Mrs Rusty Bucket

he ran really nicely for SG. And a couple of other people. Denise did offer for me to try but I wasn't confident enough about my signals, and I didn't think it was fair to untrain him. Tho Denise had some unco moves of her own that she was working through and Trek was very forgiving. I think that's why he was so fantastic. Ie "Oh you didn't mean to do that, try again? No wurries." Where as my dog - yells at me when I stuff up. Cos we stop while I figure out how to do it properly.

Cattle dogs are scary to people who know what they do to intruders. But if the intruder is clueless or inexperienced - I guess they don't look as scary. Dogs I'm most uncertain about from a distance are the ones that bogans like for protection ie SBT and Amstaff and variations on that theme and cattle dogs. I go by the doggy body language and response to me making friendly noises at it and turning a bit sideways and waiting instead of straight on approach. If they're still going ballistic - I go the other way. The other dogs I stay well clear of are any dog pulling on lead or bouncing off the fence - with the owner allowing that.

You definitely need to try the test. get someone else to hide the doormat and show the dog - and see if you get the same look when you go out there. Get your helper to toss a coin to see when they will do it (more random), and for extra confirmation - make sure you don't see them before you check the mat in the study. Eg you go out, helper tosses coin, doesn't touch mat (keeps record). you check mat - as per usual - record results (look or no look). Another time you go out, helper tosses coin - this time they hide the mat and show the dog. then they go out and don't come home until after you have checked the mat (and the dog). Do you get the look or not. Try the experiment for a week. The helper has to write down if they moved the mat or not. you have to write down if the mat was moved or not and what the dog's reaction was and what you think happened. Otherwise - all you know is your dog has a strong association with you missing the mat and getting upset so offers appeasement calm down behaviours. I will see if I can find video where the lab assistant nicks the treat not the dog... owners cannot tell cos they get the same look from the dog whether the dog nicked the treat or not. And I don't know about you, but I have the exact same reaction to being scolded - whether I did something naughty or not. Mostly I get angry and upset. Other people might have different reactions but being scolded feels nasty - doesn't matter whether you deserved it or not.

I try to "premack" foraging eg "go sniff"... so the dog knows when they have permission to go sniff / forage. I prefer she sits and barks if she finds something but she only does that at home - not the park - too much history of free foraging. At training if she starts sniffing without permission - I collar grab and put my hand under her nose and lift her chin up gently. I don't say anything at all but turn that into a game of "its yer choice". Ie while I've still got hold of her - I take my hand away from her chin and see what her choice is. Usually she seems "embarrassed" - oh what? I thought this was an ok thing to do? And she stops pretty quickly, and I reward that. I try not to use a drop-stay as a sort of time out for doing something I don't want. And I'm pretty sure my dog only knows "NO" as "no reward for that" so if she's already helping herself to something nice - it has zero effect on her. "What are you doing?" sometimes works because the follow up to that if I don't like it - is the collar grab. But you do have to pair the collar grab with lots of rewards so the dog doesn't see it as punishment/aversive/bad thing - otherwise - most intelligent dogs will move away when you reach out instead of putting their neck in your hand.

I think it's probably the gate and killer attack garden that discourage your meter readers. They've read your posts about snakes in the yard...

How do you know she played with it at all if you don't look? Do you see the look and then go check and see that the mat's been chewed? Or do you see the look and assume something but never look to check if it is that something? If she knows the mat is chewed and rumpled up and you get upset when you see that - she's going to get the look in anticipation... Same as my brother's former dog and the bin. Same deal if you always get angry when you take the dog to the beach... the dog is going to start getting the look as soon as you get near the beach... they're great at anticipating things. Just watch what happens when you start dinner prep or pick up the lead or your car keys or just before you see the chewed mat. Way to test this might be to get someone else to rumple the mat, let the dog see - but nobody tells you.

yeah I know Denise and Trek... Frosty embarrassed me at an SG seminar - she'd spent the previous two days stuffing herself on my cousins' dog and cat food even tho I asked him not to free feed while she was there... So then when it was our turn to handle - she wouldn't move. I thought it was the heat and then I discovered what she'd been doing... ARGH. Frosty liked Trek WAY TOO MUCH - to the point where I couldn't let her say hello because he looked just like one of her best friends - and he didn't recognise her - so she got upset. And Denise helped me when I was erm humiliated by the evil hound. She is the best and so humble herself. :) And Trek was Susan's super dog. Really helped out on the demos. Frosty is about 3kg lighter and much more responsive to training now :)

I third the cattle dog nomination. I have one. Out and about she's super friendly (except with poodle crosses but she's getting better). At home - you really don't want to be the door to door guy trying to see my electricity bill cos she puts on quite the ferocious performance. And any intruder is fine as long as they stand perfectly still and don't look at her. Didn't have to train that at all. Some shady types seem quite scared of Aussie Terriers too. And I've been told by some people they won't go near a house with a cattle dog. There's always the really nasty person who will feed a drugged steak to your dog - so training food refusal or food from the bowl with permission only might be worth while. I completely failed at that. I have a forager.

Ooh lovely photos. I recognise that first team. There's two things I can't get with my cameras - low light photos and sport (high speed) photos. Nice work. I tend to pick any two out of three: Good light and contrast Focus Framing and content. Amazing when you get all three together. Nice work.

I agree. I've seen video of experiments where the dog steals the treat, and where the lab assistant steals the treat and the owner doesn't know which but has to choose - and just that look of "did you do that?" is enough to bring on the "guilty look". Of course when there's two dogs... and one looks guilty and the other doesn't - you've got a clear case of "the other dog told me to do it"... But the video shows - the look is more about the owner and how they react to things when they go wrong. But one thing I think dogs might show is a version of embarrassment... eg if I interrupt my dog in the act of doing something I don't want like starting dinner without permission. She does the guilty look but she also doesn't try to steal the dinner again - for at least a week... Same with fence running and bouncing off... I go interrupt and put the collar on - and usually that's enough to give her the message that she might want to stop doing that. And successfully faking her out on a start line stay... she does the - ears down oops guilty look you tricked me - at me... but then she gets pretty excited about the next run of the game - because "you can't fool me twice" look she gets. I could not explain to my brother that his "French" dog did not feel guilty about raiding the sulo bins and making a mess, the dog was trying to calm him down because he knew my brother will be upset when he sees the mess. Ie mess directly connected to angry owner.

She's pretty good at that - and picking up what I point at... It's when she goes into my room where most of the shoes are and picks one up... sometimes when I send her back for another one - she brings another one - from a different pair... We do have a party if she brings another one to make a pair... But at the moment she doesn't quite get that they have to match. And then there's the sox. Sometimes she brings me a (dirty) sock from the laundry basket - unless I've been a bit slack about putting laundry away and then it might be a clean one - they're usually in a pair but she separates before fetching... sox always need a good shaking out. But I guess we could do some more practice. Where I put the shoes where I can't see them (to show her which one by eye or hand pointing) and there's only two pair to choose from.

That's impressive TSD. Mine will fetch my walking shoes - but usually when she wants something. Like a walk. If she managed to fetch a matching pair - I try to reward that with ... a walk. She's not all that good at fetching matching pairs. Tho I do like to reward the fetch instead of the find and destroy...

But it doesn't make sense to me when you use colour to refer to genes instead of the visual appearance of the dog. There is a way to measure visual colour that is reliable and consistent - they use it to work out chemical compositions and motion of stars. But dogs - the way they look - has nothing to do with the colour they are named. Maybe what the dogs are called should be called genetic-colour and they should have a visual colour as well - so when a red dog shows up at the show/track - it's red. Not light milk coffee brown or black or spotty.

I guess the most popular trick she's got is "pretty" aka beg... Followed by shake hands - tho she's a bit rough, whack hands... other hand... "what you say" (rrr), "paddle" (foot pumping) and "sing" (eee eee eee) are also very popular. I just wish I could get on cue the opera diva she becomes when getting her fur blown dry at The Groomery. Rooo rooooo roooo reeeee eeeee roooo rrooo (tail wagging the whole time).

I mostly put kibble in the iceblock. Sometimes I mix some yogurt or a tiny bit of promite with the ice to flavour it. Sometimes I freeze roast chicken into kongs. Don't usually mix it with extra water but that would probably ok. Dunno about egg - the advice I heard on the radio this morning - was to cook and eat it with no delay... or minimum delay. I imagine boiling the egg in the shell might kill the salmonella on the shell? so as long as the egg was fresh to start with and you didn't cross contaminate (put cooked egg back with the dirty ones) - it would be ok. Maybe try an egg iceblock when you're home to look after the dog if it gets sick? Not on the weekend (vets are more expensive then).

I know some small dogs that hate being picked up, and some others that love it and are constantly asking to be picked up... With my 20+kg dog - I always pick her up with an arm around her bum and the other around the front of her chest or sometimes under her chest and just behind her arm pits or under her elbows (between elbow and wrist). I never put a hand onto her stomach to lift her up. If someone did that to me - I think I'd throw up on them. Most dogs I know are fine if they sort of sit on your arm and have their front feet supported. If I thought the dog might be tempted to launch, I might put a finger through the collar or put my arm or hand across the front of the dog's chest to prevent that. I second what the others said about training a collar grab. You know you've got it right when the dog shoves their neck into your hand to get the treat. Ie that's what you should be aiming to reward and once the dog has the hang of the collar grab game - the dog has to assist you in the collar grab to get the treat - not start a game of chase the dog. Nose touch ie rewarding the dog for touching the palm of your hand with his nose... is helpful for guiding a dog by the nose... put the reward treat in the hand the dog touched... Have some games where you sit on the ground and get the dog to interact with you... work up to dog jumping onto your lap. And always be really careful about how you pick your dog up and what bit you lift.

A lot of the research done on animals - actually helps the animals in terms of vet practice and new medicine. I'd rather there be ethically set up and monitored testing than nothing. And as best I can tell - most experiments or research involving animals does have to go through an ethics process. There's a lot of study formats from history that would not be allowed today.

Hmm I wonder if you have a pedigree something and you use GM to remove one of the unhealthy genes eg PRA... in the puppies... What does ANKC rule on that. It's not an outcross, but it's not a natural mating of the parents either. It's a step beyond AI and IVF but how far is too far? When is it in the breed's best interests and when not?

I think that linking colour names to genes - may in the end cause problems when some dogs with the gene don't look like the colour. For me - it's fairly simple... ie certain colours have certain frequencies in the electro magnetic light waves... So you can say red is EM frequency 400–484 THz and wavelength 620–750 nm ... and everyone who looks at EM light with those numbers, they're looking at red - whether they understand it the same way as I do or not. It would be nice among dog breeds that allow many colours - to have a consistent naming system - so - in the case of racing greyhounds, if the dog is registered as "red" and someone shows up with a brown dog... they will check the dog's id.

I could never figure out which way "spin" goes or "twist" and suspect that Lucy and Ethel would sometimes forget or have opposite directions... So for me - spin means the way my arm is going and twist means the way my arm is going - or - the other way... There was some stuff about making sure the dog is always turning towards the handler but when you go the whole 360' through a complete circle... at some point - the dog is turning away from the handler even if the dog started by turning towards the handler. And it all was relative. And really hard when it was being demonstrated by an instructor facing you, so it all looked back to front ie if you got your dog to stand in front of you and turn the same way as demonstrated it would be the opposite to intended - same as when you're doing aerobics when the instructor has to do it all mirror - she says step left and she steps right but it's left from her class's point of view if they're facing each other. And if the wall is too close to allow a step left - and you step right - you will confuse the hell out of the instructor. :)

Yeah my left and right tend to come out as left left yes or left left other left... Same as on the hockey field... and I could never figure out why SG had "side" and "close" for her heelwork... I ended up with "finish" and "other side" which I think might be where "side" came from.

The apple cider vinegar has to be the cloudy stuff "with mother" - usually in health food shops or health food section of supermarket - not the vinegar section. I get bad lawn burns if I feed dry dog food and not so much if I feed home made dog food. I figure it has to do with the salt content - not just sodium hydroxide (what you put on food with pepper) but other salts - nitrate is a salt. ie a salt - basic school chemistry here - is something that has a two components that share electrons. Usually a metal element and something from the non metal side eg nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine... most of them dissolve in water and divide into a positive (short of an electron) and negative ion. If you put in a wire with two bits of metal on the ends ideally different bits of metal eg a bit of zinc and a bit of copper - you will make an electric current. this is how most batteries work. And it's why hot water systems (and steel hull ships) need sacrificial anodes - which are to draw out the metal salts ie the anode gets corroded instead of the hull or tank. The trouble starts with the water. Remember acid rain - ie water falling through polluted air - can become acid enough to corrode a rainwater tank. It's still fine to drink. Most city tap water contains chlorine - which will form a salt (corrode) when in contact with metal - hence your hot water system needing protection - or dying after a while. In Adelaide - there's a lot of calcium (associated with limestone in the ground in our dams and through the murray river catchment). And a nice top up of chlorine that is so bad you can smell it in summer. And if a dog drinks that - the salts that are unneeded will go straight through the system and get peed out - on the lawn. And then you get a salt burn... It's also why if the dog pees on concrete and it dries there can be a white salt patch. Tho salts do come in other fun colours. Especially if they contain copper or iron or chrome - eg copper sulphate. However - that's going to kill your dog. You don't want copper salts in water. Which makes me wonder why pipes are made out of copper - but not as bad as lead and lead salts. So for me - the easiest way to prevent lawn burns - is to pour some extra water over the top of a pee spot - which the lawn loves. I don't know of any of you have noticed, that the lawns love the pee spots after the initial burn from too much fertiliser. Ie pee often contains salts = chlorine based, sulphur based (especially if you've been eating asparagus or broccoli or cabbage), nitrogen based (any plant), phosophorus based. All good stuff for the lawn. Maybe the rocks are acting a bit like a sacrificial anode and capturing the salts (changing them to something that comes out of the water? insoluble?). But I'd like to see a double blind study with controls (inactive rocks) and the active rocks and the people using them - not knowing which is which. Feeding home made food - would reduce the amount of salt going into your dog's system compared to most commercial food. As would cutting out the crisps and jatz crackers and cheese and metwurst (dog didn't get any this time - I like it too much to share) and promite on toast (she insists). I don't know how apple cider vinegar works - because a lot of the salts already make acid when you put them in water. eg if you put http://blogs.olmc.nsw.edu.au/contemh/2015/03/18/the-chemical-reaction-of-limestone-and-marble/ I don't know as much about nitrogen salts - except they would come from breaking down proteins - which contain a lot of nitrogen... http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/553.html According to the article if you can get your dog to drink more water - the pee will be more dilute so less burn. Eg mix some yogurt in (a teaspoon per litre is enough) - makes my dog drink more ...

So to me the dog in Rebanne's picture is the same colour as the one in the Kirislin's first post - I'd call that a very pretty red or chestnut. I think Rebanne is saying its red? The one in kdf's pic - I'd call that dun - except it does has white points as well as dark points which is unusual (in most other critters). not that it matters what you name the colour - it is very pretty. So what colour are Irish Setters? Cos that looks like the same red to me. Or do greyhounds have a unique colour naming system?

Erm Not mathematically or navigationally... eg north is 0' or 360'... to do a three sixty - you have to have turned a complete circle (like a spin) and continue in the same direction eg running north - spin through 360 - continue north... 180 is a U turn. ie face forward/north then turn 180' and you're facing the opposite direction ie south. A line is a line - no turn required - not a 180' angle in the corner of an infinite triangle (cos the other corners will never meet up).

I think I'd call that colour - chestnut (red) Dun - in horses anyway is sort of an ice coffee colour with dark points https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dun_gene