Kelpie-i

Some females are known to do the odd spot of "humping".

Hey why not count me in too.....should be good fun!

When I did mine (many moons ago - before the courses had numbers!!) we only had Boyd and Darren North as instructors of the course...oh and 2 sessions with Dr Robert Holmes. Loved the pysychology and behaviour as well as the class instruction segment. You guys these days are so lucky to have the likes of Steve Austin!!

Hi Pewithers Here is the Link for Bill Campbell. One other bit of advice is to not try to comfort your dog when he is showing his fear. Doing this will only reinforce his actions - in other words, you are rewarding that behaviour. Not sure if you are already doing this but thought I'd throw it in. Re Dr Seksel - yes agree, whilst it's a science, I believe there's no greater learning experience than owning and working with your own dog/s.

Pewithers, I would certainly consult with Dr Robert Holmes as he is the foremost in his field. I'm going to make another suggestion to help solve your dog's problem. Apart from the remedies and obedience/socialisation training which are extremely important, I highly recommend that you commence the NILIF program as well. You can find some really good information on this by googling "NILIF" and selecting the first link. NILIF, which stands for Nothing In Life Is Free is an excellent, ready to do, program which balances the hierarchy with you and your dog. Whilst we don't know the extent/type of anxiety your dog has, implementing this program will assist greatly. A good site to read about various forms of anxiety and subsequent treatments is the Bill Campbell website which is behaviorx.com. Bill is a well respcted behaviourist in the USA and he has dealt with many anxious dogs. You'll find his case studies on his site.

I suggest that you tell your friend that she is "loving her dog to death" - LITERALLY!!! My concern is if/when this dogs starts thinking it's okay to bite children. Your friend is very lucky up until now that no-one has made any serious reports about her and her dog, but I fear it's only a matter of time. She needs the help of a qualified behaviourist - and NOW!

Slightly:offtopic: I have to share a funny story with you all. We have 4 dogs and they each take it in turns to urinate over the previous dog's wee - starting with the youngest whose 20 weeks through to oldest 13 years. Anyway, it seems that our 13yo GSD is always the last one - he watches and waits patiently until the others are finished, then he urinates last over what becomes a puddle in the backyard. My OH and I were watching this scenario one particular day and he said "you know what, I'm gonna do what they've all done" - so he promptly got up and wee'd over the GSD's efforts. "That's gross" I said as I sipped my wine. The funny thing was, our GSD waltzed over, sniffed the puddle and walked away. Now I certainly don't advocate this - well only if you enjoy the sweet arome of urine - but it was certainly an interesting "chain" of events!!

:rolleyes: Yes Erny is right - there are many talented dog trainers/behaviourists who give advice on this forum - that's totally free!

No I don't think you can use whistles, but then again, it's best you check on this one.

Have you thought about whistle commands as well??? You don't necessary need hand signals, you can certainly use noise signals if you're running out of arms !! Some people use whistles in herding and that's a classic example of directing a dog whilst off lead - doesn't necessary have to be limited to herding only.

SM, you definitely need to make sure that your hand signals don't clash or look similar as this can throw the dogs.

Hi SM, I use the arm straight up for a drop on recall hand signal. I prefer this as it is a nice clear signal for when the dog is away at a distance from me and is not easily confused with any other hand signal. I'm sure you'll get other very good suggestions as well.

Would be interested in the Sydney one, but would be more excited if she came to Melbourne!!!!!

Hi Rom I second what Erny wrote...keep up the good work and good on you for saving this poor creature from goodness only knows what.

:D Well written Erny and welcome back!

Most puppies will get diarrohea when they come to a new home. Change of diet and stress of being away from litter mates and new environment are usually the causes. I recommend fasting for a day then a diet of boiled chicken, rice and pumpkin to stop the diarrohea (cook this yourself - don't use anything out of a can!). Pumpkin, for some reason, works miracles on both diarrohea and constipation - it cures both! If it continues after a few days on this diet and puppy continues to look unwell and lethargic, then see your vet immediately. If your puppy looks happy and healthy enough, I wouldn't worry too much. PS. Stay away from any of the puppy milks as well!

Collielover, parvo has an incubation period...I think it's 7-10 days if my memory serves me right. I say this because if the puppy in your recount presented with symptoms straight away, then he wouldn't have caught parvo at the dog show. It could very well have been at the breeders or even at the vet surgery. Sept13, I would avoid dog parks like the plague as you don't know what sort of dogs could be visiting. Apart from staying away from parvo infested faeces, there may be aggressive dogs that frequent the parks and you pup stands high risk of being attacked/bullied. For your pup's sake, seek out a structured training/socialisation program from a professional school or club.

Sept13th, the answer is to socialise, socialise and more socialisation!!! Puppies go through a "critical socialiation period" which is the first 16 weeks of their life. This is when they need to learn EVERYTHING about the world around them, meeting other puppies, people, traffic, noises, machinery, children etc etc. Failing to socialise a puppy during the critical socialistion period will result in a puppy who may have fearful tendencies to any or all of the above and regardless of what anybody says, you CANNOT make up for lost time. Anything after this is purely remedial! Further, at this young age, puppie's brains are like sponges so if you aren't training them, they are certainly training themselves ie. learning all the wrong things/bad habits. Unfortunately, I too often see and have to deal with the results of incomplete socialisation in puppies and believe me, in some cases it's not pleasant for both dog and owner. Also further, parvo is an airborne virus which does not represent itself as a green blob on the wall. Here are the many different ways your puppy is able to catch parvo, even if he is isolated at home: 1. Birds can fly in and bring it into your yard 2. Wind blowing particles into your yard and home 3. You can walk over it and bring it home 4. You can drive over it with your car and bring it home. 5. The best place to catch parvo is at the vet's surgery - well known fact and often quoted by many respected animal behaviourists! The only sure way to protect your puppy from parvo is to keep in in an incubator - which quite obviously you won't do. With all this in mind, you need to weigh up the pros and cons of both and IMO, the risk of fear aggression due to lack of early socialisation far outweighs this and is defintely a higher probability. As long as your puppy is healthy and well nourished and comes from healthy parents, then the risk of contracting parvo is minimal. Ensure that you only socialise your puppy around other vaccinated dogs and just for safe measures, keep him away from off-lead parks. I would highly recommend you purchase the book "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson - she gives some excellent information about the puppies critical socialisation and also recounts the results of puppies deprived of this. My recommendation to you is to find a good training school who offers puppy preshool and the like - and do this now!!

I can only speak for the NDTF course and highly recommend it. I did the course many moons ago and I believe that it has certainly improved since then as students these days have many different modules to choose from. Leopuppy04, I too am a motivational trainer who uses predominantly luring techniques to teach, but I lean towards NDTF. Hail the prong

Well put HR. Like you, I see situations like these more times that I'd care to and it's always the poor dog that cops it in the end. The famous Barbara Woodhouse mentions similar in one of her earlier books. She accurately predicted that the growing popularity of purely positive methods and the notions attached to it would mean the unfortunate death of many good dogs. Some very good points PF!!

ooh ooh, I've got a couple more for ya... This occurs more in people with small, lap dogs. Constantly holding the dog in your arms, both indoors and outdoors in public, because of its small size and its contant shivering and then becoming angry or frustrated with the dog when it starts to growl at people who approach. Letting your dogs out of the backyard on their own for a wonder, asking them to be home by a certain time and then scolding them for not returning at the time you stated.......don't laugh this is a true occurrence!!!

Erny I too cannot see the keyboard for the tears. As many have said, there are no words that can ease your pain at this moment. Just know that you did all you possibly could for her and take comfort in the fact that she is in a place where she feels no pain and can run till her heart's content. Kal's beautiful memory will live on forever in our hearts and mind. As I said earlier, keep strong and don't ever forget that you've got a shoulder to cry on - anytime! RIP Kal....

But of course!

HR, I think the problem is that men, in general, have a problem with committing themselves....to anything!

:rolleyes: ;) :D Classic!