Jigsaw

I might be mistaken but I was under the impression that you could use an e-collar in NSW on a "prescription" from a vet to a behaviourist and only under the instruction of the trainer. Some sort of clarity on the issue in NSW would be good!

He's made it through the first night and I hope he continues to take these small steps to recovery. Fingers crossed for continued good news.

There's no reason why a 17 year old who's committed could not do the NDTF course. On my first prac block there was a 16 yr old doing the course. Some of her questions and insights were great at shedding light on some topics discussed and opened other avenues of discussion. Unfortunately she did not attend our 2nd block and I am not sure whether she has deferred or discontinued the course. Given the financial outlay for the course $3,000 plus it is a serious committment to study. However I also know that a lot of 17 year olds are not settled in what they want to do in their life, heck I didn't know either really! But go for it if you want to! I have one niece who wanted to work with horses, declared she would never ever work in an office, at 17 left school, started TAFE course in horse management, left halfway through and then did accountancy training at parents insistence. Where is she now 15 years later - in an office and loving it! From what I understand with my interaction with some DELTA trainers is that they train for pet/companionship only. They do not generally deal with behavioural problems like aggression. Instructors that I've met said they are told to direct any behavioural as opposed to training problems to a vet behaviourist.

Hoping for good news this morning for your little one.

My pup got a lump near the suture line after desexing. Vet said it was from being too active and stressed internal stitches and/or reaction to the stitches. AFAIK it's always been a rule to keep sutures dry in both humans and animals so I don't understand the bathing part. My pup did also develop a suture sinus a few weeks after the op, where an internal stitch did not dissolve. That was pretty yuk!

Nothing worse than manky bones inside. My dog (nearly one) sneaks them inside if she thinks I'm not listening, then she's OUTSIDE! If it's raining, I let her eat her bone in her crate - with the door shut because apparently it will taste nicer if eaten on the rug. So most of the time when she has a bone the outside door is SHUT. When my previous dog, a toy poodle had a bone he used to gum away at it having few teeth and being not really interested in bones, he would leave it and come inside after a short time. I would invariably forget to collect it later in the day, leaving it there for just in case he went back to it later. Learnt that lesson as I went into my son's room one day and sniffed "what smells??", nose led me to look under the bed there is the bone. Couldn't understand how it got there until I caught the cat dragging in another bone through the doggy/cat flap to stash away for later! She looked so proud of her kill!

Very cute and very interesting - makes you think about training methods! My daughter had to train a rat for her psychology course to perform a previously unknown task using positive reinforcement, she said that it learnt surprisingly quickly. I think from memory that had only a week to train it too.

What size collar are you putting on? If she's tiny try a cat collar and cut any length left over so she can't get at the end, she may not be able to chew that one! I managed to slip a collar on my pup when she was asleep and it hardly came off after that. Have you tried just leaving the lead on the floor and putting a few treats near it. Just ignore the lead making no fuss over it and let Mia find it. I find making a positive association of touching the collar (when it's on the dog) and treating gets the dog used to being handled in that area. When you get the lead on her just let her drag it around, don't try and pull the lead yet, let her get used to the weight of it. Can take a while with some dogs, my dog used to do an impersonation of a fish on a fishing line - flopping and rolling around when I just picked up the lead. I just let her go until she calmed down and then rewarded her for being calm and she realised that nothing was going to hurt her. Mia's still a baby and all dogs go at a different pace, be patient and I'm sure she'll get there soon!! Best of luck!

Everyone's an expert aren't they?? You know your own dogs best, you know their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else. And your mutts are gorgeous too btw! Go back and think where they were with their training six or so months ago! As people have said a one on one class or a small class with a great trainer is a real boost. You know what you're doing - I've seen you doing it!

Sounds interesting! I'd make the trip to Sydney!!

I love his tracky dacks!!

I'll jump in first and try and explain my understanding of using food or toys. Firstly it's about motivation, if you can find what motivates your dog to work for you then use it. You use verbal and physical praise. I use verbal (as well as food and toys)but not the physical, my dog is not a physical dog, in fact if I try to use my hand on her head or body she will move away from me while we're working. My dog is motivated by a food reward or a toy reward. She is obsessed with balls, toys. So for her the highest motivator for a job well done is the ball tossed! Progression is made from the initial lure (or bribe as some people call it), to a continuous schedule of reinforcement, then to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement and then successive approximations and proofing. You should not need to give your dog food rewards for all its life and if you do it may lead to extinction, you should not need to carry around food treats all the time. If we have successfully trained our dogs then when we ask our dogs to sit they should sit but we do not have to mark and reward, but we might choose to do so sometimes and this is what the dog should be working for that occasional jackpot. Is that what you were looking for? Maybe someone else might be able to explain it better or differently or have another point of view!

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll be checking them all out. I'm tired of her looking "rusty" around the neck!

I have been using a Rogz martingale collar for my dog with the chain, but she's been swimming in the salt water with it on and even though I've rinsed it every time, it is starting to get rust on it which is transferring to Paxy's coat which is white on her neck/chest. I've also noticed a spot where her coat looks like it is starting to rub with this collar too, even though she doesn't wear it all the time. Her coat is quite thin at the front of her neck. I like the martingale because it's harder for her to escape from them, although she has managed twice to slip it off!! Are there any martingales/limited slips on the market with no chain and where can I get them from?

Is he on any pain relief medication? Def need to get the vet records and find out what has been done in recent past. Would he eat fruit and veg if he was given them anyway? At least you've taken him in to give him the best chance he could have.

Good ideas above. Somewhere where there might be lots of interesting smells near water, probably calm water would be best. A lake or creek maybe. Seeing other dogs chasing balls, each other is also a good idea! Gentle encouragement and taking it slowly are best. But do realise that some dogs just aren't water dogs - my previous dog - a toy poodle wouldn't get his paws wet even on wet grass let alone the beach! But my koolie - take her for a walk and she's in the water more than out!

When she play bites do you have a toy in your hand? Or is it more when you are handling her ie petting, grooming etc? If you have a toy in your hand she may see your hand as part of the toy and hasn't learnt to distinguish the difference yet. Waving hands can excite dogs. Is she a rescue? She may not have had a lot of this type of play previously, try directing her play to a toy you have thrown away from you. Using a no and withdrawing play is probably a good option when mouthing happens, game ends completely. If she's mouthing when you're handling her she may not be comfortable with the close contact, or be used to being petted or groomed and she's using her mouth to tell you this.

Chicken is my preferred training treat! However I often use it for "special" training only and other times will substitute dinner or if I'm at the park I usually have dry kibble or Kramer's Chicken - small dried pieces of chicken, she found it better than the fish skeleton the other day . I've sometimes used raw meat for training when I really really want to get their attention! Frankfurts go straight through my dog, so they're given a big miss in this house!

I find it's the people that are the hardest to train!! They bend over and talk in high fast voices even when I ask them not to pet my dog until she sits. I usually move away when I see people approaching at the park and ask pup to sit and wait till the people have moved past. I tell them I'm training her and most people are happy to keep moving. I have the most problems at home with visitors, but we're making good progress. She's asked to sit as visitors approach and she actually self corrects herself most of the time from an attempted jump into a sit, but is wiggling so much with excitement it's not a very stable sit! But I do often put her on her leash if visitors come to my home because it is much easier to control her and once she's said hello she's usually fine.

Agree with others about leaving pup alone while eating. You could try not feeding her from a bowl for a while and feeding her by hand. You could feed her her dinner by training her, rewarding her with small portions of her dinner. If you want her to learn to give up things teach the "leave it" command. If you want to do anything with her dinner bowl add food to it. Agree TOT is a good way to go too.

I'd email or ring for results if you haven't got any yet. They do seem to be terribly slow getting results out. If you do happen to get NYC you're given another opportunity to answer the questions (and it may only be one) and you can phone them and ask for clarification too about the question.

Fresh poo works really well for my dog, she mainly does her digging in the garden though. However I've noticed she's been digging just lately in the grass and I wondered whether she's chasing crickets or beetles in the grass. I have a friend who uses chicken wire and bricks over the holes for their GSD, but he just moves on to another patch then!!lol

In addition to Erny's advice of looking at pup's body language - is he looking at something in particular when he stops? I would also ask is the pup also bonded to someone else (or another dog!) who is left behind at the house? I had a similar situation with a previous dog, my OH tried to take him for a walk without me and had to drag him to the shops but when turning around to come home had to just about run behind him! Just another thought.

Can you teach self control to stop them barking at birds?? Bane of my life noisy divebombing birds!

The dog seemed to be to be almost dancing but as I watched more closely he seemed to heel with one front paw raised higher than another that I think made his gait ungainly. He was really trying to steady himself. Also at nearly every sit at heel position he lifted one of his front paws. But I'm with you Luke - I've never done obedience so I'm looking at this with no comp experience - but I'd be more than happy if my dog would heel that close! Sigh - one day ...