fuzzy82

Even when the attacking dog was minding its own business and was approached without warning by another dog? IMO, it's not always the attacking dog who is at fault. If I've got my reactive dog on leash and under control, and someone lets their "friendly" dog run up to say hello, it's the friendly dog who is fault. And this was the case in the other thread. Big, friendly, well trained dog was allowed to approach a small, fearful dog. And yet it's the small dog's fault? Doesn't make sense.

If the trainer had an issue with it, she should be able to explain why and how she would do it differently. If she can't, that's just weird.

We lost one of our cats last year, and I'm pretty sure my poodle x understood what was happening. Her behaviour was unusual that day. My JRT x seemed less affected by it, but he did some unusual things too.

I would find a different class. Instructors are supposed to be there to help and give advice, and if they are just ignoring you and expecting you to sort it out yourself, they are not doing their job and you may as well be on your own. Yes, it's normal behaviour, there's always one dog in each class who gets too excited in a class environment. Usually the instructor helps this person by giving advice on what to do, and 2-3 weeks in, the dog is as well behaved as the rest of them. But you don't get this by ignoring the behaviour, and this class sounds pretty crap to me.

When I was a kid our moggies had kittens all the time. There was never any bad smell. But stick your face into kitten fur and you will experience the best smell in the universe.

I disagree, I have a look around Pet Rescue regularly and there's always white fluffies available, both puppies and adults. Of course you don't know about final size or health issues, but that is true of all dogs from shelters/rescue. If you don't like the risk, then you'd go with a purebred dog, or like you say, a BYB where you can see both parents (assuming they are in fact the parents, the female may have gotten out and mated with a different male). I got my maltese x poodle from a shelter, and she has the loveliest temperament. Confident, friendly, smart, easy to train, etc. There's also plenty of white fluffies available on Gumtree. I personally wouldn't buy from a BYB, but there are puppies as young as 4-5 months being rehomed for a reasonable price for being too much work, needing a "bigger yard" or whatever other reason people come up with when they've changed their mind.

Crate games is also really good for teaching steady feet.

I don't like meeting new people or chatting with strangers, so I prefer to be left alone. I'm also training the dogs to ignore other people so that we can walk past without me having to pull my dogs off to the side or get off the path or anything like that, so I find it really annoying when people reach down for a quick pat as we pass them. If I'm sitting on a bench somewhere just waiting, I don't mind if people stop for a quick pat, but I prefer if they don't because I take no pleasure in chatting with strangers.

There's a lot more to socialisation than playing with other puppies. If you feel like you can train and socialise the puppy on your own, then there's no need for puppy classes. A good puppy class shouldn't just be a free for all play group, it should expose puppies to strangers, including funny looking ones, expose them to different novel objects, noise, etc. I only know of one in my area that does this, the rest are all about the puppies playing and basic obedience training. Of course puppy classes are good for socialisation anyway, because it means the puppy is exposed to new things, such as riding in the car, being in a new environment and being around strangers and their dogs. But I do feel like classes are mostly for people who don't really know what they're doing. Personally I know I can train and socialise a puppy properly, but I'm also interested in doing sports with my puppy, which means exposing it to a class environment would be an important part of socialisation. If your puppy is going to be a pet and you've got training/socialisation under control, there's no reason to worry about classes.

And the choice is pretty well toys and food as a motivation/reward basis and depending on the individual dog how much value the dog places on toys and food determines if the dog needs an additional consequence for the wrong behaviour. Not all dogs have the same levels of need for toy and food reward and too much time is often wasted training dogs in reward based methods that don't have a high level response to those rewards. As an example, some dogs find chasing cats rewarding which is a reward drive in the wrong place where no other reward overrides the desire to chase a cat......those type of dogs need a good correction as a consequence of what happens if you chase a cat. Same applies with cronic sniffers, the one's who nearly rip your arm out of it's socket to dart off and sniff something, that is the environment and desire to sniff for that dog is a major distraction with self reward. Sometimes a chronic sniffer can be rehabilitated on a prong collar in 20 minutes where it's been under reward based methods for 6 months with little improvement....wrong method for that dog. This is just bad training IMO. As a trainer you should be using what your dog finds rewarding. If a dog isn't motivated by the traditional food or toys, then you need to use other things. You can use being allowed to run off leash or go sniff as rewards, and you can also direct prey drive into toys with not all that much effort. Punishing a dog for seeking out something it finds rewarding is bad training, and ruins a potentially great reward. Yes, you'll get a well-behaved dog with a prong collar, but you won't have an enthusiastic dog who wants to work for you. A good trainer doesn't remove things that motivate the dog, they learn to use them to actually motivate the dog to work.

I know some very good, balanced trainers who have nothing against the use of corrections on certain dogs in certain circumstances, and they don't recommend using ANY aversives on puppies younger than 20 weeks due to their brain development and fear periods. I'd question the dog training skills of anyone who needs to or wants to use corrections on young puppies. There is simply no need.

I don't agree with Nancy. I don't have much sympathy for people who dump their dogs. Those who put in the effort to rehome or hand over to rescue because of dire personal situations, or if they are too old, PTS, I can sympathise with. But to dump at a kill shelter is unthinkable. Would the general public even know which shelters are "high kill"? That seems like something only people involved with fostering and rescue would know. I certainly don't know which of my local shelters kill more animals per year, and I have an above average interest in dogs. I personally don't get the angry rant. That sounds a lot like a rant from someone who truly doesn't know what it's like to not have money, someone who can cut back on stuff and come up with the money somehow. A lot of people can't do that. It seems likely that the dog's family gave her up because they couldn't afford her (for whatever reason), they didn't know she was sick, all they knew was she was a "lovely companion" and wanted to give her a chance at another life with another family.

Ella's lead lets you customise your collars (colour, bling, embroidered text) and they have a type of collar that looks like leather, but it doesn't matter if it gets wet. The website is www.ellaslead.com and the collar is called Vegan. They do real leather as well though. I got a vegan collar for my JRT x, who likes to get wet, roll in poo, and scratches at it. Not a mark on it 2 years later, still looks as good as new.

I tried the approach of just putting it on and let them get used to it, but they were rolling around on the floor and trying to rip it off and would have ended up destroying it. So I did a quick training session, first click and reward for looking at it, then for nose targeting it. Then click as I lift it over their head, remove it, lift it again, click. Repeat until they don't care (3-4 times), then click as I touch their side with it, remove, repeat. Then put it over them but without doing it up, click, remove, repeat. Baby steps like that until it's on them and done up, feed treats while it's on them, then take it off. Once it's on them, you can take it off and put it straight back on several times. Reward every time it's on them, rewards go away when it comes off. After 2-3 times they stop caring about it. Ask for some normal obedience behaviours while they're wearing it, then take it off. Then you just put it on them before doing something else, like training or going for a walk, so they're a bit distracted, and then soon enough they stop caring that they're wearing it. Took me 2-3 sessions over 2 days. And we got to do some training too, so it was all fun.

Agreed with above, your dog needs to learn to work even when highly aroused (such as around food, other dogs, around prey animals, etc). I would look up "it's yer choice" on youtube, as it's a great way to teach impulse control around food. As for instructors taking dogs off people, that's just bad etiquette. An instructor should always ask permission to demonstrate one someone's dog, and if that involves giving correction, they need to also ask if it's ok if they give the dog a correction if they need to.

Oooooo I went out this morning, and tried going sidewards (we have practiced backwards along the wall before...) so here is the scenario... (don't laugh too hard) I have him in heel.. I'm asking him to look at me (we've done a couple of focus exercises, but.. well we've discussed milo's focus issues before) I step sidewards... he looks at me... stands up... goes and attempts to wander off.. whoops.. leash... hmmm... oh, ok.. conversation then goes like this.. Milo *staring off into the distance* "I'm sure there has been a cat there" Heidi *looking at milo* "milo, working" Milo *continuing to stare off into the distance* "huh? we are?" Heidi " milo.. I have treats... I have bite rag... " Milo... *finally looking at me* "you do?" Milo... Hmmm.. I'll take a step towards you.... and continue past you... "I'm sure there is a cat over there" Heidi "milo, heel" at this point milo reluctantly moves around me into heel... *reward* step sidewards 1/2 step again... REPEAT! When this happens with my dog, I wait for them to unfixate even the slightest amount (glance away from what they're fixating on, or look back at me wondering why we're not doing anything), then mark and reward. Usually the dog goes straight back to fixating, then just wait again. Reward for unfixating. Usually it only takes 3-4 times of that before they're ready to get back to work. They realise that fixating isn't rewarding, but focusing on me is. Other times I will mark and then take a few steps back and encourage them to follow, then reward when they catch up. This is handy for when we're too close to whatever the distraction is, and I know they're unlikely to be able to focus at that distance. But once you've back up, you can then start moving forward again, stopping for each step, wait for focus, reward, take another step, repeat. We can usually get past some huge distractions such as cats and kids on bikes like this, without the dog leaving my side. We've done this enough times now that when we see big distractions on walks, the dogs don't fixate, but just have a look at it and then look back at me, which I can then reward. So I'm training the habit of distraction = look to me.

Both of my dogs have had the heartworm injection with no ill effects whatsoever. Had it done at 2 different vets and neither of them mentioned any problem with it, and one of them I really trust to do what's best as she never over-charges and never does anything unnecessary to our animals. In the end I decided not to do the injection again, but the reason was that it didn't turn out any cheaper than the spot on treatment, as I still had to worm and flea them anyway.

But it should also be mentioned that one legged squats are awesome for building glutes, which not only gives you a nice butt but is also an important muscle group for preventing back issues, gives you good posture and the glutes are what keeps humans walking upright. I would go for the higher one and take it as a fitness challenge, just remember to use both legs equally.

I've used the baby gate in my office to do some distance work. You start with the dog on the other side of the gate, do some easy position changes, then take a couple of steps away from the gate, then move back in (ping pong the distance). Repeat until you can get the dog to change position several metres away. Then open the gate between you and repeat. Because the dog has been doing the position changes in that spot, the gate being open doesn't matter. Then move the dog to the other side of the gate so it's on the same side as you, but still close enough to the original spot that it remembers what you were just doing. Then just add new environments and more distance from there. I've seen some people have the dog do the position changes on a platform or mat, and then add a bit of distance from there. Because the dog has a defined area to stay on, it's easier to add distance than if there's nothing to tell the dog where to stay. Then remove the mat and have the dog in the spot where the mat used to be, etc.

I've used Applaws a few times when we've been away and I didn't want to ask our pet sitter to raw feed them. I think it's great, you open the tin and it looks like something humans could eat, there's chicken and veggies and a tiny bit of rice (some varieties are just chicken or tuna though) and the dogs did fine on it. If I wasn't raw feeding, this is the food I would use all the time.

I've booked my dogs in at the Border River Pet Resort at Morayfield for later this year. I've only heard good things about them, their features look great and the staff was nothing but helpful and friendly.

One of my dogs really dislikes a friend of a friend who comes over. The person has had dogs all his life and claims to be dog savvy, but I can see quite clearly why my dog doesn't like him. My dog isn't overly fond of strangers to start with (aloof and a one person dog) and this person expects all dogs to be ecstatic to see him and all dogs should tolerate anything a person wants to dish out with a smile on its face. This person started out bending over and reaching for my dog, and my dog backed up a few steps, so the person then tried to grab him, which over time has developed into repeatedly trying to grab him in an exaggerated manner because he expects the dog to back away. And then finally it got to the point where my dog now refuses to go near him at all and will stay at the back of the house whenever he comes to the door and just sit and watch him and wait for him to go away. So in this case it's very easy to see why my dog doesn't like him (I actually don't like him either), but even when there's no obvious reason, I would assume the dog has a good reason if it's generally friendly and confident, but takes a dislike to just one or two people. I certainly don't like everyone I come across, so I don't expect my dogs to either. Of course aggression is always a concern (my dog has never shown aggression), and if the dog was showing aggressive tendencies, I would make sure I never let the dog near the person, unless I was actively trying to desensitise and fix the issue.

As all of the dogs were off leash, I would say this falls under "one of those things" and so no one is at fault and you pay for the damage to your own dog. It would be nice of him to offer to pay half (I probably would), but I don't think he should feel obligated to.

I wasnt asking the same question. I knew I would somehow get blasted for posting this thread...I was asking some innocent questions out of curiousity and get patronised for it. I was actually curious about the answers to your question, but I guess people in here can't handle being questioned about why they do the things they do. You'd think they'd be happy to explain what exactly they have against Oscar's Law, seeing as they are accusing OL of not wanting to explain stuff. And as for OL, I have never seen or heard them say anything about reputable breeders. They want to abolish puppy farms, and I can't understand why people in here would have an issue with that. We actually know the people behind OL personally, because we have done several websites for them. They are very nice, caring people. Yes, Oscar was taken illegally, but so what? Did you actually see what state he was in when they took him? And how he was treated when they had to give him back to the puppy factory? And the conditions they found him in 18 months later when they finally got him out legally? I get that people in here are protective of breeding dogs, and of course there is nothing wrong with responsible breeding. But OL hasn't targeted responsible breeding as far I can see anywhere, and there is also nothing wrong with encouraging the general public to rescue a dog instead of buying one. There are certainly enough posts on this forum about how too many dogs are killed in pounds and shelters when they needn't be. I don't get the animosity towards someone who is passionate about dogs' rights and welfare.

I haven't tried it, but just had a look at the ingredients, and it looks much like any other premium dry food to me.