Better Late

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/3072509/two-dogs-seized-after-alpaca-sheep-mauled/?cs=3372 Not good. Don't hear much of maulings happening round here, but there are so many loose dogs posted on the Bendigo Lost Pets page daily that I'm not surprised.

Sometimes Bonnie makes me wonder. Tonight it was about where she sees herself in the household structure and where she sees us. She's never been the biggest fan of our central reverse heating system, and in the last week or so has started growling and barking at it when it powers down and makes wooshes and clicks. I know dogs hear different to we do, so tonight I just watched her to see what her body language was and what signals she was giving off. It was the same sort of barking and body language she displays when she's barking when somebody is near the house. Guard-like behaviour, a warning. It went on for a little while until I growled at her and sent her to her bed. Her reaction went down, but each time she growled at it I growled at her and moved into her space. Whenever she backed off so did I, giving her long slow pats and she was actually asking for more pats. I moved back to the couch and she eventually asked to come up to be with us, something she's been reticent to do when the heater is on because she's so worried by it. She gave a very small growl at the heater which I returned, she looked at me and then put her paw on my leg and promptly relaxed and fell asleep, snoring. I feel like I've just shown her I'll deal with the big scary thing, not her, and she's able to relax now? Very Victoria Stillwell I suppose but having her relaxed enough to fall asleep on the couch while the heater is on is a definite win and I'm taking it.

Again, thanks to all concerned. We adopted Bonnie in December last year and saw the amazing Nekhbet on January six. With her help Bonnie has come on in leaps and bounds, it's a management thing with her and while she's our first dog we're striving to do everything we can for her. We're not perfect but we're putting in a bloody lot of effort I can tell you. As it stands I'll be staying home with her as I'm too sick to go. Better for everyone this way.

Thanks everyone for your responses. This is our first dog, and while we do love her to death we're just learning. The only reason she would need to come with us is that our house is two hours away from where the party is and we have another family do the afternoon after, so it would be an overnight trip. She's stayed overnight at the house before but this is just another kettle of fish. I've just come back from the doctors who have ordered more tests to find out if I have an underactive thyroid as I've been ill for the last three weeks, so I've just decided to stay home with the dog. Much easier for everyone.

She was going to be in a separate room as it was, there's no way of locking the door but I would have put a sign up asking people to leave her alone. Probably would have put something like a table in front of it. There are always nuffies no matter how well behaved people claim they'll be, I'm super sick at the moment and just had a massive sob to my partner and told him there's a good chance I'll just stay home to save stress. I told the other person I wasn't going to apologise for being clear about things and he pretty much said he's going to end the friendship in that case. Oh well, no skin off my nose.

I set clear rules regarding my reactive girl and how I don't want people to go near her at an event we're having. She can't be kennelled due to her reactivity so she will be in a separate room with her crate, favourite bedding, Thundershirt, stuffed Kong, relaxing music and some DAP spray. She doesn't like strangers and will be more stressed due to changes (having driven two hours to be in a loud environment) even with the measures we're putting in place, I'm trying to put her welfare first and so have told people to leave her be. I don't want there to be any mistake about it, DON'T go near my dog! I was just told I'm being rude about it? How is setting clear rules being rude? I'm doing everything in my power to make her experience as unstressful as possible and no doubt there'll be some nuffies who think OH COME ON YOUR DOG CANT BE THAT BAD and try to lavish her with attention, stressing her out more, and I don't want her to go through that and react badly ie nip someone. I've a good mind just to stay home with her now, this party is super important as my partner recently came out as transgender and this is our way of celebrating, and we've done so much planning to try and make everything alright for Bonnie.

Steve from K9 Pro would be right up your alley :)

Before we got her, Bonnie spent five months in the pound, and god knows what her sleeping arrangements were before that. We crate trained her from day dot, although she seemed to prefer sleeping on the couch in the loungeroom as opposed to being in her crate of a night. Gradually though she warmed to it and will now ask to be put to bed if we have the sliding door between the loungeroom/bedroom closed. She has free range access to the house at night because she's explicitly trustworthy and prefers snoring her head off over chewing god knows what, the only reason we close the sliding door to keep her with us is if its stupid cold (we're in Central Vic) and I've got my worry wart hat on. I have a tiny bladder so when I get up to wee at about 4am, so does she, and then its back to bed for the both of us. She does love cuddles but a queen bed with two adults and a 20kg snoring foghorn bedhog does not a comfy arrangement make, so cuddle time is limited to mornings and just after we've gone to bed. She knows what 'in your crate' means and will hop off the bed and go straight in, although its punctuated with pathetic grumblings, life is so hard.

Oh she loves the car BC, she just does her block at all of her triggers ie dogs, people, bikes, overhead passes. The car means walkies!! But this will as you say make everything far more peaceful for all of us. Its been nice not having to apologise to pedestrians (saying it to myself in the car) when I see them walking ahead of us :laugh:

We bought a soft crate for the car this past week after the straw finally broke the camels back. I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out, chalk it up to a learning experience I guess. I covered it with a towel so she can't do her block at things she sees out the windows and we can have a far less stressful car trip without reinforcing mental behaviour. She looked ridiculous in her slightly oversized Weatherbeeta coat this morning but our BAT session was AWESOME and I felt very zen on the drive home :)

If he's so focused on you, have you considered using a marker word (as in YES!!!) instead of a clicker? If he's super handler focused then that might work more in your favour rather than using a clicker. We use them here, because I'm a complete klutz and cant wrangle a clicker/leash/dog/treat all at the same time :laugh: You would just need to 'charge' your marker word in a short click treat session as you would the clicker. And as TSD says, go slow. Raise the criteria gradually

If you haven't done anything with it for that long you'll probably need to 're-load' the clicker. It's as simple as click treat click treat click treat click treat rapid fire click treat party! So Sonny can remember to associate the sound of the click with a treat. Remember that clicking is capturing the exact moment that he offers/does the behaviour you're after, and if he doesn't remember what the click means he might be getting a touch frustrated :)

Lets get this thread moving again! Love to hear what everyone is working on. We're only new to this trick training caper (Bonnie is my first dog) but so far she knows: Sit Down Hi-five Low-five (paws my foot) Stay Spin (both ways) Front Here (recall) Group hug On Your Mat/Bed/Crate Wait (momentary pause) I really want to start capturing a bow, it'll be pretty easy as she stretches a lot especially in the mornings. We're currently working on retrieve using the Shirley Chong method and after that I want to start training heel, and eventually move into a switch with her going behind me. One step at a time!

We walk our girl in the local national park every morning for a good hour, always on a long line of course as her prey drive is off the hook. At night she gets either some off leash running at our local showgrounds oval (completely enclosed), a walk up and down the stable blocks/cattle yards if there are people using the oval or we go back to the national park if its light enough. Occasionally she gets to go running with my partner too. All with some training thrown in of course to keep her listening. Who here has a Thundershirt and what have they done for your pooch? We've had ours for two days and I'm almost in tears with the difference. My previously aloof dog who would rather sit on the other side of the room to me is now coming up voluntarily, eager for cuddles with me. Her tail is up and wagging a lot more and she's a LOT more playful, and her reactions to certain triggers are FAR FAR less intense. It is absolutely amazing!! Its like she's discovering how to be a normal dog.

Done!

Thanks grumpette, she is a work in progress! The goal is to be able to add a second dog to the household when she is ready, a take anywhere, do anything with, mentally stable pup with good drive so I can get into dog sports and have a companion when I'm doing my rounds :) It's a while off yet but thats the goal. I'm with you grumpette as far as the Izzy case goes, Bonnie was in the pound for six months before we picked her up and she was completely shut down because of it. Instead of seeing a behaviourist and dealing with her issues, her previous owners chucked her into a situation that ramped up her reactions towards other dogs, to the point where she had to be kenneled three pens down from a particular bitch with blankets over the fence so they couldn't see eachother. The effects that would have on a dogs psyche is enormous, and I don't know if we'll ever know what Bonnie was like pre-pound. We just have who she is now to manage. It would be completely unfair on her and there is NO WAY she is ever going back into a pound environment, like you grumpette I'm very strict with her training and management and constantly watching her body language. I would have to take all of the factors surrounding the NOI into consideration before I decided whether to contest it...I suppose its not something I could decide on until it (god forbid) happened.

Well overdue for an update, oops! Bonnie (or 'the hound') is doing exceptionally well. Positive reinforcement is working an absolute treat for her and her reactions have gone from I AM A BIG SCARY SCAREDY CAT DOG AND I WILL RIP YOUR FACE OFF GO AWAY PLEASE to I am a BIG SCARY maybe scary? dog? I'm only BARKING AT you because its INGRAINED oh hey treats!!! There is a particularly zen husky near us that just sits on the deck, doesnt make a sound and just chills there. With the permission of the owner we've been using it as a 'helper' and doing BAT nearby, of course there's a fence between us but she is improving in leaps and bounds. She didn't try and eat the old bloke making noise with the shovel yesterday, instead she offered sits and downs of her own accord and responded to requests for behaviours. She was even CURIOUS about the zen husky, and even let its owner pat her briefly!! Yesterday while outside we had an encounter with an entire male offleash staffy, I'm still bloody seething over the whole thing as she'd been doing marvellously for the fifteen minutes prior. Our little culdesac is at the end of another street, you turn into it right before you hit the public land. There's a visitors carpark where you turn in and its a perfect place for some trigger work as there's a howling rotti, cats, kids on scooters and a small white yappy thing of some description. So we're doing great work, sits, downs, stays, spins, fronts (which she's only just learning), recall, high fives, army crawls, she's smashing it. All on a long line, off the street in a private driveway. Suddenly out of frigging nowhere comes this black ball of unleashed undesexed revved up muscle, charging our way, of course Bonnie goes into absolute melt down mode and I'm yelling PLEASE COME AND GRAB YOUR DOG while trying to get the hell out of there with a 20kg bloodthirsty freight train attached to me. It's useless, I'm being pulled in circles, getting leash burn and this woman finally manages to grab her dog, makes a half arsed apology, she has a pram with her and says to her kid as she leaves "no, that dog wasnt very friendly". No, she's not friendly, but I tell you what, she certainly isnt rude or allowed to go charging up to people and their dogs without invitation! If Bonnie was off leash (which we dont allow unless in a secluded area with no distractions) that dog would have been a lot worse off. Unbelievable. I've seen this woman before and she never has her dog on a leash, after yesterday I'm considering reporting her. Anyway, I'm proud of my girl and the progress she's making. We walk her quite often in the national park near us and she revels in it, we're also training her to do long distance recalls with a whistle. Here's my little grot looking mighty pleased with herself after finding a muddy puddle to splash in. She wasn't so pleased with herself when she got put straight in the shower when we got home :laugh:

We would dearly love to take our girl camping with us, we nicked off to the Howqua River last year in the middle of winter and it was wonderful! Probably not so good with a dog though, so we'd look for pet-friendly accommodation. Our girl is allowed onto the bed and couch at home but only ever by invitation, and they are both covered in any case. But if the rules say no dogs on furniture then we'd abide by that, and she'd sleep happily in her crate of a night time. We'd bring covers with us if they said allowed on furniture though as well as supplying towels for her, because she's a ridiculous water baby and would love love looooove the dam :laugh: it sounds amazing Sheena!

Our leash skills are coming along very well. Bonnie is starting to respect the leash and the fact that I'm attached to the other end of it! We just got home from a great walk on a long line where she (mostly) tolerated kids on bikes, and she didnt even bat an eyelid at the workmen with whipper snippers and leafblowers. True to form though she did try and eat the AusPost delivery man, but we're working on it! Her Jafco basket muzzle arrived today and I'll get some positive association happening before we test it out.

I just got home from uni and after peeling the dog off me (I've never seen her so excited for me to come home!) I was quite warm so I decided to practice her sit-stays and down-stays while I completely disrobed in the kitchen :laugh: Does anyone else like to combine two birds with one stone and train in really weird ways? Or am I just the odd one out?

I wondered where my favourite pair of undies had got to until my partner asked "why are there bits of purple all over the backyard?" She did make off with one of my Nike Airs when we first got her and had to go out for whatever reason, lucky for her she only chewed the shoelaces!!!!

Well we have a local trainer coming out in a few weeks just to help us continue giving Bonnie a better perspective on life. She nipped a friend of mine who was visiting out of fear aggression, it was completely my fault as I just overloaded her and didnt read her signs properly, I should have listened far far better and only have myself to blame. I'm only learning as well but having a trainer local to us will be a godsend. LLW going well, and we got to walk around the neighbours house today without her trying to eat the neighbours dog! At all! Just a bit of whining, curiosity and info gathering. I also bought some beautiful stained glass window film for the bottom window panels, so she can stop being homeland security by the windows and I can open the curtains again and enjoy natural sunlight!

Tried to post photos from my phone but turns out I cant, unless somebody knows how?

Well after last nights horrid session (chucked too much in the stew pot) we were back on the horse this morning. Loose leash walking training. My goal was to get her to her favourite sniffing spot (pee-mail community dropbox) which is about a 150m walk. She is getting there with the LLW, its just a matter of consistency. On our way we came across these things, here are the reactions: Car: turned away (would usually lunge/snap) Dog: whined, turned away (would usually bark/snap/lunge) Postie: turned away (would usually bark/lunge/snap) Kids: whined, turned away (would usually be fixated) I rewarded her with distance as her FR for all those things. Very pleasing! She was a bit spooked by all the trigger stacking so I decided to head for home. Of course she was pulling a bit to get back to the house but I have had it with this and will not allow it to be perpetuated any longer, yes the house is a safe place and yes you can go there but no you cannot drag me there and rush the door as I try to open it. It is not fun for me and isnt helping you get over your fears, either. So I continued my LLW training. She was wigged, but once she realised I meant business she responded quicker as I was using getting to the house as her functional reward for acting appropriately. She tried to rush the door and pry it open with her muzzle, but each rush meant I closed the screen door and would only open it again once she was looking back out at the world on a slack line. It didnt take long, she is smart and eager once she knows what the deal is.

Just got back from a pretty good walk! it's going to storm here later so thought I'd strike while the iron was hot. Meandered up and down the driveway (we live in a court at the end of the street) doing some LLW and she responded super well to it. Got up to her favourite sniffing spot and suddenly we hear a dog bark, I turn around and there's the tiny little yappy thing of a neighbour. INITIATE EMERGENCY UTURN! The dog disappeared but we ended up doing some great BAT work near the house where she knew it has come from, and the walk ended with her turning away from a walker some yards off and trotting home happily, looking back at me with her tongue out.