wuffles

My dog also likes ducks and hence he is always on a long line when in the water. Means I get a bit wetter than I would like, but much better than him swimming to China

My dog gets all his bones frozen, including chicken wings. Some dogs don't handle frozen food as well but ours is fine.

Another one here having recall issues! I have a constant "fly-byer" that thinks "come" means "run to me then get distracted along the way" Thanks The Spotted Devil, I am going to try teaching the NRM, starting with situations like at the door and see how that goes. I have been struggling a little as my dog's motivation is not food or toys... it is walking or sniffing or running or playing or peeing I've yet to find something that he finds good enough to really make him want to work.

I have found that a dog obedience club is a great place to learn training techniques. It really helps to get the timing of the clicker/marker (I find a word easier than a clicker) and reward, and help your dogs learn about distractions. Things I have found VERY useful are... Crate Long line (for recall) Treat bag BBQ chicken

I'm not an expert but I would never put my dog anywhere near one of those training camps, even if I'd heard good things about it. As others have recommended, a reputable behaviourist that will come to you house can teach YOU and your family how to deal with these issues. Your home is the place where you are having problems therefore it is the best place to fix them, imo. I am sure someone on here can recommend a good trainer or behaviourist in your area

Aww, what a cute story. I have another one where I couldn't decide whether it was good or not We've just finished the intermediate class at our local club so nothing particularly advanced. I mentioned to the trainer that we were having some problems with recalls as he especially loves to do the "fly by". So she comes over with me to watch as I put him in a stay, walk to the end of the long line, say "come"... he bolts to me so fast he can't stop in time, crashes into me, sits ON my feet and rests his head on my tummy, looking up at me. "What's wrong with that?" says the trainer. He'd never done it before and he's never done it since, are we sure dogs don't do things just to embarrass us? :p

Is it the Drontal chewable ones you've tried? We have a pretty fussy eater and he eats those -- he's not enthusiastic about them and I have to stand and watch him eat them but they go down eventually!

That's true, sorry, just didn't think of that when I wrote my last post

Our dog is a crossbreed but he has wonky ears and he's about 4 years old (you can see in my signature pic). I guess it depends on whether you will be showing her as to whether you try to fix it or not.

I agree, she probably isn't settled yet. Do you have a range of toys for her? For example she may be more interested in squeaky toys. My dog doesn't have a retrieving bone in his body. He doesn't even LOOK at the ball when you throw it He loves doing zoomies though so that gives him exercise

;) Gotta love that. Bit off topic but once ours was doing big zoomies after a bath up and down the fence line but there happened to be a poo in the way. Every time he passed it he'd make a flying leap over it but once he must have forgotten, landed on it and jumped back like he'd been bitten by something

Just a stab in the dark here but my dog only digs when you give him bones or other things he wants to "save for later". We started avoiding bones because they gave him the runs and the digging stopped. Occasionally he'll still try and bury something he doesn't want to eat though! First we tried putting poop in the holes which did work to an extent, but you had to keep refilling and he'd just dig new ones We also got him a sandpit as suggested above which he loves.

fainty_girl, we are in the process of training a reliable recall in our rescue dog. He is probably about 70% reliable off lead which is nowhere near enough for us to let him off! Until your dog is reliably trained, you should probably try not to put your dog in situations where it is likely they will not recall. Unfortunately sometimes we just "expect" our dogs to know what we want them to do and depending on the dog, recall training can either be easy or extremely hard. The only places our dog is let off leash is at a local, tiny, fenced dog park (realistically we shouldn't even do this), and the fenced paddock at our obedience club with known dogs. That is until he is 100% reliable. As others have suggested, try using a long line and control the situations until your dog will always come when called!

My dog eats them too, they drown themselves in his water bowl and he goes and licks them up like they're a treat.

Sorry, no advice from me but to say... grow out of it? Our boy is 3 and I'm pretty sure he's never going to grow out of it

Just thought I'd add that our rescue dog is similar. He is not food or toy motivated which can make it hard. Sometimes I'll dangle bbq chicken in front of his face at training and he'll try to look around it like "get that food out of my face, can't you see I'm trying to stare at the puppy class?!?!" People are always telling me that there must be *something* he will work for but we definitely haven't found it yet and we've tried an awful lot of things! So I feel your pain about having to say the dog is perfect at home. I am by no means an expert, but when it comes to fear, I also find that distancing ourselves seems to work the best for our boy. He is wary of buses, kids on bikes, etc on our walks so often when I see them coming I will increase the distance between us and them. Or I'll let him go over and sniff a tree to distract him. It's gotten to a point where I can make him sit at the side of the path when a bike comes past with just a slight flinch (previously he would try to bolt). I know it's not always practical to distance but if in any way possible that's what I do.

Sorry for your loss. We lost a cockatiel in a similar way a few years back (accidentally flew out the door and was attacked by magpies). Hugs and understanding to you

Lablover, we don't coddle him when he is whining in the car... on one trip he had been quiet and settled for a few minutes so only then did I turn around to give him a pat... and realised he was munching on the seatbelt and had chewed half through it :rolleyes:

Our dog acts in a similar way and I'm the same as you, unsure what it really means. Ours is a generally nervous dog however, and does nervous yawns and whines until he finally lies down and settles. But like yours, he is so happy to get in the car. Anyway, thanks for asking as the replies have been helpful!

I guess it's different for each dog, because mine has no problems with frozen even in the Canberra winter So I guess the coldness factor can be a part of the supervision!

The first time I gave our boy a chicken frame defrosted, he ate it in two bites Thankfully there weren't any problems despite that, yay for bendy chicken bones! Now I feed them to him frozen and it takes him a lot longer, and he seems to chew them into tiny pieces before swallowing. Each dog will treat them differently but I'd just say what others have already said -- supervise him at first to make sure he chews.