raineth

my Dane did a playful jump backwards (trying to initiate play with out other dog) and went baclwards through the window! She was lucky though and just had a superficial cut on her bottom. I hope your poodle heals nicely! Boy that would have been frightening! and expensive too as you have to pay for the vet bills and the window!

My dog Digby has a bit of ongoing depression. Its not contant, but it is a state he does often revert back to. However its less and less the longer we have him. He was not well treated before he came into rescue. Obviously I'll never know for sure, but from various symptoms and neck scarring I think he was kept most of his life on a chain. He was very scared of men and he still won't go near anyone, except me, if they have a stick-like object in their hand I don't think he was ever played with as a puppy. I actually think that in general he is a very confused dog. He has a tendency to develop superstitions and then these superstitions have a tendency to become a bit OCDish. I make him sounds like a train crash I guess, but he's a really fabuolous dog in many ways and actually very easy to live with. His confidence has come ahead in leaps and bounds with socialisation as well

no, I don't think martingales are allowed, but as I said its on at a time and day that makes it really hard for me to attend. I have only managed to take Digby about four times in the past year.

I guess if its a guide dog puppy that's a whole different story, because it becomes an issue of raising money for an important cause vs. supporting dodgy dog food and telling people to grow their puppy on it. yeah I know! they have given him a bowl as big as the ones I have for Digby and Delta and its nearly overflowing! But mainly I think they do that becuause it looks better in the shot. And if you do feed your dog that much you're going to buy a lot more food

where are you again Merrirose? pm if you prefer. I'm on the outskirts of wagga.

well done to all the dogs and handlers :D thanks for posting terranik! Jedi hardly put a paw wrong ;) I'm also very impressed that I didn't see a single handler end up in the mud! that would have been me for sure :p

thanks, yeah I must admit, that I feel the club's rules make it especially hard for people with giant breeds. The club is filled with labs, goldens, borders and little terriers. I do feel like there is lack of understanding for what it is like to manage a dog that weighs more than you ;)

good on you Sherlot :D yeah I'm pretty much the same as everyone; i couldn't have my dog in an add for brand/product i disagreed with. i guess either the owners of that lab puppy agree witht the statement or don't care :p

a lot of those comments were horrible. But some of them regarding kids were filled with just as much hatred as those regarding dogs. I think we can do without the hatred.

There was no need at that point to shoot the dog.

Generally I find dogs in ads quite nice. But then there are also a few that make me wince! For example: there is one add at the moment for a supermarket brand of dog food, and it features super-cute labrador puppy and the add says something like: *insert brand name* is the best food for a growing puppy. I wouldn't be happy to see any puppy raised on that food. There is also the RSPCA add with the beautiful Afghan. I know a lot of people on here can't stand the RSPCA. So I want to know, if you were approached to have your dog feature in an add by a brand/organisation that you disagreed with, would you be tempted to do it anyway?

my pup did puppy classes with one, it was older. It had a really nice temperament and its owners were really really happy with it. There are 13 Curly coat breeders listed on DOL. Sometimes its better to ring them rather than email. I think it would be worthwhile to ring even the ones in other states as they may have sold a puppy living in you area that you could meet

its good you are putting so much thought into it I think Labradors a great. Ofcourse you just need to realise, that like any dog, they are not born with good manners etc. One of that hardest things with having many people in the household, is that you really all need to be consistent with the dog. You need to discuss and agree on how you will deal with everything. such as what will you do when the puppy jumps on people how will you feed the puppy how will you train bite inhibition how will you discipline puppy what will puppy be rewarded for even if you change these things a little later you will always need to be consistent between you. I definitely reccommend your labrador being allowed inside. Think about your climate all year round. If its rteally cold in winter or really hot in summer, do you think that means you will end up spending less time out there, and as such the dog gets less interaction. What about when you are sick? At least if the dog is inside you can spend some time with it I'm doing uni too and when I'm at my desk both dogs come and curl up around me. One squeezes himself under the desk and the other lies next to my chair sometimes its these little things that are so nice about dog ownership

oh my!!! why on earth would he think that the dogs would defecate at the table

cool! they are all lovely!

because its an Aussie and because you were thinking myths, I thought what about Aboriginal mythology. And so i googled and I was quite amazed when I actually came across a site for names of dogs based on Aboriginal "gods and goddesses" !!! here it is: aboriginal names I like Wuluwaid and Bahloo

its because the training club is on a really inconvenient time for me and they don't allow check chains and I walk my dane with a check chain But otherwise, yes that would be good

I have the mix of one quiet, nay comatose, dog (the black one in my sig) and one really active, inquisitive and playful dog (the harlequin in my sig). Definitely the active one drives the comatose one a bit batty sometimes (we keep this to a minimum). As wuffles said you have to be prepared to intervene to keep the quieter dog happy. I can completely relate to what Teebs is saying. My comatose dog is so so lazy and inactive and unplayful and he has a kind of unhappy disposition. Having two of him would be a bit depressing! But having two of my active dog and we would be living in permanent destruction and going insane

thanks for all the feedback everyone! I'm going to give all your suggestions a go :D

Sorry raineth it was said with toungue in cheek I should have mentioned that. I think only someone threatened with something more scarey than the original fear would actually follow the therapist toward the source of the fear, even if the threat was called a mild distraction by someone else not on the receiving end. The kick CM gives I think is as Joe says a conditioned reinforcer or it actually does hurt or as Corvus says the dog is living in the now (if I was fearful of something I wouldn't want to take my eyes off it either i.e. a rearing head flattened snake and if someone tried to distract me away from it I would get cranky), whatever, certainly not what I would recommend doing or do myself either. ooops :D sorry! can be hard to interpret on the intawebz sometimes!

if its not relevant then why did you give the example Cesar shoving the guy hard to as a way to demonstrate what its like for a dog?

I feel like my dogs need to be around other dogs more. They do have three dogs they regularly hang out woth, but recently two of those moved away. When we go for a walk most of the time we don't see a single other dog (apart maybe from offlead dogs that aren't friendly). I don't feel that they need to be playing with other dogs, just hanging out a bit more with other dogs. So I thought maybe I could advertise to see if anyone in my suburb would be interested in meeting up for a weekly walk. But I can see that this could create its own problems, with people who maybe don't very friendly dogs, or don't control their dogs properly which could cause real trouble. On the other hand maybe it would all work out well. Dogs would get the opportunity to be around other dogs; maybe it would encourage some owners to walk their dogs. Actually I can imagine advertising and getting no responses at all. Anyway i just wanted to see what other people think of this idea, whether you think its likely to be a disaster, or whether there are ways I can make it work?

do you know mj, that even with humans, knowing that a fear is irrational doesn't make it go away? I would much rather change what is going on in the brain through classical conditioning than just suppressing a behaviour.

the one pedigree dog I have bought cost $1800 and had a host of health issues, not the greatest temperament, and only lived to 15 months old I sure did love him though

I don't think they think that way. They recognise when we're not happy with them, and they recognise the factors that lead to punishment. I don't think dogs think about "right" and "wrong".