fuzzy82

True, I will check with his vet, just to make sure. We have done a lot of perch work, and his rear end awareness is really good.

Not a convert, as I have never trained with anything else, but I agree that it's very cool how puppies pick up on clickers and shaping so fast:)

I have gotten him to sit, then lured him forward a bit, and that works, but only while the treat is right in front of his nose.

He does sit straight next to me, but he rolls back on his haunches while sitting. So the wall doesn't help unfortunately.

Obi has the sloppiest puppy sit ever. When he was a little puppy, I didn't care, I figured he would grow out of it. But he didn't. He turned 1 yesterday, and it's worse than ever. His sit/stay is pretty solid, so it's not like it really matters, but it just looks horrible. Any suggestions for fixing it? I have tried luring him forward and rewarding when he sits properly, I have tried shaping him forward and I have physically positioned him and then rewarded, but it only lasts 1-2 seconds and then he rolls back. I have also tried python lifts to get him to shift more weight forward, but that doesn't seem to work. He does have really bad luxating patellas, could that have something to do with it?

I got 10L sealable containers from Bargain City, I think they cost about $10 each.

I used a target in front of my feet to shape the 'front'. The target was just a small piece of cardboard I cut up, and then just shaped him to sit straight in front of me while touching the target, and then removed the target and put it on cue. From there you can add some distance to it.

If you want a shaping savvy dog, it's a good idea to start with the clicker right away. But I don't really see marker training as a different way of training at all. Even compulsion trainers use a marker when the dog gets it right. ALL it is, is a marker to tell the dog 'you got that right' without having to put the treat in the dogs mouth as he's doing the behaviour. This means you can mark, and then it doesn't matter if you fumble to get the treat out of your pocket, and you can reinforce behaviours at a distance. I don't see how you could train without using a marker, it would just be so hard. Shaping on the other hand, that's a training method of itself. It's a fun one too, and it provides more mental stimulation than just forcing the dog into a sit and holding it there (for example). It's a good thing to know if you're getting a high drive/high energy dog that needs a lot of stimulation. If he gets bored, just shape a new trick.

Yes, they are both microchipped. When I adopted Pixie the foster carer gave me a transfer of ownership form for the microchip, which I filled out and she told me she would send it in etc. 4 weeks later I still hadn't received any sort of notification that ownership had been changed, which I thought was strange because last time I adopted an animal I had received one within 3-4 weeks. I contacted the foster carer, no reply. Tried again 2 weeks later, still no reply. I then looked through Pixie's paperwork to see if I could find the company and just contact them directly, and I then discovered that I could log in and update the contact details registered on the chip myself. No change of ownership stuff needed. Never heard back from the foster carer. (This is the dog that was also covered in fleas and had an ear infection when I adopted her, so a bit dodgy). When I adopted Obi I was given a form to fill out too, but I am still not sure if it was just a council thing to let them know the dog was moving out of their council area, or if the change of details have actually gone through to the microchip company, so I intend to check that next time I take him to the vet.

I would get a JRT for my next dog, and I would insist on rough coat, but for colour I don't think I would care all that much. I prefer tricolor, just because Obi is a rough tricolor, but temperament would be more important.

Whatever you do, don't go with Dogtech. Other than that, I don't really know. If you were on Northside I know a couple of places.

My poodle x maltese has a winter nose too, but the colour change has been very slight. What causes it?

At 14 weeks I was still taking my puppy out every 20 minutes, and continued to do so until he was nearly 6 months old. What do you do when she goes outside? Do you give her several yummy treats, or do you just praise? I would give treats. When you go outside, I would only give her 5 minutes to do her thing and if she doesn't crate her for 10 minutes and then try again. Repeat until she goes.

Would swimming be ok? You could see if there are any pools in your area, you know, the type for injured dogs.

I would build toy drive a lot and do a lot of shaping. Looks like someone else already said that.. And if I was going to do shaping anyway, I might as well start with some basic agility/flyball skills.

I know someone who went to one of his things, she said she was very unimpressed and the tv show is clearly VERY edited.

And, training with corrections doesn't mean you can't use food either. I know trainers who use rewards when the dog does a good job, and correct with a check chain if the dog breaks position. It's not one or the other. Personally I don't agree with using check chains though for sports training though. If the dog doesn't enjoy it, then why bother doing it?

I don't separate the dogs, I have one lie on the mat while I work one of them, and then swap them over. I reward heavily for lying on the mat to begin with, and teach 'go to mat' as a separate behaviour. If they get up I said 'no, get back on your mat', and if they don't they get put out of the room, which is the last thing they want, cuz training is fun. I agree that you don't need a kit, but there are some cute little books with basic tricks to get you started, such as Karen Pryor's "Getting started: clicker training for dogs". I have that one, but personally I didn't find it all that necessary, I ended up just reading online and figuring it out as I went.

I would trust my crate trained JRT x in a soft crate (he has a solid crate though). I would not use a soft crate for crate training though, for any breed, as there is bound to be scratching and digging etc.

I have a JRT x and at 4 months he had one ear folded back and the other forward. Just an ear development thing I think, because they both ended up upright. It was cute though.

Always been an animal lover, I was a cat person nearly all my life though, but now I have become a dog person. Cats are still special though.

Fair enough, but they should be able to diagnose LP without needing x-rays, especially when the owner comes in and says they think their dog has LP. Once they've diagnosed it, if they want to do x-rays to determine how bad it is etc, then that's all good. But when they won't even diagnose it without an x-ray, that's just weird. They wouldn't even check the knees. If nothing else, at least have a feel, then if you can't feel anything wrong and want to do x-rays just to make sure, then that's all good too.

I would think any dog can do obedience. Obi is much drivier than Pixie, so he's a bit easier to train for it, plus he has a much longer attention span, probably from doing classes pretty much constantly since he was 3 months. Pixie has much lower food drive, and had almost no toy drive when I got her at 12 months. As she was introduced to shaping her food drive went up (still not as high as Obi's) and then I shaped her to play with toys, which increased her interest in toys. She would still only play at home, so I then introduced a special toy (a ball) that she doesn't have access to all the time, and when she plays with it I end the game just as she's getting really excited about it. As a result, she played with a ball in class this week, and got really into it. That was a first. You have to work a little harder to train a dog that has lower drive, but of course it can be done. I plan to do obedience with both my dogs.

How silly. When I first got my poodle x and took her to the vet for a general check up, the vet checked her knees while she was at it, because that's how common it is in poodle x's. Then she told me Pixie has LP. You wouldn't even know from looking at her, I've seen her lift one back leg maybe 10 times in the year I've had her. If the vet hadn't told me about the LP I would have thought nothing of it. x-ray? Seriously? Money grabbing.

I don't think it's even possible to be 'disobedient' at 15 weeks. Disobedience means he knows exactly what you want him to do, and then goes and does something else 'just because'. For a puppy that age I would just apply some good management skills so that he can't form bad habits, and then reward him whenever he behaves the way you want. And I agree with above, I never smack my dogs, in fact I never use positive punishment at all. If I say 'NO!' it's as an interruptor when I NEED to stop what they are doing, as in their health is at stake. The rest of the time I teach them what I want them to do, use some negative punishment (removal of privileges or withholding something they want) and just manage them so they can't behave badly. Management is temporary while you train whatever behaviour it is out of them. Such as closing the bedroom door while you can't supervise so they can't jump up on the bed, then do training sessions with them in the bedroom where you reward them for good behaviour, or if you're teaching them not to pull, you use a no pull harness or head collar while they're in training, so that they can't pull while they are still learning.