raineth

Like Kirty I'm a mum to a diabetic human child. Apart from the specific advice from your vet, I imagine getting into a strict routine regarding food (the same food, meal times, and the same quantity) and exercise (the same amount, at the same time a day) would be very beneficial to managing diabetes in a dog. Best of luck to you :)

you do make a very handsome Oodle, Tubby

To my mind, the fearful dog may very well act aggressively (exhibit reactivity). This is because often this sort of behaviour often results in the feared object retreating. Thus it is a case of negative reinforcement, which we know is a very powerful behavioural influence.

Oh, I forgot to say we are still completely bombing on the RZ :/ I think a large part of the problem is she has a very, very strong RZ at the front from doing Sophia Yin training for reactivity.

Yes! Can't wait for that to happen :p and I have played the hide and seek game a couple of times, again it works best when I get home from work. but I'm slowly getting a better and longer tug out of both of them I am throwing in a couple of old commands in there as well like sit, drop, spin, rollover with our play tug sessions so they start to see the tug as a reward I've also pinned OH down for a training session this afternoon, need to get him understanding the IYC way of live. No matter how many times I've told him not to tell the dogs to sit before putting their dinner down he keeps doing it Yay for tugging progress! Yep, you really have to get the whole family on board don't you? That can be hard. The kids have been helping me heaps with the games at home which has been fantastic, but they still struggle with translating these things into every day life, and husband is still learning too :) Woohoo! Way to go

I have a funny, sort-of-brag to report. I am sitting reading a book and then I start to tune in to the commotion coming from the dining room. Husband is saying "Del what are you doing??? What is wrong with you!!" Then husband comes to me and says 'what is up with Del? I have been throwing chicken at her and she won't eat it! She is only eating it when I feed it straight to her mouth. There is chicken all over the floor and everything." Haha! So I guess our IYC training is going well :cool: Leah, have you had a go playing the hide-n-seek game? I found that game put Del in the mood for tugging. But still we are tugging dunces really. I would love Del to tug, it would be so much more pleasant to carry a tug toy around in my pocket than some treats.

I was about 10 when I went in a yard with dogs in it and one of them bit me. We were friends with the family who lived there. She had called my mum and asked my mum if I could bring over some sugar as they had run out (we lived rurally). I walked over with the sugar. It was a distance of about 1km. When I got there the dogs were in the house yard and began barking at me, so I stayed on the outside and called out... no response. I called out, and called out as loud as I could many times and apparently the lady mustn't have heard me, or the three dogs which were barking at me (how I do not know, as together we were all being pretty loud). So I was really conflicted. On the one hand I knew going into the yard was a bad idea, but on the other I thought I would get into trouble from my mum if I didn't deliver the sugar. I kind of knew the dogs, and I thought if they were really a problem they wouldn't have left them in the yard when they knew I was coming over. So I decided to go in, and I got bitten. Not badly though. Kids just don't always make the best choices.

I actually got the sense that at least some of them just have a very dry sense of humour, rather than actually thinking someone had actually shot a triceratops. Very funny either way :)

I wanted to do a proper post on this, and write proper things and put up pictures. But I just can't bring myself to do it yet. Still I want you guys to know that Digby had his last adventure yesterday, and it was a very good one. Then he gently left this world. He always did things gently.

That is very Digby! He really loves getting a new coat :)

It's really fascinating for me to hear about Em and Thisby and some of the other dogs in this thread as your challenges are so different to my challenges :) For a Dane, Del is really high-energy, drivey and super-keen for training, but I think she's not a patch on Em :laugh: Also she definitely still spends most of her day resting, and not pretending to rest, but actually resting. I would probably die of shock if I got a working breed :laugh: On another note, I still have to work on Tugging. Del is very playful, but can also be a bit hit and miss, especially with tugging. Often I get her too excited and just as she is about to tug she loses all control and just does mad zoomies instead.

Way to go Stan, you clever boy!

I know the moment she saw it she was definitely looking at me like 'you realise I can't fit through there, right?' It's ok though, I have just done a session of crate games with it by using a panel as the door, and it seems to work just fine :)

Wow Brandiandwe, how lucky are you! She paid $600 dollars for that fantastic advice and you got it for free Seriously though, it sounds like you did a good job of keeping it together :)

So I bought an x-pen so I could more easily play crate games with Del... and I made the mistake of thinking an extra-large pen would come with an extra-large door seriously, what were the designers thinking!

It is clear you love her and will be putting a lot of effort into raising her as well as you can :) As someone who has owned 3 giants, I find some of what you write almost painful for me to read. It is unconscionable to defend a breeder who has bred giants without any health testing I appreciate your honesty when you said you fell in love with Kirby, it is clear you both love her very much :) but please do not defend the practices of your breeder who is breeding without health testing and sending pups off before 8 weeks of age. I'm also concerned that you are completely over-estimating your ability to raise her in such a way that will minimise health problems. With a dog from non-health tested parents it is really a lottery and you'll either be lucky or you won't. I hope very much you will be lucky. The science of preventing bloat had actually really not gotten too far yet. One study will show raising her food bowl will help prevent bloat, another will show it makes no difference, and it's like that with pretty much every thing you will read on the net about helping to prevent bloat. Probably the best thing you can do is get an experienced vet to perform a gastropexy at the time you get her desexed. This won't stop her bloating but will buy you time, and time is everything when a dog is bloating. But there is nothing you can definitively do to prevent bloat. Look this doesn't mean don't enjoy her, or that you should live in constant anxiety that she is about to develop a serious health problem. But please be aware that just because the parents seemed ok to you doesn't mean that there hips and elbows weren't bad or that they haven't passed health problems into their offspring. Also in giant breed circles when you ask a breeder about the health of the dogs they have, and they tell you they have had no problems, then this is actually a red flag. I know you are going to do the best by her, and I think she's gotten quite lucky to get owners like you. Enjoy her, don't live in constant anxiety over her health, but also don't be convinced that everything is just going to be fine. Look into health insurance for her or a starting account so you are prepared if or when things go wrong.

I'm not sure how to do those things either silentchild, I could be wrong! but I thought we would specifically be taught how to do these things in the duration of the course. I hope so. I think there is something about laying IYC with food and IYC with toys so that the dog learns to choose to partake in which ever one you tell him too. So you teach him/her to tug even though there's a bowl of yummy treats on the floor for example. Maybe it is up to us to creatively set up these sorts of situations?

Yes it's the tunnel that connects the gardens with museum, the little trains go under there too :) and Baden Powell drive goes over the top of it. Yes despite them being very different shapes, most of their coats fir both of them. I have been using Del's coats a lot on him lately as they cover up his shaved patches really well. Those shaved patches get really cold!

well I realized its been ages since I updated this thread, and I suppose its mainly because with the freeeeezing weather Digby has mainly been spoilt with various cuts of meat, and really photos of a dog eating meat don't work as well as photos of dogs eating icecream :laugh: But I have been taking some snaps of our adventures together. The last two days particularly Digby has had fantastic energy and really been enjoying his walks :) Cold weather? What cold weather? I had to tell him not to go in further! And this one from today with me:

awww thanks Grumpette :) I'm really glad you enjoyed it :)

I like that you know that :) I never know exact, with both my dogs whenever they are on the scale it's always different. With Del it's never wildly different, but with Digby it has been quite different, so I just give averages.

Oh that's a great photo :) Yeah I suspect when other breeds run faster than whippets and greyhounds it's because the whippet or greyhound isn't running it's fastest. Or maybe there are a few slow whippets or greys around.

Em just drools pools of slobber on the floor in all her impulse control efforts. Digby was spectating so I had slobber coming at from all directions! She did good though. By the end I was able to drop treats from waist height :) so I'm happy with that. Fantastic! I'm going to work on dropping carrot pieces "accidentally" whilst in the kitchen and rewarding with AMAZING treats. Then I'm going to add Dizzy into the mix as he is what makes Em go "stuff this impulse control cr@p!" Haha it beings out her competitive nature does it? If I dropped carrots on the floor my two would be like 'ewww carrots ' :laugh: Are you mainly doing this with Em, or are you doing it with both? Both - but they have very different strengths and weaknesses so each session is balanced to what they need as individuals. Zig gives up too easily and Em never bloody gives up lol. The dogs LOVE carrots, capsicum, vegetable peelings or anything else that falls on the floor. The first time I did IYC with both dogs it blew Em's mind - Zig thought about it carefully and backed off whilst Em flew at my fist full of dry food like she hadn't been fed for a month. She shows amazing impulse control on her own (around food, agility, retrieving) so it just goes to show how you need to think outside the box on this one. Haha I am laughing at your description of Em playing IYC :D Digby and Del are really different so I definitely understand what you're saying about how you need different approaches to teaching the same thing :) although I certainly haven't done anything near the level you have.

I was thinking more of the general public who might totally misunderstand the reasons you explained. They could form a poor misconception. oh, sorry I misunderstood you :)

Em just drools pools of slobber on the floor in all her impulse control efforts. Digby was spectating so I had slobber coming at from all directions! She did good though. By the end I was able to drop treats from waist height :) so I'm happy with that. Fantastic! I'm going to work on dropping carrot pieces "accidentally" whilst in the kitchen and rewarding with AMAZING treats. Then I'm going to add Dizzy into the mix as he is what makes Em go "stuff this impulse control cr@p!" Haha it beings out her competitive nature does it? If I dropped carrots on the floor my two would be like 'ewww carrots ' :laugh: Are you mainly doing this with Em, or are you doing it with both?