Mrs Rusty Bucket

peanuts make me feel ill but my dog likes them. I sometimes put peanut butter (that I bought for baiting mouse traps) into the kong for the dog. I think they're ok in moderation. Sweetcorn is also wasted on dogs (and humans), unless you want to know how long it takes for input to become output...

But if you kept a log book documenting your experiences and results, and made plans for your next "experience" to test your theory, and documented those results, you'd have science... It's the person who says one thing about what happens, but when a scientist actually follows them around and records what actually happens, the story or understanding that the person had - doesn't actually match. A bit like how people think there are more disasterous earthquakes happening now than ever before in history - when the record of earthquakes suggest they're happening about the same as always, but we notice more because there are more people than ever before living on the planet (and quake prone zones), and we have better faster ways of finding out about the damage.

I found the stops along the river last November had ginormous mozzies that would not leave me or my dog in peace. Most country towns have a footy oval that you can walk on or around the outside (do pick up please - kids play footy there on the weekend). Ouyen has a trotting track and a football oval next to each other and you can have your well behaved dog in the tent with you. But the ground was quite prickly/weedy in the caravan park last time I was there, and a hell of a lot of ants too. I used a lot of talculm powder and pitched late and packed up early. I was going to stay at Balranald but didn't quite make it and on the way back elected not to stop at all (cos of the mozzies). There are several nice parks in Hay if you turn up north from the round about - you encounter one on the right and there is a boat ramp down the track on the left as soon as you go over the bridge. And they probably have a football oval somewhere. Neranderah has a nice football oval round the back but a lot of mozzies too. All the places have scary big stinging mozzies. Get some permethrin and soak your clothes and bedding in it. Renmark has a really nice sporting area - I've been to the hockey field but didn't take my dog. but there is a large footy oval next to it. Yass has a really nice sandwich shop next to the park with a war memorial in it - but you're not supposed to take dogs in there. I'm afraid I did, but I kept her with me on lead while I ate sandwich and council workers left me alone. Wagga wagga - I didn't find anywhere really good. I did find a big sports oval that we could walk around but my dog is freaked out by traffic and there was a lot of traffic on all sides. It was close to and just East of the shopping centres. And just north of the main road. they have a big hockey / sports oval there somewhere but I forget how to get to it, I think the turn is after the railway line underpass to the left/south. Um, it's up bourke street. Not sure if it is dog friendly or not, but it does say no horses and no golfers. I love the bakery at Lameroo. It's just next to the first roundabout (coming from Sydney). After that it gets really hard to stop. I just keep going till I'm home. But all country towns have football ovals and I just look for those and clean up after my dog as required. Note in Mudgee council area they don't allow mixing of sports and dog poo so you can't take your dog on most of their ovals. But a lot of towns in that area have designated dog parks of varying appeal.

Heidi The 2x2 method is fast. It can take from four days to a month tops if you follow the plan. It's all about rewarding the dog for making the right decision on its own, and starting off making the right decision really easy for a dog to figure out. It can take a dog over six months with any of the other methods to figure out what you want them to do with weave poles.

http://www.blackdog.net.au/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 Blackdog make harnesses with all different combinations. And they might custom make one if you ask or can't find what you want in their product list already. What you want might be a balance harness or a tracking harness or flyball harness maybe with some modification to get the handle where you want it. PS messages are usually added by way of a dog coat type arrangement. http://www.k9pro.com.au/categories/Dog-Harnesses/ I thought k9pro also had the dog coat with a message thing but I can't find it on their site. Their harnesses look a bit like the sort you hook a sled to not a training harness but I don't know what you want yours for so there's the link. You could probably get a message stitched onto a plain patch or dog coat quite easily by any company that does dress alterations or promotional wear.

Um he won't hate you if you leave him in there screaming. But he might hate going in the crate. My Evil Hound is getting steadily better. She knows she's not getting out while she's screaming. And I'm going to go further away not back to her if she is barking her head off. The occasional, "hey, I'm here" bark is ok with me but it's up to you to decide what is and isn't ok. So she knows what I want, I follow the crate games as per Susan Garrett ie when I shut the door, she doesn't get out until she can behave nicely. A quiet sit is good, barking and lunging at the door is not. And every morning to build warm feelings for the crate we play "promite on toast", ie to get a bit of her favourite food, she has to go in the crate. And she gets a bit of toast as a reward. And she gets another bit of toast for staying in there, and a bit of toast for coming out when I call her, etc. Shutting the gate on her is a different matter. So I start with short gate shuts (a few seconds), and treat through the roof/sides for her being quiet, so she knows if she's quiet she might get a treat. And I build up from there. When she was a puppy, I would just shut her in when I needed to go out, or wash the dishes or cook. Sometimes you just have to put up with the heart rending screams. I did draw the line at trying to sleep through it tho and she sleeps on a mat next to my bed. Quietly. Oh and it won't happen over night, you have a puppy, please be patient.

SecretKei Controlling where her head is at, is a small part of working on her motivation and drive to work... I'm not sure I can explain in a way that covers everything but a small part of it is she has been getting loads of re-inforcement and fun from the environment - without me, and she's been deciding when she's working and when she's not, when I should be doing that. And I have to work on all that. I admit I haven't liked the idea of following NILIF or refusing to engage when she wants to initiate play etc but nothing else has worked so that's where I'm at. We are improving day by day but I'm not where I want to be yet. I did deliberately choose a dog that would not be in my face all the time looking for me to provide all her fun. And I have to balance that with a dog that sometimes has better ideas about what she wants to do. People do talk about the dogs that ask "How high" vs the ones that say "what for?". I've got a "what for?" dog.

I suppose if the plastic clips break, the device is faulty - or is that the fail safe to prevent damage to the dog? Susan Garrett reported to us students that she had dinner with Ruth E Foster who was a co-inventer of the GL - and Ruth said that she'd not had any reports of damage to dogs by the GL. And yet I have seen damage done by incorrectly fitted ones, and I've seen them break as have others posting here. It is my understanding that no matter what tool you use to get the dog to walk calmly at your side - it helps if you train the dog to walk nicely in it with no distractions. Ie the dog needs to understand how to relieve the pressure from whatever collar it is in. Eg with prong collar, it needs to know in advance (of distractions) that the safe place to be is with the handler. Hence I would never recommend use of prong collar, without the training that goes with it. Same sort of thing with all the collars. I have no way of knowing which collar on a powerful dog does the most damage when the dog is unaccustomed to wearing it or what its "safe" response is. I don't know how you'd research this without risking harm to a dog either (could the study get through the ethics committee?). But this is what happens every time an untrained dog is hooked by its neck to a lead for a walk among many distractions with an untrained/inexperienced handler. I do find the front attach harness - gives me the most control over my dog's lunging. Because of the physics of a pivot point (on the dog's chest). There is similar physics in wrapping the lead around a pole to get some power and control back but this isn't going to be good for the dog secured by the neck either. I imagine the front attach harness having a greater area of contact on the dog, would also spread the load on the dog, and take it away from sensitve areas like the neck and spine, so be less harmful than the neck collars. But it doesn't give me control over what the dog is doing with her head. I have heard that nose bands on horses can lead to broken noses and this area is very sensitive on a horse. Which is why halters usually gives control over a horse. But for the horse's safety, it is advised to tie a horse up to a bit of twine that would break (as a failsafe weak point) should the horse panic. Ie a horse running loose in a panic is preferable to one dead or dying of a broken nose/neck. So I'm guessing that - I don't take the dog out where there are overwhelming distractions until both our training in low distraction areas are successful and reliable. And I have a second lead clipped to the front attach harness when I do go out and test the training. Ie I'd want the brunt of any lunge taken by the harness and not by the nose band. I do suspect that my dog doesn't enjoy the flat collar, and the choke chain even less. She's the only dog I have ever known that does not get excited happy when I get the walking gear out. She likes being at the park with her friends, doesn't mind off lead heel work but really isn't thrilled about being on lead. Unless she's got it in her mouth. Mine doubles as a tug toy when required.

edit - double just because it hangs at your end doesn't mean it didn't post at the other end...

http://www.clickandtreat.com/Clicker_Training/clicker_training.html The articles here explain clicker training really well. If your dog isn't offering stuff for you, Susan Garrett suggests clicking and treating everything the dog does that was different to what it has done before. And keep the sessions short - ie 20 to 30 treats with a "balance break" every 5 treats or so. "Balance break" is a fun game of tug or chase me or something the dog knows and enjoys. For easy trick training - pick something your dog does all the time - and try to "catch it". Ie my dog always barks her head off when I'm getting her dinner ready - so that was a pretty easy thing to get "on cue". And now she makes only just enough noise to get the treat so it's more of a growl or pre-bark, unless I withold reward and say "louder". In which case she barks out of frustration and gets the treat... Other handy/fun tricks on your mat. in your crate, out your crate ring a bell (helps if you teach hand touch first then target touch eg a milk bottle lid then attach the bottle lid to a bell...) or just put something that smells yum on the bell and work from there. roll over bow as in bow before royalty - but my dog doesn't quite get this as she uses it for a play invitation and doesn't understand when I "click" it... same with the greeting crawl. "shut the door" - but might be hard to demonstrate at class - but I guess you could video it. and one of my faves though I haven't tried to teach it, is a dog that rolls itself up in it's blanket. Given I haven't taught my dog to get and hold a dumbell, it's going to be hard to explain "get and hold the blanket" (but don't rip it into tiny pieces please).

Hi Erny I watched a black lab - very big and boisterous and um trained by someone who uses a large number of methods that I would avoid and seemed very ineffective on her dog. She was quite fond of the correction that involves scolding her dog. And her dog was quite fond of bolting. Anyway. Big lab - tried to bolt while wearing the head halter and lady was left holding little pieces. I think the clip that the lead was attached to broke and the dog also got out of or broke the bit that goes around the neck and under the skull. I suspect the whole thing was not correctly fitted. I didn't have a close look because the lady was very angry by then and I tend to avoid people that are screaming and yelling. Dog was back at club the next week showing no signs of injury. They still used the GL - a new one, but also a clip to a standard choke chain. Most head halters I've seen at my club these days are clipped on the halter and a choke chain at the same time. Others I have seen - I would have to say the bit that went around the neck was not correctly fitted, and the clip came apart. Maybe it was never clipped up properly or it was a substandard clip. I've had problems with that kind of buckle unbuckling itself so some of them are just not reliable - though not seen it specifically with the GL, and never had any problems when I was using my GL. My dog was so sensitive to it, that I put the lightest thread of a lead on it that I could find and then attached the horse rope to a normal flat collar around her neck (and kept that loose) just in case. Never needed the horse lead but she is well capabable of cutting a standard webbing lead in pieces with only three bites. I've got several destroyed that way. I prefer the front attach harness but it doesn't give me control over her head ie stop her from sniffing the ground and tracking possums and doggy friends when she's supposed to be working with me. So I plan to follow the method outlined at the back in "Shaping Success" by Susan Garrett. First I've got to find the halter, and that's a whole nother story.

Blue Streak Blue Steel Steel Blue Blue fire Rusty Blue True Blue electric blue blue spark cordon bleu (for a hungry dog) blue movie (for a swedish dog) blue moon song sung blue sapphire blue deep blue blue chip

BorderBo I deal better with people that are upfront about what they mean. I don't deal well with people who only try to say what they think will be what I want to hear. I find that confusing and sometimes dishonest. And you're right, I am crap at being sensitive to other people's feelings - I can never successfully predict how anyone is going to react to anything. I wrote in third person about skipping steps because firstly I didn't know if that applied to you or not and I do know it applies to me (and other people). As for the lunging lurching problem, and the gentle leader... I plan to put the GL on my dog to stop the lunge starting (after possums and cats). Ie if the dog cannot get any speed up, there is far less damaging energy involved in being stopped than if a dog goes flat out to the end of a 2m or 3m lead and then is abruptly halted by whatever tool being used. Most dogs I know that have managed to do this kind of lunge in a GL have broken it before it broke them. Just because I disagree with you about the GL doesn't mean either of us are "ill informed". We just have different sources of information and experience and disagree. Not mentioning how you felt about what I said earlier, meant that I could not explain with any more detail why I think what I think, or understand that you were not reading my posts in the manner I intended. Your most recent post is most helpful in setting me straight. At least you got some benefit out of my first post by talking to Steve C.

borderbo I'm sorry you thought my comment was a personal attack on you. I skipped steps with my dog too. She's not reactive but she has other problems. I skipped steps because sometimes I didn't know any better, and sometimes I was impatient and demanded too much of my dog too soon. Some dogs are much easier to train than others. The dog I have now, has been by far, the most difficult I've ever tried to train, and I've worked with ACDx before. Any time you (I) have problems, you (I) have to look at what you are doing (I am doing) to contribute. What I'm trying to do now, is be a better dog trainer and a lot more consistent. So while you aren't too happy with what I said, I can see you're also looking at what it is that you could have done differently and this will make you a better dog owner in the future. Which is a good thing all round. So Bo wasn't the right dog for you but you're able to give him another chance via the foster carer, and you have a much better understanding of what you need in a dog. I'm glad Steve could help a bit. And I hope you do consider getting another dog.

There was a guy interviewed on ABC morning radio garden show about various types of rat control. That was in January 2010 roughly. He said that the active ingredient in Talon was the worst. Trouble can happen when the rat carries off a purple wax blob to a new place and your dog eats the left overs. A dog would have to eat about three rats that died of Talon to have a major problem but it is serious stuff. Ie if you know your dog has eaten it, you have very short time to save your dog's life. Which is why it's so popular as a rat killer. The guy said that racumin was much safer in terms of not killing your dog - so long as it didn't have ongoing access to the bait. It would have to eat an aweful lot of rats that had died of it. The downside is that racumin takes much longer to kill a rat or mouse than talon, so it's not so popular. I prefer to use traps. There are so many pet dogs and cats around here, I would be horrified if anyone used baits without telling the neighbours but I could reasonably expect they are. I am not having much luck explaining to my mother that using it and not telling me where she's put it or where the rat relocated it to - is bad. I might have to stop letting my dog in her yard unsupervised if I care about her living a long happy life. I still have the podcast, but it's not up on the ABC website any more. I could put it where people could download it I suppose. Is there an MP3 equivalent to youtube? It's 23MB to download so I don't think emailing it is going to work.

Survey 1. What are your thoughts of animals in pet shops? Cruel Comments: some fish and reptiles excepted 2. Would you consider buying an animal from a pet store? No 3. Have you ever brought an animal from a pet shop? Budgie (before I knew any different) 4. Why did you get the animal from the pet shop? didn't know where else to get one. 5. Did the animal live with you till the end of its life or still is living with you? Lived with me until it died. 6. If you answered No for question 5, do you know what happened to the pet? n/a 7. Reason to give the animal up. (circle answer) Other I would give up or PTS my pet if it was causing a danger to other animals or people and I couldn't sort it with training and professional help. I have re-homed a retired riding horse to a friend's farm but I continued to pay for its upkeep until it died of old age. 8. Do you know where pet shops get their animals from? Yes. 9. Does it make you concerned? Yes 10. Do you think Pet shops (pets) are better than shelter pets? No Why/ Why not? Pet shops do not provide appropriate living environment for puppies or kittens. Might be better if the puppies remained with their mother, and/or were supervised and socialised and went to a proper home at night. As for shelters, it depends on the shelter, but at AWL Puppies get more people contact and more exercise time and socialisation with similar animals than pet shop puppies. 11. Have you ever brought an animal from a rescue shelter, group or qualified breeder? Yes - AWL 12. Where you happy with the animal? Yes 13. Did the animal live with you till the end of its life or is it still living with you? Yes - still have her.

attaching a dog by a lead to a car or bicycle or holding its lead while you are riding a bike is illegal on most public roads and footpaths according to the Australian Road Rules which Queensland follows. So you'd need to find a private place to go biking with your dog or be confident about doing it off lead - though in most states that would require an area designated ok for off lead dogs - which usually isn't public roads or footpaths and cycle tracks.

I thought that training was the most effective way to sort this problem... ie if the training had been good to start with and the handler hadn't skipped steps... they wouldn't be in this situation. Note - that doesn't apply to brain damaged dogs - but a prong collar isn't going to help those to loose lead walking either.

Agree with most of what you wrote Erny. Especially the no fast grabs, sliding hand down the lead to the clip is a better technique, but it is also helpful to train a dog to find collar grabs rewarding (guess who I've been training with). It would be ideal there would be no opportunity for a dog to be lunging at anything. Sigh. Ie you'd work in an area where you had control over how close you were to distracting dogs or if there were any dogs around at all. The more the dog gets to lunge - the more the dog will try it on. With the prong collars (and remote e collars) it really helps to train a dog how to relieve the pressure first ie the escape training. I'm crap at that and the timing of it. Got it all wrong. So I'm really not keen to get a prong collar, no matter how much of a sled dog mine can be. Not so much a problem with the head halter. Note dog shouldn't be allowed to rub at it either (disagree with the DVD here). But conditioning the dog to accept head halter - before you go out to the big wide world of distractions, will the dog eat or tug in the head halter - no? Still tries to get it off? More conditioning acceptance required first. Corrections (punishment) applied to a dog already in a fearful state - is not going to have a good outcome. You just give them extra reason to be upset. Which is why you need to train the escape prong pressure - while the dog is calm and thinking straight. I'm really enjoying learning the Susan Garrett way, but it's not all positive. It is mostly reward based. I have to keep asking myself - what am I doing that is encouraging this particular behaviour (that I don't want) and how do I change that, and what can I do to encourage the behaviour I do want. Some of it is really challenging for me. I don't want to put my dog in a head halter or crate her when I'm home.

Have you tried the umbilical method? Ie attaching him to you? Failing that - I'd be going the crate. Dog stays in crate until I can watch him like a hawk eg training session. Boy dogs weeing ninjas are just slightly more than I can cope with.

I use the Shannon Lush recipe: Into a litre bottle 1 teaspoon lavendar oil + 1 cup vinegar and top up with water. I clean up as much as I can with paper towel or washable rags, then I sprinkle with bicarb then spray with the mix then wipe up. The pong is weird but doesn't last long and dog won't seek out the same spot. Number 1 rule of house training - never scold the dog (or let it think it's being scolded) or it will hide next time it needs to pee - which makes cleanup so much harder. Number 2 rule - avoid using bleach - cos it smells like a spot that needs going over to a dog. Number 3 rule - maybe this should be the first one - watch the dog like a hawk... edit - lavendar oil, not essence or flowers - oops

Have you tried a head halter like the gentle leader. You have to train the dog to accept it first with games and treats. It gives you control over your dog's head, what he looks at, what he sniffs. If you follow the instructions on the DVD, and get a really good fit - very tight (one finger) around the top of the neck above the adams apple/trachea and right under the skull bump, so it can't twist around the dog's face, it won't rub... So when he spies another dog, you grab the clip under his chin and turn his head towards you and when he relaxes, you release the tension and see what he does - if he turns back towards the other dog - turn his head back towards you. Get far enough away from the other dog that he can pay attention to you and reward that. I have seen the prong collar used successfully without damaging the dog, but the handler needs training to get their use of it right. Since you live near Steve Courtney - if that's the way you decide to go, I'd get some lessons from him specifically for managing this dog in the prong collar if I were you. But I'd try the GL first.

I crack my agility instructor up because my evil hound and I frequently have (loud) conversations about getting on the table or off it, especially if it's too short to bother with (in her opinion), and coming off the scramble without leaping from the top (dog is supposed to touch the bottom of it - contact). So she yells at me, and I ask her to do it properly and she yells some more.... mostly she yells I'm not running fast enough.

I personally like to avoid dogs with white faces because of the cancer risk. And I love black dogs - we used to have a almost completely black heeler x kelpie that used to scare the crap out of people because she could jump into the fork of a tree about 3m high, and look down with her beady yellow eyes - and in the dusk she got mistook for a black panther a few times. There used to be lots of stories about escaped big cats at the time. But black dog stories associated with evil or death are pretty ancient. So I think that humans are scared of them in the same way they're scared of snakes and spiders and wolves and sharks. In western society "black dog" is another name for depression. I think Winston Churchill (or his staff) used to call his bad moods his "black dog". And there are several books about depression which have "black dog" in the title. http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/public...ained/index.cfm And wiki has a reference to black dog in celtic mythology as being an evil creature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_(ghost) And Egyptian god of the dead - had the head of a black dog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis A god to be feared.

greyhound or whippet maybe?