koalathebear

Elbie's still enjoying the tuckerball and his technique has improved. In the beginning, he was a bit wild and all over the place but now he's pretty good at controlling the ball. He pushes it with his nose and then kind of brings it back using his paw. Video . If you compare it to the video I uploaded of when he got the , you'll see a difference in Tuckerball Technique He has a soccer ball in the yard and when he first got that, he kept trying to bite it and would leap around it and bark and growl at it. I am pleased that he doesn't use his teeth on the treatball at all but just nose and paws. It can take him about 30 - 45 minutes to get his dinner kibble out of it and it really seems to tire him out! Last night he was conked out in his dog bed and barely lifted his head even though he's normally the nosiest little doggy in the world!

The lack of chain is more for my convenience, I fear. The carpal tunnel surgery on my hand means that my right hand is still in a bit of pain so I can't grip the leash as well as I'd like - so I wrap the leash around my left arm and hold it very lightly in my right hand. Our walks have recently gone treat-free and Elbie seems fine with that - we bring treats along to try to use them as a distraction if necessary but generally he's not getting treats on his walks anymore. When we get home, we do nothing with him - just take off our shoes, wash our hands and go about our business. Maybe that's why he attacks his leash before he gets home i.e. he knows when we get home he'll probably be ignored for a bit A lot of people have said that the attacking the leash is Elbie wanting to play tug and that they let their dogs do it, but our behaviourist was quite emphatic that we shouldn't be letting Elbie play tug so that's why we were so happy when he stopped his leash attacks ... We just have to work on eliminating the behaviour from the home-stretch Will try what you suggest about doing some obedience with him when we get home to try to get him into the 'quiet' zone.

Haha, you are right. Elbie definitely does not chew on or attack his chain leash but the chain leash we currently have is kind of short and very uncomfortable on OUR hands so given that he walks well for 35minutes and no longer attacks the leash at the beginning and only misbehaves for the last minute we were hoping to get him used to the cloth leash ... I wonder if we could perhaps switch to the chain leash just before we headed down our street ...

Oh thank goodness we're not the only ones although 'excitement' is much better than what we get. Elbie basically goes into berserker mode. One moment he's a very placid, sweet-faced, cute dog and the next next moment he's growling and trying to chomp his way up the leash. As soon as he's tethered he goes calm again i.e. instantaneous so it's just so bizarre. We will follow your suggestion about going still and we'll tread on his leash again to keep him still and unable to bite the leash. We are still trying to figure out the trigger: 1. is he tired and wants to stop? 2. is he being bratty because he doesn't want to go home yet? We'll try doing a walk tomorrow that's just from the end of the street to see if he still goes bonkers when we are two houses away from our house ... aussielover: Yup ... at class we get compliments about how smart and obedient and focussed he is. Ha. You should have seen how he was today when a car drove past that had a husky in it, head stuck out the window and barking like a maniac Elbie had zero interest for his kibble. wuffles: I am filled with envy ...

Ouch. Poor Nandi! I hope you can get it sorted soon ... I'm also impressed that you were able to take such a great close-up. Elbie would have licked the camera to death.

Elbie's heelwork and loose leash work has been very good during obedience classes - looks deceptively obedient and docile. It's like he's putting an act on for the instructors. At home it's VERY hit and miss. Sometimes he's good, other times he pulls like an absolute lunatic - EVERYTHING is interesting to him, cars, cats, people, birds, dirt We ordered an easy walk harness and it arrived yesterday. Our intention is to mix things up a bit and alternate between walking him on the harness and using his flat collar. It's great because it means that we can take him out for walks more regularly - till now, his pulling has made us not take him out (or take him out only for very short walks) because we don't want to reinforce his pulling behaviour. So ... walking is going pretty well but he still has one weird behaviour - he stopped chewing/attacking his leash but for his last 3 or 4 walks, when we're heading home after his walk and he's about 2 houses away from home - he starts attacking and chewing on his leash like a maniac. ;) We have tried approaching the house from different directions, different side of the road etc but he still goes bonkers. We don't want to put anything on his leash nor do we want to use the chain leash given that he's perfectly behaved for 30-45 minutes during the duration of the walk, it's just as we approach home that he's presumably chucking a tantrum because he wants to keep playing. Any suggestions? We can't use food because we don't want to inadvertently reward him for his bad behaviour. If we're near a post, we would normally tie him up and give him a brief 'time-out' in which he can settle himself but we can't really tie him to the neighbours' letter box or anything. Today, we brought one of his squeaky toys and squeaked it at him to distract him but didn't give it to him so that there was a diversion but no reward until he gets home without attacking the leash. It didn't work. In the end, my husband had to just stop, stand on Elbie's leash until he settled and then only after he was in a drop position did we keep going.

The photos are all gorgeous but the first one made me laugh and laugh I'm so glad she didn't get her head stuck in there

I love the looks of intense concentration on their faces. Also, they both look so sleek and solid - so beautiful.

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I am so glad he's ok - I've been following this thread because I felt so bad for the poor boy. We're having some good success with the Aussie Dog "Tucker Ball" which rolls and dispenses kibble gradually. I don't think our dog can destroy it because it's too big for him to actually bite.

Toshman - thanks for sharing that link - that is so hilarious! We just watched it and were laughing our heads off at how cute Bailey was Elbie loves learning new tricks so we're always looking for good ones . We bought a book but the last four chapters have really difficult ones that seem more appropriate for doggy dancing and would involve the handler doing somersaults and cartwheels No way!

Niques - James is soooooooooooooo cute and clever. I particularly love how attentive he is with his little face focussed on you for instructions. His 'dead' is very impressive - particularly how long he is willing to lie there to 'sell' the authenticity of the death scene. We can get Elbie to drop his head down onto the ground but his eyes are open and extremely focussed I watched your other vids - James looks so cuddly - Elbie's a bit of a wriggler. wizzle: cool - can't wait to hear what Genevieve thinks of it. She will look so cute chasing around after it.

Elbie inhales his food but he seems to be pretty good with lamb flaps - he'll gnaw on them for quite a while.

He definitely does look like Elbie did when he was younger but by 16 weeks, I think Elbie's snout was already a lot longer and didn't have the cute snubbiness that Marley still seems to have

Elbie does stealth farts sometimes ;) Approaches us, looks cute, lets out a silent deadly one and then darts away, leaving us gagging in the aftermath while he looks at us innocently Once he did an audible one and startled himself I have no idea what causes it because Elbie's diet is pretty stable. Pigs ears definitely make Elbie into a chemical weapon so never again. He's fine with cheese - just now and then he goes through vaguely farty phases. He eats Hills Science Diet (puppy) every day with occasional treats and bones and will go for long stretches without flatulence but then without warning, he will become very farty

ravenau1: that is a hilarious story and your dog sounds like it was super lovable, drool and all. I used to be all squeamish about dog drool and now I'm like - wipe drooly hand on left jeans leg naomi: that is so sweet of you - sometimes I feel remarkably stupid posting about my puppy but he really does make us laugh a LOT and we have so much fun with him that I like sharing. I've met heaps of really nice people as a result so I'm getting over the feelings of stupidity baykinz: Haha. I wouldn't put it past Elbie at all! He enjoys acting! Sometimes he lies on his mat, head on his paws looking up at us with extremely innocent eyes but if you go in closer and examine - we realise that he is secretly gnawing on his mat and using his paws or even a toy to cover up his dark and nefarious deeds!

Hiya, we got it from here: http://www.wagsalot.com.au/index.php?targe...;product_id=189. The small is out of stock but they still have medium. It's also here but the price is a lot more for some reason. This one has a decent price for a small ball. As for Elbie's 'dead', I do think it's funny as well but I might ask our instructor on Sunday if she has any ideas about how to fine tune his performance His 'spin' used to be totally demented before he settled down

Too cute! Do you have videos? I'd love to see James' 'dead' trick. The problem with Elbie is that he doesn't do limp well - he's lying there pulsating with energy and anticipation. No dignity in being a dead cockroach! Then again, Elbie has no dignity full stop It is funny though - my husband I crack up each time we watch the video where he staggers around and then topples over and also the very delayed reaction death Haha - I was just mentioning that today and saying that I have no idea if that's even possible ;) So ... shall expect to see videos of James soon

I've re-examined the tucker ball. Elbie definitely can't break it - it's way too big for his mouth so he just nudges it around with his nose and paw. We put his dinner in it tonight and while we were watching Big Brother UK, Elbie's darting around the kitchen feeding himself via the tucker ball. It took him about 45 minutes and it was absolutely hilarious - he never lost interest for a second, just kept batting it around and vacuuming up the kibble. At one point the ball got stuck under our little kitchen stool and Elbie barked at it from one side, went to the other side and barked at it again. I was going to go and get it but my husband told me to wait and sure enough, Elbie batted the ball out with his own paw until it slide out from under the stool again. So funny. The only bad thing is that they really should provide a funnel or something - putting kibble in the ball takes ages especially if it's a full meal

wuffles: hope you had an awwwwwwesome birthday yesterday with lots of doggy kisses The tuckerball is pretty tough but Elbie's mouth isn't that big so I got him a medium ball and he can't bite it - just nudge it. Maybe if you bought the large sized ball? The homealone ball has been a failure so far. We were hoping that it would keep Elbie occupied while we were at work but the only time he plays with it is when we're at home swinging the ball for him :p Elbie doesn't jump for it - he does a kind of strange doggy dancing move. Poor Satchmo!!! It's interesting how it goes like that - some dogs love those things so much and Elbie is so ho hum about his tug toys and so forth. He luuuuuuuuurves though sammi82: Ah - Elbie did that, too at first - he'd paw and nudge the at the ball until the treat flew out. We have one very hard kong ball that's slightly smaller than a tennis ball and at first it took him ages to figure out how to pluck it out of the muffin tin with his mouth. Now he does it super fast but it did slow him down. You could also try the 'flat' treats that won't fly out to see if Asti can be challenged ETA: Asti is soooooooooooooooo cute. He has Ears of Awesome. Also - I am going to hijack my own thread since the Dog Tricks sub-sub-forum seems to be the least visited area of the forum :p Can anyone help me with the dead trick? At present he looks like a dead bug on his back. Thanks

Of course you're not depriving your dog! My husband and I just really bad that we're constantly buying things for Elbie :p The irony is that the toys he likes are totally random and he'll go bananas about an empty juice bottle and ignore the expensive Home Alone ball :p How did the ball get destroyed?? I keep reading about destroyed kongs, torn leashes and seatbelts and am quite startled. Elbie will chew his toys but he hasn't destroyed anything (yet). Even the soft toys he has mangled have all been repaired (albeit patchily I suspect we're going to have to retire one of his badgers soon, poor thing. Haha Poor you, poor James. Elbie gets two toys to sleep with at night and during the day his toys are rotated - none have been totally destroyed yet. The squeaker pig is lasting well so far but weirdly enough, Elbie doesn't seem to love it yet - he seems to prefer his squeaking $5 Kmart cow! Hopefully he will discover the love later.

Hi: my pup was a monster at first so this was my DOL thread on the issue. Lots of helpful advice on it. I wouldn't go for spray bottle until you've exhausted the other methods. Elbie's fine now (except for attacking his leash now and then) so I hope your pup settles, too

wizzle: We thought that Elbie would flip the whole thing over as well but oddly enough he doesn't and works through it the way he's supposed to. Elbie has a LOT of toys ... he loves squeakies the most and will entertain himself for ages squeaking away - it's embarrassing when we're on the phone Also, if G is that fast with the water bottle, try the Tucker Ball - that drops out treats but not as quickly as a bottle does. toofarnorth: Heh heh tht is an awesome photo. That's Archie not Elbie so we'll have to wait for fbaudry to come back to this thread and tell us Elbie has many favourite toys depending on his mood! For sleeping, he loves his stuffed toy badger, he has a number of squeaky toys, he loves playing with a plastic drink bottle ... Oddy enough the only toys he doesn't like are: - we can't get him to use his home alone dangling ball thing even if we slather peanut butter on the tug - we bought hima green rubber bone that's supposed to be good for his teeth and breath and he has zero interest in it With the muffin tin, you could try putting it under only one of the balls and seeing if he can find the ball that has the food? Also, I find that using a kong ball or a harder/smoother ball provides more of a challenge than tennis balls :rolleyes:

We continue our search to find toys that will keep Elbie entertained. We bought a tucker ball from wagsalot.com.au and it arrived today. It is a nice alternate to the kong given that the kong can't fit that much kibble. Elbie seems to love it - video . The collision with his crate door was a bit unfortunate Elbie loves squeaky toys so we also bought him a pig squeaker mat. It has 16 squeakers in it ... naturally he will only play with it under supervision because we don't want him eating a squeaker. The label says: "It may drive you crazy but your pet will love it!"

That is so funny My dog doesn't do that because he's generally in the house when we do the poo pick - we have to open the front gate to toss out the bag in the garbage and we don't want him running out into the front yard/road. What I do find really annoying is that after I tie up the bag and head towards the gate, I almost always see a poo that I have somehow completely failed to see earlier Drives me bananas. Also, our dog goes in the same area which we have named "Poo Corner" but when it's raining, he gets a bit slack and goes all over the place