raineth

awww they are all so cute together!

How sad for you A different behaviourist may offer you more help than the other one. It is one thing to keep him away from strangers, but very difficult for you to keep yourself out of his way now that he is having problems with you. If you do need to have him put to sleep that doesn't mean you have failed him. It sounds like he has a strong genetic predisposition to be fearful. Putting him to sleep may actually be a kindness to him, if he feels anxious about a lot of things.

Thanks guys :) It's so fun to spoil him. He has always had a tendency to be a fatty, and I've had to be careful with what I've fed him. So its quite fun and liberating for all of us to just let him have his way with food :) aww thanks BC Crazy. But there's nothing selfless about it really. It gives all of us something positive to focus on. Thankyou :) I will definitely get some more photos up :)

His eyes pop the whole time he is eating :laugh:

So, I recently found out that my dear Mr. Digby only has a short time left with us. So our main focus is now spoiling him absolutely rotten; which obviously involves trips to the ice cream parlour. Digby has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the icecream scene, and today he thoroughly enjoyed cinnamon and honey flavour.

Definitely a great idea to video it from OSO. Make sure you're not holding the camera but have sat it somewhere where it can see the whole scene. It's even possible that you notice something with the recording that you don't notice when you are there experiencing it. Also is he doing it all the time? Can you get him to the vet safely? Good luck, it must be very rough for you.

Thank you Ernie :) I have to look into it some more, I have done a little bit of googling about it. I think I should definitely look into this more and give it a go.

Hmmm I don't know if I do anything that would be classed as that Erny I do play with her, and I do train her but I don't think that's what you're referring to? I'd love to hear how I can start doing some though :)

I know you're in QLD, but I think k9 pro sometimes give advice in these situations. Could be worth ringing them.

Thanks for your support guys :) I've been so lucky to be his owner. Everything just fell into place for him to comes to us. I am determined not to be miserable while he is still here with us. While he's still here I have nothing to complain about.

Yes BC Crazy. I wasn't sure if to mention here or not. Digby was diagnosed with Lymphoma yesterday. He had developed a bit of a cough about three weeks ago. It's his 7th birthday today. I knew there was something up, but I really wasn't expecting such bad news. He is still very well at the moment thankfully, which is so good as it means we can do so many fun things together. He's still well enough to go for hour long walks, I am so grateful for that. We have list going of all the things he loves. This afternoon the kids and I are taking him for ice cream. We are not going with Chemo, the vet does not recommend it for his situation. But dammit he will have the most wonderful time up until its time, we will make sure of that. He's going back on raw which he loved but made him fat. It wont make him fat now as he has dropped a significant amount of weight over the last few days. Every evening he sits on top of us all on the lounge, and we have lots of bushwalks planned too. The one thing I need to find is thick scratchy lawn. He loves rolling in thick scratchy lawn :)

haha, yes sounds like we almost need to design our own! I'm looking forward to hear how the Blackdog one goes :) and I hope it helps your hands a little. I also think that there is something confidence building about knowing exactly how far the dog can go before it's stopped by the leash when you have a reactive dog. That would be harder to estimate with a bungee cord leash.

Yes its interesting. Some dogs put on such a massive aggressive display with lots of noise, and hackles and teeth baring. But the times my dog has actually been bitten have been more quiet. I wonder whether there is a difference in behaviour between a predatory attack versus a 'you're in my territory' attack. Obviously it wouldn't make sense to be too noisy for a predatory attack as it warns the 'prey'. But gees, what an awesome cat I don't think the mum did anything too wrong leaving the boy for a minute to check the dog could not come back. Isn't removing any more potential dangers one of the first things you're meant to do in an emergency situation?

This is so off topic (sorry guys,) but you weren't doing agility at wagga a few weekends ago were you? I was helping out and I remember seeing a black Lab named Mindy doing agility.

hehe you might have trouble finding him! I know a lady with a Blue Great Dane and her lounge was the suede in grey/blue, and she was forever thinking he was missing and then realising he was just sleeping on the couch :laugh:

I hope you all come back an inundate this thread with photos and stories! It sounds excellent!

So much like my Digby HD. How blessed we are to have had such dogs in our lives :)

hehe yeah I know, I remember you saying that you wanted a blue, so I was wondering if he was indeed blue :) Black is a fantastic colour though... goes with everything :D

Hehe yes, I find arms work so much better in their sockets than out :D Good luck with it! Let me know how you go. Del was very silly about birds for a while there, but she's very good about them now. She knows if she is on lead that chasing birds is not an option. I'm sure Didi will be the same before long :)

No worries :) the thing that worries me with the cardiocanine is that no where can I find how it does up around your waist? I worry that it is Velcro... but surely not? Poor chicken that is so sad and disappointing I have been using bungee type leads for a while now HD. They are a god send for me with hand issues especially. They take out all that hand & wrist jarring when your dog lungs or reacts to something. I haven't had any experience with hands free leashes yet but I must say the quick release button does worry me a bit. As you say we can't afford failure can we? The risks of malfunction are scary. I can't believe they gave that dog back to the owners either with NO penilty. The dog killed. Oh good to hear about the bungy cord I know what you guys are saying about the quick release, but at the same time it could be handy if a loose dog was actually attacking your dog. You wouldn't want to be attached to them in that situation as I imagine it would make it really hard to help them and you could even end up in a very dangerous position yourself? arrgh so many variables!!!

I know this sounds silly, but is he black or blue? Just finding it hard to tell from the photos cos he looks more blue in the first pic and more black in the second :) either way he is a little cutie! I'm really glad you have finally got your Dane puppy :) I did see this yesterday but I was waiting to see if you were going to announce it in the Dane thread. Don't forget you can put his photos up there too :)

Yeah, I have been looking and looking because a lot of them don't look quite strong enough for a dog the size of mine. Sometimes having a giant size dog is most inconvenient :laugh: I play this game with Digby where I toss a treat and he runs and gets it enthusiastically. I was playing it with him while I was wearing a doog walking belt and I accidentally threw the treat a bit far and the belt just snapped so easily! But I think it won't be such a problem with a dog that's not quite as big :) I'll share some links here for you to look at some of the ones I've found. I haven't bought mine yet as I can't make up my mind https://www.facebook.com/pages/Umbilical-Belt-Handsfree-dog-leash/123746857672415 http://irondoggy.com/ <- this one has bungy cord in it though, so it would only be used as a back-up really. I was looking at it mainly for running and bushwalking. https://www.windchill.com.au/WalkingBelt.html <- these guys are from Australia and make a lot of accessories for hiking etc with your dog. http://www.buddysys.com/ <- these are the ones Dr Yin uses, I think they are very nifty :) but I don't think they'd be strong enough for Del if it came to it. http://www.cardiocanine.com/ <- this one is the one that I'm leaning towards getting the most.

Far out! That is just amazing. Awful that you've had to deal with it, but a really fantastic response from Jake Poor chooks, I hope that dog doesn't come back. I really think people who let their dogs off have just no idea what they get up to. Do you know the house he belongs to?

Behavioural interrupter's work very well. I noticed you spoke about your 'leave it' command being pretty good. You could always build it up to be used in this situation. For instance, right now it sounds like she understands it very well when it comes to sniffing, but I think you could do with building it up a bit before using it on birds, which sound like they are a much higher level of distraction for her. Does she like toys? You can practice 'leave it' with a toy she likes, when she turns away from it have a big party with her using another toy that you've had hidden on you. Because what she likes about birds is chasing them (I assume) it's probably a good idea for your reward for leaving them to be an exciting high-energy game, rather than just a treat for example. You could still incorporate treats into it though. All I'm saying is that if she wants to go after the birds because they are fun, show her that she can have fun with you instead :) Ofcourse when you start practicing on real birds, try and make it easy by not being too close, but you've probably figured that already :) Oh BC Crazy! So scary! But it really stood out for me that she recalled to you That is so brilliant! Well done you! I was going to suggest a walking belt as well (as others have). I was looking into them recently as Dr. Sophia Yin uses them a lot as they mean you can often treat faster. Sorry about your hand, that really does sound nasty

hmmm I'm thinking negative reinforcement for Hubby. Get him to wear an L-Plate around his neck until he has mastered basic obedience and management with Scottie, at which point he can go without the L-Plate.