kateykateykatey

lol, thanks. I wasn't sure if it was a bad thing or not!

I'm not sure if this means anything or not, but I thought it was worth asking. Normally, when I get home from taking my daughters to school, I walk in through the back gate. I wasn't consistently ignoring the dogs (I just forget, you know) and so I'd started trying to remember doing it again, just to make sure that there was no issues with leadership. Today, I walked in, and they...ignored me. I mean, they looked over at me from where they were sleeping (together) but didn't get up or anything. I didn't call them to me or anything, just walked in and to the door (making out like I was ignoring them) but I didn't know if it was odd that they ignored me as well. After I went inside, I think Lil came and looked in through the back door, which is pretty normal.

Start with working on leadership, and good luck.

Dog behaviour peoples, are littermates of the same sex more troublesome? I thought I heard this before, but not sure. Also, what are the possible explanations for urinating in the food bowl? What about walking the dogs outside on a leash before bedtime? Lots of praise when they wee on the grass, etc.

you know, I'm not sure! I reckon I shift hands a fair bit, as well, depending on what's going on.

See, I find that odd, probably because I'm used to holding clicker and lead in one hand, and doing hand signals with the other. :rolleyes:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I agree- am wondering the exact same thing!

Has anyone had anything to do with this guy? His website says has testimonies from correctional services and RAAF people, so I wonder if they'd offer similarly directed services? His website doesn't offer a great deal of info about him or his services on there. Beautiful website, though.

Using the "if one learns, the other will" philosophy, I tried to click and treat Lil when she groaned before I put her collar and lead on for a walk. Trouble is, after 1 C&T, she was dead quiet, trying to be good as gold so she'd get more treats. I tried dangling the collar in front of her, doing all sorts of things to get her excited so she'd make the same noise again, but she wouldn't have a bar of it. The only times Scrimp barks is when he wants to come in (an annoying, attention seeking bark we try to ignore) and when there's cats fighting over the fence. I attempted to C&T one of those two (can't recall which) but it was through the glass back door, and highly ineffective. IIRC I was faced with a similar scenario: confused looking dog trying to be exceptionally well behaved cos there's treats on offer. Any suggestions? I was looking at shaping any kind of grunt or groan, but the trouble is getting them to make one. Maybe I just need to be *really* patient??

Why do you want to put a clicker in your mouth?

The smell is an issue, too. AFAIK dogs can still smell the urine/poo smell after it's been cleaned, and I've heard it's important to use a 'biological cleaner' (whatever that is) to help get rid of the smell (otherwise, apparently, it's like a target). I bought something in the pet section at Big W that seems to work okay, but other people might have better suggestions. You could teach him to let you know when he wants to go outside (I've heard of dogs ringing bells, for example). With Lil, who had a little bit of a regression with the toilet training, it was a matter of walking her out on to the lawn on a lead and waiting for her to do it. When she did, I gave her a command, "be quick" and praised her. I think prior to this, when I wasn't walking her outside, she was just going and sitting in her kennel till I came to let her back inside. Now I don't need to walk her outside... but she also goes out with my other dog, so I don't know if that helps make it clear what I expect her to do. Definitely encouragement is important- and praise him for alerting you that he wants to go out, as well. Even when it's 4.30am, and I hear Scrimp (the big dog) pacing, I try and praise him for waking me, and put them both outside. I check to make sure they've run down to the backyard, then give them a little pat and "good dog" when they've come back in. It's not infallible, but lately its been working.

The Kmart ones don't have the nice click sound that your regular clickers do, but they can be 'muffled' so worked well initially with Lil, who was a bit intimidated by the clicking sound. Now I just use a regular clicker, and she's fine with it. Also, the 'volume control' on the kmart ones helps make it sound different to other clickers, which may be useful at dog school. As for wrist bands, I use old stretchy hair elastics looped through, but I've got one of those bendy ones too. There's a few places on ebay that sell them cheaply, which is worthwhile if you buy a few of them (agreed that you need several!).

I highly recommend Megan Molloy at Canine Interaction (in Croyden). I don't know about the Agility and Flyball though.

Great work!!! FWIW, I don't think you should feel guilty using a management tool for helping Evie learn to walk nicely on a lead. I think that tools like these are helpful in setting the dog up for success (and you) and alleviating some frustration. I'm not an expert-- and I'm sure lots of people will disagree with me, but IMHO if the idea of walking your dog is making your arm sockets throb at the idea of all the pulling, and thus not want to do it, using something to help her walk with a loose lead can't be bad. As a tool on its own, it's a bandaid (and as such, she'd still pull if given the opportunity) but as a tool used in conjunction with training, it's a sanity saver. JMHO. ETA: what's the deal with not sharing the bed? I've heard conflicting opinions about this from different dog trainers. What did yours say?

Hey, I introduced my dogs in a neutral park and walked them back together. My existing dog is very dog-reactive, so I walked him in circles toward the new dog, while making praising noises. The circling is, afaik, not as threatening as meeting face to face. Probably do well to feed them seperately, and I don't know if you can spend time with them over the next few days, but I was keen to supervise them as much as possible, while they got used to each other. Lots of treats and pats and praise for both dogs.

Great work! So are you still going to get the harmony harness?

I've even seen clickers in the pet section in kmart and big w!

He's quite fond of our cats, interestingly- the dog that doesn't like cats doesn't bark at them at all. I tend to think frustration as well, but I'll give it a go and see.

This sounds like a dumb question, but what is barking at cats? If they're not actually invading a dog's territory (say they're fighting on the other side of the fence) is it still alert barking? Or... something else? Basically, I'm wondering if the same technique would work in that situation...?

I like the elastic around the finger-- I've seen them with the knobbly bit on the clicker but without the finger holder-- which is kinda useless, cos then you put it in your pocket and accidentally click it for nothing. But the finger holder would probably solve that. Good price, too!

I recall a woman at training using the clicker to get her dogs attention (unsuccessfully). It was pretty annoying.

Look, I'm no expert, but IMO a walking harness would help you. It's not a solution to the pulling, of course, but it will help relieve some of the pulling and give you something to actually reinforce. My little dog is a big time puller, and I use an easy walk harness on her sometimes, particularly when the girls (who are 7) are walking her. The issue here, was that NO ONE wanted to walk her because she pulled so much, and while I could get her to LLW beautifully at dog school, I didn't always have boundless patience when out on the street, particularly when walking with my other dog, or the kids. Now, there are probably lots of things that people say I SHOULD have done in those situations (just practiced LLW, walked her on her own, etc) but when it came down to it, sometimes I just wanted to be able to walk the dog. The easy walk harness is what I bought; the trainer at dog school recommended these over the sporn harnesses (which the trainer wasn't a fan of, and they're expensive, anyway). It's good, but I'm not totally crazy about it -- it seems to gape at the front, because the shiny material slips easily through the adjustment bits. The harmony harness looks like it's made of cotton webbing, so I doubt it'd have the same problem. I'm going to hazard a guess that these harnesses are for teaching a dog to walk to heel, and I notice Lil tends to kind of 'twist' her body to compensate for the direction of the lead when she's walking up ahead (mind you, the lead is still loose) so I'm not sure about this aspect of it, but ultimately it's a sanity saver.

What you have typed is very interesting but my concern with that phylosophy is that very few people can control their dogs environment enough to stop any outside stimuli that might trigger a drive response. If that dog responds to that drive stimuli by deciding to run and then gains drive satisfaction what is to say that at some point the dog might have to decide whether or not the payment you are offering (food,walks, cuddles etc) might not be worth as much as the "potential satisfaction of satisfying it's previously unchecked drive just one more time? Surely then, by your last statement you are saying that your recall is not 100%? Not having a go, I am just trying to gauge what you feel is acceptable. IMO my dogs must come EVERY time I call them, no if's no buts.If a dog comes 99% of the time that means that you have a 1% chance that the one time it is running to the road in front of that truck is the one time your call might fail. I find the subject of recall interesting as most people say that their dog is really reliable and then put a proviso there such as "as long as there aren't birds/people/other dogs/cars etc" that to me is not reliable. I might add that until a few months ago I was also one of those people with a proviso. What did you do differently to change this?

I just skimmed the other posts, so I think it hasn't been mentioned... and you've probably read this already, but you charge the clicker before you start using it to mark behaviour- just like you'd do the same with a voice command. So, for a few minutes you sit with the dog and click and treat, so that the click is associated with whatever your treats are. Then you use it to mark behaviours, such as sitting, watching, etc. As all have said before, the advantage of the clicker is that it's tone neutral, and specific. It worked awesomely on my dogs, and though they responded fine to voice markers, the clicker is specific. I think I tend to use both- the voice thing is just a force of habit, I suppose.

Scrimp is the same for storms and as he's got older wind and loud rain bothers him more too. His behavioural vet recommended teaching him "calm on command" - which is basically just patting him and saying "caaalm" when he is calm (ie not during a storm). I *think* it's effective, but it's not a solution on its own. This anxiety wrap sounds interesting, I guess it'd be worth playing around with the idea before actually committing to buying one.