raineth

I'll have a go at a few of them for you :) Basset Fauve de Bretagne = Bassay Foe-ve de Bretanya (the Fau in Fauve is pronounced like foe) Dogue de Bourdeaux = Dogue is pronounced like doe with a 'g' sound on the end. Bourdeaux = Boar doe Griffon Bruxellois = Broo sel wah Schipperke = skipper key Xoloitzcuintle = show low eats kweent lee

Oh dear Ziggy! Perhaps a bit too stoic :laugh:

Digby: Bitten zero humans, Zero dogs. Yes has bitten mice. He does have prey drive for cats however, but hasn't ever got close enough to one. Delta: Bitten zero humans. Has Bitten other dogs when attacked, not hard enough to break skin. Catches mice and birds. She more prey drive than you can poke a stick at. Catches birds regularly, but tends to put them in her mouth and let them out again, and then catch them again, and let them out again. She would love to chase just about anything, but I'm not sure what she'd do if she caught other things. The thing she would most love to chase are anything large (horses for example) as well as cats.

wow that's really interesting LBD; certainly not something I'd have thought of and really makes sense in terms of reinforcing the owner's behaviour too. She sounds like a sweety, is she one of those dogs who can also calm down a not-so-friendly approach from another dog? (just the picture I'm getting)

Aidan, have you considered a career in adult education? I think you have nailed the whole 'teaching through experiences' thing :D Interesting ideas SG, MM, and dogmatic.I was thinking some more about it too, and the only thing I could come up with is that I might only be seeing one small part of the picture of what they are doing. I'm sure if I tried that with Digby (which I would never, ever do) he would never trust me again. It would be awful. I certainly can't see it improving Del's recall either.

That's wonderful SL! Sounds like you both got so much out of it I'm sure it will help many pieces of the puzzle come together for you guys :) Poor lad about the travelling. Sounds like he was very stoic through it all though.

Today I just feel like having a big whinge. I think many of you can relate to that feeling. We made progress last week, and this week it's like it's all gone. She's been hyper-aroused in situations she's previously been ok with. She was a mess at club, and a mess today at the Lake. It's just so frustrating

I couldn't vote really as one of my dogs gets offlead time every week. But my other, much less often. She has very high prey drive and so finding an appropriate offlead place is tricky. I will take her when it's very wet, as usually any sort of 'prey' will be tucked up somewhere and not out in the open to lure her away on a hunting adventure.

awww a dear old man Cricket's pretty cute too! :)

What I don't understand is that sometimes this method seems to work!? I have never, and would never do it. But there are a couple of people in my neighbourhood who do use this method, and their dogs now have good recall One of them is a Dane, so not exactly your most easily trained, naturally biddable, sort of dog.

Have fun today SL. I really have everything crossed for Zig to not be car-sick on the way (or on the way home for that matter!) :)

Oh no Zig! What a shock for you all. I really hope the treatments work well for him, and its just a hiccough along the road for him. Give him some tummy rubs from me :)

Really! That is just tiiiny! didn't realise how little he was from the photos I saw :)

Hmm I don't think I have much experience with his to give advice. I do wonder though whether she's feeling quite lonely now that her best mate is gone? Did he stay outside at night with her? Is it possible she could sleep in a Crate inside now? But yeah, might be time for a behaviourist to see what's really going on.

So what is it exactly that she's doing that's the problem?

What breed of puppy? I would be wary of changing if he's a large or giant breed pup until you've consulted the breeder.

oh I like the smutty one, is it undesirable or a fault in the standard, or just a preference?

Oh gosh Well definitely makes me want to point out to the OP to ask questions before enrolling her pup anywhere!

I have heard Luci Ellem is good :)

For me I am wary of using generalised knowledge when it comes to real life encounters with individual dogs. I tend to take an individual approach. This is for the following reasons. 1. Not all members of a breed express the traits and dispositions that breed is known for. Therefore there is no guarantee that the individual I'm dealing with will behave according to the model of that breed I have in my head. Therefore I tend to rely on what I'm seeing in terms of body language and behaviour. 2. Most of the dogs I come across are not pedigree. Some might be 'purebred' but the fact that they've probably not been bred with their breed standard in mind makes it even more about chance whether they have inherited the typical characteristics of their breed. When the dog is a cross, it is even less useful. It can be hard enough to know what breeds are even in the cross let alone what traits the dog inherited and/or whether due to the cross it has unique character traits. 3. Behaviour and personality is produced by interaction between genes and environment. As much as I have limited information about what temperamental genes a dog has, I also have limited information about the environment that has influenced the dog's temperament. I have no idea whether it was attacked as a puppy, whether it has just come from a highly stressful situation round the corner,whether a child has poked it in the eye at some point etc. I find the generalised knowledge very useful and important for doing things like selecting a suitable breed for my lifestyle; but I find when it comes to interacting with a dog I'm best going off the individual dog's behaviour and body language at the time. As well as important knowing my dogs well and how they might respond to influence any interaction. I do have a blanket rule which is no meet and greet with any dogs I don't know (which sometimes can't be helped if the other dog is loose) this is the best and easiest way to avoid problems, for sure.

Gosh how awful for all of you. Is Koda ok? Only a guess but maybe she didn't recognise Koda with his muzzle on, and got territorial thinking there was a strange dog in her yard? As you say, you might need to condition them both to be cool with the muzzle. Yes Koda was fine, Dodge didn't bite him, she just lunged and growled. They both jumped up on their back legs while holding each other and growling/snapping but no one actually got bitten. Even if Dodge did nip Koda, his thick coat would have protected him. Both dogs were much better with it today, Koda is now happily walking around wearing it, and although I didn't let Dodge in with Koda, I did let them meet through the fence. That went really well, Dodge seems to have realised that the muzzle is not a bad thing :) I am a little concerned with the size of the muzzle though. Because they're not stocked in my area, I had to order online (something i hate doing if it involves sizing) anyway so despite the fact that we measured Koda's muzzle and asked various online stores what size they thought would fit (all of which said medium). I think the muzzle is too small. It does fit, but one of the top bars sits almost directly on his nostrils, and he has very little room to open his mouth at all. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking him out in it on a hot day, he'd overheat in no time. So hopefully i can get it swapped for a larger size... and then maybe i can finally get out there and do some training :laugh: Yes I must admit, I was hoping for a little more room for them to open their mouth. Yeah it's frustrating when the sizing doesn't match up isn't it? Especially when you have to send it back! I'm glad Koda was ok and that all has been good between them since :) I'm going very slowly with Del's muzzle training as I know that she is really sensitive to anything like that. But Koda sounds like he's doing really well with it I'm off right now to do another round of conditioning with it :)

oh my god

YAY! Wonderful :) He's coming along so well with all his training isn't he! You must be starting to feel like you have a different dog? I took Del to club last night and she exceeded my expectations so much. She was so relaxed. I think all the BAT training I did around the suburb must have payed off somehow. I was so chuffed with her :D However I did realise that we need to take a leaf out of your book Hankdog and polish up on our obedience training. As I realised I haven't done a lot with her last night when we were following the class. We had lots of wonky sits and slow crooked drops, and I haven't taught her 'stand' at all :laugh:

Gosh how awful for all of you. Is Koda ok? Only a guess but maybe she didn't recognise Koda with his muzzle on, and got territorial thinking there was a strange dog in her yard? As you say, you might need to condition them both to be cool with the muzzle.

If he thought/knew he was starving maybe he also thought that there was no way he could also feed his dog. Perhaps he thought that it might also be kinder to the dog to kill it before it was suffering too much. I guess I'm in the camp that says I don't know what I'd do faced with a situation like that. Obviously it wouldn't be my first option, and it's horrific to even consider. But I have never been anywhere close to a situation like that, so I don't feel like I can say with 100% certainty what I would or wouldn't do.