SammieS

Hi Jenseeya, I saw your post and wondered if you'd found your way into this thread, its very helpful and I'm sure many people will have some advice for you :) Sometimes its just nice to know that other people know what you're going through, especially knowing that you'll probably never meet them with their dogs in real life because their dog is just like yours!

I think this is my new favourite thread! You've captured him growing up and the photos are fabulous and he is VERY VERY handsome! Plus, i'm a bit biased that you have a Frenchie in your family too! You've inspired me to get my camera out again as I seemed to lose my camera mojo somewhere back in May this year... Just out of interest, what camera/lens do you have? The bokeh in the background of Hank on the beach is great! I can't wait to see more updates... especially if its been raining and is muddy at your place!

This thread is awesome! I have so much to say and not enough time because i'm at work... I'll join the FB group when I get home. I recently free shaped my eldest Frenchie Asti to stand on a giant tennis ball and pat my youngest Frenchie Angus on the head! :laugh: (well the patting him on the head was a coincidence when I took the photo) but it was all free shaped from a Clicks and Tricks class we attended. Free shaping seems to make them 'think' more than they ever did! Its fabulous to see them learning and trying new thing and offering good behaviour (instead of being the poor reactive girl that Asti is outstide the safety of our house).

I'll join in with the monthly theme and give it another crack...

x2 I agree! Our walks are amazing if we don't encounter other dogs or joggers or super noisy/fast traffic!

Thanks kja, I figure the scenery would be great to photograph but we're also going to do a whale watching tour... so my big zoomie one would be good for that... my lenses are: 50mm, 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 and I don't think i'd take my 50mm macro.

Thanks Mudlark!

Thanks Huga and Mudlark! I will probably switch back to jpg... Mudlark - how did you connect the camera to the ipad? and did you need to use an app to pull the photos off the camera?

Hello, I have a Canon 7D (although I'd love to get the smaller EOS M for travelling as its lighter) and will take photos in RAW + JPG, and we're going to NZ. I've never been OS before so am wondering what everyone's advice is regarding backing up photos on holidays? Do you take many many memory cards or do you offload your photos from your camera each day and reuse 4-5 cards instead? I was originally thinking backing up the photos to the ipad from the camera but I'm not sure how this works or if its reliable. What does everyone else do? Also, what lens' do you prefer to take on holidays and do you have a specific bag that you take? We'll be self-driving so I'm thinking that I'll need to get a backpack as my crumpler side stachel or jo's tote won't cut it! Finally, do you take your camera with you in your hand luggage? Off to organise my passport now :) SammieS

Hankdog - Jake is very handsome... but I'm biased to the Bulldogs! Good news Panzer! Sometimes it takes a change of tact to see a difference. When we went to a different puppy school with Angus we learnt about timeouts and used that to change behaviours of both Asti and Angus... who knew timeouts for children works the same for dogs (although children don't go into a crate :laugh: )

Happy gotcha day to Jake! From Asti and Angus xoxo I smiled at some of the things you've learnt because I've been through it too - especially queuing at the vet's and learning about dog behviour. P.S. Can you post a photo of Jake?

WOW Corvus - you are a wealth of information! I'd like to learn more about LAT and Toaster... how did you teach the Toaster? What is BAT? Hankdog - I know how you feel, and i had tears in my eyes reading your post... maybe its the stubborn bulldog in them? Also, we have a thundershirt, it doesn't seem to make a difference to Asti but I can only try it in winter anyway as it makes her too hot

1- Kristin (kja) 2 - Kerri (Snook) 3 - Tanya (CrazyCresties) 4 - Kristen (Piper) 5 - Larissa (gapvic) 6 - Sam (Clicking Mad) 7 - Hannah (Rallyvalley) 8 - Taylah (DogSportObsessed) 9 - Meagan (MnDM - Monet n Diva's Mum) 10 - Lorrella (Cougar) 11 - Judi (PossumCorner) (Sherbrooke)\ 12 - Samantha (SammieS)

I'm in Brisbane :D I've done my 3... I don't think they're very creative... but at least its something

I'm struggling... I was actually going to step down in case someone else wanted my spot because I feel like my effort won't be good enough I have completed other weekly challenges but this first topic is up there on the difficult scale.

I'm also struggling to come up with something

*excited*

I'm in :) This sounds like fun... I hope I can keep up as I have a massive start of the year at work but it will be nice to pick up the camera instead of using my iPhone like I am for my 100 Days of Grateful challenge... Do the photos need to be "new" as in we can't acces our existing library of photos? I just want to check because in other challenges people have used previously shot images...

I'd be interested!

How is it that I've only just found this thread! I've been doing a 100 Days of Grateful challenge and have fallen in love with my iPhone and Instragram, I almost feel guilty for not using my 7D enough. Here's a photo I took of Angus the other day... I just wish the front camera was just as good because all my selfies are so grainy...

I have some catching up to do... StaffyLuv - I think we all have works in progress...! I have moments like "why didn't I do that before" all the time! Hankdog - I thought I was a terrible pack leader too... I think I just didn't have a great relationship with Asti so I decided that I'd work on making her feel safe and trying to get her trust and make things fun. I enrolled both our two in a Clicks and Tricks class, and it was so much fun and it meant I could see Asti having fun and that she could 'learn' right from wrong and now these tricks are something in my toolbox that I can use to reduce to reactivity. The tricks also meant that we spent time together without other dogs and I could set her up to succeed... Corvus - I'd be interested to know how Erik expoited the holes in your training and what you changed to get around that. I was thinking you might have some ideas/tips that could help us. It would seem that the ClicksTricks class also made my two smarter! and think "outside of the box" a bit more, as we were doing free shaping, so any new ideas on how you worked with Erik would be great! That's great news in your last post Snook! Justice is doing so well and coming along great guns - I'm a little jealous...? I wish your trainer could come to qld! however, all is not lost... I'd like to put a title on my post called "Reactive Dog? What reactive dog?" Two weeks ago I decided that seen as I'm doing longer and longer hours at work (due to a project going live in January and we are soooo not ready!) that with Angus (our 16 month old Frenchie) being awake at 5am I would get up and walk our dogs through the bushland behind our house. For a little while I've avoiding doing the bushwalks with Asti our reactive Frenchie (who I have mentioned several times in this thread) because the paths are too narrow and we always encounter off lead dogs (which aren't allowed to be offlead anyway) and owners who don't recall their dogs so we can pass without drama. So, our 5am walks have actually turned into something exciting, Asti is starting to get up earlier waiting for us to go! I think the big difference is that we have gone from passing 3-4 crazy dogs each afternoon to maybe passing 1 dog in 3 days in the morning... this has meant that Asti is starting to change her association with the bush walks and enjoying them. She's starting to walk ahead of us now instead of slinking behind and wanting to turn around and pull in the opposite direction to go home! Yesterday we visited the holistic vet for some acupuncture for Asti. We were early and decided to visit the pet shop next door to see what treats they have. Asti was outstanding, she was able to show selfcontrol in the new environment, dog treats, toys, kids coming in and out and the friendly shop owner who insisted on man-patting her head! It was about 10 minutes of walking around before she reached threashold, so my husband took her out the front door where calm was restored and she was happy to sit and watch visitors enter/leave. My final and proudest moment was going back to the vet where there was another very scared and over threashold dog behind cuddled by its owner, we managed to side step around them and we got Asti to perform her tricks for treats and she performed them perfectly even though we were in a new and fairly stressful environment. I was so happy I took a photo! Maybe I should put it on the fridge like parents do when their children bring home paintings from kindy?! ha! Its all a big step forward, because some days, I think Asti's training is going backwards... thanks for letting me share, I think only other reactive dog owners would know how much the above really means! Sammie

I recommend Urban Dog Training and wouldn't go anywhere else. We took our first dog to Wagtails and I'm pretty sure she'd be a different dog if we went to Urban instead. Urban have free socialisation classes which are amazing for puppy development and our second dogs is a very well rounded and balanced dog because of Urban. http://www.urbandogtraining.com.au

Gee Wobbly, that's impressive work, isn't it? Wish there was a training group around here cause I would have my Stella there in a flash to help her gain some confidence. What a wonderful turn around for that boy Hi Everyone, Just popping in... this thread has moved quickly! I need to go back and read the last couple of pages. The youtube link was fabulous, if they had a place like that here, I'd be there in a flash! If only K9 Pro were in QLD! We tried acupuncture for Asti on Saturday - mainly to ensure she's in alignment and her muscles are working evenly. Whilst we were there I mentioned her behaviour wasn't getting any better so he placed several needles into her calming points... she spent the rest of the weekend in a strange calm daze! it was almost like she was drugged up! even visitors said she seems so out of character... maybe acupuncture is one option moving forward for her. As anyone else tried it?

Hi Snook! Yay for finding out DAP and a thundershirt work with Justice. Unfortunately, I've found neither work with Asti... my next trick is to read the click to calm book I bought yesterday and use raw meat on our daily walks. On a positive note, over 4 weeks we moved from sitting at the edge of a clicks and tricks dog training class to sitting at the back (which happened to be beside a crazy overexcited boxer), and Asti mostly maintained calm which is more than I could have asked and she could think enough to be able to perform some tricks when asked. I've also been doing the behavioural interrupter :)

Snook - You're not alone, I have had fallen into the same trap of thinking Asti was ok and putting her in situations that were obviously too stressful for her... I still feel guitly thinknig about it! BC Crazy - We saw a holistic vet to get Asti aligned properly because some of her reactivity was due to her being in pain for 3 years with a constant migrane (due to her atlas bone in her head being 'out') and sciatia (sp?) pain up both sides of her back We never knew there was anyting wrong except that she did appear to "crab" when she walked!!! This vet recommended some herbal anxiety tablets which we used last weekend when we had a big party at our place and when Asti was let out of her crate for a wee break she was more excited to see everyone out in our backyard instead of being territorial and losing her brain! The DAP spray and pet arc calm stuff didn't work for Asti but these tablets seemed too :) We have signed both our Frenchies up to a Clicks and Tricks class for 5 weeks (week 1 last week was without dogs). We are learning free shaping and i'm super excited as the clicker training and teaching tricks is getting Asti to think and offer 'good behaviours' voluntarily and it has started to switch her focus from her environment to me! Wish me luck on saturday... my plan is to sit at the back of class so we can move in and out depending on how her reactivity goes. I have so much to say and not enough time to type - sending virtual hugs to all my reactive rover friends! I know exactly what you're going through!