Jigsaw

Thanks Huski that's much closer to what was in my head! Dogdude - I find that this method works best for me too.

Are you equating calmness with self control? Because they're not quite the same in my opinion or at least with my dog! With my dog at the moment during drive training she will be quivering in anticipation of the tug whilst holding position and her eyes are so intense and wide in concentration, so I don't think that's training calmness but rather self control IMO! We are in early stages of drive training but she responds much quicker to commands given during drive training than when using clicker training style (I use "yes" instead of clicker). Drive training to me is getting the dog to stop reacting with its limbic system ie flight or fight, reacting subconsciously and getting that dog to learn to respond to another trigger ie handler, so it can learn to overcome that limbic reaction and respond to the handler's command. ETA: I know what I want to say in my head but can't put it into words to explain it properly.

The blindness is a visual separation from you and your family and the other dogs. He's quite probably barking from anxiety and separation. He may have shadows in his vision and is unsure what is happening around him. As mentioned putting a bell on the other dog will help him follow and identify the other dogs. You could also put one in your own pocket so the dog can find you, you can announce yourself to the dog by greeting it, clicking your tongue or stamping your feet - but introduce these gently so you don't scare him - lots of love and praise and even food treats. "Blind dogs bark more when they are frustrated, insecure or need your assistance. Some dogs sit, give a single bark, pause for a few seconds, and repeat. This may indicate that the dog needs you to help him get reoriented, open a door or otherwise assist him." from Living with Blind Dogs by Caroline D Levin If your dog needs to reorient lead him to a familiar spot - the backdoor, his bed, the water bowl. Scent trails are good for the dog learning safe areas and obstructions. Oil based scents last longer. You can teach your dog to go forward when you're walking him - use a spoon with peanut butter or something nice and sticky on it and walk forward slowly and allowing the dog to nibble and lick the spoon telling him "Forward" as he moves. Slowly increase the number of steps forward before rewarding him. A wide collar will help guide your dog when walking or a stiff harness like a guide dogs or a stick leash so you can help guide the dog in the direction. A check chain will not give directional cues to your dog. You need to teach your dog directional cues such as "move over", "this way" and "that way" or right and left - guidance for steps such as "up" or "down". Watch out for irregular surface when walking the dog, trip hazards, grates in the ground. Give your dog some assistance to let him know you're there when you're walking him - like wearing a bell, whistling, singing, talking, squeaky shoes, playing a radio! This will help build up confidence. Take him on the same route every time so he builds a memory map of your area. Living with Blind Dogs is a great reference book for tips on living with a dog that is going blind, born blind or low vision.

That's good news indeed Erny! Waiting for the day when you don't have to be a poo inspector!

I think if we incorporate touching, handling, restraining in every day activities with out dogs it makes it so much easier. There does seem to be a lack of knowlege though in general in my experience on how to restrain a dog at the vets. My old poodle used to carry on when I cut his nails but that was his nature as soon as he was "free" he used to go and take all his frustration out on his toy wombat and thoroughly kill it and then hump it .

My dog had her annual check up last week with her vaccinations. She was placed on the table and allowed the vet to listen to her heart and lungs, look at her eyes and teeth, temp taken, be vaccinated and the kennel cough vacc squirted down her nose. Whilst she was not happy she was quiet, compliant and importantly still. I made the remark to the vet that all that handling had paid off. The vet replied that she felt that since positive training (she works in a practice associated with purely positive trainers) had been introduced several years ago she was finding a number of dogs, especially larger breeds coming in that were very difficult to handle for even the most basic treatment without a wrestling match. If I remember correctly at the Brenda Aloff Seminar in Melbourne, Brenda made a similar remark that dogs aren't handled enough and there should be no "no go" areas. When I worked with a vet over 30 years ago she told me the best thing I could do for any pet I had was to handle it. And she didn't mean petting it. This vet said to open their mouth like giving a tablet (including the finger down the throat), rub your finger inside their ear and look inside it, handle their paws - splaying the toes, tapping the nails, look at their teeth, their nose etc. The dog should be used to being held so you can put drops in their ears or eyes. You should be able to touch their genitals etc. This vet said it makes their job so much easier when a dog is used to being handled and so I've tried to do this with my previous dog who whilst keeping still had a tendency to be very vocal with it, my current dog and my cat! My dog has eye problems so I've paid particular attention to her getting used to having her muzzle held or her head held and her eyes looked at closely. I'm not here to say anything against positive training, my preference is to use positive methods, it's just an observation made to me by the vet. I guess I'm really just wondering if how much attention is paid to physically handling the dog by owners in general these days. It was briefly mentioned when I attended puppy school but I think there was more emphasis on the importance of teaching your dog to "stand" for the vet.

I've mainly worked on position so far. I have lured her into position with food, used the lead to manoeuvre her into position and the another method recommended by Brenda Aloff when the dog is stationary and the handler moves into heel position! Will be starting to work on using drive training with her now we've progressed a bit with that but it is a fine balancing act as she is a little over the top in drive! She has the idea of the flip finish but still leaves her bum out occasionally. We are just starting to step out but one or two steps at a time. If I have her attention she's fine but once I've lost her she's gone. One of my biggest difficulties with her is she has little vision in her right eye and I'm not always sure she is aware of my leg moving despite having eye contact. I'm trying to step out in slow motion and hope that this glitch of hers is just a hurdle that all dogs learning to heel go through not just another peculiarity of hers!

My previous dog - a toy poodle - started out as a lovely apricot colour. By the time he was one he was a cream colour. However if he had surgery or a cut the hair on this line would grow back apricot and then fade after a while. At the time the information I had available to me was that this was quite common in apricots but I'm not sure about other colours.

There was just a short segment on Channel 10 Sydney on this showing how they did it and the dogs did most of the works with some help from computers.

Hope that your little man is now on the right path to recovery and you see an amazing difference in him in two weeks time.

Persephone has some good points. Does she sleep in your bedroom? Have you got a "no" or "uh uh" command for when she does something you don't want her to do? You could try making her sit and wait for you to give the command "up" so she doesn't invite herself up. Are you able to hold her collar to help her move off the bed? You could still use a biscuit or treat but reward only when she's off the bed instead of luring her with the biscuit - because she might have learnt that if she doesn't move off the bed you'll produce a biscuit! We've blocked off access to bedrooms with a baby gate partly because we didn't want our pup all over the house when toilet training and also because our cat needed somewhere safe to go. But if she does manage to escape through we can guarantee that she is on our bed with a big grin on her face, saying "look at me"!!

I'd like to get there if I can!

With regard to not speying her until "its sorted" I think the person may have been suggesting that if she is developing a fear of being at the vet's possibly undergoing surgery may compound any fear that's developing. If possible if you have any concerns ring your vet beforehand or reschedule it so you can talk about your concerns. This is where an assessment by a behaviourist may be invaluable as you may be able to define whether it is a specific place or men or movement of people or a combination of all of them that is affecting her.

It's possible that she doesn't like people bending over her and finds this intimidating and she's barking in a hope to move him away, same with the vet if the vet was bending over her or in close proximity. Sounds like a fear reaction to something new in the waiting room as well. I think you really need to get someone in who can assess her and give you some help so you have some exercises to follow through when you see this reaction starting and so she doesn't become even more reactive if left untreated. ETA: The jumping on people could also be an effort on her part to move people away from her - out of her space. It's not always a clamour for attention.

I've found when training my dog that giving her a handful of treats really didn't seem to count as a jackpot. It just took her longer to get through and she lost some focus on the task. I have always tended to do use the method Brenda' described of one at a time and for my dog this works as she maintains her focus on me. If she has a handful she stuffs them and her head goes down and she's chomping away, thinking goodness knows what. One at a time method, she's still watching me and knows we're still working and she's done something good and waiting and watching for what might happen next. But that's what works for me and for this dog at this time!!!

Fingers crossed for you that he continues to be a "solid" boy for you! When they're already lean the weight strips off them so fast when they're sick but it takes so much longer for it to go back on.

Sorry to hear your dog's not well. I do hope she's better soon. I would suggest that when she's better and maybe in a few weeks time try taking her to the vets and maybe just walk inside, if she's fine with that (if not you might just get to the door, there are some dogs that don't even get out of the car first trip), get the nurses to give her a treat and fuss over her, weigh her and leave. Next time maybe do the same thing but ask if you can go into a consult room, let her sniff around, lots of positve praise and treats and leave. Next time ask one if the staff can come into the room and touch her. And so on each time you visit - a little bit more. If you can explain to the vet nurse and vets that you're trying to make it easier next time you bring her in they'll help you I'm sure. Hope all goes well for you and both your dogs.

Have heard of "glue" for human wounds! Maybe I should add a bottle of nail polish remover so I can unstick my fingers from the tube after I've glued the dog together! Then I can have the brandy and the Rescue Remedy! :p

To be honest I would probably think twice about putting him kennels too while he's not 100%. Hope you can rebook your trip or at least get a full refund on it. Don't you just love whipping that poo jar/bag out of your handbag at the vet's! It's amazing what goes in your handbag sometimes!

I would also be giving some consideration to the triggers and what you can do to change these. When he is in this sort of state your verbal "no" is just noise and if you're saying it louder and louder it's probably adding to his excitement! Can you leave a six foot leash on him to drag around (cut off handle) so you could pick it up or stand on it and give him a correction or get him more easily under control?

Super glue - what do you do with this???

Poor Murphy! Hope he feels better soon. Did the vet examine the stools to see if there was anything in them? I mean like fibres or something he may have eaten, chewed, destroyed without your knowlege and these are irritating the bowel. Did vet say anything about keeping him on a light diet as well while the bowel inflammation settles? It does sound a bit harsh worming for the next three days. I thought the worming drugs worked reasonably quickly and if he was to have had an adversive effect it should have happened closer to the dosage date. When Paxy's had the runs vet has recommended Peptosyl for a few days to help ease the inflammation but she wasn't on antibiotics at the same time. Hope you get some more definitive answers from people who know more than me about these things!

Thanks for bringing up this topic! It's something I keep thinking of but haven't done. I guess a basic human first aid kit could be a starting point! But you could then add in stuff like Iodine ointment, vet wrap bandage (the one that sticks to itself), syringes (for flushing wounds), saline, thermometer, forceps, bandage scissors. I'm sure other people will come on with more stuff and we'll end up with a more comphensive list.

To the OP have you thought about actually approaching the trainer who took the class and just asking him why he used this method on this particular dog? A polite non-critical inquiry as to why the dog responded in that way may give you more insight into the trainer and his own experience and methods of training so you could have a better idea of where they're coming from in teaching the class and you can decide if that's what you're after in a club or not.

Perhaps instead of saying "back to basics" I should have said that when you are in the early stages of training your dog and moving into different situations and contexts you need to lower your criteria for the dog to perform and increase your rate of reinforcement. The dog moves from acquiring the behaviour to generalising under different criteria to automatic responses as it learns. It is up to the trainer to keep the information flowing to the dog so the dog understands clearly what you want in each circumstance.