Sylvie

My neighbour, who works for a pet supply company, told me the other day that they were some news going on that something had been developed and should be on the market mid-year next year. Don't know more, but hope it is right and very effective. Can't wait. Did not find any this year, but had one dog treated last year and don't want to go there again. Good luck and quick recovery to the poor affected dogs.

I was curious because I did not think I had ever seen a dog with webbed feet. So I had a better look at our JRT feet. Here are some photos: That does not look webbed to me but terriers are not really bred for swimming! The greys definitely seem to have webbed feet compare to terriers.

For the 1st time in the full year we have had them, yesterday evening I saw our 2 Jack Russells play together, or what I think was playing. We were in the garden and I was playing with Ares throwing his ball. Apollo was next to me, looking at me, like asking if I have something for him. He does not play, the only thing he is interested in is food. I have been working with him to try and get him interested in some toys. If I have treats in one hand he sniffs, paws and now even mouths the toy to get a treat. But without treats around, not interested. Well I did try to get him a bit excited and start running, stopping and running again. He followed me with great emthousiasm and the Ares came and joined the fun and they just started to chase each other around the garden. Stopping, bouncing and running as quick as they could, jumping bushes. I had never seen them like that. At first I was a bit worried as when they start to get excited usually they start fighting. But although Ares was growling a bit, he had his ball in his nouth all the way and it did seem playfull, bouncing around Apollo and chasing. Apollo did not show the teeth to stop Ares, and they just looked like they were having fun! That was good to see. I am trying very hard to get Apollo to play a bit, without upsetting Ares. He is now mouthing a Tug and holding and slightly pulling it for a second or two to get his treats. I also have a treat ball that he loves pushing around sniffing the ground to make sure he does not miss any of the treats that magically appear. Seeing there is the CleanRun free shipping at the moment, would anyone have any idea of toys that I could order to try and teach an old (8 yo) Jack Russell to play? He looks like he has never play before. He is scared of any bouncing balls or squeak. I think his brother (Ares) never let him play when they were younger. But he is very food motivated. He would do anything for a kibble! I take it very slowly but he does not seem to see the point of a toy if there is no food around.

I tried the Zoom Groom. It works great specially on Ares who is a rough one. On the smooth one, although it still losen the hairs, they all fall on the ground (or your lap) instead of sticking to the brush. To be used outside or get the vaccum cleaner ready. Anyway Ares is the worst offender by far so it is all good. Thanks.

I can feel your pain, I got 2 of them, although the rough one seems to shed a lot more than the smooth one. The only tool I found that helps is the Roboking vacuum cleaner every morning!:) Not a grooming tool though.

I had a collegue just a few weeks ago who said he was about to get 2 littermate puppies for his daughter. I told him what I thought of it and that if he really wanted 2 dogs to try and get them at least 6 months appart. I am glad he just got 1 pup last week.:)

It has been a while now since I have started this thread. I am glad to report that we did not have any fight since Christmas. We've had a big one when we went camping for 1 night at Christmas: too much excitement out there and Ares ended up with a cut on his ear, bleeding all night. Not much fun. But I have been working a fair bit with them since. I contacted Jane Harper early in January and have been to obedience classes with Ares. I'll go with Apollo at the next session and I might go to do some agility classes every then and then.They are now a lot calmer at home, and they got a few more tricks in their "repertoire". We have blocked their access to the front yard so they don't fence bark at every passing dogs anymore and are a lot quieter during the day. I am working on their reactivity to other dogs a lot. I've read a few books on top of Jane advices (Control Unleashed, Click to Calm, BAT,...) I have been walking them separately and together, avoiding other dogs as much as I could, playing the Look At That game or crossing the road to keep some distance with other dogs. I get them on a long line in a park, training their recall and other tricks with more distraction and it works pretty well. I still would not trust them completely off leash, but they love playing around me and running and coming back and it's good fun.:) The main problems we still have now are off leash, uncontrolled dogs. I have had a few close encounters now and every time it is exhausting. Once we had a young very friendly Staffy kind of dog who ran free from his handler (a 15 yo boy!) with his lead still clipped to his collar and wanted to play with my boys. I was on one leg, keeping my barking guys behind me and trying to fend the staffy with my other foot.The young boy was looking at us, doing nothing, probably thinking it was hilarious (or really not knowing what to do). I asked him if he could catch his dog, and he started to run after him trying to catch him. Off they went, crossing the road, straight to the off leash, unfenced park. I was worried for them but relieved they went away. I saw him finally getting grab of the lead and we settled down and went back to our business. Then, all of the sudden, I saw them coming back at us, the dog leading the boy . I tried to go away from where they were supposed to go but they followed us until we had another close encounter with my boy starting growling and barking again. I asked the boy where he was going so I could go the other way, but he told me: "I don't know, I am just walking the dog!" . Poor boy he had no idea. I asked him if he could try to take him away from my dogs as they did not like that too much and he eventually went away. The last one was a morning, after our walk I was opening the door to go back inside when my two disappeared behind me and I heard a scream. When I turned around, they were 4 dogs in a brawl: a big Husky, a young black dog and my two. One of mine had his mouse on the young black dog who was screaming. It was very scary. I managed somehow to get mine back inside and the other two just stayed there jumping and bouncing around, wanting to play with me. They have been no obvious damage, no blood, just a big scare. I was very lucky these two strange dogs were just playful and did not react to the attack of mine. I went to get the two leashes of my dogs to try and get these two guys back to their place ( I knew where they lived as they often barked at us when we walk past their place). Got them back there, all doors open, a little girl answering my call. The nana eventually get out of bed to take the dogs back. I took me all the morning to recover! The worst is that I saw the 2 escaped dogs bouncing around, crossing the main road, earlier while we were on the walk and I took a half hour detour to go home just to avoid any contact. There was no sign of them when we arrived home, even my dogs were very quiet sitting before going inside. I still don't know where they came from. Well I guess that's part of being a dog owner. It is a lot harder job than I ever imagine it would be but I kind of enjoy trying to understand what's going on in their little fluffy head. And I fill a lot more confident with them now.

I love the way you describe it :) . Ares does the exact same thing at the sliding window. He then bounces around to get a better look on the other side and stop there, looking around the lounge room, wondering where the hell the little Evil has gone so quick

Our JRTs are scared of the whip the neighbour boys are cracking in their backyard. One day, a few weeks ago, we could not figure out what was going on. They were just pacing the lounge, tail tucked, following us everywhere, trying to hide under our legs. Then my husband went outside and came back saying the neighbours had bought a whip! Last weekend we set up 1m high wood fence to prevent them from going into the front yard and barking at all passing dogs. When we came back from shopping one of them (Apollo) was on the other side barking at the other one (Ares) through the piece of wood. The neighbours were playing with the whip on the other side o fthe backyard fence and i am sure Apollo just jumped the little fence because of that. Ares don't jump because he has arthritis. They have not jumped it since, although we are going to make it a bit higher. They are also terrified of wood fire. When my husband lighted one the other night, Apollo, who was on my lap, ended up on my shoulders.:D

Before we had our dogs, we used to have neighbours cats, from both side, sun baking in our garden regularly or coming between my legs when I was hanging the clothes. Since we got the 2 Jack Russell they just stay outside the garden, out of reach. They just seemed to have learnt very quickly it is not their place to be anymore. I always thought (and hope) cats were smart (and quick) enough not to get cought by dogs: like stay on the top of the fence just to tease the dog, but out of reach, and watch the dogs getting mad :D

This is one of the reviews on this one: "February 8, 2012Good to start with but.........There always is a BUT. This product just seems to deteriorate over time, the battery, the cleaning and even finding the base. After a while (about 3 months) the cleaner just decides to run backwards for no reason and can bang into things as there is no sensors on the back of it. Mine has also fallen down the stairs - probably due to running reverse when it's not supposed to. These do a good job at cleaning but they start to not work properly after about 3 months. I have 2 and both are doing the same thing. I would not recommend." Probably too good to be true.

You totally should. I'm a bit wary, I'm pretty sure I'd come home to a 6kg Burmese sitting on top going around, and around, and around. WE so should, (Discounts for DOLers) and...I've owned a Burmese and I can see that. :laugh: I found it at $499 online today VR5906VM. My parents want to get it for me for my birthday

Hi Sylvie, I have also seen Jane Harper and have found a combo of what I learnt with her and also our weekly training worked well. We go to Urban Dog Training at Carina - Danielle and Paul are fabulous, very down to earth and the results are outstanding. Asti attended the Urban Basics class and Angus attended the two Puppy ones and also attends the free Adolescent play groups up until he's 12 months old. My next plan of attack is to get both Asti and Angus into Clicks and Tricks, and Loose Lead Walking (in that, Asti will learn to walk around other dogs who are also on lead!) and then depending on how we go I want to keep repeating with Asti until she gets the hang of being around other dogs and knowing they don't care about her. When you go to an Obedience Club, do they have classes/sessions like other dog training schools? or is the training specifically for competing in competitions? Thanks SammieS, The Jindalee Centenary Obedience Club has Basic Obedience training session of 6 weeks, I don't expect to do any competition with our dogs. I will probably enroll one of the dog for the basic obedience class next month. They think it is better to take same dog for the full 6 weeks and then work on the other with all the information from the class. The hard bit is to choose the one with the worst behaviour for the class as they work as a team: one starts growling and barking while the other comes to the rescue and lunges to grab the other dog. I guess I'll go with the one who starts! He is also the pushy one at home. That is also what I'd like to achieve, getting them to be around other dogs and knowing they don't care about them. Jane does not seem to think that we will be able to trust them enough to ever let them play free with other dogs, which is a bit sad, but if we could walk past other dogs without mine trying to jump on them would be great. Thanks again for your reply. Sylvie

I watch this thread with interest because I have a reactive dog and I know all the things that we didn't do correctly with Asti when she was a pup to lead to this and have promised myself I wont make the same mistake with Angus. I also know how frustrating it can be when "just friendly dogs" barrel up to yours when you're trying to keep your dog calm and under threshold then when your dog reacts the owner gives you the "there is something wrong with your dog look" when it was their dog that was displaying the rude/incorrect body language in the first place. The best thing that I did was enrol Asti into a basics dog training class - it covered all the things we did in puppy preschool 3 years ago but I wasn't there to teach her to drop, stay, loose lead walk or go to your mat, I used the 5 weeks to let Asti know that she could be around other dogs and they weren't going to come near her and she wasn't going to have to meet them. I have seen such a difference that I'm going to continue training at this place because the trainers are very supportive (and place you in the class where your dog is most likely to succeed as in be less reactive) and they have a strict no meeting on the lead policy which takes the pressure off us knowing we don't have to worry about those "he's just friendly dogs" because Asti won't have to meet them. I have to admit that I always took my cool calm and collected husband with me and I did sit in the car after class one night and had a cry because we were put too close to the trainers dogs in class (they were in a pen) and Asti lost her brain (only once in the 60 minutes) but all I could feel was the whole class looking at us! I hope all goes well on Saturday Hankdog and that you come back in here to tell us how it went! I have been reading this thread with attention too, having 2 reactive JRs. We have seen a behaviourist who helped us a lot (Jane Harper) but I'd like to try obedience classes also to get them in chalenging situation in a more controlled environment. I planned to take them one at a time, switching the two every week. I have just contacted the Jindalee Centenary Obedience Club. Did anyone have had experience with them? SammieS, which part of Brisbane are you in? And could you give the name of the place you went for the classes? Thanks. Sylvie

I did not try to fiddle with it, but organising a vet check and a professional consultation might take some time. In the meantime I just wanted to try and avoid more fights. I will contact Jane Harper as soon as possible. Thanks. Sylvie.

Did not go that well yesterday. Ares who was inside, in rumpus room downstairs while Apollo was outside, got very distressed. When I came back at lunch time, they were both barking and very agitated. Ares had pooped and peed everywhere. He even had a bit of vomit. As soon as I sent him outside he started to growl at Apollo and while I was cleaning his mess they had a bit of a brawl but with no damage. It seems to have made things worse! Apollo inside and Ares outside seems to work better. They seem a bit confused right now, don't know if I am doing the right thing. Well I am working from home today and will let them ouside. Then my husband is going to be on holidays for 2 weeks.

Everybody seem to agree that they should be kept separate when we are not around, and last week I seemed to find new crusts or scratches on any of them every day, which probably means that they are having some kind of scuffles every day. So I've started to separate them during the day and put them in their crates at night as from Monday. I walk them together in the morning and I walked them separately yesterday afternoon, while the other was staying with my husband. The one left behind was a bit distressed at first (winging and crying a bit), but they seemed to enjoy their walk on their own. I will keep doing it every then and then. I am going to get fit soon! That the funny thing, where Ares does not mind a bit of a game, chasing tennis balls (we stopped the tug-o-war game long ago because of his growling issues), Apollo is not interested at all. He better run away from tennis balls. Did not find any game for him yet and they don’t really have toys. They seem to have fun when I get them running around the yard jumping over bars that I install in a narrow passage, jumping on and off the outdoor chairs. Any idea of what kind of game I could try? They seem only interested in food or chasing alive animals (and killing if they can catch; blue tongues)! I would like to know what it means when Apollo licks Ares’face, and Ares seems to like it but after a little while he starts growling slightly, then shows the teeth and growls a bit louder but without moving away or forward. Surely if it was aggressive Apollo would stop, but he keeps licking until we stop them or they get disturb. Is that something we should be concerned about and try and stop it at the first growling sound? Or is it a normal behaviour? Thanks again, I am learning every day. Sylvie

Thanks ChristineX, We will definitely teach them to be on their own. Apollo did cope very well when his brother was sick and away. We put him outside while we were monitoring Ares and he did not budge, like if he knew something was wrong. But if they know the other one is alone just on the other side it is a bit more difficult. When we first got them, I wanted to try and walk or train them separately. I put Apollo in his kennel with the gate and called Ares away. Poor Apollo went mad, jumping and lunging in his crate. Not a good idea. But now I can put one inside, work with the other one outside without a problem. They don't really push in to block us patting the other. It is when we finished with Apollo mainly, Ares rushes to check on him and make sure he knows that he has been watched, and get a lick! Sometime time he growls at him which sends Apollo straight to his bed. That's what I would like to stop. Yes I have been suggested using NILIF. I read the page and we do pretty much every thing in it except we have to work a bit harder not to pat Ares when he put his little nose next to us. I have started already and he goes to his bed or lays down at our feet fairly quickly without much fuss. And I get them sited before any pat. Seems good to me. They were so well behaved when we got them. When we got them inside the house for the first time they looked at us to know where they could go. They used to be allowed only on a rug next to the door in their previous home. Every time they went a bit further in the house, they look at us: "Is that Ok here?". They were so cute. They did not even move from their bed when we were cooking! Now they are a bit more "alive" but still pretty obedient when we ask them to go away. Thanks again to every one with the good advises. Sylvie

Thank you all for your response. I'm impress by the activity on this forum. I tried to separate them this morning, one inside downstairs alone and the other outside. They did not like it one bit, each probably thinking the other one had the best part of the deal! They were growling slightly (not the big growl) through the door. When I opened the door the one inside rushed outside with a quick growl, then sniff and lick, lick. I'm not sure that's going to work. It will probably be better to crate them but 4-5 hours in a raw every day is a lot. Well to be quiet honest, I don't think they are too bad actually, never heard or saw a fight that lasted more the 1 or 2 seconds. The last one, I know a little bit of blood was drawn, but it was really not much and it was probably more impressive because they licked each other and spray it all over them. But we certainely want to keep an eye on them. My main worry is to make sure that we were not doing anything that could get them worse, and see if we could do anything to improve it. I think Ares is still a bit affected by his tick paralysis. When I pick him up at the clinic, they gave me a note saying that and to avoid stairs, excitement, off leash exercise and jumping/runnning for the duration. So I guess we will try to keep them calm until next year and see how they go after. I know! But I am learning a lot and they are so funny and cute. I read a lot about Jack Russell before they arrived, never watched the video though. I saw, or heard I should say, what they did to 2 blue tongues in our garden, it's not pretty. What are dog runs? We already have crates for the night. I really hope we are not going to have to go that way Thanks again for all your advises. Sylvie PS: Sorry for my english, it is not my mother's tongue.

Thanks Aziah, Pollywaffle and Greytmate for you response. Greytmate, why do you suggest to have Ares check by a vet first? What should we check him for? In relation with the tick paralysis? He still seems to be a bit slower than he was before but it was only 3 weeks ago. That could explain him being a bit "moody"! Thanks again Sylvie.

Yesterday I was reading the threads about adopting littermates. That was very interesting, and a bit worrying too as 3 months ago we adopted 2 Jack Russell brothers (same litter) of 7 years old. The family who had them could not keep them anymore as they were traveling a lot and the dogs were staying in kennels for up to a month every 2 or 3 months. They are very well behaved and pretty obedient. I even got them to walk on the leash without pulling or reacting (too much) to other passing dogs (if they don’t come too close!). We have the occasional growl when they lick each other face (not sure if we should stop that, but we are trying). One (Apollo) is very submissive and every time we get him on our lap for a cuddle, the other one (Ares) gets tense, turns his back to him and as soon as we release Apollo rushes to sniff him and sometimes growls at him. It gets very hard to get Apollo come back for any more cuddles, he goes straight to his bed and do not want to move. That looks pretty sad. Ares is so jealous, he even growls at his own reflection in the window (like this one is far too cute to be so close!), and it is even worse if we are patting him: who is this fluffy dog getting pat by My owners. Still not sure how to sort that out. Well, yesterday, after reading about all the problems of having littermates together, my husband called me to ask if I saw the dogs at lunch time and if they were all right! He found them covered in blood and thought they might have had a fight. Here we are. I don’t think it their first, but that is the first time we’ve had blood. It was not much, just a few scratches on Ares nose, but it is a bit scary. A few weeks ago, Ares got bitten by paralysis ticks and went to the clinic for a day and half (he is fine now). Apollo has been very good before we went to the clinic, while we were monitoring the poor Ares. But I think he enjoyed the time he had without Ares around and looked a completely different dog. Since then he is coming for a pat when we call him and seems a lot more confident. Not sure Ares likes that. I have been reading about never leaving 2 Jack Russell together without supervision but we were thinking that if they survived 7 years together they should be all right. Now I am a bit worried. I am not sure we are doing the right thing by them. We keep feeding Ares first, and he is first to have a pat and all, but I think he is very unsecured. Apollo is also quiet bigger and stronger than Ares, so Ares might not win the fight. Should we work them separately from time to time? When playing or learning new tricks, I manage to get one sitting while the other one is working/playing. No for too long though. Or I get one inside while outside with the other and switch after a while. There really are not much of a problem while we are with them. But they seem to fight a bit when alone in the garden. Our neighbour told me they were, but when we are home it is really just a growl and a bark and it’s finish within 2 seconds. Well, I probably worry too much, as my husband keep saying. But I am a first time dog owner when he has had dogs most of his life, although never 2 littermates Jack Russell. Will try and go to dog obedience next year, both for them and for myself. Thanks for reading.