tez

A close friend has two kids and a large golden retriever. They live out in the sticks and ofter the kids and the dog would be playing in the paddocks. She always reminded the kids that if they saw a snake they were to throw themselves in between the snake and Billy (the GR) as anti-vemon was free for them but it would cost $1000's to treat Billy at the vets! .....She was only half joking!!!!

Might be worth a trip to the vets as he MAY be sick...IMO depressed dogs are sick dogs but then again maybe he is just exhausted from the interaction with Chloe. Are you able to separate them while you are not at home??? This may give him some much needed time out if he is just exhausted.

I think that the personality of the pup is the personality of the dog. My dog was a little turd from day one and at 11months, is now a bigger turd!!!

Welcom Caniche! Hope you enjoy your trip! What sort of doggies do you have?

So...how does one go about squeezing anal glands???

Gras seeds are pretty common this time of year. Might be wise to check he has'nt got one stuck up his nose. They can move around and cause irritation.

So say the club offered a variety of training tools...how does the dog cope with going from one method, say +R, to another method, say cc??? Wouldn't this just confuse the dog (and owner)? How long would you give a dog training with one method before training with another???? No doubt its up to the individual but this is putting alot of pressure on the trainer when there are multiple attendees. Surely it is also up to the owner to research and define their own training preferences BEFORE attending an obedience club so they can decide which sort of club they want to attend. I think that as long as a club is up front and transparent with their rules and philosophies, then the owner has the obligation and responsibilty to attend a club best suited to their preferred method. Perhaps clubs could inform attendees of the different methods available but this does not necessarily mean they have to use all of them.

Wow...Just read the 'link'...what a fantastic dog! If they were here in any numbers then I would definitly put my name down for one. Not only beautiful to look at, their temperment sounds perfect!

I think a dog obedience club has every right to set and adhere to a training philosophy of their choice as long as that philosophy is explained to and understood by people wanting to join. Its not elitist by definition but purely a means for clubs to be able to train a number of people and their dogs in a short amount of time with (more often than not) a small handful of very dedicated and skilled volunteer trainers. Surely its about giving people the tools they need to go home and practise what thay have been shown and instructed to do at class. I would imagine that one trainer with 5 to 7 'students' would find it quite over-whelming to instruct a class with a variety of training methods in a short 1 hour session especially if a number of students are newbies. I would also imagine that many owners would choose NOT take a dog to training if they had stitches and think that any responsible trainer would actively discourage a dog attending who did have stitches in-situ.

Happy Australia Day all! Went down to Port Campbell for the day. Pretty quite and relaxed. Just hung around watching my niece and her friends swimming and jumping off the pier...much much better than working though! Jess...saw you at the show grounds this evening or rather Jane spotted the giant blue ball before we even got near to going in. All of a sudden she started pulling like crazy...took me a few minutes to spot the ball and work out what had gee'ed her up. Anyway, I waved a few times but you looked very busy enjoying yourself with your dogs. Jane loved playing with my fit ball the other day. Lasted about 5 minutes before it went poof!

Why was he on the telly???

OMG Kelpiehoundmum!!! What a lovely giant puppy you have. I could be wrong but your other dogs look a tad worried about his size Glad he's not at my house as I wouldn't be able to stop smooching his lovely face! Whats his estimated adult weight?

No worries - good on you for persisting and continuing to look for ideas to help you out with it. The RRR info seems to be very highly recommended, I have her Control Unleashed book and found it that good that I started rereading it the moment I finished it. Ok...I have just ordered the RRR DVD and Control Unleashed book so will be looking forward to some 'study' in a few weeks time .

Jane does it too...with fluffy toys. She tends not to distroy them unless she has a doggy friend over and they play tug of war. The toy she sucks now is minus its head after one such incident so I just sewed the neck up and she still sucks on it! It looks abit creepy but she has had it for about 3 months now. I don't discourage it as its about the only time she is well behaved and quiet! I'll even search it out and give it to her as a hint that its time to SETTLE!!! BTW she looks sooo cute when she does it...she wraps her front paws around it and looks content but also just alittle bit embarrassed at the same time.

Well the penny's dropped as to why you were so hyper aware of horses when we were down at Killarney that day (remember?)! I didn't realise it was a specific trigger of Coopers! How old is Pickles now??? It must be so hard to give em back when the time comes!

Thought I'd read another thread first then get back to it so missed it completely...Damn!

TLC...Thank you soo much for your kind words and morale booster. It has really helped as I was feeling abit disheartened! I think that part of it is that I know if Jane had better recall then I would be able to do so much more enjoyable stuff with her and I am so frustrated that I can't let her free run more at the moment. You know I love her to bits but she is a tough one for me training-wise. I see so many dogs progress at training and with us, its like we are going backwards! But I will persist and I know that we will get better! I do think it will take a while as I think she will be a big loopy pup for some time yet! I look at your dogs and think they must have always been as good as I see them now but of course I realise the time and effort you have put in is something I haven't been around to see...so thanks so much for your support! Love the photos...especially of the five doggies all smiling with their tongues hanging out! Its very good news about Benny and I'm glad his old owner got to see him happy in his new home. It must make her feel so much better about the whole situation!

Thanks for the advice Pandii and Jess. I'm abit stumped about how to train this very confident girl as she trains so very well when there are no distractions and that includes recall but it all goes out the window when anything catches her eye! And I mean anything...even movement 300 metres away!!!! I was doing recall in the showgrounds oval and she was excellent until she sighted a cow moving in the paddock next to the grounds. Now this cow was at least 300 metres away and it was only grazing but she really fixated on it. I am sure that if the oval wasn't fenced then she would have been over to investigate in a heartbeat. I am going to look into getting the 'Really Reliable Recall' book and D.V.D that was discussed on another thread to see if it can work with Jane as well as persist, persist, persist!

My jane is as naughty (if not more so) than ever!!! Hello teenager!!!! Yes we will be back for training (god knows we can at least TRY!!!) and I have been putting some real effort into her recall in particular but with no real improvement! Is it wrong to wish that she had just a teeny tiny bit of 'fear' lurking in that big personality of hers cos I really think just a micro-gram of caution would help curb her enthusasiam and make training soooo much easier! I'm still waiting for her to go through that 'Fear' phase of development....or have we missed it???

Hyper labs at Obedience??? Surely you are not thinkinking of my Jane???

At 11 months, Jane has well and truly entered her 'teenage' phase. She dosen't normally jump up on us but visitors are another matter so she is on lead then to help curb her enthusiasim! Her worst undesirable behaviour (at the moment) is lying down when we go for a walk. If she sees someone (anyone) coming toward or behind us she immediately plonks herself down and dosen't budge until the person walks past. She would love them to say hello. Most people assume she is tired and needing a rest but hell no, she just stubborn! Recall...it was great when she was younger but is shocking now! I have yet to find anything that frightens or scares Jane AT ALL so she does not have a worry in the world! Not a nasty bone in her body thank god but a tiny weeny bit of caution might be handy in order to curb her independant streak! Did she miss her 'Fear' phase of development????

Jane and I went up the mountain again tonight...took about an hour as she was really into sniffing. Thank god we live in a small town though, as she is a real bugger for saying hello to other people and dogs. This probably sounds like a good thing except it means that every time she sees someone, she falls over and lays on the ground until that person comes up. Trouble is that they can be up to 200 metres away when she sees them so we spend a fair bit of time waiting for people to walk up and then for me to explain that no...shes not tired...just friendly, stubborn and pig-headed!

I hope your girl is feeling better soon! My old girl Meg had her first seizure at 3 and died of (basically) old age at 14. She was on Phenobarb which worked well but needs to be monitered as too little or too much can cause breakthrough seizures. Full on seizures are easily observed but often, after a large seizure, a dog can have smaller less observable seizure activity that can cause disturbed physical behaviour such as more frequent blinking, head droop or other problems with lack of co-ordination. I too understand about the cost of investigations and more importantly, the stress these investigations may cause your lovely old girl. Your vet probably has a good idea as to what is going on and as you said, if its just to find answers then you really do have to weigh up the benefit to your dog. Good luck with her. It can be a bit of a trial getting the meds right so you may see her having a few more seizures before she settles. And please remember, even though you know your dog so well, during and shortly after a large seizure, your dog will be in an altered state of consciousness and may react aggressively to you if you attempt to pat or cuddle her during this time. Best to avoid getting too close but continue to talk to her calmly so she becomes aware of you and feels less frightened.

Wow...and only 7 months!!! He sounds adorable! Wanna swap????...Jane is 10 months and totally evil....cute though!

Well Jane got in some lovely walks over the weekend but not by me as I was in Melbourne visiting family and friends...so she is happily passed out on the bed while I write this...YAH! Jane is a real bugger when it comes to recall. She was pretty good as a pup but has become unreliable since her brain kicked in so I sometimes walk her with a long lead when we go bush. The problem is that I need to get a long lead...5 to 10 metres..that is soft enough on my hands when she goes spaz with her Zoomies. Any ideas????