aussielover

My puppy biting tips are: 1. yelp in a high pitched voice and cease play, resume play when puppy is calm again, redirecting puppy to an appropriate biting object (like a toy or nylabone) 2. yelp in a high pitched voice and calmly remove puppy to time out area OR walk away yourself pups that are more persistent may require stronger incentives to stop this behaviour such as lightly scruffing as has been previously suggested. My labrador puppy was very mouthy (and those puppy teeth are very sharp!). I found no. 2 to be most helpful for stopping biting with her. Good luck

Hmmm I disagree with this as my dog licks his paws when he is itchy but he does not have a contact allergy, he is atopic and has food allergies. I find food makes him lick/chew his paws and legs. Go and see a dermatologist, its your best bet. +1 My dog has her muzzle and eyes, tummy, underarms, hind legs and between the paws affected, basically everywhere except her back. This summer has been a really bad season for allergies

My dog is like a beacon for all the male dogs, despite being desexed. They all try to hump her! She is completely disinterested though. Even puppies have tried it on her!

mumtoshelley: do you think it is just "telling off" another dog for getting in her face? That is normal dog behaviour, so long as it doesn't go too far eg. injuring the other dog or prolonged telling off. You also need to be aware that the other dog might retaliate back and end up fighting with Shelley. If I were you i would not allow her to be with the dogs that seem to annoy her or get in her face. If another dogs bounds up to her, use your body to block the dog by standing between her and the other dog. Ask the owner to control their dog or start walking away from the dog if no owner is in sight. Really people should control their dogs so they are not running up to random dogs but we can't expect everyone to be perfect lol. I think today's society does expect dogs to be able to greet each other without any signs of aggression, which perhaps is unrealistic. You might want to seek some help from a trainer or something, to help Shelley relax around other dogs more, especially considering she has had a bad experience.

what would be the best size deer antler for a 1 year old lab? I assume the largest???

Surely my thread is entirely non-contentious. I don't think anyone could do battle about something like SAR dogs/sniffer dogs! Border collies apparently make great search and rescue dogs which is why I was curious about why there weren't more Kelpies out there, but border collies are more famous internationally. Lots of breeds and mixed breeds (shock-horrpr LOL) are used for SAR worldwide. Aussies are used quite a lot as service dogs in the US, including SAR and guide dogs even! In NSW the SAR team is mainly labs I think but i am sure any dog with the right drive could be trained. Most dogs have similar sniffing ability, but it is the trainability, drive and instinct to use their nose that makes the difference I would think (and of course the trainer) I am not sure if it is one of those things though that have to be started at a young age (dog age that is!)? I think it is very worthwhile volunteer organisation.

Aww Elbie looks so cute! Great to hear you had a good experience with K9 pro! If i get to keep Mindy i am thinking of taking her there for a session as she has a few minor issues i would like to get sorted, mainly to do with improved reliability because I would like to get involved in some dog sports with her. How did you get elbie to do the "shy" trick where they put their paw over their muzzle? I remember seeing a video or something of him doing it? I am struggling with mindy, it is the one trick we don't seem to be able to master (well, i don't seem to be able to teach it to her!). We have gotten to the stage where she will do a very small paw touch on her muzzle but nothing more. Not really sure how to shape/lure a larger movement? I have tried the sticky tape, vegemite on the muzzle etc but she doesn't notice its there

I want to know whether aussies with tails do the aussie "wigglebum" thing. Mindy also does the whole body wiggle when she is very happy. Labradors are generally always happy and it sounds like they hava a higher incidence of poo-eating.

Some insurers are very fussy and make their clients jump thru hoops to get money back. You may not get cover for any skin conditions as they have already had some allergy issues and some insurers will see this as a pre existing condition. Insurance is best done as soon as you get the pup, to be able to get the most out of it, but you may still get some value if you get it now, especially if you're only after emergency coverage. In my experience working at a vet clinic, the RSCPA are actually the best to deal with and seem the most reasonable.

I work at a vet and we use an ex assistance dog and guide dog trainer. She has own her company and also does behavioural consults and dog walking.

What is the time limit for each of the sections? If I still have Mindy when she is 2, I would like to do this. I would like to jog the test as this would be much more of a challenge for me! I don't think 20kms is tough for a fit large breed dog, but definitely a challenge for me to run 10km an hour is a slow jog? I used to do really long bike rides with my aussie shep (20-40km) but there aren't many suitable places to bike with dogs in sydney (especially in my area) and I don't even have a bike anymore!

There is also guide dog trainers, assistance dog trainers and guide and assistance dog puppy raising supervisors, who deal with all the puppy raisers and problems they come across.

This link, of a breeder in Canada confirms the whole aussie to aussie breeding to get a smaller dog. http://members.shaw.ca/hitide/ few of those dogs in that website or the dog previously posted look like Australian Shepherds. The colour is right but the face and body isn't.

There are heaps of really striking and beautiful looking "mutts" or crossbreds. Why don't they use them?

Why does my dog.... 1. always carry something around in her mouth but never actually chew it? The only thing she ever chews are bones. She still has all her puppy toys (wet and soggy) still intact and her puppy kong intact too. I spend heaps of money buying her chew toys, nylabones etc lol 2. greet me with an object in her mouth? 3. sleep with one of my shoes???

You must have a lot of self control Most people couldn't resist exclaiming in horror

I totally agree with this and wish more people could experience it! I'm not the best trainer and my dog is smart but not amazingly smart (like the BC who knows 1000's of words!) but we have been able to master some very simple but very cool tricks She actually knows over 20 different tricks and commands and does useful stuff like bring the newspaper, put my socks into my laundary basket (wish i had a frontloading washing machine so i could get her to put them into it! lol), bring me my shoes, her lead, toys etc. This has all been achieved with very little effort, i would say only 10 mins a day of "trick" training. It has enabled me to have much more positive interaction with her, instead of telling her off for chewing, digging, being naughty out of boredom!

I thought a C5 was the same as C3 + Kennel Cough (2 strains) I know of quite a few kennels that won't accept the KC injection, only the intranasal vax.

I thought a C5 was the same as C3 + Kennel Cough (2 strains) I know of quite a few kennels that won't accept the KC injection, only the intranasal vax.

Is that your opinion? Or is it an accepted fact? You don't believe reliability can be increased by consequences for disobeying? In my (limited) experience it can. It doesn't have to be a physical correction either. What exactly do you do when your dog doesn't recall? nothing? I have to say I would either start walking away, if it is safe (which is negative in my dogs eyes, but i'm sure some dogs wouldn't care or think it was great!) or I would go and put her back on her lead, then do some recalls on lead. What would you do if your dog was eating dog poop/scraps/other yucky stuff? and wouldn't stop even if you had the his favorite treat? Surely you would at least verbally correct your dog?

What is it you are worried about the C3 or the KC? He should definitely be covered for the KC for 12 months since the last vaccination. The C3 has a number of different schedules, depending on the brand. Some require 2 vaccinations and some require 3. If he was on the 2 vax C3 schedule, he sounds all up to date to me, but best check with the vet

There is a dog that sometimes comes to the park and does this to other dogs. The dog is a lab x schnauzer and is quite large and strong. It will start off as play but then it gets excited and will grab the other dogs throat, while pinning it and not let go. It almost suffocated a fully grown labrador (not mine). Luckily the owner was able to get it off in time. Needles to say, i don't allow my dog to play with it! Is this aggressive behaviour? why do some dogs do this? The lady has apparently been given advice (by other park-goers) to pull the dog off and then put it on its side for a few minutes? Its not quite an Alpha roll, but something very similar imo. I don't think this is working though as it hasn't reduced the behaviour at all.

I think it is hypocritical of them to criticize purebred dogs, then turn around and use them to advertise their own animals (very misleading also as SSM said).

Is there a difference between a dog trainer and behaviourist? Should both be able to do both train and solve behavioural problems?

I haven't seen anything to suggest that Nekhbet's methods would cause a dog to be scared??? If you're never going to correct your dog (and I don't necessarily mean physical correction) then you have to accept some possibly undesirable actions. There is nothing wrong with correcting your dog, so long as it is appropriate and the dog understands what to do to avoid the correction the next time. I don't think there is any service dog organisation that wouldn't use some form of correction in training their dogs. I would also like to see "puppy classes" become more fun. I think serious obedience people are not going to take their dogs to obedience schools anyway (as they are too long with too many distractions for a young puppy) so there is no point in spending 1 hr teaching a pup to walk in a straight line or go around in circles with the occaisonal sit and drop. I like puppy classes that do incorporate some heeling and basic obedience but where you also do a lot of fun stuff like teaching tricks, playing games, discussing house-training and how to prevent resource guarding and jumping etc. Personally I found doing a lot of trick training at home really helped me to understand how my dog learnt and helped me to bond with her. It is nice to have a dog you are proud of! imo, theory can only take you so far. If you can't apply your knowledge, then its basically useless. And dogs are not all the same, some respond to different methods of training better. I also think a trainer should be open to trying many different methods (provided they are humane and effective) of training a behaviour or fixing a problem.