corvus

Incidentally, I think it pays to know who your lecturers are going to be and what their interests are when you're picking a degree. I didn't do this, but somehow fell into a department full of ornithologists and behavioural ecologists, which was right down my alley at the time and I utterly flourished in that environment.

I think some of it is supply and demand as well. When I started environmental consulting I was getting about 40K (BSc with hons). They wouldn't really consider people without honours. It took me 6 months to get in, but I got there in a boom time and I knew people who it took 6 years of trying to get in. Lots of us who got in on the boom were retrenched when the GFC hit. By the time I left 2 years later I was on about 54K. We did a lot of work for free. We complained about it and were basically told there were people who would give their eye teeth for our job so we should just be quiet and be thankful we are where we are. I'm in the vet science department at USyd now, and there are a lot of people doing vet science. One wonders where they all go when they graduate. Generally jobs with animals are in high demand. People will accept lower salaries so they get to do what they want to do. I am submitting my PhD thesis today (woot!), and facing what will hopefully be only temporary unemployment while I wait for my thesis to be examined etc. When I left the work force I was with the government and earning about 70K. I will be pretty bummed if I can't get at least that after another 3 years of study, but then again, I didn't leave consulting because I wasn't happy with the pay. I wanted to do something with my life that wasn't compromising my values so much! At this point I would settle for a pretty pissy entry level salary despite my qualifications so that I can do something that doesn't make me toss and turn at night. :p Case in point.

If I had a deaf dog I would consider it worthwhile to condition it to a vibrating collar. I would opt for the vibration rather than the electronic stimulation because I am guessing there would be less potential for variability in the sensation depending on things like whether the dog is wet or dry etc. I'd be far more comfortable with something that did not depend on electrical current and conductance. Incidentally, skin conductance is considered a pretty decent indicator of changes in arousal and emotional state. I have no idea if that could also alter how the dog experiences e-collar levels.

I thought I was being cute.

It is possible to confuse passion and emotive language for ignorance, as well. It's like confusing arousal with drive. ;)

"Put your chicken on the table", for anyone who has done a chicken camp. ;)

A lot of people are assuming here that because people disagree with them they must be ignorant. This is not necessarily the case. There are world class trainers with decades of experience with training in all sorts of difficult environments that do not use e-collars because they don't like them or don't see a need for them. There are internationally recognised experts in treating aggressive dogs who don't use them. Are they all ignorant? Some people are very well educated on this issue and yet somehow hold differing opinions to others that are very well educated on the issue. Imagine that. I would be highly unlikely to let a professional trainer use an e-collar with my dogs. We all know what 'professional' means in this industry. Crap all. There are professional trainers out there creating more problems than they solve, like the one who made the mess Aidan is now cleaning up. I also remain unconvinced that for the majority of the pet owning public it is necessary to train snake avoidance. We spend more time in the bush than most in our area and are lucky if we see 3 snakes a year. I've never seen or experienced a snake looking for trouble. They get pissed off when trouble finds them. Our dogs have not much prey drive and good recalls. I'm more concerned about paralysis ticks than snakes. I'm more concerned about the road than either. I don't think the chief question should be "Can electronic collars be used humanely?", rather we should be asking what is the likelihood of them being used humanely and how would we judge that? Really, go read the Blackwell studies. Some answers are presented to some pertinent questions about e-collar use that rarely get much consideration in these kinds of discussions.

An e-collar is EASIER than a reward?? I call BS on that one. How is it possible that clicking a clicker is somehow more difficult or easier to get wrong than pressing a button that shocks a dog? A clicker only has one level, for starters, and mechanically it's pretty much the same as pressing a button on a remote. Plus negative reinforcement is notoriously difficult for the average trainer to grasp. Just ask someone who rehabs horses. Most of the dog training world IME thinks of NR as a clumsy, unpleasant tool, which it doesn't have to be at all. I personally love NR for particular scenarios and always seem to be sticking up for it, but the stuff I'm talking about using it for is way off the radar for most. No matter what quadrant or tool you use, timing is critical, and usually a limiting factor by my reckoning. Aim small, miss small. Most people are lumpers, if they even manage to be that effective. Half the battle is getting them to notice what they need to notice. Most of the rest is getting them to deliver some kind of consequence within a second of the target behaviour. I'd rather they stuff up with a reward, thanks. All of which has little bearing on the use of e-collars for snake aversion. Someone on a clicker list ages ago trained their hunting dogs to alert to snakes. They thought it worked better than aversion. I'm sure people will continue to use this tool for this purpose for a long time to come, and that's their choice. Meanwhile, other people will choose not to and their dogs won't die. That's their choice. My previous dog had a natural aversion to snakes. We should breed more like that. ;)

One of the issues addressed by Blackwell and Casey was the variation in the electronic pulse experienced by the dog. As has long been suspected by many, it was kind of disturbingly large. If you figure out a working level, there's no guarantee every time you administer it will feel the same to the dog. They also found plenty of people completely ignored the instructions that came with the collar and started at the highest level or used the highest level every time. Yah, you can misuse any tool, but flogging a dog provides a fair bit more feedback than pressing a button, and is probably a fair bit less ambiguous as well.

I would much prefer a short zap to the pain, confusion and suffering that dogs go through after a snake bite which can last days, and can be fatal. Taste aversion is a little bit different from other forms of aversion training. Literature suggests it is a case of one trial learning, usually, and the effects last a long time without further exposure. In contrast, avoidance learning with a shock collar is a not necessarily going to produce a conditioned aversion. There's a recent study on dogs in NZ with Kiwis that suggests some aversion training protocols will fail for various reasons. The dogs tend to need more exposures and re-training later on. A study on coyotes, for example, successfully trained coyotes to avoid lambs, but it only held for about 4 months. Personally, I wouldn't like to depend on any training to protect my dogs from snakes. We depend on supervision and staying away from the bush in spring and summer. Erik in particular is powerfully curious about snakes, but so far has recalled off a few of them without any problems. However, if I don't see them I can't recall. Last year we had one go literally under Kivi's legs on a trail. Fortunately he didn't notice, but there was nothing to do but hold my breath and try to quietly get his attention so he would look at me but stand still until the snake had gone. For anyone interested, Emily Blackwell and Rachel Casey did a series of studies for DEFRA in the UK about electronic collars recently. The reports are available online. The results were interesting. In particular: From here: http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=15332&FromSearch=Y&Publisher=1&SearchText=training+aids&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description

To me this is utter BS. The causes of SA are not exactly simple. On the surface it probably has a fair bit to do with attachment, but there are a bunch of other factors involved. For example, general anxiety often goes hand in hand with separation anxiety and noise phobias. Different dogs have different attachment styles and different levels of emotional reactivity as well, which may have an effect. As far as the doggy Caesar goes, I dunno, maybe I'd do nothing. Depends on what he was doing at the window and for how long. It seems he is easily distracted by a bone at least, so he may be whiling away his day. If by 'paranoid' we mean he is attentive to signals that may mean his owner is leaving and shows some level of anxiety or anticipation about this I think that is a red flag, although again, not necessarily one that needs to be acted on. It may just stay at that level indefinitely. If he were my dog, I would monitor and figure out what level of discomfort was acceptable to me. For example, one of my dogs clearly dislikes it when we leave him, but not enough to do anything more proactive than humping our other dog. This is acceptable to me given his temperament. If it was my other dog it probably wouldn't be acceptable. Pick your acceptable level and if it ever dips below that for more than a few days, that's when you should act. He may get better as he gets older. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol can help, as can leaving him with something yummy, which it sounds like he already gets. Dogs that pick up owner's clothes and sleep on them most likely miss you and are comforted by your smell. Socks and jocks (and bras) are favourites because they smell most like you. Giving dogs access to dirty socks and the likes may in mild cases help them cope. Robert Holmes says giving them access to your bed is even better. Honestly, when I started working from home I suddenly became very uneasy about our culture of total acceptance for working full time and also having dogs. I had never thought very hard about it. Since then, I have thought very hard about it. I would urge others to do the same, if only to reassess common practices and how you interpret your dog's behaviour.

I think it's UNDER-diagnosed. We only diagnose it when there are seriously obvious signs of distress. In the academic literature, waiting by a window or door is considered related to separation distress (not the same as clinical separation anxiety). What's more, it's entirely possible we only diagnose it in dogs with a proactive coping style, because they are the only ones that actually show the symptoms. For all we know there are dogs out there just as distressed but they show it in much quieter and less troublesome ways so nobody ever knows. I would consider waiting by a window for long periods of time potentially indicative of low level separation-related distress, although I wouldn't consider it alone something that necessarily needed to be treated if that's what it was. I don't think it serves dogs to assume that they are fine home alone until they start ripping things up, eliminating inside, and provoking neighbour complaints. Personally, I'm under no illusion that my dogs are somehow perfectly happy at home without me when I'm out for the day. The signs are subtle, but they are there if someone cares to look.

Apparently there are two types of people in the world. Those that always keep their dogs on leash in on leash areas and those that let their dogs run amok all over the place harassing and frightening people and upsetting dog reactive dogs.

My dog doesn't like the (prohibited) golf drivers. And he's reactive to kids with soccer balls, but kids with soccer balls still come to the off leash dog park. He doesn't really like kids running up to him and then screaming, but kids still do it sometimes. At the off leash dog park. He is also reactive to other dogs playing games of fetch. Something that regularly occurs at dog parks. Neither of my dogs like it when other dogs charge up to fencelines and race up and down barking viciously at them. Happens on the street, happens at the dog park sometimes too. Both my dogs want to chase cats, which makes me anxious every time we see one. I am scared they will scare a cat onto the road and I wish people would keep their cats in so I didn't have to look after them. I hate dirt bikes, which require us to gather the dogs in and find a place where we can wait off the road so we won't be run over. The bikers are nearly always somewhere they are not allowed to be. Unfortunately, the world is not inherently considerate towards me and my reactive dog. But there is room to accommodate the ideals and cultures of others in our lives. It just means that sometimes we change our plans on the run, or sometimes we are inconvenienced, or sometimes I am frustrated that just when I finally got everything under control someone threw a ball right beside us, or sometimes we drive a ways to find somewhere quiet and relaxing. We are considerate towards others even when they are not strictly doing the 'right' thing, and oftentimes they are considerate towards us. I am okay turning a blind eye when it hurts no one. Even when I'm not enjoying the activity I'm turning a blind eye towards.

What if it's not in complete disregard of other people and their dogs? What if other people and their dogs do it everyday anyway? Do you join them because your dog likes it and all the other dogs involved enjoy it or do you continue to walk your dog on leash because it's the law despite the fact your dogs are better behaved than most and the place is already crawling with off leash dogs? I faced this same dilemma and in the end compromised. Dogs are allowed off on the fields if no one is on them (including the people that practice golf driving next to the sign that expressly forbids it), and they are off along the back of the field where we meet the occasional jogger, walkers, or other dog walkers, then go back on when we walk along the main thoroughfare, past the playground and picnic tables and fishermen and off again at the point sometimes if it's nice and they want a swim. It seemed pointless to keep my dogs on leash when everyone else's dogs were off leash having fun in case my dogs annoyed said dogs (who had already come to greet us anyway). Particularly when people were like "Why are your dogs on leash? Are they aggressive? Do they run away? Should I put mine on?" If we see someone with an on leash dog mine go on leash or into stays well out of the way. I don't consider that completely disregarding other people and their dogs.

I think RazorBlade and their dog are NOT different from everyone else. :p There are some places I go that are technically on leash areas, but at certain times of the day they are so well established as illegitimate off leash dog areas that people ask you why your dog is on leash and assume if it is it's got problems. No one gets reported because so many people with dogs do it. They are part of the community and lots of people who share the areas know the names of the dogs and stop to greet them as well as their owners. Most of the people that use the areas seem perfectly comfortable with strange dogs approaching them and their dogs if they have one. I am one of them. I like getting visits from strange dogs. I gush over them same way other people gush over mine. Doesn't mean I expect everyone will want to talk to my dogs, but it does give an insight into why people think it's okay. For most people it IS okay.

I just bellow it out like a drill sergeant. "DOWN!!!" When I was working on it with Erik ages ago I seem to remember I shaped it back from a few steps then a down to maybe a half step with fast releases (to me for a reward) for fast downs. I started working on a down in motion while he was moving away from me and hit troubles because his urge was to at least be facing me. He got a little confused and I had to take it right back to downing facing away from me just a step in front. Then I got distracted and forgot about it. I'm doing distance position changes with Kivi at the moment, and usually use a platform. Just building up the muscle memory and changing the context so he knows it's still the same signal when I'm not right by him. Didn't need to do that with Erik because he learns a cue and almost instantly generalises. Kivi needs stacks of practice, particularly with cue discrimination. He gets mixed up. Or more to the point, my signals are not consistent enough for him and he has to learn all the zillions of minute variations.

Erik's name gets shortened to "E" when I need him to respond now. I can really snap that one out so it starts sounding like a call to attention more than a name. Super fast and cuts through the background stimuli. I can't really do that with Kivi's name so much. I would be looking for sharp sounds in the name and avoiding soft sounds. Trixie might be common, but it's got some nice, sharp sounds. :) So does Flick and Snap for that matter. Trip, Cricket, that sort of thing. I've been thinking lately how fun it would be if I had a dog named Mortal. I could boom across the dog park "MORTAL! COME HITHER!" Of course, this is only cool if the dog is obedient. ;)

Mine are eager to greet if I've been out of the room for a few minutes. If I leave the house for a little while and come back I sometimes get roo-roos from Kivi. We left them in a kennel once for 2 weeks. When I picked them up Kivi raced across the grass and leapt into my arms. He's not usually that uninhibited, so I wasn't prepared for it and ended up on my butt with both dogs frantically licking my face. It's usually more like this with Kivi. He picks something up, flattens his ears, and walks around in circles.

I don't share your confidence in the descriptions being accurate. I've watched a room full of dog trainers puzzle slides of canine behaviours put up for discussion. I didn't intend to express confidence. Words can paint a picture, but as you point out it's not necessarily an accurate one. The bow may have its roots in prey testing behaviour in wolves for all we know. I've seen it used in some pretty obnoxious ways, and associated with social conflict. I was just addressing the most likely interpretation. I don't think there's any sense speculating, but not knowing the cause of the behaviour doesn't preclude all possible treatments. Some things might help for a broad range of problems. I tried to stick to those ones.

If help can't be given without a professional, then why is there 3 pages of this thread already? IMO there is a limited number of things that can help the OP in the interim that is reasonably safe and unlikely to do any harm to the dog or make things worse if caveats are respected. * NILIF * Not provoking the dog and keeping it away from the kidlet. * The dog is already getting lots of training and that can keep as long as it is training that doesn't rev the dog up. The behaviour and body language descriptions paint a picture of a playful dog, but having had a playful staffy mix decide to play tug with my arm, I don't find that completely reassuring. It is at least encouraging that the dog is responsive to the owner, but if he's slipping into a state of high arousal that may change with little warning. It's a very good thing to learn how to manage the dog's arousal before we find out what he might do with it. Then we never have to find out and potentially get a nasty surprise and simultaneously end up with a dog that has a new behaviour that fairly urgently needs to be stopped. Arousal reduction attempts are also unlikely to do any harm and may do some good. * Massage * Training stays or mat work (Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol is very good for all sorts of dogs) * Giving him outlets that involve chewing or licking. Just have to be careful to acknowledge many of those may be reinforcers for this dog, and as such should not follow right on the heels of unwanted behaviour. My rule of thumb is 10 seconds for Erik, but for many dogs 3 is enough. Perhaps if it is often happening after a game, you could try making play time shorter and spending a few minutes when you want to finish up calming him down with long slow strokes and massage. Or play for half a minute, calm him down, then play again and calm him down. That way you're always a step ahead and he learns to calm down quickly. I'm sure there are others. We don't need to cut people off because the "a" word got tossed around. The OP says they will get professional help. Good. In the meantime, there are things that are good for any dog to learn or practice and should help any problem related to elevated arousal and in some cases problems related to (dare I say it) dominance as well.

For curiosity’s sake... * When he growls and barks at you, is it a monotonous bark with each bark the same pitch and the same space between barks, or does it vary? Does the bark start soft and increase in volume, or does it start loud and stay loud? Does he stand still and straight or does he shift his weight to his hindquarters? Is he wagging his tail? Is the growl coming from deep in his chest or more from his mouth? * Do these episodes occur at a particular time of day? Or when you are preoccupied with house chores? * When you moved him away from you, did you push or drag him or do something else? * It is good that he is still obedient when he’s doing this. Will he lie down when asked? * Are you doing Nothing In Life Is Free with him or something like it? If not, I think you should start. There is an article about it here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/nothing-life-free He should know that the key to getting what he wants is to sit or lie down quietly and patiently wait. If you haven't been using NILIF so far, don't start all at once now. Start with basic things when he is calm and only ask for a very quick sit/down. Gradually expand to other life rewards. It's like a sneaky way of teaching him to be calm and polite and ask nicely when he wants something instead of trying to take it. I would move it into play pretty quickly, especially if he's already so obedient when aroused. * How much chewing/licking does he get to do? Do you give him Kongs or bones to chew on? I would be looking at feeding him all his food he doesn't get in training in Kong form. It will give him something constructive to do with his chompers.

Ooo. That one's a Gould's Wattled Bat, I think. The OP's bat is light, but not albino. Albino bats are stunning and very rare.

Really? I was told by bat experts that as far as anyone knows no bats in Australia hibernate. If I remember correctly, they think in winter the bats may stay in torpor for a few days or a week, but will still come out to hunt. We used to trap and detect the calls of bats all year 'round when I was doing impact statements. In winter sometimes it would take a while for the bats to warm up enough to fly once evening came around. Bat people have a bunch of tricks, like putting them in a car by the heater or tucking them into bras. I should ask my friend, who is doing a PhD on bats at the moment.

Aww, it must have wandered into the house and looked for a dark, enclosed place to roost. Bats go into torpor when they roost, so they often can't fly away if disturbed because they are too slow and sleepy. That is a small one even for a microbat. Maybe it's a forest bat. Many of those are insy weensie. Most species rarely bite or scratch when they are in torpor. I have met a few exceptions. Best to handle them with gloves on. They are so little most types of gloves can be protective enough. Just got to make sure with the reduced dexterity and sense of touch you don't drop them or squish them. I've always thought they feel very fragile. Maybe you could put a bat box up in your yard. Studies show bats use boxes even in the middle of suburbia. As long as they don't get taken over by bees or ants. It gives them more places to roost so less competition with other animals.