chuckandsteve

Out current behaviourist taught me to praise and reward Justice any time he does an action designed to bring his stress levels down, including shake offs, as it encourages him to deal with his stress in a healthy way rather than using reactive behaviours to cope. :) I had never thought to reward a shake off thats a great idea

Exactly my Staffy x got attacked by a pug, biting him and everything, after about 30 secs he nipped it and the owner blamed me even though i had mine on lead i just couldnt catch her dog off lead dog before mine had had enough

Thing ive learnt now having a dog with many issues is that dog owners dont learn anything about dog behaviour until they get a dog with issues. People dont take issues seriously until a dog gets hurt.

I got my dog the freedom no pull harness from clean run because his sensible rubs. Stopped the rubbing as it doesnt go under the arms but he has goose honking/ reverse sneezing which it made really bad so had to stop using it.

We didnt go because i didnt want to pay to get in, sounds likw the right decision. Was it just the same as other expos?

So question, has anyone tried a calming cap?? Its meant to reduce vision, so i guess for ours he wont be able to see a dog on the other side of the road so i would guess it would work. Cant see the dog wont react to the dog

Are you serious??? Aside from the fact that a dog who has sustained injuries in an attack may well become as reactive or more reactive than a dog who is attacked and not injured, I would much rather my dog not be hurt in an attack and have to deal with his reactivity, than have him torn apart. I see you have a reactive dog. He is a 30kg dog who is reactive to dogs and lives in surburbia. Unfortunately he has to be walked and off lead dogs are a constant threat everytime we leave out property. Unfortunely most off lead dogs that rush us are small so one bite from him would do real damage. Do i put him down because other owners cant keep their dogs under control??? Yes i would have preferred to deal with physical injury rather than mental because that could be healed. If anything ever goes wrong again he will have to be PTS it constantly weighs on my husband and i. That is a far worse injury than stitches and surgery. Would i prefer he both be physically injured and mentally? No $1000 is bad but there are worse things, you can always get more money and an important lesson has been learned. I just think the original post should look at it like that. Pursuing money might get you some, it might get you reported to the council and a dangerous dog declaration

Dog is off lead its the owners fault. I agree dogs off lead with no control are a huge problem. My dog staffy x got attacked by a pug while he was on lead it was off. I now have a reactive dog for the next 20 years to deal with, id have preferred a $1000 vet bill so id count yourself as lucky

Why wouldn't they release her if the chip was in your name? Just being jerks really, they claimed there was a dispute over ownership which there wasnt we were both there wanting her released to me. But they needed a stat dec from police and then the ranger had to be there but apparently they have a dog attack every 2 hours in that council so she wouldnt see us. Then she had to inspect the property the dog came from. It was all made up stuff but they had the dog and i didnt so had to go with it. Was insane But if you had rehomed this dog, had you done a homecheck for suitable fencing/environment? How did the dog get out of the new home? Gott a love dol always someone trying to find a fault. The dog jumped through a fly wire screen, while the owner was having a nap in the next room. Just an unforeseeable event, it happens

Why wouldn't they release her if the chip was in your name? Just being jerks really, they claimed there was a dispute over ownership which there wasnt we were both there wanting her released to me. But they needed a stat dec from police and then the ranger had to be there but apparently they have a dog attack every 2 hours in that council so she wouldnt see us. Then she had to inspect the property the dog came from. It was all made up stuff but they had the dog and i didnt so had to go with it. Was insane

Well looks like you dont want to lose a dog in Victoria do you. It actually took me nearly a week to get the dog out of the pound because she was chipped to me but on trial somewhere else. The pound found it very annoying that I went down everyday to check on her and see if they would release her yet. I believe they were actually wanting to declare her a pitbull but she had been released from a Victorian pound a month earlier and I had all the release paperwork for them, along with microchip, rego, vaccs, desex. The reason one of the kennel hands told me they didnt like her was she looked them in the eyes. Gotta love LDH temp testing.

I have had far more males. My mother for one always has female pets and its because all their naughty bits are hidden while male dogs expose themselves so to speak. I actually wonder if this is true of more people but saying that females are cleaner is a nicer way to put it.

Cost me 400 once the council charged for dog at large for a foster that escaped her new home. I was there within an hour to get the dog.

It's a hard call without seeing what happened, but I would say a counter-conditioning/desensitisation program towards kids would be a good idea. If you're not confident working on this yourself, you should find someone to help you. Perhaps even more importantly, I think you should also take steps to minimise contact with the new baby and with any kids the dog might encounter while the dog gets used to the whole thing. It sounds like there's potential for pup to come around on his own, but you mustn't push him. You want him to feel like he can control how much kid exposure he gets. He should be the one who decides if he gets petted. I taught my 2 year old niece that when Erik walks towards her she can pat him, but if he walks away she must leave him alone. I wasn't sure she would grasp it, but she seemed to. E is a bit leery about kids, but he is improving all the time with these kinds of measures. He has been great with my niece. He doesn't really like her as such, but he is confident that he won't have to interact with her if he doesn't want to and that's what we are striving to preserve. If he knows he can walk away and she won't hassle him he is more inclined to interact with her period. So I would suggest that now would be a good time to figure out where pup can go where he will be safe from kiddies no matter what and start training him to go there and enjoy it. I'd probably use a crate. It's probably not a bad idea to reward him for choosing to approach kids/babies for a sniff, but keep it very low key. A lick of peanut butter off a spoon sort of thing. This is a moderately cautious approach by my reckoning. I think you should get someone knowledgable to talk to about it who can see your pup. The last thing you want is for things to go south when the baby comes. I'm sure it's not that bad, but I'm uneasy about it without having seen the pup. Thanks, this was pretty much what i was thinking, the mouthing was definately because he didnt want my niece to touch him, so i was thinking it might not be so bad with baby as baby wont try to interact. It nice to get some dog savvy peoples opinions They have already had house access restricted, respond immediately to outside command and have been spending time outside when we are home. They have all had access to all of babies stuff to check it out so i think we are as prepared as possible. Ive got some blankets to wrap bubs in at the hospital too which hubby can take home and give to pups before we bring bubs home.

Great to hear everyone seems to be doing so well. We have discovered another issue with our reactive pup, he is terrified of children. We have a baby on the way in about 6 weeks so my Mum bought my 3 year old niece and 8 year old nephew over to see how he would go. I had the kids behind a baby gate when he first came in, and he wet himself, something he hasn't done before, then he went over and sniffed them, and the kids came in. He avoided them to start with then he wanted a pat from my Mum so went over to her still keeping close to the floor tail between the legs, and went over to the kids to check them out, he let the 8 year old pat him but mouthed at the 3 year old when she did. So that was the end of that. Not sure if we should be looking at getting the trainer in about it or not? Without children present is there anything we can really do? There was no aggression which was good but we aren't really sure what to do

My FF has behavior problems, he has been badly abused in the past and has lots of fear issues. We have had him a year and i call him mine, however if the right home came up id let him go. We arent the right home for him but its us or PTS and he seems happy If you want him and can manage him id keep him. My husband had one he wished he kept which would have stopped us fostering, he still regrets it and we cant foster now anyway

Yeah thats what I am starting to think, he is having a ball when I pick him up but maybe the initial is throwing him, which is what I think the trainer meant by saying all the weird smells were unsettling to him. At a training session its only one maybe 2 dogs he works with so the pack might be a bit much. He is a bit of an odd dog, I can pick how my other 2 will react to anything, this one still suprises me and I've had him a year.

Thanks, after reading through this i am thinking its the house/boarding he is reacting to rather than the trainer. He is overly attached to me, so maybe its the leaving me, maybe its that he knows he has to live with the pack of dogs there. Could be right about the flooding, he is bad on lead with dogs when i get to her house she lets him off, then lets another dog out with him, then another, then another etc all good dogs none like him. I hadnt thought too much about it as i cant get him near another dog unless she is with me and handling the other dog, so i am always just happy to watch him play Another thing i found interesting is at group training he stands out in front of me and barks if he feels threatened by another dog, when she takes him he hides behind her or between her legs.

I think her point of dominance was that she needed him to follow her in order for him to stay with the pack when there were 10 dogs there. I guess i am more wondering if it could be the place and staying away from us for a few days or the trainer that is stressing him. When he goes there its not for training (though she does do some with him) its for boarding, and he has been exceptional in training sessions with her at parks etc and her dogs

Just a question to all My reactive buy is reactive due to fear issues no question about that. He stays with his trainer when we have to go away as the only other person I trust to look after him is my Dad and he has his own reactive dog so he can't stay there. 2 times ago he arked up at a statue of a rottie, the trainer had him and was quite forceful about making hi walk past it. Hubby and I were both a bit taken aback as we hadn't seen him behave this way before and she was quite heavy handed with him. I think she could tell this and told us she needed to have dominance over him and honestly I am bit of a light touch so I thought ok. Last time we went, I walked him past the statue no worries but once he got up to her he freaked out kept trying to hide behind me and going between my legs trying to stay away from her. I have seen him suss on people before, a tradie at the house and one of my friends but nothing like this. She said all the smells would be putting him off, there are normally up to 10 dogs there as he stays with the group (I can't get him near any other dog so maybe he was just remembering he has to be around lots of dogs there) Talked to hubby about it and he thought we should see what he does at the vets the next week. He was fine there though a little closed off but not unusual for him with new people, bit excited by other dog at the vet but stayed and didn't bark and charged between 2-3 dogs to get out the door away from them after his consult, though he did try to nip the vet when he got jabbed So should I be concerned by his reaction at the trainers, he is always happy and hanging with the trainer when I pick him up and all the other dogs. Is he just scared because he knows the trainer is meaner than me (not hard) and that he has to be around lots of dogs while he is there? He (or I) did have a training session with her between these 2 stays and he was fine with her then.

My hubby, my family then my dogs then other ppl. However if my hubby tried to make me get rid of my dogs he would be in real trouble. However we have a failed foster who is not rehomable, hubby doesnt like and he hasnt said i have to get rid of him so cant think that would ever happen

I had a pregnant rescue, scan said 1 pup, well she had 5. I almost died and it almost cost me a pup as i left the room to check my dogs as they were going nuts and came back and there was one still in the sack. Dont count on how many they say

Mine still pull with the sensible harness on (I can walk one nicely but not 3) but they cannot pull anywhere near as hard. I also have a reactive dog and if he lunges in the harness it tends to flip him around to face me and gives him a shock. He would just struggle himself in a correction collar. (Staffy) My obediance club wants me to put him on the correction collar but so many people use them poorly there I wont do it. While it needs to be used with training, its a nice tool that is hard to use wrongly on the dog. Off to purchase one for the dog whos sensible harness rubs

That is part of my advertisement Both dogs have been extensively tested and all puppies will be DNA negative for DCM (cardio) by parentage. No puppy from this litter will be vWD affected. Puppies from this litter are expected to be very substantial and strong, with beautiful, powerful looking heads. Our puppies are brought up in a family environment, they're extensivelly socialised with a variety of people, children, taken for car rides and fed a natural diet. These puppies will be great show and obedience prospects, and of course fantastic companions and family members. Purchasing a puppy from us you'll be provided with a life time of support for your dog and a fantastic puppy pack. But seriously - when people get their pup at 8 weeks, how much socialisation would they expect? The pups get vaccinated at 6-7 weeks, shouldnt be going anywhere as they are not immune. They dont really interact much till they are about 5 weeks old, so how much can be done in the 3 weeks? Considering that its not one pup but the whole litter, and they should not be leaving the breeders premises. What are peoples expectations? Not kept in a cage, stay with their litter and mum just the basics really. It doesnt always happen and yes those would be very bad breeders

If I go to a hairdresser to have my hair coloured I expect to pay for the hair dye AND the service that comes with it, not just the hair dye. How is buing a puppy different? Because people know what happens at the hairdresser as it's a regular common purchase. Puppies in a lot of cases are once/twice in a lifetime. All the poster is recommending is that breeders put out all the info so buyers know what goes into breeding a pup. Why is that so wrong? I mentioned it earlier and a few have since, and it's not directed at anyone specific here, but there are breeders who need to get over this, I am the breeder, do not question me, attitude. There is no benefit to anyone by not putting out all the info, other than making themselves feel extra important because they know something we don't. I've got no issues with the prices, and was happy to pay what i did for my pup from a breeder. But some of the experience while searching did sour my opinion. Thats my point exactly. I know nothing about buying a pup, I was raised with rescue dogs and have continued with rescue dogs. Everything I have read about breeders is they do it for the benefit of the breed and make absolutely no money, not that i assume they deserve no money but that is what some have led me to believe. I pay for a behaviourist for my rescues if I was going to get a pup the first thing I would be willing to pay for is the pup being well socialised. So I am saying plug it you pay me more for my time because I put the effort in to give you a well socialised pup rather than one raised in a cage eta, I have rescued a few and when asked about cost I tell them that some you make a little on and others you lose a lot on so hopefully it balances out in the end, most people are fine with that even if they know that theirs was one I would make a bit on