JulesP

Antihistamines will only work if it is an allergy. They will not work on something like a staph infection. You buy the tea from health food shops.

http://www.mountainvalefencing.com.au/a/Fe...imal_Enclosures I got my run from these guys, they are in Montrose.

Ok everyone stop calling trainers behaviorist! I propose that such trainers should hence forth be called trainers-that deal-with-bitey-dogs!

First I would consider what training methods I am comfortable with, which ones resonate with me. Then I would find trainers that use those methods. I would look at their website, chat to them and if they didn't seem like a tosser would book a session. They would be on trial in that session. If I didn't like what they did, taught etc then I wouldn't go back. I am not super precious about giving someone a go though as I had horse riding lessons every week for years, so I am pretty comfortable with the whole trainer situation.

I do think there is a difference between a trainer and a behaviorist Corus. Just don't think a behaviorist necessarily needs a uni degree.

Glad pup is ok. You might need to enforce some rest breaks for puppy so he doesn't overdo it again.

I just don't agree with you Corvus. Maybe when you have a bit more experience with different dogs and different animals you might get were some of us are coming from. Not saying that to be bitchy but I know you are fairly young and all your posts read so 'text book'.

Actually, I'm not sure I buy that. I don't know of any law or etc that means that only people with certain qualifications can describe themselves as a behaviourist. Please fill me in. There are no laws, but that's where all the problems start. If anyone with a certificate in dog training is a "qualified behaviourist", then how do we know the difference between the ones that actually know about the scientific method and therefore have some idea exactly what they are doing, how it is likely to affect behaviour, and how to monitor it so they can tell if it's working from the folks that know some training techniques? Not to belittle the talent of some dog trainers that have brilliant training instincts, but to me the whole point of getting a "behaviourist" and not a "trainer" is that you'll have a reasonable expectation that the "behaviourist" will be able to fix a problem a trainer may not know how to fix, or may easily misinterpret and potentially even make worse. If we're going to differentiate, we should actually differentiate based on something other than testimonials. Having a piece of paper doesn't mean the person is dog savvy. I would rather go with a very experienced trainer then someone with a piece of paper that hasn't seen 100s of dogs and may never have the talent. A Vet behaviorist is slightly different as they can prescribe drugs. I would use one of them. Not all trainers want to be behaviorists either. I certainly don't!

PMSL at the title

No not whilst you are moving. You can have 2 stewards or a judge & steward.

Poppy is the model in the first pic but she went up the ramp too fast to get a photo I had to get a slower model.

I actually tried some horse mounting steps that I have and Brock hated the idea.

I got the dogs to demo the ramp for me

I've been looking at Stayz. The main issue seems to be that they want you to book for 3+ nights over that period and I can only really do 1 night anyhow. That Best Friend place looks great for the dogs. Maybe I'll just book myself into a day spa treatment, lol.

Mine jump into the Xtrail. I did get a ramp for my old girl. That worked well. The only issue was putting the ramp into the car for getting in and out at the destination. That was a bit of a pain. Got it from Petstock and it cost around $100.

I haven't had a holiday for about ummm 15 years. The last 6 years mainly because of the animals. I would really like to go away for a couple of nights over the Xmas holidays. I have 3 border collies though. Has anyone taken that amount of dogs away by themselves? They are pretty quite and crated trained. I took them away for 1 night for a herding thing and they were pretty good.

IMO you did ask him to go to heel with 3 different commands. Line up, round & finish. And the dog could have taken 'properly' to be a command too

Has anyone been in and seen what condition the animals are living in? How big is the space?

Not a fan on picking But some suggestions. When you did your line up command your marking was a bit late. Try and get the good boy in straight away. Are you actually using marking? You seem to say both 'yes' and 'good boy'. Line-up and Round also seemed to be commands for the same thing. Is there a reason you aren't saying heel? When Toby dropped in his finish you patted him. Try to avoid rewarding the dog for the wrong thing. With the nose touch were he stood up your hand was too high. Toby is nicely attentive

I would be working on developing a bond with the dog first. Punishing him when he was outside was probably not the best thing to do. That would certainly not make my dogs want to go outside the next time I asked them too.

It sounds like the dog was only not contained because the owners were with him. Understandable if he has not shown such behavior before. Now they know not to do that again. I would get a trainer to help you and one that will use all methods. What state are you in and we can suggest someone. If you are growing hedges I assume you don't want to see out so how about using some of that brush fencing stuff to block off your dog's view. Are people walking past the side fence or just the front fence? Can you block him off from were people are walking?

Sounds like the dogs are yours Teal :D I kept all the pets. It wasn't really an issue but I did make sure that everything went nicely so that it didn't become an issue. ie I didn't kick up about anything else he wanted from the house.

We had an American guy at club that used to do classes in this. He stopped doing it about 2 years which is a bit of a shame if comps are going to start happening. I had a go with Poppy and found it quite fun.

Thanks for that You guys look great.

So sorry to read about Sam. I hate to write this but you need to prepare yourself for the fact that Tara may go soon too. I've seen this a fair bit with older dogs. When my Moss passed Fern was 11yo. She was really grieving and I quickly found a new friend for her. She picked up a bit but honestly was never the same. She did live until she was 15yo though but was the 'old' dog.