Mrs Rusty Bucket

OMG so cute, and no mess anywhere !

Threads on toilet training - cos I can't be bothered typing the same stuff again. Don't assume she knows anything - start again from scratch. Make sure you supervise and get a pee/poop outside before you let her inside - even if you have to keep her on lead and act completely boring until she goes. https://www.google.com.au/search?site=&source=hp&q=toilet+training+umbilical+site%3Awww.dolforums.com.au&oq=toilet+training+umbilical+site%3Awww.dolforums.com.au Jumping up - I train a "collar grab" and then I grab and hold if the dog jumps, and I wait until dog is calm, and then I let it go - to see what its choice is. If it jumps again, I grab and hold and wait again... The third time I think I'd be separating me from the puppy ie separate rooms or one outside one inside... or in the crate. When I get home - I do not talk to my dog until we're both outside and she's at least peed. Door manners game. Put puppy on lead so you have some control. (sorry about your fingers). Put your hand on the door and ask for a sit. If the puppy can sit, open the door slowly, any sign of butt lift off, close door pronto. Start again. Until you can get the door all the way open. You will probably need to teach a sit stay and a release before you start the door game. Harness. Play a game of treats for investigating harness. Reward by putting your hand with the treat through the bit of the harness the puppy has to put her head through. Presently greedy puppy will start putting her head through the harness to get the treat. Play for five treats and then do something else. I probably wouldn't try to use the harness until you can get the harness on without a fight. Training games wear a dog out nearly as much as a walk. Other games you might want to google - "its yer choice" and "re-inforcement zone" or "loose lead walking" - kikopup on youtube has heaps of good stuff.

k9pro.com.au (Steve Courtney and team) used to be in Hawksbury but I think they have moved. They should be able to recommend someone tho.

Things I find difficult to get in pet shops... Roo jerkey that takes a little while to chew, and is broad and flat, not thin and spikey. Roo ribbons - flat straps of roo that can be broken or cut up for treats. Soft healthy treats (no salt and no bone bits) for training that don't make a mess in my hand. Cheese is good but I'd like some other stuff. sausage and roast beef is a little bit messy. I tend to buy in kilo packs. Sometimes I can get 200gm but it's not worth the trip. Really durable toys like the black kongs - the red ones are a complete waste of shelf space as far as we're concerned. Some tug and throw training toys that are fairly durable. Bungee tugs, with fake fur, soft frisbees that can be folded up and hidden in the hand, orbee balls on string... These things are available on line for import but they're not many in local pet supply shops. It's easy to get a three second of joy rip to pieces toy but harder to get the really good stuff made out of seatbelt webbing, heavy duty bungy and rabbit or fake fur.

Maybe your FIL would like a working line Malinois or farm bred Cattle dog? What is it that he likes about the Cierny Sery ? I imagine they'd be very full on. But there might be some other dog that meets the requirements. These sometimes come in black... http://www.workingdogrescue.com.au/2015/10/sammy-male-acdx-2-yrs-6-mths-brisbane-qld/

There's a big dog show in Melbourne. The wonder dogs usually do demos at it. Maybe they will bring that to Adelaide one day. But it would be hard to get all us catdog people pulling in the same direction. We have agility nationals at wirrina in May- that should have a lot of dogs and dog shops.

Some councils host a big dog day out, usually the beach ones at the start of on lead season ie around the start of April. There's also the million paws walk with the RSPCA - usually a lot of stalls associated with that. and every now and again there is something that is hosted by a pet food company. The hard part is getting demo teams together and doing stuff - it's kind of like herding cats. One minute you have 20 stalls and then you have three and then 30 stalls and on the day - it all depends on the weather and whether stall holders are feeling up to it. I used to go to AWL re-unions but they fizzled out when the organisers stopped organising.

Where can I get a dog who takes washing out of the machine? Think I really need one that can do that, will it hang it out and iron as well? My dog will but you might not like the remodelling she will also do... Lace is her favourite. Make holes.

I got an antler c/o bull terrier who didn't want it... They're very durable, my dog got bored of chewing on it. But I also worry they're so hard - ie if the thing is harder than dog teeth - the dog teeth get worn down (and broken) not the antler. We're much more fond of cow hooves. But I take them away when they get towards small enough to swallow. I also stuff dog food into kongs and freeze. Mostly the casserole I make but sometimes kibble and water or kibble and yogurt. Black kongs. The red ones don't last very long. Beware of any toy the dog can poke a tongue into and make a seal, they get a sort of bruise or hicky on the tongue and it swells up and they can't get the tongue out and it all goes to hell. (vet visit). We also used green bits of gum tree - supervised chewing. No idea why she liked those. But generally fond of fresh tree prunings and as long as they're fresh - they don't splinter so much. We also had a lot of rope toys. I'm pretty sure they worked great as teeth pullers for getting baby teeth out and depositing them where I walk in bare feet.

I took my puppy quite a few times to the vet for the "vomit" treatment to get stuff she should not have eaten back again. You've got about two hours... and it helps if there aren't sharp barbs or edges. But we got away with getting cooked chicken bones back. Otherwise I'd be thinking the nylabone we had - not a puppy one but a big one, and not destroyed by a cattle dog but also not left alone with it - if it's like that - then swallowing three would be akin to swallowing three or four plastic stirring spoons. The heavy duty ones. I would definitely be going to the vet on this.

I love how NZ seems so much cheaper than Oz... Even my favourite oz wine was 30 to 50% cheaper in NZ. What is with that?

Yes Bowser - once you charge up whatever bridge you want to use... you can use that. Eventually the actual cue becomes like a reward... And you will get weird things like the dog lying down when you said "sit" so it can hear "sit" again... Be careful of repeating a cue... I'm not as strict as Staff and Toller about how my bridge word sounds - but that probably shows in how reliable my dog's responses are (not). I use "yes" but I also use "good dog" and I'm careful that these words do not become "come and get a treat now".. but more "treat is coming soon"... So I'd fail at Bob Bailey's "chicken camp" where if you click (or say "yes") - you MUST TREAT even if it was a mistake or especially if it was your mistake. I use a bunch of different words that indicate "no treat for that" or Non reward markers" like "nope", "nearly" (when she's on the right track but not quite reward worthy ie needs to change something), "oops" (I use when either of us stuffs up so I guess that's not all that helpful to the dog apart from teaching her mind reading or do what I mean not what I say... which she is pretty good at (eek).

One day I will get me one of these. And one for my friends too... It stops hairy dogs from getting such a wet beard too. http://www.roadrefresher.com/ There's also the bottle with a sort of ball nipple on the end - my crate has a strap and a hole to hold one of those but the ones I have drip so I still end up putting the bowl in. I wish the crate had two button holes in it for the ones that hook on the metal crates... but I suspect my dog would stick her nose under it and flick it and all the water out. Mostly I give her a teaspoon of yogurt in 500mls so that she drinks what I give her (100 to 200ml) straight away...

Hi Bowzer The clicker is really good for very precise movements eg trying to capture an ear flick - if you are fast enough to click when the ear moves... If it's an action in motion like heeling - "yes" can work better. Ie if you click the dog doesn't know if it's for being next to you, or lifting a paw or wagging the tail, bum out, bum straight etc. Actually clicker might still be helpful for "come" to front of you. Or what the agility people call a "front" cos the last thing you want with an agility dog is one stopped smack in front of you... So it's ok to go with a word that's nice and short and easy to say when doing obedience training. It is possible for 10 dogs doing obedience training to all be using clickers but personally I'd go bonkers with the noise. Dogs figure out which is their clicker. They hear more accurately than we do. Mine can hear the lid coming off the yogurt tub at 30m and around a corner.

definitely finishing with sand is good. Never finish or top it off with lawn clippings or leaves like some people at my local hockey field do... It keeps the poop wet sloppy and *HIDDEN*. Do not want to do that. Sand or dirt at least dries it out some. We got embarrassed at the beach yesterday. Got distracted. That's when dog decided to poop, when we weren't looking. Turned around to check and saw a good Samaritan cleaning up for us. Was that our dog - yes... How Embarrassment (we're usually the ones making sure everyone else picks up - would you like a bag for that?) Mr Good Samaritan had two big dogs and a full sized kitchen tidy bin bag for pooping up. OMG.

I live in the exception state. And yes we have some ANKC registered for profit puppy farmers. I guess my main problem with the puppy breeder taking no responsibility for who is buying the puppy and what happens then - is the crap I have do deal with every day at the off lead dog parks and on the local footpaths. People are seriously clueless about all things dog. It didn't matter so much when there were only 10mill people in Australia and we were a lot more spread out with more parks and room to move, bigger back yards and any nasty dogs were routinely culled. But now we're crammed together and not all dogs deal nicely with that.

Requiring that the breeder be registered with MDBA or ANKC or other breed club - means at least there is a code of ethics... I see a lot wrong with random breeding of lots of puppies with no health checks for profit. I see a lot wrong with paddocks full of puppy stalls and not enough human contact - maybe an exception for livestock guardian breeds. But after Oddball the movie - there's people wanting those for a home pet. So maybe even those puppies should get lots of diverse people experience. Requiring microchip details and limiting the price on mutts - goes some way to taking the profit out of it. A small step in the right direction if you ask me.

You can break it down in to tiny steps... vacuum cleaner - switched off - not moving, treats for not being scared (but not for sniffing it - cos you don't really want that) vacuum cleaner - switched off and mock vacuuming. Also treats for hanging round and being comfortable. Vaccuum cleaner - not moving - but switched on. Treats over here... ie it's a good thing and this is your safe spot during vacuuming (eg a nice soft sided covered up crate) Vacuum cleaner - switched on - move a bit, stop if dog looks uncomfortable and wait... move again when comfy. I had a variation of this. Vacuum on and moving if dog shows interest in sucker bit - stop moving and wait for dog to back off.... then move again... Meanwhile - put dog somewhere else - another room while vacuuming or use a flat static mop (for hard surfaces) and a rubber broom for carpet.

This is the gumtree policy on advertising of pets... https://help.gumtree.com.au/knowledgebase.php?article=91 All dogs and cats must be microchipped and... And I believe ANKC requires ads contain the breeder member number or something like that? Depending on what the state bodies have implemented. Anything that doesn't comply can be reported... so erm - I've made a few puppy mill ads disappear. If trading post does not have a matching policy maybe RSPCA can be informed and lean on them too. PS found this for trading post but not much else. https://www.tradingpost.com.au/research/pets/microchipping-pets-and-your-responsibilities/ And both should require any advertiser that says they are "registered breeder" to say what they're registered with, ie local council or ankc or mdba etc.

I think I'd like to trial more - tho I get very anxious about it. So many things can go wrong. I love the training except once you get into trialing and title at my club they expect you to go up to the trialing class and run full courses. And that's the bit I don't like... sitting around waiting for my turn like I'm waiting for the bus cos the second I get distracted (eg warm the dog up?) I lose my place in the queue. ARGH. At least at a real trial - you've got numbers and a fixed order but that doesn't seem to happen at training. Though - I reckon if I got a 600 dog (tall kelpie?) then there would be more action and less waiting... I don't deal well with sitting around waiting when I could be working on stations or something. Stewarding at trials can be more fun - cos I'm always doing something.

Rally O is a lot less strict about how tight the heel work is compared to standard obedience. As long as the lead stays loose. But there is some fuzziness in the rules that allows for judge's opinion on what an "accurate heel" looks like - dragging behind or pulling in front of the handler is obvious. But leaning on the handler or leaving an air gap or head position and attention? Subjective. Is there any mock trials (with other clubs) coming up that your sister could try? ankc.org.au/media/4384/rallyo-rules_2016.pdf The best thing to do would be to show up at a rally trial and talk to a judge during a break or someone who judges (from another club) and ask them. Judges often love talking about judging - afterwards or during a break or the briefing (if there is one). Before a competition gets started - ie if the judge has everything set up 20 minutes before start time - that might be a good time to show them what sit looks like with the dog - and they can see if that's a "straight sit" for that dog. Ideally the dog would not roll over onto their hip but fully support on the good leg. But it depends on what bits of the dog work properly. Probably also want a note from the vet to say rally is ok for that dog. In case it looks like the dog is in pain. Some people leap to incorrect conclusions. The only description of a "poor sit" I could find is where the dog's butt is swung out from the handler line by more than 45'. Not if the dog's butt has rolled under. It's something you'd have to ask a judge. http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~may/rally.html

There's quite a few - I'd say about one in ten labs that show up at our local parks are killer attack labs. Only problem with that is - their owners are letting their attack labs go attack. ARGH. Well not all of them but it's crap when it happens. I don't take for granted that labs, or golden retrievers or poodle crosses will be friendly - I'm a lot more optimistic about an off lead SBT than one of the others. PS - woot - "bad idea" works for other people besides me :)

Way to go Willem Clearly putting some effort into dog training and getting some advice or help - goes a long way to having a great relationship with your dog. Recall 100%... I wonder if I will ever be able to say that about my dog. Sigh. I'm just grateful I can catch her when it's time to go. Or just before she notices it's time to go.

I have Pet in suran ce Aus tralia insurance. It's gone up by way more than CPI but I can't get a cheaper premium with anyone else. Even Me diba nk pr I v ate can't get near it with a 25% discount. I figure it goes up because my dog gets older so the risk is higher but because I've not claimed - it does take that into account a bit. But not as much as no claim on car insurance. Also when you're doing online quotes you will probably get a different price depending how you enter your dog's breed. It's completely stupid. I haven't tried this with labs but I have with cattle dogs. Australian Cattle dog is different to red heeler is different to blue heeler is different to queensland cattle dog is different to crosses of any of those... So I reckon a Labrador would be different to a Labrador Retriever would be different to a Yellow Lab, Golden Lab, and Chocolate Lab. Worth checking out all possibilities and using the cheapest one.

I have found the most effective thing to say if people ask about greeting (or if they don't ask)... is "Bad Idea". I'm not sure why that works better than "no thanks", "keep your dog away", "call your dog" or "eff off" and you don't always get time to be polite... but "bad idea" - means they're going to look stupid if they don't listen to you and it all goes to hell. Without actually calling them stupid. Maybe that's why it works. I still haven't figured it out apart from this works: hand up like a stop sign and "Bad idea" (in a happy tone so I don't set my dog off). They will at least stay at a distance and chat with you about it instead of letting their dog bound in. There's still the totally out of control people who let their dog cross a football oval to greet yours. I tend to grab those dogs and hand my dog to someone else... I figure if their dog bites me for grabbing it... it's in big trouble in a way that dogs biting each other - harder to get outside help with.