Weasels

I gather your dog is blue? she's a fawn (dilute red) which I understand is slightly less associated with the dilution alopecia than the blue but still quite prevalant. She has a much thinner and wiry coat on her sides which won't 'shine' no matter how good the coat around her neck looks. She's had this forever so unlikely to be a thyroid issue. It isn't too bad though, doesn't affect her quality of life much since if she gets cold at night she just finds a warm human to curl up against ;)

My dilute kelpie has a terrible coat, so that's something else to worry about (possibly dilution alopecia)

:laugh: Mirawee you looked busy, but I had a brief chat with a lovely lady sitting between your crates :D Had to rush off anyway to catch the duck herding then the sheep herding (conveniently at opposite sides of the grounds ) I would have glady payed 20c for a Banjo kiss tho! And was I going crazy or were half the dogs in there shelties?!

Perhaps mean old mum makes her work harder for treats than strangers do :p

Well I snuck over to the royal after work today - I saw the gorgeous little Jive and got a lick from the handsome Banjo! I caught a bit of the yard dog trials too, some beautiful work on show :)

Your questions look good - I'd watch the dogs too! Are they improved from the start of the class to the end? Are they keen to work? Is the trainer giving one-on-one time to each client, especially if they're struggling or unsure of something? It's the vibe! :laugh:

Thanks ST I think so too :) When OH and I demo'ed on Tues the trainer was making sure to point out that both of our kelpies were rescue dogs and how Weez had a bunch of behavioural problems when we got him but herding has been great for them - so I thought that was a nice message too :) Should be 3 gorgeous reg. Aussies and a BC out there today (after the BC has finished showing!) Congrats on all your results too ST!!

All breeds herding WA will be doing duck herding demos on the performance dog lawn all day today at the Royal :)

I've been next to the dog pavillion all day and seen some gorgeous pooches :) Plus I learned what a PBGV is! :D

Any Dolers at the show today? We're driving up now :)

I'm perfectly happy to believe the techniques work (not that I've looked into them), just pointing out that some of the reasoning behind them is based on pseudoscience. (e - luckily dogs are much more interested in what we do than why we do it :))

Which strikes me as incredibly disrespecful to the complicated and intricate social behaviour of our furry friends

I think the investigation is pretty complete. Dominance is generally accepted as a relationship between individuals and a resource, not a personality trait. Some, rare, dogs may have higher value for almost every resource at every time, and be willing to establish priority access to each resource, and they may be labelled generally 'dominant' as a convenient descriptor. Wild dogs, such as pariah dogs and dingoes - which are much more closely related to domestic dogs than wolves are - have a flexible social structure which varies according (mainly) to resource availability. Dingoes in NT with access to constant & plentiful resources in the form of human garbage tips have no discernable linear hierarchy, and trying to ascertain one only results in a very confused human observer. This situation seems to me to be far more analogous to a domestic dog situation than wolves enclosed together in a limited space with an unnatural age structure and unrelated individual (whereas their 'normal' pack configuration is far more likely to be a family group with an alpha breeding pair and sibs/ and some members of litters from previous years)

The training method invented by Jan Fennel ("The Dog Listener"). It's based on the belief that dogs behave in the same way wolves do. but they don't... They have years/centuries of domestication About 20,000 years, by most estimates. Also, how we *think* wolves behave has changed a lot in recent times.

Sorry but I have no time for the attitude "I'm passionate about dogs so I don't have to be respectful to people". I've seen it emerge in the most unexpected of places, and it leaves me cold on every occasion.

Maybe a secure outdoor dog run would be better? I worry that an unhappy/stressed/frustrated dog shut in a crate will hurt itself Have you done any crate training in the past? A bit of investment in making a dog love its crate can make a big difference :)

Thanks Pers :) I remember the thread (and a spin-off!) which was another reason I was dubious about the claim it is so widely used.

to the last 2 posts :) I feel very fortunate to have found a trainer that understood all the above. From having very trainable and keen dogs I was all ready to put in a 'training' solution, but the person I was working with insisted on doing counter-conditioning first where we asked nothing of Weez except to eat a bunch of food as the bike got closer and closer. He 'got' the game quickly so we just kept tightening the criteria a bit at a time and it worked so well. One of the few clues I had that his reactivity was distance-increasing (at the beginning) was that he was leaning back into his hind legs while he was barking rather than forward aggressively. Fortunately I knew his general temperament and had a fair idea of what he found scary which helped too. As his training progressed more signed of fear emerged as he quitened down. I get really worried when I hear suggestions of using corrections/aversives on dogs that may have fear-based behaviour IMHO it's a really important thing to know.

sorry - From this website - Really? Can anyone confirm this, cos it doesn't sound right to me.

I have one 'sticky' dog and one obedient girl who will recall on a dime with a smile on her face - I only realised recently how little 'eye' my obedient girl uses when working! She has it in her repertoire but seems to prefer to do continuous flanks more like a shepherd dog. She is much easier to live with but needs a different style of handling on stock to my 'sticky' dog. Weez does a great stalk and works nicely when the mood takes him, but he's been a huge challenge to train reliably Edit - Oh and yes I have put roast chicken on his tongue while he is in this mode and it just fell to the floor!

We've had a few catahoulas and x's (including an entire litter ) in rescue in WA in the past few years

As my trainer said last week - "dogs aren't capable of love. I mean, *my* dogs are of course, but none of *your* dogs really feel love" :p

I suppose it also depends on whether these are the same people that the dog is seeing on its walks, and has a history of attention from them. Some dogs get a kick out of attention more than others, it's why some dogs will race across the park to see someone they know is good for a pat!

Anthropomorphism as its finest I don't think so If the dog is accustomed to a certain reaction from approaching and greeting people, especially one that is reinforcing, and overnight that reaction stops then of course it will be confusing and cause some level of distress.

Whipit I was thinking of you and Izzy while the RSPCA guy was rabbitting on