wuffles

And my older dog was 5 years old when we got the puppy It can go either way. Some dogs calm down or wear themselves out with a playmate and some just turn into double trouble. My older boy is a lovely dog and has taught the younger girl good manners and lets her know that she has to be calm at least some of the time. They are just naughty together. I don't regret getting another dog at all

My older dog got naughtier when we introduced a puppy. Back to digging holes, pulling the bed out of the kennel, etc. He's also noisier - more barking in play and also at sounds/people.

This wiki article is quite informative although it doesn't give dates. It's interesting to see how many breeds listed are recognised by one or two registries and not others.

Most spoilt kelpies in the world? Ava woke me once last night to go out (1:30am) but slept through the rest of the night. Hoping the worst is over? Clastic, where did you go camping? I want to go, but we have no gear, and OH is not enthusiastic

Has Ziggy had any bouts of runnybum yet? If not, you're lucky!

At my club, there are a few people who have been around long enough to see what the "old" methods of training dogs were like and have worked very hard to encourage more positive based training. This has resulted in them being extremely anti- any method that they deem is not "purely positive". They are not even open to discussion about other training methods. So, sometimes I do see where people are coming from when they complain about purely positive trainers. I think most trainers on these forums (both amateur and professional) probably aren't representative of the general population.

I have trimmed it a little but I don't want her to look weird! The wet wipes are getting a workout She hasn't had anything to eat since last night so it seems to be slowing down a bit now. Thankfully she was a very good girl last night, we didn't want to just chuck her outside so she woke me diligently every hour or two to go to outside... no accidents in the house... today I am home due to lack of sleep so I've just left the back door open for her to come and go. Satch has been asleep in Ava's crate for most of today so far, he loves it when someone's home. And I think it's time for a nap for me!

Don't really know, but Satch never catches it so I'd say it's just due to her being a garbage guts... Edit: I love long haired dogs, but man I just want to chop the whole back of her fluffy pants off right now

My poor girl has gastro again so I don't think she's really up for pictures! Poor poppet. I had a grand total of 2 hours sleep last night. No food allowed for her at the moment, how am I going to train for the trial which is in one week? Oh well, as long as she gets better

The GRs and Gordon Setters had me in fits of laughter...

There are so many different things that it could be... grass, trees, plants, dust, pollen, fleas, food... have you checked your yard for Wandering Jew or other suspicious plants or weeds? You'd have to go to a dermatologist and have tests done to find out for sure. How uncomfortable is he? When my boy was so itchy he was itching his skin off, a cortisone injection from the vet at least gave us all a few days of rest. And providing it's not oatmeal he's allergic to, some of the topical oatmeal lotions can be soothing... we use ResiSoothe.

Great pic of Astrid with the smilies!!! If you're halfway to China, my dogs have gone there and back Must be the day for digging, our tunnels became much larger today as well.

Sorry RS, I only just saw your response! Yes, we were talking formal recalls and I really do think she thought I was trying to trick her into breaking a stay! Her informal recalls never broke, thankfully. We seem to have fixed the issue now... restrained recalls using BBQ chicken did the trick, as well as competition with my other dog If I was allowed to take him into the ring with us I'd get the speediest work ever... JulesP: Our first trial is coming up and I am already feeling super nervous! Need to remember to stock up on Rescue Remedy before the day...

I call one of my dogs dominant. He sounds a bit like jacqui835's boy. He's not aggressive at all to either dogs or people. He has NEVER been in a fight. He has a dominant stance (stands tall, sometimes puts head over shoulders of other dogs) and he rarely shows submissive body language. Most dogs we meet naturally defer to him without making a fuss. If a dog tries to hump him, he will turn around and either leave the area or try to engage them in play. He is the dog at the dog park that wanders off to do his own thing and ends up with 5 other dogs trotting behind him following him around. He will sometimes guard resources but does not go overboard. When we had an older female foster greyhound with us, he got taken down a notch and after an initial adjustment period he was quite happy not being the 'top dog'. He seems to enjoy the company of other 'dominant' dogs and often tries to engage them in play. However, we rarely meet another dog that challenges him. Our other dog is seriously submissive towards him and follows him everywhere. He can stare at her from across the room and she will immediately leave the room or roll onto her back (he's not allowed to do this, but will try it occasionally). He controls all their games and although he will roll onto his back and let her climb all over him, once he says enough, the game is well and truly over. He is exceptionally tolerant of her but his tellings-off are swift, loud and effective Human-wise, he is quite demanding and gets his way a lot of the time. He seeks out pats and takes advantage of techniques that 'work' - for example nuzzling people's hands or leaning against them. He is stubborn, independent and quite hard to train. In saying that, he is pretty easy to live with as he's low energy and happy to do his own thing.

Hehe thanks for posting that picture KTB, I love my two fuzzbuckets (They are not as well behaved as you make out, whose dogs were the ones running up to the fence to check out the dogs doing agility? :D)

We use Joint Guard for my large breed who was getting a bit stiff after walks at 3 years old. He's now 6 and very, very rarely exhibits any sniffness anymore. We noticed a big difference within about 2 months of starting the product. For a small dog I think it would be worth it as you wouldn't use much, so it doesn't work out too expensive

We have used it when I found a stray flea or two on my dogs. We're not in a bad flea area so it has worked for us.

Yep, we use mum and dad in our house. And in public. I don't really give a hoot what other people think of me when it comes to my dogs I don't baby them so they are just words.

I have no idea I think my boy is really interesting when it comes to this. He's 6 years old, we got him as a 3 year old rescue. He is quite dominant. We go to dog parks so he has been exposed (since we got him) to quite a few rude dogs. Until we got our younger girl, we had never witnessed him telling a dog off. He will tolerate the most annoying and rude behaviour from any dog but does try to diffuse the situation. If he gets humped he will often turn around and try to engage more appropriate play by play bowing. He just gets up and leaves if another dog is annoying him and they generally give up pretty quickly. Despite this, he has been wonderful at giving our girl the corrections she needed once she lost her puppy license. He is very tolerant but will give her small warnings if she's too boisterous. He will also give larger, firm corrections if she doesn't heed his warnings -- for example lip raise warning, then growl warning, then a roar and pin, I mean business! So he obviously knows how to do it, and how to be effective, but doesn't use it on dogs outside his pack. I have no idea why The only time I've ever witnessed him correct a dog other than Ava was with another known dog in our neighbourhood. He was running and the other dog bit him on the bum - he turned around and roared - the other dog slunk away and didn't try it again

Thanks, and I know... it's just hard to believe how easily you can break something compared to how hard it is to teach in the first place

We had a bad training session last night It started off fine and we did some nice heelwork and stays. I should have left after that. Then a dog that lives next to the oval jumped its fence. It's friendly, but won't leave you alone, so I let Ava have a quick play (otherwise it just follows you around like a bad smell). Its owner came out to get it, and in the process let their other dog, a mastiff x, out of its yard. It is a BIG dog and VERY rude and poor Ava was petrified as it was very rough in its attempts to sniff her. I was so upset :D After they both calmed down she did have a sniff of him and was more comfortable. She's already shy and submissive around unknown dogs and this will not help Anyway, I decided to stay at the oval for a little while to calm her down, so we sat on the cricket pitch for 5 minutes just relaxing Afterwards I did a bit more training... bad idea! I was doing a formal recall, she wasn't watching me so I said her name to get her attention - and she started to come to me. So I put her back in her stay, walked away again and called her. Well now she seems to think that I'm trying to trick her into breaking her stay and just stares at me when I call her to come! I don't know whether to laugh or cry As we were leaving a friendly beagle pup from our beginners class arrived at the oval so Ava had a nice play with him, which is good, I was hoping for a good doggie experience after the bad one earlier. Thankfully I got some advice in the Training Talk thread and did some restrained recalls last night which went well. Then this morning I did some quick recalls for BBQ chicken which she did ok. Fingers crossed it was only last night and she's remembered what a recall is again

Thanks for the suggestions guys I will see if I can fix it tomorrow... typical that it happens just when I enter my first trial, when she's never, ever, EVER missed a formal recall before. Unfortunately the training session was bad on two notes - a dog escaped its yard next to the oval and terrorised my poor little girl. She recovered ok but it was definitely not needed.

Firstly, grab a rolled up newspaper and hit yourself over the head What I would do is get a helper and do a restrained recall. The helper must be someone you and the dog trusts and who has good timing. Get them to kneel down and gently hold the dog. With my pup, I had someone just hold her around her chest but I'm not sure how big/strong your dog is??? You can slip your fingers through the collar but it needs to be done at a particular angle so that if the dog pulls away, no fingers get broken!!! Get a toy or similar and run away from the dog all excited and call your dog. As soon as the dog starts to strain against the helper they release the dog, who should come sprinting at you at top speed - reward! It's actually a slightly more complicated exercise than I've described as it requires sensitivity and timing on the part of the helper - enlist an experienced person if you can. HAHA I know. Bad trainer! Sometimes it sucks having a dog smarter than you I'll enlist OH to do some restrained recalls tomorrow. I think it is the stay that is throwing her off -- she seems to be ok as long as I don't put her in a stay beforehand.

Tips for a broken recall please? I was practicing a recall at the local oval, Ava was distracted so I said her name. She started to come, so I got up, put her back in the sit, walked away and called Come. She just sat there. Now I can't get her to come at all, she thinks I'm trying to trick her :D

Me too, it would be such a pity if anything happened to that I've been taking my girl to ovals since she was a puppy, sometimes for play, sometimes for training, and although she loves kids and will sometimes look at them and wiggle her bum, she promptly returns to me when asked. I also have to admit that some of the 'bogans' around here have the most brilliantly behaved dogs Where I work has a lot of housing commission and townhouses and there are often people walking their dogs off leash around the main roads, ignoring everything and everyone except their owners. Not something I'd do myself, but obviously the dogs have been brought up that way and know what's expected of them