hankdog

I have tried adaptil collar but it was right when I first got jake so I couldn't really tell if it changed his behaviour, now I know him better I might try one again. We have had a little success, we have been training the behavioral interrupter (details available free on k9 pro website) and it works really well if I get in quick whilst he is still thinking. It's super easy to train, only took 2 sessions and about 3 chicken breasts and well worth the effort. Last week I managed to call him away from a very playful, off leash Newfoundland and saved me from what could have been a disaster. It's so ingrained with him last night my husband accidentally used the same sound to call our cockatiel, Jake was fast asleep, snoring next to me on the couch, before he was properly awake he was off the couch stumbling to my very surprised hubby????

see the second grey dog, looks like a bulldog, that's mine. They caught me on a good hair day, that was nice.

I have Saaba envy!!!

This is such a hot button fro me , I have a creek across my property and this time every year all the lovely neighborhood dogs and cats come hunt the ducklings. Australian wildlife did not evolve in the presence of predators and even the flighted birds are vulnerable for a time after they leave the nest and spend a few days learning to fly. A bell on your cat only means a helpless animal gets to spend a few last minutes aware if it's killer. Rant over. Yes your dog can be trained to leave wildlife alone. My last dog was a sight hound cross and when we first got him dismembered a possum in the backyard. Never ever allow him to chase a bird, make him completely bird proof by exposing him leashed and discouraging attention. Ditto for lizards, rats etc. I remember watching my old man lying on the lawn whilst young ducks chased each other around him. Very important training for all Australian dogs.

My last dog Hank was the most noble of dogs but when we went to the shelter he didn't appeal to me at all. My husband picked him we bought him home. The next morning early I went to the kitchen, he was right there waiting and off we went for our first walk, he was huge and I was slightly nervous but by the time we got home I knew he was my dog. Jake was different, I saw him on dol , I was conflicted because I wasn't sure we were ready for another dog and he had personality issues. Again hubby liked his photo so off I went to go look. The whole way to the pound I was regretting making the call and promising myself if he was aggresive I wouldn't take him and wouldn't think of getting another dog. When I walked into the pound I looked straight at him, I didn't even register any other dog there. He came to the wire and I pretty much knew he was coming home. It's a completely different relationship, Hank was a great, noble,gentle giant who always looked out for me. Jakes a troubled, fearful little guy who needs me to look out for him. I couldn't get to more different dogs.

I work from home as a seamstress. my boy helps me arrange my fabrics, he allows me to store his bones for him and luckily is always there to remind me incase I forget he needs a walk. He did try help me sew once but he's not very good at it, cost me $1200 to get the needle removed from his throat.

I've heard about red and yellow striped leads that declared dangerous dogs have to wear. I don't know what the legal ramifications are, since I tell everyone I can that jake is reactive if there was an incident and it got to court it would be pretty useless me denying it anyway. I can't find them anywhere so I'm considering just buying a yellow one and doctoring it with a permanent market, If jake sees a dog he goes off so no one really approaches us in that state but occasionally someone gets up behind us quietly or there's always the off leashers with owners who can't be bothered to run and get them. Whenever they yell don't worry he's friendly I always want to yell back something facetious like oh which part of him tastes good or so he wont mind being bitten! No one could possibly miss the fact that jake isn't. We have had a really good week though, I've found a few hidey holes to train in, in the garden he doesn't really pull so I need him to be out to be actually getting used to his collar. I have worked out a system where I attach his harness to my waist and collar to hands so in a dog situation I can switch to the harness, if I use the collar it just increases his reaction. If I have both in my hands I tend to rather use the harness because whilst I completely agree he needs an aversive collar I really don't like using it. From about midweek he has visibly started checking himself when you give him the voice command which is great, with all the other things I tried I don't think he ever understood what I was asking him. I think if a dog hasn't learned early on the concept of do what a person tells you and you get a reward then it's quite hard to get that in later, and he is so excited to be out that anything he learns in a garden situation just gets lost. He only barely pays attention to the collar out whereas he doesn't really need any corrections at home so it's quite hard to bridge that gap. Weekends are a nightmare for walking normally but yesterday I drove him to an office park/ mini factory complex about twenty minutes away. it was great, it's been beautifully landscaped and is surrounded by bush so all the water features where teaming with water dragons. Lovely wide paths, lots of benches to practice urban agility and since it's miles away from suburbia no dogs and not the danger of a fence barker. I must have been super relaxed because he even played his food game a few times and whereas I still need to throw in left and right turns normally to slow him down we managed to just walk in straight lines. The bad news is the calm supplement he is having is working, whilst that's good in that he is more bouncy and looks like he's having fun and starting to play he is also more barky and active. Even after a 90 minute walk yesterday he had about and hour of quiet at home and then was back bothering me for another walk! He is becoming quite like I remember my kids at 2 and wants to see, sit on or have a chew on whatever I'm working on.

oh dear chuck and Steve I went through a patch of this, 5 times in one week. I changed where I walk to manage this, I walk on busy roads because people keep their dogs on leash or behind gates. I also walk in the very upmarket neighbouring suburb, solid brick walls and big solid gates. Also near the station where the cars are parked, you can use cars to shield you from other dogs. The damage to your dog may not be that much until someone gets a head of steam and tries to get it declared a dangerous dog, I have seen Jake bite clean through a shank bone so I'd hate him to get into a scrap even if it wasn't his fault. I was wondering if the eucalyptus spray oil you can buy at the supermarket would serve as a deterrent?

Well personally that's happened to me twice the first time I tried kicking the dog away and tore my acl then tried to hobble away, next time tried running away forgot about acl and fell over. So if you think you could have done better take heart, you also could have done worse. I'm so grateful for people who foster dogs and that you have taken on a difficult one is just amazing. I'm pretty sure Jake would be over his problems if he had a good trainer but I was his last option so everytime I make a mistake I remind myself that he's still alive which is better than not and then I come to this website and get help and moral support. So no practical advice except keep going and thankyou for the wonderful job you're doing for all the doggies.

I haven't been to the bathroom on my own since 2March 2012 and yes little very worried face at the window that stays in my head till I hurry home. So glad I'm not the only one.

Hey Gila my boy is also worse if a dogs off leash or if it's on leash but not really paying attention to its owner. I think it's pretty smart how they work out which ones are a bigger threat. At the moment I'm just practising loose leash walking in my garden and then working out to the sidewalk. I have a long battle axe driveway and on Sunday a loose leash turned up in the drive whilst I was on the nature strip , meaning I had to roam the neighborhood waiting for it to go away ( no poop bags and that's when he drops one so I look like the irresponsible dog owner)! So anytime you want some practice you're welcome to visit.

cool I'm so going to teach crawl. I love it when Jakes so excited he tries to get out all his tricks at once, he dies wonderfully turns 2 circles and then collapses and rolls over.Sometimes he'll get carried away and try spinning around after he's dead, kind of like break dancing. Wish I could put it on command.

I own an Aussie and have owned purebreds BB's in the past, my Aussie has more issues than the purebreds and is extremely active to boot. Both types have been the highest maintenance dogs I've ever owned although worth their considerable weight in comic value. Not outside dogs to be left without supervision in my experience. You could maybe take your dog with to a pound or shelter and let her help pick out a friend?

Well done, street party for you inspiration for me!!

To be honest I often wonder why I walk anywhere let alone to a park but somehow I need to walk somewhere rather than an aimless round the street meander...just me I suppose. I also find that at home is no distraction for jake, my own street is on the way to a dog park and somehow that means people walk their dogs off leash to the park plus there are 2 free roaming kelpies so a pretty wild street for us. My 2 favourite parks are on leash parks that have multiple exits to the street so if off leashers turn up we can make a quick exit but Jake seems to see a park as garden plus one for distraction so provided everyone follows the rules and stays on leash it's a good spot for us. Plus its easy to see dogs coming so it avoids the surprise dog that suddenly barks behind a fence or pops out a driveway and my personal nightmare the one you walk slap bang into around a corner. Holding up a hand to indicate to people to back off-no chance all my hands are being used to hold my mad dog, if they don't get back off from the whole wild dog thing the hands not going to make a bit of difference. Crazy eyes, well I think I may just look a bit like that when I walk anyway.

Very hard life for my Jake, my daughter and I lie on the couch to watch TV at night, heads at one end feet at the other. Despite not watching TV Jake must lie at the head end between us, he leaps onto the couch, actively climbs over us into the 5cm gap between us and then gets a mighty attack of "jello-bones"and is completely unable to be shifted from between us!! 22kgs of dead weight bulldog :laugh:

Hey Snook don't beat yourself up, you are doing so much and occaisionally you might do something wrong- point is you were doing something, not just ignoring your dogs situation, so cudos to you. The way I see it there are three parties in the situation, the reactive dog, the dogs owner and the rest of the planet who (often unwittingly) pose a problem for us. So now those owners might have just learnt that it's not appropriateto let their dog run up to every dog out there and maybe that lesson will one day stop their dog from being bitten or becoming reactive, probably not but we can hope! BC Crazy Jake saw a reputable behaviourist 2 weeks ago and he suggested we try a product called Calm made by petark, it is a "natural" mix of happy stuff including tryptophan so you could give it a go before going to get more expensive vet medication. I got him in February and he is a recycled pound dog. I later found an ad for him on a designer bulldog website, he was advertised as part of a breeding pair. He and his girlfriend were found roaming the streets and never fetched by the owner. She was rehomed quickly but he was on the PTS on this website. He has some scars so has probably been in at least one fight but my guess is he's a naturally anxious dog who was not socialised and the trauma of being impounded and separated from his partner has made him what he is. The behaviourist we just saw described him as a mixed bag of problems!! Jake was also put on a prong collar by the behaviourist, I was secretly hoping there was a magic reset button or perhaps a sage sibe to teach him manners. The session started with Jake having a good bark at the trainer as he opened the gate, I'm pretty much getting used to the embarrasement nowadays. Anyway controvery over prongs aside (but just a note that no one should consider using them without a behaviourists guidance) Jake is pretty good at listening to it in the garden, but he needs little correction at home anyway but once on the road he ignores it or throws a huge tantrum so I've been driving him to a park and then training him in the park. I drive because it can take me 40 minutes to find an on leash park without off leash dogs Yesterday I thought I struck it lucky on the second park but once out the car I realised there was a small dog at the far end of the park but since it was a football pitch sized park I just went with it. After 10 minutes a lady turns up with 2 large dogs and lets them free, Jake loses it. So instead of leashing her dogs and taking them to the adjacent off leash park she chooses to throw her ball right at us, so I'm sitting on the floor being a human thundershirt for Jake. Some days I get bloody minded so I thought "No way I'm leaving, you take your dogs and go." Anyway her and the other dogs' owner get in a huddle and must have called the ranger because he turns up 10 minutes later and goes to talk to them. Much animated discussion and pointing at us and she finally puts her dogs on leash and humphs out the park So today if she's there I will call the ranger- I think I might be becoming a reactive dog-owner.

Hey BC crazy just a suggestion, my boy is a nutter and also major food allergies, I've started keeping a dog diary, rating his leash walking, level of reactivity, food for the day etc as I'm hoping after a while I might pick some triggers. It may be that the unpredictable becomes predictable. Unfortunately Jakes just always predictable, see dog go bananas but I'm hoping something may jump out at me in terms of what makes him less reactive.

Well done Snook and Justice, I would so have been in tears to see them playing. There must be a few loner dogs on the planet but I believe most dogs want a bit of doggie interaction so he must have been very happy to have a good romp. Hopefully it's onward and upward and he will learn to trust other dogs. Unfortunately we've had a bit of a shocking week, one of the many "don't worry he's friendly so we let him roam the street" dogs got a hold of my little girl chicken last Tuesday. I was inside, heard the noise and ran out, fell over but Jake ran off barking. The dog must have got a fright and dropped little Lola. 200 stitches and 4 drainage tubes on a little pekin chicken is not a good sight. Anyway I was not in a great dog mood that afternoon so that afternoon when I walked round the corner and came upon 2 spaniels Jake started his nonsense and I yelled at him, strangely enough he shut up...just like that. I have been thinking for about a month that he does understand I don't want him barking but he doesn't feel like listening to me. He seems to have 2 distinct learning phases, understanding what you want and then deciding to do it. I think treats were not enough of an incentive to quit barking but having a stern no seems to be doing the trick...oh well I'm sure he will find a way around it but yesterday we walked behind a very large fluffy dog for about a kilometer and he didn't bark once, a bit of crying and very excited but no flat out barking, really quite pleasant.

Ok I have a lovely image of a dog silently laughing whilst he cuddles on the couch because he knows what he's done in your bed I've been reading textfromdog on tumblr and I thought it was a joke, well good to laugh once in a while. I shall guard my couch spot because he has been trying to steal the front seat in the car. I have a minivan and he rides in the back, my daughter in the front, he's not allowed to jump in because I don't want him scratching the paint so he sits and waits to be lifted in, last few days he's tried to sit at the front door and we've been laughing at how it's like the kids when they were young fighting over the front seat. When we first got him his feet were badly infected so it was a 2 person job to wash them and probably quite painful for him. It will be an ongoing daily procedure for him so now what I do is get all the gear out and place it on the floor, I allow him to see me cut up chicken, then I sit on the floor with one piece of chicken and wait. I rarely wait more than a few minutes anymore before he gives in, he sits one end of the room and just stares then kind of slinks over and then he is quite manageable, one piece as reward for each co-operative foot. Each foot is shampooed and then dipped so it's not easy if he fights. Going out at night he has a routine, so he runs out the door and sits for his treat, then stairs, then grass. I can't really decide but it's sort of bribery, I used to laugh at people with treat bags but now I'm like the super dog treat-dispenser, how did this happen

I'm glad to know Justice did this bed wet thing too, I was completely dumbfounded, it wasn't and accident because he had to walk up a flight of stairs and he had just been outside. No I'm not firm, after trying to do without treats for 2 days I realise just how much I bribe him, treats for face wash, treats for foot wash, treats to go out and pee, treats to pay me attention when walking, treats if by chance you heel decently for 100m... the list is endless. Would not have believed I would have got to this point, all my previous dogs have been trained on a "atta boy", and dare I say it a choke chain in one case and a halti in another. (Choke chain was 20 years ago). I am amazed at how people just assume they can let their dog randomly approach other dogs but then I have to admit that 5 months ago I too would probably happily have assumed that all dogs were friendly so I try to be tolerant, but yes a lot of the time I find myself thinking if all dogs just obeyed the rules life would be so much easier for reactive dogs. You are so lucky (plus a lot of work) Padriac. Its lovely when dogs can interact, every afternoon there's a wild ball game up the road at the off leash park and I just know Jake would love to race around and rough it if he could. I wonder how many of our dogs have been "created" by one unfortunate incident. But please brag away it does give me hope. No I'm not that strong but I sort of sling him over my shoulder and he hangs on like a kid, funny thing is he immeadiately goes quiet but I try not to do it often because its a struggle and if I go down it would be ugly.

No he's a bulldog not a pitbull, similar but you might notice the face...Yes he is dog aggressive so it would help if you did not allow your dog to come running, barking across the road to get to him. Ok I give up pretend he's a pitbull if it'll make you call your dog off.

Thought I'd add a Jake story just for a laugh. He has ongoing allergy problems, apparently standard with a billdog. So on Friday the vet changed to a new dry kibble and nothing else, no chicken treats, at all. So I use a lot of treats for everything including toileting last thing at night, one to go out, one to go down steps and one after he's done. He has spent most of the day sulking without treats, he eats the kibble in his bowl but won't take it from my hand. So comes toilet time, we make it out the door but he refuses to go down the stairs, after 10 minutes I carry him down, he bolts straight back up, I wait 20 minutes and he just won't budge despite the carefully laid kibble trail. It's cold so I give up. On my way to the shower I think I see him in my bedroom but since we're not talking I ignore him. I go to tuck him in later which normally gets me a nice hand lick but no, still ignoring me, so I go to jump in bed and guess where the little monster has had a pee.... in my bed. So comes first dog today on our walk, which was luckily a blond labrador, he spits out all the kibble but not too much nonsense. Little bit later we get in a dog sandwich with 2 white fluffies and a loud boxer, as will happen when you are out of ideas, so I gave up picked him up and carried him out of there. He will strangely consent to be carried quietly, I think he gets embarrassed and stops drawing attention to himself. So tomorrow chicken is back on because that's just the way it is.

Yay field trip to Cairns...don't think I could sell that one. I have read the book and did find it unlocked some concepts as to how ratbag might be thinking. I hear what you're saying Skye and prior to owning Jake would not have thought running away was the way to go. He is a really great, earnest, cuddle bunny at home, he has learned to leave the two cockatiels that roam the house (one seriously plagues him) and after one $350 encounter with the rooster learned to not retailate, so my reading suggested, and getting to know him made me believe, that his fight response was because his natural flight response was being inhibited by me hanging onto his leash. He is only about 40cm tall but weighs 22kg so when he gets upset it's like being chained to a bouncing cannonball, he has slighly longer legs, being and australian bulldog so can leap as high as my hip. Our first behaviourist spent 45 minutes showing me how to feed treats etc but when she saw how he went off with another dog she basically said PTS or never walk him out. Any treats you could shove in pretty much get barked straight back out. He didn't have a threshold, he didn't actually have to see a dog, he could go off at a spot where he once saw a dog or where dogs had once been, he would lose it at the dog waterbowl in the park. So running away is not really my final goal, it's a default behaviour to replace the fight response. I guess a really large man or a more experienced trainer could manage his tantrums but bottom line is I can't. I physically cannot subdue him and I don't believe he is by nature aggresive so my logic is, and it seems to have worked, that if he knows he has an escape option then his whole walk will not be about looking for the next dog and he can relax and start to enjoy himself, and I can too. If he trusts that I will allow him to flee then we can start to negotiate and not panic. He learns tricks very quickly and so once we have escaped a dog I stop him and we do tricks and I then am not rewarding him for fleeing but he does get a reward shortly after seeing a dog. On most of our training dogs, the reasonably passive fenced dogs, we have reduced our run to a few quick steps and can do our tricks in sight of the dogs. Tricks include doing a down stay and looking at me whilst the dog is behind me so he's pretty much looking at the dog. I really just feel he is so afraid that it borders on a phobic response and so trying to negotiate with him in full fight mode is a waste of time and does neither of us any good. Yes we have been chased by two dogs, both cocker spaniels and I tore my ACL trying to kick away one!! Little monsters, but pretty scary with teeth bared and leaping at you, on both occaisions Jake hid behind me... little help buddy Anyway probably not a conventional approach but it has now given us a threshold and he loves running away so that on 2 of the dogs we still run past he actually starts running when we turn onto their street, so for the first half of the street we are actually running towards them. They are two nasty little terriers, I don't speak dog but I suspect they are shouting insults that start with " Hey, your owners so ugly she..."

Hey SammieS funny you should ask because it was a remark you made about Asti not wanting to feek pressured to meet other dogs that made me think Jake felt the same way. Basically I walked one set route on a busy road with lots of parked cars for a month. This way I could use cars to shield us from other walking dogs and also people tend to not let their dogs stray up on the busy roads so minimal chance of off-leash encounters. Every dog we saw in a garden I would just say run away and go tearing up the street. After a while this was just his response to every dog on the route so my thoughts were that hopefully running away would become his default reaction to any dog rather than barking and it would be easier to replace a flight response than a fight response. Anything associated with dogs he learns very quickly and he loves running so it only took a week and we were galloping away at the smallest hint of a bark. I then asked him to slow down a little bit shorter each time after a non threatening dog, so most of the labs that don't seem to bark and the little poodles. Now we can walk past all the non barkers and if his 2 little poodle girlfriends who jump on the back of a couch in front of the window and hammer away with their paws don't come to the window, he will give a little bark and want to wait till they turn up. I give him lots of treats if he doesn't bark and he knows to expect them. Lots of the dogs are pretty scary so we run past them and always will. After about three weeks he started instigating fake dogs, barking and going off for a run.... he always seems to stay one step ahead of me. Anyway just this week I've started walking different routes. He seems to be an anxious dog because he is on hyperalert as soon as we turn off our regular walk but he does seem to have decided blond labs are ok and today managed to walk past 2 that were out for a walk, on the other side of the road and being given lots of treats. I just make a judgement call as to how he's reacting if he looks like he will lose it I prefer run away and it's probably less stressful for other dogs and owners too.