hankdog

Dig a permanent tunnel under the fence? I would just play it cool, send her home with a dog coat in winter that you had spare. Gradual adoption, if you ask and they say no then it's final. It would break my heart to see this. At least she has a bit of socialization if she does get dumped later.

Oh I'd love to hear what strategies they come up with and what they decide sets her off. Hopefully her meds kick in soon.

Yes I do Raineth but it's purely academic which I suppose is why I need to understand what I'm doing. Practice is very different though. I think learning theory is great but there's definitely an interaction between learning and personality and I think when you have both the dogs and the handlers personalities to factor in it become less clear cut. I'm also thinking that there's a qualitative difference between training a skill and getting rid of a bad behaviour. Initially I was old school check chain type training because that's what I learned as a teenager. Since then I Woukd like to think positive training methods would work but I'm starting to believe that's not so and I'm interested in how to figure out the minimum amount of aversive method needed. Time frame is as Huski says important, but what else? I would so put Mactub in a bath of grain, how good would that be? I did at one point consider erecting a run in the middle if the dog park and just waiting it out!!!

Dobie mum there's a method called CAT that dies basically what you did for dog aggressive dogs. Quite interesting reading, they put the dog in front of another dog and just ignore the carry on. You need a succession of bomb proof tester dogs because obviously it's pretty stressful for them. Apparently at some point and it can be after two days the aggro dog will give up and try a pro social behaviour. I did have a trainer start something similar with mine but we really needed more dogs, time and a really large training area because it's loud. We didn't get a pro social response but did get a flight response, for which I am so grateful. Time is the thing Huski. How long has the dog been doing the behaviour I'm sure must also influence how long it will take to stop. I think there's also an element of superstitious type belief in a lot of annoying behaviours. Along the lines of " if I pull my ear drop bears don't fall out if trees on me." Until you stop doing the ear pulling you can't prove they won't. If you do it once and the drop bears don't fall how do you know that wasn't an exception to the rule. You pulled your ear for 3 years and it worked, this one time you didn't and were ok could have been a lucky break. So in my case I might walk past 10 dogs and nothing happens but on dog 11 it rushes across the road and has a go. Now my dogs who was starting to think maybe a could be right has irrefutable evidence I'm wrong. That folks is why I spit the dummy at off leash dogs.

Yep the treat timing is so important. First thing my present trainer picked me up on, I would reach for a treat before I gave any cue. In an ideal world only one thing happens and the dog pays attention to only that and links the reward to that. Reality is that each real life situation has many different things going on. I postulate that dogs of Jakes ilk who are on permanent alert have a strong tendency to one trial learning. If he gets that wrong then you're in big trouble. Like the time I thought I would reward him for calmly looking at a group of people waiting at the bus stop. He was minorly reactive to groups of people. What I actually taught him was that bus stops were now to be feared as they unpredictably came with groups of people. Took two weeks to get over that one. He had previously been happy to relax and lie down in the bus stop. It's interesting watching the barking video, she is able to condition a reward expectation in the puppy but not able to stop her barking dog. And I so wish we could buy spray cheese in this country.

Some if that bitter spray that stops dogs chewing their stitches post surgery? Not sure what it's called but the vet would know.

I was trying to arrange my random bits of training knowledge in my head. Whilst walking the norty beast today it struck me that he has learned some quite complex things really easily but others are always going to be a work in progress. ( I was having a what was I thinking moment.) So training the Tubster to do some fun things with a box, adorable tricks and urban agility has been easy. Initially with a clicker but we just use a marker word nowadays. Training unwanted behaviour out is just so hard. For me it's dog aggression but I'm thinking of all those trouble behaviors, nuisance barking, leash pulling, couch chewing and I'm sure there's many other dog sins that give people grief and land dogs in the pound. Many positive training methods rely on encouraging a slight bit of the good behavior and shaping the dog to offer more of such behavior. What if there's no good behavior to shape? What if there's no positive reward that can compete with the joy of ripping the stuffing out the couch. What if your dog knows he has to beat the bejeebbees out of every dog he sees because he understands better than you based on his previous experience that dogs are dangerous? If he needs to bark every time a bird chirps how do you shape not barking? I would love to hear about other dog "sinners" and what you have tried and found successful or not. What insights did you get along the way?

Bulldog, from a good breeder.

The first trainer I saw sold me one of these, she fitted it and was adamant that if he lunged he'd be pulled to me. Luckily I always double leash, he lunged was swung around and the whole thing pulled off. When I queried her on it she blamed my dog for being out of control...... Um yes hence I needed help! I've been through a fair few devices and nothing really beats consistent training. I needed the help of a prong up front but once we were a bit under control I really prefer the flexibility of a martingale and being able to moderate the level of correction. Steve Courtney has a good article on the web about ten things not to do with your dog. Don't ask your dog to do something it doesn't know is so important. I really wanted Jake to know I didn't want him to go for other dogs but without fueling the fire by using a painful aversive that whilst they would divert his attention from the dog they wouldn't really let him think because essentially they needed to be full on to override his reactivity. Enter my present trainer and training the wonder word "uh-uh". We trained this on his obedience work, just coupled with minor leash pops when he would give us the finger. (He's a nutter so that's quite often). I don't really know what he thinks, try again, do something else or no but he learned to offer a different behavior when he got that word. So if I ask him to sit and he just lies staring at me he gets "uh-uh" and a few seconds to change his mind, then a little leash pop if he still doesn't comply. It's aversive but has given me a moderate way to tell him to do something else. Mind you my petite trainer uses it so well I nearly sit too, I have to work on getting real grunt into it.

The first trainer I saw sold me one of these, she fitted it and was adamant that if he lunged he'd be pulled to me. Luckily I always double leash, he lunged was swung around and the whole thing pulled off. When I queried her on it she blamed my dog for being out of control...... Um yes hence I needed help! I've been through a fair few devices and nothing really beats consistent training. I needed the help of a prong up front but once we were a bit under control I really prefer the flexibility of a martingale and being able to moderate the level of correction. Steve Courtney has a good article on the web about ten things not to do with your dog. Don't ask your dog to do something it doesn't know is so important. I really wanted Jake to know I didn't want him to go for other dogs but without fueling the fire by using a painful aversive that whilst they would divert his attention from the dog they wouldn't really let him think because essentially they needed to be full on to override his reactivity. Enter my present trainer and training the wonder word "uh-uh". We trained this on his obedience work, just coupled with minor leash pops when he would give us the finger. (He's a nutter so that's quite often). I don't really know what he thinks, try again, do something else or no but he learned to offer a different behavior when he got that word. So if I ask him to sit and he just lies staring at me he gets "uh-uh" and a few seconds to change his mind, then a little leash pop if he still doesn't comply. It's aversive but has given me a moderate way to tell him to do something else. Mind you my petite trainer uses it so well I nearly sit too, I have to work on getting real grunt into it.

When Hank was young he would pull a bit, not the freight train lean into the collar stuff just I'm a bit excited type stuff. I put him in a halti and within a couple of weeks I could just slide the nose part off after about ten minutes of walking.

Cockatoos, I've watched them chew up a set of garden lights and then each fly off with one. I had to explain to my neighbours that I wasn't throwing my destroyed string of light bulbs in their gardens!

That's so great to hear. No dog is perfect and I think the ones that need a bit of work burrow deeper into your heart.

Cool, Jake's only 7 so there's hope for him yet. Old Hank would look at what you threw with a "why did you put that over there?" expression. I'm definitely not a good retrieve encourager????.

Ok I'll play.... How exactly do you love your dog into a neurotic mess? What exactly do you do wrong? I know the big picture leadership, boundaries etc as terms used but what specifically would you do wrong to make your dog a neurotic mess.

I'm so sorry Snook, the world needs dogs like Saaba. Hearing of Justice' progress and how his training has been handled has been such inspiration and hope for me. It can be very lonely in the reactive dog world. ETA. Just looked at the picture on my computer, priceless it looks like the dogs are playing some kind of musical clamshells and the lab is "out" and going to say " coming ready or not."

Clicker training and doing 101 things to do with a box, it teaches creativity and I think builds thinking skills. Urban agility, make a little circuit of anything in your lounge or garden that can be climbed on, over or under, you can use benches or your crate or a stick over two pot plants to jump over. I watched a guy walking his kelpie through Federation Square last week, every post or bench or bump in the ground was an opportunity to place front feet on, climb through or touch with a body part. It was beautiful to watch and the dog was getting so much more than a walk.

Maybe get a can of citronella spray, just in case. I also carry cheese to throw incase an off leasher would rather have cheese than a slice of bulldog.

I would second getting a more expert opinion, it's having a negative impact on your life as well as Stella's. Vets have to know so much about so many critters that I think it would be impossible to be an expert on everything. An epilepsy expert might have some strategies and tips to make coping easier as well since they'd be dealing with it more often. Jake had a great session this morning. We had two trainers so that we could refresh the tester dog and one trainer could handle Jake. I get quite nervous to take him close to another dog without a fence since he can move so quickly and I worry about him pulling me over or the leash slipping and him getting to the other dog. The trainers had him within about three meters of each other and he was great, he practiced his studiously ignore and it was good to see him nudging the trainer for comfort and really getting close into her. I also made a point of fussing over the tester dogs and then walking over and letting him smell my hands and patting him. Luckily when we walked past the office on the way out the trainer had him as two border collies walked out in front of him, he started to react then looked up and went "oops, suck it up". Although he was tense he allowed them to walk past and he only got a little bit of peanut butter as a reward, no luring or distraction. I'm so glad to have found the right training system for him. Whilst he has been a challenge I think he is the ultimate example of a dog for whom not one particular method has worked but lots of different things used at different stages has been effective. The best advice I'd ever give is to get an expert handler in. I can sort of figure out how to do stuff but only after I see the trainers doing it with him do I really get it. The trainers are so efficient with him that he doesn't really get started reacting and harsh corrections aren't really necessary. I'm gushing a bit but seeing my norty dog sitting watching two BCs walk past will have that effect.

I think it would be important to mention to your trainer about the incident and possibly take some actions to prevent your pup becoming reactive in the future. I know there are fear periods in puppyhood and if things go wrong during that time lasting damage can be done. I own a dog who was possibly mismanaged through these periods and it's very hard to sort later and with a large dig Woukd be difficult to manage. As for dog parks I think they should be paved over and turned into car parks. They seem to enable lazy owners to get away without training their dogs, no need for leash manners or training if you can just let the dog go for his own excercise at the park.

Well she's close enough to me I live near the school she was found at. Keeping my eyes peeled for her ???? I might have to steal a kiss.

Steve courtney has a program called triangle of temptation pinned at the beginning of the training forum. It's a good way to get some restraint into a dog. I'd also recommend training a "look" command maybe with a clicker. It really helps my boy if I can get him to look he stops going nuts.

Well done to Team dog. Doesn't surprise that Kuringai rangers were helpful, I've met one man in particular who has been very encouraging and helpful. It must be an awful job but they seem to stay positive. Good on them.

Done but unfortunately too late to attend. Great mistake is assuming councils need a reason to not be obnoxious and hard a$$3d.

I think it's cruel and irresponsible. Putting the goat in a situation where he could be attacked and putting the dogs at risk of attacking an animal. Unacceptable for an owner of any animal to do that.