Mrs Rusty Bucket

I've got the opposite problem. I get home - my dog is inside the house and we have the drill of nothing exciting is going to happen until after she's been out and done a 1 or 2... And I will be boring... After she's done her bit - then she gets some pats... But - when we go out - she has been blasting out the front door (despite being on lead) barking and lunging - worse if something is there but she seemed to be doing it just in case... So I decided this wasn't a behaviour I was going to accept any more. We already had a sit at the door to go through - I think I got this sit before I got it from the crate. But she will offer sit if she wants something... that works quite well for her most of the time. So we get to the door and I say "what are you going to do for me?" and she has a think and sits. If she's barking from that side of the door (and it's not a door to door sales guy), we move away from the door until she's calm. Which drives my neighbour from across the road nuts, but she's very exciting and doesn't liked being jumped on or licked... so we practice self control. When I get a nice calm sit on my side of the door - I open it. Slowly. If the dog's butt starts to lift off or nose go forward... I shut the door - fast enough that she doesn't get out - tho she is still on lead so she's not going to win. She has head butt the door a couple of times... oops. But the idea is the dog doesn't get what they want until the dog calms down and you control the environment eg one dog, on lead, known stuff on the other side of the door (maybe block the stairs off?)... And we play lots of self control games in different situations and places. What I want is a dog that is excited (or calm) but still has great self control.

Probably not but if they ask for help - I provide it. So more know how to do that than used to. Is interesting that most of the labs (and labx) on that list have homes already - they must go really quick.

hi tdierikx I guess not allowing search by breed means people can't get into heaps of trouble for making assumptions about what a breed or mix would be like based on that and not talking to the people looking after the dog right now. But it is possible to cheat... and use google site search eg labrador SA 2014 site:petrescue.com.au https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl#q=labrador+SA+2014+site%3Apetrescue.com.au

Wasn't calling you a moron. Was calling your computer a moron. And maybe some of your time wasters. Because they follow (or tune out) instructions like a computer does. Do exactly what you say and not what you meant. If you capitalize a whole paragraph - the emphasis gets buried. What I have been trying to say is the better your wording - the less time wasters you have. The number of time wasters you get is a direct reflection of your ad. If you didn't put an ad up - you wouldn't get any time wasters. If you put a better ad up - you will get less time wasters. You will know when your ad is right - because the number of time wasters will go down. I'm making suggestions based on my experience of writing instructions. You're the one in a position to test what I'm saying. Try some different blurb styles and see what works best for you and the dog. Change them every week. I wasn't intending to upset you. I hope you see the connection I'm trying to point out. I think rehoming dogs is a very worthwhile thing to be doing - and easier and more joyful it is for you, the better that is for homeless dogs.

One of my friends had a great dane as a family dog when he was growing up. They got burgled - couldn't find the dog anywhere. Panic. The dog was under one of the kids beds... really good sense of self preservation. Zero guard dog.

I've been taught that all caps is both SHOUTING and hard to read. I personally find it rude or ignorant (if you knew better you wouldn't do it) and hard to read. Really old computer systems - only had upper case. But I can't see that excuse holding up these days. It's good in selected spots for emphasis but not for whole blocks of text... I'd rewrite like this - I'd put the email instruction at the beginning of a line. And the last thing on the bit of blurb - cos sometimes that's all they remember. I have a habit of tuning out headers... they're just labels not relevant info, right? Until someone puts the important stuff in the header and then I'm stuffed. ---------------------------------------------- If you would like to know more about Angus EMAIL ME, email is good. please include * a description of a day at your place * how long Angus would be on his own each day * how active you are - how often do you go for walks or runs * how many in your home including kids - how old the kids are * other pets you have * anything else that helps me decide if Angus is a good fit for your family. * any questions you have about Angus and repeating - please * email * me. ------------------------------------------------------- I guess it's exasperating and I am hardly the go to person for creative writing... But I have been writing instructions for morons (computers and their users) for years - and I have a good understanding of what stuff just doesn't get noticed. The best way is to pay attention to what enquiries you get - and tweak your blurb accordingly. Try different blurbs with different dogs and see what phrasing gets the best results for you. I have heard of people putting deliberate spelling mistakes into their advertising boards - because people will come into their shop - just to point that out and maybe they will buy something too. And if you say - thank you so much for pointing that out - they feel a bit "special" and even more inclined to return to your shop. Which is good if you don't mind Spelling Fanatics for customers...

Keetamouse is your blurb really like that - all caps and the bit about emailing buried in the text? the first thing to put is the most important thing that I want to happen - and it has to be short. details the why or twenty questions... like I've been learning from trying to get politicians to do stuff for me (or anybody really)... People love surveys tho. I wonder if this could be incorporated somehow. some questions to find you the best dog... 1. email first with details about you and your life 2. how often do you go for walks 3. how many live at your home where the dog will be 4. how many kids - how old is each one 5. do you have other dogs or pets? 6. how many hours per day will Angus be on his own? (don't suggest the "right answer") 7. do you care if all your sox have new holes in them? 8. did I say email - please email. I love emails. 9. I might answer the phone between 3pm and 4pm on weekdays. I will not answer it during breakfast, work, dinner or sleep time. 10. owning a dog requires patience - how patient are you? (you will be tested, daily).

I don't know if body language plays any part. Frosty often picks people standing in groups who weren't paying any attention to her before she showed up and rolled over.

dating profiles for dogs? I can't find the original one (google fail) I am very affectionate, fun loving, good sense of humour, love attention, long walks on beach, gardening and I hate cats. looking for a special person who is honest and willing to commit. people notice my big brown eyes and my enthusiam for life I can't live without a tasty pair of sox My worst quality is I am easily distracted. I am most passionate about food.

I went through some of the SA listings and some of them are "we have a dog, it's not good with cats, call if you're interested" which doesn't really help people at all. If you have criteria for adopters - ie what makes them suitable or not, you need to write that into a cut and paste and put it on every page. Eg we have a dog, she needs at least 30 minute walk twice a day and lots of trick training and really secure fences. She will destroy any unattended pair of sox in reach. She comes desexed and vaccinated... Keeping a dog costs approximately $ per week for food, with extra costs $$ for vaccination, flea and worm annually - as long as no emergency vet treatment is required. a good dog owner will do these things for their dog. Coat care - this type of dog will need clipping every 6 weeks and that costs $$ Ie if you can put some more specific detail other than "we have a dog, phone" - you get more chance of the right home phoning up. So I would look at what the time wasters have in common and write an ad that - if they read it - will explain why they get excluded.

I guess it's mysterious in who she selects and how often it works... She is much like your dog... she will select people then crawl up to them and then roll over for belly rubs... even if they can't really bend down to reach... it's close to a 100% success rate - she's never picked anyone who wasn't willing to give her a belly rub... even if it's all wet and sandy. She also picks people that she thinks she knows and runs up to them and about 10 to 5m out, they fail the sniff test... so she runs away again... which is funny when it's someone who would like to give her a pat... dog gives them the brush off...

they only considered a disease significant if there were 15 cases or more... And these were USA dogs in a uni vet clinic. So their breeding would be a little different to what's available in Australia and there was already a reduced sample based on where these dogs were seen. Would like to see a study where all vets could contribute data... If this was a human study it would not be significant enough to make a decision. But I guess it's a start.

I guess there are a bunch of places I could go - but I'd have to drive to get there. And I'd be alone. There'd be no social catch up for me - let alone Frosty. We had another mixed night tonight. While the football was on - the oval was pretty much deserted - good. But Frosty found probably a bit of cooked chicken leg and ate it. I think we have some work to do there. So I put her back on lead. And later - there was a small poodle x - and it came zooming over to greet all the people and dogs I was with, so I took Frosty and me apart and away - all good - except the stupid dog chased us and I told it to go away but it didn't. The owners were half an oval away. I can't believe they let their dog do that - but they will learn - Frosty is not the only reactive dog out there. And then Frosty told it to clear off. Curses... and it ran back to "mummy". It came around for a second go - from behind but Frosty didn't see it. So overall we had a lot more good behaviour than bad from Frosty but there was some pretty bad stuff eg the food. I wasn't so bothered with her sending off that dog. Personally I think it deserved it and got off lightly. I blame puppy mills. We wouldn't have so many dogs that can't read other dogs if it wasn't for puppy mills...

If I don't - Frosty will. I guess that lady had seen Frosty being friendly with other dogs... but didn't realise. She got the message loud and clear tho. I didn't see her change direction before Frosty did because I had the huskies behind me and some baseball kid chucking balls at me (was tempting to let Frosty eat one). I can't look ahead, behind and to the side at the same time. It's tempting to yell - "my dog has kennel cough - stay away"... but they will figure that lie out when they see me doing laps with the sharpeis and the two small fluffies. I can't yell at people at the moment.

tonight's report - mixed success... starting with the front door - which is where I think a few of my mistakes happen. So we're all ready to step out and I get her to sit at the front door - but as I open it, there's a lady with a very small SWF walking by and evil hound goes into launch mode but doesn't quite get there as I drag her back inside and shut the door pronto... wait for hackles to go down and dog to calm down... and we try again, and there's someone else walking home from the bus stop... hackles go up and EH starts to bark and I pull her right back in and shut the door again... but she was less demonstrative than the first time.... So we wait for calm sitting dog again, and I open the door again... and she's all good. Alert but calm. Yay... and off we go. Get to the park and there's a school sports day finishing up so it's busy, there's kids and food everywhere... but plenty of room to walk... we get most of the way round the oval and then have to navigate a narrow bit that has cyclone fence on one side and hedge on the other because 5 people are doing sport training on the other side of the cyclone fence. But there's a dog in the narrow bit. A schnauzer puppy that looks like a wet rat that we haven't been properly introduced to because it's always pulling on the end of the lead... So I wait at a safe distance for it to come out and manage Frosty. I also stay clear of two Husky puppies (who would adopt two from the same litter - yikes) behind me. They're interested but Frosty doesn't care (good). But the lady with the schnauzer - while I'm trying to keep my dog's attention on me and away from her - decides to APPROACH FFS!!! If that was ok - I wouldn't have to wait for her to get clear of the narrow path. So Frosty does her best fearsome rack off display and the lady with the schnauzer changes her mind... erm. So now I have to calm her down again. The good thing was she did calm down - she started off looking at me like "I did a good job - do I get a treat?" No. You're not getting treats until we get to the other side... and after that no more problem dogs or incidents - the next time I encountered Schnauzer lady - she stayed away... good.

I've had several internet conversations with the people who run this place. I like their training ideas and they have border collies and do agility. http://www.borderriverpetresort.com.au/index.php If I was looking for a dog boarding place around Brisbane - I'd check them out

tonight's report - all good... Went to the park - walked with some friends - kept evil hound on lead because there was sports training on and kids in the playground and on the bmx track (a new source of food) ie too many distractions and foraging opportunities. saw some likely trigger dogs and kept her attention away from them, she noticed one of them and I got her attention back on me - good dog keep moving... didn't allow any kind of greeting. And there was a oodle x puppy pulling on lead which we avoided altogether. I don't think trying to say hello to that one would have gone well. And I don't think Frosty noticed it which was good. And I resisted the temptation to do another lap when some more friends showed up. And avoided the group of big dogs (kelpies, grs, labs) playing together while their owners ignored them.

Hi Snook Nehkbet offered to help if I could get video of it but so far I've not been able to. I actually set video up by the front door - but she didn't react to anything. Just lay down and went to sleep - despite my bowl of porridge unattended next to her. And at the park - it's also impossible to get video... because if she doesn't react - there's nothing to video and if she does react - I can't video and usually can't get my friends to do it either but if we were that well set up - we would be preventing anyway. Sigh. My best chance of getting some video is to set it up out the front of our house... So I've been thinking about getting a trainer but not sure how to set things up so they know what I'm dealing with. We can go days without any episodes, all good and polite. I can't be sure when the main trigger dogs will show up at the park... given that most of those cause problems with every dog not just Frosty - they don't come too often. The dvd sounds like a good idea. Would like to see that. Sometimes I think I should carry a large black pillow slip and stick that over her head so she can't see anything...

Hi all Thanks for all the objective perspectives on it. I agree with the Amstaff long legged staffy thing - I broke all my own rules about allowing Frosty to greet dogs that are pulling on lead - always a bad idea. Ie despite her willingness - I should have controlled the situation and prevented the greeting. Would have been easy... And rehearsals of the behaviour are bad. I can prevent - if I see the dog coming first - which isn't what happened when I was sitting to have breakfast at my friend's place. We had completed a long and incident free walk on the beach - and then were invited to lunch at a place that sort of fronts onto the beach but there is a path between the beach and the house. I'm pretty sure Frosty regards this as "her place". So she's territorial about it like she is at home. I didn't see the trigger dogs coming, because I was chatting with my friends and eating breakfast. She has actually stayed overnight at this house so she really regards it as "hers". And given I walked there - I didn't have the crate or the harness. I think my friends would take a dim view of locking her up too (pretty sure we'd get a lot of barking as well). So I'd either have to keep a better watch (eyes in the back of my head), or not go to breakfast with my friends at that house ever again. At home if we went out the front and she saw anybody - she'd react - and I'd keep going allowing her to continue to react but she couldn't do anything except complain because she is all harnessed up. Now, if she reacts at the front door - we go back inside. Or if I've gotten to the gate - we go around behind the car or into the back yard or as far as it takes for her to get her self control back (under threshold). And this is helping a bit. As long as I am consistent. At the park, and sometimes at the beach - even if we're on lead - I don't have control over other dogs and their owners - as long as I see them first I can sort of deal but sometimes it's impossible. We got followed out of the park by one black spaniel that she HATED... the owner was calling it but it didn't go back to the owner... I did keep Frosty's attention on moving away so she didn't actually go TAR (over threshold or "Too Aroused to Respond"). So I agree - I do need to be more consistent. And I should probably use the training opportunity that home time at home presents ie if I can teach her better behaviour out the front of the house, that should help elsewhere. At the moment is really interesting but my voice is completely gone. I'm pairing treats with a whistle and hand signals for recall (always had hand signals)... I couldn't say "leave it" and if she's TAR - she's not going to notice anyway. Was reasonably pleased with the first dog at breakfast - she kept her distance, it was all warning, but I'd rather she didn't do it at all. And she back chains everything. Really fast. So frustrating.

This weekends efforts... Cos otherwise I sort of edit them from my brain... A long legged staffy - dragging on its lead at the beach yesterday - despite that seemed friendly. And Frosty did the crawly greeting thing which looked ok for a bit and then I thought - three seconds have expired we should all be moving on now... and that's when Frosty decided to go from grovel dog - to fierce growly dog. No idea - but we moved apart and I made her stay on lead at the beach until I was quite sure that dog and any other potential trigger dogs were well away... And then I let her off and she was polite to all the other dogs at the beach. WTF. Even the ones that looked like curly coat oodle x. And today - at beach all good. But then we went to friends place near beach for breakfast. And Frosty decides the lawn including the walk way at the top of it belonged to her and no other dogs or people were allowed unchallenged... First dog to arrive - was another long legged staffy (possible amstaff x something)... and she and another dog at brekky blast up to it in an extremely rude fashion... given it isn't her place no matter what she thinks. But she does keep her distance so I go up and grab her and apologise. The other dog was quite excited but didn't react aggressively so phew what a good boy he was. I tied Frosty to the table leg - erm mistake. Cos second dog to arrive - small black poodle off lead (hmm)... So Frosty takes off and comes up very short (I think her neck might actually be a bit sore now)... and spills everyone's coffee. At least that one was self inflicted. She can't blame me for that. And I go catch the other dog who has decided that all dogs need scolding... And I move Frosty's tie to the chair. Which she could probably move quite a bit if I'm not sitting on it. But at least the coffees won't be disturbed. And yes, another dog arrives but Frosty does her display without lunging (what a fast learner). So pretty exciting breakfast. It's not a very obvious walk way - there's no defined path it's between the houses and the beach dunes... so I wasn't expecting other dogs...when they could be on the beach. go figure. Frosty was otherwise perfectly behaved on the beach - even tho I can't talk to her at the moment because my voice doesn't work because of a green lurgy.

My dog gets very excited when the phone rings... maybe because I get up and run around looking for it and then I start talking - and she always joins in... woof woof woof woof.... would be ok if she had volume control. And the fly swat - I have no idea why that's so exciting. Something in the evolution of hunting (flies) together?

Nope - my dog just tries it on every afternoon when she thinks it is walk time. which is usually about 30 mins to an hour before we went for a walk yesterday... Or she thinks I need a bit of a wind up to get going... She brings me shoes. She does zoomies round the house. She barks at me. And then she jumps on me - and barks in my ear. If I still don't respond - she consoles herself by eating the shoe.

I had one of these http://www.vebopet.com.au/dog/dog-crate-cage/collapsible-fabric-pet-carrier-crate-7-sizes.html It lasted quite a long time - would have lasted longer if nobody at a dog competition had sat on it - tho I managed to fix that bit with cable ties and duct tape. I kept it set up in the corner of my lounge and gave my dog her bob a lot in it - Eventually she dug though the bottom of it - so I need to rebuild the skin of it. Unfortunately my first choice of horse rug repair guy doesn't want to know. He thinks I should just buy another one - and maybe he's right. Though I'd still want some tougher and replaceable fabric on the bottom. But it would be still going if I had put a tarp under the bob a lot and another tarp under the crate when it was out on concrete or grass. I have two K9+ royale type crates as well - they're much sturdier and come with their own sides for when dog decides to get noisy... I can roll them down so she can't see out. But you can always use a big sheet instead on the vebo crate. The vebo crate also folds flatter and is quicker to pack up than the k9+ royale types.

well - lets hope the owner keeps his promise. It's about as likely as if the dog was declared and he was required to muzzle it... He will either respect the decisions (problem mostly solved) or ignore them. My brother liked to tie his SBT to his esky which was huge - but even full of beer and ice, that dog could still tow it across a football oval... umbrellas are not fixed objects - especially at the beach. So - just when I thought my dog had reverted to her nice grovelly self... we're walking up one of the laneways towards the park - she's a bit stir crazy cos I've been sick since Monday and the weather has been tricky or wet or both. And as we get to the main road at the end of the walk way - a kelpie and owner appear on the footpath and evil hound goes into major scold and lunge mode. She doesn't get far, but does give the walkers a bit of a fright. He keeps walking with his kelpie who pretty much ignored the entire episode. And I ask Frosty for attention and what the hell did she think she was doing in the "oops you made a mistake" tone ie fairly upbeat but you're not getting a treat for that. And then she's fine. WTF. Kelpie is gone. I would have liked the opportunity to practice but I don't know if it would have helped much... later at the park - she did her best grovel for a schnauzer puppy... and she also tried to herd a very energetic "chase me" JRT - but mostly I think she just wanted me to let her off lead... there were play bows, barking and growling involved but she's fooled me before - she doesn't play when I let her off - she beelines to check the playground for food... she's learned - I ask to be let off to play and then I can go forage. Hasn't worked in a while but... sheesh that playground has good stuff. Chicken crimpies are a fave... chippies, jelly snakes... Before that I see the curly coat retriever thing she hates - and march her away, meanwhile that dog picks a fight with a ball obsessed border collie who never ever starts fights but doesn't like being sniffed up the bum without a formal introduction... So there was a lot of piss off leave me alone barking and growling... and both dogs got told off by their respective owners. But I know it was the curly coat's fault. So now I know that my dog is not the only one that hates it. Don't really know how to fix reactive behaviour towards a dog that clearly all the other dogs think deserves it.

I guess it's all about the quality of life. My friend's cav recently had surgery to fix something up - I can't remember if it was heart related or not but he's much better and happier now. Just keep his weight on the slim side - because being fat doesn't help breathing either, and make sure between you and your vet - you notice if anything changes (better or worse).