raineth

When I was a kid, my sister and I went around knocking on doors offering to wash people's dogs for some pocket money. We brought all the dogs back to our place, tied them to the balcony rail and washed them with hoses. We had about six tied up there at once. Miraculously there was not a single incident! I am also kind of amazed that people let us do it, especially as we were taking the dogs back to our place! Last year I actually had a child knock on my door and give me his business card for walking dogs.

naawww that's pretty cute George!

admittedly I can't remember the article that well now as it was years ago, but I think part the idea of putting those Great Dane's in a grain bath was to control their reactions to a large extent so that they didn't have to deal with some of the problems that can eventuate in flooding. Flooding is usually successful for people with phobias, but it is so stressful that usually exposure techniques are used instead. I was reading an article recently and I think it said a couple of hours is needed for flooding, so that is a long time to be in a highly negative emotional state (although that was with humans, dogs could need more or less time than that).

I completely agree that the woman is completely innocent here. As dog owners the onus is on us to prevent these things from happening. By understanding your dogs, training them, and managing them. But I get why people are curious. It is a shocking thing to happen and that makes many people wonder about the circumstances. As you say though it seems pretty clear that the man handling the dogs was incompetent, that seems to be fairly clear.

Obviously I have no idea because I wasn't there, but I am really sceptical that the dog was only playing. It doesn't make sense to me that someone could have a muscle torn in their eye from head butting. I know head butting could really hurt someone, but I just can't see it tearing the skin in the way hers is torn. My feeling is that it was probably a bite, but with the dog inhibiting its bite somewhat rather than biting with full force. But that's mere speculation of course, as is how close she may have been, whether he saw her coming or not, and all that sort of stuff. I do find it odd that she wanted him to walk her back, simply because if it was me, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a dog that had done that to me! I suppose that this may suggest the injury was done in play. I do feel for her though, its a very nasty injury and would have been very terrifying.

I don't have a soft crate. all I know after reading this is that I could never trust Delta in one :laugh: I think Nova is a much more likely prospect though. I don't know what sort of car you have, but if you have a wagon maybe buying one of those gate things that allows you to have him secure in the car with the boot open, and you could park in the shade? Lindy has one I think.

http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/mp-ellis-out-of-action-after-dog-accident/story-e6frfku9-1226869707307 LABOR frontbencher Kate Ellis has been able to inspect the hospital system first hand - after suffering a dog-induced injury. The South Australian tweeted a photo of herself at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, with her leg in a cast. It's understood she tripped over her pet dog on Friday and went the hospital on the weekend. "Am genuinely so impressed with the RAH treatment & care. Guess this is one way to have a couple quiet days!" she wrote on the social network on Monday. She also took the chance for some politicking, saying she spent her time at the hospital "reflecting on how great our 1st class health system is when we learn Abbott ripping $27m from our SA hospitals". I have dog-induced concussion before, but not a broken leg luckily :)

:laugh:

Yeah as others have said, you can get a funny reaction if the clicker is too loud as its kind of like pairing something good with something a bit painful. Initially Digby found the typical box clicker too loud and I had to get another one, but after a bit he became fine with the box one as well. I personally find the box clickers really good for outdoor use and behaviour mod as they seem to grab the dog's attention really well. For indoor stuff the quieter ones are often a better choice :) I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with the clicker, your boxer sounds like a real character and you should be able to capture some interesting behaviours with him :)

I'm not an exhibitor, but I have taken my daughter along when we've visited shows. Obviously they need to be well behaved and understand that they are not to pat the dogs (unless you've asked the owner of course!) and to not run around or be noisy... just that basic sort of sensible behaviour, good manners, and respecting people's space etc. I found the exhibitors were all welcoming to her :) she had a very nice time and fell in love with a couple of wolfhounds and a Chinese Crested :)

No don't go paying them every week, that will probably just lead them to taking complete advantage of you. I'm not sure what you could do, especially as they may just go and get another dog. How long will they be renting the house next to you do you think? It might not be much longer if they have already been there a few months.

I agree with this but will say they do have fabulous personalities and are amazing with kids :). Mine loves her toys, i never really taught her to fetch but I have no doubt she would(she tries to steal the toy off my kelpie when she is in the midst of fetching it LOL), recall is harder with a scenthound but I can comfortably let her off in relatively contained areas and her recall is pretty good, I pop her back on a long line when i notice she's getting more distracted. Scenthounds do follow their nose but frankly if they got out it would be my kelpie that would lead the charge, scenthounds follow their noses if they get out, other breeds follow their eyes or their ears or just gleefully trot down the street till they find something interesting to roll in, it all comes down to good fencing. Oh yes I just love the hound personality (although I know that's a bit of a generalisation) and they are usually so good with kids. Completely true about fencing. It is so important to have adequate fencing for any dog. When I say wander I more meant the tendency take off at off-leash places, rather than just hang out with their people.

I am also thinking along the lines of one of the gundogs. The tend to be pretty trainable and easy going, and a reasonable chance they'll enjoy playing with a ball. I'm thinking along the lines of English setter, golden retriever, and pointer. Some of the terriers seem to love balls, and are very fun, but they also might have a tendency to be a bit much for the cat. A lot of the hounds have lovely dispositions but may not want to play ball and are usually more challenging to teach recall, and have a tendency to wander. Ofcourse everything is down to training in a way, but you want a breed that is going to be the easiest fit.

Hankdog, I might be really off in this, but do you have a psychology background (I have a vague memory that you do)? Because I've been thinking the same thing, and wondering whether the OCD treatment (behaviour response prevention) might be why punishment does sometimes work (from what I hear) in correcting reactive behaviours? By preventing the reactive behaviour the dog learns that they don't have to have a tanty to keep themselves safe. Which is just along the very similar lines to what you were just saying about superstitious beliefs. I also read another report in which they did something very similar with a few reactive Great Danes. They put them in a special enclosure and filled it with grain until only their necks and heads were above the grain. They then brought in a non-reactive dog. The dogs in the grain could bark etc but they could no lunge or move forward, and therefore much of their reactive behaviour was prevented. It was effective in curing them of their reactivity. But obviously very difficult for the average owner to implement!

I really think a Lab would be great in this situation. They are pretty big dogs really, and despite the fact that it doesn't go hand in hand with what they are bred for, many of them seem to be quite territorial. I don't mean that they would actually attack someone, but that they put on a good territorial display. Labradors are usually very devoted to their people and seem to have a good level of nerve and confidence which can mean that they are less likely to become reactive (that's the last thing you want, having a reactive dog is pretty stressful). I also think Labradors can be sensitive to their owners emotions/state of mind without being affected by it themselves. Some breeds are just as in tune with their owner's emotions and state of mind, but are more likely to be affected by it, so if you're not feeling confident, they don't feel confident either. I wouldn't recommend a Dane personally. Many of them are prone to anxiety themselves and they are often very reliant on you being the confident one. There are also a lot of health problems they can be prone to and I think you really need to know the breed inside out to confidently identify a good breeder.

This is true, but I'm pretty sure she is aware of this and is ok with positive attention at least. When I had her look after my two for a night she was fine with people coming up to ask about them (I get it almost every day because the Border Terrier is cute, and the Italian Greyhound is unique), because the attention was on the dogs, not herself. She's happy to talk about dogs all day because she knows she knows what she's talking about, if that makes sense lol, a true dog nerd like myself! Besides that, if it all gets too much she is good at politely removing herself from the situation from what I have seen. It's hard to speak for her exactly so I'm probably not giving the most accurate picture haha. No its fine :) I just thought I'd put it out there as something to consider :)

I thought that it was also meant to be that they came to expect earning a reward for barking. Then you stop rewarding the barking and the behaviour may extinguish in the absence of the reinforcement that they expect.

I am just putting this out there as something to consider... If she gets a very distinctive looking dog it may actually attract more attention than she is really comfortable with. Especially when not all the attention is positive. I know that I can find the attention a bit wearing at times with two very big dogs. A breed like a Labrador may be good as the public in general has quite a positive opinion of them, but they're also not going to be a spectacle when she's walking up the street with one and attract tonnes of attention.

I firmly believe that dogs who are allowed inside when their owners are home get more companionship and feel less lonely than those dogs who don't (especially in the case of them being the only dog). I firmly believe that companionship is very important to a dog's well being and that most dogs would prefer to spend some hours inside with their owners than none at all (especially if they are an only dog). Therefore I do try to persuade and convince people to allow their pet dogs inside with them for some time everyday. If that makes me rude and judgemental in some people's eyes then so be it

I still think that having four dogs together in a backyard is quite different to having one dog alone in a backyard.

Do you have an equivalent for a Vizsla? LOL. Herbie The Horrible is (almost) a professional counter surfer. haha! Oh no that must be tough! It wasn't really because of anything important I did, they just happened not to counter surf. One of them was very uninterested in food, the other just never seems to take stuff from the bench, she takes a lot of other stuff though!

You might not have trouble with counter surfing, I didn't have that problem with my two Danes. Teaching a good 'leave it' command is very important :)

Oh so the dog will be in the house with you when you're home? If the dog is allowed inside when you are at home then I don't see a problem with that. If you take some time off when you get your puppy, then it is really important you train the puppy to be ok with being alone in your garage/backyard so it's not a shock to the system when you return to work. You do this by starting off with short periods of time with a nice big bone or kong. Plenty of dogs go just fine with owners who work all day, as long as they get what they need in companionship and stimulation when you are home.

do you suspect an allergy to beef? If your dogs aren't allergic to beef then there's no harm feeding it :)

How terribly sad I'm so sorry for your loss PFL.