Staff'n'Toller

True true LP, one of those weird occasions where a manners minder may actually fix the problem. ;) Use the boys at the stairs as a cue for her to target or drop near the manners minder and be rewarded remotely. Mel.

Yep, pretty hard to change personalities, it's soooo sad that it's obviously working well in the US.

From Open Paw website Minimum Mental Health Requirements For Dogs: • A comfortable bed or den • At least three daily opportunities to use a dog toilet area (outside of their kennel) and be rewarded for using it • Sufficient entertainment (environmental enrichment or occupational therapy) including stuffed chew toys, such as Kongs or Big Kahunas • Hand feeding, with any leftover food stuffed in chew toys, i.e., no feeding from bowls • Interaction with at least 20 people each day, including at least 5 unfamiliar people • Handling and grooming by at least 3 people a day, including 1 unfamiliar person • Daily education (basic manners training) and mental stimulation (walk) • Quiet kennel "downtime" each day (scheduled breaks from the public) • At least 20 minutes out of their kennel run each day, used either for training, socialization, playtime, exercise or "downtime" in somebody’s office • Canine companionship: once your shelter is implementing the other Minimum Mental Health Requirements regularly and reliably, you may want to begin to incorporate weekly, 20-minute play/train sessions between dogs. • Puppies less than 4 months old must be housed together in a self-training, long-term confinement area, with constant access to a puppy toilet area, and fed only by hand (during classical conditioning and training) or from stuffed chew toys (i.e., no feeding from bowls). Puppies require daily handling, grooming, and manners training by at least 5 unfamiliar people. Puppies should be home fostered whenever possible. Nb: The hand feeding involves a tiered obedience system so that volunteers and staff know exactly which level each dog is up to at any point in time and what behaviours they should be asking for every single time they interact with each dog. Issues such as jumping and sitting for a lead to be put on are fixed very quickly because every single person interacting with that dog must take some of the dogs' daily ration into the pen and ask for correct behaviours.

I can remember hearing his thoughts on having pups toilet trained by the time they go to new homes and thought it was a bit much, but now I think of it I personally do know people who have bought (and bred) pups that are 90% house trained by the time they leave the breeders so I have no doubt that it can be done. Puppies do want to be clean and I guess if that is ignored between 5 - 8 weeks of age then you are behind the 8 ball. I went to the seminar a couple of years back by Kelly Gorman and LOVED her open paw program, she nearly had us in tears describing how troubled some shelter dogs are when they arrive at the shelter and have to 'unlearn' their toilet training, and how it does not have to be this way. I can only think that hundreds more TRAINED dogs could be adopted from shelters instead of going into black bags by using the open paw system and I can't fathom why it isn't adopted here yet. Happy to be corrected about that- I'd love to hear that it is! Mel.

My belief is that learning to hold a position and then the handler moving around the puppy with no distance is of more importance than teaching stay as an exercise. I have never taught it in puppy school and I can't see my opinion changing in the near future. I try to look ahead when a stay may be needed for competition or a dire situation and can't help but think handlers would f*** it up- they do anyway- even with adult dogs because they are not thinking about the 3 D's and just love to push their dogs as far as they can. However, that could be an overly pessimistic opinion. As a trainer or advanced handler I don't see any reason why you couldn't teach it with your own pups in a fairly distraction free environment because we are mindful of time span, setting the pup up for success not failure and we have much quicker reaction times but if you are asking in regards to your average Joe Citizen, no I wouldn't. Mel.

My boss's Labs have plenty of off lead exercise, swimming and ball chasing every day without fail but they have NO balls available to them in the yard. They are very chilled out Labs...can be totally OTT when they want to be but yes definitely see a big behaviour change when balls are available as the higher drive dog is always searching for them. Mel.

I have a mountain bike but have just had a more comfortable seat put on it and semi slick tyres rather than the chunky ones I had on. Much easier to ride now.

Thanks for taking the time to post. A good reminder to me from the 10th APDT conference.

I've had to scratch one ET entry due to dodgy knee probs, but this year I'm just taking it verrrrrrry slowly and hoping the support muscles strengthen and do their job. It's quite annoying when your knees let you down. :D

A lot of our small dog clients use a canine nanny these days, it's very popular here to be sending your dog to a house situation instead of a kennel. We have a couple of companies that have people work for them with insurance and police checks etc, then some others who freelance as such. It would pay to look at other alternatives- down here the canine nannies are not much more than the daily boarding rate.

Crisovar: Are you not selling Eagle Pack because it's hard to stock i.e. supply? Or other reasons? Just curious to know as I'm a consumer but have never stocked it in a clinic I've worked at.

I have never been involved with any Vet clinic that has had an arrangement as such, maybe the company is simply supplying food for the hospital cases? None I have ever worked in have ever had any kick back from the food companies. Me neither.

I think there is some fear these days (this seems particularly with young Vets) that to say "yes it's ok to feed bones" leaves them very liable should something happen. Everyone makes their own choice- I certainly do but I am careful about which bones to feed. The reality is that in the clinic we do have to do enemas to clear out a bunch of bone fragments eaten by a dog that's gotten stuck in the bowel, and we do (I just helped with an after hours surgery last week) have to take larger pieces of bones higher up in the bowel by way of surgical Laparotomy- not a nice surgery for a dog to have at all and there is a big risk of complications post surgery. For the amount of dogs that eat bones every week the proportion of dogs that have trouble is very very small, but to deny there are never any problems with feeding raw bones is a naive opinion- not that anyone here has- I just needed to make the statement for others reading or searching later. Hocks and weight bearing bones commonly cause slab fractures of teeth and over time major tooth wear, neither of these are huge problems but there are ways around it IMO. Mel.

When speaking to Bayer they recommended Killtix - but when I mentioned that my dogs would be swimming they said that it would no longer work..... The lady said it wastn' water proof... Guess I'll go with Proban I can clarify that for you if you like, I'll check in the animal MIMS tomorrow. The Maningrida dogs do a fair bit of swimming but not sure if that renders the collar unusable. Mel.

Thanks I will burn it from google and see what the quality is like, I figured it would be better if it was a dvd burnt directly from a TV. I play it on my laptop so I need the quality to be fairly good at a distance. Mel.

Are Killtix collars any good for paralysis ticks? They seem very popular in the NT but there are more brown dog ticks where I have been so it's not as crucial. Mel.

I should clarify- IMO Lufenuron is a more ?benign? ingredient than constantly applying a topical every month so that's why I use it. You could use it like settrlvr does- which is what I have always done albeit never really thought about it. I do that with the Labs too- put it on the skin at the shoulders and near the tail and then give them a pigs ear so they lay still for a while. For flybites of the ears I don't think it can be beaten- but if that's all you need it for then you could potentially put a drop on each ear and see how that works.. Mel.

Hmmm....you can make an adverse reaction report if you wish, you can do that through your Vet Clinic. I have used it on my Kelpie, Stafford and we put it on the boss's Labradors at work no probs so far. My cats react to flea/intestinal spot-ons and tend to come up with a bald spot where it was first applied that disappears. I've actually changed mine to Sentinel and use capstar *if* I think I've had a breakout. I think you would be surprised with 2 dogs who have been on regular treatment, how long they can go without it. Theoretically if there is no life-cycle in your home or yard it shouldn't be an issue. The dermatologists tell us hitchhiker fleas are fairly rare- they would have to interact very closely with a hugely infested dog to have trouble. Mel.

Does anyone have a copy of this on dvd that I could copy to use for my puppy school classes? I would send up the dvd and pay for postage both ways. Mel.

Geordie does get along fine with SWF or any other type of fluffy. Plenty of Gundogs live very harmoniously with cats, my next Toller could be quite alright with cats. Mel.

They're different. Geordie runs around thinking about doing this all day with my cats, and any birds or possums that should fall accidentally into his mouth. I will have more Gundogs though.

If you had training problems- such as you were having trouble with his obedience in general, or you wanted to do competition, then yes boarding and training can be good for that. If you have behaviour problems however, it's much more beneficial to do some private training with someone who is qualified and has *successfully* dealt with food aggression (resource guarding). You need to know how to deal with it when he comes home and whilst I could fix it fairly quickly in a dog that was living with me, I am completely sure they would try out their owners on their return home, and it's more important that you know what to do when a, b or c scenario happens. Kennels also teach young herding breeds to bark, that it's ok to bark, that it can be self rewarding and that it can be a frustration or stress release which is EXACTLY what you do not want with a dog already showing boredom behaviours. Mel.

I had a thought about factory estates on the weekends (particularly Sundays they are deserted) I doubt there would be many lycra peoples down there. Mel.

What he probably needs most is to learn to calm down, Sue Ailsby's Zen will help you get that. Puppy massage at home is also really good, when he is already drowsy to begin with, working up to when he is awake and adding a cue word to it. He could probably cope with 10-15mins of leash walks in the morning and in the afternoon, try a harness for now and see how you go at training.

Thanks I will have a look at it, had forgotten about that one actually. Technyflex is also available as Pure Animal Wellbeing (PAW) GLM powder if you are looking for an alternative.