rastus_froggy

Hugs to you, run free big boy

While I was teaching my girl to open drawers she started to get a bit lazy so I started giving her massive rewards when she pulled hard and the drawer banged on it's stopper when it was fully opened, only problem was she got mega exctied and decided to pull SUPER hard and the flew right out. I checked them and was satisfied it wouldn't come out, but I suppose nothing can be sure when it comes to a staffy's enthusiasm.

I have heard them described as the cat of the dog world, very independant and will only do things when and if they want. I know the dog Skip spoke of and it was pretty funny cos when the dog school did demos they would have 3 dogs lined up, all three owners would walk about 15m away, the Shiba was always the one in the middle, the owners on the outside would call their dogs for a recall and the Shiba would do the stay while the others took off flying to their owners. It was made out that Foxxy had such a brilliant stay to be able to sit there while the other dogs took off, truth was you couldnt get the dog to move if you wanted to!!

Honestly for the sake of you cat I would never trust them together alone, you may make progress with training but realistically if you are not there and the cat moves suddenly, the dog wont go, "oh hang on mum doesn't want me to chase the cat, I had better stay here'. So yeah work with him, treat him when he stays near you, get someone to make the cat move around have the dog on lead (incase he does try to chase the cat) and treat him if he stays put, maybe you could even get him to the stage where he stays with you if the cat gets startled and run off but don't think that they will be alright together without you there. It is not worth the heart ache if something goes wrong.

It is possible that she does not see you as alpha, maybe you need to look a little deeper into things like when and how she is fed, who feeds her, who is the disciplinarian, is she indoors or out door and if she is indoors maybe you need to look at what goes on in the house between you and her and DH and her. The problem may stem back to these sorts of things if she is behaving when your DH is around and also the trainer.

With one of my dogs the only play she really enjoys is to shred stuff, she is not into retrieving balls, she think the point of any ball is to chase it when it's thrown then run away with it and chew it to pieces! I am a regular visitor to Vinnie's to buy their dodgy second hand stuffed toys as giving my girl one of these is just heaven to her. Also the biggest toy treat I can give her is a catalogue or newspaper, she even tries to steal them away if you sit in the yard to read, she absolutley shreds them. So I guess I do dictaed how she plays as she only plays when I give these item to her and they are hers to destroy then.

Yeah thats been my reason previously for not going but this year I have made it my mission!! I am taking Thursday and Tuesday off work. Not sure how the dogs will like a 9 hour trip in the car but we will just take our sweet time, lots of stops (may turn out to be and 11 hour trip!), the recover on Friday before start of comp.

I am so excited!! This is the first year I will be going! I booked my accommodation last week so I wouldnt miss out (or back out). It should be great, and I cant wait to meet some DOLERS from NSW and QLD.

What everyone else has said plus buy a crate, do some crate training and use it wisely.

It could be taught. Some dogs are better suited to certain tricks and quite often you will select tricks that will suit tricks to suit you dog and its doginality.

When we did both of our weeks in Sydney this was lacking greatly I felt, I was very disappointed as it is such a major component of the course. Our sessions were scrambled and half the time the presenters didnt know which topics we had covered and which ones we hadnt.

Depends if your club is ANKC or ADAA, if it's ADAA it's right, if it's ANKC it's 60, but once your dog has got it, it really doesnt make that much difference to them.

I really wanted to get there but it was not to be

A couple of parts to look at here I think, how is his recall in general? If he is getting the ball somethime then not coming I would work on his recall by doing the recall on lead then seeing if he will get the ball while on lead then if he doesnt return you are in control of the situation and can make him return. Before this though I would really work on making him want the ball, make him think that the ball is a great thing to you and that giving you the ball is the best thing in the world, because it makes you happy and he gets treats for making you happy. I would start this by playing with the ball in front of the dog just for a few seconds going "woo hoo" and being very happy in general about it all, then put it away, dont let the dog have it initially. Do this a few times a day for a few days. Next I would have the dog on lead, play with the ball then give it to the dog and then ask for it back (you may have to take it from the dogs mouth) and give the dog loads of treats, repeat a number of times. I would keep the dog on lead and start to throw the ball small distances and just increase the distance over time and eventually remove the lead. Sorry this is long winded, hope it makes sense and hope it helps.

Good bye snorter boy, you made me laugh so much. TB I would go the same on the urn or maybe his date of birth or his age as well. Hope you dad is doing better.

I hold it in my left hand and have it coming from directly behind her head. I would tighten it up if you are finding it slips, I find it way better at staying in position than anything I have used before.

Thanks heaps

My Stimpy dog has been sick this week and spent 3 days at the vets, she had an infection in her blood, she is on antibiotics and delta cortef, they told me she had to be weaned off the delta cortef but didnt tell me what it was, the night she came home from the vets she was fine but both the following nights she has woken around 4am shivering but she is not cold and the shivering stops about 40min after I give her the tablet. Is she having withdrawals as the effect of the drug is wearing off? I will take her to my vet tomorrow but at the moment we are 300km away from there, so I thought I may be able to get some assistance from here.

Once my dogs found the posiion they liked best I made them stick to it, they chose where they walk but I am happy with their choice as the male is next to me and the femaleis on his other side which means he cant pee on every tree we walk by. The smaller of my three dogs walks on my right, that way she doesnt get trodden on by the big boofers. Practice and be consistant with having them where you want them, not wandering around in front of you or constantly pulling to be in front of the others.

Personally I would not take your dog at all for the first block. I did and she sat in her crate all week as when you get there you are assigned a dog from their kennels for the week, the only time she got out was when TB's assigned dog got sick and they decided that she could use my dog. They are going to change the booklet to recommend that you only take your own dog to the second block.

I was flicking last night and caught a glimps of it and knew immediately it was Moses!! you guys were great from the bit I saw!! Well done :D

Pictures please.. they sound adorable

Not too much official training going on, just stuff at home, had a lot of changes over the last few months. They are both doing great. Hmmm... I think Stimpy actually fits all your requirements... if only I hadnt decided to keep her myself. Im sure you will find the perfect dog.

Hey!! Great to hear you are after another dog - Neo will love a friend!! Hope you find one soon

I just use pvc pipe stuck in the ground - but im sure you could get some at agilityclick.com.