corvus

I can accept that, but my thing is, Penny grumbled about things she really didn't want to do for most of her life and it never did go further. Given that every dog is a little different, where's the harm in playing it by ear? If you are clued into your dog, like Shell is, you can see where things are starting to go awry and change the rules if you have to. I personally found it very useful that Penny felt she could grumble at me without being told off. It was especially good when she was getting old and I had to learn what new things bothered her that didn't before. I'd rather keep it if it never escalates. I can see why people would rather just have their rules set in stone from the start and make them rules that would be suitable for the worst case scenario when it comes to dog personalities. That's fine if that's what you want to do. It makes good sense. It's not really what I want to do, though, because if I enforce a rule now with Erik, I have to do something aversive to him. I've had him for a week. I'm really not interested in introducing aversives so early in the relationship if I can avoid it. I'm not interested in introducing aversives at all if I can avoid it. At this point, I can avoid it with desensitisation. So I will. If it blows up in my face at some point, then I'll have to deal with that. Which I will. I'm far from perfect and I often make mistakes that I have to fix later. No big deal. If I make a right cock-up of it, then I'll get professional help to fix it and learn a damn good lesson from it. While I very much appreciate the value of consistency (it's the key to the relationship I have with my hare that I like so much), I appreciate even more the usefulness of being able to shape a behaviour to make it easier on an animal to succeed. Desensitising is a lot like shaping. It makes perfect sense to me to shape an animal's behaviour to fall in with a rule I want around my house rather than demand the line be toed when my animal doesn't actually know where that line is yet and will consistently step over it and need to be punished. I would rather come at it from the other end and gradually teach my animal what I want them to be doing and then just ignore it when they step over the line. As long as it's not self-rewarding, it will fade away. Erik is really fast at this. He's already abandoned jumping up and down and barking at me while I'm preparing his meals because it did nothing whereas sitting quietly earned him early tastes of his coming meal. In time that will fade out and he will sit politely without rewards until his meal is ready the way Kivi does. Kivi was much slower to learn this than Erik is, but much of it was my fault for not rewarding Kivi's good behaviour well enough early. I think that the fact that I change the rules sometimes is sloppy training on my part and if I were more experienced I wouldn't need to change them as much. However, I'm thoroughly comfortable with defining rules through rewards when the correct behaviour is practiced rather than punishment when the line is crossed and spend a little time training it before I declare it a rule. My punishments are ineffectual anyway because I'm not that great at judging how strong it should be, my timing isn't brilliant, and I often misjudge how it will be received. I'm also thoroughly comfortable with using this as a way to shape behaviour to fall in with my rules over time and I don't think that this is confusing for dogs PROVIDED I don't let any one phase hang around for long enough to become a habit. If I'm better at that then punishments, I will naturally stick with shaping with rewards and the rules can come once the behaviour I want is already habit.

Well, my corgi grumbled for 13 1/2 years and never once growled at me. Maybe for some dogs there's little difference, but for that dog there was a huge difference. Kivi does get a break - Erik is currently in the pen because it was getting a little rowdy. But at the same time, if I'm the only one that ever tells Erik that he's hurting Kivi or that their play is too rough, what happens when I'm not around? They aren't together without supervision at the moment as Erik is small, but what happens when they do get together without supervision? And what happens when they're having a rowdy bite fest and I stick my hand in the middle? I've done it twice already and gotten a good sense of how hard they bite one another. Not that hard, but too hard for the comfort of my hands. How would you step in? Would you expect stepping in regularly at this early stage would teach Erik to stop being stroppy in general?

I don't know if this is remotely similar, but I have found in the past with one dog that if she felt frustrated she'd immediately turn to the submissive dog and have a go at him no matter where he was or what he was doing. It was rewarding for her because it served as a release for the sense of frustration and the other dog was a safe target because he would just lie down and look submissive. There were subtleties to this behaviour that took me a long time to notice. Sometimes her frustration seemed to be because she was not getting enough one-on-one time with me, which was important to her and something she was used to getting. It would present as generally decreased tolerance of the other dog. If I quietly let her spend more time very close to me, the tolerance for the other dog would increase. It's a tricky one because you don't want to let them dictate to you the terms of their relationship with you and other dogs, but at the same time, it's really hard IME to stop bullying. It's hard because it's rewarding for the dog that bullies and you can't make a submissive dog stand up for itself. You have to punish or interrupt before the bully engages in bullying behaviour. You have to get him when he's thinking about doing it. I found that next to impossible in my situation. It was much easier to try to figure out how to improve the bully's tolerance of frustration, and anticipating when it would be inevitable and making sure the dog was physically incapable of going for the submissive dog (barriers).

Thanks SSM.

I think anyone would be too frightened to give you advice, Corvus, you'd argue with them the entire time Oh, I think they'd be delighted for the opportunity to tell me what they think I'm doing wrong. I mean, I ask for people to share how they do things and they tell me what I'm doing wrong. It's second nature. Kivi mostly ignores Erik's transgressions. I was watching this morning as Erik was walking around underneath Kivi and jumping up and grabbing his belly fur and playing noisy games of tug with it. Clearly uncomfortable for Kivi! Kivi largely ignored it and just lay under the deck where Erik couldn't do things like that. Is it really such a big deal if a dog feels they need to have the last word? As long as they actually do what they are told when they are asked, why would it matter if they grumble about it? Growling is another thing because it's a warning of aggression, but barking or muttering never amount to anything in my experience so far.

In general I do have that "it's my way or the highway" mentality that saddens you so much. If I call my dog, it will come, if it doesn't, I will go & get it. If I ask it to go into the crate, it does, if it does not, I will go put it in. I find my dogs rarely question me because all our history says that it gets them nowhere. No you don't, because you already said you don't do things that your dog would bite you for. That's what I'm getting at. It seems silly to me to deliberately do things that are likely to push your dog over the edge. I go about things the same way you do with ALL my animals because they haveta learn that when I say we're doing something it's inevitable that we'll do it one way or another. But that doesn't mean I'll provoke a bite just to be pig-headed about it, or make no effort to turn it into a good thing first. There are times when you have the luxury to desensitise and build them up and I am happier doing that when I can. This is an example of where I see you humanising. A puppy hiding under a chair is generally showing fear, not anger. They don't "want" to bite you as a premeditated thing. When a dog is scared they have 2 options, flight or fight. If they are cornered and have nowhere else to go, some will fight as their flight option does not exist anymore. I see this bite as an instinctual reaction at self preservation, not a planned "if the person comes closer, I want to bite them." Okay, fair enough. That was a poor choice of words. He was frightened and I am aware of that, but Kivi in the same situation would have cried. This dog bit. Erik would probably bite, but I would have got more warning. This puppy grew into a dog with a low bite threshold and a deep distrust of anything new. I'd be pretty surprised if Erik went the same way because he doesn't have the same mix of character traits, for lack of a less human term. All the same, I'm not going to mess around provoking him when I saw how that puppy turned out. I don't think putting him in a situation where he felt he needed to bite was good for him in the long run. Again, I think it's better to go there. In this situation I would calmly reach in & take the puppy & hold it firmly & securely until it relaxed. Then I would go there again, put it down & give it another opportunity to go under the chair again. I would continue to do this until the puppy knew that no harm would come to it in my arms. Interestingly, this is pretty much what I'm doing with Erik now except that I'm keeping it low key and working up. Lots of handling, lots of experiencing things he's not entirely comfortable with and building him up to being very comfortable with being handled. I do that with all my new animals. It's not particularly troublesome with Erik because he's more tolerant of human handling than being pinned by a giant fluff monster, but I'm just taking things easy after this other puppy. I have never met another dog like him and he was a good example of how something can work quite well on most dogs but just make things worse for others. I'm too frightened of asking for help on this forum! Look what happens when I invite a discussion. I just like knowing how other people handle things and why. It's always healthy to have other viewpoints, so thanks for offering yours. Teebs, Penny was a talker, too. She'd grumble about something if she didn't like it, but she'd do it anyway and I'd never have to ask more than once. My mother's Vallhund is similar, but more vocal. He barks about most things.

And that's exactly how it works for ANY animal. Not just dogs. I am thoroughly bewildered why I can say this over and over again and still have people think I humanise dogs, but someone else says it and gets applauded. Vickie, I'm not sad for you because I agree with you and always have. I don't know how I manage to get so misunderstood. 1. All my animals have to cope with unpleasant things sometimes. 2. They do not get out of it if they don't like it. 3. If I can work them up to it gently I certainly will. Why wouldn't I? 4. If I don't have the option to work them up to it I just do it and wear whatever happens. With a hare, that can be an animal that has become so frightened they have injured themselves and won't be interested in coming near me for another week. Perhaps you can understand why I like dogs? 5. They can talk back all they like as it won't make a difference to what they are expected to do whether they like it or not. Now can we accept that my dogs do actually have boundaries and rules and move on to answer the question (thanks to those that did)? Perhaps I seem all over the place because I have two wildly different kinds of animals living with me: predator and prey, wild and domestic. I think it's pretty awesome that I can approach them all with much the same basic rules and when I talk about how I relate to my animals I am talking about those basic rules which are essentially what Vickie has said above, but I'm coloured by what I can reasonably expect from each one. I could never expect my hare to handle what my dogs are expected to handle, and every time I do something with him I have to ask myself "Is it really necessary that we do this? How would the overall benefits to him weigh up against the risks to him or his fragile trust in me? If I have misjudged, how bad could it get? What is his mood like today and is it conducive to what I want to do?" I don't know about anyone else, but I cannot go through life like that with one animal and not find myself asking far more questions than I normally would for my other animals that don't actually need that scrutiny. I very much like my relationship with my hare. I can do horrifying things to him and he'll still come back and nuzzle my fingers eventually even though he's not an affectionate creature by nature and he's rather prone to learning that something is terrifying from one experience. Because I very much like my relationship with my hare and have got into habits with him, it all rubs off on the way I work with my other animals. I am thoroughly comfortable with this because it's been an interesting learning experience. I know how a hare and a dog are similar and how a hare and a dog are very different. I know how a hare and a rabbit are similar and how they are different. It's as easy as breathing and I wish that people who haven't trained dogs and rabbits and hares using the same methods would stop telling me that dogs are somehow different to every other animal. They are not, but there is a layer of social complexity that is not there with rabbits and hares, just as with a hare there is an extra layer of sub-conscious communication that you must never discount. All things you learn from experience, which is why I don't bother mentioning them because who here is really interested in the subtleties of working with a wild prey animal and who here doesn't know there's a layer of social complexity to training with a dog? It's freaking obvious that different species behave in different ways, but it's also very basic stuff that all animals learn the same way. I can't quite believe that it's apparently such a difficult concept for some people that are great dog trainers.

Personally I wouldn't assume that the dog knows it's been 'naughty' and has any idea what you're on about I never made that assumption. It's just an observation. Tell him off and he grumbles. Sometimes it goes like this "Pyry, get out of that litter tray!" "Roo-oo. Ruff grrrooo." as he shuffles away. He might then stand in the middle of the kitchen and bark as loud as he can and gets told "Oh, cut that out." to which he replies with a couple of whines and goes quiet. He's the smartest dog I know. If any dog knew what they were being gruffed at over it would be him, but it doesn't matter whether he knows or not. It's how he responds that I was talking about.

What have I said this time to make people think I have committed the cardinal sin of seeing human emotions in animals? :D I have expectations for all my animals and it doesn't change because they are stroppy or placid. It just means I adjust the way I go about teaching them to meet those expectations. I could never convince my hare to offer his nails up to be done, although I did try at one point and was able to do most of his front ones that way, but back ones were another matter. Nowadays I put it off as long as I can because I know he's going to be traumatised by it, then I catch him, wrap him in a sheet so he can't see what's going on or get away, and do the nails as quickly as I can and let him go again. The rabbit gets tipped on her back, which is something she didn't like at first, so I didn't do it at first. I did it with her upright and once she was comfortable with being handled then she learnt to like being upside down. If she never liked it that's fine. She's still got to get her nails cut and if she doesn't cooperate it will just have to go down like it does with the hare. Thankfully, it wasn't very hard to teach her to accept being handled. I don't think it's unreasonable to introduce any animal to something slowly because they are liable to get stroppy. It's common sense to avoid 'scenes' if you can. All I'm saying is that I'd rather desensitise than just force an animal to do something and then deal with any unpleasant consequences. It's not like I'm not going to handle Erik and just hope he comes to like having his nails cut all on his own once he comes to 'trust' me. He gets handled a lot everyday, and often in ways he doesn't entirely enjoy. It's important to handle him in ways he doesn't entirely enjoy so that he can learn that it's actually not that bad. Just as Kivi is currently learning that being blow dried is just not that bad. Animals aren't black and white. They love or hate some things, but given you can get a puppy that tries to hurt people when they do something to him he doesn't like and a puppy that cries when someone does something he doesn't like and everything in between, what is black and white about that? And given you can slowly teach an animal to quite enjoy something he once hated with the right reward history, what's black and white about that? I'm saddened when people approach their animals with a "We can do this the easy way or the hard way" attitude when all they needed to do to make it the easy way was put a bit of time into showing their animal that it's not as bad as all that. Often it only takes five minutes and a handful of treats. It's not madness, it's not putting human emotions into animals, it's just basic stuff that works on any animal in the world that is capable of learning.

I got the fiesty pup. He was with mum and siblings until at least 9 weeks. I got him at nearly 10 weeks on the weekend. As far as he's concerned he's not "supposed" to submit. He doesn't like something and makes lots of noise about it. That's all there is to it at the moment. I'm just noting that Kivi was more of a lie down and cry kind of dog all along and just kept crying until he was let alone. Erik goes the other way and makes noise. It's interesting to me how there are similar elements to the aggressive puppy that tried to bite me, but very different things as well. The puppy that tried to bite me was prone to getting snarky when things didn't go his way, but he was also terrified of anything new in his environment.

that is not fixing the issue that is burying your head in the sand. Sometimes they NEED a good scruff. You can't make exceptions for the dog, avoid things because puppy might throw a tantrum. YOU do what you want and if the dog doesnt like it, tough. Throw a tantrum? Great go for it because you will see it gets you nothing. Behave it gets you everything. Well, I don't entirely agree. It's not a matter of avoiding things because you don't want a tantrum, it's a matter of training so that your dog doesn't think to throw a tantrum in the first place. Why physically restrain a dog that might try to bite you as a result if you can just teach them that it's not actually a bad thing in the first place? You can get a long way with an animal without provoking it, and with a bit of care things that might have elicited a tantrum once never do because you took the time to train or desensitise pre-emptively. That's what I mean by thinking it's best not to go there at all if you can help it. There are things I won't do with Erik now because there's no need to do it if it might make him decide to try it on with a person. My hope is that those same things are perfectly acceptable to him some way down the track because I saw it coming and sorted it out gradually without provoking him. PF, I love my shithead so far. He'll bear watching, though. He can talk back to me all he likes in the future as long he does what he's told. My mother's Vallhund doesn't growl at her, he just grumbles and barks to himself. He still does what he's told, which is often "Stop doing that, Pyry!", just vocalises his sense of injustice for it all. I don't really have a problem with talking back. They can grumble all they like as long as they do what their told. Penny always did, and in the end I was grateful for it because she actually told me when everyday things like a stroke down the back started hurting. Most people she just took it and remained subdued, althugh if you were looking for it, you could see the signs of pain. Sometimes I need dogs to shout at me so I think to listen more closely.

I was chatting to my mother this morning about our new puppy Erik and how I noticed Kivi provoked a very growly and slightly bitey response from Erik by pinning Erik down roughly when Erik hurt him. She noted that her Vallhund has always been a bit like that, and even now at 7 years old and being a total mummy's boy, he grumbles when he's verbally told off. I have noticed this about him as well. He's a pretty laid back dog and he has a sweet temperament, but if you gruff at him for doing something naughty he will grumble back, and sometimes he'll bark at you. It generally gets ignored and nothing ever comes of it. I'm curious to know how other people would handle a dog that talks back? Or for that matter, a puppy that doesn't give up on making lots of growly noises and flailing until it's flailed as violently and loudly as it can and maybe even tried to bite you. For myself, I try to avoid battles of will, but if I stupidly walk right into one I pretend like nothing is happening while the tantrum or talking back is going on and wait for everything to calm down, then continue with whatever course of action I had set out upon beforehand. I will never forget trying to pull a puppy out from behind a chair and ending up having to pin him down very hard so he couldn't bite me because he got very angry and wanted to do just that. I've decided it's best not to go there at all if you can help it.

+1 to targeting and 101 things to do with a box. I'm still pretty clumsy with the clicker, and it shows in my dog and how he responds to clicker training. He can get frustrated as well, and sometimes things are much slower than they should be. Sometimes he needs a little help to get started in the right direction, too. One of my problems with shaping is not being consistent when I increase the criteria. My dog gets bored after repeating something, like, 3 times. So if I have increased the criteria and he's getting there, just as I'm about to increase it again he decides it's boring and throws himself on the ground with a sigh and chews my foot, and then if I get him to do it again he'll throw some half-arsed thing at me that I know he can do much better, but I reward it anyway because otherwise I'm in for another sulk. What I SHOULD be doing is increasing the criteria, rewarding a few times, then calling it quits before he gets bored of it. That's my number one thing to improve on with clicker training at the moment. I always fall into the trap of trying just one more because he seems so into it today. It also helps to chop and change a bit with different treats and asking for different things. I can get a training session to last a little longer if I switch between a couple of different things we're learning. But still, keep sessions really short. Just a few minutes. My rabbit wouldn't train for more than 60 seconds, so don't be too demanding of your pup. I found one thing that really got Kivi on the way to begin with was just clicking the first thing he did without any luring or props to work with. You should have seen him walk around the kitchen backwards because I clicked a half step back and went from there. Offering his paw was an instant favourite of his and still his most favourite thing to do. He'll offer a paw just for the sake of doing something with his paw. Look for little things your dog does naturally to reinforce. It helped with Kivi.

I know, it's so hard, isn't it? I just went through this with Penny, and she was my first dog. The day we took her to the vets we took her for a walk first and she quite enjoyed it and even had a little run. It's hard when they still have good moments. You keep questioning yourself. I was always looking for a point where I would know the bad outweighed the good, and watching her so closely always judging, looking for that point. I came to realise that it's not so empirical. About a month before we let Penny go I took her for a walk and had to carry her part the way home because she ran out of breath and energy and she was just leaning pathetically on my leg trying to rest. I felt so awful for even taking her out. It was only a ten minute walk. It would have been right to let her go after that, and it was right to let her go a month later. It probably would have been right to let her go another month after that. It's just not straight forward. I found it so hard looking after a declining dog. Emotionally exhausting. But I know we let her go at the right time. Before she had completely lost herself in pain and senility and deadened senses. She was still my Penny and still had happy moments, but life was getting very tough for her. Hugs to you.

There's a big pet store on Paramatta Rd in Ashfield, kind of near Bunnings. I have forgotten what it's called, but it's on the eastbound side. They have turkey necks, lamb ribs, pork bones (rec only), kangaroo tails, chicken necks, wings and carcases, and they have some great mince mixes like chicken and sardine, chicken and venison, beef and vegies and so on. Also rabbit pieces. Reasonably priced, although the rabbit is a bit pricey. I also got some liver and vegie cubes from there while passing through on Monday. There used to be another store in Rockdale, but they said it had just closed. The local butcher in Jannali (Sutherland Shire) has just started selling a lot of game meats. It's too expensive for dog food (at least for me), but I'm going to ask them where they get it from. I would love to source some cheap game meat. Oh, and Petcare 2000 in Caringbah usually has kangaroo shanks, which are very meaty. They are around $5 a kilo, I think. They have roo tail as well for around the same price. I don't bother with the chicken wings because they are teensy and still dearer than Cliff from Just Food 4 Dogs.

But Hydatid tapeworms come from muscle meat or organ meat, often organ meat. Perhaps that's why your vet suggested offal, HH? Even so, there would be HUGE consequences if cysts turned up in organ meat being sold for human consumption. They will always tell you to cook it well anyway, but we do take it for granted that the meat we buy will be free of parasites.

RMB Lamb Shanks Turkey Necks Lamb Rosettes (necks) Lamb forequarter chops Lamb Ribs/flaps Osso Bucco Brisket Bone Chicken Necks Chicken Marylands Chicken Wings Chicken frames Kangaroo shanks Kangaroo tail Muscle Meat Beef Tongue Heart Ox Cheek Offal Kidney Liver Veggies Spinach Carrot Apple (no pip or core) Pumpkin Cauliflower Broccoli Sweet potato Peas Beans Other meats Mince Beef Steak (cheap on special one!) Sardines Salmon Whole Whiting Other Miscellaneous Egg and shell Yoghurt Flaxseed oil Fish oil Tabs Krill Oil Tabs Primrose Oil Tabs Sasha's Blend Cottage Cheese Brewer's yeast Kelp powder Barf Patties (Brands) Canine Country Br B's Patties Offal suitable for human consumption should be free of parasites. Aside from the fact that livestock are regularly wormed, if evidence of parasites are found the whole carcass is condemned and every carcass from the same place allegedly gets checked rigorously. As far as I know, they don't even cut off the unaffected bits and sell it as pet food even though that is safe. What kind of worms were they? I buy all human grade offal and have never had a problem.

I find this is where some people get frustrated, the "what happens if the dog doesn't do what I asked". Sounds like I might just have to order another book!! Have you read any of Kayce Cover's stuff? SATS I think with people who train wild animals, the answer to that question is very obvious. They can't do anything. They just have to wait for their animal to decide to listen to them again. My mum told me a story about seeing a perfoming seal at Taronga. Halfway through the show the seal got distracted by a fish she was given as a reward and just totally zoned out and played with the fish for ages instead. The presenter couldn't do a thing about it. They tried to get her attention again, but she was off in la-la land and there was nothing for it but to wait patiently for her to eat the damn thing and remember that someone was on the other side of the enclosure with more for her. All you've got with a seal is the power of a strong history of positive reinforcement. They achieve an awful lot with that, but they can still use the least rewarding scenario to tell their seal thanks for working with me, but that wasn't exactly what I wanted. With pet owners who have their animal on a leash and are working with animals that are very forgiving, the desire is to tell their animal when the animal has done something they didn't approve of and they do it the way that comes naturally - with punishment. I question whether the average pet owner can effectively use the methods animal trainers use. It depends a bit on anticipating what your animal might find very rewarding and controlling the environment, which is difficult if you're walking a dog in public for example. I have heard about Kayce Cover, but haven't read any of it.

I've been clicker training kind of sporadically with Kivi since I got him and have struggled a little with it. He has this habit of abruptly getting frustrated just when we are starting to do really well and I'm a moment away from putting what I'm after on cue. Then suddenly he's lying on the ground whining and chewing on my foot or something. I was feeling a bit spastic, sure that I was doing something wrong but not sure what. I eventually asked a clicker trainer I know from another forum about it and she said her Aussies do that sometimes because they get bored very quickly. I didn't really think Kivi was getting bored because I was being an idiot and thinking that he should be happy to keep at it when treats are coming thick and fast and our training sessions were only about ten minutes long. Anyway, today instead of persisting with something, trying to improve it, I switched between a few things and added a few different treats and I saw that I'd been getting caught up in my goals so that I didn't realise Kivi was telling me "Yep, did that already. Let's do something else." rather than "I don't get it." or "Clicker training is terribly stressful for me and I need to take a break." It's just that his idea of what he's meant to do is not the same as my idea and he doesn't want to sit there doing the same thing over and over with slight variations. I also didn't realise that "repetetive and boring" for Kivi means "I did it three times in a row already" which was not what I was really expecting to be his idea of boring. So that was my light bulb moment for today. I realised Kivi likes clicker training, but I'm just painfully slow and tedious about it to him. He's shutting down on me because he's bored. I need to refine my technique a bit to keep up with him and I also need to vary things more. Anyone else had a light bulb moment themselves?

Can I just say that I met a Fauve at Morisset show last year and she was insanely tolerant. She let my then 5 month old Finnish Lapphund puppy lie on top of her and just lay down and maintained this saint-like patience. Lappies have a pretty awesomely sweet temperament, but from what I saw of that one Fauve, I think they are even sweeter!

I think Kivi has exceptionally long legs in comparison to other Lapphunds, and Ahsoka is pretty tall as well. I think I remember Chrissy saying something about it taking a good 18 months for the coat to settle down and be normal. Kivi's still has a few kinks and he is just shy of 18 months, now.

My dog tends to self-regulate a little. If I give him a lot of fatty lamb flaps he'll stop eating them after a while and look for something else. I pay close attention to what he wants and what he doesn't want.

I think I got it from Dogwise. It took me ages to get around to reading it, but then I finished it in a couple of days. Glad I read it just before getting another puppy. There is some good practical advice in there and some things I'm keen to try. The least rewarding scenario was a new concept to me and the way it's set out as a "this is what you do when you don't get what you want" thing answers a bunch of questions I had about training with minimal punishment.

I just finished reading Zoomility by Grey Stafford. I don't often get all the way through a training book, but this one was really good. He quite effortlessly tied his work training captive wild animals to training a domestic pet like a dog. He told some good stories about training wild animals that illustrated broader training concepts and the book even has a section with what he calls "behaviour recipes", explaining how to teach important, basic stuff like walking on a loose leash, moving from point A to point B, crating, toilet training, and how to train bridges, which is the word he uses for things like clickers and verbal markers. He advocates training more than one bridge. He also spent some time explaining least rewarding scenarios and how they help extinguish unwanted behaviour or shape away from unwanted behaviour without resorting to punishment. There was an interesting story about how they worked with a dolphin in the habit of aggressively biting people that came close too him and brought him around to accepting veterinary procedures as well as the tricks they taught most of their dolphins. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in some of the finer points of using positive reinforcement, and anyone with questions about how to handle behaviour that would traditionally be punished without using punishment. I think it fell down a little in adequately explaining why punishments should be so rigorously avoided and kind of skirted the issue of what you do if you cocked up and let your animal find its own rewards without you. The emphasis was on avoiding a lot of problems in the first place. I think that's good, but given that it's a book mostly about broad training concepts, it didn't really go into much detail. Like for example, what do you do if you have a skittish hare who doesn't often feel like training, and who you periodically terrify accidentally. However it did offer some cool insights from working with truly dangerous animals, such as a particular walrus who was naturally very touchy and would try to stab people with his tusks if he got slightly frustrated. The only reason he could be worked with was that he was very reliable with things he did know, so as soon as he got cross the spotter could call for his attention or you could tell him to drop and hold still and he'd do it in an instant.

Here's my boy Kivi Tarro as a 9 week old pup: And now at around 16 months pouncing on crabs down on the mud flat: And this is what I'm generally greeted with whenever I come home: Kivi definitely slotted himself very neatly into our lives and was/is dead easy to train. He has a very reliable recall and there's not much in the world that could be more interesting to him than someone that might have food for him, yet he's not especially food obsessed. It's just the right level of food drive where he'll work with moderate enthusiasm for a chewy junk food treat and a fair bit more enthusiasm for, say, roast chicken. Kivi has been quite into other dogs since he was a puppy. He just loves to play. It's the only thing he'd blow off roast chicken for, but thanks to a bit of work he doesn't often do that anymore. He is basically a big living teddy bear. He loves cuddles and is calmly friendly to everyone. He behaved impeccably around my 90 year old grandmother earlier in the year, so much so that she sent me a letter telling me how well behaved he was, and he was very good although a little boisterous around my 5 year old niece when he was about 8 months old. He adores kids despite having had next to nothing to do with them and generally just stands quietly beside them waiting for them to hold out their hand so he can lick them. I think that Kivi is probably a very mellow and quiet Lapphund, but those that I've met have all been pretty quiet and gentle dogs. They have the sweetest temperament. Kivi is particularly submissive, but we have never even seen him growl.