Better Late

Gets fed inside because its raining. Runs around with an oxtail in her mouth in a state of confused frustration because she cant decide where to eat this delicacy.

Whats your house setup like, are you able to block off her access to the kitchen by baby gates or similar? When we brought Bonnie home she went through a rather opportunistic phase of counter surfing any chance she got. Our kitchen/dining/lounge is all open plan so we voted against barriers, it just wouldnt have worked, but it might do in your case. Along with conditioning our girl to go to her mat (and bloody well stay there!) while we were food prepping, we just turned into the worlds most efficient kitchen hands and made sure there wasn't even a skerrick of food left for her to get at. If I made a sandwich and had to go into another room for something, the plate would go on top of the fridge. I still find myself taking plates of food with me if I have to pop out into another room for a second, she's far, FAR better than she was, but I still don't trust her a hundred percent because she's a cunning little fiend, bless her socks :laugh: and I'd rather manage it so she doesn't have the opportunity rather than allow her to self reinforce.

Well done you for biting the bullet and going after your dreams! He sounds like an absolute riot. Where are you located, DC? If I ever see you out and about with him I'll simply HAVE to say hello, but I'll remember this thread and keep my manners about me for his sake :laugh:

Better Late, which type/brand of the hammock seat cover did you buy if I may know? Thanks. I am looking for one. currently only have the reject shop one, which had the seams around the Velcro came out. I got the black Kurgo Wanderer hammock! I'd been looking for one that we could thread through the child seat clip thing on the parcel shelf, and it needed to be sturdy enough to withstand our quite often muddy/grassy/wet dog after our hiking trips. I had a $9 one from ebay before I learnt my lesson :laugh: http://www.d4dogz.com.au/catalog/kurgo-wander-hammock-medium-black-p-5481.html

There was a case today with white marshmallows that had something like rat poison inside them, I think it might have been in Sydney? This is abhorrent and I honestly don't know how these people sleep at night. I do wonder if they're kids We walk our dog in the national forest near us (1080 free) but are always on the alert for anything she might try and pick up as she is a complete opportunist and would gobble anything up.

Christ, where do I start... Calendula tea (for a rinse), hammock seat cover to go in the car, SnuggleSafe heat pad, Susan Garretts Crate Games, K9Pro High Intensity Package, stuffed toys, raw feeding ebook, an oinking pig from Woolies that we all love because it sounds so ridiculous :laugh: My biggest issue is I've memorised my debit card details so online shopping is treacherous at best...!

Thanks everyone, it was a pretty deflating experience all round but we bounced back and are looking ahead. My partner is away in WA until Sunday night and there's no way I'm walking the dog around here on my own, its a recipe for disaster as there are triggers all around us and I'm not setting her up to fail, no way no how. She's getting stacks of training to wear her out and I've been refining my technique, making sure I'm getting the behaviour to produce the reward and not the reward producing the behaviour (unless I'm luring something I need polished, but then I fade it pretty fast as she cottons on quick, bless her). I'm focusing more on the reward experience which I've discovered is her catching and chasing the food, I've never seen her bound after something so fast! I've conditioned a 'lets go to work' cue, as well as the cue 'ready?' which I use after YES! and it means 'good job, here comes your reward!!!' and at the mere mention of it her eyes turn into saucers, haha. She's been conked out on the bed for most of the day on her blanket <3

No other details at all at this stage, I'm just gauging interest. But there's been stacks of people who are keen, so I'll keep chatting with K9Pro and see what eventuates! I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Our rescue girl had been in the pound for five months before we took her on and has a world of issues we're working through, barking being one of them. She's my first dog and has really opened my eyes to all things canine. I've noticed recently that she does have some separation anxiety and has been barking more to get our attention, and barking more at other things such as cars going past outside, something she can hear outside but we cant, in all honesty its an extremely quiet street with a person walking directly past the house maybe once or twice a week. Her separation anxiety seemed to be tied in with her being very dependant, demanding and clingy, and it made me realise it was more handler reinforcement than anything else. So today, both myself and my partner ignored her for fifteen minutes after we got home in separate instances. She tried every trick in the book to try and get our attention...offered behaviours, climbed up on our knees, pawed at us, barked at us, sat underneath my partners work desk, brought me a toy...and eventually she gave up and went to lie on the couch. The biggest thing for me was my partner and I decided to slum it and eat lunch in bed, normally we'd have a petulant dog walking backwards and forwards to opposite sides of the bed to try and see who would give her any attention or food. Where was the dog? Sunning herself in the backyard. She hasn't barked at a single thing today and isn't pestering us for attention - she's quite content to self entertain and snooze in the loungeroom, but is totally up for play and pats when we want to! So while our situations are different, and while I'm not saying that today has been a total cure-all for us and it might not affect your situation at all, AND while I'm not being entirely helpful, I just wanted to let you know that it WILL get better. Older dogs do tend to have these behaviours ingrained, particularly for an ex-racing grey from a kenneled environment

People are garbage, plain and simple. I still want to know where he and all of his staff get their supposed 'qualifications' from.

Are there any topics you'd be particularly interested in?

SO CUTE! She's going to be a bundle of fun!

Hi DOLers, Just wondering how many Victorian forum members would be interested in attending a workshop/seminar with Steve and the team from K9Pro? I'm just gauging interest at the moment, if there's enough interest then one could very well be organised for the future :) Let me know, tell your friends! And discuss any topics you might be interested in learning about.

Would you get pinged for using IPO/Sch style heelwork in ANKC obed? Schutzhund is sadly a no no in Vic but I really do love that style of heeling, the dogs just seem to prance with so much energy and fluidity. Maybe I should just move to NSW.

I've been wondering this myself recently as once my reactive girl is fine with other dogs I plan on getting a pup to do competitive obedience with, as well as potentially some therapy work. I live in a country town where I don't really know anyone and that suits me fine, but I would still take the pup out to places like cafes/shopping centres/train stations/playgrounds etc. For me while its about socialisation, its also about desensitisation and neutralisation - I want my pup to get used to different things happening around him/her but to not put any value on them. Its just a thing thats going on/train thats at the station/sliding door closing...no big deal. So even while there would be lots of people around I wouldn't necessarily be interacting with them, unless it was on my terms. Like Sunny suggested above, if a child wanted to pet my pup and asked their parents and myself for permission, I'd use it as an opportunity to teach the kid how to interact appropriately with a small pup and what to do/not to do etc. I have a lot of friends that would jump at the chance to meet my current dog and any potential future pup I get, but because of their behaviour and my current girls reactivity, I just wont allow it. They don't listen and seem to think they have some magic wand that will make my dog like them instantly, so their visiting privileges are non-existent. If you were near me I'd totally help you out! Going to be in Melbourne any time soon? :laugh:

Thanks, Jemmy. Yeah we do use a long line as her regular lead for the reasons you mentioned, but she'll just be on lead entirely now. We're wanting to move to a bigger place with an actual backyard next year so that will be good for her to have a romp in at least. Counting down the days!

Just need to vent here, pretty annoyed and disappointed but I'm trying to work through it So I've been mostly a shut-in for the last week or so due to having the flu and it being cold as bollocks up here, about -5 to -1 in the mornings when we usually walk the dog in the forest, so I've been staying at home so as not to exacerbate things. We've been doing really well with Bonnie lately, managing her so she doesn't get the chance to rehearse her unwanted behaviours but today just set us back a ways I think. My partner while I was dead to the world woke up and took her to the local showgrounds to do some recall work in the fully enclosed oval and give her some off-lead time, but there's been a circus there recently and he just didnt think ahead. Apparently while she was running off leash in the oval, two men appeared outside of it, walking their little dog. Bonnie made a beeline for the fence, slipped under it and went for the dog. According to my partner, there was a bit of sniffing, and then snapping and barking and it looked like Bonnie was trying to mount this other dog, throw her front legs over the other dogs back when she was standing side on to it. I asked my partner again and again if she had grabbed the dog and tried to shake it, or even bitten it at all, but he said he didn't really know as he was in damage control and was trying to get there as quick as he could. Eventually the little dog ran off and Bonnie ran back to my partner who had now reached the fence and had jumped over it and was still calling her. What really has annoyed me the most about this is that he said "I had to pull her by her harness as the lead was on the other side of the oval" WHY was it there!? I'm really trying not to blow my stack at him over that, I would have had it with me at all times and I expect nothing less from him, I'm just so disappointed now. He said there was no blood spilt, which I'm glad of, but it was just a horrible situation, even if she didnt make contact, but we will never know for sure. She will now not be off-leash at all except inside our house and will be muzzled if we need to walk her in any place where there are people and potentially dogs. We were doing so well, and now a lapse in judgement has made me want to crawl into a hole and not come out for a while. September with K9Pro cannot come soon enough

I'll definitely check that out, we loved working on crate games!

Wiggly butt Beagles! This reminded me I want to start work on her rear end awareness :)

Umm lets see, you and Wiz, Henna & Jaimie, Reegan & Dusty, Nic & Flick :laugh: I'm actually loving it which is surprising, because I watched a Crufts obedience video and was put off by the stiffness of it all! But the idea of training it in drive really appealed to me and it just seems like so much fun! I do want to get her started on rear end awareness though, I'll watch some more videos of that too and find a suitable something or other to train it on :)

I considered putting this in the training forum but this one seems to get more coverage, and yes I have already searched the forum for threads on heeling, I just enjoy having active conversations with people ;) So as my girl is dog reactive we do all of our training at home on our own as opposed to in a class. We've got a couple of days in September with K9Pro to work on her issues as well as learning about training in drive, but until then its just me and the dog. As she's my first dog I'm really just discovering what I'm interested in and right now its turning out to be obedience funnily enough, and in the last few days we've started shaping the formal heel position with me luring her into position while I'm standing near a wall. This is her second session and she's already sitting in line with me 90% of the time which I'm happy with. The question is where do I go from here, take a few short steps and reward her in position while she's by my side, or take a few short steps, ask for a sit and reward her then? How did you do it and what advice can you give a total novice!

Get him to the vet to rule out any potential medical problems if you haven't already and I agree with HW, a chiropractor in case he's thrown something out. Seek out the help of a behaviourist ASAP, I know Steve from K9Pro does phone consults. A muzzle will help ease your worries, Jafco basket muzzles are great and don't restrict the dogs muzzle to cause further stress. Using a leash to wrap around his snout will most likely just be adding to his frustrations.

Clicker training should help, although I use verbal markers. One and the same really. If its taken eight weeks she really might not understand what you want her to do, maybe check out a few videos of Kikopup on youtube to get more of an idea of how to train it. She's been a big help to me and my boofer. I trained a down the same way as huski, from a standing position, so its more of a fold back and down rather than a slide the front end down, it looks sharper that way. I moved the treat down and back towards her chest area so she had to fold back to follow the direction of the treat, once her elbows hit the floor marked it with a yes!! and treated. Its also easier to train the 'stand' from this position once you've mastered the down I've found. I'm only six months into it (first dog ever!) so I know it can be tough! Patience, consistency and persistence will pay off, keep us updated :D

So I finally bit the bullet and am starting to train my girl to wear a Jafco muzzle that I bought from K9Pro due to her reactivity and my need for peace of mind. I just wondered if anyone else has had experience training an older dog to wear one? To her credit she picks things up pretty quickly. I started off popping some tasty things in the basket and getting her to eat out of it, then once she was comfortable with that I moved onto free shaping. In tonights session I raised the criteria a bit more and asked her to put her muzzle in the basket and leave it there for a few seconds, moving up from muzzle-in-bump-the-end-and-dart-straight-back-out she had previously offered. I want to work up to a point where I can do it up with her standing patiently and make it part of our pre-walk routine, a fun thing just like her harness and leash. Am I going about things the right way do you think?

LOL She loves a cuddle! I think by September if she put her paws on my shoulders we'd end up being the same size :laugh: