Jigsaw

What an awful, awful thing for you to have gone through. Poor Brock. I'm so sorry to hear of this Jules.

One our cocker spaniels, when I was a kid, was fed ice cream only (on vet's recommendation) for a while when recovering from being baited with strychnine. She loved it!!

I have done the recallers course with SG (1 and 2) and enjoyed it and thought it was very worthwhile, I just have to follow through with training more. I do have both those books, but I haven't read Shaping Success yet. Something to do with too many books and not enough time! I have a ton of her stuff too!

It is a recorded session with Susan talking and notes on screen. Just finished watching and chat was still going and is open till midnight(?) their time I believe. I'm undecided about Puppy Peaks. I'm not saying the course wouldn't be worth doing, I think SG is a great trainer, but I'm feeling a little cynical about marketing and money at the moment.

I get these http://www.australianpettreatcompany.com.au/c/258415/1/semi-moist-beef-temptations.html from Australian Pet Treat Co. They are about 3.5cm long and about 1.5 wide. They are soft and easily torn into smaller pieces or chopped up. I can usually cut them into about 8 or 10 small pieces. These have always been a big hit when I'm training with big and little dogs! They come in chicken and lamb too. They do dry out and get harder over time but when they arrive they are quite soft.

What a cutey!! And mischief all over that face!

Cost/benefit analysis by the dog - low probability of reward so won't put an effort into it. Transfer of value from primary to secondary rewards as Corvus said will help build value. Tricks such as touch, spin etc are usually heavily reinforced by handler when training and often subtly by our own behaviour as we're more relaxed when teaching these than formal obedience exercises. Now if I could just get my dog's attention I might even be able to get her to do a spin or touch in the ring!

My dog will do a slow blink. :D It's usually when she's pretty relaxed and I blink at her and she starts doing it back. But I did capture and mark it to get the behaviour. I don't have a verbal cue just my blinking! May take awhile for the dog to understand what you want but keep trying! You could use your hand over the eyes to have dog reflexively shut them and mark that.

If she's actually wetting the bed it doesn't sound like a purposeful act, it sounds more medical. Does she have access during the night to go outside? She may not realise that the indoor toilet you've purchased is actually for that purpose either. If you are sure its not medical, I'd rug her up, rug yourself up, put her lead on and take her outside before you go to bed and maybe even get up again during the night to try again. Have you got a command for toileting? If so, use it. If not just be quiet and boring but let her sniff around and when she pees have a party, praise and then run inside out of the cold! Sometimes marking the spot where she last peed so you can take her back there again will help.

Sorry to hear of Mozart's passing. I do hope you get some sleep tonight. I was thinking she may be cold and maybe lonely when I was reading the thread. My toy poodle (an only dog) felt the cold terribly. my mum knitted him a selection of jumpers. She may well miss his companionship through the night and during the day. However, I would however not do any obvious change in how you leave her. If you've had success with with whatever method you've used in the past keep going with it. Good idea to have someone check on her initially though as she may need time to adjust to a more solitary lifestyle. Does she have a well protected place she can sleep in outside during the day or is she happy (happier) confined inside the house while you're at work, especially in the cooler weather?

Epilepsy is not pleasant to deal with - hugs. I grew up with an epileptic dog. She was always very disoriented after a fit, temporarily blind and had the urge to just move. There was little treatment in those days and from memory she was treated after the fit. I believe these days it's a matter of monitoring their fits and then working with your vet to adjust to the right level of drugs. Some people do notice a drop in the activity level of their dog I believe others not. I'm sure someone with more recent experience and knowledge will reply shortly.

Good news Luke and I'm sure Barkly kisses will be the best medicine to speed on recovery. All the best and hoping you're feeling much better and have more energy very soon.

I thought it was a good story! Steve always has such passion and enthusiasm for his dogs!

I've seen dogs redirect to their canine companion when their arousal levels go up especially in stimulating circumstances like play, door greetings and fence fighting. Some just air snap with lots of noise and move away, others just seem to be unable to stop themselves and go on to cause injuries. I agree separate and contact someone professional who can help you.

Get well soon Luke!! You must be missing Barkly! Well as much as you can when you're sick. My son got glandular fever late last year, six weeks later he was in hospital with severe infection needing surgery and on IV antibiotics. Really stuffed him up for a while afterwards but he made a complete recovery and is pretty healthy now.

I've just discovered Border Wars. Some interesting blogs. http://www.astraean.com/borderwars/

When my dog recently ate some dark chocolate, about 150g, it was too late when discovered to induce vomiting (over two hours). The vet (who I had just seen for another matter 1 hour before!) advised to watch carefully and get her to drink as much as she could to get it through her system. Gave her lots of fresh chicken stock, lots of big wees but all ok otherwise. ETA my girl is around 16 kilos

They're gorgeous!

I feel a bit like that at the moment - can't find my glasses and wearing my old ones!

Depends what you're shaping! If you're shaping interaction with an object you're probably better off keeping still so the dog cues off the object rather than yourself. If you're shaping a behaviour that you might use in a trick routine it probably doesn't matter as you will be using body cues anyway. In time you would introduce a body cue for the interaction with an object as well and then a verbal cue. Sometimes it depends on the dog and how much history they have of shaping and don't forget we all give off all sorts of subtle cues to our dogs all the time, most of which we aren't even conscious of but they are! :D

Traffic, moving cars, bikes, motorbikes etc can be visually stimulating to the dog and the urge to chase can kick in (herd). Working at a distance from the moving vehicles where the dog can focus on the handler is where I usually start. I've found that with some dogs they will still accept food but it is not really working as a reinforcement for the behaviour you're asking, just an interruption in their fixating on the car, it's a fine line sometimes with a few variables. I also like to increase the value of the owner to the dog through building on the relationship with games and looking at the reinforcement history between owner and dog. Well done PME on working with your dog and finding a something that works for you and makes you feel in more control. "Control Unleashed" is a great book. The "look at that" game can work well for this type of thing but you still need to start it in a low distraction environment.

Big fan here! Highly recommend her books!

Gorgeous pics! They both have such expressive faces! That first pic needs a caption - it's priceless!!

One of our cocker spaniels when I was a kid adored peanut butter. As a kid I thought it hysterical the way she tried to eat it. It was like it was stuck on the roof of her mouth and she tried to suck it off with her tongue! My current dog likes it but isn't mad for it, she prefers cream cheese! Peanut butter works much better in mousetraps than cheese!

Another vote for German Spitz x here. Looks very similar in shape to a rescue dog I worked with last year.