Better Late

Funny you should reply BCC as I just got back inside from my 'getting back on the horse' session! A few strong cups of tea sorted me out I think :p She was antsing for a walk so I thought bugger it, I've spent the better part of my day reading Grisha Stewart material so time to put it to use. There is a huge open area out the back of my house so we ventured out. I had a neighbour laugh at her reaction to a sudden cat, kids avoid her, BUT we started getting some really good choices once I got her away from the kids and under threshold (she hates scooters). Good choices with a person walking past, then a man with a dog came trundling along. She was fine for the first few choices, then she must have got a bit too deep in the water and the hysterics started. Thankfully he had his dog on leash and was probably just shaking his head at this crazy woman and her batshit dog, but I managed to capture a few good behaviours to get us further away. Did some loose leash stuff until suddenly the man with the dog came back, and I tell you what her reaction was extinction burst and then less, and less, and less, and less. She was starting to understand that she could make the choice, but I suppose her behaviours are so ingrained she just can't help herself. She was even turning around to get another look at the dog, and then turning away of her own accord without making a sound in the end. I'm glad I went out, I suppose it really is like riding a horse. If you fall off you just have to pick yourself up, remount and off you go. We will get there!

What a shit morning. Started off well with a bit of BAT and then fell to pieces when we rounded the corner to find a woman and a lovely looking young (and not obese!) Lab heading in our direction. Thankfully no cars were coming so we crossed the road and she proceeded to tie herself in knots and rip my shoulder out of its socket going off her head, then it was a concrete truck, a man in his garden, a man in hi vis, the postie, other dogs, and of course as soon as we get home the delivery man comes and we're back to square one. Very, very over this morning and we are going to get a local trainer to come out and see us regularly as we need the help and I can't do it all on my own, as much as we love Nek she's two hours away.

My girl does this sometimes. She was in her crate the other night and had an episode, gave me a bloody heart attack being right next to my side of the bed :laugh:

It's horrid isn't it BCC! Crappy nylon leashes be gone, isn't it amazing what you learn when you're a first time dog owner. Well, if you bother to put in the effort I suppose lol On Your Mat is going great, she's even taken to hanging out on it of her own accord which is cool. We did some generalising today after I added the cue, I did standing at the door, sitting on the couch, walking into the loungeroom to the door and pointing at the mat, asking her to go 'on your mat'. She did exceptionally well. My partner is away in Melbourne so when he gets back we'll start building up to having him come out of the office (he works from home), asking her to go OYM and then requiring a stay like I do. All broken down into little steps of course. Then we can work on one of us knocking on the door so we can proof proof proof. We also started BAT tonight (after I spent hours waging war with the printer. My loungeroom now looks like there was a tornado in the Reflex factory) near the local dog park. She would notice the trigger, I waited for a good choice like a head turn, marked it with a yes and then jogged off happily away from the trigger as her functional reward. She got a bonus reward after that. It didn't take too long for us to walk closer to the dog park but I made sure not to over do it and push her over threshold. Tomorrow I'm going to go out early and do some BAT work by the local school. Looking forward to it!

Oh my gosh raineth! What a beautiful dog, house and owner!

Thanks, hankdog. It hasn't appeared to set her back at all and we went for a lovely walk this morning. I bought her a lovely leather leash from Israel and it arrived today, no more ripped apart hands! She really doesn't like deliverymen, she ripped apart the fly screen on the screen door this morning so we're training for a 'go to your mat' result when there's a knock at the door now. It's more predominant with anyone wearing hi-vis, luckily we own some so we can proof with that eventually too. How is everyone else doing?

We recently discovered Bonnie is more of a Pointer and Heeler mix, and it makes sense as her prey drive is nice and biiiiig. We play a lot of tug and chasey, but what I wouldn't give to take her lure coursing or even rabbiting. Only problem is she's dog reactive (we're working on it) so other than getting her a 10m longline (we already have a 5m from K9 Pro) and letting her at the local wild rabbits I'm not sure there are many options

Well, I think I just gained Certificate I in poor decision making We took Bonnie for a quick walk after the sun had set, her only walk today as it's just been too hot for her to be out on the asphalt today. Completely forgetting that there was a monster truck show on at the showgrounds nearby. So of course as we round the corner halfway home we get barking dogs of all shapes and sizes, revving monster truck engines, fireworks and a looming thunderstorm. Poor thing must have felt like the world was caving in around her and practically dragged us home, pulling like a freight train the entire way. I've never seen her that desperate to get inside the house before and she's now hiding in her crate in the bedroom while the fireworks explode over head. That's probably going to put us right back a ways, I feel awful for her because I shouldn't have put her in that position and she's been doing so well. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I need bex and a lie down

A timely thread as I'm beating my head against a brick wall after having the "Bendigo free pets" group suggested to me on Facebook. NO. JUST NO. BECAUSE NO. I often see 'WTB *insert breed here* for free or cheap plz' .......WHY!?!?! I know we all like free stuff. I like free samples, I like free furniture on the side of the road, I like free upgrades. These are all really neat things. But this is another LIFE that YOU need to be RESPONSIBLE for. You cant just be responsible for the idea of having a dog and leave it at that. Time, effort, patience, consistency, training, money and most importantly love need to be spent on this creature and it just breaks my heart to see people just after the cheap and easy option. This thread has me almost in tears, doesn't happen very often (I have been described as a burnt out husk of a human being :laugh:) but I keep thinking of our 4yr old rescue girl who is reactive and was unsocialized. FOUR. She herded up the kids they said, she chewed all our stuff she said, she hates other dogs they said. And then they said they "couldn't take her with us where we're going" so they handballed her off to the pound. Unless you're going to the North Pole or the bleeding MOON, you had a commitment to this girl and you broke it. You gave up on her. You quit. But WE found her. And in two months she has improved immeasurably because we've taken the time and put in the effort. She's so smart, such a blessing to have around, a total dag and my L'Oréal dog. She's worth it. They all are. Rant over. Just a bit emotional.

We haven't had any rain since we got Bonnie last month, so we'll have to wait and see as far as antics go. One thing she does do though is go straight for my fingers after I've cleaned off her eye goop and licks it all off quite fervently :laugh: grot!

She's really coming along hankdog, consistency and routine are key :) How is young Jake doing?

My name is Bonnie and I didnt lose my shit at the Husky I saw this morning, nor did I try to eat the screen door to get to the tradie who was outside for an hour. In fact I didnt care about him at all!

YAY! She's awesome. Just a pity we dont live down in Geelong so we could see her all the time lol Hankdog we focused a lot on being able to make decisions for her, and getting her to recognise that and let us lead the way. Working on getting her to focus on us more, especially during walks, is another thing we worked on. Especially in distracting environments, and it doesnt help that 5 months in the pound is stacked up against us, but we're getting there. I've implemented NILIF and I can see her beginning to think she can put one over me by being selectively deaf, but I'm just making her work until she does what I ask and then she gets a reward. Two can play at the stubbornness game and I'm a lot better at it than she is :laugh: I'm also doing some negative punishment with her at the moment to combat her barking and growling at things going on outside. The curtains stay closed so she doesn't have free rein to arc up at things going on (and bark at them so they 'go away' which is what she wants), but if I'm on the couch reading then I'll open the front door and let her look out the screen door. First sign of barking or growling or any sort of carry on and I mark it with a NOPE and shut the door. She's actually come quite a way in just a few days, after some whining and some extinction bursts she's now happily lying by the door, soaking up the sunlight and watching the world go by :)

Thought I should pop in and update, I've been a bit slack lately! Hope everyone is enjoying 2015 so far. Bonnie has settled in well and we took her down to see Nekhbet a couple of weeks ago. Nek was amazing and had her responding within minutes in the presence of Trigger, a Malinois so chilled you could set a firecracker off near him and he wouldnt bat an eyelid. After a good while of learning we worked up to Rogue level, now Rogue is a turned up to 11 Malinois and I didn't think we'd get there but WE DID! I was so proud of my girl. We've been working through it slowly. Last night was stressful, doing restrained recalls on a secure and 99.9% of the time abandoned oval when a couple came in with their SWF. My back was to them so I didn't notice, she bolted straight past and made a beeline. Woman picked her dog up, Bonnie was just jumping a bit but even though she wasn't barking or growling it could have been so much worse and I'm just glad everyone was alright. Very stressful. Then she deafened us in the car going batshit crazy as we left...my ears are still ringing. Good thing was this morning she didnt even move off the couch when the postie came, usually she has a pink fit and tries to rip the walls apart to get to him. Just a few wuffs today. So thats a positive I suppose.

If you're happy with your decision then thats all that matters. I've got nothing against rescue - our girl is one - but sometimes the #AdoptDontShop ninnies do my head in. Rescuing a dog is a noble thing, but so is the betterment of a breed which is something you clearly have a passion for. PS Dobes are wonderful

We've had our girl for a month now and I've found myself pondering the same thing as you, Stressmagnet! I know it can take a while for a dog to come out of their shell in a new environment so I need to keep reminding myself to be patient (not one of my finer points :laugh:). But sometimes I do find myself wondering if I'm doing something wrong because she hardly ever wags her tail and isn't overly keen on affection, oh no, is my dog broken? Crap, she loves my partner more than me! (Lots of face licking whereas I just seem to be treat dispenser/person who requires her to do things). It's all very interesting, especially as a first time dog owner. There was a video posted on facebook this morning of a man doing some obedience work with his shepherd, with the caption "Look at this happy, wagging tail! This is what you should see when you train your dog. If you don't have this then you need to do X, Y & Z etc etc" and my brain immediately flew to OH GOD MY DOG IS BROKEN I AM THE WORST before jumping to the logical thought path of 'no, she's four years old and just coming to terms with a new environment, and every dog is different. Give it time grasshopper.' When I wonder if she'll ever 'love' me (or jeez maybe even like me a bit more at this point) I remember the tail going round and round when we come home and the pawing at my hand when I stop patting her to see if she wants more. We'll get there. The main thing is she's ours, and she's well fed and safe :)

Thanks everyone for your replies. Skip, her issues are mostly dog reactivity related, so while we work through that we're also really working on bonding with her, and building our relationship, as we've only had her for a little while as you said. She actually really enjoys our shaping sessions! She picked up the nose touch quite quickly. She is exceptionally well behaved in the house and follows the rules we've set for her. I'm using our training sessions as a way to reinforce our relationship and to get her to focus more on us - which is coming along in spades at home and we're seeing the benefits of that when out on walks. She's very smart and I think training and mental stimulation is certainly helping our relationship. I've loved all the ideas so far, and will definitely be asking Nek about it (although she's probably sick of me by now :laugh:) Pics to follow shortly ;)

I have a four year old Heeler x Staffy who we adopted a month ago. She has some issues, but we saw Nekhbet last week and are working through them :) She loves toys, but has no grasp of the fetch concept. Instead its more of a YOU THROW IT SO I CAN TAKE IT BACK TO MY BED AND CHEW IT! I would love to be able to play fetch with her and have a grand old time. Any ideas on how to get started?

I'm in Bendigo. Shoot me a PM if you still need a hand :)

Check out Growing Gifts, or Edible Blooms. My go-to for gift giving!

Hi everyone, Raineth, I appreciate everything you said! Thank you. Your honesty (in fact everyones) is refreshing. We did go ahead with the adoption, but I haven't logged on until today. We are probably the people who have just done what a whole bunch of folk wouldn't do (because they know better) - take in a reactive dog - but she's home now and we've made a commitment to her. In terms of seeing a behaviourist, we'll be seeing Nekhbet in early Jan for a workshop, and she's given us some pointers to work on in the meantime. We're avoiding other dogs during her adjustment period while we all get to know eachother, thankfully there are showgrounds near us that are deserted so we just walk her around the stables/cattle pavilion so she can smell all the things. She had a whale of a time climbing in the manure pile yesterday :laugh: We did come across two dogs behind a fence on our walk today. I've never seen them on this walk before. The small dog started barking first and instead of growling she whined while straining for a better look. The small dog was joined by a larger dog, and she whined again, but I asked her to come with me and she chose to, which I was happy with. She doesn't bat an eyelid at freight trains orthe ducks kept at the school, but she growled and wuffed at a van towing a trailer full of wheelie bins, and she REALLY doesn't like the postman. I'm going to start LAT today so we can work on that and will work on getting her to either go to her crate when someone knocks on the door or go into a sit-stay. Its a learning experience :)

Appreciate that hankdog, and I certainly don't think you're pooping on my party at all! All of the above is something that I've been thinking heavily on since we met her, and I've lost count of the amount of articles I've read to try and gain some more knowledge on the issue. But thinking and reading, in reality, is not going to set me up to fix this dog. I'd be stupid to think otherwise. This is going to take work, and an incredible commitment to training as you said. Every day will be a training day. This is something that needs to be managed, and even though I will be her primary carer, both myself and my partner need to be on the exact same page when it comes to training otherwise we're just going to confuse her and derail any progress we make. There are going to be hard days, there is going to BE that day when we round the corner and there's suddenly a dog in her face. These are the types of things we need to plan for because they WILL happen and we need to be prepared. On the flipside, as the woman in the shelter said to me, she could be a completely different dog outside of the shelter environment. Who knows. But its so much better to be prepared for the worst, even if that does make me sound like a negative nancy. We want to make her a part of our family and we owe it to her to work hard and be committed. :)

She is a stunner, both inside and out We're completely taken with her and will be going to the RSPCA tomorrow for a quick visit before work and then again on Saturday, and it looks like the big day is Monday. I haven't stopped reading since Tuesday and am feeling nice and informed about things now, plus I'm waiting to hear back from Nekhbet about a workshop day in January. So things are looking good :)

Nekhbet - will send you a PM.

Hi gang! Long time lurker, very recent new poster. What a wonderful and supportive forum this is. To cut a long story short my partner and I are looking at adopting a 4yo blue merle heeler x staffy from the Bendigo RSPCA. We have been informed that she's 'not too keen' on some other dogs - in particular a rather dominant Ridgeback bitch in the kennels, but she's had a meet and greet with a Cavalier and everything went swimmingly. When we first saw her in the kennels she was shut down, showing the whites of her eyes and very timid after initially approaching us for a sniff through the wire. She was okay when it was just myself and my partner but once a family of five came in she retreated to the back of her kennel. Something about her spoke to us though and yesterday my partner and I had a meet and greet with her. Wouldn't you know it, she was a completely different dog. Playing chasey with us, splashing around in the clam shell, sitting for kibble when we asked her to, feeding off our body language and chilling out with us once we decided playtime was over, coming to us for pats and looking happy and content. The handler we met her with said we seem like an excellent match, and we spoke about her dog reactivity. In the pen next to her were two SWFs who she only started barking along with once they kicked up a fuss, and the only other time she showed any interest was when a dog was 30m away going around a corner. It was ears up, whats happening over there? But she chose to come back to us. Since we are in love with her and are 99% sure we will be bringing her home, we wanted to seek out a behaviourist so we can get her (and us) set up for the best possible second chance. We need to learn how to handle her reactivity and certainly cant do it on our own, it wouldn't be fair to her. So if you have any recommendations on behaviourists, suggest away!