megan_

She is a happy little possum with me now - but I've had her for 4 years. At first I never tried to touch her, just let her approach. She sat next to me on the couch about 1 - 2 months in but if I moved she jumped off. She loves a scratch behind the ears but not a big, restraining cuddle. It was at least a few months before she'd eat something out of my hand comfortably. I had to hide from her view for the first month for her to even approach her food. If I had my time again I would take things even slower to be honest. Do you have a good behaviourist that you can work with?

For the first month or so I pretty much left my fearful girl alone. I fed her etc, but no walks (that took 6 months!). I'd focus on her feeling at home and getting to know you, rather than taking her out into the big bad world just yet.

Humans also eat foods that digest at different rates and cope. My dogs get raw and dry at different times. I always have dry on hand when out and about to reward good behavior - hard to do with raw. The argument isn't about different digestive rates though, it is about the level of acidity needed to break down bones vs dry. That said, my dogs are in good shape and do great poos. I honestly don't care about what research shows in test subjects - I care about my dogs and their condition.

Susan Garrett did a good comparison of US vs Europe with regards to this. When Lynda OH was out here she said we worry way to much about getting the Q and not going fast. Her words: next time I visit I want to see fast dogs, even if you make lots of mistakes. Those are easier to fix. We haven't had much training due to no lights at KCC *shakes fists at DogsVic for the drama that started last year and has continued*. In their wisdom they decided to dig up the only area with lights at the same time as getting lights put up in the main area - so now there is no nighttime venue available. Ferg's back feels stiff again, but he is still hooning around. We're going back to the physio (only noticed the soreness when a naturopath had a very good feel of it). Sigh. I guess the "good" news is that it can't be agility that is causing the issue as we've barely done any. He doesn't have good conformation (he is an oodle cross) and so I think he'd have soreness just from being a dog and doing zoomies etc. It does leave me with a conundrum. He LOVES agility, but do I stop it because it can't help the issue? I am more of a "live a full life and don't wrap them in cotton wool" kinda person but I worry that my decision to keep him at it will harm him in the long run. Then I look at how excited he is to do his agility and how great it is for both of us and I think maybe it is best to take the risk IYKWIM? I asked the physio point blank last time if I should stop him and she said no. I don't care about titles at all (I haven't even trialled him yet and would happily train even if they scrapped all comps). I just love training him, watching him enjoy himself and problem solve together. Any advice? ETA: Susan has also introduced a whole lot of verbal cues because with the international courses sometimes you can't even get into position even with a dog that works at great distances.

Cosmolo runs training classes in Hawthorn East, which is close by (that is for loder dogs, but I'm sure they do puppy school near there too).

Assistance dogs have the same rights as guide dogs in Australia too. There is no reason to scream. At no point did pers claim that it was easy to train a guide dog. She too has worked with guide dogs so knows a thing or two about them.

While I disagree with PTS a young healthy dog too, she couldn't do this in this scenario because she was blind and needed the dog as a guide dog. The dog could very easily have found a new home, as either a Guide Dog to someone else, as a therapy dog for a young child, or simply as a well loved pet. Guide Dog Programs in Australia do it all the time, and have for over 50 years. Just because it was a Guide Dog, does not mean it could not be rehomed. Quite the contrary, more than most dogs, these dogs have already had mutliple homes, without issue. They are highly trained and socialised dogs and are very much sought after. Many programs have a 10 year + long waiting list to take on one of there dogs that are either reclassified or retired. The dog would not have been working as a Guide Dog, while she was in the final stages of life and would have worked for at least a few weeks. One does not use a Guide Dog, while hooked up to morphine drips in a hospital or pallative care unit. A person in the final stages of cancer is not out walking the streets one day and dead the next. It is a very slow and debilitating death. As I previously said, I would never ever request a guide dog to be PTS. I never said the dog can't be rehomed. My point was addressing labradore's point that she should have taken care of getting the dog PTS before she died. She could only arrange this when well - not when out of it on a morphine drip. That would mean she couldn't walk around. FWIW, some people do go from walking around one day with cancer to dead the next - it has happened to a close family friend. Again, I don't agree with PTS a guide dog. The dog should go back to the association and rehomed or retired.

Well bred, well raised very active dogs have an on and off switch though. I have met Cos' JRT and he is very well behaved. To the casual observer he could look placid. However, he gets plenty of walks and training. An active dog with no outlet will eventually lose its off switch. Maybe the dogs that you have met have owners who have satisfied their drive?

I have, and I have asked the person who will take Fergus. No point in making arrangements if the other person didn't agree. I knew I had picked the right person (my younger sister) when she said she would need to think about it and discuss it with her husband. I didn't want someone to just say "yes" without thinking through the impacts on their family and life. Lucy goes to heaven.

While I disagree with PTS a young healthy dog too, she couldn't do this in this scenario because she was blind and needed the dog as a guide dog.

This is a bit different though? A charity has invested tens of thousands training the dog. Like others, I would have thought that one of the conditions of getting a guide dog would be that you return it if you can't use it for its original purpose at any stage. ETA: I have a dog that will be PTS when I die. This is because she has been abused in the fast and is very fearful (and can be FA) though, not because I have some notion that she'll never be happy with someone else. If I could guarantee her a home where she would be safely managed and her needs met I wouldn't be PTS.

well done Zig. He doesn't look too impressed though!

Whay if the cat eats his food? Do you just expect him to accept it? My dogs display no food aggression as you call it, but I always separate them. A friend of my dads had an ACD and a staffy who ate together for 8 years. Then, over a bone, the staffy killed the ACD. People here don't think aggression is okay. They just don't believe in taking unnecessary risks with their animals. Food is life and death for fogs and they know it...

You want to end it well before he becomes disengaged. Is he still super enthusiastic after a few mins? I find with my guys, less is often more.

* looks at her mini schnauzers* - sorry guys, off the bed and go hunt rats. Oh, and we have to give up agility and obedience too. Someone on the internet says so.... There are plenty of lower drive gun dogs to chose from.

I don't know of any reputable trainer who says that weak nerves are fixable. Dogs jumping, pulling etc are all training, behaviour is different.

I shouldn't have read this post, because I do now too

But, in all fairness, you haven't run the test under test conditions. You know the dog and it knows you. The dog has seen the doll before? you can't assess the validity of a test on one test case.

IF someone took my pet without reporting he rto the pound and legally adopting them I would fight tooth and nail to get them back. You can't just take animals off the street and claim them as your own.

There has been research that shows that DA dogs will attack a toy that has the same outline of a dog (not a small, squeaky toy like in the shops). There are some videos on Youtube apparently demonstrating this. It provides a safe way to test if a dog is DA without risking the life of the decoy dog. sas - a good pig dog shouldn't be HA, but some yobbo's pig dogs just might be

Sorry rb I confused search and rescue with police tracking - where there is a track. Dd - what a gorgeous location to track!

Dd are they allowed to look up?

the explanation sounds complicated but as RidgieMal says, it is actually very, very simple to teach. You do need to repeat the steps many times over to get perfection. A few of the dogs in our training group have the highest titles in ANKC tracking and are retraining their dogs in this method (which is used by Uta Bindel). I believe the same training method is employed for a lot of search and rescue dogs as they can't look up and see where they are tracking to, they need to scent every step. I have a mini schnauzer and an oodle cross, so we are never going to get an Sch title, but they absolutely love tracking and it really tires them out. It is also a great sport for reactive & hyperactive dogs.

Nekhbet on this forum operates from Geelong.

Where about in Vic?