pipsqueak

If you want solid, long lasting, but not fancy, you cannot go past... www.pettagembossing.com.au

OT - absolutely your curtains!

www.fluppies.com.au

can you PM me the name & location of the store, so I can be sure to avoid them!

www.airdogs.com.au

Welcome to my world! My girl is one who struggled to learn targetting. She is confident and reliable now, but boy did it take a while. I actually had to start with me making the target move to contact her nose and rewarding her for that - otherwise we would just sit there forever. I think that there is a large difference in dogs that have been trained positively, with free-shaping and targeting from the time they were pups and older dogs who haven't had any training at all. Yes, some of the older dogs will still pick up things quickly and think for themselves, but many won't. My "girl" has this attitude of "why bother", I'm quite happy sitting here. I think is is extremely low drive/low motiviation... or it could just be that I'm a lousy trainer!

Thanks Erny - I couldn't agree more. I call her my "L-plate" dog. Having said that, I am certain that she has taught me much more about training than I have taught her. Many, many times that is usually how "not" to teach something! I will think through and plan how to teach something, and then she will show me exactly where the flaws in my training plan are All good though.

Yes, some of us are almost "forced" to use GSP by our dogs, otherwise there is no other way to make them understand and they get extremely frustrated. With my first dog, I was determined to use lures & positive only. Well, she had zero interest in food, and no concept of following food as a lure. You could place high value treats (BBQ chicken, raw liver) to her nose to try to lure her into a sit. She would happily watch as the treat moved away from her. Over time (2+ years) she has been taught/learnt to follow a lure. In those early days, GSP gave me something to reward. Don't get me wrong, I am all for luring and free-shaping but she has taught me it doesn't work for all dogs. I have occasionally played with trying to fre-shape her, and it frustrates both of us. She is not a dog that will naturally offer behaviours - and even rewarding the smallest behaviour doesn't keep my reward rate high enough. We progress much more quickly and happily with GSP and luring. She was adopted when she was 12-18 months old and had been in the shelter between 3-6 months. She initially had to "learn how to learn", as shown by learning to follow a lure. She is still not very food-orientated, but enough to work with - have also tried toys and tugs, but again, very very low interest. My other dog is a different story - happy to be lured, happy to try shaping, as long as the food and praise keep coming.

what state are we talking about???

I would also try call the vet clinic based at Sydney Uni - I think they are a teaching facility, so might make it more likely, or they might have contacts for you? My girl is just under the required weight (26-28kg) and my boofhead boy, who is the right weight, I don't think would cope, especially if it required him to stay still. Healing vibes being sent your way.

Cannot find the post, but it was advertised a while ago on DOL that someone was running workshops in Brisbane & Sydney - they seem to be doing them about every 6 months. Try contacting Andy Robertson on: [email protected] If this isn't okay, can someone PM me & I'll remove it.

Not a dog, but I've had a similar experience with a guinea pig. People kept saying that I would know the right time, but I fear for her I left it too long. Her right time was probably a month or so before I was ready to let her go. Each time I made the decision, she would show small signs of improvement. She finally got to the stage that I couldn't deny that she was suffering . In my heart of hearts, I wish I had of made the decision earlier for her sake, and pray that she doesn't hold it against me. So, the right time is when you are both ready.

Link to all NSW trials The ones I can see are... 110710 Grafton Dog Obedience Club 080810 Dogs NSW Endurance Test Bill Spilstead Complex for Canine Affairs Link to ANKC rules - you'll need to scroll down a little.

This is really difficult when they are that stressed anywhere near the bath area that they won't accept food!!!

Yes, I mean appetitive. Can you explain -R and how you used it to call your dog off the live rabbit. Interested in learning, that's all.

Zero. Why do you ask? You might want to read my post again for some clarification. My thinking is that to get a conditioned response in the required circumstance is that to train the response, you have to be at least as interesting as the competing stimuli.

How would such a response overcome an instinctive response hard wired into the dog, triggered by movement and selectively bred for for generations. That's what you're up against trying to call a sighthound off prey. I will never be more interesting than a hare to Howard, no matter how hard it is for him to catch one. I've heard all the stuff about "you have to be the most interesting thing there" - try matching a fleeing kangaroo for "interest". This is the problem that Mrs RB hit the nail on the head with - it's NOT about being "more interesting" than the kangaroo. It's about a conditioned response. The dog doesn't weigh up the options, either he is conditioned to respond under those stimulus conditions or he isn't. How you go about achieving that in a practical manner without devoting your life to it is another matter entirely! If you want a naturalistic observation, when wild canids hunt in packs they are still very attuned to what their pack mates are doing; i.e 100% of their field of perception is not devoted to the prey and it's pursuit. May I respectfully ask how many sighthounds have you trained to 100% reliable recall???

Jumping 500, I consider them large! I can understand that... I guess I own a deerhound x, so most dogs seem smaller!!!

Having fostered a greyhound and now owning a sighthound mix, I would say that for some dogs, 100% recall is not possible. I understand that there are some greyhounds and sighthounds that have excellent recall under all conditions/distraction, however for my dog it isn't a possibility. Sighthound people talk about "prey drive" - if you haven't seen it, it might be difficult for you to understand. It is like someone flicks a switch, and nothing else in the world exists for the dog apart from the prey... which is usually moving rapidly into the distance. My other dog, a lab mix, has fairly reliable recall, without much work. Nothing near 100% as I haven't yet put the work into him which needs to be done.

My next choice will be a Brittany, pretty much for the same reasons as yours... though probably considered to be a medium rather than a small dog.

www.Fluppies.com.au

www.fluppies.com.au

I'm a paranoid one and would at least be phoning an emergency vet.

Not concrete, but beautiful figurines... http://www.sandicast.com/Scripts/PublicSite/

Did you also note that the Beagle was 8 years old???