Greytmate

The costs involved with behavioural help, and the risks inherent in working with human aggressive dogs mean that no ethical rescue would take on this dog. At best you would get a person agreeing to take it out of pity or just to try to prove a point. No normal person takes on a dog with aggression problems for themselves. No ethical person takes one in for the purpose of selling it. I am not suggesting you take this dog to your house. I am suggesting you take it to the vet. Who is going to step up to the responsibility? Or will this dog be passed on to 'somebody else' ?

No they dont live on a sheep farm but are on a lot of land...horses etc. But not a specific "sheep farm". Ill see what happens, but if all else fails Ill have to talk to her about putting it down, it cant live like that and she cant keep it out of guilt.....there is a child involved sadly. What a sad and frustrating situation. Waiting to "see what happens" is the least advisable course of action. The dog is dangerous and the longer they stay with it, the more attached they will get. The only ethical thing to do is have the dog put to sleep, as having this dog around their daughter is a risk. It is a terribly sad and frustrating situation. Would it be possible for you to take the dog to make it easier on her? A compromise might be for the dog to go into a boarding kennel while they think through what the consequences might be.

Thanks for offering to lend me book Emm and Sas. I will PM you Emm.

Staffies are genetically brindle, not black.

Can you please direct me to some more info on this game. It would be excellent to have a new game for Woody to help him learn. He loves games and is a really fun dog. I have stopped his lunging and barking, but he is a long way from being able to react appropriately without my assistance.

Woody is a reactive dog. But he is being trained to react in appropriate ways, and being desensitised to the triggers. His behaviour often changes depending on proximity to the trigger and the intensity of the trigger. It's confusing times for Woody, but we are working towards reliability. Predictably isn't just about the dog, its also about the predictor. Not everyone has the same expectations about what the dog should do or what its genetic limits are, and they don't all have the same ability to reliably modify the behaviour. Woody wears a muzzle in public, because I predict an incident, should the wrong dog do the wrong thing in the wrong proximity. I can predict Woody's behaviour better than I can predict the stupidity of some other dog owners.

Well where would you do a study to find an indication? If not with a group of dogs of a similar age, breed, and similar upbringing and known clean history, all having passed a standardised behaviour test, and all being fostered in the care of people that have been trained to use the same training techniques and are documenting the training progress in the same way? Why wouldn't that give us an indication with the main variable being time in care, both before and after castration? I am thinking a foster care situation being tempory housing for a dog of unknown history awaiting a permanent home. Many unwanted behaviours could exist in foster care from a general lack of previous training or the dog being unsettled in it's new surroundings etc etc. I would be more looking at the dog to stabilise and become settled, train the dog and then desex where I would be confident to say that in 99% of the time, desexing the (male) dog would make little difference if at all. IMHO, poor animal behaviour is the result of inadequate training more so than the effects of testosterone Cheers Nev I am not talking about dogs of unknown history, temperament or breeding. Most poor behaviours have nothing to do with desexing. But castration quickly lowers testosterone levels, and this causes some undesirable behaviours to either decrease in frequency, or become a lot less intense, making it easier to train the dog out of doing. All of these foster dogs generally had been given no previous training to curb any undesirable behaviours resulting from sex drive. Unwanted behaviour does not exist because of lack of training or how 'settled' the dog is. Behaviour (wanted or not) exists in its own right for its own reasons, one of which is an attempt to satisfy sex drive. Remove the testosterone, and straight away you are reducing one of the drives that motivates a dog to behave in a certain way. Then training can be used to more easily stop any behaviour that has just become a habit, but isn't as driven as it used to be.

It will take up to a week or so to heal Bub, but that is only if it needs to come out. While healing, they need a special diet, so that the food doesn't get caught in the gum. No mushy food, no mince, no kibble, no mousse, no confit, no cakes and pies for Bitty. She will have to eat cubed steak or chicken breast, or possibly cubed salmon for a week.

All a normal vet can do is pull the tooth out. If you want to spend a bit you could be referred to a dental specialist for other dental work. Which tooth is it, and how does it look?

Coconut uses her long white legs as cutlery when she eats a bone. I have to wash her legs very time she eats one, as they end up all meaty and sticky from top to bottom. Maybe somebody could invent a bone holding device so that Coco can recline in her bed with her bone, without having to use her front legs to grip hold of it. Without opposable thumbs, dogs could do with a utensil like that to help them out.

Have fun clothes shopping Jed. A few months ago some Brissy DOLers got together in a group, and we analysed our colours and clothing styles, and we had a lot of fun looking at clothes. Sort of a style make-over day. We were thinking of doing another one, so let me know if you would like to come along, and we can work around doing one that suits you.

Well where would you do a study to find an indication? If not with a group of dogs of a similar age, breed, and similar upbringing and known clean history, all having passed a standardised behaviour test, and all being fostered in the care of people that have been trained to use the same training techniques and are documenting the training progress in the same way? Why wouldn't that give us an indication with the main variable being time in care, both before and after castration?

Yes, but I am talking about normal, healthy, well-behaved dogs, that are just undergoing a domestic rehabilitation. Sexually mature dogs that have never been allowed to mate. Not dogs showing serious problems like anxiety, aggression or fence jumping. Many foster carers reported to me an immediate improvement in their ability to discourage naughty boy behaviour. We are expecting the dog's behaviour to improve anyway during foster care, but getting the castration done earlier does seem to help. It's like the dogs are listening more to their owner and less to their boy bits. I wouldn't agree that foster care would provide the best indication that desexing has improved behaviour and handler focus. More than likely, the dog is more relaxed in it's foster arrangement and some training has taken effect. Desexing is no substitute for training for developing the required behaviour from a dog IMHO Cheers Nev Yes that is the case, and of course I am taking that into account. But we have noticed a difference when the dogs are desexed. We used to delay desexing to allow the dog to settle into the home first, but started bringing it forward for its behaviour benefits. This is observed over hundreds of dogs, in care with skilled people that have been caring for dozens of dogs of the same breed and age. You can dismiss it because it isn't a scientific study. But I am not going to write off five years of careful observation and experience as a coincidence, just because other people doubt it. That would be quite stupid. Desexing is never substitute for training. But I know it can make a huge difference by lowering testosterone levels and behaviour associated with that.

Yes, but I am talking about normal, healthy, well-behaved dogs, that are just undergoing a domestic rehabilitation. Sexually mature dogs that have never been allowed to mate. Not dogs showing serious problems like anxiety, aggression or fence jumping. Many foster carers reported to me an immediate improvement in their ability to discourage naughty boy behaviour. We are expecting the dog's behaviour to improve anyway during foster care, but getting the castration done earlier does seem to help. It's like the dogs are listening more to their owner and less to their boy bits.

Testosterone takes many months to leave the dogs system. Rule of thumb is around 5 months before any changes, if any, will be seen due to lack of testosterone. I would say your dog simply responded to something else during that week. There is no way desexing would make a difference that quickly. I have seen dogs that have very big changes within two weeks. While it takes a while for habits to break, and testosterone to levels to fall right back down, I think castration immediately stops the surges of more testosterone that may have an effect on mood. With all the adult males we had going through foster care, that were desexed at some stage over the first month, the most effective training seemed to happen after the castration.

Different diets have different nutrition levels allowing the muscles to be fully or partially energised. You might be seeing an energy boost rather than an alteration in mood. If you were feeding dehydrated meat, and have changed to fresh meat (VIP), I would expect there would be possibly more nutrients to be available for the dog to use. And no reason why they wouldn't use it. The nutritional value of fresh meat also changes seasonally.

I called the council this morning to report a neighbour's nasty dog in our front yard. But council are closed on weekends. So I went to their website, and found this. Roaming Dogs Neighbour Handout. I am a bit inclined to send a copy to the council as well. Lazy buggers. (Or so constrained by budget that they cannot do a decent job)

I don't know any rescue group with a strict policy on puppy school. If you are able to communicate your plans to train and socialise your new dog, that should satisfy any reasonable rescuer. If you are going to adopt a randomly bred puppy, there is no guarantee that even the best training and socialisation will give you a dog never shows inappropriate aggression.

Good sign. I am so glad she didn't take off again.

Are you talking about desensitising Gussy or Myrtie? Because at the moment both are highly sensitised to each other. I think training has a better chance of success if only one animal is being trained at a time. The sight of a cat that has chosen 'flight' over 'fight' is something that will undermine desensitisation for the dog, as its sets up a loop of positive feedback for the dog's drive. This dog has also experienced some level of satisfaction of the drive by catching and biting the cat. With a another cat, a big tough one that chooses to stay and 'fight', this positive feedback can be avoided. We do not have to work on desensitising the cat, as its behaviour will not heighten the dog's drive, and may reduce it considerably. We would be training the dog, and not training two animals at the same time. Using the right cat in the right way would allow proper assessment of what level of training and management is necessary to reduce the problem. Something I would find very difficult to assess in the current situation, with a terrified cat. MM will be in a much better position to decide whether training will be a realistic option if the dog's behaviour can be observed (safely on lead) with a cat that will stand its ground. We cannot underestimate the power of strong prey drive. If a dog shifts into this mood it undergoes physiological changes where it blood supply is directed to its muscles and away from its brain and stomach. A dog in true prey drive will not be distracted by a treat or a verbal correction. Working with prey drive is a different realm of training to the normal rehab that rescue dogs require. I don't know what Myrtie's level of drive really is, and neither does anyone else here. So it is hard to predict how successful training will be. The only difference between training little Myrtie and training a larger dog, is that if you get it wrong, Myrtie isn't big enough to instantly kill a cat.

But Gussy is fine with MM's other dogs and is not scared of them. She seems like a really good cat to live with dogs. Her behaviour now is a reaction to Myrtie's prey drive, not to Myrtie being a dog. Mature cats that live with dogs are adept at reading dog language. Way better than we are. Mita I imagine those cats at Uni were rated with friendly dogs that were not in high prey drive. While there can be a huge range of reactions from cats in the presence of dogs showing high prey drive, in a normal cat, none of them will indicate the cat is not stressed.

Thanks for posting Jed and letting us know how you are and letting us know about Phoenix. So good to hear you are getting better.

Martingale collars and 900mm cotton leads. I used to walk Woody on a flat collar, but he is under better control now, so I use a martingale. Retractable leads can be very dangerous for greyhounds. They accelerate faster than a motorbike. Trying attaching a retractable lead to a lightweight motorbike and keeping hold of it if you need a demonstration of what will happen.

Maybe they should foster a rescue dog, to see how they go. Find a large organisation that offers maximum support to its carers and they should be ok.

Or if she chooses to have the dog trained with a big tough dog-bashing cat in another foster home instead, and gives poor Gussy a rest. I am all for hearing about methods to reduce prey drive. I just believe that it should only be attempted in a strictly controlled environment that is not shared with a frightened pussy cat.