Jaque

What a sweetie!

Has anyone found a good trainer/behaviourist in Geelong or surrounding areas? All the ones I found are Cesar Milan wannabees. I want a reward based trainer as my dog is anxious. Id also be interested in any recommendations for a vetinary behaviourist in the area, if there are any.

I recently introduced a backpack also due to my dogs frequent need to take breaks on walks and my bad back. I also want to stop tying him up outside shops so with the backpack he can come in with me. My dog has no problem going in there. To start off with I put some treats in there and a soft toy and tried him in there. He was fine.

Has anyone found an anxiety supplement that works? I find Valium works quite well but dont want to have Percy on it all the time.

Ivory Coat is better quality and I believe it is cheaper, maybe $35 for 3 kilo.

Anyone know a good animal behaviourist/trainer in Geelong? Looking for one that deals with behavioural issues primarily.

When my dog was a puppy there was an incident where my dad basically broke my bedroom door down, coming in behaving threateningly. Ever since, Percy has the habit of barking when he hears others moving about the house outside our room (we live somewhere else now). Housemates will get up to use the bathroom in the night and Percy will go nuts barking when they walk by the room. He he some other issues that I attribute to being overly protective of me and anxiety but I think it makes more sense to focus on one thing at a time. He barks excessively generally as well. Lots of noises trigger him to bark. He is startled easily and gets stressed easily. I am going to get a behaviourist appointment and start obedience training. What else should I do?

It came with him and I've bought him so many other toys but this is forever his favourite. He likes to use it for fetch, tug of war and he likes to sleep with the bears' butt in his mouth!

Does anyone know a decent groomer in Melbourne or Geelong? I am in Geelong but prepared to travel to Melb. Percy is not a showdog but I would like to find a groomer who does work with show dogs so they do a good job of rounding out the coat.

I usually have quite short nails but between trimmings they sometimes get long-ish (for mans fingernails, anyway). I will have to cut them more diligently.

That is interesting that IGs often display this behaviour also. I will try asking him to sit tomorrow.

Thankyou I will try that. Now that I think about it whenever I do lie down on the floor to do my back exercises he walks runs up and jumps on me so this will probably help a lot.

Here are some photo's of my 5 month old pom, Percy :) These photo's are a couple of months old, he is bigger now. I will add recent photo's another time when the uploading function isn't being a jerk ;)

Update: Percy isn't scratching anymore! Well, not more than what I believe is normal. I'm not sure ultimately what changed. We had a lot of mould in the house and recently it was all removed. I've also been brushing him much more regularly and thoroughly. Food wise I have been adding a bit of plain Greek yoghurt and a half teaspoon of Omega Oil. I've also been adding some fresh wet food to his kibble, whereas he had kibble only before. So I have no idea precisely what cured him. I am just going to continue doing these things with the exception of the Omega Oil, which I may cease after a few months, as like any medicine it has it's risks.