huski

Six weeks, when I was in Europe - I was living at home so my mum looked after the puppies :) They have been in boarding kennels for up to three weeks at one time too.

We stock the Ruffwear life jackets, IMO they are the best quality on the market. http://www.k9pro.com.au/categories/Ruff-Wear/Dog-Life-Jackets/

My point was we don't live in a perfect world where everyone who wants a pat will automatically be polite and ask you. So we have to make a little provision for what could happen. You just can't fix stupid sometimes :laugh: I had a bloke kick my malinois once as he walked past ... it was totally random ... I wouldn't of blamed her for reacting but she didn't. It was the Owner who was the aggressive one that day That's why I said it's fair to say people should ask before they pat your dog - of course this won't always happen and there will be idiots out there who do stupid things. In the nine years I've had Micha, I don't think we've ever left the house on an outing without being stopped by someone wanting to pat or talk to him, which he loves. I find most people are sensible enough, though there's always the odd idiot who makes you

I don't think I've seen anyone on this forum say that their dogs are not to be touched by anyone at all, but I do think it's fair to say that people should ask before they pat your dog. And I don't think there is anything wrong with saying no if it's not a good moment for a stranger to have a pat. I had Daisy at the farmers markets the other day, she is a pretty bomb proof dog and very little ever bothers her. A little girl came up from behind her and grabbed her tail, Daisy didn't seem to notice but I still said something to the little girl about making sure you ask before you pat a dog and that we shouldn't grab dogs by their tails. Her parents just watched on the entire time, I would have been in massive trouble had I grabbed a dog like that when I was little! A more nervous dog could easily have snapped from the fright of having a kid grab their tail like that.

It shouldn't matter if you have a breed that is very people orientated, for most people spending 24/7 with their dogs is not practical. Puppies need to learn how to be on their own sometimes, even for short periods. Nothing wrong with that at all :)

I'll never forget when we had our real estate agent over to list our last house. She put her bag on the floor and as I walked back in the room I saw Daisy stick her head in her bag and eat a sandwich she'd put in there for lunch. It was like slow motion. I was horrified Luckily she was a dog person :laugh:

My other dogs don't steal food, have never benched surfed (not that Cherry could get up there... LOL) but Daisy is just something else entirely! LOL :)

All I said was "I see dogs with obedience titles who still don't have a great relationship with their handler". What I was thinking of when I wrote that is the example I gave above. When I wrote the going through the motions comment I was actually thinking of my own dog. When we first started in obedience she could complete commands but it was still like we were fighting each other and IMO our relationship was lacking, it didn't feel like we even had one. I see dog owners struggle with their dogs like I did at obedience all the time, maybe building a good relationship with your dog is something that comes more naturally to some more than others. ETA: I think this really got off track, what I was originally trying to say was a completely different point which was one thing I will concentrate on with my next pup is general manners outside of training. Nothing at all to do with relationship building etc. Speaking from personal experience there too :laugh:

I'm not talking about whether dogs are super drivey and attentive, god knows I struggle with that with my dog in the obedience ring because of the anxiety attacks I get when I trial. I am sure there have been trials we have entered where people have thought my dog was rubbish and shouldn't have been in the ring in the first place. Sorry I bought it up at all because obviously I've somehow offended everyone which wasn't at all what I was wanting to do. The fearful dogs I am thinking of aren't random dogs I've seen at once trials but dogs I've also seen at training and outside the ring and I know how they are trained and handled.

I am not saying everyone should be the same Wuffles or use the same method, not sure where you got that impression? Just giving my opinion that when a dog is so scared of the handler it cringes and cowers in the ring (and outside of it) that doesn't exemplify a great dog handler relationship. It was seeing great working partnerships in obedience that made me strive to have a better relationship with my dog. I don't see anything wrong with wanting more or something better.

That's different to the example I was giving and not the point I was trying to make, though obviously having a dog that runs off during trials and is easily distracted means that there is room for improvement (but isn't there always??) :)

Sure. Seeing dogs avoiding their owner's eyes and cringing away from them in the ring, hitting the deck when the owner yells at them in the ring for getting something wrong (I saw this at a trial once!), having no obedience outside of the length of the leash because the dog knows it can't be corrected by the handler from a certain distance. I could go on but I think you get what I mean. Of course that's just my opinion, because I strive to have a different kind of relationship with my dog. I don't see a dog that plods along in the ring almost completely disengaged from the handler as a great relationship. Other people may see something different but it's not my cup of tea.

Here you go! http://www.k9pro.com.au/products/Scat-Mat.html http://innotek.com.au/innotek-home/Pet-Proofing Am sure you can find a few other places that stock them too.

Yep and we're also renting so can't fix anything to the wall, there's also no door way into the kitchen so no where to attach the baby gates to :laugh: And we'd have to fence off the entire island bench as well, which is in the middle of the room. I'm not looking for a solution though - we have fixed food stealing as I mentioned above, I was just explaining why baby gates etc aren't an option for everyone. It also wouldn't actually stop the dog's desire to steal the food, so the behaviour isn't being altered and I know a dog like Daisy if managed would still steal food at any given opportunity she can find.

Same, but unfortunately the dogs live in the family room which has a servery type window and breakfast nook with bar stools. While my eldest Cavalier can't get on the bar stool there is spare chair sitting beside them that she can jump onto and then if there is chicken (and only chicken, cooked or raw) she is up on the bar stool with her little face on the bench!! I've had to put one of the X-mats I keep on the couch on that chair as a deterrent! She's the only one that does it. I've always said I'm so lucky Daisy has never worked out to use chairs to get onto the table! She steals a lot more than chicken though :laugh: Rolls of raw pasty, an entire loaf of sourdough bread, a bag of raw chillis, a bag of six lamingtons, fruit, raw vegetables, anything edible really and yes all those things listed are thing she ate in entirety! Our house is open plan so no where to put up baby gates and I could crate her when we're in the kitchen but she can't be crated 24/7 :laugh:

One of my dogs is a TERRIBLE bench surfer (and general food stealer) to the point where it's not just about the food she takes but also about her safety grabbing hot items and getting in the way in a busy kitchen and stealing food that is bad for dogs. She is good if I manage it and tell her to stay out of the kitchen however that didn't stop her habit of stealing if someone wasn't around or their back was turned etc or she wasn't told to stay. When I'm training her she wouldn't touch food without my ok even when someone else offers it to her but that doesn't help food stealing when I'm not around... I finally got on top of it with a remote training collar however, I know people who've also had success with a scat mat. The problem with food stealing is that it's so rewarding for the dog they form a habit of stealing food really quickly and it can be very hard to break without using aversives.

Even my little Cherry dog can growl and snap if she's picked up by surprise, she's 13 years old, almost completely blind, sore with arthritis etc - if I was her I would growl and snap if someone picked me up by surprise too! We fixed this 100% by saying 'stop' before we pick her up just so she knows we are going to pick her up and she doesn't get a fright (so far her hearing is still working ok). A bit of common sense can go a long way.

I envy anyone who can give pig ears as a long term chew, I give one to my dogs and it's *crunch crunch* GONE! LOL :)

My friend's boyfriend believed well into his late 20s that his family dog had "gone to live on a farm", until my friend heard him talking about it and went "surely you don't believe that your dog actually went to go and live on a farm? Did you ever see this farm?" - he seriously believe the dog was actually on a farm until they confronted his mum and she admitted she ran over the dog on the way to work one day

When Daisy was a puppy she used to growl at me and bite me as a way of getting what she wanted - I will never forget the look on the instructor's face our first night at obedience club when they told me to put her in heel position (she was 4/5 months old at the time) and she refused so they said to pick her up and put her in heel position... she growled and bit me and they freaked out! The final straw came when I told her to get off the lounge and she refused and bit me hard on the hand. I got professional help and she's never growled at or bitten me again and will happily get off the lounge (LOL). She's not a nervous dog, and she doesn't have a bad temperament, but she's over confident, and I don't doubt in the 'wrong' home she would happily use aggression to get what she wants. You can see how easily it can all go wrong for some dog owners.

I don't think anyone is saying that it's simple Megan but obviously it's an option. Many people DO see great results working with professionals on aggression issues, and at the very least a good professional will assess the dog, the owners and their situation and advise whether rehabilitating the dog is the best option for all involved. In the right situation it can work. Like it did for this family: http://www.k9pro.com.au/pages/DJ-the-Black-Lab-vs.-Granny.html

It would be easier to ask what veges and fruit my dogs don't like! They'd eat anything! They had broccoli tonight and roast pumpkin the other night which they went nuts for.

I've noticed this a lot on DOL. People tend to think that problem dogs, hyper dogs, dog aggressive dogs, escapees etc etc all belong on a farm. I think there's more temptation to do wrong in rural areas than there are in the burbs. I don't think it's just DOL, I think it's a pretty wide spread idea that there is some magical farm where all problem dogs can go and live. There's no farm. What farmers want problems dogs any more than people in the suburbs do? Dogs with behaviourial issues need training. Not acreage.

I do agree with you totally, I think the owners need to commit 100% to behaviour modification, if not PTS is the better option. It was the comments about the dog being beyond help and people posting about the dog as if they know exactly what the dog's issues are that I was posting in response to.

A yes, the mystical "farm" that's just itching to take on a problem dog. There are a lot of assumptions being made about this dog which I find quite gobsmacking when not one of us has actually met it. Trainers and behaviourists work with aggressive dogs every day, how can anyone write this dog off as unsaveable when none of us have met or assessed the dog? How can we say we know what the problem is? No reputable trainer that I know will assess aggression over the Internet, it blows me away how many people here think they know better than people who work with aggressive dogs for a living.