Weasels

Rainy if my girl dog thinks OH or I are the slightest bit displeased with her she will be at our feet like a shot, wiggling and looking as cute as possible to make amends. Weez on the other hand would be out of sight as quickly as possible, he just can't handle it. Seems like some dogs just have a 'come closer' reaction to an angry owner (which then reinforces the behaviour of the owner if they're that way inclined )?

My dogs are on acreage now but when they lived in the suburbs we'd go every day before work. We were totally spoilt having 2 multi-oval complexes, salt flats and a quiet beach within a few minutes drive, plus a dog-friendly reserve a minute walk up the road :) Only had 2 real incidents with other dogs in as many years, but i do think they slightly prefer having their own space now without being followed around by strange dogs, even though they tolerated it pretty well.

Yah I'd get a Subaru outback :) OH has a turbo liberty which is essentially an outback with less ground clearance and it kicks ass. Expensive tho :/

I've been thinking I might need this sign

i think it relates to dogs ability to read each other and preferred play styles. The more different the dog, the more challenging it is for your dog to 'read' it. Look at Boxers - they tend to spark a lot of reaction from other dogs. I think its because their expression tends to look challenging when its just their head and eye shape. Oh gods yes, boxers might as well be from Mars as far as my 2 are concerned!

While I agree with everything else said another way to look at it is from your dog's preference. I find my dogs get on poorly with dogs most dissimilar to them - i.e. they generally get along well with other kelpies, pretty well with border collies, ok with shepherds down to bully breeds where things are often quite tense. So although I love bullys and boofas I generally avoid them to keep the peace.

My favouritest balls are high-bounce ones from rebel sport, usually in a bin by the counter. They are tough, float, and are bright colours to find easily in the grass. I've never found a tennis ball that lasts more than one or two outings but the bouncy ones last us months :) The tooth abrasion thing is an issue with us since Chess had already lost a fair bit off the ends of her teeth by the time we'd adopted her :/

It's a tough call but I think in this case the dog would most likely still be bonded to her old owners, and be happier in her 'real' home So I think I'd have to give her back. Having said that though, a "kelpie healer cross" would be damned handy to have around. Save a fortune in medical bills.

They would have declined that as that is also illegal.If a real estate asked me to pay more bond or rent because I had a pet I'd tell them to shove it and report them to the RTA. Each to their own... we offered it was up to them if they chose to accept it or not... like I said show of good faith that we were serious tenants and that we wanted to do the right thing anf... its hard enough to find a place to rent with one animal let alone 2-3 we had at the time (our living circumstances have changed since so have flexibility on dog numbers). I was chatting to someone from the RTT in SA about this and they said (here at least), it's their house and they can offer it at whatever rent they choose. And the tenant can choose to take it or leave it. What they can't do is charge 2 separate bonds. -- Esky whenever I get stuck at the end of an email I usually write "please contact me if you have any queries or wish to discuss this further" or thereabouts :) I've been thinking about renting but with 2 kelpies I'm not sure I'll even bother trying :/ I just resent having to pay so much stamp duty to buy a place! :laugh:

Excellent post Espinay and dead on. Dingoes/wild dogs here are quite different socially to wolves that other countries face, they are more likely to go for livestock individually or in pairs since they have very loose and adaptive pack affiliations. What works best really varies among habitats, livestock types and predator strategies.

Poor pup You could ask Aus working dog rescue (http://www.workingdogrescue.com.au/), I know at least 2 DOLers foster for them, they might be able to pop in and help out more.

I have 2 reactive dogs, although mercifully to different things. One motion reactive and the other can be dog-reactive. Yay. My boy Weez is the problem on walks, and I find the issue with them together is that, since the girl Chess is vigilant and excitable, when he reacts she starts barking too and things just escalate way quicker and are harder to diffuse. All my carefully researched understanding of his threshold distance and triggers all goes to hell! So that's another factor that can go into walking decisions :/

Yep my old trainer puts blu-tack on the metal part of her box clicker to muffle the noise :)

Whenever I spend time with dogsports people they are quite willing to offer unsolicited opinions on my dogs' weights :laugh: It's never offended me, I let Weez carry a bit more weight because he is a ground-dwelling creature (he still has tuck, just in 'pet condition' rather than working/agility condition). Chess I keep pretty skinny because she runs and jumps a lot and I am more concerned about her joints. She still varies from being able to see most of her ribs in winter to more padded in the lazier summers. I've always been happy to have a sensible discussion with anyone who brings it up since I am mindful of their weights and don't see it as anything to take personally

Pretty sure when some colleagues of mine wanted dogs to sniff out invasive animal spor they went straight to Steve Austin :)

We don't have wild/feral dogs here, there are out further. We unfortunately have lifestyle farmers instead with their dogs I just remembered after my first post there was an unsocialised, escaped rescue dog that got into the bush near my old suburb and it took them I think 6-9 months to catch it with a cage trap because it was so skittish. They did make a couple of mistakes though so the dog got wise to the trap. But again if they are normal curious (& greedy) domestics it should be ok :)

Good luck Oso :) If the dog/s is at all feral a cage trap would be very hard but if they are the neighbour dogs you might be ok. Sorry about your lambs

Are you thinking a soft jaw leg-hold trap or some kind of cage trap Oso? E - the cages are very expensive and I don't know anyone who's used one. The Victor soft jaws are generally $25-50, but there are some tricks to setting them up. DAFWA or maybe your local NRM rep should be able to help you I think. http://www.wapoultryequipment.net.au/products/victor-soft-catch-3-rubber-jaw-trap-dogs-dingoes

I have a couple of friends who've done diplomas with CASI, based in Canada but online and been really happy with it. It is 'least invasive/minimally aversive' training though so skews positive, but not as much as Delta from what I understand. Being online though it requires a good internet connection, video camera and dog/s to work with. Snap SnT :)

Which is still a matter of "I didn't" not "it couldn't be done".

If you put a dog in a situation it isn't ready for it will fail. If you set the dog up with gradually increasing criteria and differentially reinforce the preferred behaviour it will succeed. Not everyone wants to commit to doing the latter, but it will still work.

But we can train heaps of animals in precise and complex behaviours using marker-reward training, not just dogs. So breeding in drive or handler focus can't be a necessary condition.

Force-free/'R+'/LIMA training isn't a method, it's an ethical decision. Just as vegetarians aren't stuck only eating sprouts and tofu, the training we do is limited only by our knowledge, imagination and commitment. E - and no minute I've ever spent with my dogs has been wasted time

For a full recall which I don't use overly much I want them to come in and touch their nose to my open palm. I have separate commands for "stop moving away from me", "I'm changing direction, come with me" and "head in my general direction. Or not, whatever."

Scientific studies of feral, pariah and semi-domesticated dogs across multiple continents have shown they don't quite fit the definition of pack animals. Social certainly, and they'll pack up if they want to hunt something, but give them enough resources to survive comfortably (like in a home) and it's an opportunistic free-for-all. Dogs are, at heart, scavengers :) But absolutely address the individual behaviours you don't like. Interrupt, redirect, teach self-control. But you may need to retrain each of these behaviours individually if the self-control lessons don't generalise straight away.