wuffles

He still has excellent teeth! I know!! We have wondered if he was older than we originally thought (because he's so grey) but his teeth say otherwise. He doesn't even get many bones - just a few chicken wings a week. He just has naturally good teefies. Meanwhile Ava gets big bones all the time and her teeth are still yucky at the back!

The thought of my dogs getting loose and running across roads makes me sick, so I like to think at least someone (like you or me!) would at least try to catch them and help them out.

Hehe, he is known by OH's soccer team as "Wolf" He is becoming the laziest dog ever. He turns 7 this year which is getting on in years for a dog his size...

I really feel your pain. Once on my way home from work there was a dog weaving in and out of traffic on the Barton Highway roundabout! Now that roundabout is hard enough to navigate in a car let alone if you're a dog. People were BEEPING at him and swerving but NO-ONE got out to help. I pulled over and tried to catch him but he ran under the underpass and I couldn't find him :D

Good suggestions everyone For what it's worth, I think he definitely has GSD in there somewhere as his general shape and temperament is quite GSD-like. He also seems to gravitate towards GSDs. I think he does have wolfhound or some kind of large houndy breed as his legs are really long, and his independence and stubbornness could only come from a sighthound. And I'd say some kind of 'farm dog' as he has a bit of herding instinct... perhaps ACD as his grey spots are ticked, or a kelpie. A lot of people say lab but I've never seen it! We've even had husky/malamute :D I love my mixed bag mutt :p

OK guys, our very own 'Guess the Breed' competition What breeds do you see in my gorgeous big mutt? The one thing I'll mention is that he's taller than he looks in photos. He's just over 70cm at the shoulder and weighs 36kg. He's obviously got many breeds in him so guess away!!!

I've only just taught a dumbell retrieve myself so I'm not sure if I'm qualified to give good advice yet She looks like she is trying hard! But from your video I think you are marking the behaviour a tiny bit late... once she has already moved her nose away from the dumbell. I had the same problem once I got to the hold - trying to click while it was still in her mouth rather than when she had already spat it out. Not sure how big a difference it makes but perhaps it would help?

Most vets around here (I am assuming I live near the OP) give the Nobivac vaccination. From what I understand it does have more antibodies than the 1 year vaccination.

You do have an answer for their question. You don't know or care. Why not just be satisfied with telling people the truth? Um, I am quite satisfied. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to have answers or even interesting to speculate Not everything is so cut and dry...

Yep I think having a dog not work for an OH or someone else in the family is probably a different issue to not working for random people :D Mine will both work for anyone with food and... here's the important part... consistency. OH is always complaining about our little one but she's an angel for me. I have watched him with her and he lacks consistency and patience and I can see why he has problems Mine do hate any 'pack separation' in public though. I can't take them both out and tether one, for example. They scream. A few days a week, OH takes the little one for a run and I take the big one for a walk. No problems. Unless we cross paths, in which case we both have to put up with pulling, screaming dogs until we're out of sight again...

Sent you a PM Maybe we could get together a little training group every now and then and we can all help each other.

I answered mixed.. some were polite and informative, some were a bit rude, and some didn't answer emails at all. I did actually end up getting a different breed because I found a lovely breeder on DOL. We had considered this breed but hadn't contacted anyone about it. My relationship with this breeder is excellent and we are still in regular contact

I don't know nor care what breeds are in my big, black mutt. HOWEVER... every time we see a new person on the street we get asked what breed he is. It sure would be nice to know, just so that I have an answer to the question I have my own ideas about what breeds he has in him but it is interesting to hear other people's musings. I don't believe I've ever asked for people's opinions about his lineage on this forum and this thread is a good example why

That sucks KA. I've had instructors I don't like as well but for me classes are more about socialisation (both dog and hooman!) and training with distractions so I try not to let it get to me too much. I would really love more one on one instruction too (especially at the moment) but I just remember that the instructors are all volunteers and don't necessarily have bunches of experience. I guess there's really no reason for them to be there other than wanting to help people train dogs... unless they just REALLY wanted to have the privilege of parking close to the door or having their dogs allowed in the clubhouse Maybe he was just overwhelmed at the number of dogs, or was having an off day, or had been bitten by a big dog the week before... I don't know ;) Clastic: Pepper is so cute Ava sleeps like that all the time! Once I woke up at about 4am thinking there was a possum or something in the wall behind our bed. On further investigation, Ava was fast asleep under the bed, up against the wall, chasing bunnies in her sleep I am going to the CDC obedience trial tonight to watch CleoJ and some others blitz the field!

Thanks ness - I thought I would need to do something like this but couldn't quite get my head around how to do it. So thank you, I will try as you have explained it She does do amazing work when she wants to!! I think you're right about this... I need to be more strict and I probably also need to take my crate to the oval when I train. I do usually give a NRM and walk away but often she doesn't care because she's found something good to sniff

Does anyone have tips about keeping focus in heelwork? I play lots of games, do lots of static work, vary rewards and she loves training in general. But as soon as I go to the park and try to do some longer patterns she will often lose interest and wander wide or sniff the ground. If I vary the time and rewards she is very good (for example 5 steps, reward, 1 step, reward, 20 steps, reward, 10 steps, reward). I was thinking that I probably need to do up a plan over the next few weeks to build up time, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I know I've probably pushed her too far too soon but have no idea how to fix it :rolleyes: Sometimes at dog club she will do a whole heel pattern with very few rewards beautifully and other times I've lost her from the start.

Ahhh, that sounds good then stonecutter :rolleyes: Some people I know just pick the pup that comes straight to them and bites their fingers or falls asleep in their lap. huga, sooooo cute! I love white splotchy pups I was first in this thread about a year ago, crazy! My girl is now 14 months old. She is everything I could have hoped for and definitely a testament to finding the right breeder for you.

The problem with this method is that often the puppy that 'chooses you' is simply the most outgoing pup. A few of my friends have used this method and they tend to end up with energetic, confident and dominant pups. Which is fine if that's what you are looking for! Our girl came to us from interstate so we only met her when she arrived - but the breeder was able to tell us about each pup's personality as they grew. We knew we were getting a happy, bossy, slightly independent but very sweet pup.

Yep, raw meat works best for us too. I've had success with lamb because it's a bit smelly... It might be useful for you to take a look at a book called 'Click to Calm'. It's designed for reactive dogs, but I found it useful with my girl who can get very excited around other dogs. There is a game in it called 'Look at that!' or something similar which is recommended on these forums a lot... I have found that method a lot easier than expecting my girl to focus on me the whole time.

Hehe I love the pic of Asti and the scrub turkey. We don't see them very much down here. I remember when we still lived in Brisbane, and we were at the computer in the inlaws' study... I looked out the window and there was a scrub turkey casually wandering past the window. Such funny creatures... Max#1, generally with shaping you would have a behaviour in mind but essentially you just want your dog to offer behaviours. Some dogs are naturally good at it, some are hopeless, some need to learn, and some are in between. If you were doing 'pure' shaping you would just wait it out and see if the dog offers any more behaviours. Sometimes it takes them a while to 'learn how to learn' by shaping. I find that Ava sometimes needs a bit of a hint so will move the object or walk around it or just do something to get her. The way I understand it, the box example I talked about was pretty much just for fun with shaping... there is no pressure to get a 'correct' behaviour because you don't have one in mind, so most things the dog offers will be correct and it should be fun for both of you ;) Some people might end up shaping all four paws in the box, some might end up shaping the dog flipping the box over and the dog sitting on it, some might shape the dog picking the box up... ;) I was trying to teach the dumbell retrieve by shaping... so... first C&T just a look at the dumbell, then nose the dumbell, then lick the dumbell, then mouth the dumbell, and so on. In between getting C&T for those behaviours Ava would do things like lie down... walk backwards... beg... whinge... lie down again... no C&T for those :D Does that answer your question? Kinda? :D Oh, and no doggies at the wedding They would just be feral. They get to stay home!

Your monsters are soooooooooooo cute KTB :D ;) ;) I haven't had much time to do anything lately with appointments and organisation and writing vows and getting my head around timeframes (and THANK YOU KA times a billion for making my life a bit easier). But the doglets are still getting walked every morning at 6am (Ava is running with OH every second day) and I am trying to get Ava out every second afternoon as well. I think I put their welfare before my own! I took her for a 1.5 hour walk on Monday afternoon :D and took some photos along the way. This is the result: week06 by wufflesx, on Flickr

I actually put her in a down stay because a few walkers and bikes came through while I was getting the pics and I wanted to give her the best chance to stay put (which she did and I was very proud!). In my otherwise best shot she was blinking

Early week 6 for me! Unfortunately I didn't get the exact shot I was after but I like this one anyway week06 by wufflesx, on Flickr

Oh poor Max Quarantine sucks!! I wonder where he caught it? Aussie play looks rough because it is rough, nothing to do with fur What do you mean respects the ball, the ball is a TOY That's what Ava thinks anyway. She will chase dogs that are chasing balls and may bring it back once or twice but generally just runs after it and keeps going. She loves to grab a toy and repeatedly shove it in Satch's face until he either plays with her or tells her to get lost!

is a video of Ava and her friend Lottie... they were fairly sedate that day because it was hot, but if you have a look at the end of the video (3:30) it demonstrates how Ava likes to play most of the time Even the rest of the video shows that Ava doesn't have the same play style as BCs, she just wants fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!!! There's another video on my channel of Ava and Lottie as well.