dididog

I just did some searching and found one in March not too far from me so I'll check it out. I'm not a super confident trainer so I'd probably like to join a club at least initially for guidance as well as helping to strengthen Didi's ability to focus around other dogs but Keilor is a pretty casual arrangement so if it isn't for us no harm done. I have watched some videos on youtube so I have an idea of what it consists of but yeah definitely like to get down and experience the atmosphere as well. Also I've done horse shows and hacking in the past and I must admit I didn't enjoy it most of the time as it was stressful, expensive and to be honest quite nasty sometimes and I don't want to get into something similar, is the competitive dog world more enjoyable?

Tracking is another thing I have considered as she has a very keen nose but I don't really want to do something more high impact like agility for the time being at least due to her joints but that's another reason I thought obedience would be a good place to start. Keilor seems to be pretty comprehensive and sets the dog up for competitive obedience though I'm not 100% sure what the requirements are to compete in obedience. I looked at 4 Paws and they seem similar to Keilor in terms of what and how they teach, they have an info session this Saturday so I might check it out.

Hi, ever since getting onto DOL I've wanted to do something with Didi that's fun and gets us amongst the dog community. As she's a Great Dane mix this rules out shows and most dog sports but I really think she'd do well at Obedience. Trouble is I have no idea what the world of Obedience trials is like and what steps apart from joining an obedience club I need to do to get there. So pretty much just looking for someone to clue me in a bit on what it is all about or steer me to some resources to give me a better idea. Didi is almost 4 months old and will finish puppy school on Saturday, she picks things up really quickly (Day 5 of learning stay and she can hold for 10 seconds while I move into another room :D )and will do anything for food/toys/affection but I'm not sure when to make the transition to going to obedience training as I don't want to throw her in the deep end too quickly. I live in the inner north west of Melbourne so any suggestions of clubs/trainers in my area would also be appreciated though at the moment Keilor Obedience Dog Training Centre looks good, has anyone been here?(don't mind going to the east side but could only do this on a weekend). Thanks! :)

Hi Steph, from memory you live the Melbourne western suburbs?? Do you think you could maybe PM me name of the obedience club as it sounds really great and I've been thinking of joining one after puppy school as Didi is crazy smart and loves obedience work. Thanks a lot Id really appreciate it - and good luck for tonight!

I studied the book in detail for Year 12 Literature last year and the standard poodles were one of the only things I too could remember apart from the fact it was such an annoying book to write about! My Nan had 3 standard poodles when I was very young, always been my top 5 to own one day, so gorgeous.

And I don't blame you after putting up with all that. Anyway think this thread has gotten a liiiitle carried away. The point of my original post was that some people astound me with how irresponsible they can be with their own dogs safety when it is their role to protect them.

Council regulations also specify that dogs are to be registered (about 50% are), vaccinated (a similar proportion are), walked on leash outside of approved areas and picked up after. Those last two I see flaunted most weeks. You can wave Council regs at dog owners all you like but the reality is that many dog owners don't give a toss. At the dog park, its majority rule and the majority appear to believe that anything goes. I'd not rely on others obeying council regs for my dog's safety. I was just pointing out that there is a definition of 'acceptable' but yes I agree most people won't take notice of it. I think people blur the lines a bit with 'dog park' and off lead areas. The former being fenced off squares off grass where dogs can run around and play with who ever they like and the others being expansive areas within a more stimulating environment (water,trees, birds, bushes, lots of scents). These areas tend to attract different sorts of dog owners. I find that people going to large, unfenced areas, especially in high density residential areas are going primarily to exercise their dog, not to play with other dogs and will generally have good recall as its not an enclosed space (although the incident that happened yesterday shows that not everyone actually cares about their dog's safety). At a dog park you're much more likely to find the type of dog owner you describe HW that are likely to be slack in monitoring their dog as they know they can't go anywhere and more likley to have incidents with other dogs as they are in a small enclosed space and encouraged to play. While obviously these are generalisations and you can always run into an irresponsible dog owner I don't think all public off lead areas should be demonised as for some people like myself they are an important tool when used sensibly. If you don't want to rely on others obeying council regulations for your dog's safety you may as well not leave the house because you can just as easily have an incident walking your dog on the street.

Acceptable to whom? A casual walk past my local dog park suggests that dogs tear arsing around with no heed to their owners is perfectly acceptable to the majority of park occupants. For arguments sake I think acceptable offleash behaviour for everyone is what is dictated by your council. Mine says all dogs must be under effective control, mustnt menace a dog or human and advises to ask owners for permission to interact with their dog. Obviously whether people follow this or not is another story but if you wanted a distinct description of acceptable there is one.

The beach is a public beach that also allows dogs so anyone is entitled to be there, the dog couldve done the same to a child so are you going to say children shouldn't go to the beach? You don't have to be 'that infirm' for a large dog at high speed to knock you down and cause injury, it could happen to anyone. It wasn't the dog running around that was the problem it was the fact it was running from the beach to the park and back again and when in the park it was completely unsupervised or when on the beach 100s of metres away from its owners which is too far away for them to exercise effective voice control.

The dog was going extremely fast and the park is not very big and used mainly as a courseway between the carpark and the beach, you cant see the park from the beach so while the couple was still on the beach they had no idea what their dog was doing and it was running up to dogs while in a friendly manner not al appreciate a large dog.running at them full speed. I didn't take much issue with it running around although it was posing a bit of a knock over hazard, the main part of the story that I think you've missed is the owners let their dog which had recall run through a parking lot, across a road and chase a train and didn't seem the slightest bit concerned. Also I wasnt training her to walk onlead as I do this on walks. I was trying to stop her from pulling as we left the beach as I always put her on leash when we leave because I don't trust her around roads yet. When we are entering the beach I don't bother so much as I know she's excited but I think a dog needs to be able to walk nicely on lead regardless of scenario but I am glad me attempting to have control over my dog was the most concerning part of the story for you...

I'm just a lil' 17 year old girl so felt a bit nervous confronting people/ was kind of in shock that they were so casual about the whole thing, the other people who called the dog over to them got quite angry but the owners just acted as though they regularly let the dog just run rampant as otherwise I think they would've been pretty freaked out by what happened.If I ever see them again and their dog is still like this I will speak to them about it as yes, off lead does not mean out of control but I think the problem is more the owners not being bothered to call it back rather than the dog not wanting to come back. Really upsetting as this beach has surprised me so far by being consistently really pleasant with most dogs nicely behaved/under control.

And everyone (including children) that were in the park watching it unfold

I just got back from the beach with Didi and am still feeling a bit sick. We took her down for an evening dip at Altona Dog beach which is a lovely dog beach. For those not familiar with its set up, the beach has an off lead park in front of it and a car park adjacent to the park with a road and train tracks running parallel to the park. Anyway we were heading back to the car which took a while since the tide was far out and we were stopping frequently as I'm trying to train Didi not to pull on the lead at the beach when this possible Lab/Kelpie cross started bolting from the beach to the park and back again at a crazy speed. At first this was just annoying because every time Didi would relax on the lead it would run pass and she'd pull again but it started getting dangerous when he tore passed an elderly lady, coming quite close to knocking her down. Now not every dog at Altona sticks right by its owners side but most of the time people will call their dog back when it strays too far but I could not find a single person that looked like they were trying to call this dog back. Anyway we got up to the park and I realised it was the middle age couple behind us who owned the dog and had not once tried to call the dog back and now the dog was zipping in and out of the car park which was making me nervous. Just as I was going to say they should probably call their dog back as it was in the car park a train went past at full speed and this dog took off across the park, across the road and started chasing the train Some horrified onlookers in the car park tried calling it to them so they could check if he had a collar as "surely his owner would've called him". Just as we reached them and the dog, the owners walked past and called the dog to them (so it did have good recall after all) when the other people asked if that was their dog they just said 'yep' in a mind your own business kind of way and ignored us when we pointed out their dog could've just died!!! I could understand if the dog accidentally got away from them and they'd been desperately trying to call it back but these people clearly just couldn't care less if their dog was dancing in traffic! Scary to think that most dog owners worst nightmare was not even slightly concerning for these people, I hope the dog outlives their stupidity...

He has such a pretty face!

Just checked him out he's a massive cutie, reminds me of Didi especially his ears they're very similar!

Sorry if I seemed accusing, I just assumed he had the conventional vaccine times and therefore would have been at risk at the dog park! Just by putting yourself out there and joining a forum to ask questions you're doing better than a lot of other dog owners as you obviously care and worry about the upbringing of your pup and want to know as much as possible :) But yes as others have said you should still wait a bit to let his vaccine do its job before venturing to higher risk areas.

Maybe your vet just went you could take him out and about with you? Did he directly say you could take him to dog parks because most vets are pretty heavy handed on the whole waiting until they're fully vaccinated before you leave the house thing. A dog park is a very high risk area, especially if he is off lead as he can get into and sniff things he shouldn't(poo)before you even notice it's there. I'd say keep doing the walks and take him with you to certain places but avoid dog parks for the time being purely from a health perspective. I live near a huge reserve that is off lead yet even there I feel a bit apprehensive taking my puppy because even if you pick the most isolated part of the reserve, somebody who has no control over their dog will still let it bolt 500m over to you which is unfortunately the risk you take at dog parks - not everyone cares about their dogs behavior. As a lot of others have said with a breed that has a higher tendency to be dog aggressive you want to be very careful about his interactions with other dogs when he is so young and impressionable. Do you know anyone with well behaved adult dogs he could hang out with instead? Also while its hard to avoid them, if a dog ever rushes out onto the street I will either cross the road or calmly pick up my pup and walk in the other direction(without comforting her or reinforcing any fear) which normally makes them lose interest though I'm yet to have this happen with a large dog, only small yappy things. Teach him to focus on you and ignore other dogs/walk away from confrontation and it'll save you a lot of trouble because unfortunately your poor boy will be the one getting blamed if he were to defend himself against a small aggressive dog rushing him on the street.

Took some nice photos in the garden! She has such a serious photo face :laugh: Also ignore the ear on the right... it's doing all sorts of funny things at the moment!

Thanks! Yeah she is about to cross the line of being too heavy to pick up I went to pick my friends Kelpie puppy who is also 15 weeks up the other day and almost lifted her above my head because I'm so used to anticipating a heavy puppy :laugh:

My beautiful baby is now 15 weeks and nearly 16kg! She's getting so big!! Also ignore the weird wire all over the side of the house... one day I couldn't find her and she'd dug her way under the house so we had to dismantle our old rat cage and nail it into the wall.... Eating the grass... I love her big brown eyes Her favourite sleeping position

She knows her boundaries... she just takes advantage of the fact some people in my household don't enforce them They're getting better though and her naughty puppy moments are few and far between nowadays but I think I spend more time telling my family off than her!

Oh if only that would work.... you see my mum's dogs have always been 'perfectly well behaved' and she never had to do 'all this new age training crap'. She's getting better though since she's seeing how much NILIF and crate training have helped but still a bit of a struggle sometimes.

I try to put NILIF in place as much as possible, she has to sit and wait for dinner, sit and only start tug/play with toys when I say 'take it', sit and wait for me to go through doors, only get a treat/bone if she goes on her outside bed and sits etc. etc. She is great with me and my dad, the jumping and biting and not listening is mainly directed at my mother and brother who despite me asking them again and again still don't follow NILIF as much as they should.... They want to leave all of the 'mean, boring stuff' as they see it to me and then wonder why she doesn't listen to them!!!!

So are you saying that I should take her for a 10 minute walk on concrete rather that 10 minutes of swimming and walking on sand? While Im aware that the beach risks exposure to disease, in a dog park poo and the nasties lingering in it remain there until it is picked up or is absorbed into the ground, at the beach the tide comes in and out every day, the sand moves around etc. so while she could still pick something up at the beach I don't view it as bad as a dog park and she is just as likely to pick something up on a walk up the road. We avoid the dog park mainly because her recall isn't great around other dogs and I don't want her to have a negative experience while she's still so impressionable. The dog park we live near is more of a huge reserve that is offleash rather than a tiny fenced in square of grass. The golfcourse is actually a public one with no fees or fences and has extensive walking tracks alongside it and I probably shouldve rephrased that dogs aren't prohibited persay but the offleash dog reserve is right next to it so nobody takes there dogs to the golf course and wouldn't during hours people are playing. Also her 'rowdy' behaviour extends a bit further than just being silly and doing.zoomies, she jumps up and bites and barks and while obviously I try to rectify this behaviour Id prefer to prevent it by having her tired and content. Thanks for your input though, I will scale back the amount and frequency of her exercise and work more on tiring her our mentally/through play - the last thing I want to do is open her up to possible health problems...

:) Thanks for all that! She normally is very calm inside and we make her settle after play before bringing her in but sometimes she just gets too hyped up so I'll try getting her to stay on her bed when she's like that.