Keyarna

Thanks Crisovar, and yes GSD Fan I think that will be the case for me to, I will probably be stressing more than he will be

Phew! Maybe they misunderstood, I did mention he would be travelling with us as extra luggage - I will have to contact them again I really have no idea how transporting pets work - do Dogtainers even do what we require ie just the crate hire etc?

Just got a quote back from Dogtainers - $1500. Is that normal? Thats just for crate hire, and the 'standard' airline fees? We are dropping him off and picking him up from the airport aswell so there isn't even the cost of a home pickup? I'm not sure if it would be cheaper to organise ourselves, it's just we are stuck with the crate as obviously we can't use one of the standard collapable crates, and i'm worried we'll buy one that isn't airlined approved. EDIT: On a positive note, we just got back from a walk and it's one of the first times he's been really well behaved and not pulling so wildly! We are using a Black Dog halter, in conjunction with training and treating still - hopefully he gets the idea stuck in his brain so we can go back to just a choker!

Just found this thread and if it works it will be such a life saver! Ordered one just now so will report back when I start using it more. I have a GSP who has seperation anxiety, and gets way to overexicted when out and about, jumping up at strangers, extreme pulling etc even though we leash train him. Hopefully it does have a calming affect on him so I can use it to supplement his training - we are going away for 2 weeks in March and the only realistic option is to bring him with us to Perth on the plane. So hopefully we can get in some really good seperation anxiety training before then. If it does work on him, would it be alright to put use it for the 6 hour flight? He generally doesn't mind wearing coats / tshirts etc.

So it might be better to bring him with us then? We would drive down to Brisbane with him in the car, and meet Dogtainers at Brisbane aiport then straight to Perth - I think it's a 6 or 7 hour flight from there. I have no doubt he will whinge and whine for a while, but I think (hope) after a bit he would calm down and perhaps nap for a while. He is relatively crate trained, he sleeps in one all night but we never lock him in it during the day. Sigh just so stressed about him, if he was fine away from us I wouldn't have a problem boarding him for 2 weeks. There's noone close by that would be willing to have him either. We went on a weeks holiday back in December and we boarded him at Iveragh Kennels, they did seem like very nice people but when we picked him up he had lost a fair bit of weight and had lost his voice aswell - no doubt probably due to him stressing on not anything on their end I hope. Also they wouldn't let us feed him his own food and we had to agree to let them feed their homemade meals - is this usual for a kennel? Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Hi all, My partner and I are going on holiday for a fortnight to Perth (we live near Gladstone, QLD). We had a GSP who is a bit over a year old now, a very friendly boy but has seperation anxiety. We can't decide what to do with him, I think he would find the plane a terrible experience if we were to take him, but then again I don't know how he'd cope being away from us for 2 weeks either. Has anyone else flown a very anxious dog? I'm going to miss him terribly if we board him, but I think he would be safer there as i'm not even sure what type of fence my partner's parents have. They do have another dog (lab) but there's no guarantee they'd get along, and then i'd be stressing every time we went out if he's going to try and jump the fence and escape, he has no road sense. So does anyone have any tips or advice, and could someone recommend a good boarding kennel we can check out around the Central Queensland area? If need be we will drive down to Brisbane to board him there, and just take the plane from Brisbane -> Perth. We'd prefer somewhere near Gladstone though so incase anything happens my parents are nearby, plus then we don't have to drive 6 hours down to Brisbane, then 6 hours again when we fly back. Any help would be much appreciated! Keyarna

No specific order. Neapolitan Mastiff Mastiff Great Dane Bull Terrier Pharaoh Hound Golden Retriever Irish Wolfhound German Shepherd (german working lines) Greyhound Alaskan Malamute

We do have a proper long line now, that was while we were just waiting for it to arrive. I did get a nasty burn on the back of my leg though from the new one. ><

Here is the culprit!

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate your input and suggestions! I will make his mealtimes more goal orientated from now on, I do have a kong aswell but he seems to get bored of this pretty quickly. I have ordered another sort of toy that works on the same principal of batting it around for the food to fall out, hopefully it gets here next week! I will also try hiding his food, I don't think would be a good idea in the backyard though, he is already a bit of a digger and I think he would overdo it trying to find food that might not be there. We do have a very large enclosed verandah so I will try and find some good places to hide it there. I've also contacted our local obedience club again (I tried emailing a month ago but never got a reply), hopefully he can start his training first thing next month when the beginners course starts again! Does anyone know of any clubs or such that do Tracking around Gladstone? Or do any of you live around here and might be interested in some playdates? PS. He is also entire, so I know this can't be helping things any but I am determined to do anything I can do avoid having to neuter him, he is a show dog and we do show him every now and then. Surprisingly he is well behaved enough at shows!

Sorry Riley's Mum, I missed your post! I will take on what you said aswell. On the crate thing, I did realise this was a bad thing to be doing which is why i've stopped doing this now, and instead just leave him in the yard and ignore him. This is not the best either, I have to think of another area I can use as a time out zone.

Thanks Mrs Rusty, the more advice the better. On the issue of nipping and jumping, we have always taught him not to jump either. He is usually very good with the jumping part, it's when he gets in this mood that he starts nipping he gets very dominant and starts jumping too. We have crated him in the past when he displays this behaviour, it's getting him TO the crate that's the hard thing. He will nip, then run away if we go to him, rinse and repeat. (we've never made a habit of this either, when he stole things as a puppy we would walk away from him, and wait until he bought it back, not chase him so once again I don't know where he's picked this up either, perhaps my partner was teaching him naughty things when I wasnt there! Once we do manage to get a hold of him and his collar to lead him to the crate, he will use all of his bodyweight to pull backward against us, and gnaw/bite at our arms and hands. It doesn't quite hurt but it's not acceptable either way. Once again I just don't know what to do in this situation. My partner loves dogs but gets so frustrated during these episodes I have seen him smack Easton a few times, not hard, but I know it's not helping and i've told him many times not to do it. It's hard trying to train a dog and a partner at the same time, they fuel each others bad behaviours.

Thanks for your advice! We do try to do as many things with him as possible, we do obedience (at home) when we can, a game of fetch every day, walking and take him to the park on a long line when we can. Obviously this isnt enough though as he's still got so much energy! We have trouble teaching him to heel though, which I think is one of the main reasons I dislike taking him for walks and put it off. He's been to puppy school, i've read loads of different techniques for teaching him not to pull and nothing has worked. We've used a normal collar and lead, a choker, rewarding him with treats when he does heel, stopping or turning around when he pulls etc. He might do fine for 10 secs or though but he always get distracted and starts to pull again, either by his nose, other people, another dog etc. In the case of a person or dog we just ignore them, keep him close at our side and force him to keep walking, but he hasn't got the idea yet. We recently got a black dog head collar which does seem to help, I wanted to use it just as a base to get the idea of heeling into his brain. We reward with treats when he does heel etc, but even with this head collar I can feel him still wanting to pull, and he always pulls on a normal choker. When we leave or enter the yard, I always make sure it's me leading so he knows I'M the leader, it's very frustrating! We also want to get him into formal obedience soon, and would love to do field trials with him but he's just so hypo and out of control most of the time it puts us off bringing him anywhere, let alone to somewhere like field trials where they need alot of self control! I don't understand where this comes from as we have always acted as the pack leaders since he was a puppy. He eats after us, and has to wait until I say ok to eat when the bowl is on the ground, he sleeps in a crate at night, he never gets treats without first doing something for us and so much more. He has a terrible habit of whining, when he is in his crate during the day for small amounts of time, at family members when he can't get to them, and at visitors. He is also very hyperactive during these situations and almost refuses to listen to commands, and when he does he only holds them for 2 seconds at most. He also gets into this weird mood, I can't figure out if it's bordering on semi agressive or overly playful, he will jump up and nip and mouth at us. It has drawn blood quite a few times, and nothing seems to stop this behaviour either. We have tried turning and completely ignoring him (he will just keep nipping..) saying NO (he does know what this means), spraying him with a water bottle which he dislikes but will soon resume the biting, the only thing we can do is lock him in the yard and go back into the house. I do have a feeling this is somewhat of a playful behaviour, but once again no idea where it comes from as we have never let him mouth us when he was younger, we would tell him no and hold his mouth shut. Sorry for the massivly long post, he's really getting me down lately as I want to help him and our situation but nothing I do works!

That's the thing, our yard isn't quite big enough to give him lots of room to run, and the closest offleash dog park (the only one that is fenced anyway, I wouldn't trust his recall yet) is a 20 min drive away which discourages us from taking him there every day. Plus with my partner working he only gets home at 5:30 and it's getting quite dark by then, and I don't have my license so I can drive us to the park during the day. I certainly don't expect him to RUN beside me, just a fast walkers pace with a few minutes trotting every now and then?

Hi guys, i'm just after some advice about my GSP boy. I'm not excersising him nearly enough as I should be, he has loads of excess energy which i'm pretty sure is the root of the all the behavioural problems we are experiencing. I've decided it's about time to stop being lazy and do what's best for him, and in turn hopefully he calms down alot. I am going to buy a WalkyDog attachment for my bike soon, I figure this will be an excellent way for me to get some excersise, and better for him than just a slow walk. My question is, how long should I take him out for? Obviously I will let him set the pace, but since he's only 8 months old I want to know if there is a point I should stop him to avoid him overtiring himself, as I think he would just keep going and going!