hankdog

Leash aggression is often because the leashed dog has no flight. A dog that has been mismanaged as youngster and not allowed to escape will not choose flight. Jake was six months younger than his mate. My behaviorist has postulated that he was possibly not allowed a safe retreat as a pup and his unthinking response to anything fearful or new is to make a lot of noise. A phobic person will also attack if given no flight. The first thing many people do is reach for a heavy object to kill a tiny spider. Dogs do what works, if yelling makes your phobic object disappear then that's what you do. Jake is by no means a confident aggressor. I think treating a fear aggressive dog as such would do great harm to the dog. He may learn in your presence to surprises his first response but you wouldn't change his internal state.

It's tough isn't it? I sometimes look in the dol rescue thread, my boy was separated from his buddy in the pound so I hope she might come up. A few weeks ago a pair of large boofers came up. Somehow this pair got in under my skin and they didn't make it. I so wish I hadn't seen them. You can read some happy stories. I'm facebook friends with pugs SOS and they're very uplifting.

Haha a swarm of iggies. I would like to see that too.

Somewhere in the vast amount of stuff out there on training reactive dogs there's a notion that instead of calling them off once they're looking at a dog, so long as they're not acting out you allow them to "gather information". It's all part of the conflicting stuff you can find. Jake has vision problems and I've found the best thing to do is to warn him and face him in the direction of the dog. And 1 and 2 and 3 and we see the dog, sucked in and completely deaf and rigid. If I try do anything he will crack and throw a tantrum. Basically at that point I just leave him and hold his peanut butter jar next to his head. If he relaxes and turns away then he gets his treats and pats. If it goes badly and he lunges out he gets his own punishment from lunging on leash, a stern word and let's go. All reactive dogs are different, obedience straight up can helped but some reactive dogs treat other dogs more as a phobic object than a distraction which they wish to interact with. It's not rational and they can't control their reaction. It's the same as if a snake dropped in your lap, I could tell you to be still but it's unlikely you would. Jake took ages to actually want to sniff or do dog stuff on a walk. For him I actually need to encourage him to do that kind of thing. We counteract by doing a few minutes of "work" on a walk, but walks are about learning to interact with the world. I don't think of Jake as a normal dog who is misbehaving. He is a dysfunctional individual who suffers from a deep phobia and high anxiety. End of sermon. Sorry I had to just say that. Reactivity is not a lack of obedience.

A horse and carriage....some things you just can't train for. One day I crossed the road to avoid a dog and there behind the tree was a white horse all done up in glittery saddlery. It was near the Sikh temple and the groom was going to ride up the road. You could barely make out the horse and I just kind of crossed my fingers and hoped like hell. Jake didn't flinch.

In the last house the neighbors kids would hop over the fence and swim under the pool cover as soon as we went out. We asked the parents to stop them as we felt it was unsafe. They'd just laugh and say kids will be kids....Hank was also in the backyard, really the kid should have respected the fence. Again he doesn't deserve to be bitten but if there's a fence then stop.

Maybe four dogs just feeding off each other's excitement. Well done to the neighbour, I wouldn't have thought to get the car either. Going to be hard for either of them to get those images out of their minds.

If that's spence in your avatar then yes people tend to think every lab wants to be everyone's friend. That must be frustrating. Even if mine was friendly I still think that it's rude of people to let their dogs run up. In dog world it's not polite and we as humans would be uncomfortable if someone rushed up and jumped on us.

Luckily Jakes very vocal so I don't have to try get dogs away . If an off leash approaches I out him in a sit and step in front and yell, with my best and deepest voice. I think the psychology is that your dog trusts you to keep other dogs away. I have a bright orange harness and leash to my waist and then a thick studded leash to my hands, people tell me they see the double setup and realise to stay away. I always cross the road as well but then I can't go past on the same side anyway. Sometimes you do just have to be rude, you get to keep your dog safe that's no one else's decision. I did read someone else say they yell back " how many pieces do you want him back in!"

He's had a bumpy start but he looks gorgeous. Looking forward to progress photos.

Still laughing, will be for days!!

There might be some identity crises there, maybe he thinks a common coat makes him one of them. That's a great photo.

Love it but in my house the tiels the naughty one. OH believes it didn't escape it's previous home it was ushered out.

I've only had to face one or two big dogs and none have been really serious. I get to wrangle at least one little guy a week and they are seriously evil. They often do that circling, running in from the back thing that gets my leashes tangled. I guess I'm lucky that they're only small but its tricky because my mode of operation is to step in front of Jake and then yell go away. I'm really yelling for owners to come get their dog but then it must be confusing for Jake since I'm doing exactly what I don't want him to do.

I do sympathise a bit with her. I thought I knew something about animals but then I got Jake. I was so at sea and I paid a few behaviourists for some interesting advice. When you're desperate you'll try anything. Unfortunately for the wrong reasons some of these things do work.

I've discovered a new training technique. Whilst out walking we were attacked by a little dog. It was quite determined and I started throwing sticks at it. In the melee I accidentally threw the peanut butter jar. It worked because the dog started licking away at the jar. The owner turned up and we got our jar back and did some LAT and left in a nice calm way. About twenty minutes later and another dog comes rushing out at us. Jake takes one look, puts his head down and power walks past. No way was he taking any chances of another dog getting his precious peanut butter. We have been working on separating him from me at training so his attention is split, turns out should have just separated him from his special jar.

You can work on it but I think some dogs are going to be chook proof and some not. Hank had a few goes at trying to "catch" the cockatiels when we first got them. Each time a stern reprimand and put outside. He slowly got used to them riding around on our shoulders and then just ignored them. When the chooks were tiny he looked interested in them and was given pats and treats for calm looking, after that I was happy to allow everyone free range outside. Jake is different. From day one he didn't care about ducks, he slightly cared about turkeys and was very interested in the chooks and obsessed with the cockatiels. Time and rewards for good behaviour have lessened that and our naughty cockatiel has landed on him a few times. He's done nothing but I wouldn't leave him unsupervised with the birds. He's just not a calm dog and in a bird panic situation I feel he might snap. You can train in ignore but I think you also need to understand your dogs inherent nature.

I have discovered terminal filth. It's a balance state whereby more dirt doesn't show, as much gets tracked out as in. Once you get to that point life is so much more relaxing.

I want a crate....for me with a lock on the inside! Louis looks like a toy dog in that photo.

Do you worry about the necks not being chewed? I've heard of the bones locking together in the stomach and that worries me but I don't want him to be missing out.

We had a lovely decoy dog but I had to stop "paying" her because she was putting on weight. Turns out I wasn't the only owner using her. Del and a malt must be sweet, not Samson and Delilah but Delilah and David.

I only do lamb shanks. Do any other bulldog owners find I the bones suitable? Anything that gets past the middle teeth just seems to get swallowed whole. Chicken frames get one munch and a swallow. I will try some if those roo tails. Where do I get them in Sydney?

When I used to take Hank to the dog park up the road there was this man used to run through the middle. Very small park and sometimes there's be over ten dogs having a ball game so running straight through was pretty stupid and he started kicking dogs that got in his way. Someone reported him to the ranger who came down took statements and issued him a warning. ???????? strangely he stopped turning up. I might have a link if I knew how to work it out, sorry I'm not great at technology. It's Melissa Starling who is creature teacher. I liked her fb page and then got a post about the volatile dig group she's started. If you can't find it I'll get an intelligent youngster to sort it out for me.

Well done Stella. A good vet visit is such a blessing. There is a new Facebook page for volatile dogs started by our own creature teacher.

Ok I'm going to take it all back. The puppies I've been aunty to for the last two months are going to new homes on the weekend. I went in for a goodbye cuddle yesterday. My goodness what a difference a week makes. Suddenly they are more like little dogs rather than bundles. Couple of little tough nuts and a few real smoochers. I'm so in awe of breeders after the bit of insight I've had. The breeders very careful of not letting them chew on people and doing all their confidence building excercises. I sat on the floor and let them crawl over me and didn't cop one bite although I might have a new haircut. Such fun.