Staff'n'Toller

She is on GLM already.

Leopuppy 04 has some jumpers videos in her youtube collection- just search for her username.

If you are happy to come to the 'other side' of town I work in Doncaster and am happy to organise it to be sent to WA through Gribbles. I would have to get you the correct price though, I did mine the more expensive way to the US and didn't get hepatitis done b/c I didn't realise Gribbles were doing it at that time. Cheers, Mel.

Does anyone bring this into Aus on a regular basis? Have you had trouble with customs getting it into the Country? I read about this in the whole dog journal a while back and think it might be good for my Stafford who can't have NSAID's or cortisone as we removed a stomach tumour about 14mths ago. Mel.

You have a Lab there in WA who does the testing, Gribbles send to them, IDEXX send to the USA. PM Ptolomy she knows a Vet who does titres. Mel.

Thanks Cosmolo, yes schools are my next port of call if this current agreement doesn't work out. I wish I had a lazy 250k lying around to buy a block of land and put a big shed on it and run down to the council so I can :D :rofl: at them....except I would be paying rates then. ;) Mel.

Geordie was jumped on there by an aggressive entire male (when he was an entire male) and understandably defended himself, nothing came of it though. However the owner knew full well her dog picked out other dogs to rush so he was obviously not suitable to be off lead. I found that with Geordie being high drive and a bit wired all the time that he didn't cope all that well in an enclosed environment with a large amount of dogs but that is my problem not theirs, however I agree that you do need to take your dog there for a few weeks and see how they cope- except they won't let you in the main arena. The only thing that I was disappointed about was that there were a large proportion of 'older' ladies in our group and they were quite happy to pack up the weave poles etc and leave us to the heavy stuff week-in week-out so it started really grating on my back with heavy items plus the unstable surface. Other than that I think their beginners course is excellent and I know most of the trainers do very very well on the competition circuit. It is very hard with agility in Vic at the moment SO MANY people wanting to do it and not enough clubs. I am having large problems getting a flat piece of grass in a park no-one uses just for obed in my particular council. Mel.

Unless you are sh!t at throwing treats like moi.....then your dog goes AWOL. :cool:

I've been caught out more than once saying "good" to Geordie in a stay, as he has two bridges charged up clicker and "good" and mine ends the behaviour so bang- he breaks his stay. :cool:

True clicker trainers would call that....well.....hot air. In some situations such as recalls at club dogs certainly need us to use happy words as encouragement. With normal confident dogs who know what a bridge is the charged up word; clicker; whistle is the only sound you need. http://www.petdogtraining.com.au/about-us/...d-training.html Google book search- Lindsay 2005 When I submitted video of myself to Kerrie Haynes-Lovell teaching one of my dogs to crawl I was using a clicker but also using "good" as reinforcement (bad habit) and on the grading sheet was the comment "trust the bridge!" i.e. shutup. :cool: That's when I really got it. When I work with pups at puppy school and my own dogs at home I am mostly silent apart from the bridge and lots of razzing up on finishing the exercise.

A mark and a bridge are different words for the same thing, that's what I learned anyway. One word that has been paired with food, or a click, whistle, particular noise that represents the same thing.

What's your mark as opposed to your bridge?

If it has the potential to become a very serious problem then Debbie Calnon is your best bet. May as well go to a behaviour expert than stuff around with trainers who may or may not be helping the situation. I'm sure she would be happy to receive breed information specific to Bullies if you feel there are aspects she may not know about. Mel.

If you can grab a clean sample you will make your Vet happy. :rolleyes: You don't need a huge amount, catch in a clean baking tray or similar and transfer to a very clean jar or plastic container. Specifically it's good to get a sample right in the middle of your dog weeing but it's difficult with dogs that have UTI's as she may only wee a small amount.

Ahah!! That explains your demand/frustration barking. Yes my first two I taught to speak and barking becomes the default behaviour because it is so easy for them to elicit. My Stafford is notorious for it, will refuse my cue sit/drop/target and just woofs at me instead like that might get her the treat. I will never as long as I have dogs, teach speak ever again, I don't care how many commercials I might miss out on it's not worth it. :p Mel. Really? Some people who train a dog to bark seem to beable to control their barking more because the dog realizes they only get a reward for barking when the command is spoken. You have a command like "woof" or "speak" or "say hello" which is the cue for them to bark. As for click is not release, I guess it depends how people use it. I know over time the dog realizes if they don't release when you click they can get a reinforced reward for staying in position. The speaking is on cue, and I can tell her to be quiet but it is intrinsically rewarding as most Staffies are talkers anyway so whilst I have not asked her to speak in a long time, it is not something that will extinguish. I do use a primary reinforcer when teaching and proofing duration of behaviour however I have used a clear release word for a long time and it works for me and the dogs. It depends what your focus is, mine is retriever training and agility right now so I want the static positions ROCK solid and in the case of my dog waiting to be sent out for a retrieve, well being released to get the mark is much more rewarding than any food I have to offer. Likewise if I ever enter the obed trial ring I want it crystal clear to my dogs that they wait for my say so to finish.

Get a Veterinary Physio consult ASAP!! (If you haven't done so already of course) He may be a good candidate for swimming or underwater treadmill during recovery.

We wouldn't require you to have a consult each time if it is only for dry eye. If there are other things going on with the eyes then a recheck may be warranted. 6mthly or yearly checks or most importantly if you see changes in the eyes they would need to be seen to immediately. No comment on the prescriptions but perhaps it's worth finding a Vet who is happy to do in-clinic repeats. The AVA actually states that the animal must be presented whenever a medication is prescribed and supplied and the Vet must ensure there are adequate follow up procedures in place for you so they are quite within their rights to ask you to return each time.

Easy walk is good but for medium to large dogs the halti harness is worth a look (yes it is a harness not a headcollar). It has a d ring at the back as well as attachment and the front.

Ahah!! That explains your demand/frustration barking. Yes my first two I taught to speak and barking becomes the default behaviour because it is so easy for them to elicit. My Stafford is notorious for it, will refuse my cue sit/drop/target and just woofs at me instead like that might get her the treat. I will never as long as I have dogs, teach speak ever again, I don't care how many commercials I might miss out on it's not worth it. :p Mel.

I guess we are all doing variations on a theme as far as bridge and release go. For me: Click ends the behaviour. I use the clicker very early in luring/shaping (not free-shaping) then I fade it as soon as I have what I want. I find the release defines a time period for the dog during static exercises, particularly stays- is it a crutch?? Yeah probably. However they are working well for my latest dog who thinks stays are a laugh and he can get up whenever he wants because I can't possibly mean business. Luke I would suggest teaching tricks if you're bored over summer, I don't tend to recommend speak or crawl to competitive obedience dogs but there are other tricks that are quite harmless and whilst you are shaping there is less pressure on the dog to get it right every time or do it to perfection. If he is going to do agility there are a few targetting exercises you can be doing. Luring sit from drop is quite easy to teach with a bridge if you haven't done it and helps the dog 'get' change of positions later. ETA: I use the release as dogs rock does above ^^^ my dogs don't tend to nick off because they are still wanting to be with me and waiting for the next cue. Mel.

I found once I started using food as the primary reward to get anywhere with fading food I had to re-instate my release word, it becomes fairly important. If I am teaching something new I will revert back to rewarding when necessary however once I start putting the food on a schedule all food comes after the release word which signals the finish of the exercise. I think you are probably going too far too fast as is the general consensus here. If he is barking at 3 cues, release and reward at 2- but you worked that out for yourself. I move pretty quickly from intermittent to variable myself. I would be concerned about the demand barking, if you are trying to free-shape then it is more probably frustration barking "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HECK YOU WANT!!!" I also believe smart dogs don't appreciate being asked to do things over and over, Ptolomy will tell you that Tollers will do things once, maybe twice if you're lucky and after that you need to move on or they shut down/bugger off on you. If you are sure that he is demanding treats then I actually don't time-out for long, as soon as the dog barks I say nothing and turn my back for 5 seconds, then spin back around and ask calmly for something, if they bark again I immediately turn my back; rinse; repeat. I can't stand demand barking so I nip it in the bud fairly quickly using that routine but it will take longer for Barkly because it's fairly established behaviour. Cheers, Mel.

Will he let you express them? If you can do them properly on a regular basis they will stop getting impacted, but it's important you learn to empty them to the outside and not into the bowel. I wonder if it is worth speaking to a Chiro about it? Fair enough if that's it too scary given his back issues, but if you have Xrays to show them where the break was, so they can avoid that area, I am wondering if his lumbar spine is out and needs correcting? Mel.

I can't believe the tall stories (lies) people will come out with straight faced these days!!! You have to watch CSI just to keep up. Love that the nurses will do a hack job...might teach your lying customer to book in future!

IMO it really depends on the bitch, have they had several litters, have they ever had a caesarian, how tight/big were the ovaries. Just as in human surgeons, some cause ALOT more trauma with their surgery technique than others. Another big factor is - are they getting an opioid (temgesic, torbugesic, morphine) - in their premed or on induction, because Rimadyl/Metacam etc all take AT LEAST half an hour to kick in for adequate pain control, so giving it on wake-up means all surgical cases wake up in a fair amount of pain. Literally thousands of doses are given to dogs around the world and if given according to directions, and used short-term it is generally very safe. It's all fine to say they shouldn't have pain relief for the ensuing days post surgery but adequate pain relief speeds up healing by phenomenal amounts and it's well documented. I've recently had abdominal surgery that included excision and cautery and 4 areas of closure with sutures, I had morphine and 1 gram of Panadol and woke up with a pain level of about 6 out of 10, so I can't imagine only having panadol and no morphine, and I have a pretty good pain tolerance.

Try fresh Kangaroo tails if she is doing well on roo meat.