Staranais

Sounds good - perhaps in a few weeks. I could even get Overall's book back out of the uni library, and we could go at it properly, LOL. I must say, I have nothing against her in a big way, but somewhat resent any trainer who rules out tools without giving them a fair go - no matter what the tool is. And I think this is what she's doing.

I would wonder if this is because food is exciting, he does not relax into a drop as he feels excited not relaxed. Sit is a more alert posture than drop is. It could reflect this, rather than being a sign he actually understands "sit stay". Something to think about. If this were my dog I think I would go back to releasing/rewarding the sit/stay before he can break it, & gradually extend the duration. Sounds to me like he just doesn't understand.

yes, it is. I kind of get the feeling that the digestive issues came first - with potential for malabsorption being the cause for later thyroid dysfunction. Regardless, I am hoping it is the other way around though. Oops - "Iodine" .... THAT's what Kelp provides, doesn't it. I was thinking "iron". Or are they the same thing? I'm getting confused, LOL. Nope they're different. Kelp has iodine. Iodine might help his thyroid issue as it's a component of thyroid hormone (although giving iodine is not the same as giving thyroid hormone - ask your vet which is better). Iron is different.

If you put a note in their letterbox at least have the guts to put your name on it! At out last house our new neighbours put a note in our letterbox signed "the neighbourhood". I knew it was not from "the neighbourhood" as we were good friends with all the other neighbours! Had they politely knocked on our door and let me know I would have done what ever I could to stop the barking as I was unaware of the problem. (dog was barking at night at the back of our block and our bedrooms are at the front). As it turns out it was their lights left on all night that was causing the barking not my blind dog getting disorientated as I first thought. It's not about "guts" Kmaci, it's about protecting my own dogs. Unless you already know the neighbours are nice people, then I would not ever risk my dog's safety by assuming that they were nice. Sure most people are nice, but some aren't. As I said above, I have heard first hand of cases where the ranger was called in retaliation to get back at a neighbour who had (politely) told another that their dogs barked. I have heard first hand of cases where dogs were baited because the neighbours had a feud that started over a silly thing like this. One of my friends was physically threatened because they asked their neighbour to turn the music down. My aunty's cat was shot with a BB gun by a neighbour after she asked them to mow their lawn. So unless I knew the neighbours already, and knew they were OK, I wouldn't risk it. My dog is too important to me. She is home all day alone, and very vulnerable. It may sound paranoid, but I bet the lady whose dog was baited wished she'd been a little more paranoid when she got home & found her dog dead. I hope that explains my reasons better. Plus, from the other side, if my dog was barking, I'd far rather have a polite note in my mailbox, no matter whether it was signed, than have someone call the ranger on me.

Chicken & the egg, huh? My very hugest canine & feline internal medicine textbook ("Nelson & Couto", which I will get around to reading in its entirety one day!) lists diarrhoea and/or constipation as uncommon but possible results of canine hypothyroidism. If the GIT symptoms resolve after the thyroid hormone has been supplemented, I'd say that suggests that the low thyroid is contributing to the GIT issues? Deficient iodine intake/absorption can cause hypothyroidism, but I'd imagine you'd also see signs of other deficiencies if his GIT issues were causing malabsorption of iodine. Don't really know, though. Let us know what happens. ETA - oh dear, we are crossposting!

Again, it isn't necessarily anyone's fault that DA occurs and certainly not "hands down" always the handler's fault either- unless you happen to be aware of some training method that completely eliminates instinctive behaviours that others could be using to make their dogs safe? Yes, people need to realise that breeding has a huge effect on temperament. Whether we are talking about natural tendencies being heightened in some breeds, or faults due to careless breeding in any sort of dog. The handler has a responsibility to manage the dog to prevent it causing harm, but the problem may not be their fault at all. And sometimes the handler adopts or inherits a dog that already has aggression issues. Whether they were genetic or learned, they're still not the fault of the current handler.

Very interesting. I'll love to hear what happens to Mr M's health (if anything) if you supplement the thyroid deficiency.

Depends. Depends what you call DA or HA. Depends what you call an excellent recall. Depends on the layout of the park. I have taken my DA dog to a few different dog parks on occasion. We did not muzzle. We only did this when: a) he had developed an excellent recall and obedience (as in really, truly, excellent obedience; as in would perform for me even with another dog actually jumping on him and barking) b) the park we chose was huge and was laid out so that we could see anyone approaching from a considerable distance in all directions c) we couldn't see anyone in the park, and we left the area as soon as I observed anyone Because of our training & precautions, I believe the people in the park were in less danger from my dog than from most other dogs out there, even though he was DA. However, as I said in the previous topic, I think as a general rule, most DA dogs do not belong in most dog parks. Most dogs are not as obedient as my old dog, most dog parks are not as large or well laid out as the one we used.

I think if the dog is willing to work hard for something, then that thing must be rewarding enough to make him do that. Even if for the life of you, you can't understand why the dog finds that reward so pleasurable, it must be so, or he would not persist. So I don't think we need to invoke another quality ("persistence") to explain the dog's behaviour, we just need to accept that for some reason, he finds something more reinforcing than we feel he should. Or perhaps I am misunderstanding the question. My girl is rather persistent if she really wants something. But to me, that just means she is energetic & highly driven. It's a good trait in a working dog, since I do want her to persist in her tracking (for example) until she gets the reward, even if she runs into a disappointment or aversive of some type on the way. Less fun when I'm trying to teach her not to do something, I guess.

Yes, she does. She has some valid points, but I also get the feeling that she had a preconceived agenda to discredit any use of the ecollar regardless of the evidence, which rather colours the whole report for me, especially since she's criticizing the ecollar users for being non scientific. (Incidentally, I feel the same way about a traditional trainer I once talked to who thought that clicker was ridiculous and couldn't possibly work, without ever having tried the method or seen anyone competently demonstrate it. I didn't like his attitude either). I could discuss the parts I disagree with in that article point by point, I suppose - I think what she writes is illogical in several places - but I don't know if this thread is the place for it. Instead I'll just say that I certainly don't cause my girl shock or pain when I use the ecollar at low levels on her (I'm as certain of that as I am certain that I cause her pleasure when I feed her and play with her). Nor do I feel that I am part of a "cycle of violence". I also think it's rather a stretch to say that I (as an e collar user) "do not understand normal canine behavior and signaling and have little respect for the welfare and cognitive needs of dogs". And furthermore, I do not believe that a properly objective review of scientific information would use those emotive terms. ETA: thanks for the link to the paper! It was different to the one I read, but very much along the same lines.

Yes. There are so many variables when you are dealing with aggression, and what one person considers DA, another will not. Sure, some dogs are undeniably DA. But most dogs will show some signs of aggression in some situations, it just depends how far the other dog pushes them. I'd personally rather share a large dog park with a well trained, well controlled DA dog that stayed in its own corner of the park with its owner and minded its own business, than the "friendly", pushy, uncontrolled dog that is going to run up to us & jump all over my dog.

That's sort of my point - if it's the paper I'm thinking of, and like I said may be different to the one you're thinking of, she only looked at high stim protocols, but just concluded that e-collars in general were risky. I thought that was either ignorant (she genuinely doesn't know the difference between different protocol types) or misleading (she's unwilling to discuss the difference). If I were writing a paper studying the Koehler "head held under water to discourage digging" technique, and concluded that all use of water in training was risky, I'd be making a similar error. As for the other, I think he swallowed them so fast, he didn't have time to realise he didn't like the taste.

Only two people in this country have so far identified my mally correctly. However, I've had lots of people ask what my German Shepherd is crossed with!

Nice theory, but apparently it doesn't work in Brisbane - see the post above where Tilly checked with the city council. How bloody silly. It's important to protect people against dogs, yes, but it seems like they're saying that no matter how stupid the human is, the dog is always at fault. Tilly, just out of interest, did you find out if there any circumstances in which a dog bite is "allowable"? How about if my dog is actively protecting you from an assault - is it "allowed" to bite then to protect its owner? Or how about if it is biting in self defence? Or is the dog always in the wrong if a bite occurs?

what prices do you pay for boarding? dog size and price per night: $15 NZ per night cat price per night: no idea what optional extras does you kennels offer: Grooming, not sure what else what do you look for when searching for the right boarding kennel for your pet? That they will be able to handle my dog (she's high drive working line, some people get freaked out by her if they're just used to "pet" dogs). That they will follow my instructions regarding how she is to be handled. That the place looks clean & tidy, and that the dogs there look happy. any other comments that you think might be helpful: if your kennels has a website i would love a link We go to creature comforts, http://www.creaturecomforts.co.nz/

I had a cat put a canine right through my fingernail last week. Eek! I don't think it's smart to take your cat into the vet un-contained, or your dog. Mind you, a few weeks ago we had someone bring a cockatoo in to the clinic just sitting on their shoulder, no leash or anything. Bird was calm as anything, just sat there peering down its nose at everyone else in the waiting room. Wouldn't like to see people doing that as a general rule, but in this case it was rather impressive to see.

Regularly! She's 14 months old now, and although I absolutely adore her, I still occasionally need to lock her in her box and leave her for half an hour while I calm down & forget about booking her a return flight to Oz.

I'm sorry. That sucks for all of you.

Biotin thing isn't an issue as long as you feed the yolk & the white together, not just the white.

Thanks very much! I was getting confused picturing, you know, a grid, like a square or something. Not a line of jumps.

My old dog used to do tricks for them. Mind you, he was rather special.

If it's the paper I'm thinking of (and it may not be), she still only considered studies of high-stim ecollar "shock" protocols. She did not discuss any low-stim mildly aversive protocols. IMO, that's kind of like writing about the uses of deprivation in training, but only considering extreme cases. "Deprivation" can range from putting the dog in a 2 minute time out, to putting him in solitary confinement for a week. It's invalid to only look at the extreme cases and then extrapolate that back & declare that deprivation should only be used by professionals since we just can't trust members of the public to know the difference between a week of solitary confinement and a 2 min time out. I hope so. I personally wish you couldn't purchase e collars with high-level stim on them except under license from a vet or trainer or something. An e-collar that only offers the lower stim levels is practically impossible to abuse, whereas the high shock levels available on most collars can cause fear and pain if misused. Granted, most collars can cause pain if misused, but why not make the e-collar as foolproof as possible? But alas, I'm not yet queen. Oh that is promising! Hooray for the police.

As a general rule, I'd say aggressive dogs have no place in an offleash park. But it also depends on the size & layout of the park. It depends on how aggressive the "aggressive" dog is. And it also depends how obedient the DA dog is. In my experience, aggression issues at dog parks tend to be with people who don't understand (or don't want to believe) that their dog is aggressive or rude, not so much with the people who accept their dog is DA and take appropriate precautions.

Perhaps dropping a friendly but anonymous note in their mailbox letting them know their dogs are barking would be the way to go. Some would say that it's only fair to confront them directly, but I would personally be reluctant to do this since you have dogs too, & the neighbours know this - they could cause trouble by making a complaint to the ranger about your dogs to get back at you. Hopefully they aren't the kind of people who would do this, but I've heard of such things happening.

Thanks heaps Rommi! It was me who asked you to post your method. Thanks for giving such a detailed answer. So - dumb question - is a grid just a short series of jumps then? Is there any formula about how far apart you should put the jumps for a particular size of dog?