JeffnCel

Try just sitting down with him, really relaxed and quiet, and have heaps of food treats with you, and just click and feed, really quickly almost so they just focus on the food and don't worry about the clicking noise. We did this with our dog who didn't like the "click" sound, it just makes them begin to understand that when they hear a click they get food

Sorry that was badly worded... new diet makes my head not work... we've been at our club for about 2 months, but it was our second session on that night... knew i'd spit it out eventually lol

We bought a doberman thinking they'd be easy to train, really attentive, active listeners, and eager to please

HAHAHAHA what a joke!! LOL In a good way, they are soooo aloof until they're at least three I've been told now, up until then they're just crazy bunnies that like to muck around and test your patience. Owning a doberman has helped me in my parenting BIG time

LOL that's so funny... last friday night on our second training session Buffy saw a toad hopping away. Training session was over right then and there... there was something to chase lol silly puppies

Our cat cut the back of his next about a month ago, and the vet gave us a tube of Neotopic-H lotion. I think it was about $20 and said to use that on any cuts or grazes our pets get.

edit for spelling

I got really discouraged about a month ago, seeing other dogs picking up on training before Buffy, but now I've kind of realised that every dog is different, and Buffy's only 7 months old so I know she will get it EVENTUALLY. Persistance and patience are my motto at the moment

Just wanted to ask quickly, how does everyone teach the dog to down on voice command only?

Daisy responds excellently to hand signals, but she does not respond as well to voice commands. One of the requirements at our club is that to be promoted to the next class the dog needs to understand both voice and hand signals. For the life of me I cannot get daisy to respond to "down" purely on voice command!

She will do sit, heel, stay and come on voice but not down.

We don't use hand signals at our IPO club, so I guess it's just the same as when you start teaching any behaviour. Lure them into the behaviour you want, as soon as they do it say "down, drop whatever" and treat. So the minute their tummy hits the ground, say clearly the word, then treat, or click and treat if you use a clicker.

I think it's trial and error really, what works for your dog. I've found it difficult to teach the down command to Buffy, but persistance is paying off and I am no longer ripping my hair out. Just this week I have been able to say the command without partly luring her.

I can't offer any suggestions, but as a parent I understand where you're coming from. Good luck with it all

We're BARF converts... it's not as difficult as it first appears to be, it's really simple and we've found our puppy poos less *YYYAAAYYY* and she doesn't get hypo after her meals like she did on dry food. We do have Royal Canin in the cupboard for those just-in-case emergencies.

The first time we left Gomez loose he ate a sock - one of these little sneaker socks.... we didn't even know until 2 days later when all of a sudden we saw said sock being coughed up -I threw it away!

Your guy must have had so much fun with the golf balls!!!

But Gomez I'm sure you could have continued to use that sock!! Some people don't have the luxury to throw away items of clothing just because they've been injested by their pets :cool:

Lablover are you talking the differnce between either food rewards, or toy rewards?

Buffy got through out back "temporary gate" today to where the clothes line is ... thankfully she only went after the pegs and not hubby's uniforms hanging on the line....

I'm glad you found the shoe, and that it wasn't as destructive as you imagined it could have been

Oh and boy am I glad he's toilet trained because that would have been a nightmare!

Gosh that would have been my worst night mare as well I hope he didn't eat the shoe

:D that's what I was thinking... maybe you'll find bits of shoe around the house over the period of the next week LOL I'm sorry to be laughing at your expense. I'm just soooooo glad Buffy has never had free reign of our house, TRUST me we would have a very very sad story as I can almost guarantee that nothing would survive.

How did he get loose in the house to start with???

We definately let our dog win, how on earth is she going to learn to bite and hold without winning in tug of war with us??? Thankfully she has a fantastic prey drive and won't let go unless you practically cut her air supply off.

Wow, JeffnCel, sounds fantastic! Mine is good but I can get it off her simply by offering food treat or second bit of hose, preferably. But she is now at the point where after a play she'll give it up anyway as the game begins immediately again. It is great, isn't it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it's great for now...I'm not looking forward to teaching her "out" tho

We definately let our dog win, how on earth is she going to learn to bite and hold without winning in tug of war with us??? Thankfully she has a fantastic prey drive and won't let go unless you practically cut her air supply off.

When we went to our local obedience club they told us to never get into a tug of war with our dog, and if we do, make sure that we win so that the dog doesn't become dominant.

We're doing drive training and this is completely different to what our IPO club says... hmm?

Thanks for the links everyone, you'd think I would have stumbled across them on my own, *sigh* oh well.

I haven't been to a trial yet, there's one in November at the Gold Coast that I'm going to try my hardest to get to.

A kong is the BEST thing we have ever bought for Buffy. She absolutely LOVES it. Except she's worked out how to get the treats out in about a minute flat.

As soon as she's finished teething we're going to move her up to the red ones.

We went to Wagtails, not the puppy pre-school, but for a few weeks of basic obedience. It wasn't exactly what we were after, but if we had just a pet that we wanted to be obedient and as a good place to learn about training, I would definately have continued with it. I think they've got about 4 different training spots. They're online so pop onto their website and have a look

Thanks showdog, I much would have preferred not to have been there at all!! Next time I definately won't, the girl asked me to stay. I didn't feel happy with her and I don't think she is doing it because she loves animals, I think it's just a job to her, and honestly I don't think she knew the first thing about handling a large dog who was obviously scared about it's first hydrobath.

I am going to go to a groomer that has been recommended in about a week's time and see how it goes. I will be speaking with the groomers prior to taking Buffy there, to make sure they know what happened last time, and to see if we can have a favourable outcome.

Thanks so much ;)

I have no idea what rescue remedy is?

Wow ok I will definately give it a shot then

Along with Buffy's bad hydrobath experience, I have been recommended this Calm Water to give her the day/night before. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with it??

The ingredient list is

Spring Water

Flower essence from Bush Fuchsia

Crowea

She-Oak

Paw Paw

Black-Eyed Susan

Thanks everyone

Does anyone know of any websites out there that could tell me of upcoming IPO/Schutzhund events/trials happening around Australia??

I've tried googling, and looking through the forum threads but can't find anything. I asked our IPO club the other day and they weren't sure about when the next ones were happening.

Thanks everyone

We use VIP pet roll for Buffy's training, really good to cut up and really smelly (eeww) but as we're BARF feeders we wouldn't use it on a regular basis.