Luke W

Bingo.

OK - point taken...he might...by your reply I guess you're saying 'he won't' :-) OK - I live in an apartment no garage. I've got lots of unfenced grounds but nothing that's completely fenced. I'm worried if I leave him outside, while I go inside, he'll wander off the property. I'll have to think about this - I'm not sure I've got enough room in the apartment to satisfy the other requirements. Thanks heaps for the reponses.

I'm starting to get a collection of grooming equipment and I was wondering what people were using as storage? I was thinking something like a knife roll would be ideal? A large piece of leather with pockets and elastic attachments that I could roll up... This sort of thing: http://www.chefknivestogo.com/kniflugandac.html http://www.fantes.com/knife-storage.html So far my grooming kit will consist of: 2-3 combs a couple of brushes a stripping knife a coat king a couple of pairs of scissors nail clippers clippers and combs . . . Any suggestions? What's everyone else using?

I understand that the click is just a marker...'correct behaviour, food coming...' I'll need to formulate my thoughts in a reply. I need to think about the sequence of events and how they should be ordered...the elements I see are: Cue, Signal, He sits, he breaks or he doesn't break, the NRM, the marker, the treat, the release, and how it fits with a stay command... I'm probably going to have to draw a flowchart As a side note...when I move to an intermittent reward schedule (to fade the food), I still click right? And to avoid the dog thinking click, no food = incorrect and click, food = correct, I use the NRM to mark the incorrect behaviour so he still understand click = correct even if food doens't follow. Gunna have to hit the books I think.

I'm not yet trying to teach stay - He tends to often break his sit as soon as I start reach for his treat. That's what I'm trying to avoid by delaying the click. I don't even have a release command yet. I'm going to have to do some reading on stay and release components. I'm not quite sure I understand how they should be used and taught. For example... if I say sit, should he remain sitting until I give a release command? If so, doesn't that negate the need for a 'stay' command...? And what do I do if he breaks the sit to target the reward (remembering I haven't taught stay yet). I need to have a think when my mind is a bit fresher - just got back from puppy school - we are both tired. Thanks again, much appreciated.

Hehe - this training stuff is tricky! He's sleeping at the moment - I'm not sure if he barks on the verbal sit or just the hand signal sit. I'll check that out next traiing session. I think what happened was I was trying to extend the length of his sits/downs by delaying the click. At some point he's extended his sit length and barked just as I've clicked...bingo - he now thinks that sit means sit AND bark...DOH! I think I understand what you are saying and I think I know what I need to do: - I should signal sit and click as soon as the bum hits the floor...if I wait too long he starts to bark - so I need to go back to clicking immediately, rather than trying to extend the length of the sit (which was what I was doing just before I introduced the bark). It's hard to extend the length of his sit because he starts barking really quickly if I don't immediately click for the sit. And as soon as I click his comes up from his sit to get his treat... Tricky this training stuff. Fun though. As for the 'off' switch...should I be traiing my dog to bark until I give the off switch or just bark while I continue to give the bark signal. IE..can the end of me signalling be the 'off' switch? Thanks for the reply!!

Mine's pretty basic but I do mine in PS. What do you want to do?

OK - I should have thought of this before I taught him to bark. He barks on my hand signal, I click and treat. He's reasonably reliable. But now he 'offers' barking at other opportunities. I signal 'down'...he lies down and barks. I signal 'sit'..he sits and barks. He's very excitable What's the best method to stop him from 'offering' the barking unless I signal? Do I stop clicking and rewarding the downs/sits if he barks...he gets frustated with this method. Do I teach a 'stop bark'? How would I do this? Should he continue to bark until I give him the signal to stop? At the moment, my hand signal to bark is open and close my hand, palm facing him and my shoulder level. He gives one or two barks per open/close after which time I click and treat... Ideas? Is there an accepted method to teach bark/stop bark/keep barking?? Thanks.

Hi K9 Force. A few questions before I start on this program. 1. Can I start at any age? My pup is 12.5 weeks old. 2. Prepare the meal inside & this should be done after all higher members have eaten. Your dog will learn, through positive results in this program that being tied out will end in drive satisfaction ie: Positive reinforcement. This is good if you have a dog that whines on a tie out. Allow your dog to relax on the back tie, a few minutes is usually enough. Don't go out to a whining dog. What if my dog doesn't relax after a few minutes. Do I just keep waiting? For how long? How do I end if he's still whining after 1 hour? 3. Can I use a clicker for marking 'yes' instead of the verbal 'yes'. My dog has already started on clicker training (which seems to be working well by the way). 4. I'm pretty sure I can follow the instructions...is there any critical crucial mistakes I could make that might be very hard to undo? What do I do if he never goes out of 'full food drive' 5. "Always go inside when you release the dog" Anyway around this - I don't have a secure yard? Many thanks.

I wouldn't encourage the chasing. Don't chase him. It's a hugely fun game for a dog but not one I'd want to play for the rest of my life. If he runs away with his toy, turn your back and walk away. Eventually he'll get the message that it's more fun to bring toys to you rather than run away with them.

Fantastic news Tashki!! Good on you both! My pup doesn't know to go outside by himself yet - he only knows to cry when he needs to go when he's in his pen. If he's wandering around the house, he'll go anywhere if we don't watch him every second. He doesn't have easy access to outside - we have to let him out. You're one step ahead of me on the toileting front now!

and remember, a dog is most likely to come when you are walking away, not standing still. I've found that even a slight turn of the body away form the dog and shift of weight away from the dog is more likely to cause mine to come. If that's not working I actually start to walk away - my pup notices this and then starts running toward me. Also, whenever your dog comes of his own accord (not on command, just gennerally coming to you) - reward and let him go back to what he was doing. He'll come to associate coming to you as a good thing. Try to avoid recalling your dog and ending his walk. Never recall and punish. Make recall fun! Recall, treat, let him go. I never call my pup to me to immediately end a walk. Usually I wait till he's hanging around me for a bit - then end the walk. I mix up the precursors to a walk's end to avoid associating the end of a walk with anything specific. I try not to assocatiate coming or being near me as a bad thing.

Wise words... I have all of theory in my head - but put in to practice it is a bit harder Tell me about it

How long does he need to be quote for before I treat him? I am scared to go in and wake him up / treat him when he is quiet that he will just sook when I go away! Maaan! He is having quite a sooky session is his pen RIGHT now! 30 minutes... I've read various time frames to be quiet before treating...from 1 minute to 5 minutes. I'd start with 1 minute and gradually increase it. To take your mind of his crying...GO OUT! Toilet him, put him back in his den, then GO OUT and come back in an hour. Ignore him for 5 minutes when you come back home. Make sure he's quiet for at least 1 minute too! So that's 5 minutes after you get home you can go see him ONLY if he's been quiet for 1 minute. Make sense? I know it's tough to resist the urge to comfort but a small amount of anxiety now (for him AND you) will prevent a HUGE amount of anxiety over the next 10+ years!

Oh and when he cries when you put him back in his den AFTER he's been to the toilet...you KNOW it's just 'come and pay attention to me' crying. Ignore it. Really ignore it. Don't look in on him, don't try to sneak a peak, don't tell him to be quiet from another room...totally ignore him. ANY interaction (even tyhe tinest amount) gives him attention and re-inforces that crying works. NOTE: My opinion only and I'm no expert (but I have read some books and my puppy is fine in HIS den) :-)

I'm not really sure...my pup didn't really start to 'play' in his den till he was around 10 weeks old. He did chewm his chew toys almost straight away. Ripping the place apart might just be play. Does he have toys to chew on? Remove everything from the den except his chew toys and maybe his blanket. I couldn't use paper in my pen 'cos my pup just shredded it. I have plastic sheeting on the floor. I guess you have to make his den a nice place to be. Feed him in there. Get in his den if you can fit...sit with him for a while and treat him. Give him toys to chew on. Kongs, hides, etc. Praise and treat him whenever he is quiet. Wake him up to treat him. Make his den a happy place. This helped me a lot...you can downloa dthe PDF: http://www.siriuspup.com/beforebook.html

I can only speak about my experience with my pup. I look at it as: taking him out to the toilet when he cries is re-inforcing 'cry for toilet'. I realise it's not quite that simple though. Mine only cries during the night when he wants to go to the toilet. Otherwise he's either sleeping or chewing on his toys. You have another option... Ignore ALL crying and take him out every hour without fail. If he's crying, wait until he stops for 5 minutes THEN take him out. That way, you don't re-inforce the "crying gets me out of the pen". But you also don't re-inforce 'crying gets me to the toilet' either, which yu might actually want. It didn't take my pup long to learn that crying gets him to the toilet but that's it...no play, no fun, just toilet. Being QUIET gets him out of the pen for fun and games.

He might not be able to see you but he might be able to hear you. No matter how quietly I creep - my pup knows exactly where I am. On waking, take him outside. No pating, no talking, no games, no fun. Just toilet. Get him outside and say your signal ("wee wee" or whatever) and praise and reward when he goes. Then take him immediately back to his den. No talking, no patting.

I use a Vari Kennel for short term confinement and a wooden baby pen for longer term confinement. So I've got the vari kennel inside the wooden pen... My pups now 12 weeks old and I leave the vari kennel door open most of the time. He's happy inside it anyway and sleeps the night away inside his little den. He cries when he wants to go to the toilet.

Oh yep - been through that with my Dally :D I quickly learned the attitude "stuff the socially awkward moment" and do what's right for my relationship with the pup. That goes for meeting kids/people on a walk or in our house. I have no problem with educating adults or their kids on the right way to firstly ask if they can pat him then do so appropriately. Being assertive gets easier hehe - yeah - I've got to be more assertive. When I said "He'll get there eventually" - I should have said "I'll get there eventually"

How the !@#$ do you control other people and especially children from ooohing and aaahing and praising and patting and getting him all excited every time he jumps on them in greeting. It's tough to to prevent other people from doing bad things. It's a socially awkward moment. I've started standing on his lead to prevent him from jumping up when it's possible to do so. My puppy sits on command but not when he's super-excited to be meeting a new person and they are encouraging him to jump. He'll get there eventually I suppose.

If we kept every image we photographed we would need an entire room to fit a hard drive. It is a bit hard to keep every shot on hard drive when you shoot in the capacity that we do. (We do keep EVERY image - but not on hard drive. As soon as we have photographed a job ALL images are burnt to two discs in their original form. All poor quality images are culled from the file that is kept on the hard drives. ) ??? A 750GB hard drive holds the equivalent of 156 DVDs. I'd rather store 1 hard drive than 156 DVDs.

When I read the title - my first thought was "but dogs can't read"...that's my dumb sense of humour Anyway - I'm an avid reader and the owner of a new puppy. I posted some recommendations in this thread: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=135008 Hope it helps.

Two 500GB drives for $120 - now that is cheap!

About $250 for a 750GB drive plus an external USB 2.0 case.