teekay

I have a question. If the preventative spot on treatments do not really work, as it appears lots of people have said they don't. Is it worth subjecting our dogs to the fortnightly chemicals when we have to check them daily anyway. I have 3 coated breeds and am terrified of ticks although, thankfully, we don't seem to get many round here. I have found one on Jenna a couple of years ago. Judging by it's size it had probably been on her a couple of days, thankfully she suffered no ill effects. Also for those of you that get multiple ticks a day, do you know where they are getting them from. Is it just in your yard or when out walking? Is it from bushes in your garden? I'm intrigued because I don't really have any plants in my garden, just lawn, and wondered if this was why mine rarely get them.

Woohoo. Way to go Jakey boy. Medals all round I think :D We're on a roll so I'll add mine for this morning. I took Luka for a walk along the beachfront path. Very busy, lots of people and a fair few dogs. Not once did he react to any of them (admittedly they were all very calm dogs ). Didn't have any treats left in my bag by the end of the walk though :laugh:

Wow PME, that sounds awesome. I can just imagine how overjoyed you would have been. Well done Kenz, you're a star, and so is your Mum for all her hard work

(((Hugs))) Ams. You've had an awful run at the moment. Thinking of you.

Yep, head on over to the reactive dogs thread. Lots of info and support on there :D With regard to walking with your other dog, I wouldn't. While you are working on Juju's issues I think it would be better if you could give her your full attention. I am not a trainer but I can tell you what has worked for us with my reactive Aussie Shepherd. Admittedly by the sounds of things he was not as bad as Juju. We have worked with a combination of LAT, BAT and counter conditioning. I won't go into what all those things are but you can Google or do a search on here. I would suggest you work at a distance from the distraction. Once the dog has reacted, you are too late to work with any treats toys etc ( as you have found) you need to move further away. With Luka I took him to a park with an off leash secured area so I could control the distance between him and the other dogs and found the distance at which he noticed them but I could still get his attention. So he would see them, I stop and wait for him to look back at me, lots of praise and or treats then did a 180 degree turn and walk a distance away. Rinse and repeat :D I did the same with dogs behind fences. Approach and wait, treat, walk away. We do still have a problem walking past dogs with their owners ona walk but Luka is a work in progress. :) I also cannot recommend Steve Courtney at K9 Pro highly enough. Lots of people on here have been to see him including me and the feedback is always positive. If you could get to see him I think it would definitely be worth a trip. Good luck with you little firecracker, as Hankdog says lots of sympathetic ears on the reactive dogs thread :)

I don't know if this has been shared before but I just came across this while browsing Deals Direct. What a brilliant idea. I always wash my lot ( not very often I'll admit :) ) outdoors, but really try to avoid it in the cooler months as we do not have hot water plumbed outside. This seems to solve that problem. Shame it is out of stock but I think I will be getting one when they get some more in. :D http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/tropic-dog-shower/

Sorry to hear about Zig's HD. Hopefully you will be able to manage it conservatively for many years. Good luck for your session with Steve. I have no doubt you will love it. I came away feeling like I could conquer any problem :D admittedly that feeling does fade but Luka has improved immensely since we saw Steve. He's not perfect, I doubt he ever will be, but we now go to off lead beaches ( on a long line at the moment) and his better recall has improved his quality of life no end. I let him off lead at the local sports field and his recall is fantastic. We haven't upped the ante to other dog distractions yet but I really feel like we will get there now. Wish I lived closer to Steve for some follow up sessions but for now, his online advice will have to do. I am getting better at doing you tube videos so he can see our progress.

No offence taken. I actually completely understand what you mean. Although I'm sure most are friendly, they can look and sound intimidating if you are not used to them. Took me a while to relax around Mya when I first got her, to be honest. I also think there are still plenty of people who think wolf when they see a husky Thanks for the replies, esp from the sibe owners. I think the whole video is harrowing, that poor little dog, but I did find the narrative confusing and a little bit annoying. I sincerely hope, when the video was turned off someone had words with the dog owners concerned. IMO ALL of them were at fault. The little dog owner for letting them be bullied and the others for not recalling their dogs.

Totally agree wuffles, and is the reason I don't go to dog parks unless they're empty. I'm just interested in her interpretation of the dog's behaviour. I certainly am no behaviourist so I wondered what others thought. Definitely not appropriate behaviour by any stretch though. Just watched the video again and noticed she says the rat terrier is "looking to pick a fight" with the husky???? Really?

This video was brought to my attention recently and in light of recent threads I wanted to share. First off, I think whoever took that little brown dog into a busy dog park needs their head looked at. The dog is obviously very distressed. Where is the owner? Not sure if it is the lady who sits on the bench or not. But IMO that dog should not be there. Mostly though, I wanted others opinion on the behaviour of the husky. I have a husky and she plays very much like this dog. She loves to chase and she does get that tail up, ears forward stalky demeanour, including heckles up sometimes, when she is about to launch. But it is only a chase and when she has 'caught' the other dog (in my case my Aussie Shepherd Luka, they just have a bit of rough and tumble and then it's his turn to chase her. There is no vocalisation at all and in my case no aggression. So I was wondering if other husky owners think that this husky was being aggressive and wanted to attack the little dog, as stated in the video? Oh and I'm not defending any of the behaviour shown on the video. The owners of the harassing dogs should have obviously stepped in to stop them from harassing the little dog and a chase between a big dog and a little dog has potential to be disastrous whether harm was intended or not. Also, the interaction I just described between my two dogs is not at all appropriate for a dog park with unknown dogs and I never take my husky to the dog park( actually I only ever take Luka to the dog park, occasionally, when the park is empty, to practise recall training) Mya is never allowed off lead anywhere except in our, thankfully very large, back yard.

Awesome MB, I'm so pleased to hear this.

lol I don't think your reasoning is correct. My girl isn't tattooed, nor is she secretly being shown desexed :laugh: Jenna doesn't have the tattoo either. She was desexed whilst undergoing another operation and I think the vet forgot.

When I lost my gorgeous Lab a number of years ago. I couldn't even face getting another Labrador because it would remind me too much of Holly. No way on Earth I could have cloned her. You can't just replace a dog and pretend that they hadn't died. Creepy. I too, wonder about the life expectancy and health of these clones

Fabulous photos Jelly. I'm so glad you have a fantastic record of Roo's time here. There will come a time when you can look at them with more smiles and less tears Hugs to you

Luka loves his deer antler but, again. only uses his back teeth Short of getting a whole animal carcass, I can't see how the canines will ever get used

Exact same problem here luvsdogs. I watch mine eat their RMBs and they all use the sides of their mouths. Occasionally they may rip bits off with the very front teeth, but the canines do not get a work out at all. Just paid for a dental for Mya and, yes, it is very espensive and would like to avoid it with the other 2 if possible. I too have bought some Plaque off but not sure it has made a difference yet and they all hate the taste of it:(

Jelly, thinking of you.

Oh my goodness, that is just heartbreaking. You must feel like you have been hit by a truck So many for you, Life is so bloody unfair sometimes.

There's too many different dogs I love, for me to be breed loyal. My first dog was a lab and at the time could not see me with any other breed but when we lost her so young I was so heartbroken I couldn't cope with having another Lab. So we went with something different and now have 3 different dogs and have my heart set on Finnish Lapphund sometime in the future. Variety is the spice of life

Oh my goodness, that was hilarious :laugh:

Thanks spotted devil, good idea to try something different to the ball. I will give that a try, he's not all that fussed about small balls in the first place so that might be hindering him. :D at Em trying to get the right thing. Sounds a lot like Luka. "Is this what you want Mum? Or this? I can do this. :)

So I have decided to put a concerted effort into training Luka to retrieve a ball. Back chaining seems to be the way to go but we seem to have encountered a problem pretty much straight away. He is pretty savvy to my marker word 'yes' but although we have progressed to a good nose touch, he will not open his mouth. It's a fine line between rewarding him for the strong nose touches but holding off in the hope he will try that bit harder and open his mouth. Any suggestions? I've tried bouncing the ball but he just looks at it and pushes it with his nose when it stops. You can tell he is starting to get frustrated and is offering all sorts of other 'tricks'. Poor boy, he's trying so hard but just doesn't get it. It is at this point I have given up before but I really want to get this right this time

And Jake has the best owner :D you have put so much time and love into helping him it is awesome to hear about his success stories. Well done Jake, you made your mummy very very happy. Keep it up at the vets now, ok?

Don't think I'll ever understand my crazy Luka. Yesterday we had the scenario from hell. On a walk an off leash dog comes racing round the corner up to Luka. I wasn't massively concerned as Luka is generally ok once the dog reaches him, as long as its friendly obviously, it's when he sees a dog running a distance away that he goes mental. So they say hello and then the owner comes round the corner apologising and called the dog back. Luka is now whining and straining but not too bad. Cue second dog off lead to rush him, again he manages to keep control. Then the owner approaches and asks about what kind of dog Luka is, and I'm just waiting for Luka to go off at him. But no, nothing. He actually approaches this man and was practically in his lap while he fussed him. WTF We walked away, relatively calmly and continued our walk. My heart racing and completely confused as to what just happened. The only thing I can think, is that because Luka was saying hello to the dogs he didn't really register the stranger? Or maybe this guy just had a really awesome doggie vibe. I was so taken aback I didn't even berate him for having two very excited dogs off lead dogs. :laugh:

Luka was an inhaler. I remember the first time I gave him a chicken wing and he tried to swallow the thing whole He also choked on a lamb bone when he was younger but thankfully threw that back up in the car on the way to the vet . Never before have I been so happy for doggie vomit in the car :) Once when my other 2 were eating chicken frames in the garden and Luka was inside, someone came to the front door so my 2 came charging in to see who it was and sneaky Luka shot outside and managed to eat practically a whole chicken frame in about 30 seconds. Worried me sick but he suffered no ill effects, thankfully. Consequently, though, I have been thoroughly paranoid about bones so I mostly hand feed him his bones. Just recently I have started to let him have a chicken frame on his own and, funnily enough, he is now the slowest eater of all of them. I still watch him like a hawk but he seems to have finally learnt to chew.