Weasels

Awwww heeler puppies :p My first dog was a heeler x kelpie from a neighbour's oops litter, when we went to see the litter she trundled over and planted herself on my shoe to have a chew on my shoelaces :D We bought her for a carton of beer and had her for 13 happy years

you can set notifications of watched threads to be sent to your email whenever someone posts It's in 'my settings' > notification options. If you then have push email you would never miss a thing!

Sheesh that crew must keep you busy Clover

With my older girl it was absolutely love at first sight :D I actually went to a shelter to see another dog, but she growled at me when I got close to her pen I looked around at the other dogs and when I went past Fox's pen she gently dropped a tennis ball at my feet and backed up slowly with the most hopeful look on her face When the shelter employee that was helping us said she had to go check to make sure Fox wasn't on hold I honestly had a pain in my chest thinking we might not be able to adopt her. All was well tho and we took her home that day. Best decision ever. Weez was more of a slow creep into our hearts, but he was good with the FoxDog (who can be a bit grumpy with other dogs) and a sweet little man so we took him in too. Wouldn't trade him for the world now of course.

Huskies the OP was only going by the pups on the website and the dogs they saw, yes that's jumping to conclusions but i don't think that's enough to call shenanigans...

Hi lms, sorry this happened Dogs can absolutely take a dislike to a type of dog or an individual dog, but if you didn't see it you can't really know what went on. *some* owners of little dogs that I've met are a bit over-sensitive. I once had an elderly couple freak out because my girl (16kg dripping wet) took a few steps towards them from 20m away (she just wanted to see if they might throw the ball for her). One of them grabbed their little dog and the other walked towards her shoo-ing and waving his arms. Fortunately I was watching and she is our dog with great recall so I just said her name and she came running back to me (which was actually quite satisfying after their overreaction :D). I've also seen little dogs screech just when another dog is near but not touching them, so that may not be anything solid to go on either. Point is, I wouldn't freak out just yet, especially if this hasn't happened before. Maybe just be aware it might be an issue and perhaps put your dog on a lead if you see this guy again

ok that makes more sense - maybe i'll see you at a trial one day ;) Eta: found the interview i mentioned in my post this morning, it was actually with his family - http://www.workingaussiesource.com/stockdoglibrary/scott_sisler_article.htm

Glad you enjoyed the vid Pippi :D there is a part 2 on youtube too but this is the better of the two i think. -- Bedazzled2 i''m so glad you enjoyed herding i find it great training because sheep are the highest reward for the kelps! This was our experience when we started too - after about a month the dogs had a week off and when we went back it was like everything had just clicked. I'm still not entirely sure if it was latent learning or just them thinking "if i'm extra good we won't miss another training week!" Do you train at Mandurah? It sounds like the same trainer but i thought herding training was on hold for this month...

I can't think of specific examples right now, but I suspect that my girl knows EXACTLY how adorable she is, and really plays up the maximum cuteness when she wants something :/

I read an interview once with Jay Sisler, awesome trick trainer, where he said exactly the same thing - if his dogs weren't getting something he'd just leave it for a few weeks then when he came back to it they did much better. Of course he had exceptional dogs, but i've always applied it to my training and been surprised at how often it works Eta- just in case anyone hasn't seen it :D

I'm thinking about stepping up to formal LAT for my boy, he's taken a bit of a backslide with reactivity recently I use two related methods, 'who's that?' and 'just watch'. I use 'who's that' when he is locked on to something in his sheep-dog way and I just want to break his attention so he can learn to listen under high excitement. (I say "whossat?", get a whip around of the head, C&T, let him go on with what he's doing. I don't really care where he's looking, as long as he can be distracted and listens). This has been fine because I've been able to build the reward of attention to me higher than chasing things, but recently he had a bit of trauma (in his own mind anyway) of being left with a friend overnight and it looks like we're gonna have to get more serious. So far I've only used 'just watch' when he's waiting for his turn on sheep at herding, it essentially means stop barking and watch quietly ("just watch"> if quiet, treat but allow to keep watching other dogs herd). Thanks to Sheena I have a Clean Run article about LAT on my ipad, and I'm going to conscript my OH to ride a bike past us once we've got the base work done. Based on all the rave reviews here on DOL, I have high hopes that the Weez can become a model suburban dog, just like his goody-two-shoes big sister

As did I Yep, I guess you could be right, it was a bit confusingly expressed in some parts. Google tells me he's making a doco about dingoes too - http://if.com.au/2011/08/09/inprod/Dingo---Wild-Dogs-At-War/VCVTYPIRUD.html , he does get around

Huh, that is.... interesting. I suppose it's the 'teach a dog to bark so you can teach him to shush' philosophy, but I'm not a fan. I have dogs that pull on the jog to the park and not on the way back, and the way down I get much more of a sore back and calves than being able to jog at my own pace on the way back. I also had a trainer once who had huskies and said that taking them sledding made training a loose lead walk muuuch more difficult I agree tho that he seems to be taking this onslaught of passionate dog ladies on his FB and email quite well

Thank you! Our two definitely keep us entertained :D Love, love, love Kelpies! What's not to love? :D and KTB's are particularly photogenic!

Looks like a good option Simsy - as a bonus you will get to see at least one fuzzy adorable lab pup

Ah can't help with NOR sorry perhaps if you don't get much response here you could post in the WA thread in General Dog Discusssion?

What's the general area you're looking in? NOR/SOR?

Haha thanks Superminty, I guess I'll just have to be patient and extra vigilant until he settles into the job :D Weez's stops and flanks were still intact, and I got him out of the pen off-lead, but as soon as we were out he tried to race back in again and wouldn't be called away! Luckily the next dog going in was our other dog so OH grabbed him at the gate until I could get over there with a lead Unfortunately we only got those 2 consecutive weeks on ducks because they were trying to get them fit for the royal show, so our access to them will be a bit more sporadic from here. Good luck in the trial! I'm sure you'll both do fine And yay for good training!!!

I was thinking about this after I posted. I apply a quick calculation of risk vs desired outcome that goes along these lines: Trick training/dog sports: consequences of not performing behaviour: near zero. Potential for harm using punishers: non-zero. Therefore use PP. Barking: consequences of excessive behaviour: council complaints/mad neighbours/broken sleep. Prepared to use aversives of the same level of annoyance that the dogs are causing me (like a squirt with the hose). Serious behavioural issues: consequences up to and including being PTS, run over etc. Would be willing to try a broader range of methods as long as risk of punishment consequence < risk if behaviour continues (fortunately it hasn't come to that for any of my dogs).

Thanks tlc I don't think they're boganish, I was just surprised that one day I woke up and they seemed to be everywhere!

Where are these things from? I have been seeing them everywhere, it's like are just growing on cars!

poor things I think I've been pretty lucky with trainers too, of the 5 we've worked with for various sports/ behaviour issues/ obedience, 4 have been PP and 1 has used mostly +ve with correction when necessary. The latter has been fairly willing to work with us on what is best for our dogs tho so we've been happy to continue. I'm pretty cagey about handing over control of my dogs to anyone tho, even my husband :D

Fair enough, but in that 'getting to know you' period while trust is established (or not) I would much prefer a gentler hand. I concede that Weez is probably at the extreme end being both a breed that is known for shutting down under harsh tratment and a rescue dog. My approach personally is trying to talk to as many trainers as I can and absorb what's helpful for me & mine and discard the rest. Just one client's perpective tho of course ETA: I think my point is that a terrible PP trainer is less likely to cause ongoing problems than a terrible -ve trainer. Obviously you'd ditch both tho.

I don't have a problem with corrections per se, but I would only ever hire a PP trainer/behaviourist for my dogs. This is because I don't trust someone I have only met a few times to know the threshold of correction that my dogs (particularly my boy) can handle without shutting down. And since I'm the one that then has to pick up the pieces for the next week bringing him back from increasing reactivity, skittishness and general barkiness I'm unapologetic about that. My view is that PP is a lot less likely to do damage in the wrong hands or even with people that misjudge a specific dog than corrections will. I appreciate that there are trainers that may be very effective in their use of corrections but there are a lot of cowboys out there too and I'm not willing to take a chance.