Mrs Rusty Bucket

my dog is the same, but she drops and waits or crawls, and she doesn't jump all over the other dogs. I tell her to drop when greeting small children, or just in new situations. But I think I'd treat your problem the same way I'd treat a potentially aggressive dog. Eg you approach until she starts getting excited and stops listening to you and then you retreat, turn and go the other way. She only gets her reward ie gets to greet the other dogs when she is still able to listen to you, and is behaving politely. If there is some point, like after the roll over where she goes to jump all over - take her back a ways as soon as she comes upright and before she can jump on the other dogs. However most puppies will do this and most adult dogs will sort it themselves fairly gently but firmly. So if it's possible, let the other dog set the boundaries or she won't learn. Dogs that are going to be really nasty usually make it clear from quite a way out, ie 5 metres to 2 metres, or even as soon as they see another dog. Don't bother allowing a greeting with those dogs. There are some dogs that launch suprise attacks on puppies but their owners will usually tell you. So also make sure you have a discussion about greeting another person's dog from a safe distance. Even now, I check out what dogs are already in an environment before I let my dog off lead. If there are any new dogs, I keep her on lead until we've greeted them politely. If a new dog arrives, I try to catch her for meet and greet, especially if the other owner has kept their dog on lead. You might want to consider a front-attach harness as an alternative to a halti. And martingale collars are supposed to offer a correction like the slip collars but a limit on how small the collar can get ie so the dog is not choked. But I haven't tried one of these. I love the front attach harness. Dog hates the halti and I found I had to use it with a really light lead, and she's very quick at cutting those with her teeth.

Hooray but what happens to the court judgement. Is that overturned by the new legislation / media statement? And I noticed there doesn't seem to be any additional requirement for how they determine a breed apart from having papers for a dog registered with ANKC.

NSW is the only state collecting data. Although when they say "Staffy" or SBT, I doubt the pedigree papers have been sighted, or a DNA test done. Same with the other dog breeds. http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/dlg/dlghome/dlg_...;mi=9&ml=10 Each quarter they release some more data. I expect the numbers of attacks to keep increasing as more people report stuff. Ie I'd be more likely to report if I knew there was at least a record made, than I would if I knew nothing would happen. The orginal report 2004/5 showed stuff like how many of a given breed are registered, and how many bites were attributed to that breed - so sometimes you could see that there were tens of thousands of that type of dog registered and a relatively low bite rate compared to some other breeds eg SBT lots registered, so relativley low bite rate. But what none of the reports so far have shown is how many of the biting dogs are registered at all. Eg if they're not registered, it's hardly fair to count their bite against the registered dogs. Example if there is 100 registered SBT and none of them bite anything they're not supposed to, and one dog that isn't registered kills a pet cat, and the hysterical owner says "it's a staffy", it's hardly fair to count that against the registered dogs is it? But that's what the NSW stats do.

I use a variation of targetting to slow my dog down on ramps in agility. I have nice treat in my hand, she knows it, and she slows down to follow the treat in my hand. You could try this with your rotti and then pair it with a word like "steady". With the older dog, I think you will need to be patient and do lots of short sessions. Eg session one: front paws on the ramp (flat on the ground) - good, praise/reward/treat. then repeat maybe three times, depending on her enthusiasm or lack of it. But a few minutes is more than enough. session two, front paws and back paws on the ramp (flat on the ground)... session three, find a small height for the ramp ie the back step of the house or something. front paws - work as for session one then back paws or break into to sessions. If she goes all the way up the ramp, up the rest of the stairs and into the house or whatever - celebrate, you're nearly there. Then work on putting the ramp near the car. And maybe having a small box to hold the end instead of all the way up initially. Ramp must be super steady for ms ancient and wobbly or she will be put off. Failing that you may need to get her one of those walking frames for old or wobbly people. Nobody (no dog?) likes to be in fear of falling.

Gawd I can't believe how fast a month goes by. Forecast not that great, but that didn't stop us before. My main problem is I'm hungry but anything I eat makes me feel ill and not hungry. Dunno what the problem is, been to see doc, we're trying giardia but so far, not much different though definitely better than yesterday. Living on gatorade and steamed white rice at the moment. And last night I let evil hound sleep on my bed so now my joints hurt. And I should be taking her for a walk or paying my bills or both. Sigh.

I have an ACDx. She loves other ACD and Kelpies. And she has several best friend beagles. And while we meet cockers out and about, they won't play. And they won't share either. Well not food, they're slightly better about sharing attention. I have spent some time teaching ACDx that it's not ok to heel everything. Especially not cars, joggers, bicycles, children and very small dogs. Though she's always been good with other dogs.

Ness Nah, it's the big bouncy brown dog in our beginners class that does the flying leap thing. Her owner's main problem at the moment is getting the dog to do the course the owner says, not one the dog makes up for herself from sheer enthusiasm. I think we decided that the first one would be a pass. The back feet hadn't contacted grass first I suppose. It was just one of those very big bounding strides and probably not the safest thing but try explaining that to the dog. Mine likes to stop at the top of the A frame and bark at me. Who's the king of the castle? And who's the naughty rascal? She loves being up high.

Yeah if I see her eat the forbidden thing, we go directly to the vet for a vomit treatment. But if I came home and she was just off, it would be too late for the vomit treatment. We've had so many bad experiences with bones, I don't give them to her anymore. Fortunatley nothing has stayed stuck, but the passing of bone looks really painful.

The way our dog club teaches, is you get something that smells like you, and throw it out there, and then encourage the dog on lead to "find it" and loads of praise treats when he does. So first time I tried this, I used a piece of wool material that had used to be a toy, and stuffed it down my sock that morning. And pulled it out for "find" in class. EH had no trouble finding that. And the fact that it was white not grass coloured helped. Second time, I'd forgotten the material and just found a stick somewhere before class, and stuffed that inside my sock. And lo, among many sticks, EH found the right one too. Including the time the instructor hid the stick and I had no idea where it was. So you start with dog on lead, guide it towards the object to be found and then work up from there. Put the scented object with unscented objects that look the same etc. Make sure you know which is the right one though.

I found all the techniques I knew back in the 1980s completely ineffective on my dog. I don't know how she knew they were old fashioned and useless. She didn't respond to "No" no matter how firm. She didn't respond to rolled up newspaper. Well being a cattle dog x and bred to dodge angry cow hooves, I was never quick enough to actually connect, and she thought it was a fun game. Newspaper correction, zero. Dog toy, won. Scolding never worked. Especially if she was barking. Ie if I make noise, I'm joining in, in the same way a dog bark message gets passed around the neighbourhood. Eg the fire trucks are coming.... Tap on the nose for biting - also treated as play. And hard play at that. Ie if I play hard, she plays hard. If I play gentle, she plays gentle. If she plays too rough, I stop playing and ignore her. What worked? She LOVES being with me. So first thing that worked was isolation for bad behaviour. Yes there will probably be some whinging about this but it's important not to let dog out of crate/isolation room until it is quiet. Even if it's only quiet for a couple of seconds, initially, then you can build on the quiet time. Rewards and distraction/substition works. Ie get dog to do what you would rather it be doing, use food lure and treat or play game for doing the right thing. I use soft treats eg roast chicken. It's messy but it's faster, and dog is less likely to choke on it when it's excited. I use dry treats to reward "check ins" out in the park. Ie different treats have different value. If you want to encourage a behaviour, reward with the treat that reflects the quality of the behaviour. If dog gets it really right - use roast chicken. If dog gets it semi right or it's not that special, dog gets kitten kibble. I also use Triangle of Temptation, and sometimes NILIF for getting the dog to pay attention to me and look to me before it does what it wants. I also use the squirty bottle, but more as a distraction/displacement activity. Eg dog barking at neighbours (in neighbour's place). I squirt near her, and praise/treat when she stops barking to check out the spray instead. She quite likes chasing jets of water so not the best deterrent. But definitely a good distraction. You can also use squeaky toys, rattles, treat balls for this. You probably also want to teach "leave it" and "thank you" to get dog to let go of something it has that it shouldn't. If you panic, scold or try to grab the dog and forcibly remove the object, usually the dog will chomp it down faster (competitive eating). But if you throw a small handful of roast chicken pieces, most dogs will drop the thing they have and go for the yummy food. I find my dog now fetches strapping tape and baseballs to trade for uber treats. But this is way better than her eating them. Use the treats initiate the desirable behaviour, rather than hoping she will do the right thing so you can reward her. Do some reading on clicker training, you can use a word like "yes" instead of click, when precision is not so important. And then you have a second between "marking" the good behaviour and time to give the treat. Along with "leave it", a "remote" drop would also be worthwhile. Ie teach "drop", then work on getting some distance between you and the dog when it "drops". But even a dog that comes to treat dispensing distance to drop and get treat is better than one that is nipping your child. For nippnig children, I would put the puppy in the time out box/crate for about 30 seconds, release when quiet (might take a while), and then repeat. I wouldn't bother with scolding beyond a neutral toned "uh uh" or "nope" or "oops". For nipping me - I turn back on dog and ignore for 30 seconds. Or 10 seconds. But long enough for dog to notice it's not getting what it wants. And then if it backs off and sits or does something you want - loads of praise and rewards. And if you can somehow sneak in some praise for it doing what you want without being asked, ie you start with a well behaved dog and reward that, is better than working from a naughty behaviour. And that dogstardaily site is great. Also the training articles here http://www.k9pro.com.au/index.php and here http://www.clickandtreat.com/Clicker_Train...r_training.html

Chasing sheep towards handler is normal, good even. Sheep used a lot for training sheep dogs know the safest place to be is on top of the person with the stick, but failing that, any person will do. Expect to get run over by the sheep many times during lessons. Always keep your knees bent and loose. I'm beginning to think shin pads and knee pads would be good too. Elbie certainly doing well. No fluff pulled off sheep - excellent.

what's the going rate for a herding clinic. I've taken my EH to a couple, and they cost $20 for as long as we were willing to have a go, usually about four runs. She was satisifyingly tired out after too.

Hi Kavik So for the purposes of an agility run... If your dog takes a flying leap over the yellow, landing front feet on the grass first, and then stopping and landing back feet on the yellow/contact. Does that count ok or fail? Taking that a little bit further, if all four feet skip the yellow, can you back the dog up for contact. Although if I knew how to teach that, I think I'd be fine with teaching contact.

I watched a very energetic dog last night, take a flying leap over the top of the a frame and bounce off the yellow at the bottom - perfect contact. Sort of. Kind of unreliable. Not that my hound is reliable about contacts either. What is 2o2o. I noticed that in Susan Garrett's dvds, her dogs park their back legs on the bottom of the whatever, and don't move until she releases them. It's slow but very difficult for a judge to miss the contact. I bet that happens ie dog makes contact but it's too quick for that judge. My hound mostly follows me around the track, I need to teach her a go out, or ahead. Otherwise, glad I play hockey too. But we only get around the course as fast as I do.

Suggest you warn her mum to expect a Husky soon.

My Agility instructor keeps saying - your dog can stay with me. But you won't get her back. I'm going to test that out soon. Two people from my dog club have offered to mind "evil hound". I plan to organise back up with professional kennels if she causes too much trouble or in case of emergency. She spent most of last night at agility cadging treats off other people. I reckon if I was homeless, she'd collect enough food for both of us and probably a place to stay too. Until she finds their favourite sox or they forget to shut the toilet door (bye bye dunny roll).

Last I heard, removing a bowel obstruction - eg strapping tape (damn footballers), from a GR, was about $1500. What's the current rate? It was enough back then to make me take out "expensive emergency" dog insurance.

Danielle You did your best. It's life or death for this dog, so extreme reactions from dog lovers could be expected. I'm really not sure about your friend though. Dog has injury and aggression issues, needs to go to vet. hasn't gone to vet? Dog could use the help of a behaviourist. Cost may not be an issue - friend won't know unless they ask, have they asked? Dog has been advertised without mention of aggression issues - free. And not desexed? RSPCA will PTS at no cost to "friend". It's not fair on the puppy but better than handing it on to someone like the breeder or worse. That gumtree link - with the related ads... yikes, free staffy pups???? I don't think I could read the pet section of gumtree. Too sad.

A beagle - whoo hoo. Definitely want to work on a conditioned recall from the very beginning. I know two people who have beagles who have zero recall and it realy cramps their style - can't let the dog off lead ever, cos beagle gets scent, beagle follows scent, as fast as it can, straight through school yards, across busy roads... I do know it is possible to train a good recall in a beagle, because I know two other people who have that with their beagle. Most beagles I know, like food a lot, so training is easy but requires persistance and frequent practice (5 seconds to 5 minutes often). You might also want to investigate a dog sport called "Tracking" which beagles are perfect for.

Dogs that have been injured in car accidents can be extremely aggressive even though you're trying to help. The lump on this dog's head may have something to do with its behaviour. Vet then behaviourist. Really. I don't like thinking that the "breeder" may have clubbed the dog to get it in the car/crate. Worth discussing (with the vet) whether it should be reported to RSPCA also.

I'd rate Ness as a top obedience trainer, and her dogs don't live in crates outside. If you do want more attention from a dog it can work, but so can crating it on competition day and ignoring it until you're ready to work. The quarantine dogs and police dogs sometimes live the "no attention unless we're working, and only get food when we're working/training, kind of life" but they are working or training nearly all day anyway. Lean what you can about "training in drive" and (distraction)"proofing". Also read the "triangle of temptation" info and "nothing in life is free" (NILIF) stuff. And find a balance where you're happy to work with your dogs. My dog is great but yesterday I arrived at class a bit late and she wanted to sniff and greet and couldn't so the second she was off lead for an agility run - she was off. Eventually I caught her, did first run on lead and subsequent runs off lead - all good. But anyone could sabotage an obedience trial for us by a liberal distribution of possum poo. And we'd be out. Even though we train on a ground covered in it. The other thing is that each doggy lesson tends to be context/location specific, so while you might get perfect heelwork out in the park, on the footpath might be a different story. Or you might have a well behaved dog at home, but go visit a friend and you have to re-train all the stuff the dog "already" knows. I would not get a puppy at 6 weeks. Mine was 10 weeks. Some breeders like to wait until the puppy is 12 weeks though new owners get to visit before that. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/your-...puppy-education TOT http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages.php?pageid=52 NILIF http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages.php?pageid=100 I do variations of TOT all the time. Ie we have improved our long term stays and our recalls by working for and in front of the temptation of our dinner. NILIF is something I go back to selectively if I'm having trouble with dog not doing what I want, like playing "chase me" instead of "lets get lead on for walk". I don't do all the NILIF stuff but if I was obsessed with high competition scores, I probably would.

Hi ValleyCBR Make sure it's a clean lake or do a thorough wash down after with tap water. ACT lakes have blue green algae and leeches - yum. But I used to swim in them anyway. Glad to point you at dog physio.

I know some people who feed dried bones (roo tail) with no problems. I can't even feed raw bones without problems so I feed carrot instead. Or small bits of beef chip (rawhide). I worry that dried bones are prone to brittleness too. Like the ones that have been out in the paddock for a long time. I don't mind the roo jerky or beef tendons though for my dog. Something to chew that is not my ugg boots or sox.

I'd send Steve Courtney at K9pro.com.au an email, and ask him if he could recommend a behaviourist closer to where the dog lives, to get an assessment done. And then you know if the dog has a chance or not, and you have someone to support you through the rehab. But it's going to need a dog run where it can be kept separate to the child and anything else it might bite. Sheep dogs that are "no good" are usually declared "no good" because they've attacked the sheep. So it may be that this dog is just wired all wrong to start with. But if they really want to give the dog a chance, get a behaviourist to have a look.

i know one person who has a dog who has funny (twisted) front paws/legs. She does agility training because she and the dog clearly love it but she doesn't compete because there is no exception on the height requirement for a dog that is slightly crippled. I also know how long it took me to get my leg working properly after busting an ACL and I did eventually get the help of a rehab specialist who works with professional football teams. It takes a lot of careful work to rebuild the muscles and tendon strength. Tendons take much longer to rebuild than muscle, and I imagine bone is longer still. If you don't rebuild the strength, you get all sorts of compensating injuries from using the rest of your body incorrectly. Hip pain and pain in the good leg where things that got me. I imagine a dog would do similar things, travelling on three legs. So even if the dog is retired from agility, it would still be worthwhile getting it doing rehab work to build strength back. Walking in water is better than swimming. And not very long is required. Well it depends a bit on how fast you want results but I think I used to spend an hour in the pool, with about 30 mins of walking and running exercises, but a fair bit of that was resting and stretching between. There is a vet here in adelaide with hydrotherapy treadmill and pool, I'm sure there would be some in WA, if only to support the greyhound industry. But if you want a cheaper solution, find a beach or river with a sandy bank where you can both walk, chest deep for dog. I think I'd start with five to fifteen minute sessions with a 30 second break every two minutes. It would depend a bit on how willing the dog was. But if you can find a dog physio to write a program that would help. It's not something I've studied professionally.