Griffo

lol just so you don't feel alone... i got kicked out of a german shepherd club for having a prong on my dog... i refused to use a check collar and they wouldn't allow me to train unless she was on a check collar. Idiots.

Be careful with squeezing his paws as it could make him scared of people handling his paws in the future for grooming etc. If you put a correction collar on him like a prong, put your foot on the lead so he will get a correction if he jumps up, and then encourage him to jump up a few times (he will get a correction when jumping up but wont really know where it is coming from), he will decide that jumping up is not such a nice thing to do after all. You will only have to do it a couple of times if that. Make sure you check your leadership too... insure you are incorporating programs like NILF etc into your daily life. Good luck with it and i hope he is feeling better!

roflmao Midol that's because you missed the first 3 sessions!! steve isn't scary? well that's only because you havent seen him on a full moon.... i'm sure your forgiven

Correcting a fearful dog is not a good idea. What you'll be doing is teaching your dog that showing warning signs (back off signs) is wrong. This can lead to your dog biting without any warning as the typical warning signs you would have gotten before he bites (growling, hackles etc) will be corrected out him. It also does not serve to make the dog more comfortable or confident around the trigger. It is not showing the dog that the trigger (children) are a positive thing because he is forever getting corrections around them. You need to reward his positive behaviour and if the dog is too agitated and there is no positive behaviour then you are too close to the trigger and need to move back to a point where the dog knows the children are there but will still focus on you...reward him for focusing on you and also calm behaviour while watching the children. Insure the children ignore him and make no eye contact with him as this is perceived as threatening/challenging to the dog. Do not allow the children to approach your dog or come towards you. If yur dog gets too agitated then relieve the pressure, move him away then back again. Most important thing tho is that your leadership is 100%. You might think it is, but if the dog is fearful then he is not trusting you to protect him. You need to insure your a really strong leader and dont put the dog in a position where he ever has to protect himself...that's what you are for, you need to be reliable, fair, predictable, confident. Think carefully and honestly about your own body language when you come across children. If you are nervous in the slightest then you will project this onto the dog. You need to have relaxed and confident body language. Think success, not failure. You might find that putting a muzzle on your dog will help you to relax by knowing he cant hurt anyone, and therefore your dog will also be more relaxed. Do not put the children in danger. You need to have 100% control over the situation at all times. The more your dog practices the behaviour, the harder it will be to break it. I can not stress how important it is that you get your leadership perfect before tackling this problem. I know you said you can not afford to see another behaviourist, but it is really important you insure this behaviour is indeed fearful behaviour and not being mistaken. Believe me, it is a very easy mistake to make. Programs for your dog will also depend on your dogs nerves etc... that is why getting points etc over a forum/internet etc is NEVER a good idea because we have not seen your dog, which is extremely important. What works for one dog will not work for another. One thing that will always help tho is your leadership and getting a good hold on that.

I dont think anyone was trying to make you feel "crap" and "small" This thread was not just about the police dogs but you were also giving opinions on how you felt the police over handled the situation. You might be a neighbor to this man, but you do not know what someone is capable of when under extreme pressure, someone trying to kill themselves is obviously slightly unstable and therefore unpredictable. You can not have expected the police do anything but take this situation seriously. It really did not sound like mere curiosity on your behalf going from your below statements, it sounded like you were slamming the police for doing their job properly and thoroughly. From these remarks it does not seem that you were merely after further understanding, it sounds like you made quite a few false judgements about something you know little about. Your posts clearly said that the police did not do their job properly. Your posts also clearly said that their dogs were poorly trained, to the point where you almost said something to the police about it... The problem is, if things had turned sour, then you would be complaining that the police did not take the matter seriously enough. I am glad you have learnt something tho, that is what threads are all about.

You live next door to the Will, the Police dont. They dont know that he "isn't dangerous"... you dont either for that matter. People can snap under situations like that...that's why we call the police, unlike us they have been trained to deal with these situations. So they arent going to take any risks and rightly so. If the situation had gone the other way then they would have been slammed for not taking it seriously well enough. So they should have asked you to put your dog away (why was it out in the first place?), if your dog had decided to attack theirs then of course that would be a distraction to even the best trained police dog. Again, they dont know your dog so they dont know what it is capable of. Some people are never going to be happy no matter what the police do or how they react. It is either not enough or too much, personally i would rather they overestimate a situation than underestimate. If the dog is locked up? Behind a fence? The police dog will ignore it. They are trained to overcome very high distractions.

sounds like a happy ending, so glad your boy is okay, scary how a simple operation can turn so bad.

I mentioned earlier that it is no guarantee, but if your going to be getting a pup then i think you would be silly to get another dog of the same sex if you can help it. I would urge you to go for a female, rather than another male, as there is a lot less chance of there being problems. This is what i would be doing if i were in your shoes. Another step to take AS WELL as that is to be a fair, strong, reliable leader, which you hopefully already are. Before introducing another dog into your pack you will need to insure you check your leadership and make sure it is airtight. It is about minimising risk and by getting a different sex, you will be taking steps towards doing this. There are always exceptions, but in general this usually provides you with the best chance of having 2 dogs who will get along well.

No guarantees, they are less likely to fight but there are always exceptions. As husky87 says, it has a lot to do with your leadership and the dog's drives. If you have a dog with high rank drive then you might have some more problems.

omg your signature thing is cool...i actually just changed browsers to check if it could really see that i was on a mac and using safari. He seems a lot happier now that im using firefox... lol PS good luck with your doggies...i'll put my vote in for a cav...

what are the chances of you taking a trip to NSW to see k9?

RottyLover01 - if you are serious about saving your dog then i would definitely go see k9force. He saved my girl after i had been told numerous times to have her PTS. Under his instruction and programs, she has improved dramatically. It will take a lot of dedication and hard work, on your behalf, to turn your dog around, but k9 will never give up on either of you.

Yeah it was an excellent course and the amount of information which was covered was truly a mind boggle. Luckily K9 is making a video of it for us to look back on. I think he is going to run it again next year with a bit of a different format. Although he has run many workshops in the past, this course was the first he has ran of it's kind and we get a certificate to show our attendance from him. On his website you can register fro his mailing list which basically notifies you of any up and coming courses so you know first (before it is posted over the internet). Have a look at the bottom of this page and there is a note about how to get onto the list if you are interested. With all the energy you brought into the room, you wouldn't have guessed you'd been up for that long.

This year 6 of us (5 DOLers included) did a course run by the one and only K9Force. It was on dog handling, training and aggression...as well as many other things. It was run over 4 months and we met once a month, but also had our own online forum too, for talk in between sessions and for our "homework". The course offered 2 dog owners the chance to have their dogs assessed and trained with K9Force, including programs etc. and it offered the 6 of us the opportunity to learn from one of the best by being an active part of this process. Basically K9 Force had never met these dogs before us so we all met them on the same day and thus were all exposed to the same information. We were shown all the correspondence K9 had received prior to the meeting of the dogs so we could have an idea of what to expect etc. As participants in this course, we were treated as fellow trainer by K9 and were able to handle dogs, give feedback, ask the owners questions, develop programs for the dogs etc. But we also received guidance by K9 Force throughout the process. Each session we had with K9, we spent a couple of hours with each dog and owner, handling the dog, teaching the owner how to handle the dog etc. We learnt how to fix common behaviour problems in dogs, as well as more in depth problems which need programs etc to fix. It had a strong focus on aggression (both dog to dog, and dog to human aggression), this being a major problem for many owners. We also learnt about dog's drives and how this can effect a dog's behaviour and how to overcome this. Over the 3 month course, these dogs turned from out of control "problems" to very well behaved members of their families. It was a great transition to see with both the owners and the dogs. And although both of the owners have plans for furthering their dogs' success, they both can not believe how far they have already come. K9 also organised 2 guest speakers for us. One being our very own Erny, who flew up especially from VIC. She was able to give us a another perspective on dog training coupled with some of her past experiences, she was a great speaker and shared some great information with us. One of the biggest things i took from Erny's talk is to not diagnose a dog over a forum/email/phone conversation etc. You really need to see and work with the dog to diagnose and program for it. The other guest speaker was a dog trainer all the way from QLD, Jane Harper. To me, she is the "never say never" dog trainer. She shared with us stories of her own dogs and their (horrifying) backgrounds. Jane works with the dogs that most people would have PTS. Through her we learnt that for one reason or another, some dogs do not exhibit "normal" dog body language. This can pose a huge challenge for trainers and owners, as we rely heavily on body language to read a dog. Despite this Jane never seems to give up, both with her own dogs and other people's. She has worked hard to take her own dogs to achieve their titles.... which is an amazing achievement, especially considering where these dogs came from. I could ramble on for hours about the course and how great it was, I was so lucky to be able to attend it. If anyone else is thinking about maybe attending a future course then i would very much recommend it. I can not believe how much knowledge i have taken away from it and how much more confident i am. I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Erny and Jane for their input into our learning. You were both such an inspiration! But most of all i would like to thank K9Force :D for his huge effort into the organistaion of this course and his commitment to us and our learning over the past 4 months, and continuing commitment even now! I don't think you can put a price on a course like this or the information you get out of it.

could be low drive If he is doing it at home and not elsewhere then it is probably nerves. Consider contacting K9 Force, he is the king of drive. Are you attempting to train your dog in drive? Remember that correcting a dog reduces drive and frustration increases drive.

he's full of it

I didnt bath my dog for the first year of her life...she actually smelt a lot better than she does now. She used to go swimming and all that and playing with the hose, but never a proper bath and wetting of her undercoat... She is bathed once a month these days.

very normal. any time my female desexed dog has the chance with a male or female dog she will be down checking out their wares having a sniff and a taste lol.

my dog hated it too when she was little. i have no idea why. but i just persevered and basically didnt give her the choice. now as soon as she hears my keys or sees me with my handbag, she runs and sits at the car waiting to hop in.

thank you thank you thank you!!!! ;)

okay i did a topic search, that just confused me more... my dog gets the yearly heartworm injection. we live in an area prone to paralysis ticks and for that i use advantix every 2 weeks during summer. now what i need is a general wormer for everything else. most general wormers include a heartwormer and since she gets the injection and is already covered for heart worm, i'm not sure whether it is ok to give her more? I buy from pricelesspets.com.au....if there is a product they provide on there i would much prefer to buy that, since i am ordering from there already.... can anyone please help me!!! thanks heaps in advance!! rachelle & ellie

punishment???? What?? There is absolutely no place for punishment or "floggings" in dog training whatsoever. Aversive training - yes, well timed corrections and praise used together can be very effective.

It's everyone's right to do what they see is best for their own dog's health. It is not your place to judge.

are you joking? i totally disagree with you. Maybe with a rank aggressive dog, but even then i doubt whether tug would cause all the "adverse effects" you listed. A dog that knows and accepts you as the alpha will have no problems with this game at all. And no you dont have to win all the time either. It can be a fun game to play with your dog, i play it with mine all the time and it is not a matter o winning or losing. I just lose interest. She is definitely not mouthy with objects around me. She never competes against me, rather she PLAYS WITH me, she NEVER tries to take objects from me, EVER. So why is it that i dont have any of the problems that you listed with my dog?

I'm so sorry for your loss, I know how heartbreaking it is. Your boy is now in peace and out of pain. You did all you possibly could for him and you can't do any more than that. He was lucky to have such caring owners as much as you were lucky to have him!!