corvus

You know, somehow if I'm scared, someone saying to me "being scared is stupid and wrong" doesn't make me feel less scared. Why do you suppose that is?

Well you know you don't have to believe me, Nekhbet. You are a professional after all. There's no need to be rude just because I said I thought it was a bold statement. If you stand by it, then why can't you just state that? It's your prerogative. Incidentally, I'm reading this great book at the moment called "Mechanisms of Animal Discrimination Learning". It talks a lot about selective attention and has been compiled by a couple of comparative psychologists. They back all their statements up with experimental data. Does that sound good to you? D'ya think I've never tried a leash correction? That's cute. I didn't learn to be cautious about punishments from a book.

Erik used to be like this when he was younger. I did so much work with him teaching him to calm down. It took a long time and a lot of practice, but I have whittled it down to a few minutes, now. Probably largely helped by the fact he's nearly 2 and is finally maturing. I'd like to think all that work achieved something, but maybe he just grew up. Anyway, in case it did help, I used massage, a Thundershirt, and doing quiet things like giving a paw or targeting while he was in a down. Yesterday he was at the vets and the waiting room was packed with dogs and cats. He was obviously aroused by this, but chose to lie down and watch alertly rather than start barking at everything, which he would have done a couple of months ago. These latest improvements have coincided with me doing Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol with him, but again, might be just maturity. I think you should be able to improve on that 20 minutes with lots of conditioning. My dogs are childs play next to some of the dogs CU has helped. Wish I knew what to do about dogs behind fences! I just avoid them. They scare the bejesus out of me. If I get to know where they are I can cross the road before we get there, but usually by then my dogs have also learnt where they are and are looking for them. I'm not a fan of working them through it while the other dog has a meltdown behind the fence. I feel like it's not very fair on that dog. Or the neighbours. Some people don't understand what you're trying to do and think you're being provocative. My parents have a neighbour who has lost touch of reality over the dog issue. He thinks my parents deliberately rile up his dog. As if!

ahh I was waiting for that old wives tale to pop up now tell me that doing that will make a dog really aggressive or terrified in the long term. You can't force a dog to associate a correction with one behaviour and not a stimulus or stimuli or even multiple behaviours. That's the danger of using punishments. If you won't acknowledge it that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If you know what level of punisher to use and are looking for the fallout so you can shape away from it if it's there then it can be a small risk, but to say it won't occur is a very bold statement. If it theoretically can occur, then it might.

That's hilarious! My previous dog, Penny, was also known as the doggy fun police. She had a particular bark that meant the other dogs were up to something she didn't approve of, usually trying to escape the yard. She would run to the back door and do the "The others are being naughty!" bark until someone came out to stop them. A couple of times the dogs had already escaped and she would lead you right to the spot where they dug or climbed out. My mum used to say she didn't know how she would ever cope without her policeman. Erik gives you this look if you ask for a down for a life reward he normally gets for free. He's all like "But... I don't have to down for this. It's not in the rules. I get it for free." When he eventually accepts that he really does have to down for it this time (may take a full minute of me silently waiting), he will very slowly sink into his down as if I am utterly humiliating him and it is emotionally trying and thoroughly degrading for him to prostrate himself for this particular life reward. *sigh*

That was everyone! But I think it's beside the point if you're deciding whether to become qualified or not. Qualifications aren't meant to tell anyone that the holder is 'the best' or that they are gifted or even that they are good. They just tell you that the holder has a standard education of some sort in the area indicated and has proven they understand the information that was taught and are proficient in the skills that were taught.

Er... Erik only knows attitude. Yesterday we were practising targeting and every time I signalled above his head he'd do this growly grunt as he jumped up to hit it. He seems to think a lot of things require emphasis. It cracks me up when I'm eating ice cream and he sits in front of me and growls this little frustrated "I hate that you won't give me any" grumble. He makes a sound exactly like a person growling in frustration when things aren't going their way. He gets the chesty quality, and upward inflection at the end, and the sense that it's being expelled out in a forceful huff. Penny used to do that on occasion, but Erik does it all the time. He apparently needs to tell us when he's unimpressed about not getting his own way.

I met some when I was in Mexico. They are very popular there as hunting and ranch dogs. One place I stayed at had a pack of them used to hunt mountain lions when they got into the Bighorn Sheep enclosure, which apparently happened on a regular basis. I was told to stay away from the hunting dogs. They were kept in kennels and weren't very friendly. I met a couple that were either mixes or just a little odd looking on another ranch that were being used as cattle dogs. They were lovely. But then, I never met a dog on that ranch that wasn't. One of the workers took in strays and people knew about it and would dump unwanted dogs there. He would clean them up and let them join the massive pack he already had. These Catahoulas belonged to one of the caballeros, though, and were ostensibly working dogs. ACDs are also popular over there on the ranches, incidentally. The conditions are pretty harsh. The cabelleros like their tough dogs that can keep up with them riding all day through the prickly scrubby vegetation.

I'm sure I've read about the black dog adoption problem in a scientific paper. I bet I have it in my library somewhere. I can take a look if anyone is interested. I don't think it is typically a conscious thing for most people. They are spoilt for choice when it comes to adopting a dog and have the luxury to follow their gut reactions and subconscious biases. People also think dogs with deeper barks sound more aggressive. It's not them being stupid, it's their brain making risk assessments based on the information it has. When one can afford to discriminate on perceived risk alone, they do. That is not so surprising, and is not the same as them judging a dog on looks rather than temperament or any other similarly conscious and rational thought process. Having said all that, I am a complete sucker for a sleek, shiny black animal. Ravens, panthers, dogs and cats, horses... and if they happen to have clean, white markings, all the better. It's entirely an aesthetic thing for me. Is that sad because I'm judging an animal on their looks? I've wanted a black cat called Atticus since I first read To Kill A Mockingbird back in 9th grade.

I'd move the eye back a little bit, but it's hard to say because I think the ears are perhaps too far forward. Line up where the eye is in relation to the corner of the mouth and the edge of the ears in your reference picture and that should tell you where everything should be. :D

Maybe you should go lurk on the Control Unleashed Yahoo group? I love it! Heaps of experienced trainers and lots of practical information in how to actually apply the CU techniques. There's been some interesting talk about rewarding taking a breath to help calm. I want to buy the dvds, now, as apparently I missed some good stuff that's not in the book. When Kivi was going through it he would zone out when he heard a dog barking as well. I never really sought more distance because he was so eager he seemed to find it punishing and therefore even more frustrating. But waiting Kivi out didn't take long. He could only keep something like that up for about a minute. Erik is a whole different ball game. He can keep it up for long enough for me to think he's going to go on forever, and just when you think he's lost it he somehow loses it more. The noises he makes when he's frustrated, you'd think someone were torturing him. With Erik he's often kind of relieved to get a bit of distance. I think it just takes the intensity out of it a little. What I'm trying to say is distance may be a great way to lower arousal, but it's not the only way, and maybe it's not suitable for your specific problem. The last thing you want to do is make her more frustrated, right? Have you ever tried just holding still and waiting to see how long it takes her to start thinking again?

I had the problem with Kivi when he was younger. He would get really excited when he saw another dog and start bouncing up and down and lunging and because he couldn't get anywhere he'd start barking as well. For him to actually behave aggressively towards another dog is completely unheard of and would make me think he had some medical problem. He's just not like that. Anyway, I was waiting him out and he would offer a sit and once he'd got that far I could call him and give him a treat. He was offering sits earlier and earlier, but still anticipating the release. At this point I got the Control Unleashed book and I started using Look At That. It worked pretty much instantly. I did the same thing with Erik, who is more prone to going over threshold. He is going through a phase at the moment where he just barks at another dog on leash, presumably because he can't go and greet. I'm not really sure why he's doing it. He hasn't been allowed off leash for the last couple of weeks due to an eye injury, so maybe that's why he's been carrying on. Anyway, LAT is great, but if he barks in between we're just too close. I move back a few metres and often that's enough. If not, back again. I think the trick with LAT and similar strategies is to get in as early as possible. It's difficult on the street because often the first you know about a dog is they are already within your dog's critical distance, but you can always back up. Or wait them out. The other thing that might help is practising LAT on the oval during training first. I'm thinking it might make it easier once on the street.

Try ignoring (not even looking) at any unsolicated attention and apply 100% NILIF. Don't forget to reward the heck out of anything he comes up with on his own that is to your liking. When Erik was a puppy he used to sit in front of me and bark bark bark for attention. I taught him "shh", but it really got a lot better much faster when he discovered sitting quietly in front of me and just watching my face got him the attention he so badly wanted. The one time he did it on his own for a second I pounced on it and gave him lots of cuddles and attention. I made sure I reinforced it every time until he was offering it more often than barking. Now his default way of asking for attention is to sit quietly in front of us and watch our faces. He takes it to extremes and cocks his head to the side every time you say something, make eye contact, move, or breathe. We are helpless to resist it. It's extremely cute and funny and not at all annoying.

In addition to what Aidan said, I think it's valuable to know how to objectively judge whether what you're doing is working and be able to reason out why. It may not have a huge bearing on what you do, but IMO it gives you the flexibility to make small adjustments and the knowledge base to make seemingly novel changes to a method to suit a different dog or a different issue. And I REALLY HATE the spread of misinformation. It's like the antithesis of everything that matters to me. And the training world is absolutely rife with it. And it certainly leads to poor training decisions and confirmation bias. You hear a lot the idea that some people are just naturally good at training and others will never be good at it. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. I think that training is mostly good timing and clean delivery and clear cues. I think that anyone can learn to be an effective trainer if they put the time and effort in to honing their timing, delivery and cues. What makes an excellent trainer is someone that can read the dog and anticipate potential problems or see them coming early. I think that it is possible that if you don't have 'it' you can make up for it by keeping good records. The numbers should tell you whether your reward is the problem, or your cue, or your timing. They tell you when to change criteria, when to put a behaviour on cue, and when to take a step back. For pure training and no serious behaviour modification, I think that's all you need. And perhaps the ability to pick an inhibited dog and a basic understanding of counter-conditioning.

Box outside for leashes, treat bags, outdoor toys, collars, harnesses. Box inside for puzzle toys, training props and all that good stuff they're not allowed to play with on their own. Shampoo etc lives in a little bag as we usually wash them at the dog wash cafe. Brushes and combs live on the coffee table. I do use them nearly every day.

I find that quite strange. Would you not pay anyone for anything if they didn't have a qualification? I think it's irresponsible to ask to be paid to pass on specialised information if you don't have any training in that area. How do you know you are passing on correct information? Isn't the whole point of a qualification to say that you have been taught some kind of specialised skill or have access to specialised knowledge? I don't have any formal qualifications and I expect clients to pay However I agree with the sentiment. These are dogs and peoples lives and they deserve genuine expertise supported by evidence. But if I asked you "how do you know you are passing on correct information?" I'm guessing you'd give me an answer that would thoroughly satisfy my suspicious little sciencey demands for objectivity. I've met professional trainers that wouldn't be able to answer that question to my satisfaction. I'm guessing. I've never been provocative enough to ask! Those kinds of trainers somehow make me feel like I'm 11 years old in a netball team with a coach who has a little turd of a daughter my age and seems to think every second thing I do is motivated by calculated vengeance for being told I can't have things exactly the way I want them.

I find that quite strange. Would you not pay anyone for anything if they didn't have a qualification? I think it's irresponsible to ask to be paid to pass on specialised information if you don't have any training in that area. How do you know you are passing on correct information? Isn't the whole point of a qualification to say that you have been taught some kind of specialised skill or have access to specialised knowledge?

A 'fear period' is characterised by sudden and inexplicable fear of already known things. For example, Kivi suddenly out of the blue reacted very fearfully towards an exercise ball that had been sitting in the corner of the room for many months. In all honesty, I think knowing whether your dog is in a fear period or not is of limited use. Maybe you decide to put off the trip to a busy camping ground you were planning or something, but mostly I just treat puppies like they are in a fear period for the first 2 years of their life. With Erik, that has been about right. He hasn't even had definable fear periods. Just a 12 month long generalised distrust of anything new. I have had several moments when we've been out and about where one of the dogs grew nervous about something, usually something they had already been socialised to. This is why I carry treats everywhere I go. Five minutes of emergency counter-conditioning with food fixes just about everything I've encountered right there on the spot. Usually it doesn't even take five minutes.

There's also CASI: http://www.casinstitute.com/behaviordep.html Might be worth a look. I always got the impression the CASI courses were highly regarded, but maybe that's a bias on my part. I am impressed with their advertised course content. The question of qualifications is a difficult one IMO. On the one hand, I've met a lot of rubbish trainers with qualifications. On the other hand, I'd be unlikely to pay for a trainer without any qualifications. It seems a bit dishonest to me. I know lots of people with no qualifications whose advice I would take over some trainers with qualifications I have met, but I'd consider it dodgy if they expected to be paid for that advice. Unless they are some kind of world renowned expert.

That makes it a bit tricky. Is there something you can carry with you to get them to target with their nose while you're moving? I'm guessing reaching your hand out would throw your gait off if you could even reach that far ahead.

Yes, the reason because you using the chain on the dog making you a bad person, must be using the clicker and the treat then makes you good person is what happening on training today? I just love this notion that somehow positive reinforcement is more so the trainer can get warm fuzzies than for the benefit of the dog. What if I suggested corrections are more so the trainer can get their little control rush and feel like they are superior to something for a moment than for the benefit of the dog? There are human psychoses to every aspect of training. If you think you're only doing something for the dog then you need a reality check. We all try to make decisions that make us feel good. I certainly do things to dogs they don't like, but you know, it doesn't float my boat so I don't talk about it much. I do like to do things to dogs that they like. And so I find excuses to do just that. Even when the dog is annoying me or frustrating me. I've learnt when I'm unlikely to be able to make it work and decide then if it's something that matters to me so much I'd be willing to do something unpleasant to my dog. But the more I look for excuses to use positive reinforcement, the more I find ways to make it work.

Perhaps you could turn it into a game. Teach him to ring a bell to be let outside and simultaneously work really hard on getting him out there often so he makes fewer mistakes inside. Go with him every time so if he goes you can reward the heck out of it, throw a party, treats, games, run around, whatever floats his boat. If he starts to associate going outside with a party, there's a good chance he'll make the connection that toileting outside is a chance to earn rewards, and ringing the bell will get him out there. My yonger dog started scratching at the door to be let out to toilet only when we started staying out with him and rewarding him when he went. Now I have to say he will scratch on the door and go outside to toilet, like, three times in an hour if he's looking for something to do. I swear he does not need to go that often. If no one is home he can hold it for 8 hours or more. He meanders out and sniffs around and eventually goes and then he's all like "Where's my treat!" But, it's a good indication to us that he hasn't had enough to do lately, or he needs someone to help him settle down.

All puppies tend to be a bit worried about other dogs to begin with. Well, most. Some are very outgoing. Anyway, I think you just let the pup go at their own pace. Sometimes they just need to watch a dog for a little while before they are ready to interact. Don't push. If he's whining, take him further away and move back towards the dog a little step at a time. If at any point he whines, stop, give him a few seconds to see if he will get over it, and if he doesn't, go backwards a step or two and then try again. Your aim is to minimise whining using distance.

How do you know? Poodlefan, when I presume to tell you what you're doing wrong with one of your poodles, I hope you bring me down a few pegs. You are a very knowledgeable person, but don't get too carried away. How do you know? *looks around* Have you been here watching? Can you read his mind? I can't! I'll tell you what, though, you don't get to make a mistake like that with him without knowing about it. He is VERY flighty. He will not just sit there, frozen in terror, while a dog walks up to him unless he's cool with it. If he can't get away he will explode and try to run anyway. I learnt this through not applying the two degrees of separation rule to visiting humans. These days in his nearly 8m square enclosure he always has the option to run. He nearly always takes it, even though he can't run as fast or as far as he would in the wild. Ahem, my hare was around before both my current dogs were. They had to be strangers at some point. Same goes for every other of the 7 dogs he's ever lived with however briefly. Two of them I never intended to allow anywhere near him, but they had other ideas. Which is why we have the 2 degrees of separation rule. So the worst that happened was he got a scare. Yes, yes it is. I really push the two degrees of separation rule. It gives you room for mistakes. When my hare was living with my parents, they often used three degrees of separation. Two closed doors between the little hunter and the hare's locked cage. There were definitely mistakes made where people left a door open or didn't realise the hare was out of his cage, but with the other door closed, the hare and the rabbit were always safe. The little hunter NEVER got a shot at them. It can be done, you just have to factor inevitable human stuff-ups into your management plan and stick to the rules.

Hares are smarter than rabbits. He'd be reading the body language of your dogs and saving flight for only when it was necessary. As an above ground dweller with no burrow to run to, freezing until necessary is a pure survival mechanism. Lots of animals hold position until there's no alternative but running. You know htat. Being denied the capacity to run, he'd be stressed to the max. I'd never put a wild animal in that postion. Oh, I'm sorry, apparently I don't know what my hare looks like when he's calm. Lord help us if it were so. FYI, there is quite a pronounced difference between freezing and calmly holding still. The very thought that I would not know the difference is ludicrous. He lived in my room for several years! I would bloody hope I'd learnt that much about him. A wild hare is smarter than a domestic rabbit, but I'm not sure that this is why he is better at reading body language. I think he's just more flighty and so more committed to making sense of what goes on around him. And maybe he's got stronger instincts.