PAX

Always say come when you know he is going to come. When your about to feed him his dinner say "come". I also like to do what KitKat said and play come/hide and seek. You need to pick the times to do this so he is always sucsessful. When he is in a playful mood call him and hide behind a shrub, when he finds you run. Make it the best fun ever. Don't try and play the "come" game if he is in a sleepy mood. I never call "come" unless i am sure i can make it happen otherwise you will teach him to not listen to you. Evertime you see him coming to you say "come" and reward with something of value. Once this is reliable you can reward with less frequency, but always reward with praise even if your cranky with him.

If he wont eat raw chicken he is not hungry enough

Well the people i'm taking about do not have a happy voice. They are the ones you see kicking there dogs into the correct return to heel position and checking the shit out of it down the back away form the ring. I agree with Tess 32, in that some people are just bad at training no matter what they learnt, been told or seen. Otherwise we could all read the same book and all have perfect dogs. Its a good thing to be willing to try something new if things arent working, and keep an open mind. Maybe we can meet at a trial one day and critique some dogs and handlers.

When i say a "robot dog" i mean a dog that trots in the recall and barely at that and a dog thats tail is down. A dog that does the send out in slow motion, retreives in a walk. If you have acheived a happy springy happy dog well then obviously your are a good trainer that has very good timing and your dog must understand the exercises well. I don't have a problem with that and i agree with you in the sense that i think its kinder to teach a dog to heel quickly than be forever nagging at the poor dog. I also see dogs that the trainers food train and the second they go in the ring the dogs say " no food no work" If you havent seen the type of dogs I'm talking about just sit and watch at a trial. BTW my dog is also happy and fast in the retreive and i do not have to take the clicker everywhere just as i'm sure you dont use the force fetch every time. Clicker training is not new but it was new to me.

I wouldn't use the remote either..........crunch chomp. A freind was telling me the other day that she got her dog to retreive spoons off the kitchen floor then when she got them from the dog she dips them in a vegimite jar (dog only jar) and lets her lick the spoon and this helped her heaps with the metal articles. I have been kinda half heartedly trying to teach my dog to collect the metal dog bowls without any luck. Tonight i might get the clicker and give it a bit of a go.

I compete in obedience and i always try to watch some Open or UD dogs. When ever i see a dog that really stands out as brilliant, i try to ask how they train. A couple of handlers that really stand out to me (198+ scores) clicker train. I trained my dog to heel in a check chain and once taught i crossed over. I didnt do this deliberately, that was just when i learnt a new method. It will be interesting to me to see if i can train my next dog from scratch on a fixed collar. When i got my current dog, with the information that i had i would of thought it impossible. I am a crossover trainer and IMO the clicker trained dogs work much faster and happier and are really breathtaking to watch work. I would rather have a dog work in a happy way and occasionally stuff up than be an obedient, brow beaten robot. This is only my opion from what i have personally expereinced and observed in my short trialling experience. I do not have any interest in handling agressive dogs or doing security work and i can appreciate how if i did i might have a different opinion. I scoffed at a clicker until i couldn't teach the retreive and a forced retreive was recommended to me. I wasn't happy to try this on my dog as i knew the only reason he wasn't doing it was because he didn't understand. I went looking for something else, I was clicker crappy and had great success. This is a great topic with plenty of food for thought.

Dear Jacqui, I have been thinking of Molly and wondering how she was going. Sorry the news isn't good. I will be thinking of her and keeping everything crossed for you. kind regards Lisa

Hi mclennan, I do a similar thing. I also use a different collar for fun walking to when we are working. I only say "heel" when we are working. On road walks if i think he is getting a bit too ahead i just say "steady" to remind him of his manners. Sorry to thread hijack. Its interesteing to hear what other people do.

For a vet to perform a debark in NSW you are supposed to have exhausted all other methods and have no other choice apart from Euthanasia and must supply a Stat dec signed by a JP stating this. Unless its changed

Have you tried a squeaky toy? Try to end the play before she does so its something really special to look forward too. Even if that means 30seconds of play. Have a build up before you get the toy out to build up the excitement and have fun with the toy yourself while she is watching (the neighbours will think you've gone mad) before you give it to her. When she goes to get the toy grab it and run with it. Sometimes a chicken neck in an old sock as a tug toy works to get them started although dont let her have this in the sock while your not watching, she might eat the sock and choke.

Tess32, I had an adult dog that was the same. She had been a show dog and encouraged not to sit. Drop was no problems but sit was almost impossible. I had to practically lift her by the collar up and backwards (which i hated) and just give heaps of praise. When i did this with all the early sits her body would go so stiff and rigid and she looked so unatural and uncomfortable, the poor girl. I also started getting the sit before meals etc It didnt take to long and she would do it for food then i started to clicker train it. I couldn't clicker train it at first because she was totally clueless and she had been reprimanded for sitting in her show career. For the first month i thought she would never get it but eventually she did and started even sitting when relaxed at home. I always put in other behaviours that she could be sucsessful at to take the pressure off her. I had also never seen a dog that sitting was such a big deal.

I use them as well but i dont like the one in your picture as i would worry that the buckle would stick into their throat. They are great collars.

Im thought she did have the i-click ones because i have them Maybe i got them somewhere else. They are better than the standed clickers and a little quieter. Maybe i bought them from clean run?? I need more coffee. I bought some toys as well postage cost i bit over $30 AUS dollars

Sorry here is the adress ( i was being lazy) www.callicoma.com.au/

Hi KITKAT, I meant to tell you this before. There is a lady at Grafton who sells them and lots of other stuff if you want to have a look. I have bought things from her before and always received it very quickly. Its; Callicoma Kelpies. If you do a search you will find her she is at Grafton , northern NSW If you need i can look up her correct web adress

I have worked/been involved in the veterinary industry for twenty years. Last year when my bitch got speyed i couldnt believe how much pain she was in. She was out of sorts for quite a few days and she was a young healthy bitch. It is a major operation and lays human women up for a couple of weeks , yet we expect our dogs to be bright as a button the next day. If you have any concerns you should speak to the vet who performed the spey. It wont hurt to be to careful. How ever i would expect if the wound looks clean and dry that everything is OK. Hope she is feeling better soon

Hi there, I have had my two Dobes on BARF for one year now. I did the rapid change over and had no problems. Maybe you over fed them. Try feeding three times a day, smaller amounts until they are used to it. I mix my vegies with mince or cans of pilchards from the supermarket. At first just add a little bit of vegies to the mince or fish, when they eat that then they get their RMBs. It doesnt take long and you can slowly increase the amount of vegies and you want need to mix them anymore. I do not feed pet mince or any other pet quality food. Pet mince is full of preservatives and that is why i switched to BARF so i know what my dogs are eating. I also do not feed any cereals but i switched because one of my dogs had very bad skin and soft bowel motions. I think he couldnt cope with cereal because now he is soo shiny and healthy. He is 73cm and 40kilos, a liitle too big for a Dobe. If i can help you in any way please ask.

I dont think she is talking about vomit............humping and trying to mate is not uncommon but the 'meat and two veg' is. I would speak to your vet. Some obedience training would help. Whenever he jumps up on you or anyone else get them to walk forward straight into him. He will not be able to continue jumping up without falling over and he will realise this is a bad idea.

Paddles, I went through this stage as well. I got down on the ground and asked for the dumbell right next to me and made sure i caught the dumbell ( i didn't not cue it with a word yet) It only took a few times, maybe ten or so until he worked out i wanted it in my hand. Then when he had that i stood up and did it. Once they understand this well then add the word. Keep each session short one to two minutes. Then slowly make it slightly more difficult for him to put it in your hand, like have your hands behind your back when he brings it to you then take it. Just progress slowly. Make sure you have 80% rate before increasing the difficulty. Sounds like your making good progress. Keep us posted

I gave it to my dogs just before all the bad press about (as ML has posted) it came out. I was very worried that they would get some weird illness and they were fine but i dont think i would risk it again. Maybe later when there is more research.

I had never used a clicker either until i found this site. I had been trying to teach my dogs to retrieve with no sucsess using traditional methods and they were just totally confused. I bought a clicker and tried it. The first thing you have to teach your dog is that click means food, this is the best part for the dogs as you have to do lots of clicking and treating and they dont have to do anything. If your dog is a food hound this is very easy and they learn it super fast. A lot of people where i train frown upon clickers and until this i didnt understand the benefits but now i am converted. I dont use them for all training but they are great for training specific bahaviours. Once your dog is fully trained in the retrieve it becomes its own reward and they just love this new game.

Dear Paddles, Did you look at the site i suggested www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html If you take your time and dont rush, just follow the steps you should have sucsess

I suggest you go to tricks of the week and "toilet duck" has some info on how to teach your dog to retrieve. There is a link there for Shirley chongs keepers retrieve, I have taught my dog using this method with great sucsess and also some of my friends have. good luck Lisa

sorry thread hijack; Holly, How is your itchy dog going?

thanks Dogbesotted, I know of a quite a few people that have older dogs on Sashas Blend and are very pleased with the improvement in their dogs mobility