sheena

So if I didn't want to completely reteach their whistle recall, I would probably be better off with a simple posties whistle..then I could more imitate the whistle I give them now. Apart from my mouth going dry, just when I want to whistle them back, the cicadas are so deafening at the moment, I doubt whether the dogs would be able to hear me whistle :laugh: Wish I could whistle with my fingers in my mouth, like some people do :)

I bought a high frequency adjustable dog whistle years ago & could never really work out whether I should have it screwed up towards it making the sound that I cannot hear or the opposite. I am not sure where I have put it, but have been thinking lately, I should dig it out & use it for recalling my dogs. They respond really well when I whistle a recall, but often my mouth is so dry, that I can't whistle. Anyone had any experience with these ?? ETA.... I find it very hard to blow into it & the dogs just ignore it...maybe I would be better off with a posties whistle

Please excuse my ignorance & don't shoot me down for asking....but why do they put bells on hunting dogs. Is it to scare away the snakes like the OP says or is it to keep track of the dog I would imagine it would scare the birds away.

Are you still giving her a face massage a few times a day ??

Use a slow countdown while the dog is in a stay, before you give your release que. Start training it with 1, OK, then 2,1,OK then 3,2,1,OK etc. building up to whatever you want, but we don't go past 5 depending on how far out we want to lead. Make sure that 1 & OK don't get blended together & occasionally say something else between 1 & OK so the dog learns it has to wait till it actually hears "OK" before it can release. Much better than leading out, constantly saying, "wait, wait, wait etc". We do this with gates, doors, swimming pool, food etc.

I've fed Black Hawk Lamb to my two BC's now for nearly two years & they have both maintained a really good weight on it. I did recently buy a 6.7kg bag of Earthborn Coastal Catch for a change of taste & just fed it to the girl, not sure if it were low fat or not, but she lost 2 kilos by the time she had finished the 6.7 kilos & I was feeding her 25% more of it But I agree with Pav. best way to lose weight is to give a really good kibble, but cut down the quantity & use a filler like carrot, pumpkin or sweet potato & watch those treats.

Oh Yeah....I forgot about Cole :love:

I love the dark chocolates in the BC's, but also like the black tri's & would die for a sable. I don't like the merles, but it's really not the colour that matters, it's the dog inside it & I have met some lovely merles...just don't like the colour.

I'd go with fake grass & maybe sprinkle some nice "earthy" soil on it to give it a more realistic smell. If you put a small patch of real grass in, you are going to forever have to water it & cut it. I would also be getting some "cat grass" & plant it in a pot somewhere so she has some long grass to nibble at.

Cleanrun have some foundation agility training DVD's on their free shipping page at the moment & some of them are reduced from $29.95 to $12.95. Save another $1.50 each if you buy more than one. I din't think I needed any more DVD's...but couldn't resist :laugh: Here is the link clean run Free shipping

I have used Frontline Plus Spot On with no problems but in Summer time I go for the Advantix, only because they reckon it's better. Advantix still doesn't repell ticks, even though it says it does. My two get grass ticks all over their legs & paws every time they go for a walk. I find both spot ons work better if applied fairly evenly right down the back, from behind the ears to the base of the tail. Can someone please tell me, why dogs like to eat the ticks....maybe it's some ancient instinct they have to build up immunity

I am pretty sure you are not allowed to take photos or videos of children without the parents permission...but not sure about taking photos of people.

Take some photos of HER next time you bump into her & see how SHE reacts

Good post Cosmolo...the clicker is used both as a marker & an interupter with LAT. In agility especially, you don't want the dog to be 100% handler focused. You want it to be able to switch between handler & obstacle focus & that's where LAT comes in very handy. And yes, you can use other things as rewards, like pats, toys & praise, but they are not as instant as a yummy soft treat. I try not to go out anywhere without treats & a clicker, as I don't want to miss an opportunity to practice.

You could "set" the situation up using some friends & practice some LAT. There is a lot of discussion on LAT on this forum...the latest being "Kelpie herding stalking" just below. It does help with LAT if he is familiar with the clicker & I would be starting with just one helper at a distance, clicking & treating everytime he glanced at them, but before he reacts...then gradually decrease the distance & use different people. Just take it slow & make the training sessions short, then put him away for a rest to let him "think" about it before you do any more training.

Corvus...you are so "spot on"

Honestly, I think games like LAT are profoundly good at building trusting relationships between dogs and their handlers. If you ever watch a pro at it, it's far from tricks and clicker and treat exchange. It's a lot of cooperating and two-way communication with your dog. The benefit of LAT over straight focus on you is LAT gives the dog permission to gather information they have a strong compulsion to gather. It's kind of like acknowledging that there are things in the world that may demand your dog's attention other than you. LAT gives the dog the opportunity to attend to those things without disengaging from you. As a result, the dog stays attentive to you and also feels calmer because they can see what's going on. You're facing it as a team rather than asking them to ignore something that they are hard-wired not to ignore. The reason why we don't do it this way if we follow Control Unleashed is because we're trying to stop the dog from starting an unwanted behavioural sequence. This is especially important with sticky herding behaviours and the likes because once they get on the way it can be a challenge to interrupt them. The more a dog practices them, the harder it is to change their habits. I would guess at least 95% of the time, focusing on the target is the precursor to the unwanted behavioural sequence. If you interrupt then, you have a high probability of preventing the sequence from occurring at all. THIS IS VERY GOOD, particularly with self-reinforcing behaviours. In LAT, the clicker interrupts the behavioural sequence and the reward comes when the dog looks back to the handler. So it should go: dog orients to target -> click -> dog orients to handler -> treat. If the dog doesn't orient to the handler after the click, you know they are probably not in an operant state and you need more distance. You're substituting an unwanted behavioural sequence with a more appropriate and desirable one and hooking it onto whatever triggers the unwanted sequence, so in the end the trigger itself cues the desired behavioural sequence (LAT). It's like any behaviour in that you can fade out the rewards later if you want, but people have a tendency to use LAT with reinforcement as a bit of a management crutch. Probably because it's so effective! Depending on the nature of the problem you're trying to treat, you can completely get rid of it with LAT and stop cueing it at all, or you will eventually plateau, which suggests you probably have some bigger emotional or arousal problems to deal with if you really want to put it to bed. It's not like it's the only way to tackle the problem and I'm not dissing other ways, but it is tried and true with all sorts of problematic dogs all over the world. To really understand why, you have to delve a bit deeper into the CU program. The subtleties that come out in discussions amongst CU practitioners are eye opening. It's a hell of a lot more than a few tricks. Relationship is a massive part of it. Corvus, you have explained this far better than I ever could. I know what I am talking about but have trouble trying to explain it to someone who knows nothing about the benefits of clicker training with your dog. I doubt whether Nekhbet fully understands the principals behind shaping your dog using a clicker. Some people (& I lost a few friends over this), cannot understand why you mark the looking away behaviour, when all they have ever known is the "Look at Me". When I first started LAT with my girl, I was jeered at & made fun of, from people who didn't even want to understand. Now whos laughing :laugh: ME as I can honestly say I have the best dog in the club & now students are asking me for help with their own dogs which I am only too happy to give.

Don't lure him. If you find you are luring him then you are too close & have taken things to fast. Don't set him up to fail, which is what you are doing if the environment is too stimulating for him. It really helps if you have already taught him a few tricks using the clicker. You want to "shape" his behaviour, if you know what that means. You could start off with LAT in your own backyard. Put a teddy bear or just a piece of paper on a stick or anything. Be ready with your clicker & treats & as soon as he looks at the object, click & he will turn to you for the treat. It takes time & wont happen over night & even when you have him going pretty good it helps to go back to playing the game every now & then. It's important that he really understands the value of the clicker before you start & use really yummy homemade treats that you can break into very small pieces. If I want to jackpot my girl, I will take her favourite treat & slowly break it into pieces & feed it to her a tiny bit at a time...it's called silver service treating...you make the treat last about 30 seconds....they don't forget. My girls favourite treat is VIP Lamb Chunkers fried in garlic oil. They are easy to handle, soft & easily broken up into tiny pieces. Twelve months ago, I would have had trouble keeping my girl on the agility field...she would be off chasing the dog on the next field. Now she is up into Masters. I still practice LAT with her a lot, but usually when she knows I have the clicker, she melts like putty in my hands :laugh: We have a dog in my agility class who was quite agressive & was banned from taking part in class. I introduced his owner to the clicker & LAT & a few months later, he is a different dog...but still a work in progress. She brings him to class & starts off with him at a fair distance & slowly brings him in where he gets to train with the other dogs. If he begins to lose focus, she takes him away again.

Wouldn't you mark the dog looking at you and ignoring the target? Chuck the clicker you have your voice, a simple YES when he looks up at you and reward would do the trick and constantly reinforce looking at the owner. It's why I dont put a command on focus - it becomes a trick that can be ignored, then what can you do about it ... not much. If you expect your dog to look at you constantly as a way of life and keep reinforcing it, the process is easier, especially for more novice owners. It's called counter-conditioning & it's teaching the dog that is "quite OK to look, but look back at me & tell me" & the clicker is a precise & instant marker of a particular movement by the dog, which may be a very small movement but is important in the big picture & is therefor marked with the clicker followed by a treat. When you click you ALWAYS treat, so the clicker ALWAYS has value to the dog..even if you click by mistake you should follow it with a treat. Using the word "yes" in place of the clicker, means for it to have the same value as the clicker, you must ALWAYS treat when you say "yes" otherwise the word will lose it's value. Done properly with LAT you will eventually get MORE focus from the dog than merely using Look at Me, because it becomes a game with the dog to immediately look at you when he sees whatever it is you are counter-conditioning him too. In the case of my own dog it is anything that has motion eg. dogs running & her obsession with small dogs. I also use the word "yes" to mark a correct behaviour, but it's just to let her know she has done the right thing, like go in the right end of the tunnel or entered the weave poles correctly. I don't treat after using "yes" it is letting her know that it's OK to continue & that I am pleased with her. If I started treating her, when I said "yes", she would be coming out of the tunnel or the weaves to look for the treat, which of course I don't want to happen. :)

Best way to mark is with a clicker....make sure he knows the value of the click before you start. You click the exact second he looks at the other dogs & if he knows the value of the clicker he will immediately turn to you & you treat him. If he doesn't turn to you when you click, then you are too close to the distractioin & you need to add more distance. Make sure you click as soon as he looks & before he reacts to the objects. If you have taught your dog tricks using the clicker to shape his behaviour, then the LAT game is far more successful, then just marking with "yes". LAT then becomes another one of his tricks & he will get fun out of offering it to you...if you understand where I am coming from :) ETA...your dog is what they call a "sticky dog" & I put a thread up about that not long ago in this section, if you do a search for it. Here is the link to it here Sticky Dog Syndrome

Not sure what researchers are going to get out of this. There is no way that I could put in a one minute video all the ways I play with my dogs. I wonder if the videos then become THEIR property.

If you give us the breed of the dog it may help sosmeone to offer a suggestion. Some breeds of dogs have naturally oily undercoats.

It may not be the BH causing her to poo more often, it is most likely one or a combinatiion of the ones above I have bolded. My two BC'shave been on BH for 2 years now. They poo twice a day & it is always firm & easy to pick up, but if I give them more than a couple of dried liver treats it gives them "the poos" & I stay away from anything "pork" as this will do the same thing.

So glad to hear that she might be on the mend. It was posted on my Facebook yesterday morning & I havn't heard anything since.

Susan Garret's Encore is in a coma & fighting for her life Prayers for Encore