BlackJaq

Police and PP work are by far not the only times when a dog in high drive may redirect at its handler. Happens a lot with gun dogs who are either poorly trained or poorly controlled or simply of very strong temperament. Pretending like training a dog for PP will make it more likely to redirect on the handler is ridiculous, especially when this was obviously an accident where the dog was likely aiming for the offender, not the handler (hence it was not even really redirected, just an unlucky miss). Not sure what point is being made here, it certainly isn't the point that OP is attempting to make.

Foxy kind of knows this one, but she does a few "dry runs" before an actual sound comes out... We've also encouraged our dogs to be quiet from the start so I guess when I was teaching her I got kind of desperate and started to reward even non attempts, like opening and closing her mouth... Hmm yea so she just kinda barks but completely without any sound once or twice and eventually she will let out a real bark. After that first one, continued asking will receive real barks.... Just not that first time.... I am hoping this will improve with practice. I ask her to do it in town and other random places, as long as I don't feel like we are bothering anybody. Obviously I wouldn't tell her to bark in the middle of dog training or whatever, but learning to do it around distractions is great, she seems to skip the silent barks sometimes if there is lots of activity around her and in that case I give her a jackpot reward. Hopefully she will catch on soon.

We used to have a 17.1hh STB gelding, including the big ugly bucket head with the funky upside down neck and all that. He was the calmest, most docile horse ever. I can't even remember how many beginners had their first ride on him. He did pace as well as the "normal" gaits, walk, trot, canter and gallop. I think a lot of the dislike some people have for them is actually caused by the training they receive, along with their sometimes less-than-stellar looks. They generally are taught to be very stiff and straight in harness and they don't get much exercise apart from that work in general. I have seen some nasty methods of keeping them straight, including all sorts of contraptions involving poles, hooks and whips and I've also seen some nasty scarring and injuries when horses run into the hook or whatever. Breaking gait into a canter during a race is heavily penalized by most trainers (I know people will say they are not punished for it but in my personal experience these people are talking out of their ass). Now when you look at a riding horse, they need to be able to turn and bend in ways a harness racer never even dreamed off. Many of them have never even been taughy to back up (walk backwards). It can be difficult to limber them up to a point where they don't feel like a turning ship and many of them can be scared to deviate from what they have been taught. None of this is their fault, obviously, but I think it explains why some people prefer TBs or other rescue horses over them. Many people looking for a cheap saddle horse simply do not have the skill to retrain a harness racer, and I am not saying this because of their temperament (which is generally excellent!) but because of virtue of their previous training. Alas, some of them are also a little ugly. Unfortunately, this is true.

I think expecting people to research before getting a pup that could be a restricted breed is kind of like expecting people to research before buying a loaf of bread. There are millions of them. Everybody has them. They never had a problem previously. Most likely they never even heard the faintest rumor of an issue they might have with it. For most people, it never occurs to them that their dog might require more of them than a cup of biscuits a day and a rag in some backyard to sleep on. Some dogs are lucky to get a dog house and I know dogs who survive entirely on food scraps (including cooked chicken bones and similar no no's). To a lot of people, a dog is not a huge part of their life, not to mention their thought process. Everybody's got one but only very few people actually think beyond that.

Wow I never though there would ever be a post from you that I actually agree with. Wonders never cease

You'd think anything with poo in it would deter those freakish sheep but no, poo is the new IN thing... Maybe I could start selling them cute poo (maybe with ribbons on it?) and thereby make a fortune of an otherwise smelly byproduct.. Hmmmm

I found the Löwe pronounciation, but can't find the Löwchen one anywhere, not even in a German breed portrait or anything http://de.forvo.com/word/l%C3%B6we/#de (push one of the blue play buttons, there are two separate samples) -chen is a pretty difficult sound to explain, too.. Can't find a recording of it either

Wow I did not know it was German. Now that I am pronouncing it German-like my world is shattered as I always assumed it was "lau-chen" hahaha Maybe youtube has a video explaining how this sounds in German, too, otherwise I might have to record it.... :laugh: ETA: This is how I'd assumed it is pronounced:

My fingers are not representing my thoughts very well tonight sorry for the confusion!

No sorry it wasn't. I actually think you are right, pronouncing it the English (or Aussie) way it would be a V!

I have not actually given any advice?

Oh I see. I guess that makes it an English v then... :laugh:

Listen to my V video to compare. V in German is pronounced very differently to English :)

I understand perfectly, owning a dominant reactive dog myself. He has some dog aggression tendencies in fact, not fear based. You simply sound like you know nothing about how to deal with and re-train a reactive dog, which is a shame for your dog. Of course you cannot distract her. she does not give a shite what you are doing because her behavior is self rewarding and you obviously cannot compete with it at all.

This is what V sounds like in German. Huge difference. ETA: Added pronunciation for F, just to compare. F and V pretty much sound the same. V and W not at all

Rottweiler is the second word in this clip :)

Nope, pronounced with a W not V. Aussie3, I am not sure why your friend would tell you this.... Presumably she has some kind of local dialect or something she is referring to? I will see if I can find some youtube video or similar to demonstrate the pronounciation

We have a "Private Property, No Trespassing" sign at the front gate. Once you go through that you can only follow the driveway for about 20 m as creek on one side and steep rock face on other side. Just before the driveway turns the corner that will let you see the house we also mounted a "If you can read this, you are in range" sign. We actually did have somebody on motorbikes make use of a tree that fell on the front fence beside the gate to gain access come up the driveway. Not sure if they saw the sign or not but we happened to be doing target practice in front of the house. With large caliber rifles. One was gone like 5 kinds of harpies were chasing him, the other guy was begging for us not to shoot and I could practically see the shit leaking out of his trouser leg.. Have not had any problems since and clearly our dogs are not the ones to worry about anyway Seeing as your here now Danois, is it true that the Beware of Dogs signage makes you liable? I have been told this, too, hence avoided any reference to dogs on our signage. As we will be getting another LGD who will presumably be less tolerant of intruders than the current Maremma I intend on getting at least a LGD warning sign, something along the line of "Lifestock Guard Dog on Duty, do not disturb" or similar...

Lol no, this is not true. We do pronounce W as W. We do have a letter v in German you know :laugh: I think you may have watched too many movies with bad German accents in them... F is generally pronounced the same as V though. In words that is. The letter itself is pronounced "eff" the letter V is pronounced "vow"

No, this kind of behavior is generally self rewarding, regardless of the type of reactivity. It's also often why the dog will ignore you and continue with that behaior, especially if it has worked in the past.

If I remember correctly Tapua was breeding field bred dogs though, this would likely mean they would be too driven for this kind of work I would imagine?

Wow... I don' think I'd have enough time or motivation on my hands for that unless it was my day job haha It's pretty amazing though! Makes me wonder how much time and effort that woman spends daily on her dogs!

I think if it is to be a rescue then an adult dog would be a better choice, since what you see is what you get but you could certainly get lucky with a pup, it is just a higher risk since you don't know about the pup's genetic background or anything. Even guessing at the final size might prove pretty difficult, not to mention the final adult temperament. A registered breeder would be a better place to look for a pup in my opinion.

I might be worried about their prey drive, too but I am not overly familiar with the breed. A large bull breed or Rott sounds like a likely choice to me, too, especially if you don't want to go with the traditional breeds (i.e. Lab and Golden)

I would advise against Pointers if you rely on the dog to get you safely from a to b since a cat or rabbit sprinting past you could quickly make the dog guide you right under the next car unfortunately. Also if you are physically limited I would be concerned that the amount of physical and mental stimulation would not keep a Pointer happy ETA: With a young child I would also especially advise against adding a GSP or similar to the household for first time owners (or even some more experienced people) until the child is older.