Jigsaw

Each time you take your dog somewhere different you are back to basics. There is suddenly so much more to look at in the park - the birds, other dogs, people than at home so you have to lower your criteria and maybe help your dog remember how to sit. A NRM is great when they offer a behaviour other than the one you asked for. Remember to stay calm and use the same tone of voice when cueing your dog as you would at home. A correction can vary for some people from a NRM, a shake of the lead or a hand on the dog's bottom (to help it into a sit, not a smack) to comply with the command. If you need to redirect the dog's focus back onto you try walking backwards and then rewarding the dog with a treat when it returns its focus back to you, then try giving the command.

What about if you measured up and packaged their food for each day or wrote it down for the mother - like a diet sheet! A PIA I know but sometimes people need it spelled out for them. If their weight is possibly going to cause some stress on their joints are you able to take them swimming? Most koolies love the water and swimming.

Brings back memories Midol! It's a great idea to write a diary/journal during the block training because a week later you can't remember what you did (or at least I can't, but I'm getting old). I did a diary for the first block and had every intention of doing it for my second block but I had a really ghastly bug and I was so sick and tired I just couldn't. It was really good having no voice and trying to do the class lesson assessment in that block but luckily everyone was understanding and I still passed! I wish I had been able to go to Melbourne to do at least one of the blocks as it would have been good to meet more instructors but it really just wasn't feasible for me.

I'll be right behind Erny and Mr R & NR in line waiting for Brenda's next trip out! Would love to know who's the next guest speaker! Any hints??? Kelpie-I that was a great summary of the seminar! I have a book full of notes that I can hopefully make sense of I want to transcribe onto the computer. I'll be looking forward to her DVDs. Gee I hope there's more than one DVD, there was so much info to take in!!

My dog ate a blue bottle about 4 weeks ago at the beach!!! The only effect she had was a bit of excess drooling. I was quite concerned as she goes into analphylactic shock with bee stings. But she was running around quite happily after eating it although drooling a bit. She was initially reluctant to have her ball in her mouth but she recovered quite quickly from that though. We had a 40 min walk back from the beach to the car and then to home. Once home I rang the emergency vet who said to bring her in and they thought about pumping her stomach. They didn't pump her stomach but gave me some Peptosyl to give her for a few days in case the bluebottle was decomposing and contained unhealthy bacteria. The vet did a search and as far as he could see there were no reports (anywhere in the world) of dogs being affected by bluebottles - either eating or coming in contact. He said the biggest problem was for humans removing the bluebottle from the dog as they could be envenomated then! But it would be something I will try and keep her from doing again! They must have an interesting smell as my dog ran past the bluebottle with the ball in her mouth, dropped the ball and then ran back and picked up the bluebottle - while we watched in horror! No "leave it" was working either, so they must be pretty interesting as she's reasonably good at "leave it".

OK. Hands up from me. I was there. Absolutely fantastic four days! Well worth the trip down from Newcastle for me! Shall need the time to process the information and reread her books. Now can't wait to pick up my dog from the kennels and start trying some of Brenda's protocols with her! Brenda was such an informative, practical, hands on person, welcoming questions and she had a great sense of humour too. I would love to have her spend more time here and just try to soak in more of her knowledge and bring her home for a consult! It was really interesting to see her do the private consults yesterday. Thank you too, to all the people who got up in front of us all to work their dogs with Brenda, you made it all so much more real for us. I'm in awe of the facilities at Kepala and the catering was fantastic. I echo Erny's thanks to Dale and Trish for organising it - Brenda did say she might consider coming out again next year, so get working on it guys!!

I'm also not a big fan of haltis. It sounds as if from your description that perhaps sometimes everything is too much for her and that's why she can't take the treats or the toys. A higher value treat may work, this is where soft food like frankfurts, sausages may work. But if there is too much sensory overload the dog just can't take one more thing including food. Does she work better for you at home where there are less distractions? You may have to build up the distraction level and introduce new things slowly. There is another method of loose leash walking I've seen which is walking backwards in front of the dog, who is off lead or dragging it and treat, treat, treat, shovel it in and then you turn so that you are next to the dog in heel position and treat for a couple of steps and walk backwards again. Initially the backward walking is for a longer time than the forward walking (for the handler) but it helps the dog learn to focus on you and find the right spot where they get the rewards. I think this is a method where you practise a lot at home first! But it might help gain the focus when you go near something she finds distracting. But it is probably worth your while getting some one on one with a trainer to help you.

I didn't realise that this experiment was started 40 years ago! Thanks for that link. I've seen the YouTube vids.

I would suggest contacting Vickie Austin or Steve Austin at Pet Resorts Australia in Dural. Vickie will do house calls or you can take the dog there.

Dingos - Canis familiarus dingo (I believe, unless that's changed)! You've lost me with the nDNA - this is something I've not come across before - if you have a description of it I would love to read it. Humans, chimpanzees and bonobos share common DNA - up to 98%. There is apparently some debate about changing their classification from Pan to Homo or from Homo Sapiens to Pan Sapiens! But we don't look to chimpanzees/bonobos to explain our behaviour (do we? maybe we do!) nor do we use them as a guide to how we should behave. There may be traits and similarities we can recognise but I think generally most of us would put us far away from resembling a chimpanzee behaviourally. I wonder if anyone has studied feral dog packs, I mean domestic dogs gone feral and their behaviour?

Could they be what are sometimes called "meat wasps"? They come around frequently when you have a BBQ. I believe that they take the meat for their larvae.

I had the same reaction when I muzzled my gsd at training,no one wanted to even stand next to us :p If you use a wire muzzle you still will be able to use treats,it's a little tricky but can be done and does make you feel a lot more at ease especiallyif you need to do recalls and off lead work Have you tried one of the squeeze food tubes like the ones on Clean Run when using a muzzle? I haven't used one so can't say what they're like but have heard of them being used with dogs wearing muzzles to deliver food treats. http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ing=food%20tube Sorry don't know how to make a short link!

Thanks for your replies everyone! I was mildly concerned as you are when you're told that something is "abnormal" but had decided that as she runs around like a lunatic most of the time I was not going to go into a panic and she is reasonably lean and fit. The ECG was normal over the short time frame they took it. So next time I'm at my normal vet I'll mention it - the emergency vet was going to send a letter on. PS We were at the emergency vet because she ate a bluebottle at the beach!! The only symptom she had was some excess drooling, other than that she was fine! She had some Peptosyl for a couple of days in case it irritated her stomach but we had no problems. The slow heart rate was discovered during her exam.

I have been told by vets twice that my dog's heart rate is too slow! (She's a koolie about 18kg) Last time it was 72 bpm at the vet's (on an emergency visit). They did an ECG but found all rythms to be normal. The vet suggested that it may be an idea to put a heart monitor on her for 24 hrs to see what her heart rate does over that period. She is pretty fit and doesn't know how to stop! The vet said that if her pulse falls below 60 she may experience fainting periods. I did take her pulse when she was asleep once and it was about 58 bpm (used the groin). And I must admit when she's asleep she's really asleep, as in I can lift her legs, pull her lips around and even move her tongue without her rousing. She does have a mild heart murmur but vet believed it was not related as ECG showed no electrical problems, although it was only a 5 min ECG. Anyone else had experience of a slow heart rate in a dog?

It's a long time since dogs and wolves became separate species. We continue to compare them as if looking at wolves will give us all the answers for our dogs behaviours. Yes they share many similarities but having now become a domestic animal with an almost symbiotic relationship with humans we have influenced the dogs behaviour greatly through genetic manipulation and environment. As Mech says, when he published "The Wolf" (1970) there was much reference to Schenkel's study which was the main piece of literature on wolf social behaviour at the time. His later publications have now corrected this "misinformation" about alpha wolves. Interesting to note that he says "it takes about 20 years for new science to fully seep down to general acceptance". Wonder how long then to filter through to the general dog world!

Do you know those flicker books - where you have a figure that say starts standing and does a handstand as you flick the pages. Each page is an incremental step like shaping. You know what you want the finished behaviour to be you just need to figure out how to break it down into small steps. But you do need to have a clear idea of what you want the dog to do and the dog won't necessarily achieve your goal in a few sessions. But sometimes they surprise us and actually get it despite our huge potential for error in shaping!!! Oh and the human clicker game is great fun.

I could take my koolie to the beach and we could walk for over an hour the whole time throwing a ball for her. She would ignore other dogs unless they came up to her and literally poked her. But she would also steal other dog's balls! Her focus the whole time was on the ball, not on me, we could ask her to sit and she would sit in the waves, but only if we had the ball, she doesn't want pats from anyone, she wants the ball! She would be physically tired but still come home and bark her head off continuously for a long long time. Since we have started drive training and I am in control of all her toys which are no longer available to her, she is much calmer around the house, still wants to engage in play when someone goes outside (grabs anything) but that is now ignored unless we are training. So redirecting her drive is starting to work for us. Chronic exposure to stress expresses itself in different ways - if we are stressed at work 5 days a week we're usually stressed at home until we unwind. This stress might mean we have a couple of drinks, we might pick a fight with a spouse or child, we might abuse the other drivers on the road etc. In a dog it could be expressed as being more reactive to strangers, barking, aggression etc. It would depend on the dog and how it can shrug off the stress. Like people I would think some dogs would be more prone to it than others, maybe for genetic or environmental reasons.

It can also stain the coat if you dog has a white coat and they smell like it all the time. My dog learnt to bark through the citronella spray!

Tony - I'm no expert on drive training (I'm only just starting it!) but I'm trying to clarify in my head the difference between throwing a ball for say 40 mins at the park and drive training. Chasing a ball for 40mins do you think this supresses or expresses drive? Let me see if I can put into words what's in my head! Chasing a ball or walking a dog doesn't necessarily mentally stimulate a dog so they are left with frustration (stress) which to use your words (hopefully in the right way) expresses itself in unwanted or neurotic behaviours. So maybe we're coming at this from different directions? I agree stress is good for dogs (and us), it helps us learn but too much stress stops the learning.

There seems to be from what I've read a school of thought that too much exercise or too much ball chasing can cause stress and therefore increase hormone levels. When you think about it being in a constant state of anticipation that a ball might be thrown or a toy might be available must cause some changes in a body, making it harder to turn off. A predator chases say a rabbit for a short time and he either catches it or doesn't catch it. He then moves on to the hunt for the next prey if he misses. So I guess when we continuously throw toys for our dogs it may well put stresses on them other than the physical. It would be interesting to observe his behaviour when the weather cools down and see how he is if you don't start ball playing again. This is one reference where I have seen it mentioned : http://www.canis.no/rugaas/oneqanda.php?id=629

Saw a link to these vests: http://pawsitivedog.com/Products/index.html I'm not sure whether they would be a good idea or not. You'd probably then get people coming over and asking what you're training them for!

The ability for a dog to be able to interact outside its own backyard is so important to its quality of life. I have read on a PP forum so many dogs that cannot be walked because they are too aggressive and they've been like this for a long time. There is much talk about the stress on a dog in this PP forum but sometimes I feel if you can use another method of training to get the dog back on track to learning it would lower the stress in the dog a lot quicker and the dog can enjoy a better quality of life. Quality of life comes into it with barking dogs too - I know I've got one - they can create an enormous amount of stress both within the family and the neighbours. My dog steals socks - light bulb moment - mark and reward for stealing socks (instead of chasing) and suddenly its lessened and the socks are dropped to take the treat instead of being taken outside. Now I just have to work on the newspapers being stolen and shredded, they're much closer to the backdoor!

Hope the poor old darling has picked up and the weather in Melb is giving you all a break.

Is this much different though when developing drive in a dog or refining it so the drive works for you, to seeing talent in a young child say for tennis or golf and they then become a professional sportsperson. There has been much debate as to whether Tiger Woods had a choice to be a golfer or was he forced to be by the way his father introduced him to the sport. I don't think he has any regrets about it though.

When do you think you'll have an available itinerary? How will we book and pay for ourselves in if we're not associated with the particular club holding the seminar? Sorry - I'm forward thinking and trying to plan around my unplannable life!