corvus

My family got a dog from a registered breeder and despite asking a few times for the dog's papers they were never supplied. Dog looks only vaguely like the breed it is meant to be. We always said the dog is the breed we thought we were buying. It seems fair to give the breeder the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't really matter, and given there is no way to tell we just accept that to the best of our knowledge the dog is what it is claimed to be.

Kivi is another Lappie that believes grooming is a sick form of torture I devised to show him how little I love him. Doesn't matter how gentle I am, he cries as if I am tearing his hair out. He cries before I actually touch him sometimes. He will sit through it since I got the expensive CC brushes and combs, but he regularly objects just so I know how cruel I am. He has several methods of passive resistance mastered. His specialty is resting his head heavily on the hand holding the brush and shooting me "clearly you hate me" looks. If I ignore them he starts pushing his head down against my hand until I start getting muscle fatigue. Erik, on the other hand, gets all dopey when he even sees a brush and has had to be taught to lie down and wait his turn or he literally flops directly on the part of Kivi I am brushing between brushstrokes. Kivi considers this an act of immense loyalty and altruism and will happily let Erik squirm all over him getting under the brush wherever I move it. Erik is also known to bite Kivi's feet until he gets up and moves so Erik can lie down in front of the brush. So that is why Erik has been brought to understand that if he wants a brush he downs beside us and waits patiently. When it's his turn he lolls all over the place limply, but I think the sensation is actually a little intense for him because he can't stay still for long and has to wriggle and roll over and get up and lie down again and flop in my lap and slide out of it and generally make the whole process quite ridiculous and exasperating.

Good question. We are in the Sutherland Shire and do a lot of bush walking on the fire trails around here. We were wondering just last week if there were any good bush walks to do with dogs around Wollongong. We generally jump on Google Maps and look for fire trails on the satellite pictures, then figure out a route to walk and off we go. On a regular basis, we end up losing the trail we wanted or finding out it's inaccessible from one end, so we usually end up getting a bit creative about paths.

Don't overlook Vallhunds. ;) Small and portable, but tough and outgoing. I am yet to see Erik tired of training. He will happily go for an hour straight without flagging, and he'll bark if you pause for more than a few seconds. He throws himself into everything he does, often with a determined little growl that is really cute. He's like "Rrrr, I'm so gonna own this." He will give anything a go and often learns in 3 reps. He is noisy, and too clever by half, and he can be a handful at times, but I've never met a more engaging dog. Everything we do is the most interesting thing he's seen all day. He is fascinated with people's faces, and he is full of these impossibly bright and engaging looks like he's just bursting with life. He has so much personality I swear it sloshes out of him in great waves. He is an absolute cuddle fiend and he is currently tucked under a blankie spooning with OH on the couch because that's how OH likes to snuggle. I think OH spends more time cuddling Erik than he does me. :p

A vet trainer, or vet behaviourist? If the latter, it's a good idea to talk to them first before you switch to another professional. They sometimes do a little trial and error. What techniques did not work?

Yes, they are an actual breed! They've been around forever in various forms. They were THE farm dog in America when it was settled. So commonplace that it took quite a while for a breed standard to be developed for them. I believe it's pretty loose. Variability in ears and tail and the likes. ETA They came from early British and Scottish herders, like Collies and so on.

I also got excited 'cause OP's parents are going to England. There are some neat little slightly obscure herders around in the UK. Like English Shepherds! They are an all-rounder. Good companion, easy to train, but easy going and have an off switch.

I got all excited 'cause you said 'criterion'. :D

Ten Hail Marys and say nothing but "Yes, thank you" to well-meaning passers-by on the beach for a week. This WAS a confession, wasn't it?

There is no way in hell I would do that when there are no signs of discomfort in the dog. I am extremely cautious about accepting something as a preventative measure, particularly to prevent something as variable and multi-factorial as arthritis in later years. It is so easy to say "Ha, no arthritis, good thing we did that preventative surgery when he was a pup!" I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember seeing x-rays of a young dog's hips that were considered dysplastic. They were considering surgery, but didn't do it. Six months later another x-ray revealed the hips were much improved. A few months later there was no sign of a problem at all in the x-rays. I think dogs should be given a chance to correct any problems during their growing phase before surgery is done unless the dog is in severe discomfort.

Not necessarily. There are a lot of potential variables involved. Really, it is not well understood. To me, that is the most important thing to recognise about it. If you want help to treat it you need a specialist.

Different trainers have different reasons for this. From a behavioural modification perspective, the point is to train deference into your dog. This means they are so used to doing something for you in order to get access to something they want, it doesn't occur to them to challenge you over access. In a strict sense, dominance in animals is about priority access to resources. So by subscribing to Nothing In Life Is Free or a similar deference protocol (e.g. ToT) you teach the dog to default to 'asking' for access to resources instead of attempting to take them by force or defend them from you. That is debatable. Some dogs don't even play this game. In fact, most don't IMO. They don't want conflict. They just want the stuff they like and they do whatever has got them that stuff in the past. All you have to do to manage this is get them in the habit of performing behaviours you like in order to get the stuff they want. Then they just keep doing it. Yay.

There was a recent thread about separation anxiety here: http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/224982-separation-anxiety/ If Harper is not even eating once you are gone, that is worrying to me. It sounds as though he is very distressed. Separation anxiety can be a complicated problem and it can be difficult to identify the root cause of all the symptoms. There are generic strategies for dealing with it, but IMO it's better to get a tailored strategy. There is a good argument for incorporating drug therapy early. The longer it goes on the harder it is to get on top of. Honestly, I think you should get a vet behaviourist to take a look and advise you. Failing that, a VERY good trainer. One that is experienced in treating separation anxiety.

Kivi's focus drifts when he is not anticipating a reward. Getting focus for extended periods is for him a matter of training him to expect a reward any moment and delivering just that little bit before he starts to wonder if he really is going to get his reward. The trick is maintaining that certainty that he WILL be rewarded over an extended period without actually delivering. I whole-heartedly believe that there is an art to this. I suggest you really look at what Ava looks like in her face and body when she is heeling the way you want her to and work out how to get that look. Weave it into your criteria. The other time his focus drifts is if he is not sure of what he is doing. I mix it up a lot with Kivi. The aim is to teach him that he has to watch me to know where we are going next. Both Kivi and Erik's focus drifts when they are not entirely comfortable with their environment.

I have one and don't really like it. It's hard to find treats in the bottom and it's not really wide enough for plunging hands in recklessly. It comes open too easily. I'm going back to chalk bags when this one wears out.

Things you can do to aid separation-related distress: * Encourage independent activities e.g. Kong * Pair leaving with something special e.g. special treat or toy to counter-condition them to signs you are leaving them. * Do Karen Overall's Protocol for Relaxation or variations thereof. Add relevant exercises, e.g. picking up car keys. * Set up very, very short and controlled separation around the house e.g. close a door between you and dog for a few seconds. Work up to longer periods of time. * Keep all activities with the dog low key for 30 minutes after arriving home. Don't feed the dog a meal in this time. * Create a den. Sometimes dogs feel better in a smaller, darker place. * Mix up your leaving routine to make it difficult for your dog to predict you are leaving the house. Sometimes the anticipation is the worst bit. * Try a DAP diffuser or lavender oil around the house or the dog's area. * Leave the dog with something that smells like you.

:D I've always been a dog nerd. Well, let's be honest, not just dogs. I almost stopped an experiment yesterday so I could run into the yard and check what the heck was making that crazy sound in the tree above the house. Still a mystery. But maybe I pay a little more attention to some of the gundogs, like Labradors and tollers. I would never own a gundog, but I often try to see what draws people to them. Also the working breeds like Malinois and GSD. Never met a Malinois. Have a laugh every time someone describes how they are so different. Sounds familiar. Glance at Erik. E, are you a mini Mal?

Well, you've come to the right place: the internet! Seriously, if you want an expert's opinion, pay an expert for it. The opinions of internet forum experts are many and varied. IME staffies tend to be pretty full on and don't always pay attention to signals from other dogs. If I had one, I would train in a whiplash turn so the moment I said his name he would whip around to me. You can do this by calling his name and rewarding him every time he turns towards you. Start at home, though, and gradually work up to more demanding environments. Practise a lot! It takes time to get it reliable. And I would probably micromanage his interactions with other dogs so I could make sure I could interrupt before he got too aroused and before he annoys another dog enough to make them snap. I have seen that many staffies explode at a dog because they dared to tell the staffy to get off them... It's not fair on the other dog because it teaches them that they are helpless to stop an interaction. That's a good way to learn to be scared of other dogs. Pay attention to both dogs in the interaction. If one looks away, that can be a signal that they want the interaction to tone down or end. You will always know what the other dog wants by calling your own dog away. If the other dog comes looking for more games, then it's still play and everyone is happy. And you know what your dog wants because when you release him again he will go back to the other dog if he still wants to play and hang back if he doesn't. As a general rule. There are always exceptions. Try to make sure both dogs get chances to end the play session and if one tries to walk away or look away, then honour it! Make sure they get to have a break. That is my internet expert opinion. ;)

Mason2009, did you know a tail wag can be an indicator of conflict? Doesn't always mean a dog is happy.

Depends on the dog and the environment you're putting them in. How much supervision does the puppy need now? If you leave pup in the yard while you are inside watching from a window, what does the puppy do? Do you have to go out and rescue it from anything (or anything from it)?

Jo Righetti Pet Problems Solved http://www.petproblemsolved.com.au/index.php?p=5_50 Mostly northern Sydney and inner suburbs.

Oo, oo, when you put the TS on Barkly when he's anxious, let us know what happens to his behaviour. These things fascinate me. Erik's has quite a profound effect on him. It does strange things to him. Strange, but restful things.

A note of caution: behaviour doesn't occur in isolation of all other experiences. There is no way of knowing whether dee lee's dog would have reacted the same way to the martingale if she hadn't first used the prong. It's probably likely given dogs that redirect can be set off by any number of things and a martingale and a prong correction are not so different, but we can't assume that the reaction the second time would have happened if the martingale had been used first rather than the prong. This doesn't mean we shrug off what happened with the martingale. It just means we keep in the backs of our minds that the prong came first so we are not clear on the effect of the martingale alone. We don't know what came before the prong, either, so more caution is warranted. It's not exactly unheard of, though. See below. There has been a study done on dogs about the incidence of aggression during training. Well, a few, but I'm thinking of one in particular. If I remember correctly, it was most common after a physical correction, but also occurred after a verbal correction and sometimes without a correction. Another one surveyed dog owners and also found that it wasn't uncommon for dogs to respond to confrontational training methods with aggression. I personally have never seen redirection occur when the dog is not in a negative state for whatever reason. Frustration is considered one route to an aggressive response by most experienced animal trainers I have ever heard speak. It pays to be aware of this no matter what method you're using.

Thank you, K9Pro!

You didn't ask me a question. You accused me of something I find thoroughly repugnant and framed it as a question. Nice people skills. I sometimes wonder what people think I do all day. I took a 60% pay cut in pursuit of dog training truths and you accuse me of making up my own truths. Thems fighting words. Do you think the way you train is the best way? If not, why are you training the way you're training? Why would you do something to your dogs that you don't think is the best for them? Do you see why this is a pointless question? You seem to think I only have one way of training or something. I find that a little bit offensive as well.