dar1stheory

Thanks BD, very informative! And I truly appreciate you taking the time to provide your opinions and experiences! Sorry if I just came across as crazy argumentative, it's just that I frequent another forum for reptiles, and pretty well daily there is a hotly contested opinion thread, where somebody knows better than the next, eg. snakes do like to be handled VS snakes tolerate being handled... What makes the difference is the willingness of people like yourself to take the time to back opinions with some substance, so thank you for that... We've decided not to run him on the treadmill, but we will pop him on now and then for a short low speed walk just for the familiarity...

Firstly, thank you for a tactful and well explained response Bisart Dobes... I would like to query a couple of things with you though... Ok, could you please clarify your definition of "high impact exercise." Because I simply cannot see how 4 minutes of what I would consider nothing more than fast paced walking, could pose such a health risk to an otherwise healthy dog? On the issue of "self-exercise", again I simply don't understand the fear of being responsible for creating an injury or illness as a result of walking on a flat, controlled moving surface, when the dog in question will happily spend between 5 and 10 minutes at a time sprinting* (for lack of a better word) around the yard, jumping, changing direction quickly etc... If there is a playmate to frolic with (and there usually isn't), he spends hours over the day playing, by which I mean running, and as a result is tired out at the end of the day... So if I am to base my estimation of when he would tire, and when he would dictate his limit, based on these observations, I can confidently say I've barely scratched the surface by putting him on a treadmill for 4 minutes at 5kph... I am interested though in what obedience tricks you're referring to that would tire him out more than this though?

Oh wow, that sounds rough... But then a super fit mate of mine fractured a bone in his foot getting out of bed stepping on a remote control that rolled his foot or something... Bad things happen... Well I'll definately keep things at a low level (as in the fast paced walk or trot for a few minutes), he doesn't need to break any records (or bones), but I hear more about the need to exercise and tire him out than I do about avoiding it... Thanks for the warning though...

That's cool, we're trying to ensure that Cassius recognises that we need to take turns at our house... Running together would end in tears I'm sure of it! lol I've heard a few people mention limiting exercise for pups to protect the growth plates, but seriously? I can understand jumping, but not running them? All he wants to do is run, and surely as nature intended, he would have had to run to survive? I can appreciate keeping things at a reasonable level, but he runs much faster than this in play, so what harm could it do at this "leisurely" pace?

He's 6 months, and 2 weeks! Well, I don't know about other treadmills, but ours seems quite safe? There is a gap of about 20mm between the edge of the mat and the side rails, and the side rails are only raised about 8 - 10mm from the "floor" and have rounded edges, it would extremely difficult to get a toe or nail stuck, as the feet are coming from above... You would struggle to squeeze a toe in from the side if you actually tried!

Hey guys, Just wanted to share our first success in treadmill training our boxer, inspired by Cesar we managed to get him comfortable quickly using a few treats and a lot of praise... We did a couple minutes of walking the first time, then a couple of minutes walking with a little run at the end the second time, and this was our third attempt! Hope to get him running without a lead, anyone else been able to achieve this? I've heard rumours of a dog in a fire station somewhere that will actually go the treadmill and bark to have it turned on, and then runs himself!

Oh, and he's 5 months old...

Thanks, he is huh! Well I'd like to think we give him enough stimulation... He's studying nursing at the moment... lmao Like I said earlier, we have given him HEAPS of toys, and our neighbour is home most days and will come get him and give him a couple of hours play with her Jack Russell (which really takes it out of him!) we walk him nearly every day, come out throughout the night while we're up and play with him, or work on tricks and obedience... I think he'll pick up pretty well on the "leave it" command, he learned not to go inside by just verbally giving the "uh-uh" cue, and standing there refusing entry... It's quite hilarious actually, the neighbours JackR used to be allowed in our house before we bought it, and Cassius loves to chase him around, and seems completely oblivious to anything else happening around him when in the middle of a chase, but when the JR runs in to our house through an open door, Cassius hits the brakes hard, and then turns to look at us like he's dobbing!

Thanks guys, another lot of great advice and funny stories! charleswentworth, this was the sort of thing I was interested in, whether there was a tried and tested way of showing that something is mine and therefore off limits... Thanks heaps, I'll give this a try! Here's the photo of his face when we came home to find him digging... How could we be mad at this face...?

That should be enough to ward him off, my brother in law has a bull arab/mastiff giant, and one day investigated why his monster dog wouldn't go behind the house down the path, he took him by the collar and tried to lead him through, and found that he was seriously petrified of our pups poo! Thanks guys, good advice, and like I said, I expected people to suggest putting things out of reach, but I was really looking for any suggestions on a specific (and positive) "shaping" method of discouraging behaviour, whilst I will most certainly try and be more preventative in the meantime! I guess I was wondering if anyone has had success in introducing specific items like toys, which the dog can recognise as a gift to do whatever with, and learn that unless it has been "gifted" to them, that it is out of bounds?

Hey guys, So we've had some great success with encouraging positive behaviours with treats and praise etc, and found that there are effective ways to "shape" a desired behaviour for tricks... But I'm interested in hearing feedback about how to most effectively stop undesired behaviour, such as: 1. Thanks to a quick lesson from the playmate next door, our boxer has learned the joys of digging... Came home after the storm last night, and he was covered in mud (white boxer), having an awesome time with a few newly created holes in the back yard... Our neighbour came over and apologised, (she takes him over for playtime in her yard during the day regularly) that her jack russell had regrettably showed off his digging talents earlier in the afternoon... 2. Taking things that aren't his, such as, shoes, paint brushes, tearing up boxes, and well, just about anything that is left in reach... Now I know that some are thinking, "put it where he can't reach", but that's just painful... It's not terrible yet, he hasn't damaged anything at this stage, (except for the cardboard boxes left out from moving house which he loved tearing in to small pieces...) But I'm just noticing the beginning of a trend where he seems to be actively seeking out things that aren't his from on top of tables, or from just inside our back door... He has quite a few different toys of his own, a kong ball, wubba, knotted rope, squeaky fish, tennis balls, treat ball, holey rubber football thingy etc... as well as usually having a bone or shmacko to chew on... We try and change up the toys that he has available, so that they aren't so boring being there all the time... Any ideas much appreciated!

Hey everyone, This would have been my first post had I not succumbed to the urge to have chuckle and give an opinion in another on the way here! Firstly, thanks to all of you who've taken the time to document some really fantastic advice and experiences about your pets and their training, it's given me a great start with our new boxer pup! It's our first dog, (Fiance and I) though both of us grew up with family dogs spending plenty of time with them as they grew up with us, but this is the first time we've been in the position to have sole responsibility for a mammal, (I like my snakes too... though not very responsive to clicker training!) Anyway, I'm hell bent on having the smartest boxer, Lea's parents have a 6 year old who is still a huge pup, but can do about 6 "tricks" on command, sit, shake, lay down, beg, back flop, and "ugly" (big grin showing off his bottom canines) But he is very easily distracted, and usually just flat out goes through all of them at once knowing it's dinner time! Some laughed at me when I said I wanted to spend time training our new boxer pup, reminding me that "boxers aren't smart"... 4 weeks later, I think our 12 week old pup is set to prove some people wrong! We are both really busy, and don't get to spend a huge amount of time with our little man, but he's responded so well to clicker training, only started about 10 days ago, but he's now sitting perfectly, comes on command, shakes (with the right paw for good etiquette), and last night, figured out go to bed in only 2 requests! I'd like some feedback though, how much is too much, as in, should I just try and cement 1 trick before moving to the next, I've been combining 2-3 to keep things interesting with him, and it seems to be working fine, but anyone think its too early to move to 5-6 things? Or would it be good to keep him thinking hard and changing up the routine more so that he doesn't develop the trend of "Uncle Popeye" just going through everything he knows to get the reward in the same sequence every time? And I'd love some idea's from people for what I should try next, and how to go about it... (I totally want to achieve the "clean up" command to put all his toys away in the long term, anyone else got a boxer doing this or similar?) Thanks everyone!

Well, that'd be enough to put me off going back... :D lol, grass seeds would surely be insignificant in comparison...