Simply Grand

I'm really interested in the models you're talking about melza, I'll see what I can find about it. It is really easy when you're on the ground with the dogs that have had a rough trot and are needing a new home to want to restrict who they go to. IME we tend to want to find the 'perfect' home according to how we ourselves would do things and it's very easy to fall into the mind set that anything different to that is insufficient. I definitely do it myself, especially when it comes to training methods and having dogs inside. However I think we have to accept that there are many different ways to adequately care for a pet, there are plenty of different approaches just on DOL. Basic standards of care and humanity are needed but I think we are being impractical (although very human) if we seek to prescribe exactly how people should look after their animals according to our own standards. I'm talking about a shelter situation rather than in home foster care btw. Many dogs cope fairly well in a shelter environment, adaptable creatures that they are, but in reality it is far from an adequate life for a companion animal so by being over-prescriptive about who we rehome to or encouraging people to surrender because we don't think they are providing a good enough home to we risk actually making the animals life worse.

Hehe, Terri with every new puppy I've found I learn another "what not to do" lesson :)

My girl Quinn had a litter brother in her puppy preschool class. They too liked to play with each other but they both also liked food more :laugh: We would generally sit on opposite sides of the group and make sure we did lots of rewarding for focus on us. We'd also keep play sessions short and regularly call them back to us and reward so they learned that playing with each other wasn't the only fun thing in the world and there was value in still keeping track of what else was going on. Regardless of having her brother in class it's still important to socialise her in a controlled manner with other appropriate dogs while she's young. Ideally stick to dogs and people you know so you can be confident she won't have a bad experience.

Unless this is Stan posting (which it may well be) that isn't strictly speaking a selfie. I'll try to get one, I have lots of toilet company :D

Ah, ok, I'd say then the association isn't yet strong enough for her. Could be worth giving a clicker a go, or a new marker word depending on how much she's heard 'yes'. Ideally you want the marker really well conditioned so their head automatically snaps to look at you when they hear it BEFORE you start using it to actually mark behaviours, otherwise it dilutes the meaning of the marker. So for introducing the clicker/marker word would be a case of "click, shove treat in mouth" lots and lots of times no matter what she's doing or where she's looking. Don't show her the treats like a lure/bait, just have a bunch hidden in your hand ready to pop into her mouth. Once you've done lots of reps (depends on the dog how many, could be 10, could be 50) pause and wait til she looks away from you, give the marker with no treats in sight and see if she looks back at you - quickly, as in head whips around to look at your face like "where's the treat?". If she isn't there yet, rinse and repeat, may take several short sessions over a day or two. Don't use the marker at all until she gets to that point. Once she's got that you can start to fade out the lure by initially luring her with the treat she can see in one hand, giving the marker then giving her the actual reward treat from the bag behind you with the other hand so she gets used to the treat not actually coming from the hand she's watching then the next step is no food in the lure hand, use hand signal and word cues instead etc etc.

Great :) does she have a strong enough association between the word and the treat that she'll look at you immediately when she's looking elsewhere once she hears it? If so you should be able to start phasing out the lure treat that she can see or knows is in your hand and rewarding with the other hand from the bait bag behind your back so she stops focussing on the treat and (as said above) starts focusing on you to see what will make you give the marker sound instead.

Be very careful about teaching him to open cupboards or the fridge :p mine taught herself and now they all have to be secured with child locks or she just helps herself

Are you using a marker word or a clicker? If not I think it would really help you because you can use that to tell her very clearly precisely what it is you want her to do without even having the treat reward in sight.

Just unbelievable

I saw a Guide Dog handler (blind person) on the local news tonight talking about this, obviously making the same points about off lead dogs and not interfering with the Guide Dog when it's working, but she also mentioned she'd appreciate even more if people walking their own dogs let her know they were there by just saying "hi, I have my dog here on lead, we're just waiting off the path" so she could be aware that her dog had another dog to contend with. I would certainly move out of the way myself and keep my dogs well clear but hadn't even thought of that little extra thing!

I was thinking on same lines. Maybe take him to Species Re-orientation Therapy run by a cat. Yes! The cat would initially make out like they were teaching the dog how to be much more stealthy, mysterious and effective in getting what they want, but it would eventually become clear that it was part of a diabolical scheme to make the human get rid of the dog so the cat could claim the bed and the kitchen bench...

I know a dog (not mine) who is determined to do it right on top of his poo so he kicks it everywhere You have to stand there watching him poo and pull him away before he's even standing up straight again so he can kick up grass instead of poo everywhere *eye roll*

I was reading it as tee-ter but suspected it might be tie-ter. Thanks guys :)

Can I just ask how to prounounce the word "titre"?

Naaaw teddy, so cute!

And the Australasian Bosdog.

In most places anyone is allowed to breed anything they want, there is no law against it. The ANKC is a body that relates to breeds they have registered as pure breeds. They have a process and requirements for adding new breeds to their registry. There is no need for them to include cross breeds in what they do. Ethical breeding and selling of sound, healthy, fit for purpose dogs is a separate issue to whether they are ANKC pure breeds, breeds on other registries or cross breeds IMO.

Tibetan Spaniel Maltese Bichon Frise Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Pomeranian But bear in mind that any young dog will be reasonably active and require the mental stimulation of getting out and about and doing things as well as need training and socialisation. All of the above mentioned will also need regular grooming.

Yes, I would be really upset if someone took it upon themselves to do something like that to my dogs, especially if I didn't know there was a problem and therefore couldn't do anything about it myself. I agree with either have a chat to them or leave a note, without your details if you don't feel comfortable. If it were me I'd much rather an anonymous note than not knowing at all, although I'd probably prefer contact details so I could ask for more info. Blocking their visual access would be the first step and may be all they need to do. Black weed mat is ugly but effective.

She did, and after months and months of training an alternative behaviour she did not jump, she sat when she reached them. All three children patted her then she returned to me.

But you'd probably win if you survived!

Ok, I think I'll come along. I'd be so excited if we could do it :)

Oh I'd love to try it. I don't know if my Aussie Shepherd would run though, I think she might look at me like I was crazy and say I'm not pulling you!

Did you lie in your original post then? Because I'm going off the information you gave. You're free to interpret what I said however you want but seeing as you weren't there to see any of the interactions nor did I film and post them online you are only speculating so I will take your opinion with a grain of salt.

Yep that exactly what happened lovemesideways *eye roll*.