corvus

How cool and funny! Both of them!

Worst things: -Looking after the coat and dealing with sheds. -The moments of spitz independence that come just when you least expect them and really don't want them to. Kivi blew off his recall for the first time in months one day in favour of eating human excrement. -I think the friendliness gets a little out of hand sometimes. Kivi WILL approach a dog that's going to snap at him, and he'll then do it again if it was only an air snap. It takes an all out lunge accompanied with vicious barking and snarling to convince Kivi that it might be better to stay away from a dog. I can call Kivi back from a dog he wants to say hello to if I don't think it will appreciate him, but I have to watch him especially with smaller dogs. He sometimes bounces all around them and when they have a go at him he doesn't even feel it through his coat. He will also totally whore himself out to anyone that has a kind look for him. You sometimes feel like you aren't very special to him. Best things: -They are just so freaking sweet! Forget the typical sweet breeds, Lappies take sweetness to new levels. I've had Kivi for nearly two years and I still marvel at his temperament. He's just gorgeous through and through. -Kivi is very easy to live with and has just slotted himself neatly into our lives. He doesn't give us any trouble. We can take him anywhere and he will behave wonderfully for us. We barely trained him or socialised him, but you wouldn't know it. -Lappie cuddles! They are just the right size and consistency for cuddles, and they usually smell like the last shampoo you washed them with. Kivi groans when you spoon with him. You just have to experience that to know how lovely it is. Who wouldn't want to give this teddy bear a squeeze?

Just for kicks I was teaching Erik to spin in a circle on signal this afternoon. I started luring him around with my hand, and then started using a smaller movement just drawing a small circle in the air without moving my arm. Erik was not entirely sure about this one, but started spontaneously spinning when I cocked my hip sideways towards him while taking a step. I stuck with it seeing as he seemed to think that was the signal, but it reminded me of last week's training endeavours teaching him to walk backwards. I was going to use the same hand signal as I use for Kivi to go backwards, but somewhere along the line Erik started offering it for a shuffle of my feet instead, and so I started using that and he was all over it in about five minutes. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else. Do your dogs learn the signals you intend to teach them, or do you sometimes seem to come to an understanding together to use a different signal? Do you or your dog favour hand signals or signals using other body parts? I was trying to teach Kivi to move according to where I put my body weight a while ago. It was working really well until I tried going a bit too fast and he got confused. I suspect Erik is training me and adding his own cues when he sees fit.

Maybe, depending on time and location.

Sounds good, Fran. Watersedge's current litter have the same dad as Kivi. ;) It'd be cool to go and visit them anyway. Watersedge has some very pretty colours! I'm not sure, but I think Aku is at Watersedge at the moment. He is Kivi's grandfather, and the one that convinced me I needed a Lapphund. That dog has methods for getting you to keep scratching and stroking him. Really effective methods.

I'm a bit dubious about air conditioning in general. I think it's good that animals in warm climates acclimatise to the actual climate rather than an artificial one. Kivi is definitely finding it harder at the start of the season than he did in the height of summer last year. Although he currently has a coat full of dead hair, which probably doesn't help him. Kivi doesn't mind ambient heat much, but definitely feels direct heat in the summer. As long as he's got shade he's fine. You know, whenever I take Kivi for a walk along the rocky shores of the rivers around here, he starts doing these stunning precision leaps between boulders and easily leaps onto walls or boulders that are a good 1.5m high. Suddenly my lumbering bear of a dog that doesn't even think to jump over things has turned into a gazelle! Kivi is about the mellowest, most un-drivey that Lapphunds get, but nonetheless, I think I could persuade him to do agility. A nice drivey girl would like it better, though. As for other dogs.... Kivi lives for canine greetings. By far his favourite thing in the world is other dogs. He's NEVER started anything and never retaliated when he's been snarked at. He's a great dog park dog and basically views every dog as a potential best friend for him. When he goes to stay with my parents, they don't even walk their three dogs when he is there, because he spends every waking moment playing with them. He is incredibly friendly to the point where I have to watch him or he'll be sticking his nose in where it's not wanted again and again just on the off chance that if he approaches a little slower this time the dog will let him touch noses.

I've been using the 300 peck dealy (thanks Aidan!) as well. It's been great for increasing duration for Kivi's stays. Just gives me a little direction so I have a better idea of what I'm doing and what Kivi can do.

Well, I thought it was funny, but I guess I didn't want to do more dancing around waving my bottom from a pedestal kind of thing.

Argh! Take him away! I'm afraid to say your puppy exceeds the legal limit of cute consumption *issues ticket*. Please keep him out of sight until he is less cute, for everyone's safety.

That would be lovely! Last night I practised an emergency recall for Erik when he was all worked up because he knew I was eating delicious food in the lounge room away from him. He came tearing around and took a flying leap at my hand from about 70cm away from me. Last week he nailed my thumb twice in the space of a few days in his eagerness for rewards (and not just food rewards). Guess who's biggest training priority at the moment is to bring the drive under control rather than encourage it? Still, it amazes me that he can take a running jump and snap his jaws down on my hand without breaking my skin.

I'd love to hear how it goes. I've been thinking about getting the dvd, but got the Control Unleashed book this time around instead. Maybe next time, though.... (about to start a new job that pays three times what I currently make..!)

Sometimes time outs can just rev them up. You don't want to get trapped in the thinking that you isolate them for a transgression, but then they start barking and fussing, and you have to wait for them to be quiet before you let them back out again. Here's a nice article from Dee Ganley about training impulse control in dogs: http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/LoweringArousal.pdf I should be doing this more stringently with my two, who get way over-excited sometimes. I can get my older dog to calm down pretty quickly and easily, but then the young ratbag will bite his foot and I lose as they start at it again. If it's really getting crazy they get crated with a pig's ear. This is because I am lazy and like quick fixes at 8pm at night when I am trying to take it easy! We are getting there slowly, though. This is something I should have started on right from the start, but I thought I'd wait to see if they calmed down on their own, and they did a good deal, but still just get silly sometimes and need to be put in downs and practice things like down stays for a while.

Oh yes. He gets one every time. Some people say you shouldn't reward when they pull their feet away or growl, but it kind of depends on what you are doing. My dogs are quite okay with having their feet touched, so I don't reward them if they pull away because I'm trying to teach them to hold still for me. But that's not quite the same thing as early desensitisation where your aim is not so much to teach them a behaviour, but to change their emotional response to something. It's a classical conditioning thing rather than an operant conditioning thing. You would still aim to stay in his comfort zone so that he wouldn't pull away, but if you make a mistake and push him too far you can still give him a treat and be on track for a dog that is relaxed about being touched. You're not trying to teach him to hold still and accept a touch at this stage, just pairing touches with treats so that a touch comes to predict good things.

It sure helps if you don't flinch, but it's not the end of the world if you do. It just means it will probably take longer to overcome. The aim of the game is to not provoke him to snap or nip or even pull his foot away at all. The point of desensitisation is to gradually increase his tolerance WITHOUT triggering a negative response from him. Every time you do it hurts the work you've done with him, whether you flinch or not. If you touch his paws without him pulling them away, give yourself ten points. If he pulls his foot away deduct a hundred points. If he snaps or tries to nip, deduct 500 points. Every time you accumulate 100 points, give yourself a piece of chocolate. If you don't even have to touch his paw to get him to pull it away, reward him for hovering your hand over it until you accumulate 100 points and then try touching it.

Do a search on YouTube for Kikopup. She has a video showing you how to teach your dog to accept having their nails cut. I'm finding my dogs are picking it up quite fast, although they didn't mind that much to begin with. Erik very cutely smacks his paw into my hand and holds it there, staring at me and waiting for me to click him. Erik needs to learn that not every training session requires such enthusiasm! I think I'm going to use a less exciting reward to see if I can tone him down a bit for this one. Kikopup has loads of good videos that are very helpful. If you decide to use a muzzle, it's important to condition THAT to be a good thing before you even start on anything else. Otherwise you'll just be making it harder for yourself. Incidentally, I have a full-coated dog and I wouldn't dream of shaving him. Their fur acts as insulation for them. If you want to give him a way to cool down, get a little paddle pool he can put his feet in. Dogs lose heat mostly through their feet. Kivi can trot around on the shores of the river for ages when it's warm if he trots in the shallows.

Then maybe you should have stipulated that you were talking strictly about working dog aggression when you made that very broad statement, Diablo? As far as I'm concerned you do every bit as much risk assessment as I would, you just judge it based on different experiences.

Thanks Nekhbet, that sure makes sense!

Maybe he's decided it's a game? Is he biting you as well? Hard or soft? Barking at you as well? What kind of bark? Or, he might be a little twerp like my puppy Erik, who DOES NOT like to be thwarted. Erik is expected to sit or down if he wants something. QUIETLY, please. Instead of coming right out and grumping at him or trying to move him physically, I distract him with a bright, cheery call. He comes running, I tell him to sit, he sits, I give him a belly rub or throw something for him to chase, he runs off to chase it and voila, he has forgotten what he was doing before that was so objectionable to me. Whatever the reason for his behaviour, I love sits. Puppies are so good at them and so used to be rewarded for them that they soon become really dependable sitters and then you can ask for a sit whenever things are getting a little crazy and you have a few seconds to decide what to do next. I also like distracting because you achieve your ends without having to confront the dog or get cross with him. It's important to teach him gently how to handle his frustration, though. Gradually ask for longer and longer sits, or longer and longer periods of quiet, or ask him to do things in more and more distracting environments. Do lots of desensitisation and socialisation with him so he gets used to being handled in ways he might not like. If he's getting grumpy about being touched on the sides for example, spend 5 minutes touching his side and then giving him a treat. Touch and treat. If he goes into a towering rage if you shut him in the kitchen when you're eating in another room (Erik), wait until he's quiet and pop him a treat. Teach him that he gets nothing when he grumps and all sorts of delicious goodies when he is quiet and calm.

Well, it depends on how far you take it and whether you are doing it in isolation, doesn't it? I'm having a similar training conundrum with Erik at the moment, who tugs like a fiend and won't give up his flirt pole toy once he's caught it. I've been trying to balance training him to release a toy on command and rewarding that without diminishing his desire to tug like a fiend. He likes tugging more than food sometimes and sometimes less. I feel it would be useful to be able to reward with a tug at times, but only if I can get the damn toy back again! If I don't balance it right, he wants to bypass tugging and just grab it and instantly release for the reward. I wasn't sure how I was going to solve this, but I'm currently rewarding his release with more tugging, and it seems to be doing the trick, although it's early stages. I don't see why rewarding with something so high in value should also diminish the desire to hunt. Although by all means say so if you disagree! I don't know much about hunting dogs. I just know that rewarding Erik with a tug doesn't mean he wouldn't chase the tug toy if I threw it.

No, I don't think it really does depend on the type of aggression you are dealing with and what needs to be achieved. You made a very broad statement and I disagree with it. My reasons for disagreeing are valid whether you believe the risk of inappropriate aggression in future is negligible or not. To believe a dog is not going to aggress inappropriately, you are still making a risk assessment. You just judge the risk on whether the behaviour is occurring or not. I would judge it on other things as well, such as the body language of the dog when it was in a stressful situation that would have previously triggered it. And that would hold regardless of the breed and the nature of the original problem, and the overall aim, because I think the more information the better.

Well... they do if they play with each other. Kivi and Erik are hooning around our small yard right now and have been on and off for the last hour. While I am in here sitting on my butt. But then, both my dogs are young. They might slow down as Erik matures.

Maybe so, but insecure and submissive don't have to go hand in hand. Kivi is a confidently submissive dog, if that makes sense. He will approach any dog and he'll be flashing submissive signals as he does it, but he LOVES meeting stange dogs. There's nothing insecure in the way he interacts with other dogs. He knows exactly what he is doing, and that is loving up to his new BFF. I love watching Kivi, because he is such a sweet soul that he gets through life without any aggressive signals at all. Well, the ocassional one that is so subtle I hesitate to call it aggressive. You could easily miss it if you weren't looking for it. Kivi is a lover, not a fighter. It never seems to cross his mind to snark at someone no matter how obnoxious they are being or how tired he is of them. Nonetheless, he is quite confident and out-going. I find it fascinating that he seems just as keen to get physical contact from other dogs as he is to get physical contact from humans. This morning he was being particularly good as a lab came past and was allowed to greet her. He had never met this dog, but he somehow thought it was okay to move straight from touching noses to nuzzling her ear. It wasn't the nuzzling that bothered her so much as suddenly having this dog she'd only just met pushing past her nose and getting his shoulder under her chin so he could nuzzle her ear. She tensed up more, and Kivi was in the complete wrong position to see it, staring at her ear as he was. OH had the leash and called him away, but the owner of the lab started tugging her away when her head was still over Kivi's shoulder, so inevitably the owner actually pulled her further into Kivi's space, making her MORE uncomfortable and her hackles came up. Fortunately, she didn't do anything and Kivi came away, but I can see why some people don't let their dogs meet other dogs on leash at all.

Someone down the road has a BC in a townhouse with a small courtyard. I was kinda like "Is it right to have a dog like that in such a small area?", but we barely even know it's there. It barks every now and then when we go past with our dogs, but otherwise not a peep, and the courtyard hasn't been destroyed. Can't complain. It seems to be working for them.

I think you do have to consider how big the dog is compared to the space it will occupy. I desperately wanted to take home a 7 month old Akita earlier in the year, but he was huge and just looking at the size of him and imagining how he would move around in our small house and yard was enough to make us rethink and decide on a smaller breed. I was like, where will he sleep? Our bedroom doesn't have enough floor space for him and Kivi! Once he stretches out he will take up half the spare floor space in the kitchen. He would have been fine exercise-wise, but we have some really tight spaces around here that such a large dog would have trouble negotiating. Otherwise, it comes down to how much exercise you can give them. Most dogs sleep all day as long as they are given enough exercise, but a very active dog could have just as much trouble handling a large yard as a small yard if no one is there during the day to give it things to do. My mother has a Kelpie/Boxer cross who will just amuse herself if she doesn't get enough exercise. Dogs that amuse themselves rarely choose ways that are conducive to good human-dog relationships!

Have you tried silky leash, fainty_girl? I don't know how well it works and I'm guessing it probably takes a long time to get it working in any situation, but it seems to start them on the right track, and sounds similar to what Aidan is describing. http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/2008/10/12/silky-leash/