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BC Crazy I'm glad you escaped to the beach yesterday! Hopefully no more jack-hammering today?

And moooooooove on you did :laugh: Sorry couldn't resist :D How annoying about those damn neighbours! What are they thinking!? How is the muzzle training going teekay? Do you think it could be worth taking him to a different clinic where he doesn't already have negative associations for his desexing? That sounds like a really positive start HD! I bet he and you both are going to love it, especially the agility :)

Oh no BC Crazy! That would be enough to drive any living creature to distraction! I hope they finish the job quickly, especially for Stella's sake. We go for a big run down a dirt road every sunday, and all the cows chase us along the fence line as we go; but this time as we were running past the second lot, I realised... Hang on... that one's not behind the fence ! :laugh: It wasn't too scary though, he wasn't chasing us in a "grind your bones to make my bread" kind of way. He just wanted us to move on I think.

Maybe stick your head out the car window... & bark loudly? Katdogs did say it was attracted by passing dogs. Lol I was walking up and down the street. And barking in public is one low I refuse to stoop to (sober, at least). I've got some photos, I'll put them up when I get back to the office. Oh dear Minimax, if only you'd shown some real commitment to the job an actually went up and down the street barking to get the dog's attention tsk tsk :)

How are all our gorgeous balls of reactivity going? Miss Del and I got chased by a cow the other day! Makes a change from being chased by others' dogs that's for sure!

I think its almost cruel for them to teach her to be afraid of dogs like that. There is a huge difference in being cautious and knowing the rules about how to safely interact with dogs, and having a fear of dogs. In our society she will come across dogs, and most of them won't be any threat to her at all, yet she will be so frightened whenever this happens. They would do so much better to teach her safe interactions than to teach her to be afraid.

:laugh: my Del has a special love for the parcel man!

This makes me think of the other end of the spectrum: where your dogs are in the hands of people who aren't that experienced/savvy and they completely run them ragged. I always thought that perhaps that the dogs maybe push some boundaries, at first quite subtly, and just see that they are getting away with things and then decided to take more and more liberties. My guess for what occurs in the situation with a trainer is that trainers are very good at communicating what they want. And Huski's suggestion that they are very engaging makes sense to me too. edit for clarity

Darien, perhaps you could look into BAT (Behavioural adjustment training) with her for her fear of your OH. It is available as an ebook if you have a kindle. My feeling is to be careful with getting your OH to give her treats as a solution to the problem as it might not actually be overcoming her fear and may be rewarding things that you don't want to reward. If you use treats I would really recommend that you look into counter conditioning. It is not a complicated procedure, but your timing needs to be right and you need to be prepared to take it very slowly. Hopefully you'll see some improvement with the Prozac once its kicked in :)

I'd love a dog I could take anywhere with no fuss at all. Confident, easy-going, calm most of the time, not a complete dunderhead. One that's not too hard to achieve reliable recall with. very healthy, able to jog with me. A family dog, loves all of us. The one impossible attribute that I'd love is velvety soft short coat that doesn't shed! That would be fab!

today's the day! I bet you're excited! I hope the intros go well tonight or tomorrow :)

I too think there is a difference between a provoked bite and a sustained attack (mauling) causing huge injury. How dreadfully sad about those dogs put to sleep because of kids being naughty. Sometimes kids can do really stupid things. But honestly I just can't ever imagine my kids doing something like that to our dogs (or any dog). Makes you wonder under what circumstances a kid would consider shoving a pencil in a dog's ear or something similar, that's pretty extreme behaviour I think. In this case, we ofcourse have no idea whether the child did anything untoward at all. Its a very sad situation, poor little girl.

Sometimes being rural makes things vewy difficult!

Lol we traveled 600'kms to see Steve! Although possibly with city traffic it might take just as long! :)

Tazar, I think that's a bit unfair to say that if you don't chose to use an ecollar to create snake aversion then you would rather your dog die from snake bite. Its really not like its one or the other.

that's what I was trying to get across, but not very well. There is consequences when timing is poor. I have dog who showed how bad the consequences can be when the timing of punishments is badly done. It does worry me that people could cause a lot of damage by clumsy use of this tool. It would worry me if this tool became more widely used because of how often I see the misuse of other tools. It really seems to me like a lot of dog-related tools are used poorly (I know I've seen people give corrections with head collars etc) so I don't see why this tool wouldn't also be misused whether ignorantly or deliberately.

are they all crate trained Leah? And do you have the means to separate them while you're all out? What's your gut feeling? Do you think the cross was just correcting your boy and establishing some boundaries for his exuberant behaviour or do you feel like it was more than that? I think it can be quite normal to expect a few tiffs while dogs establish some rules for each other. But I think the key is there shouldn't be any actual biting, and no bullying type behaviours.

oh Jake lol! awww that would have been nice spending some time with those Viz's. They are lovely dogs. I remember I used to read a blog about a Vizsla called "Dennis's Diary of Destruction" it was very funny :laugh: here's the link actually, incase anyone is interested http://dennisthevizsla.wordpress.com/

I think if he is off eating the kongs you left for him before settling in front of the window then this is a very good sign. I think it's a fair point that Corvus made that says we might be undiagnosing separation anxiety. However, I don't necessarily see that sitting at the window all day is an expression of distress. How does he look? relaxed or uptight? Being a smaller, energetic dog he might not need a sleep. Also he might think that sitting by the window makes you come home, simply because that's where he is when you come home. Dogs can make funny associations like that.

I should say that I own a living, breathing example of the fall-out that can occur to a dog who is routinely punished with bad timing. He is better now due to lots of behaviour mod (k9pro). But he was severely depressed. He had learnt to think that the only way to be safe was to be invisible (lie down, be still, don't do anything to draw attention). Because the punishment was given so randomly and so poorly timed that he could never understand what he was being punished for.

yes but there are people like this who own a dog. You only have to see the way people use punishments on a dog to know that there are people out there who don't have a clue. I don't know how many times I've seen someone smack a dog after the dog has stopped doing the problem behaviour and begun actually being good. There is even a local trainer who uses lots of punishment and yet can't time it effectively and continues to punish long after the dog has stopped doing the problem behaviour. I have no problem with them being used correctly, on a behaviour in which more positive methods are less successful (like snake chasing, or snake curiosity). And I understand and agree when you say that all manner of things can be used cruelly. But I can certainly see a lot of people mis-using this tool if they aren't shown specifically and exactly how to use it.

haha Fergus you funny fellow! Yeah Digby isn't reactive and it is nice to have that easier dog. Go Lucy! You show the young'uns how its done! Megan, Del has a tanty when we take Digby our for a walk without her too. She is not a barker, she yodels her protest :laugh:

Thanks Helen! Well I looked into Brittany's after enjoying seeing the photos of yours :) Then I thought they could certainly fit the bill for what I'm after in the next dog. I love really love the Spins, and they are probably our first bet (even have Italian names picked out ) But as they are just so rare here with about one litter every five years from what I can work out, I certainly have to be prepared that I might not be able to get one. Brittany's certainly wouldn't be a hard second choice to make! Sorry, a bit off track everyone.

so awful I guess it could be difficult writing and reporting the exact context of the attack. The family would be in such shock, probably neither the grandmother or mother are in much of a state to be giving that sort of information to reporters. I guess it will come out in the coroners report.

It really came home to me when Del was attacked. The force that the dog launched onto her with and way it grabbed her around the neck and shook, I don't think a little dog would have survived that attack