akristin

mita, your experience sounds like such a horrible situation to be in! Thanks for sharing your stories everyone - your experiences are so relatable. There should be some regulation or some set rules/basic instructions handed to new pet owners i.e not letting dogs offleash in non-offleash areas! The "my dog's friendly" agenda drives me insane now! (I used to be that person until I saw the light & started researching etiquette and dog forums ) Small update - we ended up not going for an extended walk, she will do a little jump and turn around so quick we get tangled with the lead and my legs when she hears dogs in the neighbourhood bark through fences or front yards now. Back to square 1

Thank you for all your kind suggestions. We will definitely be walking again this afternoon but entering our park on the other side even if it's a longer walk. I totally agree - it gets so tiring, constantly looking out for a possible threat or an obstacle to avoid whilst out. Yesterday's walk was not our usual route, will probably stick to our normal path for a while! I don't recall the number of the house but I've gone on google maps to find it. Will report to the council as it may not end well for another dog that tries to fight back. Thank you all again!

Just needed somewhere to vent about this afternoon's jog/walk with my lab Marley. I've been working on her reactive attitude towards passing dogs when we go out and about (bought her a backpack so she can focus on a job). She's been doing so well this past couple of weeks getting into the zone of walking and ignoring other dogs, it's been such a great investment getting the bag! However, today it felt like it was a little bit of a drawback... we were walking towards our local park when I spotted an offleash dog in it's front yard. The owner was outside and perhaps didn't realise it's dog got out? As soon as I saw this dog we were already halfway across the road. Still walking, I looked back to see it's head high up and tail pointing straight up in the air bolting toward us. We were almost on the other side of the road when it had bolted straight onto Marley's back as it was growling and foaming at the mouth. The owner managed to recall his dog from his house, then went straight inside not even asking us if we were okay! Thankfully it didn't get ugly - she didn't even try to defend herself. I'm scared that this encounter will set us back a lot. I was shaking and frankly, I still am whilst typing this. Next investment is probably going into a massive stick/staff now!

This I think it's a good idea to start some foundation exercises for agility at home first...reward system, recall games, startling procedures, building value for a jump etc. there is plenty of information on the Internet to get you started. That way when you get to take her to club she already has some value for the activities and understands that they will be rewarded.It's also important to go to a club that manages dogs effectively. I would avoid those who encourage dogs to play before & after class. I teach a number of reactive dogs & we have never even been close to having an incident. Dogs are crated between runs & all emphasis is on strong engagement & focus between dog & handler. Any dog that has a strong history of reactivity starts off with private lessons until they are ready to integrate into class and we make sure that they are placed in a class of already stable & focused dogs. Hope this helps :) good luck, agility is awesome fun :) Will definitely practice before joining the dog club.. Haha google is now my best friend I've seriously googled non stop these 3 days with methods and initial introduction to agility.. The dog club that I was going to join does have activities of socialisatiin after the classes (what ive been told anyway) I think it's time to search for another club? Your agility class sounds very effective in keeping the dogs focused! The clubs that I search integrate the beginners class first so all newbies start from the first level.. Thanks for the advice, it helps! Definitely sounds like fun, very keen to start my first dog sport! :D

Thankyou for your insight! Yes, Marley does reasonably well with all sorts of distractions because I take her down to a few of our local parks where there's varying degrees of activities going on like football and soccer matches, cricket practice, kids riding bikes and skate boarding on the concrete areas.. The only distraction I found was with large kites that soar up from the ground she tries to chase them! With other dogs the only problem is really when the dog initially comes into sight however when she knows the particular dog distraction is there and the dog has introduced themselves there's no shift in her focus- we'll have to work on initial distractions...

Sorry this unfortunate situation happened to you .. hopefully you, your husky pup and your daughter all recover from this incident.. I'd say don't hesitate to take your puppy out and about! There will always be crazy owners out there just need to identify which ones they are so we can avoid them .. I totally agree with you especially in non off lead areas! Makes me seriously wonder about some people.... I'd like to share my story too! had me fuming At my local park it specifies no offleash dogs as I gather there had been a few incidents with dogs already at that park.. I was only walking one of my dogs, Marley who is a reactive dog. The parks path width is quite big it could probably fit about 6 people side by side but this lady a few meters away from her 3 offleash dogs. Two were quite large dogs, bigger than Marley, who is more or less the average sized lab. Now I had little problem with the dogs being offleash provided that they didn't come straight towards us.. however what I did have a problem was with was that the lady shouted from metres away out to me and asked if my dog was friendly I told her that she wasn't good with dogs and she has issues with unknown dogs resulting in tensed up behavior. But nope, that warning didn't deter her.. she caught up with her dogs which were already almost surrounding Marley and I (she had already tensed up with her hackles raised alarmingly, her tail straight BUT wagging so very slowly, her eyes locked on the closest dog.) The lady swiftly walked towards us-- as if she doubted me or just blatantly ignored what I had just said! She proceeded to then PAT Marley in her state and tell her she wasn't aggressive at all.. but in fact, Marley was quite happy and just wanted to play because her tail was wagging and that I didn't need the halti at all I didn't even bother explaining all the signs she was displaying.. it was just infuriating

Not yet, am planning to call them tonight as I've already missed out on their weekly training session on Tuesday nights Marley is two at the moment, turning 3 this year One of the only places I've done an exercise where I get her to pay attention to me was at our trip to the beach where some dogs had zoomed right to us. I got her to sit down and focus on me. I'd say that her attention span and focus is pretty on point when asked to do something such as just staying.. But she goes over thethreshold when she's not being asked to do something That's a relief to hear that Marley could have potential in a dog-surrounded environment! Yes, I heard about Steve on this very forum and have read very positive reviews about his work so we're quite excited! I've already gotten a reply from the k9 pro coordinator so all we need is to organize a specific time! I feel the same way! Really don't want to have an accident and will avoid one at all costs.. At first I thought that Marley may have been attacked by a dog before we got her although I have a feeling now it may be that she hasn't been properly socialized when we first got her at 7 months because she seems confused as to what to do when faced with another dog .. Good to hear your girl has integrated into joining a club just fine .. :laugh: Yes you may be right! Marley is very very food driven hopefull shes as driven with food when faced with a room full of dogs! Thank you for the advice! Will definitely keep your words in mind. A reactive dogs nightmare those words make me a little bit nervous! Will have to see the behaviorists advice on weather it's a wise decision on if we should join agility or not before we join .. Dog dancing - I've checked it out and it looks quite fun! although I am horrible at dancing so may not be the perfect fit for us Will have to use my intuition if this is the club for us! Thanks for the advice will stay positive for sure .. haha Yes I realise when I'm tense Marley definitely feels that and reacts 3x worse- sometimes I don't even have to keep an eye on here because it's me that's the problem.. I have to keep checking myself on walks for my nerves! Thanks everyone for the lovley input and advice, will keep you all posted!

Hi everyone, I am one of those people who hasn't joined a dog club long story short my parents disagreed on my will to join a dog club but now since I'm finally 20 they see I'm old enough to make my own decisions entering the adult world etc.. Anyway! If you're not bothered to read my essay down below on why I'm worried about joining the dog club here's the question I'm basically asking: I want to join my local dog training club and do some agility with Marley my lab at my local dog club for both mental and phsical stimulation but am worried that she will react badly towards the dogs at the club if we do end up joining. I'm just wondering if anyone's dog has reactivity/issues with dogs at their own dog club and how you curb that whilst doing an agility trial? Here's the detailed explanation : Whilst worrying about this dilemma last night I have contacted Steve via email from K9 pro to evaluate her issues so I'm just going to paste what I wrote so I don't need separately to reiterate her issues If you read this far into this post thanks for taking the time to read it! :D

Whilst living at my parents house we collectively have 3 dogs. At the moment I technically have two dogs Angel and Marley, although, I have the responsibility of all three.. but I would definitely say 2 is my ultimate limit! They all get along well and can handle them fairly easily at home but when taking them out it's a quite different story.. Going out of the house can be a struggle to do with all 3 so can't enjoy all of their company at the same time-- the two jack russells have high pray drive and will constantly pull if they see birds etc. Whilst Marley has a thing with dogs so I can't walk them or take them out together or my arms would be pulled out of their sockets !

The last time I took a decent group photo was a week or two ago! At that time we had a little pup in our pack that we were taking care of ..here's a photo!

My first dog was when I was about 8 my family and I went on our usual trip to the local Woolworth grocery store, whilst there I was looking at some ads on a huge wall sized message board just before entering woolworths, there was about 30 ads some ontop of the other. I remembered scanning through and stumbling up[on a photo of a Jack russel litter.. I showed my parents the ad and begged them for a puppy and told them they didn't have to pay as I already had the $200 that the 'breeder' was asking for, although, when they vehemently declined I still grabbed the little tabbed copy of the phone number. On my 8th birthday as a surprise, after school I was taken to the BYB place and was told to pick a pup from the litter. Thus we gained this adorable critter her head was barely bigger than the size of my little 8 year old hands! She is now 12 and still full of energy!

Hank has grown up to be such a lovely handsome boy! Please do keep the photos coming :D

I've been following this thread since the 9th of Feb, just wanted to say you definitely made a good choice..congratulations on the new addition yo your family

Just scanned through everyone's photos .. well done guys, very beautiful photos! In saying that..I may have failed the challenge due to not posting every day for a month ... but I did manage to complete it even if its already the first of march 20/02 Puppy sitting! Just before this photo he just killed that pink rabbit below him .. 21/02 Birds bathing 22/02 Tried to go for a symmetrical photo with these fountains 23/02 Sculpture in the CBD 24/02 Bob, our fish 25/02 I really love fountains! 26/02 I find it fascinating that there's trees growing on unit balconies 27/02 Spot the crazy dog 28/02 We're attempting to grow our own rain forest in our backyard

tdierikx your photo's are infinitely hilarious.. and adorable! :laugh: Anway, I'm really quite horrible at keeping up to date .. 15/02 Seagull got hit by the wave! 16/02 Stuggling to climb this.. 17/02 Our little visitor (not so little) resting on our Jack Russell's bed 18/02 19/02 "I found something, I found something!"

11/02 On the way up to Nowra 12/02 Captured a lone cyclist 13/02 Mr. turtle at our visit to the zoo

10/02 one of natures elements .. fire sister tried out from youtubeEDIT: forgot to put the date

8/02 Our little visitor 9/02 Track day

Oh man! This thread totally slipped my mind .. Would it be cheating if I posted the whole week I missed in one post ? 1/2 During the holidays went up to nowra .. Took a photo of these perfectly aligned trees whilst passing them .. You dont see these kind of things here in sydney! 2/2 Siruis cove during the weekend, there's Marley fetching her ball whilst a 7 month old pup waits by the shoreline for her (As i recall he was quite scared of the water :laugh: ) 3/2 Taronga Zoo lookout Off Sirius Cove track) 4/2 Seagull on a Sydney Deck 5/2 Please forgive me , but this was a photo taken back in school for an assignment but felt the need to share as it's a quite interesting nature shot -- taken from a ferris wheel above the Chinese gardens. 6/2 Marley and her friend Shadow sniffing in between boulders 7/2 A visit to tarogna zoo .. caught the lion yawning (also caught the glass reflection ) P.s. from now on I will participate with actual photos I took that day :D

What you are seeing is a stress response showing your dog is feeling insecure around other dogs and what a dog will do is what ever it takes to relieve the stress if it escalates over threshold, either retreat (run away) or fight (attack). The problem is exposing her to this stressful situation if she does blow over threshold by the body language displayed, she is likely to attack more so than retreat and once she learns that attacking lowers stress levels fast, she will make attacking other dogs a default behaviour at threshold peak. Thanks for the responses, yep for sure will not be taking her back to the dog park. She seems to enjoy other activities such as going to the beach and long hiking tracks much more than having her socialise with other dogs anyway

It was stressed to me in the past to have her exposed/socialised with dogs to get her 'used' to being around other dogs so I assumed that the place to go was the dog park. It's just that we live near a dog park and we see so much dogs romping about and playing thought it would be a healthy way to get her accustomed to different types of dogs but I do understand now that it's not imperative to get her to meet loads of different dogs as it seems that she'd rather be with her human counterparts ... For sure didn't think about it as forcing her but thinking about it now and putting myself in her position I sure wouldn't like being brought to an area full of unknown people and expected to talk to them .. Cheers for the clarification/help guys :)

I'd like to join in! My theme will be based around nature/animals because we usually go out hiking/bush walking, beaches, out to local parks etc so a lot of beautifuls out there to capture with the camera

Sorry OP that this experience has happened to you and your lab I will post on my experience on this thread as I feel like this incident may happen to me if I'm not watching her 24/7. I have a labrador as well, I have taken her to the dog park as of late.. but by reading the posts through this online forum I see the real risks of dog parks. In short, I'm quite new to the whole socialistion/exploring the area kind of thing as my two previous dogs are my parents dogs so I was really too young to understand what it meant to be taking my dog out and enjoying their company. Thus, I have gotten my two year old lab and have owned her for a little more than a year now.. My she loves human attention but is indifferent to dogs which is why I thought socialising at the dog park would be a good way to expose her to different dogs. She seems wary of new dogs, at the first greeting when a dog comes into the dog park she will have her hackles up her tail straight and staring intro the other dogs eyes with the whites of her eyes showing let the dog sniff her and she sniffs them then after that she just ignores them. Another reaction is to over active and hyper dogs is if they rush toward her she makes it clear she wants space by growling and ignoring by moving away however which in turn has the owners of these dogs staying away from us because shes showing these reactions. May be a dumb question but is this the making of a dog fight/attack? I feel like it would be a wise decision to get her checked out by a behaviourist as well ...

I'm asian myself, and I think its fairly accurate that it's a cultural thing that asians are scared of dogs.. As most dogs in my country (philippines) are mostly street dogs so just roam around and are free to breed which makes it easy for dogs to act wild. Although, I love dogs to death as they're much more relateable than humans in my opinion. :laugh: This is true in some situations some think dogs are things to be feared of for differing reasons. I know a relative who is (understandably) excessively afraid of dogs because a dog had attacked her causing facial skin to be torn off when she was younger ... which then caused a chain reaction, now her children can sense the fear of their mum which teaches them that dogs are scary. Also, in they're not allowed to have dogs because of the mothers phobia of dogs. Trying to get them slowly accustomed to dogs is a challenge ...

Thought this puppy forum thread would be interesting to read through- lo and behold! first thing I see is the cutest a dalmatian puppy!.. I knew it was a good idea clicking on this thread