fuzzy82

I have the same issue with my dogs when they are sitting. I like to walk around them in a circle while they are sitting, and they do pretty well, but they always try to follow me around with their heads, which sometimes means that they shift slightly. I have started standing behind them while they sit, and reaching down and feeding in front of them. So they are looking ahead to get the treat while I am behind them. Haven't been doing it long enough to know if it will work yet though. If his stand/stay is pretty solid, you can use a clicker to shape looking ahead.

I don't like luring the stand. It's basically teaching the dog that it's ok to move forward to stand, and there is no reason why the dog can't take a step forward while standing, because he has learnt that that is ok. I like the idea of capturing the stand. You just watch the dog, when he is standing comfortably you click and treat. That way there is no issue with him thinking he can move forward, because there has never been any forward motion involved. For my dogs I shaped it. I had them in a sit in front of me, then just shaped every little butt lift until they were standing, then keep feeding them treats while they are standing. There is still no issue with them moving forward, because I was in front of them so they couldn't move forward, and they also kick back into the stand, which is what I wanted. So there is never any forward motion associated with the stand.

What type of training method do you use? If you use the old fashioned hands-on molding (ie, to get the dog to sit, you push his butt down and say 'sit'), then a lot of dogs find that unpleasant and/or intimidating. For overly submissive dogs I would recommend training hands-off with a clicker. So you never actually touch the dog, you just throw him a treat when he gets it right. NILIF (nothing in life is free) is also really good for building confidence. A lot of people think NILIF is about asserting who's boss of the house, by making the dog do something for them before they will do anything for the dog, but it's actually nothing to do with leadership or dominance. By asking him to do something before you do something for him, ie, make him sit before opening a door for him, sit or down before putting the food bowl down, sit calmly while putting the leash on, sit at the door until released before going for a walk etc, you are actually teaching him how he can manipulate his environment to get what he wants, which builds confidence.

Also worth noting, an outdoor only dog requires much more effort than an indoor dog. This is because an indoor dog can hang out with you and see you and smell you most of the day, and you can do some training here and there just for a minute or two, several times a day, whenever you think about it. The dog is just there, part of the family. With an outdoor dog you have to make a conscious effort to go out and spend time with him. He can't hang out with you, so he will be starved for attention when he does see you, and you have to put aside 'dog only' time when you deliberately go out and play with him and spend time with him and generally hang out with him for an extended period every day. That means less time that you can spend inside the house on the computer/watching tv etc. You will be hanging out in the backyard with the dog. With an inside the dog he can hang out with you while you do stuff that you want to do, such as watch tv and being in the computer. Also, the dog should not be scratching the floor. You need to trim its claws once a week to keep them short anyway. They should not be touching the floor when the dog is standing normally. If he's running around inside the house to the point where he scratches the floor, then he's probably not getting enough exercise. A dog can be taught to settle and lie quietly inside the house, provided it gets enough exercise.

My dogs go to bed about 30 minutes before I do (usually around 12:30). I take puppy out to pee, then get his special crate treat out and he runs ahead of me to his crate in our bedroom. After he is put away I usually do stuff on the computer for 30 minutes to 1 hour, and my adult dog is free to come and snooze on the floor with me, which she used to do, but lately she has been putting herself to bed on her dog bed in the bedroom and is asleep by the time I go to bed. They then sleep quietly until I get up around 9:30-10 (I work from home). They don't make a sound all night, and sleep until they are woken up. My adult dog sometimes joins me on the bed for a cuddle in the morning before we get up. So they sleep about 8-9 hours during the night, and also snooze a bit during the day while I work.

Isn't Loki spelt Loke? At least that is the native spelling for it. I like that name, I also like Balder/Baldur (not on your list but I like it). For girls I think Freya might be a bit overused, so personally I wouldn't use it. I like it though. I also like Vali, don't really like any of the others, they seem a bit.... commonly used.

I found a list of breeds that they allow, but not sure if that's just for the protection bit or all of it...

If you want to learn quality tracking try one of the IPO clubs. I looked into the IPO stuff, but it seems they only allow very few breeds to compete in this, so do they do training only for their tiny list of allowed breeds, or can anyone train with them for fun?

Thanks for the replies, I forgot all about this post so didn't check back until just now:) We would be doing just for fun, so if they are really strict about not toys and obedience etc I guess we will give it a miss. But will look into the names and links:)

My puppy does this look too:) Like when I walked in on him digging in the litter tray. It was clean, but there was kitty litter ALL over the bathroom floor, and none left in the actual tray. He looked up at me with the cutest innocent "did I do goo" look. I WAS angry when I walked in there, but with that look on his face I couldn't help but to instantly forgive him.

My puppy does that to my poodle x too, he will sit at the door as if he needs to go out, so I get up to let him out. The poodle x then drops her dried bone or whatever it is she has to follow me, and as soon as she is up the puppy runs over and steals it.

My hubby complains too, so I try to leave some room for him on the couch in the evenings, and make sure the dogs don't sit between us. As for money, yeah I spend most of my money on the animals.

Small dog attitude is all in the training. Socialise thoroughly from day one and do basic obedience training, and you should be fine.

I don't agree, I suspect the list is based on old fashioned training methods, which include corrections and molding. A lot of dogs don't respond well to that. Such as the JRT. I have a JRT x puppy, and he is extremely smart. When they asked me at basic obedience what he was and I told them, they commented that he must be really smart then. So they know that JRT's are smart, but they don't respond well to corrections at all. I dare say my JRT x is smarter than my poodle x, as in he picks up new behaviours quickly, and also picks up the cue for the new behaviour more quickly than the poodle x.

My dogs do it too, and my puppy also does if he gets wet in the rain.

You could always give them an appropriate place to dig, instead of trying to enforce 'no digging'. Make a sandpit, put lots of yummy treats in the sand and get in there and dig with them. You won't need to put treats in there all the time, chances are they will keep digging there because they sometimes find treats there, so it's worth it to keep checking. Do they get any exercise and mental stimulation? That would help with destructive behaviour.

Dunno what area of Qld you are in, but PADS is pretty good ( http://www.pads.org.au/ ). We have done both puppy classes, basic obedience and motivation & control there. The instructors are pleasant, I don't always agree with everything, but they pretty much let you do your own thing. Like if you tell them you have a different goal or a different method of teaching something they let you do it, or even ask you to demonstrate. They use reward based methods and clickers, and I'm not sure if they allow different collars as I have never seen it come up. There is an obedience club at Lawnton ( http://www.pineriversdoc.org.au/ ) where they are more into formal obedience. The instructors seem pleasant enough and they allow check chains and show you how to use them correctly, but they prefer reward based methods. We have learnt a few things from there, but the dog is expected to heel pretty much the whole hour, which is a bit unrealistic. We decided to take a break to work on heeling on our own before going back, as I don't want to force my dog to heel for an hour and make it unpleasant for her. There is also Teamwork ( http://www.teamworkdogs.com.au ) (various locations). I only did the puppy class with them, not obedience, so I don't know what that's like, but I enjoyed the puppy class.

I have yet to meet the same kid more than once, so the way I see it I can save time by not explaining it over and over, or I can spend the extra time and explain it over and over. Either way, it doesn't help me. The result I want is for my dog to be left alone, which I accomplish either way. I'm really not trying to be combative or difficult about it, I just really hate talking to kids. I find it painful to listen to kids talking.

I think that was rude, and I don't think we should have to explain things to other people's kids. If I was in a similiar situation I would NOT explain anything to a kid, I would tell the adult " I would prefer if they didn't meet, he's a bit reactive" (which I have done) and then it's up to them to explain it to their kids. I hate talking to kids, I hate kids, and I'm not gonna babysit someone else's kid for them. They certainly wouldn't not make any allowances for my dogs if they don't like dogs (nor cats, and I have had people come into MY house and tell me they "hate cats", which I find incredibly rude. I tolerated their noisy annoying kid without having to tell them I hate their kid). I don't mind kids meeting my poodle x, she loooooves kids, but I don't let my puppy meet people on walks, as he is quite reactive. He's fine in training classes, so there he gets to meet people. On walks he just goes stupid, so I have body blocked kids and simply told them 'No' when they have been running towards him, and if there is an adult around I tell the adult it's better if they don't meet the puppy. When I do let my poodle x meet kids, I expect the kids to know how to behave around dogs, or for the parent to know and supervise sufficiently. If they do anything I don't like, doggy goes away (I will say "alright, that's enough" and take her away). I don't care if that makes me anti-social, I didn't ask them to come and pat my dog.

Can't she sleep in her crate in whatever room you are sleeping in? I don't see why he would make her sleep outside, unless he has decided she's not allowed inside at all ever? What difference does it make to him if she sleeps inside or outside? I would be putting my foot down, if we were invited somewhere for a weekend we would obviously bring the dogs, we're not gonna drive them an hour to the boarding kennel I like just so we can visit someone, and if I am bringing my dogs, I decide where they sleep. They don't move from their beds at all all night, so why would it matter to the house owner? If they were then to say 'no, the dogs will be sleeping outside/away from you' then I would say 'forget it, we'll stay home'. There is no way I would let the dogs sleep anywhere except in the same room as me.

My dogs are picky too, at first I gave in and bought one yummy wet food after another to mix with the dry food. Then I bought canidae, and it's good quality food and there is no reason why they shouldn't eat it. So now all they get is the dry food mixed with water to make it soggy. If they don't eat it, they skip a meal. The best way to get a picky dog is to offer it something else if it doesn't immediately start eating. It's no big deal for a dog to skip a meal or 3, they're not gonna starve to death. Obviously you shouldn't offer a lot of treats while getting him to eat what you want him to eat. I never stopped offering them treats, as we do training every day. Now they usually eat it right away. I leave it out for about 20 minutes (they usually finish it before that time) and whatever is left gets thrown away.

I was reading up on this, and found that some people start with treats, then put the target odour in with the treats for a while, and then eventually remove the treats. But like you I see no reason why you can't put the target odour in with the treats right from the start, or just shape to detect the target odour right from the start. I have already started with treats, so I will stick with that now, but I will start adding the target odour as well, to speed up the process.

Maybe a bit off topic, but how do go from training with a treat to detecting a particular scent? I have just started nosework with my dogs with their favourite treat, but I want to eventually get them to detect a different scent, say aniseed. And why is it recommended that start with treats or toys, rather than starting with the scent you want them to detect right from the start?

Most dogs in shelters are adults. I had a hard time finding a puppy when I wanted one (although admittedly it wasn't puppy season). The problem isn't too many animals, it's a lack of responsible ownership. Most dogs in shelters came from good homes, and were given up due to divorce, moving or work commitments. (Or just because the owner didn't bother training the dog and decided the badly behaved adult dog was too much work). They weren't picked up as strays on the street. So there aren't too many animals, there are too many irresponsible owners.

I have heard that if you remove cane toads, it will be a while before another takes its place, as they are territorial. Don't know if this is true though. I catch any cane toad I see and put it in the fridge for 12-24 hours, then put it in the freezer for another 12 hours.