huski

He looks like great fun Cos!! He is clearly having a ball. I can't believe he has HD and ED

I think you should share you video of Dexter Cos Daisy is not a touchy feely dog either. She's not one of those dogs who would fall over herself for a pat. She usually stands there looking bored/disinterested if anyone pats her when we are out. I do encourage her to do nose touches, hi-10 and jump up on me in play and she does quite enjoy those things. I try to keep Daisy guessing when she will get the reward. I don't often do a full run out under trial conditions (i.e. each exercise with no food/toy reward until the end) because once I become predictable she starts to get bored. So, the reward could come at any time, in the middle of a heel pattern, after I've put her in a stay and taken a few steps away etc.

My cousin has two Tenterfield Terriers - one weighs less than 4kg. I've seen her kill rats almost half her size, in less than two seconds flat. No mutiliating. A quick, clean chase and kill. My dog has never "mutilated" anything he's killed either. He's never even eaten anything he's killed - prey drive is about chasing and grabbing a moving item, the dog has no human moral or ethics to tell them the difference between grabbing something and killing it. And seconds after catching whatever he's killed, he brings it over to me and drops it at my feet like it's the best squeaky toy ever and he waits for me to throw it for him so he can chase it again. A prey driven dog doesn't discriminate between prey items. If it catches their prey eye, triggers them into prey drive, they don't then stop to think 'oh wait - this isn't a rabbit/chook/mouse that I can chase for fun, I better not grab it too hard'. A prey item is a prey item, and unless you have put the work into teaching the dog you are best way to attain drive satisfaction, you don't have much chance if any of having any control over a highly prey driven dog once it goes into drive.

Oh wow, TSD. Em is just lovely ;) I've never wanted a Springer before but she makes the breed terribly enticing

Merely killing the dog achieves nothing - the owner will likely just go get another DA or predatory dog, and not necessarily contain it properly either. It's not like there aren't thousands of DA and predatory dogs out there for them to adopt - the majority of dogs would kill other pets if you let them roam. Even dogs that won't fight other dogs will kill cats or pet bunnies or chickens or chase sheep if allowed to do so. From what I can work out, the call to PTS come from people that think that their dogs would never do such a thing to any other animal, and so that any owner of a predatory or DA dog deserves whatever they get merely for owning such an animal. Exactly. And where is the line drawn? I know plenty of dogs that will kill smaller animals, are they all "unfit to live in society"?

That would be Anvet Kedron - lovely people It's our local vet. I also take the dogs for six monthly check ups/chiro work at Animal Options out at Ormeau - it is a further drive but SO SO worth it.

Ok I've been fortunate enough to be lent four weavers so I am going to start some more intense 2x2 training Watch this space. I am *hoping* to have some good progress made by Feb when we go back to agility class.

Great work Ptolomy! How old is Strauss now?

I agree with everyone else - the next time I get a pup I will be working hard to train a good foundation, drive and focus and then teach bits of things. We started agility a couple of months ago and I thought we'd find it hard coming from an obedience background, but overall it's not been that difficult. I've done a fair bit of shaping so my dog does know how to learn, I have focus and drive, those are the hardest things to get down I've found

You're getting a see-saw Ness? aww that's so awesome! I wish you lived in Brissy so I could come to borrow your equipment visit

You guys!! I don't need any encouragement!

Thanks Tassie. It is so much fun. Having the tunnel at home will help so much, I am sure she will pick it up really quickly now. She just wasn't getting it before - it was like she was thinking 'but why would I go through the tunnel when it's quicker just to run past it?' LOL. Oh and it's my first piece of agility equipment I am bit worried about how addictive this is becoming

Our agility tunnel arrived from Top Buy yesterday We had our first tunnel training session today. Daisy has no fear or problem running through the tunnel itself, but she has no understanding of the exercise, even if I was standing on the other end calling her through she wasn't going through it reliably (sometimes she'd just run past it to get to me like she was thinking 'well you called me, here I am!') We haven't really done any work on the tunnel at all, apart from maybe five minutes in class, so this is very new to us. So I started with it really simply set up at home today, we just did five minutes and she picked it up really quickly and was running through it very confidently She is now running through the tunnel with me standing next to it at the end she enters from rather than standing at the other end calling her through. I was really impressed how quickly she was running through considering I was standing at one end, getting her to run through it, and then calling her back to me or meeting her at the other end and running with her as she came out. She worked out almost instantly that today's reward was going to be earnt by going through the Super Awesome Tunnel Thing :D A small step but as Agility Dogs can attest she really really sucks majorly when it comes to tunnels

Surely on that much land you have the space to build a run for him. It doesn't have to be huge but it will be a hell of a lot more safer than tying him to a flying fox or letting him run free I honestly don't understand why anyone would get a dog in the first place if they know they have no means to contain it.

DB I can only speak from my experience as someone very very new to agility (and coming from and obedience background). I know personally, that having done a lot of drive work with Daisy has helped heaps when it comes to having a dog who is focused and keen to work no matter what dog sport we are doing. I am also 110% sure that once we get a handle on this agility stuff, already having a dog who can work 'in drive' and maintain focus around lots of distractions, as well as work well and reliably off leash, will help us for sure. Even if you just look at from a perspective of going to the workshop to learn more about building drive you will definitely have fun and take something away from it

Yeah I don't quite get it either. Apparently it's how mushers exercise dogs in the off season.

I saw this posted on another site, and it got mixed comments. Some sled dog trainers feel that it is a perfectly normal practice and is of benefit to the dogs, but some people disagreed. Has anyone else seen this method used before?

I agree with every word of this, Cos.

Hey DB! I think there may be if you shoot Ann from CT an email I am sure she could tell you

Excuse me Huski, can you provide an explanation for a necessity to associate me with something written on another forum other than "stirring the pot". These are all public forums, "anyone" can read something here and make a post somewhere else word for word in they wanted to............it could be you writing in other forums for all we know Yawn, sure thing Nev.

That's not what I was implying at all. I was simply saying that, if it was a prey driven attack, it is hardly unnatural or unexplainable as you seem to think there is no logical explanation for why two dogs would have attacked a smaller one in these circumstances. Why does it matter which of my dogs I was referring to? I was simply using it as an example of how easy it is for a prey driven dog to be triggered into prey drive. None of my dogs have ever gone into prey drive at the sight of another dog, but one of them has killed small animals that are a similar size to a small dog and I hardly think that makes a dog unsafe, a menace, or even particularly aggressive. Prey drive in a dog does not make the dog a bad dog, it is simply up to the owners to manage them responsibly. ETA: And where have we heard or seen any evidence that these dogs have "routinely attacked" other dogs?

Hey BD! Just shoot Ann from Camp Tailwaggers an email [email protected]

I've seen my dog do the same thing to birds and other small wildlife catching his prey eye when we've been out walking, had he been allowed, he certainly would have chased and grabbed these animals. I'm not saying that in this instance with the JRT it was a prey driven attack, but if it was, prey drive is hardly unusual behaviour. IF they saw the dog as a prey item, then just seeing it moving around would have triggered ("provoked") them and it would have had nothing to do with territoriality. I'm not saying that excuses their behaviour but that it's not as rare or unexplainable as you seem to think it is.

The other forum is specialistcanine. Try not to think about it too much MM. Abed (and any of his other aliases) loves to stir the pot on DOL.

I would be absolutely FUMING!!! And would be FURIOUS if my dogs were seized or PTS due to the council's incompetence.