hankdog

Oh Harvey, you look snugly not scary! Such beautiful coloring he has.

I did a lot of work outside a house that had two concrete lion sculptures out front, Jakes vision is pretty rubbish. I also got a stuffed dog from the op shop and left it in my sisters dogs bed for a week. It's hard to work out exactly what kind of dog he reacts more or less to. Anything behind an obvious fence is now reasonably easy. If we see an on leash dog and it's plodding along he seems to need to see it notice him. If the dog is a BC no chance. If it makes any obvious excited moves toward him or over enthusiastic calming signals that's bad. If it looks at him and dismisses him and moves on he'll do the same. There's a blonde lab who he's been good with since day one, we can sit outside her gate ( with owners permission) and look at her. I can throw her treats and she can go fetch them and she can look straight at him. She doesn't make excessive calming signals, she stands straight on, she looks at him. but head straight and ears and neck relaxed. Sometimes her tail may wave slowly. I think she's a magic Madonna dog, another man had two reactive Danes and apparently they can look at her too. The other dog he's good with is a male staffy, he's half of a trained pair. He can sit across the road with the dog in a stay, no fence and the owner next to me. The female of the pair is more friendly and will wag, and make calming signals and even turn her back but he's not happy with that. The male will look at Jake but not stare just keep his body relaxed and look slightly bored. At training we train next to the kennels and some of the dogs will be quite vocal but he seems to be able to consciously block them out although will occasionally crack. He studiously ignores them. We once parallel walked with a friends terrier who managed to just ignore Jake and still look like he was enjoying his day out. Jake pretty much barked himself to exhaustion and then studiously ignored. My friend videoed him once he was quiet and he makes sure he never looks at the dog. Unfortunately I haven't found anyone game for a repeat Jake experience! I know we shouldn't anthropomorphise but I do think if there was a dog autism syndrome Jake might be somewhere on the Aspergers end. I think of him as the socially awkward kid wearing his three pairs of lucky undies and wrapping his head in tinfoil so the government can't read his thoughts. ETA He also does the butt plonk, it's better than lunging but I'm trying when I can to get him to keep going, what I'm trying to do us switch the peanut butter from a distraction, to a lure and finally to a reward. So I used to shove it in his mouth as a distraction, now I waft it in front of him and he can get light moving licks. Once he's calm and moving along I will pat him, praise and allow him a couple of big licks. Always tailored to the situation but the aim is to fade the luring and just give it as a reward and finally just a oat and praise. Hahaha. I dream.

I think that's pretty unreasonable since I will be taking the puppies early you won't have the cost of raising them. Also they will be bred to a very top dog so really you should be very grateful for the genes that will be added to your lines. Also I have had a very good offer from those faroa hound people with a no-fade guarantee since I live in a low rainfall area. Possibly you will consider if I take the smallest puppies off your hands for a lesser fee?

I was actually hoping that I could delay the payment a bit, maybe for six months when I breed with my brothers male Labralotsanicedawg. He's a grate animal and my brother wants to have a copy of him forever. Maybe if I breed from the bitches in six months time you could have the pick of the litter at half price. Will the fairy floss attachment have to be removed before whelping, I don't have a vet nearby and want the bitches to have a natural experience so maybe if the attachment can be fitted after they have whelped? ETA if I don't take the hobbles can I have a discount. I like to let my digs socialize naturally by running free in the neighborhood. You can tell I like to do things right, the natural way as dogs evolutionised to do.

I haven't seen the Milan method but Brenda Aloff also recommends just a light tap on the dogs forehead if they start to become focused on something and then reward or praise as they turn to look at you. K9 pro has and article on using the behavioral interrupter as well. Worked a treat for me until new neighbors moved in and used the same noise on their dogs....oops! If I need to I will sometimes prod Jake in the butt and say "uh-uh" to break him out of an about to launch state. I think that physical contact can sometimes reach them when a voice can't.

LBD I wonder if some dogs are more prone to superstitious learning and if it goes with the type of temperament that develops phobias. Jake is smart but seems to develop superstitions. I set up a little "agility" course around our garden. One of the obstacles is a fixed rock bench. After about 5 goes over two weeks I had left a wheelbarrow in the way of his approach to the bench. about 10 meters away. He could not make himself deviate from the normal course. It was impossible for him to step around the wheelbarrow, I had to lure him around it with a jar of peanut butter. He loves to do this activity but became very stressed and afraid. Each time he stepped off the normal course he was crying and would step back and stare and bark at the intruding barrow. His reactivity looks to me very similar to a person with a phobia and when we tried operant conditioning with him he learned to run away more successfully than he learned to calm in the dogs presence. As a rescue I can't know why he became reactive but I think he is a naturally anxious dog that probably had one bad experience coupled with being impounded and separated from his mate and that's been too much for him. Such a pity because he's so smart and with careful management could have been a great sport or obedience dog. If anybody ever has a problem getting your dogs attention try shoving a jar of peanut butter over the bottom jaw whilst they're barking. Works on smell, taste and you just can't bark with your mouth gummed shut with peanut butter! Has been the saving of Jake.

I'd really like a pair, preferably bitches. I'm going away for Christmas so could I take early delivery of the puppies please. My neighbor has agreed to come in and feed them everyday and if he can't make it he will leave a large bag of open kibble in the garage. My three children are so looking forward to playing with them. They have been very sad since we had to send "Killer" out purebred rare blue eyed pitoodleapomador to the farm after he bit our toddler. My children are very excited that they will be shooting fairy floss from their orifices but I was wondering if this feature could be delayed. Then I could possibly add this modification for the children's birthday present.

Jake having a lovely snooze, only thing to do in the rain. My boys having a snow day on the couch.

That's so good Snook. Impossible to do but I've wondered if it would help if Jake saw no other dog for a year, sort of a wipe memory clean time and then start again? He got worse when we were trying the BAT style setups whereas he has improved since we stopped trying to get him to be "nice " to dogs and rather just ignore them. I'm a bit sad right now. I'd dropped Jake down to 10mg Prozac and he's such a little firecracker on that dose. He's more alert and playful. He'll grab his stuffed fox and run around with it and leap between the couches. He does flatten-you zoomies down the hall and generally has a blast. The downside is that he is constantly agitated and needing to go so he will pace constantly, sleep fitfully and bark at the smallest noise, someone coughing will set him off and I'm back to having a bathroom companion. Strangely he hasn't increased his on-leash aggression, rather the extra alertness seems to have translated into more focus on me when training and when seeing a dog. Off-leash he has been less controlled when seeing my neighbours' dogs. I put his dose back up to 17mg today as he was up most of the night needing to check out stuff and I feel like I'm saying goodbye to a part of him. Anyway I'm seeing a new vet who does housecalls at no extra cost tomorrow so we will talk a bit about other options.

I guess what I really want is for him to be a "nice" dog around other dogs. He's such a sweetheart when no dogs are around but it's Jekyll and Hyde with him. Too much to hope for I know and he's done so much in trying to understand and do what I want. I suppose I've been lucky that my previous dogs have been sensible, enjoyed their training and sort of naturally respectful without me having to put in to much thought as to who is running the show. Getting a challenging dog who has so many contradictory traits is certainly confusing. I expect if I was a naturally dominant person our partnership would be a lot less work for me.

That's the crux to me, I don't want my dog to be submissive and I'm not good at being dominant. I want him to learn to use his judgement and make the right decision. The right decision being to ignore the distraction or return to me or anything except react. I've succeeded in getting a small amount if brain function and turn to me. How much can you alter a basic personality though? I also wonder if there's certain dog/ owner personalities that work naturally well together?

It's good to hear its not only Jake who learns a skewed version of what I teach him. He's reactive and I started rewarding him for being quiet when he sees my neighbors dogs and now if we are in the garden he spends all his time staring at their house and as soon as he sees them he belts over to me and demands a treat. By demand I mean comes in at a sprint and flattens me to tell me how good he is.

Sounds as if its been awful. I agree with writing down dates etc, if the neighbors choose to try drag it out you'll be able to shut it down quickly. Hope it settles down and you can get some peace back. Arguing with neighbors really gets under my skin somehow, I guess because you can't get away from them.

Haha, 1,3 and 4:15 am, the benefits of a rescue dog is you don't have to know there's double of those in 24 hours. You'll have to post lots of pictures to prove its worth it.???? ETA just saw them, very adorable!!!

The behaviorist I've taken my dog to have suggested some of his issues may have been from him being the second puppy and our neighbours have a year gap between their dogs and number 2 has some problems that were also related to being number 2 dog. If you're concerned then maybe it's worth getting a behaviorist in for a consult. That being said many people happily raise 2 dogs with no issues.

I don't know who is cuter- puppies or mamma.

Yea I found wire ones scary too but somehow the solid plastic was less "cage" more "kennel".

Haha Aiden2, that would pretty much explain it.

I think that could be possible but either way sounds like a confused and stressed dog. Some people are really nasty to their dogs and yet you see the dog constantly grovelling and hanging around them. You wonder though how the dog would react under a stressful situation. I'm doing a lot of work practicing recall when my reactive dog is in a full tantrum. We are starting to get an extension of this and seeing the first signs of him turning to me after a startle rather than rushing away. It's an extreme example but I think he's getting it into his head that the way to get the unpleasant scary stuff to stop is to run to me where it all turns to pats and peanut butter. I can't see the same thing happening if I belted him. You can see I'm pretty stoked with the power of recall! Dogmatic I belted Jake when he attacked the rooster. He avoids them now and even when the rooster attacked him he didn't respond. I don't trust him though and yes not my proudest moment. It's a bit like a kid that doesn't steal because he's scared of being caught rather than one who doesn't steal because he believes it's morally incorrect. Same behavior but not trusting the first one.

One good thing about a sep anx dog, he never let's me out his sight. That's the problem with distance work, if I put him in a sit and step away and then ask him to down he uses the down to get closer to me. At the moment I'll put him behind the gate to keep him away. We are also working on him going away from me to touch a cone, he doesn't find that one too hard if I gradually increase the distance but if I try pickup today from where we left off yesterday he refuses.

Ah Raineth, some days are whinge and wine days! I call those days behavioral plasticity and hope that change will come and be better. Can't wait to hear all the exciting things Zig learned today.

Unfortunately never with this dog. Last dog was a gentle giant and both houses we've lived in have been 500m from dog parks. When he died I missed both him and my park mates. It was a lovely selection of people at different ages and stages, some retired and some with first babies. A real sense if community and caring and helped me through some tough times with my teenagers. There were some iffy dogs and one of the human pack took it upon himself to tell the owner off. Strangely it was his dog that kept order in the dog pack too. As Hank aged we started going earlier and joined the smaller less raucous dogs. We would catch the bigger dogs later but just sit and watch but he seemed to enjoy slow sniffs with the infirm as well. I do go to on leash parks now as a training excercise, Occasionally I have problems with people allowing their dog off leash because they can't be bothered to walk the three steps to the adjoining off leash park. Difficult dogs are a minority but when you're one of them it really helps if people obey the rules.

With Jake he can be almost belligerent seeming, wants to get in a quick bark or will continue to bark whilst coming back to me when practicing a distracted recall. When he does that I'll run backwards as soon as he gets to me using an excited voice and getting him to come in straight and with gusto. Might take a few tries but when I finally get a few nice steps looking all focused and excited then he gets the reward. It becomes a bit of a game as well. I've started to always put the finish in too, even if its just a random check in, in the garden so it keeps him with me for a few seconds and gives him a second reward opportunity. I do like the idea of training a stop Dogmatic. I'm only just starting to do some distance work though, any training tips?

That's adorable, hard to believe you won't turn something so tiny over and find a battery pack. I resisted crate training with my anxious dog for a while, eventually got one as part of car safety. I have a plastic one that separates into a bottom and top half and it was super easy to get him used to getting into the halves, climbing on top as a trick and so on. Then I assembled it and left it in the lounge planning to feed him in there. Dog headed in and said "Thank you for finally getting me my own place!" I know it's possible that puppies develop issues because they become dependent on the older dog so it's important he have time separate for walks and so on without the older dog so he learns to cope on his own. Also it's very important that many pictures of cute puppies are posted on DOL. There's a special photography forum just for that. Without this your dog cannot develop properly.????

It's the crazy thing isn't it,so obvious to see that you shouldn't punish the dog for finally turning up but very natural when you're a human to think he will know he got punished for turning up slowly. Most people understand when it's explained to them but its how to do it tactfully. I guess if you practiced recall in front of them or said something sympathetically that your dog used to be a slow recaller until you started treating with amazing treat X and practicing all the time. I think recall should be the most practiced skill, before sit or down or anything else.