SkySoaringMagpie

Your average pet person is dealing with neuters. Yes there are pet people who have entire dogs, but there are more neuters out there and I think there is also a lot of misinformation about neuter behaviour. I wouldn't bin a study for looking at neuters for that reason.

Nice summary, thanks for posting it!

Has anyone actually read the paper?

I'm sorry to hear this was the outcome troppodogs, I had been following your thread but hadn't posted as I did not have a good news story to share. Sometimes autoimmune diseases hit hard and fast. We lost one of our dogs to AIHA within a week late last year. The sheer speed and impact of it was shocking. I wish you strength to deal with your loss and I hope you find comfort in your memories. FWIW, our dogs spent a few weeks looking for Buzzie, but eventually stopped. We just tried to act as normally as possible - fortunately I don't think dogs read anything into mountains of tissues....

The researchers spent six months studying dogs freely interacting at a Dogs Trust rehoming centre, and reanalysing data from studies of feral dogs, before concluding that individual relationships between dogs are learned through experience rather than motivated by a desire to assert “dominance”. Link to the press release: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6361.html I have a copy of the paper which is from the most recent Journal of Veterinary Behaviour. I'm sure corvus, jdavis and our other academic friends can probably access it but if not, someone emailed it to me. PM me if you want a copy. The idea that experience plays a big role was something Dunbar talked about when he was out here.

That all sounds great - thanks for letting us know the plan! I'll be interested to hear how he gets on.

Good one! What is cute in a 3 kilo puppy is often not cute in a 35 kilo dog.

Dogs live in a human world, humans don't live in a dog world. It's up to you to teach your dog how to live happily and confidently in your human world. He does not automatically know how to do this. Don't punish a dog for behaving like a dog, teach him what you want instead. An expert may still have the wrong advice for you and your dog. Listen politely, but never allow anyone to do anything with your dog that you are uncomfortable with just because they are the expert. Your dog relies on you to speak up for it because it cannot. Be the kind of leader you would want to follow. Dogs get tired, confused, hungry, sick and bored just like you do. They have good days and bad days. Be firm, but be fair and humane. You are the one with the bigger brain, so it is up to you to problem solve if things aren't working the way you want them too. Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. When you are frustrated, stop and think before reacting.

There has been a mini furore in the show community recently about a press release from the UK Kennel Club that has since been taken down (I have pasted it below). At this link is a picture of the device in question: http://showstackers.com/ What do you think? THE KENNEL CLUB CONDEMNS CRUEL TRAINING DEVICE The Kennel Club has expressed its condemnation and concern over the use of a supposed training aid called a show stacker within the dog show world. Show stackers are designed to encourage dogs to learn how to stand in the show ring by forcing a dog to balance on four small raised plinths to recreate where its feet should be placed on the ground during judging. The dog is thus forced to stand still or risk falling off. Currently this training aid is more popular overseas than in the UK and the Kennel Club is keen to see that it does not become commonplace here. The Kennel Club actively discourages anyone from using this product as it could lead to potential injury if a dog falls off, as well as risking stress and loss of confidence for the dog. Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Clubs Communications Director, said: Dog shows are very beneficial for the health, welfare and temperament of dogs. Dogs that do best within the show ring tend to be those that enjoy the experience the most. The Kennel Club sees no room within the dog show world for any device which forces dogs to stay still through fear of falling, and we strongly advocate that dogs need to enjoy showing to produce winning results. We are particularly concerned to see that there are sites on the internet encouraging users to make their own stackers out of general materials found around the home which could lead to serious accidents if not constructed properly. We are also horrified that users are advised to put puppies on the show stackers at a very young age when they are unlikely to have the mental or physical stamina to understand what is required. This could potentially lead to behavioural problems later on in a dogs life as a result of a bad experience.

I hope you get to the bottom of it dog geek, you have lots of good suggestions already. A blood panel would be a good idea. There is a vet in Queanbeyan that a lot of showies go to and speak well of. Maybe if you're going for a second opinion on entire boy trouble that would be the place to go. Give him a pat for me!

Seita you have email. Sandgrubber, email [email protected] to get an official answer to your questions about importing the equipment. The short answer tho' is that the e-collar will be OK, the prongs will not. For everyone else, Customs Notice 855 is the current advice. Seita was given old advice, this is being rectified.

Sorry, it was me. Sandgrubber has already mentioned the Customs Notice, you can find it here: http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resource...ces/ACN0855.pdf It was done late last year. Others have correctly noted that the ban was only lifted for e-collars, not prong collars. To get permission to import something that is restricted call Customs to find out what you need to do on 1300 363 263. Usually you need to either write to someone in Customs or to the Minister himself to get permission but it depends on the item. The call centre officer should be able to advise you whether or not permissions are usually granted for whatever it is you want to bring in. Also a bit of advice for some of the other participants in this thread, it is usually not a good idea to talk about how to get around the law on public forums. Edit: Seita I have PMd you.

I would make an appointment with Sandra Hassett in Woden. She is a vet, but she used to run growl classes at CDC and she gives the RSPCA seminars on inter dog aggression. I trust her advice.

I think you are better off teaching a behaviour that is incompatible with the problem behaviour (you can't sit and dig at the same time for example). Huski's recall is another good example. Cue the behaviour you want, then praise that. That way you don't have to muck around with the issue of inappropriate linking of corrections and rewards. Also, be aware that even "Uh uh!" is a correction, it's just a verbal one. I've yet to see a dog that will permanently stop digging a garden just on verbal corrections alone. Perhaps out there is a super biddable very well behaved dog that has done this, but none of mine fall into that category We have just fenced off a particularly muddy area so that our show Afghan puppy doesn't go digging in it.

I think a lot of this is context specific too. The breeder of my Salukis lives near an airforce base. None of my dogs has problems with fireworks and only one is mildly bothered by thunderstorms (bothered, insofar as he actively seeks our company and doesn't want to be separated from me - he doesn't race about or cry or salivate or any of the usual signs). I am pretty sure the airforce base noise at an early age has had some positive impact on their confidence with loud noises from the sky. At the breeder's house the dogs' experience of jets screaming overhead is something they experience at home tho', not something they are taken out to experience - I wonder if that makes a difference. Also, all the older dogs and the humans demonstrate no concern at all at low flying fighter jets. I'm pretty sure the young pups take their cue from the older dogs.

Ditto from me. Wish you'd tapped me on the shoulder to let me know it was you. Unless you didn't know it was me. If you know what I mean . I didn't know it was you. Unless the person's name is their DOL identity or I recognise the dog I am not one for barrelling up to strangers and saying "Are you from DOL?!" I recognised Nekhbet because of her Dogue - hard to miss a Dogue! So I recognised LukeW once he had Barkly out but he always seemed to be busy!! Sorry shoemonster, I had no idea you were shoemonster! Erny was that you with the ridgie? I wondered but wasn't sure - for some reason I thought Mandala wasn't a ridgie, no idea why. It was only when I got back to this thread that I realised I'd been talking to lablover over the weekend too! I figure as my name is my DOL identity I'm a safer bet to approach, but w/out a Saluki I'm probably hard to spot too.

Longclaw, I've only just seen this. I'm so sorry to hear you've lost another precious family member. Run free Ruby

I have just read this whole thread and was reminded of something Uta Bindels said at the seminar about ensuring that a dog is confident in a new environment before attempting to train. What I got out of the seminar was a strong message about observation - is the dog frozen, is the dog over-aroused, is the dog unsure? The approach for each dog is different. I know what hard lessons feel like, and how imperative they feel, but a hard lesson with one dog does not necessarily apply to the next dog. You really have to look and see what is going on with each dog.

Saturday staffy! Another breed I don't usually pay much attention to but his beautiful froggy smile and energy won me over. I drove, I wanted to have the car to get out to Endeavour Hills from Hotel Mum, which is in Viewbank. Plus OH was stimulated by Kevin last week and bought a sat nav with some of the money. We put Ozzy on it so driving was a good opportunity for me to giggle inanely at "go through the f***ing roundabout, second exit" about 30 times. I think I'm a bit hardened to driving as we drive to Sydney and Melbourne each year for conformation specialities. One upside of not having a dog in the car is being able to pump up the stereo so I got home today by rocking to the oldies. Only problem is that it it tricky to keep to the speed limit while playing Judas Priest.

Finally made it back to Canberra tonight and got mobbed by the Salukis. It was an interesting experience being at a dog seminar where I knew NO-ONE but everyone was very friendly so it wasn't difficult. I didn't make it around to LukeW or Erny (apologies!) but managed to catch most others I think. I found it really useful to watch someone so precise and so good at solving problems in the moment. I made quite a few notes for the next time I teach a term at the club. I also admire her patience, the last clicker seminar I went to the (very well known) instructor took a clicker off a student and threw it away in frustration at the student's inability to get it right. Uta is a class act and I'll try and make sense of my notes sometime this week. I haven't been a huge fan of cocker spaniels in the past but I am a huge fan of Barkley - what a great dog! Also the black staffy was delightful.

I'm just about to get in the car to drive down to Melb - looking forward to putting some faces to names, catch you all tomorrow!

What did he say and what are you currently doing? I'm going to go out on a limb here, I think most people in this forum would suggest you mark and reward behaviour you want to see, actively train desirable behaviour to replace undesirable behaviour, and, where necessary, appropriately correct undesirable behaviour. I don't think it's about being PC, I think it's giving the dog the best chance of success? :rolleyes:

Don't sweat the dogs being naughty, you want to give the trainer a few challenges don't you? Besides, like most dog trainers what we consider badly behaved is usually positively angelic next to really poorly behaved dogs. Just a shame I didn't get in quick enough with dog places for you all to see one my Salukis extending the middle claw at me. I'm sure in comparison your guys are models of working decorum :p

Agreed. Dunbar was talking about doing it when the pup is young and still dependent. It would still work on one of my adults, but the other wouldn't turn a hair if I disappeared for 5 minutes. If I disappear for a day she misses me, but that's no good for training recall