Mrs Rusty Bucket

I think most breeders would want their buyer to be 100% committed to their breed too. Not still tossing up between chi, sheltie or JP. And if Perfume - actually contacted a few breeders for her chosen breed (could she please make a decision and stick with it), she might find out about a litter of puppies born or planned that never make it to the DOL pages or any other internet ad.

This isn't exactly the image I was looking for - there's a kind of burqua that has flynet over the eyes... but there wasn't a picture of a dog wearing one of these (as best I could tell).

Hmm I think I might have gotten an hour out for the Adelaide time - oops. It's going to start at 10am SA time

all that retirement time pool noodles and triple doubles?

I think for those of us already in - that there will be a recording of it available somewhere on the website for viewing later... so no stress if you can't look in from work :) PS if you've already signed up for H360 you still need to "register" (feed it an email and name) to get the link to the video of the coaching call. When the link pops up, save it somewhere.

Adaptil pheromone dispenser system from Ceva products http://www.ceva.com.au/Products/Products-list/ADAPTIL-R-Diffuser-Refill There was an older product called DAP that didn't work as well. On the website for the current product, there is no suggestion of increased marking as a consequence. Tho maybe an undesexed male might get territorial if he can smell a lactating bitch? So the current Adaptil dog pheromones for dogs - is not an "on heat" sex hormone, it's mummy's got milk pheromone... I've not used any of them so I don't know for sure. I do know that the maternity ward of any hospital is not a calm and relaxing place for me - no place with an upset baby is. But I agree with the part about separating the dogs into smaller more compatible groups could help.

Susan Garrett - Dog training for Agility Handling live coaching call open to anyone willing to hand over their email. This is an intro peek invite. http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/2658/aeb65f8670 time is 6:30pm Toronto time 1st Dec or 9:30 am Adelaide Time 2nd December ie about 12 hours from now Check with http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html possibly not for people who work 9 to 5. most of the info will be about dog training generally - ie the agility foundation (basics) is good for having a nice house pet or even a competition obedience dog.

I use the same command for that, as mat, ok I have a "mat" command but I do have to follow that up with "wait" if I expect her to stay there. I use "wait" for any time I want her to stay where I put her until I say she can "go". Same command for start line stays, for parking while we change the jump heights, and stopping here, while I go put stuff in the bin over there, or stay there while the new puppy sniffs you - which in context - she has to hold position as well. She knows when I'm checking on her to hold position vs when I'm not so I could be in trouble if we ever need to hold position through "out of sight" stays. But she gets the obedience context (in a row of dogs) pretty well so doesn't move much then. Even when some other dog gets up and sits on her or does a play bow at her. The mat or crate is now entirely optional. Tho the task started on the mat in front of the dinner bowl for us. Which lead to drop stays at club - with her wagging her tail the whole time - cos she was thinking of dinner.

I don't know where you get them in NSW. I get mine from Adelaide Dog - I usually ring up and ask for a kilo pack and then they ring back when they can supply. Some roo shooter in Orrorroo does them, I think. Is very very thin wafers of roo (probably sliced while the meat is frozen) and then dried out. I like roo jerky too but find I often end up keeping it in the freezer otherwise it does get smelly (not properly dried?). The roo ribbons don't get smelly. I also find - I can't feed a lot of it at once ie one piece of roo jerky a day. we can't use it as dinner substitute without causing trouble. Ie it's a pretty intense food. Like a human eating too much chocolate. Or me eating too many oranges. You could contact these guys and ask them if they'd send a bag to NSW. I imagine one of those jiffy bags postage paid for about $10 ish would do it. And a kilo is around the $50 to $60 mark. Cheaper than dried liver. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-Dog/188731497823234 I am tempted to buy a food dehydrater and try making it myself. Just not sure how I'd slice up frozen roo tho. I googled roo ribbons and found a Brisbane based dog treat company (australian pet treat company) - but those are not the same thing. When I was in Brisbane I did get some treats called "lamb moisties" from the Brookfield fodder shop and I think those might be the same as these http://australianpettreatcompany.com.au/categories/pet-treats/lamb-products/semi-moist-lamb/ They were great - but not as exciting as dried slithers of roo.

Yikes. I would be crate training all of them. And the ones that aren't toilet trained can be in their crate or outside unless I had time to supervise eg they'd be on lead in the house and the second there was any sniffing of the ground - they'd be outside for supervised potty time. And it's good to have a word. A lot of dogs - is a lot of competition - depending on the dogs, and it can also be a lot of stress for those at the bottom of the pecking order - each with their own crate - would be a stress relief. I'd also be careful about clean up - bleach will encourage more marking. Bicarb Soda followed by vinegar doesn't and then a finish mist with some essential oil eg lavender + water or lemon and water - that discourages re marking. And some DAP maybe - with so many stressed rescues in one house - I'd have DAP dispensers plugged in every room there is a dog. Jo who (used to) run little legs rescue and post in here should be able to provide some advice - tho she always limited how many dogs she would take on at once. https://www.facebook.com/LittleLegsDogRescue

I think I would still up and go visit a breeder interstate if I felt that was the best option. I think Perfume's main problem is shopping for "available puppies" ie ones already born, instead of being part of the whole process, starting with meeting the local breeder and their dogs. But - I got mine from rescue so a whole different story. I just know that dealing with interstate for both breeder and buyer can be very difficult if things go wrong at either end. So if I was the breeder - I'd be asking someone local to do a "home check" like the rescue groups do. And if I was the buyer I'd be travelling over there. it's a puppy, ideally 15 years of your life - what's a plane trip?

Just check the salt content of these. I also found they are insanely expensive per kg so I use mini goodos for training treats instead now. Not that this is the healthiest choice on the shelf but they are small and you can tear them up into even smaller bits and my dog doesn't choke on them as often as harder stuff. For low fat - I use roo ribbons which I can tear up. Actually my dog goes a bit nuts for these.

Yeah - I think there are better ways to teach it than standing on the lead. And you have to include distraction proofing as part of the training or the first magpie or possum or running dog that goes by and your dog is going to be gone.

lots of people say all the right things and then do something completely different. What you have said to her "proves nothing" - you could still be looking for a puppy farm breeding dog. If she gets a photo of you, then she knows not to hand over the puppy to someone who isn't you. Also she can rule out nigerian puppy scammers with a reverse image look up. Same with photos of your house. But maybe you could just invite her over. How come you haven't met with her yet? That's the easiest way to rule out scammer or thief. And there's a good chance she's reading this thread. All the ones who advertise on Dol could do that.

I think this excellent. You should have just as many questions for her. All those ones I posted before about health checks and meeting the parent dogs to see if the temperament suits etc. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/260469-upset/page__view__findpost__p__6599413 So imagine (this is a little extreme but should give you an idea) - you have a child and you decide to send her off to boarding school... you would want all the same stuff from the boarding school, and probably face to face interviews and inspections and police checks on the staff to be as sure as you can they aren't (convicted) child abusers... So this breeder wants the best for her puppies - that is a really good sign for the quality of puppy she has to offer. She may also be able to know from what you tell her whether her line of puppies are a good match for your home. And she may have had bad experiences where people have promised the world and then let the puppy go play in traffic.

I think I will probably join the gun dog club (if they will have me) and the agility club at west beach next season. See how that goes. Not sure what I will do about the old club - I like the new chief instructor but given the old guard are still there - I don't know what her chances are of fixing anything are. We disagree a fair bit on training methods anyway but she does have much better people skills.

I think I found all of my dog's baby teeth by stepping on them... argh.

One of the common failings of the dog obsessed - the sort that like to compete with each other to show off their dog training skills... is they usually get a long much better with their dogs than any other people. I think I'd have to dump myself in that category too. I actually have to think about how a person will respond to what I'm doing but most of the time I just do - which causes misunderstandings and problems and arguments. don't even get my started on my old dog club. The new president refuses to own a computer. She thinks she can live her whole life without one. No computer, no email, no facebook, no word processor, no printer - ARGH. And her dog training is also really really "old school".

Any suggestions you take from here - I suggest emailing them to your chosen trainer for her ok or for her to clarify if not ok. So my suggestion is as part of the NILIF - that you require some impulse control from both dogs but especially the younger one. Eg Crate manners only gets to go out the crate if you can get her to hold a sit in the crate while you hook the lead on. If her butt moves off the ground you say "oops" and shut the crate door. Wait 30 seconds and try again. Door manners dog must sit at the door and wait for you to give permission (including opening it) without moving. If you get this right - eventually you can have two dogs sitting at the door when you have it wide open and you give one permission by name to go out and she goes out, then you give the other one permission by name and she goes out. I do this with my dog when we're going out the front door. She thinks she owns the entire street and was lunging and barking at anyone in the street - including her friends (my immediate neighbours) not just strange dog and owners going by (but them too). Now she has to hold a nice calm sit before I open the door and if she gets the least bit excited in the process of going out - we go back in and I shut the door and we start over. So now she is much much calmer at the front door and doesn't go over the top excited before I've even opened it and we've had some good calm response to strangers going by on the other side of the fence (good), while she still barks at people who ring the door bell (good). She regains control of herself much quicker. If you allow the dog to practice being over excited and rushing lunging and barking and growling in attack mode and you reward that by letting her go where she wants to be, out the door or out of the crate... then this behaviour is going to get worse (I found out the hard way - it's bad to ignore this). If you require good calm behaviour (NILIF or Premack) then reward the calm behaviour with the dog getting to go out (or anything else she wants eg dinner), then the dog gets better at this. With the dog being in the crate and you want to practice this before you reach dog toilet hour. Ie practice bringing grumpy dog out of the crate calmly and going for a toilet run - way way befor the dog would normally go for the toilet run because it might take a while to get the calm response you want after the dog has been getting away with rushing out. The main thing is you're looking to reward and encourage good choices the dog makes - rather than suppress the bad choices by force or give the dog no choice at all. Note you don't want to give the dog an opportunity to make a dangerous choice - so the house door behaviour would need to be done on lead, so you have control over where the dog goes but the dog still gets to make a choice.

Maybe someone could get him one of these for Christmas...

Throwing the ball - only after he's done five or six tricks and the last one should be holding a sit or drop facing the direction you intend to thorw the ball so he is less likely to bust a ligament spinning around to chase it. For bonus points - teach him to wait until the ball has stopped moving before he can chase it - ie a really good stay and then release drill - really works the brain... So for my dog, sit, stand, drop, stand, spin (turn a small circle next to me), drop (cos spins make me dizzy), sit, pretty (beg), finish (sit next to me facing the same way as me), wait... launch ball - geddit... fetch... can't reach... thank you (drop ball in my hand cos I'm not going to throw it for you again unless you put it right in my hand). And lots of creative variations on that theme. Dogs can do themselves major injuries chasing a ball and then doing a poor job of picking it up - so you might want to get his joints checked - as someone else has suggested. What ever training drill you pick - you want to stop while he's still excited about it and looking forward to more - otherwise - you're stopping when he's bored or tired and that's how the games will go next time, ie you train bored or tired into the game. Nobody wants that.

Given it's the last week for dog club training until next feb and at 4 months - too old for puppy classes at the vet... I'd recommend Bodil at Adelaide Pet Dog training or she might be able to recommend someone else... http://www.petdogtraining.com.au/about-us/our-team/ I've seen "scholars in collars" recommended but I don't know much about them / her. http://www.scholarsincollars.com.au/about.html This is a good article on how to choose a dog trainer. What you're really looking for is someone who is as good with people training as they are with dog training and it should be fun for all of you... ie the dog should not be getting all the praise while you get scolded continuously getting things wrong. http://k9pro.com.au/services/how-to-choose-a-dog-trainer/

Is teaching "put it away" a bit like teaching a dog to bark on cue and then be quiet on cue? How did you achieve put away on cue?

I don't usually watch that show (makes me cringe or want to yell at the tv) but I stopped and watched the greyhound. I was especially impressed with the bit where one character tried to lure the greyhound into a car with a sausage and it just sat and looked at her. My dog would have been in...sausage would have been gone, and possibly the hand that held it down to the wrist. I was also a bit surprised by the posh woman character not wanting a dog because dogs crap on walks (and she'd have to pick it up). Not sure how that part worked out. She did need a dog and she was depriving some dog somewhere of a perfectly good walk - since she went on one every day.

These are the two I've seen recommended for Brisbane area Jane Harper http://www.dogsontrack.com.au/ Craig Murray http://www.dogschool.com.au/ I've had internet conversations with Nev and like the way they train but I don't know if they deal with problem dogs. They might be able to recommend someone tho. Nev Allen Border River Pet Resort http://www.borderriverpetresort.com.au/