wuffles

Does Pat have anything to say about the removal of front dewclaws and its effects on a dog's structure?

There is only one side with slight visibility into the neighbour's yard (small gaps between palings) but they tend to bark at sounds more than sight. Could you crate inside while you aren't there? We're gone for about 9 hours a day.

There is only one side with slight visibility into the neighbour's yard (small gaps between palings) but they tend to bark at sounds more than sight.

Thanks guys, she is just under 18 months old so still quite young. She is a velcro dog and likes to constantly know what is going on. She loves staring out our front window just watching the birds/people. At obedience trials she is not happy in her crate and prefers to be out watching everything that's happening (we were watching UDX a few weeks back and she was fascinated by the dogs doing the seekback... tilted her head and watched their every move, albeit very calmly... think she thought they were looking for food on the ground!). I do think that habit is a big part of it, corvus. They seem a bit more settled when we leave them if we have to go out at night or on weekends, when the routine is obviously different. ETA: We left them inside the house once when we were out and let's just say we won't be doing that again

Sorry, this is a bit long. I know a lot of people say that their dogs sleep all day while they are out. Is there a way to 'teach' this behaviour if they do not do it naturally? My two dogs behave very differently when they are alone versus when we are home with them (even doing nothing). We have filmed them on numerous occasions to see what they get up to while we're at work. They are walked for an hour every morning, then they are left with a Kong each plus activity toys and scattered kibble when we leave for work. It takes them about half an hour to clear out all the food, then they play for about an hour - which can get a bit noisy! After that, the older boy tends to settle down for a nap, but our girl acts like a busybody (patrolling the fenceline, chewing the clam shell, rearranging the furniture, trying to entice the other dog to play) until she finally settles down just before lunch. A lot of the footage is of Satchmo fast asleep in the middle of the yard with Ava either wandering past or lying beside him but not sleeping - sniffing the air, chewing toys, etc. They seem to get more active again around 3pm. When we get home from work, they come inside, have a little play with us, then go to bed and pretty much stay there the whole night unless we take them for a walk, go to training, etc! If we have a day off to do nothing, they sleep. They don't even have their morning play when we are around. They either sleep in the yard or sleep on their beds. Even if they don't get their walk, as long as we are home, they are happy just to hang around doing nothing. They don't bark at anything. Today OH is at home and he reported that they had their morning chasey barkey play, then realised he was home and have been lounging around snoozing ever since. I don't think that more exercise or training for Ava is the answer as she doesn't tire and gets fit very quickly I do obedience and agility with her and she gets some form of training probably 5 afternoons out of 7. She is also a dog that will do a whole hour's obedience class and still want to do more She is very well behaved and calm both at home and out and about. The main reason I would like to change this behaviour is that Ava gets excited by movement around our house (people walking past, neighbours, postie, etc) so when she lets out a woof or runs to the fence, it wakes up Old Man Satchmo who feels the need to add his opinion They don't bark too excessively (around once an hour for maybe 5-10 seconds) but I'd like them to be a bit more quiet and zen for both the neighbour's and their own sake. Help? :D

Well done Tassie! Love versatile dogs! I agree too BUT I think it is great to be able to do the retrieve if your dog finds that rewarding. Getting to reward them in the ring would be awesome! ;) Ah, if only ;) And please someone bring Rally O to Canberra!!!

I think that ultimately you just have to decide what hand signals YOU are using and practice, practice, practice them both with and without your dog If you can go along to an obedience trial to watch, you get lots of ideas.

I am finding it hard to build any value for the dumbbell really. I started out using the Shirley Chong method... she will take the dumbbell and hold it (although I don't think she enjoys it - I have switched from plastic to wooden dumbbell which has helped slightly) but we seem to get stuck when it comes to interacting with it on the floor/picking it up. I can have a few sessions where she will be picking it up every time. But then we seem to go backwards and the next time she will refuse to interact with it at all (sometimes she will paw it or lie down on it and this is all I can get in certain sessions). So, I thought I'd try something different and have been encouraging and rewarding her any time she chases or brings me one of her toys as I thought that may get the concept into her head, but even that is very hit and miss. She might be really excited about chasing a soft toy once, then the next time she looks at me like I'm mad

Will someone please convince my dog that retrieving things is fun? I've been working on the dumbbell for a looong time now and she is just not interested. Today I decided to try my luck and throw it over a jump... and the little monster decided to do a perfect retrieve over the jump :eek: At least now I know she actually does know what to do, just thinks it's boring without a jump in the middle

Interesting thread! I am 'just' a dog owner and lover, I have two dogs. I have recently become a volunteer obedience instructor at my club. I am actively trialling one of my dogs in obedience. We have just got our CCD title so moving on to Novice. I am training the same dog in agility with a view to trialling when we are ready. We have fostered before but don't have the facilities to do so at the moment. And I have a full time office job, not so much to afford my doggie activites, but to pay the mortgage

Or somewhere in between?

Just a little anecdote... at our latest obedience trial on the weekend, we were hanging around waiting for the presentations. My girl had a great play with the winner of the Open class. The dog that placed first in Utility and gained her Obedience Champion title had a great game with an Open dog. None of these dogs had any issues with handler focus in the ring.

I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, but I do leave treat toys and small marrow bones for mine when we go to work. My youngest in particular is a busybody and does not just sleep when we leave her alone. She needs something to do. My dogs have an extremely clear hierarchy with my older boy having lots of (passive) power over my girl. They don't really share food, but if there are two bones for example, they might swap a few times... my boy always dictates when the swap occurs Ava learned very early on not to go near his food (from both him and us). If she wanders absently into his path while he is eating something of medium to high value, a look is all it takes and she is either outta there or on her back grovelling. He has never overreacted. We've watched their interactions so many times that we are comfortable leaving low to medium value food with them. I separate them for high value items such as chicken frames, raw meat, etc. Edit: dandybrush has met my two dogs so hopefully this makes sense and helps.

Would the biggest size of these be big enough?

It would depend on the dog, kyliegirl. Ava doesn't need lots of exercise to be happy (as long as she is with us she is very chilled and relaxed) but she would still go and go and go for hours. Her mum is a VERY laidback dog.

If I fit the martingale on my dogs up high and tight they would most likely act differently than if I just fit the martingale loosely (my fault, we are still not quite there with leash manners on a flat collar for everyday walking). Maybe this could be interpreted as additional head control. ETA: I know a martingale is different to the snap around collar, but for argument's sake...

Would it be the placement of the collar, up high on the dog's neck, rather than the tightness? Lots of people around here use check chains or martingales for trialling but all the ones I have seen have been lower down on the neck, not where you would actually place them for effective corrections.

From this I'm guessing you've trained a lot of dogs or put a lot of time into your dogs over a relatively short period and understand the value of a good recall and your relationship with your dog. In that case I don't see a massive problem. It's more dogs that constantly go and visit other dogs during class and run off from their handlers to more exciting things that are an issue. Fair enough. My girl was an extremely full on puppy and had lots of value for, well, everything OMG A BIRD! OMG A DOG! OMG A LEAF! OMG GRASS! OMG SPECK OF DUST! OMG HUMAN! etc. Thankfully she also has lots of value for me, so I just had to make sure that it was more rewarding for her to stay with me than make her own fun. Some games I play with my dog which IMO make staying with me the best option... chasing food games, catching food, nose touches, fun tricks (she likes spin, roll over), running-away/catch-up games. I think that some people focus a lot of getting their dogs to calm down but I have found the calmness part came naturally after the bond was built and association made that handler = best place to be. I also trained a fairly strong "leave it" command which was rewarded highly (often jackpots or exciting play) and has definitely served me well! EXACTLY, sorry if I offended, I meant you were doing an awesome job, but that not everyone can see the value of the games in your second par here and as a result their dogs don't have the same value on them that you do. No offence taken! There are a lot of people out there giving advice who don't encourage play and fun (with the handler) in training. I certainly was never taught any of the games I listed at dog club, I got ideas from DOL, Youtube etc and the rest was trial and error.

From this I'm guessing you've trained a lot of dogs or put a lot of time into your dogs over a relatively short period and understand the value of a good recall and your relationship with your dog. In that case I don't see a massive problem. It's more dogs that constantly go and visit other dogs during class and run off from their handlers to more exciting things that are an issue. Fair enough. My girl was an extremely full on puppy and had lots of value for, well, everything OMG A BIRD! OMG A DOG! OMG A LEAF! OMG GRASS! OMG SPECK OF DUST! OMG HUMAN! etc. Thankfully she also has lots of value for me, so I just had to make sure that it was more rewarding for her to stay with me than make her own fun. Some games I play with my dog which IMO make staying with me the best option... chasing food games, catching food, nose touches, fun tricks (she likes spin, roll over), running-away/catch-up games. I think that some people focus a lot of getting their dogs to calm down but I have found the calmness part came naturally after the bond was built and association made that handler = best place to be. I also trained a fairly strong "leave it" command which was rewarded highly (often jackpots or exciting play) and has definitely served me well!

I understand the concept of neutralisation and why people do it, but I don't think it's for everyone. It's not really for me at this point in time. Sure, I want to compete in dog sports, but to be honest, I don't want my dogs focussed on me ALL the time. I want them to enjoy playing with other dogs. I want them to be friendly with strangers rather than indifferent. I enjoy this part of dog ownership. I am just one person and I am just starting out in the dog world, but that's my opinion for the moment

My dog gets to play after training and sometimes before but I actually think that has helped her learn when she needs to focus... she gets a quick run around/play then is called back for training, or sometimes she is crated while I help teach a class. She understands that play time is play time and work time is work time. If I go to the local oval to train and there are other dogs there, I usually let her have a quick play before calling her back and doing our training. She does have a high value for other dogs but as she's gotten older she has calmed down a lot and learned that she cannot play with everyone she sees. Then again, we have spent a LOT of time building our bond and focus, and I don't mind if I look like an idiot in the process of making myself interesting and fun to my dog She is 17 months old now, I am doing beginner's agility and she works off leash for most of our class (with at least 10 other dogs) without any problems.

My older boy does not cuddle. He is very particular about his personal space. He will lean on you and loves pats, but if you try lie down next to him he will get up and move and look at you like you're a nutter. My girl loves cuddles, she likes to curl up in the crook of your legs or right on top of you. Although She hates pats/cuddles when she is training!

My girl has never really had problems with prolonged exercise or recovery. Would breed have something to do with this?

Thanks PF. What exactly do you mean by road work? I have taken her beside the bike a few times but am having some trouble finding suitable places for riding. I'll have to do some scouting.

What kind of conditioning is needed to get a dog very fit for agility? We have only just started out so only doing agility training once a week, which obviously doesn't help much with fitness. She doesn't retrieve and if I let her off leash in a large open area she tends to just stick by my side. Please tell me my only option isn't getting fitter myself so that I can take her for runs ETA: She actually doesn't look too bad, she's lean and if she gets to play with other energetic dogs she will go and go and go. She is a bit bony in the hips and chest though.