huski

I would be way too scared to leave my dogs outside the shop unless I could see them the whole time. Far too many weirdos and idiots out there! If I need to run into the shop on my way home (as I always have the dog with me as she comes to work with me) assuming its not hot I leave them in the car. I do take the dogs to the shops as a training exercise though :) great practice for them around lots of distractions.

NILIF isn't really about saying the dogs can't share your space or get on furniture it's about teaching your dog that things of value are controlled by you. I let my dogs on furniture every night but its on my terms. In a pack dogs would sleep and lie together, and at the end of the day I like to have my dogs spending time with me chilling on the lounge etc.

She sounds like a fun little girl! Does she like playing with toys, like fetching a ball or playing tug? Using toys as a motivator might work well for you if she enjoys play and has a restricted diet. When people have trouble with the dog only recalling if you have food it's usually because the sight of food has become a reward predictor. Try having food in your pockets or in a treat bag hidden behind your back and don't use showing the dog a piece of food as part of the command. Training an exercise like this; http://k9pro.com.au/services/training-the-behavioural-interrupter/ Can help teach your dog not only to respond to a certain cue or sound but will teach them how to respond to a command without needing to see the reward. Training a reliable recall isn't really about being the boss or being more assertive, it's about conditioning your dog to respond to a cue, and that doing so will give them the opportunity to earn a reward. Training and playing with your dog and having fun should go hand in hand! :)

Yes just called our trainer, who came over a few weeks ago to help us work on her over excitement with new visitors. She suggested obedience classes as there's more distraction to work with so we've signed up for that. Unfortunately training a bulldog to listen is not the easiest feat but I am determined! If she doesn't come at all under moderate distraction (like you just experienced in an open field) training with more distractions may not be the answer. But see how you go with classes, it may really help her training in general, recall can be a bit trickier when the dog has learnt that they can ignore your commands. Lots of people told me I would never train a beagle to be reliable off leash, it just made me even more determined to prove them wrong :laugh:

I would consider having some one on one training with a reputable trainer. There are lots of different ways to train a reliable recall and IMO it is something every dog can learn to do.

Obedience is lots of fun! There are obviously many different ways to do things, but I look at training loose leash walking and basic manners when we are out and about (on a walk or going to the shops or whatever) as something quite different to formal training such as obedience. When I'm walking my dogs down the street I want chilled, relaxed dogs that aren't giving me stacks of focus or looking around for or expecting a high value reward, because I want their arousal levels to be low. For doing more formal training like obedience I don't use physical corrections, I want a super motivated dog that shows me unwavering focus and lots of arousal and excitement. Some people train the same way or with the same expectations in both different settings, but for me, training loose leash walk and training formal heel work (for eg) are two quite separate things, so I'd approach them both quite differently.

Have you seen a behaviourist with her BC Crazy? It might help to have some professional guidance? (sorry if you have and I've just missed that).

I think (correct me if I am wrong) your problem sounds a little bit different to the OP's becks as you are lacking prolonged/consistent focus in formal training and the OP is looking for ways to get her dog to behave around other dogs on walks etc (ie general manners). Depending on the goals each of you have I would approach them both differently. Teaching a dog to walk down the street nicely without getting over excited when it sees things like other dogs is not a situation I'd want to amp the dog up in and get them super excited for rewards (not saying I wouldn't use rewards, but the reward delivery would be aimed at a different purpose). In that situation I'd want to teach the dog to have a lower level of arousal and stay calm and chilled out. Asking for focus in formal training i.e. for obedience is where I'd be using a lot of drive work, wanting the dog super amped up and excited and aroused, how I'd deliver rewards would be different again. Reward for a lot of eye contact (I actually put it on a command i.e. 'watch' and use this in distraction work). Teach her the consequence of breaking eye contact to look at something distracting (i.e. it ends the game). Do you play any games with her to help build her drive or focus?

If the dog has been declared dangerous he can be in big trouble for not abiding by the dangerous dog requirements. It doesn't matter if the other trainer "fixes" the dog, the owner will still have to abide by the DD requirements unless he is able to get it over turned. Even if the dog never does anything wrong again if the council came to inspect his premises and found the dog wasn't being contained as it is supposed to be the owner will still face a large fine and the dog could be seized and PTS.

I am on the hunt for a good place to take Wiz with lots of ducks around as I think that would be a good environment to test her in! She had a squeaky toy thrown in her face squeaking at the same time tonight and she didn't even flinch or break eye contact for a milisecond. Very happy with how conditioning her to distractions is coming along, we only started distraction work a few days ago. She seems to be enjoying the challenge of it.

I did a few training sessions today working on distraction work, heaps of fun! what is everyone's favorite distractions to test your dog with?

Daisy sleeps on my bed and so does the cat. If its warm Micha sleeps outside, otherwise if its cold he will sleep on my bedroom floor. Wisdom sleeps in her crate in my dining/kitchen area.

In that case I'd look at getting a 10m long line :)

Ever seen a greyhound with high drive? They're just as capable of the same thing and it's certainly not abnormal. Some dogs have higher prey drive than others and sometimes in breeds you wouldn't expect. In this case, if it was an amstaff, I would consider some amount of prey drive to be pretty normal. Get a dog with higher drive, allow it to self-reward that drive by letting it hurt other animals and you have the makings for a situation just like this. A dog with drive like that certainly shouldn't be out unmuzzled and offlead (I have a high drive dog myself and we have to be very careful) but high prey drive does not mean the dog is aggressive or abnormal- just that it needs to be managed more carefully. Edit, typo Firstly, we don't know that it was a prey drive triggered incident, and secondly it IS uncommon for a dog to rip out the insides of another dog. When I said it's not remotely acceptable I meant regardless of whether the small dog barked at the attacking dog, it doesn't make it ok that the larger dog mauled it to death. I have an extremely high prey drive dog too and work with many others and of course prey drive doesn't equal aggression, but there's also no way to know what caused the dog to behave the way it did.

What breed is Abbey, Tara? Is it just for letting her run around the beach?

A dog that will rip the insides out of another dog, even if the other dog barked at it, is not a normal dog. On what planet is that remotely acceptable?! I feel so sorry for the family of the dog that was attacked, imagine watching your dog die in such a horrific way.

I have a padlock on my front gate but I do allow Micha and Daisy out there sometimes when I'm home. I live by myself and having the dogs does make me feel safer as they are a deterrent. However I never let my Mal in the front yard and I also don't let her bark and carry on ever - if someone wants to break in to her property they can give it their best shot :laugh:

Hi AP I agree with others, this isn't an obedience problem, it's a behaviourial problem. You really need to see an experienced behaviorist who can accurately diagnose the problem and design a behaviour modification program for you. I dont feel that boarding and training will help you in this instance. We work with a lot of Great Dane owners, feel free to PM me or shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions or would like some further info.

Paddles, have you been to an obedience trial before and watched some run outs? I like to think of competition as a way to test our training. Trialling shows me what areas of my training I need to work on to improve. It sounds like there are quite a few things you are unsure about and a few different problems that you are having and without wanting to sound discouraging, if you are having these problems now in training it is very likely that in a trial environment you are going to experience the same issues. By all means go to the trial as it will be a good experience to show you what you need to work on :) But if you enter before you and your dog are ready it can feel really discouraging if the trial doesn't go to plan. With turning problems, have you done any back end awareness training? Plenty of YouTube videos on it if you search it, I'd also ask how well he understands heel position? Assuming you have your foot work right, if he knows where he needs to be and understands the position and how to move his back end around, the turn will happen fluidly (no need to 'force' it).

Hi Wobbly It was lovely to meet you all today! Jarrah is a beautiful girl and you are doing a great job with her. I smiled so much reading your post as you can tell you are so excited about the progress you made today. I can't wait to hear how you both go, you are a great team! BTW Jarrah must have known you were there to play tug today not eat chicken :laugh: with a good out you'll be able to use toys to train heelwork now too :)

Sorry Paddles now I realise who you are :) There could be a few reasons he doesn't work as well as you want for toys, but what do you think he loves the most? Food or toys? :)

Yep that sounds with a motivation problem. Correcting a dog for lack of motivation isn't going to help increase their desire or drive. I would look at how you are using rewards and go back to basics by trying to make training more of a game. A lot of people think they need to fade out rewards to trial (as you can't use rewards in the ring) but you don't need to do this - building your dogs durability (how easily is your dog distracted? How sustainable is their focus? How long can they work while maintaining drive?) and making sure you don't become predictable in your reward delivery is part of how we train dogs to compete without fading rewards. If the dog is lacking focus, is easily distracted and is slow to respond to commands you definitely need to look at how you are motivating them to work and how you can make it more fun :) ETA: if you learn how to use reward delivery to your advantage, not rewarding every time will actually increase your dogs motivation and desire to work/ earn the reward.

Looking forward to meeting you both tomorrow Wobbly! :) Bec

I should have seen it coming, but it was like watching something in slow motion, I saw him run in there and head dunk into the mud and thought 'nothing I can do now, regardless of how dirty he gets he is going to need a bath' :laugh:

Isn't he gorgeous! Reminds me of this pic taken only a few days ago (wasn't raining, but Micha invited himself to roll around in the dam, head first, Daisy followed him and jumped in by accident and was horrified when she realised she had jumped into muddy water and quickly evacuated herself);