Dol_sam

Hear hear. I talk to my animals all the time, mostly for my own therapeutic benefit. The cats look at me strangely when i ask them what on earth they've been doing all day, as the washing up is still in the sink and the carpets still need vacuuming. Are you telling me they don't understand?? I thought they were looking at me strangely cause i've clearly omitted to notice their lack of opposable thumbs and hence their inability to hold the dishwashing brush! Surely it's not that they don't understand english?? You're right though, that phenomena of 'flogging the one who looks the most guilty' is so common. I truly can't believe people genuinely think their dog sits back after digging a hole, emptying the garbage bin out all over the floor, or eating the clothes off the line and thinks "oh SH#t, now i'm gonna cop it when they get home...."

Hey Gigi - Congratulations on your success, but i'd like to say that it doesn't sound like it was so quick. It's obvious that you put in a heap of work and that is the main reason that you got your results! If only more people had the patience to keep plugging away like you did and wait it out for that inspirational 'turning point'. Ziggy is obviously a poster girl for the benefits of keeping on keeping on when faced with a tough nut! Again congratulations! You deserve it!

Oh a topic so close to my heart. My hand is up for admission into the "this is my pet peeve too" club. I have an aquaintence who recently aquired himself a GSD pup from a local breeder who specialises in breeding and training "guard dogs". Now this friend of mine has 5 children ranging from 18 months to 8 years old. The reason for getting this puppy was that their existing GSD cross was unruly and out of control. Had it ever recieved any training? NO. Had i been suggesting for the previous year that he put some work into it? Yes. Could he "find the time". Of course not. So he traded this unruly big dog in (the guard dog breeder/trainer planned to train him for guard work) for a big impressionable puppy. The pup is now 9 months old, undesexed (with no plans of doing so, as "it's gotta scar him emotionally") and has recently been relegated to being tied up for the 23.5 hours a day that he's not being walked around the block. He's digging up the yard, nipping the kids ("oh how cute, he wants to play" when he was 12 weeks old....), barking, ripping clothes off the line and generally becoming a great big nuisance. I can't wait till i hear that he's actually bitten one of the kids. Over the time that this poor pup has been in this home i have had weekly updates on his ever worsening behaviour and have given my best advice (which has often included - consult someone who is experienced) to try and prevent it from worsening. By all accounts this was a happy, intelligent little fellow, full of GSD potential and i can see how this will end. It makes me so angry that i'd love to kid(Pup)nap him and turn his life around. It just frustrates me so much as the dog is the one who will suffer (and already is...) when all it would take would be 15 minutes of training here and there to make such a huge difference. I understand time contraints. Hell, i rarely get home during the week before 8.30 at night myself, but by taking the responsibility of being a dogs guardian I also take the responsibility of ensuring that I give that dog enough enrichment that at the very least it stays out of the pound. The words "yeah but" should be made criminal and the sentence be to be chucked in a pound kennel for a month with the ever present threat of the green dream needle at any time. I'm just starting an instructors course and i think beyond learning more about teaching dogs, the biggest challenge will be motivating people. If only all the lazy couch potatoes could realise the joy which comes when your dog chooses to work to please you, or sits in front of you with such eagerness in their eyes to just play with you. (I had a particularly pleasing training session this morning which put me in the best mood for my long work day... i'd be so bored without the memory and the plans to get back out there again tonight!) To be honest i think it's a bigger social problem than just involving dog ownership. Look at the kids today. A lot of the problems as I see it are simply parents unwilling to put in the time to "train" their kids. All the help is out there, but they will not follow through. It's exactly the same with dogs, only they can be shut in the backyard when they're annoying you and even better, there's a pound close by if they really piss you off. Ok , end of Rant..... Strangely i don't feel better for it!

With my current boy Darcy, he's been training since puppy pre-school. I started him at 12 weeks just before christmas and only got in 3 classes due to the break. Continued home schooling over christmas and jumped to the end of the beginners course after the break, when he was 4 months. He's now 10 months and apart from public holidays (grrrr, why must training have a holiday too!!) he's been almost every week. I'm like Mrs D. I love training, it re-motivates me otherwise i get lazy at home during the week. Problem of having a dog who learns so quickly is that complacency is easy to achieve! Our classes are $4 each and i think annual membership about 15 or so. My other muttley Jasper is a different kettle of fish. He did his beginners and got into 1st class but is never destined for trialling so he's pretty much been on training holidays since. Manners are the most important thing ffor him. Good solid basic training has made him a much more civilised pet (though he likes to pretend he doesn't understand what i'm talking about now and again).

Does anyone know if there are still places available as a spectator for this workshop??

What a tough situation, but i hope you find someone who will treasure him and put in the work he needs. Definitely desex though. We all know what testosterone does to teenage human males, so just add sharp teeth and it's a worry. Unless you planned on showing or breeding with him i see no need to maintain an entire male if you're concerned he might be influenced by his boy's bits! Good luck!

I'd be looking for a local kennel club. There's a list on the RNSWCC website that will tell you the closest to you. Our local one is brilliant, only costs a pitance for each session and you can continue on forever if you want, moving up through the stages to trialling if you so desire. Just make sure you look for one that is using positive learning rather than the more old fashioned compulsion based learning. Good luck with your pup's play date with the dobe!

When I first started reading I was gonna say give it time, cause Darcy used to be pretty non-plussed by other dogs, would avoid them or show no interest whatsoever, but got over it with a couple of trips to the park and a couple of sessions at puppy school but then as you said that she's had a fair bit of socialisation since with dogs of all sizes maybe it is a temprement thing. I guess if it is a temprement thing, the best thing to do would be to make certain that you never, even subconsciously, reinforce the behaviour. My Ridgeback cross Jasper is a typical very reserved ridgey, he's very suspicious of strangers and wont let people he doesn't know anywhere near him. It's taken a year of taking him to obedience training (probably less consistently that it should be due to taking other dogs also) but just getting him out each week in the company of that which scares him and making him concentrate and work has made quite a big difference to him. When he's working nicely (on and off) he simply forgets about that which scares him (the person attached to the other dog next to or behind him). He's just a big wimp really and so instead of fighting him and forcing him I took the calm but persistent approach of just marching on through the scary situation and he's much better. If nothing else they learn that you aren't paying any attention to "the scary thing" and that you are obviously the boss and if you're not scared maybe they can trust you. It seems that way for Jasper at least.

If you want a dog that will be a good deterent for people who might think of trespassing to pat the ponies , as well as a dog that is generally well liked by obedience clubs I'd head straight for a German Shepherd. While I don't have one right now, (we lost our girl 2 months ago after a short but very satisfying time training in obedience), but I'd absolutely love to get another down the track. I found our shepherd to be a very well balanced dog who would settle very quickly when given a task to do (such as when training), and as long as she had toys to occupy her (and her big brother to attempt to kneecap) she was relatively non-destructive (for a pup). But then compared to the Dobes you've got a lot more coat maintenance to consider!

Hi all, Well after a solid hour of reading, I've finally got to the end of this thread. Fantastic. My brain is burning up! I can't wait to start doing some foundation work with our dogs. Our BC is already quite strong on pack and prey drives so it shoudl be a fairly easy process. However I have a question with regards to our other dog. He's a ridgeback cross husky and we got him when he was 6 months old. He fits the exact description of a weak nerved dog that was described in that GSD link (excellent article too!). He is now nearly 2 years old and has managed to progress past the beginners class at obedience (yay!) but his main problem is that he's very nervous of people who he's unfamiliar with (amoung other things such as things in the sky, overhead lights going on at night etc...wierdo). So this makes working him in public difficult as his attention is completely shot as soon as there are people working next to us, and even worse when they are behind us. We think he was very poorly socialised as a baby, and it's all just fear of the unknown, and while he has improved quite a lot he's still hitting a brick wall when he's under pressure. Thankfully he's not the sort to turn to aggression, he just wants to hide. So my question is, if we can build a prey drive in him, do you think this would go a fair way to helping him work better in situations that he's not so confident? Any special hints for working with this kind of dog? Thanks in advance, and thanks for all the great info so far! Sam