aussielover

Must be the kelpie/BC in him!!! My aussie got very upset if the group got split up, if off lead, she would try and herd us all back together! Apparently Mindy sulks when I am not there, she will sit by the garage door, or by the front door, whichever I was last seen

Sorry, should have said she has had repeated faecal floats- I think about 4 or 5 in total, all negative. I thought hills i/d was not a suitable diet long term? I suppose it does meet all nutritional requirements though. Will check with the vet. Thanks for your replys

Where are all these laid back labs? All the ones I know (bar one guide dog, that is) are pretty full on. I know a few laid back ones and a few full on ones, either way they are one of the most popular breeds so they must be pretty suitable for the vast majority of homes. Maybe the reason the poodle isn't as popular is more about perception than anything else but that is a challenge for poodle breeders and clubs to change if they so desire. Sure, but that's for another thread. You were saying, I got the impression so correct me if I'm wrong, that the reason that people want labradoodles is because of the lab temp but wanted them not to shed. But, as you've said above, not all labs are laid back. They may be a perfect family dog but they're certainly not all laid back. Perhaps they're only considered a perfect family dog because people see perfectly behaved guide dogs and expect to get one of those out of the box. Labs from guide dog lines tend to be more laid back. Even the more excitable ones, with proper training do turn out to be good guide dogs. In fact, often the "naughtiest" guide dog puppies, turn out to be the best guide dogs in the end! Like most dogs, labs prefer to have a job to do and keep busy. I disagree with the bolded statement. Yes, for sure, a few people probably get a lab because they see well behaved guide dogs but most would choose a lab for their reputation for being a fun-loving, friendly, family dog that is relatively easy to train (if you've got food lol). I don't find the shedding a big deal, I mean you have to clean/vacuum your house regularly anyway. As for labradoodles, I don't have a problem with people who are trying to develop them into a recognised breed- I don't know why people seem to be against this? I do have a problem with BYBers and puppy farmers producing F1 crosses from untested parents though I've actually found GRx Poodles in general tend to be nicer looking dogs as well as having better temperaments and would rather see the :"groodle" developed rather than the labradoodle. but just my opinion.

What are the signs of a food allergy? My pup has had an approx 3 month history of abnormal faces ranging from sloppy poo to diarrhoea. Over the weekend she has had fresh blood in her faeces. She has seen the vet who said given she is still very bright, happy and eating, it is most likely colitis and not overly serious. She is on some antibiotics to help clear it up but we will probably have a PCR done on her faeces as well to see if there are any organisms causing this. Her poo seems to be normalish when she is on hills i/d diet, but this is not a suitable food for a puppy to be on all of the time. Her normal diet is Advance dry puppy, but we have experiemented with royal canin large breed puppy, with minimal difference. She gets dried liver and chicken as training treats during the day but I have treid cutting these out and there seems to be no difference. She is gaining weight appropriately for her age, and always seems to be very happy and excited to eat, she hasn't shown any signs of lethargy or depression at all. Just wondering if she could have a food allergy or even IBD?

Aww Ishy, Buffy is just adorable! I love beagle puppies they are just so cute! It sounds like she has been a good girl so far. If I were you, I wouldn't bother waking her up at night to toilet her, she sounds like the kind of puppy who is happy to hold it and sleep right through the night (lucky you!). My puppy was also pretty much like this and some 8 week old puppies are capable of holding all night. I am sure she will wake you if she does want to go out anyway. Have fun with her!

I've had a 30 - 40kg "friendly" dog jump on my slightly reactive dog. She was hurt. What is she meant to do? Not defend herself? SHe might grunmble, but these "friendly" dgos don't normally get the hint. Simple fact is that some dogs don't actually suit eachother. I don't let mine play with labs because their playing style is far to physical for my dogs. Many lab owners at my park think I'm a total bitch. If that is the price that I have to pay to protect my dogs, then so be it. A dog defending itself doesn't make it "very reactive". I would consider a dog to be very reactive if it attacked a dog that was just walking by, or saying a polite hello (both dogs off lead of course). My old aussie would also defend herself if a dog got up in her face or jumped on her. BUt she would never injure the other dog just give it a good telling off. I am a new lab owner and I don't let my dog play with dogs that don't appreciate the lab playing style. I am not offended if some dogs don't get on well with her, I mean you can't like everyone can you, and dogs are the same.

There is a HUGE difference between a dog politely approaching another one and sniffing it and a dog rushing up to another dog, getting in its face, completely disregarding the other dogs body language, and being plain rude. I see this with labs ALL the time, and no its not just restricted to that breed, but if I hear one more person with an over the top, rude dog who allows it to rush up and get in the face of whatever dog it pleases, tell me their dog is "just being friendly and saying hello" I will have to shoot someone I feel the same way Huski :D I agree Huski. I have lost count the amount of times i have heard the old 'my dog is friendly/ just wants to say hello'. Thats ok but not my problem when my very reactive dogs bites your friendly dog on the nose. If your dog is "very reactive" shouldn't you have it muzzled? It is normal for dog to have a sniff when greeting, even if a dog is boisterous or over enthusiastic, I would expect a balanced dog to at most, give a "telling off" not a full on bite. If my dog had ever injured another dog, no way would i take it to an off leash park unless muzzled.

Well we had an dog impounded today, the owner came to collect and said "oh we live next to a park, he just wanders in and out,must've just been an over-zealous ranger that picked him up" I live next to a park but I don't let my dog wander randomly. What if the dog had wandered onto the road or chased kids or annoyed people trying to picnic. Some people...

Great choice, they are beautiful dogs! BTW Gayle, love your new sig!

What persepone said, except I say "give" You can do this with food as well, I would start with something very low value though such as a rawhide chew or a bowl of dry food. You have to swap it with something of greater or equal at least equal value. I often practice with two schmackos, just alternating between the two. I also sometimes do this with bones. When I actually need to take away the bone, i offer some bbq chicken (spoilt much lol!!!) for the exchange. Having said that my pup has never shown any sign of aggression around food. It is harder once they have started resource guarding. You can also just add in some yummy meat or chicken into the food bowl whilst they are eating if they will tolerate it. It teaches them that hands in food bowl= more yummy food. Good luck, I;m sorry i didn't mean to sound nasty or anything, good on you for taking on Micky, he sounds like a sweet dog.

I don't know about perfect, but lots of people do have non-reactive, well socialised dogs. Muzzling the dog or not taking it to dog parks is the responsible thing to do if it is known to be aggressive. Howeve rthe OP also stated she didn't know whether it was the first time the dog had done this. It is not helpful to the OP to tell her it was her fault for letting her dog run up to another, she said in the first post she knew it wasn't good for her dog to run up to a strange dog and was primarily asking whether her dog would be permanently affected by this incident and how to help the dog overcome any possible fear from this event.

There is also difference between taking the food away calmly and stroking the dog whilst eating. I see no reason why stroking the dog when it is eating is necessary, it seems a little strange to me.

What gorgeous puppies! Thanks for your reply, will tell mum to look into koolies when the time comes for her to get another dog

I don't think shooing him away with a broom was helpful and I am not surprised he reacted aggressively towards this, he was probably quite confused as to what was happening. I do not agree with interfering with the dog at meal times, but I guess that is your decision. I would not liked to be touched while I was trying to eat and perhaps this makes him feel nervous. Can I ask why you stroke him while he is eating? I practice food exchange with my dog regularly, just in case an incident ever occured where I did need to take the food away in a hurry. Your trainer will be able to tell you more about food exchange and assess whether it will be suitable with this dog. I am glad you are seeing a behaviourist though as every dog responds to things differently.

Oh pics will come, you can trust that!! Leaving at 5am (waking at 4am) is the smallest sacrifice because like you said, it will be completely worth it. And I WILL sleep tonight. I plan on taking something and going to bed suppppper early. It's going to be a huge day tomorrow....for both myself, the OH and our puppy! I need at least one good long sleep before a few weeks or longer of waking up every few hours to let the puppy go toilet etc. Anyway, got an afternoon to finish off getting ready....time to set the home crate up, final check of puppy proofing home, packing car with travel crate, towels, blankets etc.. Ishy do you have puppy yet???

No of course not, i'm glad that YOU want to get a second dog. Many people do just want another dog as a companion for their other dog and sometimes that can go badly wrong as the bad habits are learnt by the new puppy and destruction potential factor is x 100!!! Obviously it wouldn't be the best idea to get another dog if he didn't like dogs, but make sure you have some strategies inplace if the worst does occur and they don't like each other or start fighting. And getting a female will potentially help minimise conflict.

Are Koolies similar in temperament to the aussie? Can you get more laid back ones ie. do they have an off switch? The reason i ask is that my mum would love another aussie but would now prefer to have a short haired dog as she does a lot of walking in the countryside and even in our area, there are a lot of ticks, so a short coated dog is preferable. She thinks labs are too immature and boisterous, so wants a herding dog type personality ie. focussed and more "mature" but a short coat. Short haired BCs are not suitable becuase many are way to obsessive and really need a job- particularly herding something lol! She is only after a companion but is willing to provide lots of exercise and some obedience, but no competitive type sports.

Oops didn't see that, sorry. I know a few dogs who appear to be extremely aggressive on lead, but off they are absolutely lovely and play really well. Which is why I don't let my dog near on lead dogs.

Stop bones for the moment if he is biting you! Crating him won't necessarily help, he may feel more secure and want to defend his area even more if you attempt to take away the bone. I would definitely consult with a professional if i were you, he sounds like he has a number of issues. These exercises help PREVENT resource guarding but i don't know if i'd be tryin it with a dog who has already bitten. Start with lower vaule treats eg. dry food or a rawhide chew or something not particularly yummy. Let them have a bit of a chew/eat then give the command "drop/give/leave" or whatever you use, and show them a yummier treat eg. dried liver, sausage, cheese etc and when they go for the better food say "yes" and take away the old food. With really high value items such as a bone, I would use another bone and say "give" and then just swap bones. They have to learn they will get something of equal or greater value when they give up a treasured treat In general I don't agree with interfering with a dog eating but it is good to practice these exercises in case of an emergency such as if the dog has picked up a cooked bone or something. I'm not sure i'd be doing any of this with your dog though as he has already learnt that biting= you moving away. I would be having very strict house rules with this dog, never giving him an opportunity to misbehave. I would not let him up on any furntiture at all and perhaps even keep him leashed in the house so you can correct behaviour or move him without getting too close. I wouldn't give any bones at all, and don't interfere with his meal times at all untill you can get help from a professional.

Well, Dane puppies need space to free exercise in, but your yard sounds large enough for this. Older Danes are more suited to living in a smaller area, but I do feel they need a reasonable amount of space to wander around in. And of course it depends on the individual dog. Some danes are just big couch potatoes, but some are quite active.

What kind of dog do you already have? Are you perfectly happy with every aspect of this dogs behaviour? Why do you want another dog? Getting a "friend" for the existing dog, is not a good enough reason imo. What is the personality of your existing dog? To be honest, I think anyone considering housing an amstaff with another dog should be very knowledgable about the breed and dog training and experienced around dogs. Many people do keep fighting breeds together quite successfully though.

He might not have been "vicious". I doubt the dog was vicious. It didn't even break the skin as far as i'm aware? It probably did not enjoy having a random dog bound up to it whilst it was restrained and couldn't escape. The did the right thing by walking on the edge and keeping his dog on leash. For all we know, the dog could be perfectly friendly when off leash.

Or she has been brought up in a culture that doesn't care for dogs. Now, keeping in mind that I am not defending her actions as right in any way, but; Not all countries/cultures see animals (dogs) in the same way as the western world, and there are plenty of people out there who would think that to be a perfectly acceptable way of "disposing of" an unwanted litter. Just as some people in our culture would think it okay to drown a rat, or to poison one with ratsack so that they die a horrible painful death. Because it's just a rat right? Hmmmm not to those who keep them as pets.. Of course it's wrong and barbaric, but there is a good possibility that the girl is not doing it for the pleasure of it, but simply because she has been raised to think this is "normal". Good point. I suppose we value some animals more than others (like you said, nobody would have cared if they were rats, or some form if insect). I think because they are puppies and pretty powerless people are pretty upset, their innocence is a factor too. In parts of Asia, they eat dogs, I have no problem with this, provided the dogs are treated in a humane manner. Unfortunately many are not treated humanely

I really can't agree with this statement. I think they are intelligent enough to tell the difference beetween when they are required to "work" and when they are allowed "playtime" with other dogs. Lots of working dogs, eg. guide dogs, assistance dogs, customs dogs are allowed to play with other dogs at dog parks, starting from a very young age and continuing throughout their working life. When they are working they know to ignore other people and dogs. I do think it is important for dog to have off lead interaction with other dogs, especially for those coming from only-dog households. Obviously, it is safer to only let them play with known dogs, but not always practical. To the OP: I am sorry your dog was attacked, it is a very scary experience but it seems your dog has suffered no lasting damage. The fact she was back playing with other dogs very quickly is a good indication that she wasn't too traumatised. Personally I wouldn't let my dog run up to an on-leash dog, as some dogs that are usually nice, become aggressive on leash. But sometimes things happen very quickly and we all make mistakes, we are only human after all.

I disagree totally with stereotypical "socialisation" and the need for dogs to interact with others, IMHO they don't. They need to be aware of other dogs and learn to ignore them is best. When they learn the enjoyment of other dogs, is when they play up seeing one and misbehave on the leash. Friendly dogs want to play, reactive dogs want to fight and the way I like it, is a dog that doesn't care about other dogs and has no interest in them taking the sighting of other dogs in their stride. Fiona So you don't agree with letting dogs interact with their own kind?