ChristineX

Hi Borderbo, welcome to Dogzonline! Your pup actually sounds pretty normal - but I would find another class - who does not concentrate on pack leader/dominence - training,focus and practice/practice practice will get you there. Boarding/training programmes do not have a good reputation for lots of reasons, and I would stay away from them. Have a look at K9pro (or is it Pro-k9?) website (you are looking for Steve Courtney) and have a look at some of this distance learning programmes - he has an extremly good reputation. Also, have a look for local dog clubs - these mostly train using positive methods and I think may be more helpful than DogTech, who do tend to have one size fits all solutions for dogs. Oh yeas - pictures of Bo, please. Mandatory on a dog lovers forum!! Christinex

Hi Rubystar, If its a public holiday, I can probably help out with stewarding- where and what time? Christinex

I do know that when duke put his spine out last year, the hair around the spine in that general area was different to the rest of his coat. Once we'd figured out what was going on and had his back manipulated into place, the coat in that area matched the rest. So the guy is not necessarily wrong. It's just that there are so many other possibilities too. Christinex

This is where the crate comes in. Fantastic piece of equipment and we have traffic jams of dogs trying to get in - because when they get out it is their turn!! ChristineX

Hi Julzie, Brock isn't a monster, but he is aggressive. Here's my take on why. When you seriously spoiled him, he got everything he wanted, where when and how (pretty much, right?). This told him he must the the top dog - otherwise why would you be doing what he said. Top dog status comes with responsibility - he's responsible for telling his pack what to do, when and how. He is also responsible for keeping you all safe, and keeping intruders off the property. This means, if he feels you have not done what he has decreed, he bites. Its the normal dog response to an underling (you) not doing as instructed. To turn this around, you have to depose him. Easiest way - take him to obedience classes and practice the lessons at home, every day. This also gives him practice in dealing with other dogs while listening to you, and also gives him time with you that he does not have to compete with Cassie for. All positive. At home, NLIF means - if he wants to go for a walk, leashes only go on calm dogs. If he's jumping around, put the leash away, walk away, and come back in a minute and repeat until he is calm. Same again at the front door/gate - here only dogs that sit get to go thru the door. Also, if you have been picking him up - that never happens again. Also, never on couches, seats or your bed - this guy has a leadership problem and in dog land, the higher up you are, the higher in the pack you are. Obedience is actually fun - as a dog, you get lots of praise (who doesn't like this) and treats (even better). It can also lead to doing agility (some of the most fun a dog can have) or flyball. And its wonderful for the human ego when your dog sits/stands/drops/heels and others go 'how did you do that! My dog just runs off!!" (personal experience there). Barking - well, he's responsible for keeping intruders out. Barking is the number one bluff. What ever you do, don't start screaming at him to stop - as far as he is concerned, your barking too and he must be right that it is a dangerous situation and bark louder. What we do here - my guys bark, I walk outside saying "show me", I take a good long look in the direction of barking and praise them and expect them to come inside. Dogs say, okay, danger over and everyone settles down. I do this at night too, although I switch on house lights first so potential intruders actually have time to leave. These days, I'll get two or three barks, and that's it. Any more than that - I go check things out. The other thing is, I know if Duke sees people walking down the street, he will bark at them. So the blinds stay closed so he can't see them. If this is one of the reasons for barking - blocking the line of sight should reduce the barking too. Also, pictures of cute dogs are pretty mandetory - could we see your guys, please?? Okay, I think this must be my longest post yet Keep us updated with how things are going, please! ChristineX

Hi again Julzie, have you had any luck getting in touch with either K9pro or the petresort people? Do they think they can help? ChristineX

Hi Julzie, firstly welcome to Dogzonline, you can learn an amazing amount here, and get an amazing amount of support at any time of the day or night. I'm not going to talk about your breeding ambitions, I'll just point out that a lot ofpeople here will have very passionate ideas, and I recommend a look at the health and rescue forums as these will show why. My recommendations - contact the people Nekhbet has recommended sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, the way you have brought your two little ones up has resulted in Brock becoming an aggresive dog. You are just lucky that you have westies, and not one of the larger breeds. Please understand that this is already dangerous for Brock - he is already unrehomable. He is lucky, you have recognised that there is a problem, he is young and you are looking to fix things. In the meantime, walk them separately, start practising Nothing in Life is Free, listen to whichever of Nekhbet's people you decide to contact, and implement their recommendations. And let us know how it goes. ChristineX

I have Irish Terriers. The last time I looked at breed specific diets - they suggested potato based. Please, these were in Ireland only a short time before the potatoe famine. Potatoes hail from the Americas. I stopped looking at that point in time. ChristineX

I have floorboards - I used to have rugs. Duke just used them as toys, bunched them up for comfier sleeping/playings spots, used them for high speed slides - i've just thrown them all out. He has a couple of big old (and now coverless) couch cushions which Kate (other IT) likes to sleep on - they double as drag toys - she sleeps on them while Duke drags them around the room. He also has an old doona which stays in the living room crate - except for those nights he removes and 'remodels' it for comfort half in the crate, half out. I never had this problem when it was just Kate and me. Give her a sheepskin rug, she's in heaven. Duke thinks its a toy for plucking wool off. And I do an awful lot of vaccuming (actually, just got a much more powerful one) to keep up with hair and sand.

Hi D22, you did the right thing. You might like to add the empty pram to some walks, just to check if that is making a difference to your pup (just tell people you are training an assistance dog if you get strange looks). And yes, keep the leash separate from the pram, this allows you to drop the leash if circumstances dictate. And as you have probably guessed, most people would not recommend touching an unknown and aggressively acting dog - it puts your hand and arm in reach of the dogs mouth, and you in danger. ChristineX

17 and 21. 21's a portrait of Duke. Christinex

Hi Rosie FT, if your friends would like to meet an irish terrier, I can offer up Kate - Duke can stay at home. He's not typical of any dog! Kate, though, is pretty representative of the irish terriers being bred here in Wa. You can train recall, but you do have to put time and effort into it. Leaving Duke out of the equation, the irish terriers are terrific little dogs, and I find them pretty trainable. They love doing stuff with their people. Kate is no longer fussed by other dogs, she has 'her' dog at home (Duke) and doesn't think she needs any more! None of the three irish terriers I've had have been dog aggressive, Duke stillhas problems working out what is a dog and what isn't which causes fear and hysteria, and the other two prefer to ignore other dogs. Quin (RIP) when bounced on by teenagers would do an abbreviated alpha roll, which always resulted in the teenager sucking up to him big time! That's as close to aggressive as I have seen, and Quin was attacked several times by other dogs in the street. The two Irish Terrier breeders here would also be happy to show off their dogs, if your friends wanted to see more than one in the flesh and talk about them. They are both pretty passionate about the right home for their dogs. ChristineX

Hi Rosie FT, if your friends would like to meet an irish terrier, I can offer up Kate - Duke can stay at home. He's not typical of any dog! Kate, though, is pretty representative of the irish terriers being bred here in Wa. You can train recall, but you do have to put time and effort into it. Leaving Duke out of the equation, the irish terriers are terrific little dogs, and I find them pretty trainable. They love doing stuff with their people. Kate is no longer fussed by other dogs, she has 'her' dog at home (Duke) and doesn't think she needs any more! ChristineX Whoops - double entry!!! Sorry guys

Novels can be good - you get all the important information! Firstly, has anything changed with her physical condition/s? That's the first thing to rule out. Second, a good behaviouralist if she is physically no worse than usual. You'd be looking at a desenitisation programme, and upping your skills in dog handling (at least, that is how it is working for Duke and me) Keep in mind, unless there is an acute cause, this is a long term programme, not immediate success. Duke, who is reactive and hysterical (not in the funny ha ha sense) is now in his fourth year of 'therapy'. He gets better each year, so I keep working on the issues. Good luck

Hi Lyndsay! Homicidal - guy that used to live around the corner. Honestly, we just used to walk past, and one day he was out with his kid and stopped to talk. Iquote "they really are nice dogs, aren't they? I always thought they were pretty homicidal looking". And that was with quin, who was a teddybear, not duke whose screams of fear always get taken for 'evil intent'. Now Duke, having been terrified by a few swf around the neighbourhood, and a score of killing 2 cats which were in his territory - has been called evil by my ex-neighbour and his friends. And a few strangers in parks after he's been terrified by strange dogs and screaming in fear.... and the brown schnauzer actually came from a council ranger.

I've had" - homicidal - evil - airedale - wolfhound - irish wolfhound - lakeland - brown shnauzer and my personal favourite from the Shire Council: - irish setter. I have irish terriers.

No problems, corvus, I agree, sometimes I formulate a post, and then delete simpley because I figured it out! Besides, I always enjoy reading your posts

Hi CrazyCresties - good news on Daisy! The problem with being on a beach with a cyclone nearby has very little to do with the water - its the wind that picks up sand and sandblasts you (gets quite painful) and starts to strip the paint off your car....... It's actually fun watching the waves and surf - at a nice cautious distance! (I grew up in Port Hedland -lots of cyclones)

The past couple of weeks Kate has just had to twitch to trigger off an attack so she has not had a very good time, and yes, this has probably made her very defensive. Duke is quite a reactive dog, and his triggers at home are usually tight spaces (I've a small, old house) and food (he's a bit of a food guarder), and pain levels reduced his tolerance quite sharply (I had a really interesting long talk with the vet about that). the accupuncture this week has dropped his tolerances back to normal levels, which means a decent part of Kate's new behaviour is being ignored for which I am very grateful - and he is being rewarded for doing so. Fortunately, I already have a dog shrink for Duke, so I've been in regular contact with her as well to manage Duke and his aggression - but she is busy and given that neither of my guys are putting holes into each other will respond in a day or so to this latest development, and you guys always have ideas that are worth considering. I've also noticed that if I am in the midst of angst, I'm so busy seeing trees that I miss the forest - so coming here is a good way of re-focusing on the forest instead of the trees. Corvus, I think you might have a point regarding barriers. I moved one of the crates into the bedroom yesterday - I'll put Kate in there with a kong while I'm busy with food. That could well work better than the other crate. Control to keep them on mats - only exists while they have my full attention. That's the fun and frustration of terriers - there are no absolute commands in their minds. Thats why I splurged on crates as my Xmass present to myself this year, even though the amount of floor space they take up is pretty huge in my tiny place. Thanks guys - you have helped re-focus me and I really appreciate it!

I never thought I would be asking for advice about Kate - my 9 year old irish terrier who usually does not put a foot wrong. Usually its Duke who is causing mayhem at my place! However - background info - just after Xmass Duke stuffed his back up (again), but this time he must have done a 110% job of it because he was extremely aggressive towards Kate. Tramydl helped a lot, and the Chiro this week seems to have sorted out his problem. But, during this time, Kate has turned aggressive - If I have food (my food) or am eating. If its dog orientated food, no problem at all (I've always kept them separated for meals). I've had to crate them if I do anything in the kitchen, because Kate goes for Duke (not, I think, with the intent of drawing blood,though). Tonight, not only did I crate Kate, I put the doona over because she was going nuts. And no, Duke wasn't getting any of my dinner, either. Okay, my dinner is over, food is all gone, and peace is once again in my household. The question is, how do I get Kate back to normal - ie not getting snarly, aggressive and attacking Duke just because I am having a meal.

He sounds like an adolescent male with no training ..... I've one like that. That means training, training and more training. I'd agree with keeping clear of dog parks for the time being. I read a post on another forum - that said for some dogs, other dogs are the ultimate in distractions! Which means add at least one more 'training' to the chant! How did he go on the weekend at the dog training??

Currently my 2 irish terriers rarely get walked, although once training starts again then its weekly there, fortnightly at the dog shrinks. One would love to go walking more - but my health currently does not support it (working on that). The other has very little in the way of coping skills once outside the front door, hence the dog shrink. Lots of training, though.

Boxagirl, the vet not releasing the xrays for the chiropracter is strange - mine not only released them, but copied them onto a disk so the chiro could keep a copy! I would be querying that decision on the basis that your dog needs good care, and for that, the chiro needs those xrays. Bon's case is not straight forward! Its the same with human care, if your next care provider needs the test results, your current one passes along a copy!! Why did the vet say they could not release the xrays? AFter all, you paid for them. At least you now know what is going on, though.

Hi all, I'm hoping someone knows of a vet in Perth (pref south of the river) who does half price desexing? No, I don't have another dog, but one of the ladies in the street has helped rescue a staff cross something called a mastiff. (definately part staffy, she has the smile down pat. Colour is fawn with black mask,lovely dog) She's not sure if she will be able to keep Karma due to seeking employment, I'm trying to help her get Karma either easy to handle and keep (which she would like to do) or ready for a new home which means desexing and basic education. She doesn't really like to take money from people, (I already offered) so a low cost desexing clinic would really help. Young Karma (6months) picked up clicker stuff and offering sits in about 10 min this afternoon - I've dropped off some chewing toys (not used here) and a spare clicker and the odd training book! Thanks, ChristineX

Rozzie, a super66 fence is the non asbestos version of the fibrocement sheet fence in a wave like pattern. It was very popular until overtaken by the colourbond steel version. The problem is, if the ground is not equal on both sides the fence becomes unstable and develops vertical cracks. At that point, it doesn't take much to snap the fence off at the ground level, like a nice windgust - and at this time of year we get a lot of those overnight. Or even a cat escaping over the fence at that point with a dog chasing it - and with irish terriers that is not good.