you had, nelsona, and what a grand old age .. a tribute to your care. He would thank you for that hard decision you made, and we thank you and the kind posters for taking us through the process. We know we all have to go through it, but it doesn't get any easier. The support of real life and virtual friends does help. Sometimes DOL can get a bit snarky, but this was DOL at its best. Condolences to you, and thank you for sharing.

Thanks Katy ... yes, pretty stoked with the lad .. must be that good Western Australian breeding :laugh: . I was soooo pleased to read about Ruby's great day out -- 2 titles . Love the thought of her needing her paw held.

Like TSD, I train rapid drop by itself, in various situations (not formal recall). So that a rapid response to your drop cue is highly rewarded. I'd also advise not training the formal recall as one exercise. Just train the small component parts separately then when they're solid, they will all fit together. Anticipating the call is often a problem .. so sometimes reward a nice wait with a toy throw back over the dog's head, with the "Get it" cue, other times go back etc.etc. Same thing with either not finishing on first cue, or anticipating finish. Take the front, and the finish out and train them separately .. rewarding only straight fronts .. sometimes the reward can be thrown through the legs .. again with 'get it' cue. Platforms can be your friend too.

Really endorse the Fenzi blog articles, and also the Denise Fenzi/Deb Jones books, which cover aspects like Conditioned Emotional Responsem and play. From courses I've done with the Fenzi Academy, I've learnt the importance of building value for the secondary reinforcers like physical play, that you can bring into the ring with you. Just as a for instance, the taking off the lead and handing it to the steward, can be made a secondary reinforcer, helping the emotional state of both dog and handler.

I haven't actually set training goals, but I had targeted Rally Master, and possibly Rally O Ch. Happy to say those goals have been achieved ... RM back in April, and finally, yesterday we finished his Rally O Ch. (Would have been sooner if I hadn't kept losing the plot and making mistakes. There's something about knowing you have to get 90 or more .. even though most of his RM scored were 90+.) Anyway .. my lil big man Border Collie Rory is the first dog in Tasmania to finish Rally O Ch, and I put his application in today for his Triple Ch (Tracking and Rally O). Oh, and his final pass was a 99 .. 2nd place on time :laugh:

Haven't seen a change. I get big bags .. at the moment, Chicken and Rice and Fish and Potato. My dogs are very happy with both and do well on the food. (Had to switch them for a couple of weeks when I was travelling on the mainland recently .. they liked the food I used instead (think it was VIP Grain Free) but they both lost weight on that one, and my boy needed his anal glands expressed after we got home .. vet thought the food change might have contributed.) FWIW, my cats like and seem to do well on BH cat food too.

So sad for you DDD, but glad that you had a last little pleasant quiet time with him .. another gift from him to you.

Natural to worry. I had to fly my guys to the mainland the month before last, when the Spirit of Tas sailings were cancelled. Rory hadn't flown since he flew from Perth WA to Hobart as a 10 week old nearly 8 years ago (perfectly happy then too by the way.), and Kirra hadn't flown since she flew from Melbourne as an 8 week old, 14 years ago. No problems with either of them in either direction this time. But I was really glad to see them. I did actually have nice wide collars on them, with embroidered names and phone numbers .. just in case. And followed ness's advice about getting leads taped to the crates, and taping the info sheet to the crate. The transport guys did read those sheets too .

NOW you tell me It was a real pain when they were both doing Rally, and I had to remember different cuea in the same class. Mind you, their names are quite often "Rory,Kirra whoever you are". And yay for Miss Em .. definitely proud mum moment for you TSD.

Paw = rise left front foot, Foot = raise right front foot. Hint .. if you have more than one dog, have a consistent set of cues for every dog .. not different ones for different dogs ... :laugh:

That's lovely. Great to see 'non-traditional' breeds doing so well, and obviously enjoying it so much. Hope that didn't seem patronising .. you know what I mean. :D

I think I've said it before, but all animals should be as lucky as yours, in terms of being given loving care and consideration. You've had a really tough time .. so glad your little Westie is still enjoying being loved by you and your family.

mowgliand me said mowgliandme, I love the way you're thinking these things through and advocating for your puppy. The way I see it is, if you call your puppy to you and she comes to you, you are then rewarding the coming to you .. which is exactly what you want .. she is likely going to make the association treat was for the last thing I did. For inappropriate chewing I like to use a verbal interrupt . in the early days .. a surprise noise like a guttural "uh-uh". As the pup redirects attention away from the current chew object, I then will usually provide a legitimate chew object, which I play with a bit to engage the puppy in chewing it. Replacement object is usually something like the inside of a paper towel roll, but could be a commercial chew toy. It's important that it's very handy, so there's only a second or two between the interrupt and the redirection onto another object. So what we're teaching there is "Not that, but this" .. giving the pup managed choices, and celebrating great decisions .. I actually use those words as I celebrate the pup's appropriate choice.