Ravyk

Had a small breakthrough before! Was playing hide the cheese cube with the dogs and I stacked some plastic containers upside down into a pyramid on a milk crate it so she couldn't reach the cheese which I placed on top. After trying to reach it with her nose and failing she actually got her paws up onto the crate to get to the treat. I also found something else, she gets confused with the clicker. As soon as I tried adding the click to mark the wanted behaviour she shut down and just sat and stared at me and wouldn't offer me any behaviour, just looked and waited for the click.

this might be a bit left field but do you think she has a problem with her back? can she lift her paw when standing? maybe start with this then try the sittng position I did wonder this and I will be asking my vet when she goes in for her annual check up next week or so [need to wait for OH to be paid]. She will sit straight when placed in that position manually. It makes a lot of sense, its just she never gets to the stage of doing anything else, if I ignore the nosing she just eventually shuts down and sits and stares at me. No she only noses my hand and then gives up. Will give the carpet a try, thanks! I think you are spot on. She has had two previous owners before me. OH's mother and a couple who surrendered her to OH's mother. She was very well trained when OH's mother got her, the couple had her for a year and were travelling around Australia in a car, the lady got pregnant and they had to move into a place where they couldn't have her. We got her from OH's mother just before she turned 3 [she is 5 this year]. I have no idea how she was trained originally, but other than the things she already knew from before, I haven't been able to teach her anything new [not that I have really tried until recently]. She just doesn't appear interested in learning anything new.

Lappiemum. LOVE your shot

Beach!!

Now I think about it I wonder if its got to do with the way she sits. She doesn't tend to sit straight ever but leans to the side with one back foot slightly under her body. She appears to use her front paws to balance. Any ideas on how I correct this?

Like what? I am seriously stumped about what I can do with her. You could always put the target (i.e a piece of paper) on your hand and get her to target that. Then wean the paper away from you hand until she is targeting the paper on the floor or another surface, then make the paper smaller and smaller until she isn't really targeting the paper anyomore, this might get her using her nose to target too. She nose targets fine. That isn't the problem. I'm trying to get her to use her feet.

delayed gremlins

This thread is worthless without pictures.

Like what? I am seriously stumped about what I can do with her.

I need some help. I am getting increasingly frustrated trying to train Peggie to do anything at the moment. My training up until last few months has been notoriously slack. I hurt my back recently, couldn't work, so I started clicker training both dogs. First thing I started with was just recapping 'sit' and 'drop' using the clicker, mainly to boost my confidence. Both did really well at picking 'sit' and 'drop' up. Then I moved onto something that they both previously had been taught, 'shake'. Spot got it within a 5 minute session. Peggie on the other hand is a different story. She's totally forgotten 'shake'. So I started off by lifting her paw with my hand and marking that with the clicker and rewarding. But no matter how many times I have done it with her [i do 5-10 min sessions at a time and stop before I get too frustrated] she never got the hang of lifting her paw for me. She would always offer another action, either sit or drop which I taught beforehand. So I decided to give paw targeting a go but with no avail. She nose targets perfectly, but I cannot for the life of me get her to touch an object with her paw. I've tried using toys, balls, big felt circles. All she offers is nosing the object. She just will not offer anything different. It's just *nose**nose harder**gives up and sits and stares at me* I just don't understand what I am doing wrong.

Barts, try contacting SA Dog Rescue. They maybe able to take her.

Exactly my point. Most of the time when I pick up dogs I take them to the local vet and the vet generally finds the owner. Our local 'pound' is the RSPCA and you can't drop lost dogs there, the rangers have to pick them up. I've only ever dropped one dog off to a pound. And you are spot on with the wandering. I once found a cat underneath my parents house who'd wandered up from three suburbs away over hills and farmland after a storm.

A lot of dogs once lost get very skittish when they realise they are lost and don't allow people to catch them. Last dog I picked up walked up to my car as we pulled up to an intersection. It took almost TWO HOURS for me and my partner to catch the dog. It would skitter away whenever we got too close, but once we caught the dog he was the smoochiest thing. Most non dog people would give up after about 10 minutes of not being able to catch the dog.

Wow. Yeah sure you should not intentionally steal from someone, which is what you seem to be trying to accuse these people of. But this is not just a 'thing' like a piece of furniture that could just wait to be found by its owner, this a pregnant young dog. It makes a huge difference to both mum and pups if they have a good home and start in life - time is of the essence. No-one is trying to steal this dog, and I have no idea how you came to that conclusion, but I do think you owe a few people an apology because reading this thread, it would appear you have effectively accused them of stealing and I think that given the circumstances and the nature of the 'things' we are dealing with, that is entirely unfair. Given that they don't know whether or not the dog has an owner, what sort of person that owner is, the fact that they have made no effort to make sure she could be recovered in such an event as this (ie through having a collar or microchip) and especially the delicate situation the lab finds herself in, surely you must agree that finding a home with a responsible and experienced dog owner is potentially the best outcome for this dog. You can't just wait around on the off chance the owner shows up and reclaims their dog, because during that time the dog is likely to require medical and emotional care and her pups will need a home to grow up in. Gosh sometimes people on these forums just astound me. Greytmate does not need to apologise to anyone. The dog MAY have an owner, who is frantically searching for her. You do not know if people have made the effort to find her. Some dogs who have gone missing for WEEKS have had their owners frantically searching all that time. There was a sad case where a person's dog went missing, they had placed advertisements everyday for EIGHT MONTHS in the paper. The dog was never found. It doesn't matter if the owner is an irresponsible moron, the point is they are still the legal owner of the dog [this is assuming she has an owner]. The fact the dog is pregnant is irrelevant. The dog needs to stand a good chance of finding her previous home if she has one, and the best place for that is the pound. Whilst I don't agree that a pound is the best place for a heavily pregnant dog, and that the pound doesn't seem interested in her welfare, the person who has her NEEDS to leave the dogs details with the pound and a contact number. Until that is done, and no one steps forward as the owner, no legal ownership can be established and selling her or the puppies could potentially be stealing. TO THE OP: Your friend needs to recontact the pound and leave details of the dog with them just incase there is an owner. Hopefully they will get someone a little more helpful on the phone this time who can explain what steps need to be taken.

This grey has been assessed as not small animal safe. I would listern to GAP before I listerned to the owner. To me the owner is playing on people's emotion's. They tried GAP and were told the dog is not suitable, they should PTS or keep him/her. They should not be trying to rehome the dog, pity the small fluffy it meets. They are not all suitable for rehoming. +1

OH won't let me. *pouts* But I have offered to look after them during the day whenever Heather needs me to or come down and play with them. [*hint hint* ]

I second that these pups are absolute darlings under the piles of mischief. I looked after them for a day and it was wonderful to have them around. Henna is little miss mischief and has such a happy go lucky attitude and loves attention. And Bentley, other than being uber handsome is a really laid back pup and takes things in his stride once he has warmed up to the surroundings and people. Bentley Henna

http://www.ndtf.net.au

The rescue forum is dangerous for me.

I am no expert so people feel free to correct me on this In incident 1, your dog was trying to tell the other dog she didn't want to be approached and was guarding her 'resource' the ball. Does she do it when she doesn't have a ball? One of mine does a similar thing when being approached by active dogs, but doesn't generally get to a stage of snapping, as I generally remove her from the area once I hear the growling starting. She also does the growling and lip lifting when our other dog gets too close to her bone. Incidents 2 & 3...not too sure about. But could she possibly be in pain? I push and shove [gently] my dogs around in the car and they've never growled at me. Only time my bitch growled directly at me was when I was checking her spey wound and rubbing cream on a nasty section of clipper irritation. It was obviously because she was in pain.

Do you need anyone with a nice placid python for your animal display? I have one which I am happy to bring along.

Hi muckypup. Adelaide is a black hole for jobs, especially in the animal industry. I've been trying my hardest to get my foot in the animal industry in Adelaide for two years without success, even with the help of some people already in the industry. Unless you have some decent qualifications [ie. Vet nursing, etc] your chances are quite slim. My advice, is still with the grooming until you find another job in the industry. It's much easier to find work if you already have a job.

do you walk them along regular routes? If you do, walk these routes, maybe with one of your other dogs, check hidey holes along the walk. Call her by name and any other words that excite her [mine get excited at words like beach, chicken, ride, etc]. One of mine escaped and I found him hiding in the long grass in a creek which I normally walk them along.

They are aren't they? I'm sure they will find homes very quickly.

Happy birthday Katy!!