raineth

welcome mumof4girls :) It's great that you have already come a long way with her any photos for us?

Hi Hankodie :) I'm not an expert, but I definitely think it is possible. Dog's learn in three ways: operant conditioning classical conditioning modelling Modelling is the one that we don't play around with much, if at all. But it would be the way that Hank might learn to be reactive. I have actually played around with modelling (not in that context though) and you can teach a dog to do something by having them observe another dog do it. I know there was a study conducted on puppies whose mothers were trained detection dogs. They found that if they gave the puppy the opportunity to watch their mother dog work; they learnt to do detection work themselves more quickly. I have played around with modelling (just for the fun of it) with my dogs and have found that they can learn a variety of basic things from modelling. I even found that I could use my kids as models and they would copy that behaviour. It was basic stuff, but I was amazed at how quick it was, often just one repetition. eta: I forgot to say that although I think it's possible, that doesn't mean I have any idea how likely it would be in your context for Hank to pick up on the behaviour. I imagine it might be a bit more likely while he's a puppy. It would also potentially depend on whether he found it reinforcing. But I really don't know be worth the risk. Have you thought of maybe seeing if it could work the other way round? Maybe your partner could have Hank, and you could have Odie. Hank could be closer to another dog, while Odie watches on from a distance. Make sure she sees Hank being lavishly praised and rewarded for being calm in the presence of the other dog. Could be worth a try maybe? I wonder what Aidan would make of it, he's a bit of an expert on reactive dogs.

Yeah when we were there the other day, whenever they wanted her to stand still they immediately grabbed her collar. So I would say its ok, tell Del to 'wait' and give her some treats while she waited. I hope that one day it might catch on, you never know. It's amazing what they (our dogs) put up with really. They were flexing Del's elbow to the point where she was crying and she just stood there and put up with it because I asked her too. I gave her lots of praise and treats and everything, but it certainly reminded me of just how much they are willing to put up with from us humans sometimes.

Nicole it also might help if you set up a session just in the house to teach her to take treats gently. You put a treat in your hand and close your fist around it. Let her mug your hand, but keep it closed until she licks at your hand (rather than chewing on it); the moment she licks open your fist and let her have the treat. Repeat until she reliably licks your hand to get the treat. Licking is good because they can't chomp down on you if their tongue is in the way. I do find however if you're using food in a time of stress for the dog that they may still take a treat roughly in that situation. But overall, the above trick has worked well for me :) Hankdog's suggestion of throwing the treat is also a really good one. I tend to throw more treats than give them from my hand on walks and in clicker training in general as it seems to make it a bit more exciting for them and has the benefit of being able to reset them too.

oh dear, sounds like everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong for Jake at the vet When my little girl was in hospital we were lucky enough for their to be a play therapist, and this made me think that it would be really good for vets to employ a similar person for animals. A person who can focus on making the animal's experience at the vet better. Whether it be taking five minutes to clicker train a dog to accept eye drops, or ensuring they aren't too stressed on a long term stay. When we adopted Del, I had to take her in to get her stitches removed. She was happy and relaxed on arrival. They took her out the back, and when they came back she was really stressed and the vet nurse told me how it took five of them to flip her on her side and hold her down to have the stitches out Never even occurred for them to ask her to drop (which she would have done). I know they are busy, but sometimes it would end up being quicker to do things in a nicer way. No surprises the next time we went to the vet Del was stressed straight away. anyway... It sounds like all things (non vet related) are going really well for Jake! I agree that training, even if it doesn't directly relate to reactivity, can only be helpful :)

oh that's so sad Is she pregnant, or is it all fat?

Digby does this cute thing to initiate bitey face with Del. He nuzzles her ears and her cheeks, and the bridge of her nose, it looks quite romantic actually. Then he opens his mouth and kind of huffs a bit before launching into full blown bitey face. Out in the yard they take turns chasing each other; with a bit of body slamming in between. Digby also is extremely vocal with very scary sounding growls the whole way through any play session. Quite a few of the neighbours are convinced their fighting from the sounds he makes :laugh:

That Vet needs a refresher on Diabetes. Low blood sugar does not produce keytones. It can result in seizures, loss of consciousness and death - but definitely no keytones.

I think you need to do it in as non-confrontational manner as possible. Avoid all words such as 'fat', 'overweight', 'obese'. Unfortunately in our culture at the moment, words referring to being over-weight come with emotional baggage. Other than that though, I can't really think of the exact right words to use. Maybe try talking to the dog (when you are patting it) saying something like you can tell he/she's been using those big brown eyes to convince his humans he's starving.

I reckon you and Jarrah can do it Wobbly :) As you say the tricky bit would be getting her to really focus in on that cancer smell and not be confused by any other smell. I think if you approach it like any other dog training task where you outline all the steps you need for her to learn, that would be the way to go. We encouraged Del's natural tendency to sniff out our daughter when her BSL was low. But it's quite a bit different, and I'm a bit confused about how to translate it to what you're thinking of doing. In the end with del we stopped encouraging her as she was constantly checking on Her many times a night and waking her up in the process and the poor munchkin was dead tired with broken sleep. But that won't be a problem with the job you want Jarrah to do :) And wobbly, it's great to hear from you :)

Aww thanks BC Crazy, I passed your message on, and she groaned in response :laugh:

How did Jake go at the vet's Hankdog? It's great to hear of your current victory with the kennels I had to take Del to the vet today. She was stressed about being there, but she was a good girl I was happy with her behaviour. She was good with all the small fluffies. But when we came out there was a cattle dog, and it was a bit bug-eyed. She still didn't react to him, but she was more on edge about him and did want to pull towards him. So we made a quick exit around the other side. She has a sore elbow, and is on 'bed rest' so we won't be doing much training for the next few days, so thankfully it wasn't a bad note to end on :)

I have had 2 Danes (1 Ped, 1 rescue) and a gorgeous great big hunk of a mutt. My current Dane is just so, so special to me and my family. I feel like there is no need to ever have another. For my next dog, I am really hoping to get a dog that can come to work with me and maybe even be a part of the way I work. And I feel that that dog would need to have some different characteristics to a Dane. So my next breed will be heavily dictated by its suitability to come to work with me and be a co-therapist :) My gorgeous Mutt Digby: God I just love his temperament and if I knew that temperament was associated with a particular breed then I would definitely want to get that breed. But I don't know if there is a breed out there that is known for the kind of temperament he has - so it makes it a bit hard!

YES!! the terms furbaby, et al tend to numb the mind to dogs' abilities in the hunt/kill category. There are instincts/reactions and the tools to back them up contained within waggy tailed companion .. but with the intense moulding of many dogs to fit into the 'little furry accessory' box ...the predatory ability gets further and further away .. and it is just so sad. There are many of you here who have working dogs .. who switch 'on' & 'off' ......you can see clearly that which they are capable of . Somehow Joe/jenny public need reminding of this ...and children need to be kept safe. I think it's not just that they don't know what to watch for (that is definitely a big part of it though!) but I also get a sense from many people that they believe the family dog should put up with anything. I walked Digby past a place the other day where a family was out the front with their young son and their dog. The son was deliberately frightening the dog by throwing a basket ball at it and the parents were doing nothing about it. They saw it going on and couldn't care less. This is not the only example I can think of; there definitely seems to be a perception by many that dogs should tolerate any behaviour from adults and children without reacting at all! Ridiculous!

Thansk raineth :) I think I will take him again in the next couple of days. We love going to that spot, we were there yesterday and it was a beautiful day, we set up a picnic spot and Hank chilled out and watched the ducks go past. There was the occaisonial dog but all were on leads with polite owners. It would be a shame if he associated that spot with scary things Should i just do some training or try to play some games in that spot next time maybe? I think you don't necessarily need to do that. If it's not normally a place where you'd do that, then I wouldn't necessarily do it unless he's obviously worried :) But yes do make it a nice pleasant experience for him :) I'm sure he'll be fine, especially if you follow the incident up with some positive experiences in that area and in with other dogs :)

ugh What awful ignorant and inconsiderate owners Hankodie Poor Hank, sounds like it was a pretty scary moment for him. As others have said, I think the best thing you can do is go back to that spot and also get him to have more good interactions with appropriate dogs. I think if you'll do this he'll be fine :)

how can you determine this?

Aww they are both so precious! The iggy reminds me of a kitten with the way it moved at times.

Thanks Huski It's really interesting to see the change in her whole posture and outline from the first clip to the second.

I really think it's a bit rich to say that Beagles would be well trainable in Obedience. If they were well trainable in obedience why aren't they there? Why do they have a reputation for being difficult to train? Huski, please post up a vid of you working with Daisy, I watched a vid you put up once before and it was so awesome

Yes I do like it. When its done appropriately though! Most of the time it is :) I feel like it keeps them social and one of my dog in particular loves it! We came across family day care going for a walk a little while ago and Del was in her element. The kids were great, giving her room and not squealing. It was a good experience for everyone.

He is low energy, but he is very definitely low drive Santo. Do you think of sloths being low energy but highly motivated animals? Because I don't, but I'm by no means a sloth expert :) so could be wrong. The bit of drive he has now, has been built up by using +R. And he is still very much low drive. Honestly I wish someone on here had met him so they could vouch for just how hilarious it is to think he might actually not be low drive.

Honestly I have a really, really low drive dog in Mr Digby, who takes his inspiration for living from sloths. And I have still successfully clicker trained him to do loads of stuff, and honestly I'm quite retarded. Mr Digby closes doors, and targets a variety of objects, and picks things up, and does box work and jumps over my arms and does some nice heeling and some nice stays and all sorts of stuff. So while he might not be cut out for competition, it still shows he's amenable to +R and it's very much helped to make him a lovely pet to be around and given us both some fun along the way. eta: oh yes so my point is that you don't need a high drive dog to achieve things with +R, it can still work well on low drive dogs and be used to get them to work to their potential.

It is an interesting thought AD. It's even harder when you have a reactive dog because even friendly loose dogs (who come up to you) set you back in training and make for a stressful situation. And it makes me tempted to report them, because you feel so frustrated. I would never report people with loose dogs who are under control or who are never any bother. When a Lab attacked Del I didn't report it because the lady was contrite and apologised etc. and it made me think that she had learnt a lesson and would modify her management of the dog. But I wish I had because I saw it out several times still after that. I reported the worst attack on my dog because it was really very necessary. The owner was fined. The only other dog I reported was a small fluffy. It was regularly out and would try and bite my dogs around the ankles. The owner never did anything about it even when I asked him to. So I told him I would report him, and I did. Maybe it does contribute to a Nanny state, but I do think that sometimes it needs to be done.

haha! You gotta love the fun police! Good on you Danny for loosening up a bit! They look like a lovely pack DD :)