Kavik

The security guards I know do recommend extensive socialisation. While this discussion on socialisation and nerves and genetics is very interesting, it is not useful to the OP, who has to deal with the behaviour regardless of its origin.

I use both dry food (the dog's dinner) and treats (I mainly use cheese but sometimes other things). It depends on what I am training and where. For house manners etc I use dry food, for training specific exercises where I want the dog to be really keen I use treats, and when I am training in a distracting environment (eg training, at a trial, at the park) I use treats.

Earlier in the thread I stated that the security guards I know prefer dogs without a lot of prey drive. This includes Diesel's breeder. High prey drive is useful for sports though.

What sort of stuff do you study in Animal Science? I never realised this was its own degree! Sounds interesting. I am trying to decide what to do now that the kids are starting to get a bit bigger. Lots of people have asked me if I considered being a vet. But honestly doing surgery on animals never appealed to me in the slightest!

Completely OT but that is a gorgeous and completely awesome dog Nekhbet!

Here is a history of the German Shepherd in pictures - very interesting to see the development and see how they become bigger and heavier over time and the changing shape. My favourites are the 1920 - 1930 dogs.

Yes, the security guards I know that use GSD don't like a lot of prey drive in their dogs.

Yes, I think you would be able to find a working line GSD that would be suitable as a pet. Research your breeders and lines, and let the breeder know what you are after, and they would be able to advise whether they may have suitable pups. They are not all nutty :laugh: My GSD is working line and (though he has some health problems, allergies) is certainly more suited as a pet than a working or sporting dog. He has nowhere near the level of drive that the Kelpies have (which made it very frustrating when I was aiming to trial him!), he is calm and gentle around the kids.

I agree with huski - GSD and Belgians are quite different. If I decide to get another big dog, I will probably choose a Belgian (and probably a Malinois) over another GSD.

What a fantastic program!

Here's the rationale (which I don't believe, but the GSD people take seriously). "The gait, which describes movement, is called the flying trot. The German shepherd is supposed to have a far front reach as well as great rear end extension. This produces a dog that glides across the ground, covering a large area in few moves, which is the right movement for a dog keeping a flock of sheep together. In fact, the whole visual picture illustrates the qualities necessary to do their intended work. Large, strong and fast might simply state the breed's physical attributes." from www.stevediller.com/articles/german_shepherd.pdf‎ Seems to me that kelpies do a great job of keeping a flock of sheep together without resorting to a strange gait that seems to be gliding. I dont think I've ever seen or even heard of a German Shepherd herding sheep in Australia. I wonder if they use them in Germany. Australia being such a big sheep country, you'd think they'd be used wouldn't you. GSD herding is different to Kelpie or BC herding - GSDs are more of a living fence. It is a different style. There are differences in types in GSDs - notably the working line/show line differences but within those as well.

So do you click when she hits the ground then release & throw the treat, or do you click, treat then release then throw second treat. I would mark or release (if your marker word is not automatically a release) as soon as they hit the ground, and throw your reward.

With my puppy I chucked a handful of food in his crate every time he went in there and he will now run and leap into the crate :laugh:

Done

Neither of my breeds came up on the top 20 in the breed selector :laugh: though to be fair Kelpies are probably not on there. The top 2 were Pointer and Vizsla

The Weesaw is the nickname for the low height seesaw that is now in ANKC agility. The seesaw used to be about double that - the angle used to be the same as the dogwalk.

Also Nekhbet has Malinois experience

Go over the contents of that garage with a fine tooth comb and remove all potential poison and choke risks. You can pretty much guarantee that at some stage he'll make it out of the pen. In one of my pup's cases, it took less than 5 minutes. Yes to this. I created a puppy run along the side of my house, and my pup managed to squeeze through the gap between the pole and the fence! Luckily it only meant he was out with my other dogs in the larger yard. The gap was then fixed!

I've had to quadruple Zoe's food intake since putting her on the Renal plus diet

Yep Hills K/D or Eukanuba Renal Plus (this is the one I am using for Zoe, they didn't have any more K/D in stock at the time).

Hi TheCheekyMonster! I was also at Castle Hill last night! Glad to hear Gus went well! It is a busy club so keeping focus can be difficult until you get the hang of it. I'll look out for you next week (I am in the advanced class but sometimes peruse the beginners to see who is there).

Walk backwards - filmed a week and a half ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f2UlB3GN-6I

Well, the good news is that the skin problem is not demodex (what Vet was initially worried it might be), her thyroid is a bit low so we are going to check that out some more to see if that is the issue with her skin. If that is not the problem, I am just dealing with another skin problem dog :laugh: They are so frustrating!

She is going well, she has picked up more since I have changed her diet, quite sprightly, chasing the ball etc. Today she is at the vet getting skin scrapings done to see if they can identify what is causing some dermatitis she has developed.

Thanks Rappie that is helpful :)