huski

Thanks guys! I am going to call AAE later today. I've only ever flown dogs with Qantas, though the flight was booked via Qantas a while ago so we'll just have to fly the dog via them. I have had a quote from Dog Tainers for about $180 to fly the dog to Perth from Brisbane including crate hire, does that sound right? A lot more expensive than when I've flown my dog as excess baggage sadly, and more time in transit as you have to get them there earlier too.

Thanks guys, I will call AAE to discuss it tomorrow :)

Hi everyone! We are flying a dog to Perth and were planning to send her over as excess baggage, but Qantas informed us that dogs can't fly as excess baggage to Perth - apparently all dogs must fly there via AAE? Does anyone have any experience with this and can clarify for me the best procedure for flying a small dog from Brisbane to Perth? Thanks!

I wouldn't trust them unsupervised but under supervision with you there I wouldn't say it's impossible to have them sit in a room without trying to eat the cats. You'd need professional assistance though to see how easily it could be done.

That's ok just thought I would clarify! :)

Thanks for the rec Aussie! Just to clarify though we do actually do house visits when required :)

There is 4-5 years between all of my three and there will be six years between my youngest dog and my new pup by the time I bring it home. It's worked out really well for us as we've never had any issues with the pack :) I don't think age is the only reason why we have a pretty harmonious household but I do think it plays a part in making it easier. My dogs are 13, 9 and 5.

I love the Snuggle pup pillows :) I will definitely be getting one for my next pup. I know heaps of people who have used them with success.

I'd get a good muzzle, I have used a Jafco muzzle for the same reason and it was much better than an e collar

There are also some TAFE courses on offer.

Good at what? :laugh: LOL... I think a lot of people have different ideas on what makes a behaviourist and what they should do. In my mind a behaviourist should assess the dog, educate the owner on what is going on with the dog and show them how to get the best out of the dog. This obviously differs from dog to dog and owner to owner.

How on Earth did that happen!

IMO you're lucky it worked with your dog as with others it wouldn't have. Regardless of whether the dog creating the fearful response was being aggressive or just overly aroused and rude some puppies could be damaged irreparably from a negative experience like that. It doesn't matter if their fear is unfounded - they still felt scared and learnt from that experience. If you have a dog who already has a negative association with a specific trigger or situation it's going to be easy to reinforce that negativity by putting them in a position where they will be scared.

Training doesn't change temperament. Socialisation may increase the level of comfort the dog has in certain situations but no training method will make a dog less fearful. But isn't changing an emotional response the core concept of counter-conditioning training? Or am I missing something? (quite possible, long day ) I definitely believe you can work with a dog to decrease a fearful response, I have seen plenty of dogs that go from displaying a fear based response to specific triggers to no longer feeling fearful of those triggers.

Yep me too!

I love my gripper leashes and I use the long line all the time, but you'd still need to watch her to make sure she doesn't chew through it. Nothing beats the a good leather leash for me though! :)

So it's mostly just when she is on a tie out that she chews the leash? If she is finding your leashes and collars when they are not in use put them too high for her to reach or in a box or training bag so she can't reach them. Our leather leashes don't fray or wear away and whilst they are extremely durable and strong they won't stand up to a dog chewing through them if the dog is persistent enough.

I had a great training session with Daisy today, it was the first time doing a proper training session out of the house in weeks/months as I was really sick at the start of the year and training got put on the back burner. The break seems to have done her well though as although we have stacks to work on she had a really nice attitude from the word go today. Let's hope it keeps up

I've seen loads of dogs not enjoying training or trialling in a number of sports. It's not obedience specific, it's handler/training specific. If your dog can't work without constant reward markers or praise for eg that is a problem in your training not the sport.

I love obedience and I love training it and watching it as a spectator. I think as with anything you do with your dog it's what you make it. Agility is cool but I've never been passionate about it like I am with obedience, to each their own

I don't think there is any doubt that dominance exists in dogs but I think a truly dominant dog is rare, and the term 'dominance' is really over used as a label for behaviours that actually have nothing to do with dominance.

Nerves is my issue too, I look like a completely different person in the ring compared to training and considering how much our dogs rely on our body language it can really impact on them. My dog looks at me in the ring and thinks "that does not look like that super fun person my rewards come from". I've done a lot of work now trying to emulate the way I look in the ring, in training. IMO I try to be as unpredictable as possible when it comes to when I will give the reward, it could be two steps into heelwork or I could release her to the reward as I'm walking away to do a recall or it could be after she's dropped etc. I want her thinking "is it now? Or now? Or now?" not thinking "well after we do this round of heel work we will do a SFE and recall and then leave the ring and then I'll get the reward".

I think what you should do really depends on you and your dog. Personally I would use a mock trial as a chance to train my dog in a trial setting. I would reward randomly in the ring so my dog doesn't start predicting when the reward will come. IMO often for dogs that have issues with motivation in the ring stems from the dog predicting that the reward only comes when they leave the ring. this comes from the handler being too predictable with their reward delivery so the more you mix it up the better IMO. I want my dog thinking that the reward could come at any second.

If the collar was faulty, it would be covered by the warranty you get from Dogtra. But there isn't a trial period where you can use the collar then return it after using it :)

Thanks Huski, that's the one Steve recommended too. I have read a few negative reviews saying that particular collar can be set off by other dogs barking and/or loud noises though due to the sensor? If that's the case it probably wouldn't be ideal in my situation as she may end up copping the stim for the neighbours dogs barking instead! Hence I was also looking at the tritronics which (from my limited understanding) works on vibration sensors? We sell both collars (and many others) and honestly find the YS300 to be the best. The YS300 is made for multiple dog homes so the technology is designed to recognise and filter the dog's bark from surrounding noise, it has a dual function sensor.