raineth

I'm glad he's settling in well at home :) Do you have access to a good local trainer who may be able to help you WSM? That sort of behaviour can worsen very quickly without the right intervention. Did you know he had that problem before you took him on?

Hi Nelsona, sorry to hear that your boy is having some incontinence problems. My boy dog had urinary incontinence as a side affect of the palliative care medication he was on. He was a giant breed and so I used adult diapers on him. I only really needed them at night thankfully, But I found them quite tricky to get on (even after cutting a cross for the tail) and so I ended up putting them on kind of like a bandage around his middle. But putting them on like that can only help with urinary incontinence ofcourse. You can also get Vet Bed which kind of wicks moisture away. So you could maybe put a plastic sheet over his normal bed and a couple of layers of vet bed on top of that and at least he wouldn't end up laying in his wee as much. Vet bed washes easily in the washing machine and is pretty cost effective. I guess you would still be having to change it quite a few times a day though.

The reason why I recommend no walks until you had built some trust and understanding was because you mentioned he was an anxious dog. I am just going off my own experiences that some of the more anxious dogs find going out for walks really stressful if they haven't yet got some connection with the human who is taking them out. I also find that it seems to be such a big change for them that a lot of their energy seems to be taken up with just getting to know the new environment, the new routine and the new people anyway. I usually also use this time to establish LLW in the home and yard. But there are many right ways to do things, and it's just a matter of working out what suits you and the dog in question :) However, Having said that, I usually did initial meets with other dogs a short distance from home then have them walk in together, similar to what Staffyluv described. How is it all going?

It is possible because you can't feel guilty about a transgression you never made. In these experiments they have a condition in which the dog doesn't transgress, yet they still show body language that their owners interpret at guilt. This body language would be better interpreted as appeasement gestures.

awww isn't he wonderful! And that is just the cutest photo with the way he's looking at you :)

Set up a routine for him and stick to it as much as possible so that he can quickly learn to predict what is happening and what will be happening next). Use bones and things he can chew to reduce his anxiety and create positive experiences. Limit his freedom, but not so much that he can't give himself distance from things that may worry him. Don't take him for a walk until you have established some sort of understanding and trust with him, even if this takes a week or two.

Hankdog's Jake, TSD's Ziggy (I mean who doesn't love an agility champion Dalmatian who channels Mr Collins when he's with the ladies!), Nova (who I know personally is awesome) and I also have a big soft spot for Didi. I have some older favourites too from the Dane thread who aren't really on here anymore.

I suppose the other obvious suggestion would be a Rottweiler. Intimidating to strangers, trainable, and not too hairy. Are ridgy's trainable? They are a hound, and hound aren't usually particularly trainable, but I don't know much about them. They are certainly very nice looking dogs :)

The park bench one and the frisbee ones are my favourites! She's looking so well, as usual :)

I have been fortunate enough to have no fights. But apart from a few fosters, most of which were puppies, I have really only had the same two dogs together. I think they never even so much as lifted a lip at each other! They were both very respectful of each other when it came to resources, and we tried never to put them in a position where they felt the need to compete for a resource. However, I'd put 90% of it down to their temperaments, and only 10% of it down to the way we did things with them. so yes, I have been very lucky.

I absolutely agree that most of the time we have to be mindful that the instincts bred for in our dogs that enable them to fulfill their original purposes are likely very important. Getting rid of them could mean you end up with problems for sure. However when it comes to Danes... Well they were bred for hunting boar. Obviously I don't mean the kind of hunting that gun dogs do, but tracking, chasing down and holding large game animals. They have not been used for this for a very long time, and I don't think anyone has actually got a Great Dane with the purpose of hunting wild boar with them for goodness knows how long. These days they really are solely acquired for the purpose of companionship. Many now have very little hunting instinct left yet still make wonderful companions. In fact I know one breeder who would actively select against strong hunting instincts. So actually I think it could be beneficial for this breed to evolve and breeders to actively select for traits that make these giant dogs good companions, rather than traits that make them good hunters of large game. I have certainly trained quite a few behaviours that actively go against my Dane's natural instinct to hunt. She would be very unmanageable if I didn't. I do let her do lots of sniffing and we play some scenting games, and soon we will be going to a nose-works workshop. But we also practice obedience and rally-o and that certainly isn't consistent with her breed's original function.

Hmmm... I do & to be honest I was shocked when this particular person who is very high up in the agility circuit said that to me No matter how well your dog knows discrimination you still have to call "come" & give him the cues for obstacles & we do heaps of ground work working on different moves etc..putting them into small sequences...he's fine with this..it's just when I run a full course...he just sometimes like to do his own thing & when I call him back to me, that's when he gets frustrated with me. I think I am going to have to put the brakes on seconds earlier before it escalates into him being just plain idiotic & jumping up & nipping. My OH used to run him & I think he might have let him get away with it a bit too much (among other things), but we have swapped dogs, mainly because he runs better for me because I am a bit more stricter with contacts & start line stays. And we thought if he started running my old girl, it may bring back a bit more drive in her...sort of like being born again. I wonder...it just occurred to me...that he mainly trys to nip me, when I am in front of him....I wonder if it is his herding instinct...it's almost like he is trying to get me to stop or turn around. When he is running with my girl he grabs her by the tail when he gets too excited. Just on this note, I think people often tend to advise punishment when they are at the limits of their understanding.

gosh, many strange twists and turns in this thread! Honestly, I think the bite wasn't so bad by the look of it and everything is a bit of an over-reaction. I hope she's not traumatised, and she probably isn't. It certainly wouldn't hurt her if she (and her parents) are now more cautious around strange dogs. By the same token, I do hope the dog owners have learnt something too. Its just one of those things... like a perfect storm. If any one aspect of the incident had been different it probably wouldn't have occurred. Unfortunately sometimes things do inevitably happen too no matter how careful the dog owner and the parent is. That is just life. But I think in most circumstances it takes both parties to stuff-up for a bite to occur. I am currently researching dog bites, and I am staggered by the amount of dog owners who report that their dog has bitten someone more than five times, and yet they still fail to even take the most basic precautions to prevent it occurring again.

I get over all the endless talking about who is to blame in these scenarios. I think its much better for us to think about what we can learn from these situations rather than arguing about blame. For instance this might be a cue to us as dog owners to question our knowledge. Do we know our dog's signs of stress? Do we know about trigger stacking? Have we helped our dog to cope with stimuli such as running children and rough pats? If you are a parent, this is hopefully a cue for you to talk to your child about dogs, and talk to them about being calm around dogs and staying away from strange dogs, and to remind yourself that not all dogs are friendly.

I wouldn't worry about what the other owner was thinking, after all you don't really know what he was thinking. Perhaps he was more worried about his dog's behaviour than your dog's. Also I would just say that it might be beneficial whenever you possibly can to keep your dog at a distance from other dogs in which he can concentrate on you rather than be too focussed on another dog as overly friendly behaviour can turn into frustration and then aggression toward other dogs. Best of luck with him :)

nawww what a cutie! I see he's already helping himself to the furniture :laugh: I have known some lovely Dobermanns :)

Can you get Lurchers here in Australia? I thought we really only have Staghounds. I have no idea what's in the Staggies other than sighthound, obviously. I think it's more of a descriptive name than a name that refers to a specific mix of breeds. I also don't know if there are many proper breeders, all the ones I've seen have come from the pound. The few I have known have been lovely dogs.

Some dogs have a higher threshold to drive than others which can make motivating them more difficult. Obviously dogs that have higher drive and a lower threshold to drive triggers like prey are easier to motivate, but easy to motivate doesn't = easy to train, particularly if we look at life skills where we want high drive dogs to learn to switch off. None of these things make a dog untrainable, there are just different challenges you face with different breeds. ETA: if you look at the flip side, your Dane might not be as easy to motivate and it takes more to get him to go into drive. But while my dogs are easy to put into prey drive, that doesn't just mean for things I control like tugs. It could mean a car driving past. Or a kid on a bike. Or a mum pushing a pram. So you are walking a dog down the street who could lock on to any moving object and go into prey drive, that means shaking, salivating, foaming at the mouth, lunging on the leash, barking and being completely locked onto the prey in desperation to bite it. If the dog doesn't have the right training behind it it can't be corrected or interrupted once it goes into drive for some thing else. Control is not an option with dogs like that, or you'll find yourself in a lot of trouble. that's what I mean when I say easy to motivate doesn't also make a dog easy to train. No I'm not saying Mal's are easy, that's for sure. I just think that the ability to harness drive as a training tool is different to a sight hound or a dog with strong hunting instincts. I find that really interesting what you say about Mal's potentially going into drive for nay moving thing, like a pram or a bike. While obviously a Mal handler would need to be really careful with that, maybe it is that ability that allows them to really satisfy their drive through games of tug or biting on a sleeve. Like what some other sight hound owners have said, with other dogs it seems to be that their drive is much more narrowly focused. It might be as strong, but it's less likely to be triggered by a range of stimuli.

Awww that is beautiful! Good boy Jakey

What are you using as a snake stimulus? I am curious to know :) The local best friends usually has some snakes. One of the snake containers has little ?air? holes at about dog head height so when there's a snake in it we "casually" walk past and I click her when she shows disinterest or actively moves away/towards me in response. I do not think this training will hold strong if the snake is moving and therefore interesting/chaseable. But am hoping if she stumbles across a snake at rest she will redirect and come over to me. Or hesitate. Any second gained is good I think I think there are ppl who do similar with snake skins. Oh very interesting! :) yeah I think that's a pretty good idea actually.

Yes, definitely. It is something that is genetically very strong in some dogs more than others. Prey drive is something that can make the dog either difficult to handle or extremely well trained depending on how you develop it. I haven't met dogs with a higher prey drive than our working line Mals, but they will recall off live prey mid chase. There is no situation or distraction I have found where I can't make them reliable. I am sure some posters will jump and say 'but they are bred to be more bidable' but people who handle high drive working dogs or have experience with them, will know this isn't true - they can very easily become extremely out of control and difficult to handle due to temperament traits like their prey drive. How you train a dog with an extremely high prey drive can differ depending on your level of skill and the dogs history of reinforcement (how has it learnt to reward its prey drive etc). But it is certainly possible. People who try to stifle prey drive or stop the dog going into drive without also giving it a positive outlet for drive will never see a high level of reliability compared to trainers who can harness drive and use it. See, to me, that suggests their drive isn't that high compared to something like a greyhound. I've seen greyhounds with completely shattered hocks continue to chase the lure, screaming in pain as they go. They would run themselves to death in pursuit of something and to be blunt about it, liver treats, tug toys or praise could never be more rewarding than the chase. It doesn't seem to matter if chase has ever been rewarded further, the chasing is enough. And when the behaviour is its own reward.. Plenty of people claim it can be done but curiously, I've never seen a greyhound successfully trained not to chase. I completely agree. Danes were traditionally bred for hunting, but because they haven't been used for this purpose you get a huge variation in their hunting instincts. My Dane happens to be one of the ones with a huge amount of hunting instinct. Playing with toys and tug just does not fulfill her need to hunt at all. She will join in and have a bit of fun, but it is really nothing like how she goes for hunting. You can see her whole body quiver with adrenaline and you can actually see the pounding of her heart in her chest when she senses prey is near. In comparison the way she interacts with toys is like playing, her body language is softer and looser. From my perspective this seems to be one of the main differences in prey drive between certain breeds: some of them can satisfy their instincts through tug etc. while others can't. To put it in a different way, some dogs have traits that allow you to more easily harness their prey drive than others. This is why we see breed-related patterns in dog sports.

What are you using as a snake stimulus? I am curious to know :)

It is a pro-social greeting that communicates non-threat. You'll sometimes see dogs with good social skills doing this when meeting each other. My dog, Del, does it to people she really likes sometimes. Presents her wiggly but and turns her head to look at them with a smile on her face. I like it, I think it's a very cute way of greeting. Ofcourse that might be why she did it in the beginning, but now maybe she just does it because she gets a scratch :)

I completely agree with this. While I am guilty of regularly saying that Del is naughty (in an affectionate way) . I don't actually believe that she is naughty. She is just clever and opportunistic and does what works for her :)

Very interesting about the Weimaraner coat colour, thanks guys