superminty

Thanks all for your replies. The Domestic Animals Act in Vic doesn't even require a dog to be on lead, unless it is a greyhound or a restricted/dangerous dog - the on lead requirements are council regs. Think I will leave that issue out - good advice poodlefan. I will be contacting my local council to see whether I can get something in writing (huh, not likely) but wanted to see what the DOL brains trust had to say first

No thoughts on this? No-one has ever spoken to their council about this issue?

So, I am drafting a letter to the local paper about the scourge of off lead dogs on the streets in my area as I am sick to death of it...but anyway... What is the legal position if your dog is on lead, is approached by a dog that is off lead in an on lead area, and your dog bites/harms the off lead dog in any way? In addition, is there any legal basis to say that if the other dog (the off lead one) retaliates, their owner is liable for any ensuing vet bills for your dog? Have had a look through the various animal acts, but I am thinking it is more likely to be a common law basis, if anything. I vaguely recall people mentioning that some councils say they won't hold you at fault if your dog is on lead and the other off lead illegally, but I want hard evidence

Lol, did you get retail envy Luke W?

Pretty easy to get to $100 if you enter all you can, or have multiple dogs.

Ah, even better, two endorsements. Lucky really, coz I couldn't resist the ripper exchange rate and got all four

Thanks m-j, happy to hear that someone had successfully bought from there before.

Not that I am condoning rudeness, or excusing this guy's behaviour, but... In my experience, politeness gets you nowhere. I do own a DA dog, who is always walked on lead, in on lead areas. I have lost count of the amount of times people have continued to allow their (unlawfully) off lead dog to approach mine, despite me politely calling out "My dog isn't friendly, keep your dog away" when I see them coming. After a few of these in a row on the one day, my patience wears thin. Woe betide the next person to let their dog approach mine, becasue they will cop an earful. Sometimes it is easier and more effective to be blunt and yes, aggressive, from the get go. At least then the other person knows you are serious. Even if they end up thinking you are a nut job Maybe you just caught him on a day where he and his dog had been harrassed one time too many, and he snapped. I know the feeling :cool:

Bit of a blanket statement to make. So I am irresponsible because I take my dog to the off lead dog park - the only place where dogs can legally be off lead - to train high level obedience (which requires her to be off lead) using a toy because I know that she might - and often does - snap at another dog that comes near us when we are working? This dog is a well socialised, friendly dog normally but is incredibly driven for her toy (which in her case has led to possessiveness). I always warn people that she doesn't like other dogs around her when she is working but if they don't listen or can't control their dog, if she snaps I won't apologise. Not aggressive in the slightest. Just no tolerance (her or me) for rude behaviour (from dogs or people). Even if she wasn't possesive of her toy, I would still warn people not to disturb us when we are working. If that requires saying my dog is not friendly, regardless of the truth, then so be it. Sad, isn't it, that we have to resort to untruths to be left alone and to keep our dogs safe

Received my three medium tugs today and they are lovely. One has already had a good workout between the two dogs this afternoon. Thanks so much!

Like a few others - working dog in suburbia, occasionally weather is too miserable to go outside for a walk, so trick training it is to tire his brain out and make him sleep (oh bliss, I love it when he's asleep). And because it is training after all so improves the bond between us so that we get along better. Other than basic manners, I agree that anything you teach a dog that it doesn't already do naturally (or is something it does do naturally and you put it on cue) is a trick. Edit to add - most of my favourite tricks are completely useless and are taught more to challenge me as a trainer i.e. get a beer out of an esky. Ok, so that one is not completely useless...

Thanks Sue & Cindy. Have you or anyone else actually bought them from there?

Hi all, Just wondering where people have bought Ivan Balabanov's "Obedience without Conflict" DVDs? Dogwise has the first two but I am after all 4. Thanks

Not training related, but trialled (and won) in obedience with my arm in a cast - had to take it out of the sling during our run but luckily it was the left arm and I give all commands with my right - except the recall command, which was a bit crooked Funniest thing was the third place-getter ALSO had her arm in a cast. What're the odds?

Pentosan? That's what my dog is on. Sorry, no advice, just thought I'd toss the name out there

Water is like a super strong magnet for my kelpie (well, they are water sprites after all ) and once he is in, he rarely comes out of his own accord, so he too is always on a long line. He has a neurotic tendency to make splashes with a front paw and then chase them, which unfortunately, while being cute, gets him going in a little circle (*splash, chase, splash, chase*) and he is very hard to break out of it. I really do think he would go around in circles until he drowned!

Got mine today and love it. Great service.

As an end goal, yes. The exercise involves numerous criteria and requires the dog to multi-task i.e. - walk towards another dog, more or less head on - offer your behaviour (i.e. glance at dog, look back at owner, or make continuous eye contact with owner, whatever you train for) - maintain a loose lead - etc. A step towards that goal is stopping (not necessarily sitting) and just concentrating on the desired behaviour - helpful for both the handler and the dog. I have days where I can walk Cash past another dog on the street and he gets it all right. Other days I feel he won't handle a certain dog approaching so I simply stop and let him concentrate on offering the correct behaviour. I don't however cue a sit - I let the dog offer me whatever position he feels most comfortable in. A high reward history for sitting means often I get sits - but sometimes he will stand if he is feeling particularly anxious.

Cash's theme song is the Beatles' "Tax-man" - "Coz he's the Cash-man, ye-e-ah he's the Cash-ma-an". A horse I used to ride was called Zipping and his theme song was "Zippidy-doo-dah". I don't think he ever really likes my singing though coz he could be a right sod :D

Oh Jules, rotten luck. You can always audit the clinic, you'll get just as much out of it without a dog as with one.

Control Unleashed is great theory wise. Click to Calm is great practically. They complement each other well.

Congratulations dyzney, what an achievement You should be very proud.

On nice grounds and when trialling multiple dogs, it makes sense to teach them to find on sight, and resort to scent if unsuccessful. Good point, hadn't thought of that. In Vic, our trial grounds can be, well, inconsistent (thinking of Warringal and all its weeds!), so the article may not always be clearly visible. In terms of the tracking method, I was really looking for someone who had successfully taught it this way so I could see whether my experiments were on the right track, so to speak. This is my first time training for UD (first dog, in fact) and my training brain got hold of that tracking idea and wouldn't let go. In light of the comments above, I can now see the merit in it only if the trial grounds are poor and only trialling one dog. My idea was along the lines of an earlier poster - what I am doing is: - laying a track (using flags to mark turns, only doing a triangle shaped track at the moment so that I end up back at the dog, who I have left at the start post with a long line attached) - placing/dropping the article somewhere on that track (dog is in a drop facing away from the track so hopefully she doesn't see me drop it, I do a few "feint" placings as well just in case) - once returned to dog, pick up line, about turn and send in direction of where I have just walked i.e. final leg of track, using the line to prevent her moving too far off the track. I don’t guide her with the line, merely prevent her from going way outside where the track is i.e. more than a few metres either side, depending on conditions. At the turns, again I prevent her getting too far off the track with the line and verbally mark when she finds the track again. I am finding this to be quite successful, considering I have also never trained a dog to track! She knows how to use her nose already to find the article, I just wanted to show her an easier way to find it in adverse conditions. I try to do this where the grass is long/uneven and I try to hide the seek back as well as possible i.e. on bare patches of ground so it doesn't stand out, behind weeds etc. Most of my training is done alone so I don’t have helpers to place the article and if I heel her and try to drop the article, she almost always notices, and simply hares back to where I dropped it. I wanted to teach her that when in doubt, follow the track! She has had 8 years to practice finding things by searching randomly (I joke that her job is "Tennis ball search and rescue" coz no matter where we are, she always comes back with a ball) so I wanted to break that cycle. It's a work in progress. Poor dog, she gets experimented on a lot.

One thing I am curious about is why people don't seem to teach this exercise as a tracking exercise? Is it because a lot of the time the dog figures it out as training goes on? I have seen a fair few UD runs over the years and can't recall ever having seen what I would call a "neat" seekback. Mostly, the dogs seem to search randomly, and far outside of where the track was laid. I understand that scent moves, but it really does look like the dogs dont know how to follow a track. Just curious, is all. I have complete confidence that my dog, at this early stage of training for UD, will find her seekback no matter where it is (she's a determined sort) but it is time and energy wasting having her search near and far. I am experimentinng with teaching her to track on a long line to see whether I can tidy it up. Just wondering whether anyone else had tried/used a tracking methodology?

Congratulations Great stuff. Glad you're both having so much fun with it too. Almost as much fun as agility?