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Thanks Kavik, that is good to know!

Justice wallpaper.... You know you want to

Is anyone here skipping any of the games? I think I am going to skip the Game of Deke ( that name reminds me so much of month python, but back on topic). Del just looks at me blankly, I can't get her excited for it, and I don't much see the point of it? Seems like it could be quite relevant to agility?

Pulled a hind leg muscle real bad after suffering a nasty fall from an unpleasant encounter with a psycho off leash dog and its moron owner in a clearly signed on leash area. ETA: we probably won't be able to come to the catch up either. sigh. Oh no, that's just terrible! I hope she heals quickly, SC.

So glad that the instructor handled it Spencinator. What you were saying reminds me a lot of the saying, that everyone should own a reactive dog just once in their lives. But honestly, such poor form from that lady! Our instructors are really good about that actually. They are very proactive about telling everyone to give space to the dogs that need it. Actually they are almost too good at it, as these days we are probably at the point where Del doesn't need quite so much space at dog club :) Love the photo of Justice, Snook

I like fencing like that. I find just from walking my dog around that it's the dogs who can see out of their yards that are the most reactive to things going on outside their yards. Especially if they can both see out of their yard, and are quite close to the footpath.

Yes exactly! She needs to be eating at least four cups a day in addition to her training food. But I'm thinking maybe I can get around it by just making her work for the entire bowl? (Jack pot style) It's weird with Del as she is very food motivated, and not normally fussy! I actually changed her dog food to make sure it wasn't that! Little bugger that she is! We had a doozy today. I left her with her breakfast while I took the girl child to netball. When I came back it looked like she hadn't eaten more than a mouthful. So she had been in the backyard with her breakfast for a couple of hours, and not bothered to eat it. I come back, and she's very happy be rewarded with this very same kibble while we play some recallers games

That happened to Zig some years back - google contra freeloading :) My dogs get all their non training dry food out of the Kong wobbler. Woohoo! There's an actual term for it! I'm very excited! Thanks TSD :) I have had a very quick google, and that's definitely what's going on. I am not having much success with the kong wobbler either. She finds it a bit boring I think. Maybe I will just make her do more to earn it. Work on out sits and drops from a distance maybe :)

The further we go through recallers, the less Del is eating her meals. Is this happening to anyone else?

Oh Snook, I'm so sorry you and Justice had such a bad afternoon I can see how hopeless you are feeling about the situation. Having a reactive dog can be such hard work., and I think sometimes it can almost make you burnt out. Don't make any decisions while you are feeling so low. Take care of yourself tonight: hot chocolate, nice bath, cuddles with Justice in front of the TV.

Yay! I have just emailed you :)

Yes one of the advantages of a mature dog (dog that is no longer a puppy) is that they are what they are. You know how their temperament has turned out, you know exactly how big they are, and you know their likes and dislikes etc.

Sounds like you've got her going really well Terri!

I don't have much breed advice to give... but wanted to add a word on barking. I find that the way your yard and house is set up has a big impact on how much barking a dog will do. If your dog can see out of its yard easily, it will bark more. If your dog can see out of your house onto the street easily it will most likely bark more. If you don't have a fence that separates your front yard from your backyard (or you keep your dog in the front yard) it will bark more. Usually a hell of a lot more! You can do a lot to reduce barking just by ensuring your dog doesn't have a good view of things going on outside of your property. Barking during play or to get your attention is slightly different, and a bit more susceptible to training.

sure you are ;)

BC Crazy, I just wanted to say I love your Avatar :)

Yep, I gave up on the yelling as I think it just makes the situation worse for everyone :)

I don't know anything about melanoma unfortunately, but I just wanted to say well done for catching it early and best of luck for the operation and her ongoing health :)

I do training in our front yard sometimes as the high school kids are going past, and nearly all the girls go 'awwwww cuuuuuuuute!' And nearly all the boys go 'holy f...!' Del and I prefer the 'awwwww cuuuuute!' :)

Lots of great reminders in there for me MRB :) The collar grabs are something I do need to put more work into. I thought they were going ok. But when I had her in a different environment (on a long lead) and she was doing really good recalls, except that when she got close I noticed her starting avoid the collar grab. So much is new in this course for me really. I do feel like we have made some impressive improvements already. I can see her trying to make those 'right' choices, bless her. Just a moment ago I was taking a chicken drumstick to the backyard to practice some crate games out there. And when she smelt the chicken she jumped about the place, and then she remembered herself, and ran away about four metres from the backdoor and sat. She sat the whole time while I walked past her, until I released her and then she ran into the crate :)

Wow, he is very athletic. The only thing that had me in conniptions was seen him ride the scooter down the road so fast!

Thanks for your response MRB :) I liked your examples too. My most obvious example was originally when I got Del, and we were working on other dogs as distractions I accidentally trained a whine at the dog then eye contact with the human behaviour chain. My one deliberate sort of behaviour chain (although somewhat undesirable) was that I taught her to bring me everything she steals. I couldn't exactly work out how to stop her stealing stuff, but I felt that bringing me the things she steals was a reasonable compromise. In answer to your question, no I am not doing those sorts of recalls with her. I was just using it to aid my understanding. To be honest I suspect I will never be able to reliably recall Del under those conditions. Not long after I first got her, i put her on the really reliable recall program. Everything was going text book and we had had only successful recalls over a period of several weeks. Then once when we were in one our familiar places, and I recalled her, and she looked at me and took off in the opposite direction. Took me ages to find her, and when I did she was attempting to climb a tree that ad cockatoos in it, a long, long way away from our original location. And I have not trusted her since then.

Thanks TSD! That has clarified the issue for me. I am being extra vigilant at the moment to ensure I'm not creating undesirable behavior chains. Because I think I have been doing that at times.

I'm hoping you guys will answer a couple of questions for me...I think they are probably pretty basic, but bear in mind I was basically completely unfamiliar with SG before I joined recallers a few weeks ago! 1. Can we use hand targeting to teach new behaviours? 2. SG said that if you give a cue to your dog, whatever your dog is doing at the time you give it the cue will be rewarded. Then she gave an example of a Weimy who would run away after it had jumped the last jump in agility. But then she said, he would actually recall to his owner no problems, but the recall had trained him to run away. So it's like she was saying you shouldn't do this. But, surely in the 'real world' if I had Del off leash and she began to run toward a dog, I would have to recall her, or at least give her some cue in order to stop her from meeting the other dog? Wouldn't I? What I am saying, is I don't really see anyway around giving the dog a cue in these situations. I certainly am not able to tackle her like the lady with the Weim. And I honestly don't think I could ever get her to the point where she just ignores everything. Especially things like rabbits. I simply can't imagine her being off leash, seeing a rabbit, and going 'I will ignore the rabbit'.

Yep it was what I knew about harl markings that made me interested in Dal markings :) Edite: I forgot to say how pretty Georgie is, Perrin. That photo of her and your son is precious :)