Behaviourist Recommendations Central Vic

[Better Late]

Hi gang!

Long time lurker, very recent new poster. What a wonderful and supportive forum this is.

To cut a long story short my partner and I are looking at adopting a 4yo blue merle heeler x staffy from the Bendigo RSPCA. We have been informed that she's 'not too keen' on some other dogs - in particular a rather dominant Ridgeback bitch in the kennels, but she's had a meet and greet with a Cavalier and everything went swimmingly.

When we first saw her in the kennels she was shut down, showing the whites of her eyes and very timid after initially approaching us for a sniff through the wire. She was okay when it was just myself and my partner but once a family of five came in she retreated to the back of her kennel.

Something about her spoke to us though and yesterday my partner and I had a meet and greet with her. Wouldn't you know it, she was a completely different dog. Playing chasey with us, splashing around in the clam shell, sitting for kibble when we asked her to, feeding off our body language and chilling out with us once we decided playtime was over, coming to us for pats and looking happy and content.

The handler we met her with said we seem like an excellent match, and we spoke about her dog reactivity. In the pen next to her were two SWFs who she only started barking along with once they kicked up a fuss, and the only other time she showed any interest was when a dog was 30m away going around a corner. It was ears up, whats happening over there? But she chose to come back to us.

Since we are in love with her and are 99% sure we will be bringing her home, we wanted to seek out a behaviourist so we can get her (and us) set up for the best possible second chance. We need to learn how to handle her reactivity and certainly cant do it on our own, it wouldn't be fair to her.

So if you have any recommendations on behaviourists, suggest away!

Edited December 10, 2014 by Better Late

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I would ask one of these - I've seen them recommended and like what they post about training. If they can't help - they should be able to recommend someone who can.

Nekhbet (user id in here) is Geelong based but can travel to Bendigo / Ballarat by arrangement.

Nekhbet (Julie)

http://inlinek9.webs.com/

Erny (Judi Buchan)

http://www.prok9.com.au/

Your choice of dog sounds like she could be a lot of work - it's common for cattle dogs and SBT to be grumpy with other dogs unless you work on it on a daily basis.

And it seems like this one might not be so fond of children either - so you will have to protect her from children and vice versa. And maybe do some desensitisation training so she knows what to do when there are children around. You don't want your one lapse in concentration or a careless tradesman to end in tragedy.

On the hopeful side - she was able to be playful with you and your partner - so she's not timid about everything.

This is an article about why or how you pick a dog from the pound / shelter. And when you don't. Getting an experienced dog training professional to make an assessment is a really good idea.

http://www.clickandtreat.com/shelterdogs.htm

[Nekhbet]

I have time free first couple of weeks of January if you would like a workshop day let me know and we can work something out. I have plenty of dogs to use as training aids.

[Starkehre]

Can highly recommend Nekhbet

[Better Late]

Nekhbet - will send you a PM.

[Nekhbet]

Replied :D

[VizslaMomma]