corvus

When arousal is high an animals' focus tends to narrow. On the plus side, this means they are hard to distract. On the downside, it means they might not want to or even be able to do something that requires them to slow down and concentrate. Running right past kind of suggests an elephant-in-the-room syndrome. Another thing dogs do is avoid looking at things they don't want to engage with. Taking jumps doesn't really require engagement. They can do it without thinking. Weaves may be a different beast. There are exercises in Control Unleashed aimed at helping dogs think through their arousal.

Kivi tries to push a dirty sock directly into your mouth. If he can't reach your mouth he pushes it into your leg or butt instead. One time he came up behind me and pushed a soft toy into my butt and the toy went "Honk!" Super embarrassing. It's probably best I don't list Erik's ways. He's a professional. He has probably written a book on it and had it published online already.

It says they could apply for a temporary licence, possibly at a reduced price. I checked the current (2013) draft LEP for my council and there was absolutely no mention of requirements for boarding/training establishments except to mention restrictions in a special case where a boarding kennel had been proposed for a residential area. I sent an e-mail asking for more specific information.

Just out of interest, how does your dog react when she makes a mistake in training? Does she bounce back easily or does she need some coaxing to get back into it? How persistent is she? Do you use a NRM and if so, how does she respond to that? Does she tend to take risks or stick to what she knows?

So... It's no different except the council's regulations are suddenly going to be enforced?

I browsed through the Animal Welfare Code of Practice as well and I still couldn't figure out where this kennel business was coming from. If people want their comments to be taken seriously they will need to refer to stuff they object to that is in writing in the relevant documents. I'm happy to submit a comment, and I would cite some science to support my objections, but I have already spent more time than I really have spare looking for something concrete to object to. I would appreciate it if someone could provide a page number and document. It's probably a good idea not to sound hysterical and leap to conclusions. Dire predictions are something people reviewing public comments are sure to see every day. If you think it's going to result in something dire, do the calculations to show it and make sure your numbers are supported. And make sure your submission shows where the numbers came from.

Unpublished work is wasted time. ;) Hankdog, you must be every behaviourist's dream client. :) You are doing such a great job. Everyone on this thread does a great job! You guys are such dedicated owners. Re: Thundershirt - we have one and it appears to lower arousal pretty effectively. I think they are worth a shot if you have a dog that has problems regulating their own arousal at sensible levels. We found it most effective with Erik when his arousal is moderately elevated. If it gets really high the TS won't do much, but if it's just normal high it has a profound effect. He pretty much goes to sleep on the spot. I do a human TS sometimes when out on walks as well. If Erik is in a very touchy mood and is not being very attentive but very noisy he gets a full body squeeze. It does seem to help. Haven't had to do it in a while. He gets them more often at home. Visitors to the house are still one of his biggest worries. Just be aware that arousal is only one component of emotional state and the other is valence (see the paper I posted a link to). IME the TS can lower arousal but that doesn't necessarily mean it changes an emotional association with something. It just means the outward signs of distress are harder to detect.

Not necessarily. You get what you reinforce. If you reinforce walking away, then as long as you're consistent and the dog remains under threshold it's not unrealistic IMO. I accidentally taught Kivi to respond to behaviour from other dogs he found threatening with a formal heel complete with auto-sits. A few months ago a dog unexpectedly and very suddenly went from normal greeting to chasing Kivi and snapping at his face. He yelped, then as soon as he was free he went straight to my left side and sat in heel. The other dog came over to see what we were doing and Kivi just stayed glued in heel and ignored it, even when it stuck its head in my treat bag. It was kinda nerve-wracking as I wasn't entirely sure what had upset the strange dog in the first place, but there's something to be said for the power of consistency. I turned towards the dog to try to discourage it and succeeded in inadvertently putting Kivi face to face with it when he followed in heel and sat when I stopped moving. I didn't think he would be that sticky in heel under the circumstances! Erik is a bit more volatile, but offers LAT instead of noisy driving behaviour in many bothersome situations. It's not much different to walking away. He seems to think if he's between my feet he will be safe and goes there when other dogs worry him. I reinforce it. It's a good place for him to be if he's feeling vulnerable. It's hard for another dog to reach him around my legs and I can easily intervene if I have to. These sorts of things are the cornerstones of programs like Control Unleashed and Behaviour Adjustment Therapy. They work.

I did a search for "kennel", "breeding", "breeding establishment" and "housing" and could not find anything that clearly stated all breeders would have to keep their dogs in kennel blocks and were not to be kept inside at all. The relevant section seemed to be referring to boarding kennels and shelters and commercial breeding establishments. I can't submit a response to this if I can't find any reference to it in the taskforce submission. DogsNSW doesn't seem particularly concerned about the kennels thing. Maybe people should read stuff before they start disseminating information and canvassing for support. Just saying.

Thanks PL. I think it's important to sound reasonable and address concerns with direct reference to the recommendations of the task force. I am finding the latter difficult regarding kennels when it seems "breeding establishment" is not clearly defined as DogsNSW points out. I interpreted it to mean any establishment where dogs or cats are bred for commercial purposes, as per the definition given on page 36 of the taskforce submission: "a building or place used for the breeding, boarding, training, keeping or caring of animals for commercial purposes (other than for the agistment of horses), and includes any associated riding school or ancillary veterinary hospital." The context this term routinely appears in suggests it is aimed at large scale operations. ETA There was some discussion of the annual registration at the AIAM conference last year. It was generally agreed that the once-off registration was a mistake that resulted in a considerable loss of funding that could be useful for things like more manpower to enforce council regulations. I think they are going to get it back one way or another, and I support that. They know what they are about.

Could you please indicate where these proposed regulations may be found in writing? I have been looking through the taskforce submission posted by Powerlegs and can't find where this is coming from.

It might if it was actually analysis as opposed to pure speculation. I don't think it matters whether the poodle was on leash or had stuck its nose through the fence or if the other dog had been the one to cross the physical boundary (which may not have been the property boundary). And we don't know if the owner of the attacking dog was even aware the dog might do something like that. Barrier aggression can be way escalated above typical behaviour for an individual dog. What seems clear is that something terrible happened and steps need to be taken to prevent it from happening again. A breeder once told me an horrific story of a local dog that took two fingers off a little girl's hand when she ran her fingers along the dog's front fence. The same dog had a pretty good try at killing one of the breeder's dogs when the dropkick owner broke their fence to pop the dog into their yard at the behest of the breeder's dropkick nephew to see which dog was the toughest. As it happens this was an Akita breeder and the entire male Akita turned out to be the toughest. And the breeder paid the vet bills for the other dog despite the fact it happened on their property while they were out and the other dog's owner had to break their fence to get their dog in. There's no cure for stupid and as a result, some dogs have no place in society, sadly. I don't think there is enough evidence to say the attacking dog in this case is one of them, though. ETA I don't think I could ever be comfortable with my dogs in the front yard unattended, but some houses don't really have a backyard. And some corner blocks or blocks with very open landscaping can be challenging.

Something like this? http://www.outfoxfieldguard.com/

Hey everyone, that paper I said I'd written on arousal and emotional state in training has been published. It can be accessed for free here: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/2/300 It might be a bit heavy, but if you skim the discussion you might see what we're getting at.

I just drilled the separate behaviours in different contexts and it didn't take long for them to pick it up. Helps to put them on a platform. Then they are limited by how much they can move and fiddle. I think it helps get them into the habit of smooth transitions. Kivi was a terrible fiddler going from sit or down to stand. He would always shuffle his hindquarters and swing out. Practicing against fences and on cement blocks seemed to make a difference. ETA I trained stand as a movement out of sits and downs initially anyway. It can be a tricky concept for dogs, so I marked the movement INTO a stand rather than the stand itself.

Erik got his tick collar caught on a lever of a chair a few weeks ago. I put them on loose so the dogs can easily slip them, but the angle of the lever pulled him too close to the chair for him to back out of it. Don't ask me how he did it as we didn't even know there was a lever, but there you go. Luckily we were right there and able to free him.

I had one like this in my study. Except he was a working security dog, so lived in a kennel when he wasn't working, training or running around in the paddocks during his exercise time. Nonetheless, he spent most of his time pacing in circles, switching to bouncing off the walls if something happened, barking and biting wire and his water bucket. He spent about an hour around lunch time napping and that was about the only time he was still in the 7 hours I was there every day. His handler said it was the breed and there was not much you could do about it. I was chatting to an ex-military dog trainer and asked if that was normal behaviour for them in their experience. I was told most of them are like that and really need to be worked for 4 hours a day to keep them sane. I had a second WL Mal and a show line Mal in my study as well, kept as pets, and they were completely different. Much more manageable dogs in general, a lot less highly strung. The WL one was not even in the same ballpark as the one I had already met. I guess particular lines matter.

I'm not sure if a dwarf cattle dog can do such a trick, but it's the next one on our list for my Erik. This week he mastered a back stall. I was so freaking excited I had to get OH to film it.

If the information I posted is anything to go by, it's very difficult to overdose a dog on valerian root. And it appears to be pretty safe as far as side effects go. I don't think using aids is going to prevent the puppy from learning to cope. The point of these things is to HELP the puppy learn to cope. It may be that conventional wisdom says puppies man up and deal, but if the OP was concerned enough to call the vet I think it is probably safe to assume this is an unusually severe case. If the puppy doesn't have to suffer so much in learning to cope, then that seems the most humane course of action. Which is not to say that puppies should never suffer hardships. Small, surmountable challenges and frustrations are important for emotional development. Insurmountable challenges, not so much.

Why? 'Cause you know better than a vet? For better or for worse, the pup is now apparently totally stressed out, poor thing. I think it's fair to prioritise reducing the pup's distress. I'm not going to pretend to know how safe valerian root is, but you can find plenty of information here: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-870-VALERIAN.aspx?activeIngredientId=870&activeIngredientName=VALERIAN and in veterinary science here: http://csuvets.colostate.edu/pain/articlespdf/valerian%20root.pdf And here's some information on dosage: http://www.vetguru.com/2012/06/21/dog-valium/. In the past when my vet has suggested an over-the-counter product for humans I have asked for a dosage and they'll work it out for me. But it usually goes by weight. If you don't have that information you can assume the dosage on the packet is for a 70kg adult human and go from there. I'm kind of bewildered why someone would call up a vet for advice and then ask on the internet for dosage advice for what the vet recommended. Ask the vet who recommended it, maybe? What the hell does anyone on an internet forum know?

Great news from everyone! Hankdog, this update of yours sounds very promising to me. :) I think it's excellent that you've been working on clicker training and jumping and mat work. Kivi's self-confidence soared after body awareness and balance training. He's a completely different dog. Of course, now he's an adventure dog and gives us heart attacks jumping 4m deep gaps in the rocks, and we never used to have to worry about him running onto the road when off leash. So beware! It was worth it to turn him into a much more confident and joyful dog, but there's a price. His recalls need much more work these days. Confident dogs that know what they can do and that it's worth trying stuff are more mentally robust. Glad you're enjoying the book BC Crazy. I had heard that it was a nice, clear read. Go the clicker training! You can always click with your tongue instead of a clicker. I do with my birds, because I keep forgetting to pick up the clicker. Plus they are very drawn to the shiny yellow button. If they get a glimpse of it they become mesmerised and keep trying to peck it. I have to hide it under the seed container. Staffyluv, leaving before Zig gets over-aroused sounds like a very good idea. If you wanted to increase the time he can spend with other dogs before you had to move on, you could try teaching him Dee Ganley's chill out game. http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/LoweringArousal.pdf Usually if you practice getting your dog's attention when they are aroused by something they get better and better at it, which is obviously useful. But managing is also acceptable.

Quite possibly, yes. I know my experiences with staffy types is that they can tend to start play really nicely and appropriately and the more excited they get the more boisterous they get and the less they pay attention to the other dog. They tend to get intense and skip the natural breaks other dogs take during play to let themselves calm down a bit and keep everything nice and safe. It probably was fun for him to a point, but that's how staffies get in trouble at dog parks. They don't mean to upset other dogs, but don't notice when they do because their arousal is up. There is a theory that fighting breeds are not as attentive to social signals as other dogs. Hey everyone, check out Erik's new tricks: Reactive dogs have the most fun. ;)

Donatella has touched on something science doesn't understand very well, and that is the emotional lives of animals. There is evidence that some social animals at least are empathetic towards others of their own species - something that seems to be going by the wayside in this thread in the rush to pit science-based evidence against someone's beliefs to prove them wrong. It amazes me that sometimes people who know a lot of psychology seem to forget all about things like cognitive dissonance and sunk-cost (and Dunning-Kruger?) when they get caught up in an argument with someone else. There are a plethora of cognitive biases that at least tend to make me more considerate when I disagree with people. The burden is on me to be more understanding because I know about that stuff. Anyway, an animal doesn't need to grasp the finality of death to grieve.

This goes for everyone: I think it's beneficial to pay a lot of attention to arousal and be aware it doesn't really matter what the emotional state is. Erik gets very aroused in a good way for training, but the tradeoff is he's about 70% likely to rush a dog if it comes by our training area, and a lot of that is attributed to the fact that he's so focused on training he doesn't see them coming so they surprise him. If there are lots of dogs around he's only about 5% likely to rush another dog when he's training. It's the same sort of thing as trigger stacking. If I know E is aroused and having a great time, I also know he's more likely to overreact to other things, so I can manage that by anticipating it. This is where LAT on cue comes in handy. You can use it to warn your dog when things are coming. I usually go one step further and put E in a down-stay as well as cueing LAT.

Sounds like you are well prepared, chuckandsteve. BC Crazy, there's every possibility she's making a pre-emptive strike. It's the kind of thing Erik does to bully breed puppies. It's driven by fear, not a need to be obnoxious or something. It's E saying "Don't come near me!", which is counter-intuitive because he has to run them down to say that. But if you look at it from a different perspective, if he shouts at them BEFORE they can jump on his head, which is really unpleasant for him, then he trades the unpleasantness of being bounced on with the unpleasantness of being confrontational, but with the latter he maintains control of the situation. Given he has a strong herding instinct, this is a big drawcard for him. He NEEDS to be in control of stuff. His genes tell him so. Plus being in control of aversive situations makes them less aversive. There is lots of scientific evidence for this. That's why negative reinforcement (e.g. BAT, CAT) can be quite effective in changing behaviour driven by fear. It's worth remembering that whenever dogs get very aroused or upset they tend to revert to instinctive behaviours. Erik is a cattle herding breed, so for him this is a very bold and noisy rush, and he will snap at heels if he's really aroused. He will try to drive whatever upsets him. I know another Vallhund that bites heels when she gets very aroused. It is what they have been bred to do. Whatever the case, I am guessing Stella's behaviour is largely a result of elevated arousal. If you can get the arousal down it will probably happen less, and you'll have more time to get her through it with LAT. The other possibility is she's being a bully. IMO it's better to assume it's fear-driven. Particularly because this is Stella we're talking about. Erik gets rewarded for doing pretty much anything around bully puppies other than rushing them and trying to aggressively drive them off. It does work, but you have to be pretty quick sometimes to get those rewards in before he decides to do something that makes other dog park users call him vicious.