wuffles

Why not try some clicker training? Even 5 minutes a day will help. I do at least 2 sessions of 5 minutes a day with my girl which helps her settle. Mix up the more traditional obedience moves (sit, drop, stand, stay, heel) with tricks (shake, walk backwards, spin, nose touch, beg, play dead... possibilities are endless).

Clastic!!! I hope Mr Clastic sleeps well and gets safely to the plastic surgeon tomorrow. How scary!!

I don't think it's sheer ignorance. I agree that we are humans and that's the only way we know how to relate to the world. I would bet that 99% of people on this forum humanise their dogs to an extent, and a lot of us sure aren't ignorant about dog behaviour.

Yep, none of the dog clubs in Canberra start agility before 14 months old and then you have to wait until there's an intake. Sometimes I feel like you have to be part of the 'in crowd' to even find out about these things... which I'm not! I would really like to do a foundation course, as I think there are a lot of things you can teach the dogs when young... there'd be a real market for that type of thing around here, I'd say. I'm trying to do a bit of it myself from research and videos etc. but it's hard.

I have fond memories growing up of Pokey the CKCS sitting at the spare seat at the dining table, and Beau the cockatiel wandering around stealing mashed potato off our plates. It would all accumulate on his beak like a beard, then he'd shake it off and half would land back on our plates (the other half in our hair)...

Both Satch and Kuma had a little romp with the littluns! I'd tell the lady to chicken wire her prized plants Some dogs just don't grow out of it. Thankfully I think Ava has finally learned to leave our plants alone. The grass plant she ate when she was younger has grown back! And the vine without bark on its trunk is still going strong. Needless to say, when we plant new things, they will be chicken wired. At my parents' house when we left the pups for a few hours, Ava ate the toggle off the blinds on the verandah, as well as the thin wooden slat at the bottom ;) At least they obviously spent their time lazing on the verandah rather than barking at the neighbours... KTB, maybe flyball would help calm Elbie down at other times... satisfying drive or whatever? I don't know

This cracked me up! ;) I hear that dog sports people do shout at their dogs a lot on the field!!! OH and I are still undecided about what we'll pursue for our doggies. I like agility, OH likes flyball. Trialling is likely out because that's probably something that is more interesting for me than OH or the doggies and even I'm not entirely sure how fun I'd find it. Why not try both, or one for each doggie? Or you could do Doggie Dancing with CleoJ? No agility intake until later in the year

How do you teach and reinforce this? I love the concept as a staring dog is very unsettling when eating. Mine get sent to their beds if they beg/stare. We have an "on your bed" command and an "out" command (eg. get out of the kitchen while I'm preparing food). If they can't do that, they get put outside until we're done! They seemed to learn pretty quickly...

Here is another reason we make sure there is plenty water in summer. Both of these were clean and full when we left this morning... and now... Edit: Correct, KA

Haha my camera is the lowest range DSLR with kit lens, I'm pretty sure you can pick it up for about $600 these days!

You asked for suggestions and that's what people have given you This site has some good suggestions: http://www.urbandogz.com.au/BOREDOM%20BUSTERS%20v2.pdf (except the bit about sultanas - don't feed those!!!) I spend a good 10 minutes and night and another 10 in the morning preparing 'enrichment' for my dogs during the day... cleaning, refilling and freezing their Kongs... rotating toys... cleaning up cardboard or other things I've given them to destroy... scattering their kibble... filling their treat toys.

:D Even Satch was awake enough to steal Ava's dumbell while I was training her last night, and he was happy and excited to go on his walk this morning! I played tug with Ava for half an hour last night, and did heaps of training with her, then this morning she went for a jog with Mr Wuffles :D To be fair, both of them were happy sleeping in the cool spots of the house and would have continued to do so if the toys and leash and food didn't come out ;) 37 degrees yesterday, at least they've revised today down to 34. Hopefully the doglets make use of their clam shell pool and the holes they've dug

Mine get a frozen Kong each, every morning. I also scatter kibble all over the yard which they have to find. They get a rotated treat ball each day (only my youngest is interested in these), either a Squirrel Dude, Buster Cube, or a Twist'n'Treat. Most days they also get something to destroy from the recycling pile... a soft drink bottle with kibble inside, or a toilet roll to shred. I also rotate a few toys... balls, soft toys, squeaky toys. This keeps them entertained BUT... occasionally I still come home to a new hole in the yard, or some more of the sprinkler system chewed, or a hole in the trampoline bed... as I say my older boy is 6 and he takes part in the destruction. IMO he's not doing anything 'on a greater scale' than any other pup or even older dog for that matter. Some dogs chew things and some don't, and as Sir WJ says, some do it for their whole lives. They need to set him up for success, not failure

Don't leave it where he can get to it.

How much exercise and training does he get at the moment? Does he get toys, treat balls, frozen treats, a clamshell, anything? Both my dogs, even the sedate 6 year old, will chew things that are left outside. Anything left outside unattended with them is fair game. We don't hang washing out while we're not home, no shoes are left around...

Wow RallyValley, you and Toby look like you have come a long way!!! I was excited to teach the dumbell too until we got stuck She's not a natural retriever so it has been pretty interesting Edit: I am so amazed that something so simple worked I've never had that suggestion before, people at my club keep telling me just to reward in smaller increments but my brain can't compute millisecond intervals! Yay!

OSoSwift... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We have been trying to get the hold for months, I tried your suggestion and it worked straight away. After that 5 minute session she was holding it for 5 seconds. She just got the hugest jackpot ever

Thanks, I will give that a go She actually wants to throw it at me rather than just drop it so I'll see how it goes. I have no doubt once the lightbulb goes off it will all go well!

At the (fenced) Belconnen dog park in Canberra there is a possum box in one of the trees A few times my boy has become obsessed with the tree because there is a possum in the box, so I've had to move on...

I am stuck teaching the retrieve... I need help! I can't get her to hold the dumbell... she will pick the dumbell up off the ground no problems but the most I can get her to hold it is about 1 second. Is there anything else I can do besides trying to C&T longer holds, which is not being very successful?? Thanks almighty obedience ones :laugh:

Ava and her bestie, Mars the BC. Not the clearest pic but you can't go past the expressions week04 by wufflesx, on Flickr

The dogs in the smaller run are all very highly trained as well... they compete in both obedience and agility... interesting :D We have a clamshell so they drink out of that a lot during the day. $18 from Bunnings :D A few weeks ago, pre-clamshell, I left them two bowls and came home to find both empty So I was leaving three. Now I just leave our big one, plus the clamshell.

Love it KTB! :D I notice Ava is featured in 3 out of 4 'eating' pictures ;) Kuma drinking is hilarious :D Our little outing today really reminded me of how wonderful all our doggies are. They didn't bark back at any of the instructor's dogs and pretty much ignored them, there were no disagreements despite there being differences in age/size/breed, they all had great manners... especially considering most of them are realistically still puppies! I don't want to toot my own horn but I think we should all give ourselves pats on the back for putting the work into our pups to be so well adapted, sociable and well mannered And the humans were all on their best behaviour as well

We've been using our shirt for a month or two. I think it is definitely helping during the milder storms - he will still stress and pace but calms down faster. Our aim is just to get him into his hiding spot and stay there. I haven't noticed a difference during the big storms, still a stresspot

Hoover really has his kissy face on in that pic, doesn't he?