raineth

Hi everyone, I am really hoping that I am going to be able to get some excellent ideas from all of you 'in the know' here on the training forum that well help fill in my knowledge gaps. Recently my daughter (aged 8) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I want to train one of my dogs to alert to low blood glucose (hypos) especially at night time. I figure I have nothing to lose by attempting to train this. And actually I feel like my dog, Delta, has some excellent attributes to succeed at this kind of training. BUT I have really not at all done any scent training before!!! Basically my goal is to have Delta press a door bell (located in my daughter's bedroom) to alert us to a hypo at night. I am still mostly in the research phase. But basically hypos have a very distinctive smell (like nail polish remover). So it will be the smell Delta responds to. So it is my understanding that initially I have to get her interested and recognising the smell of hypos. So everytime my Little Miss has a hypo I have to collect an item of clothing, or a saliva sample, to practice with later. I can store these in the freezer in zip-lock bags. That is pretty unfamiliar territory for me. At the moment (from what I have read) I can get her interested in that scent by using clicker training for her targeting items that smell of a hypo. I would love, and appreciate, any guidance with how I can give this the best chance of succeeding. So if you have ideas, hints, tips, criticisms etc... please tell me Especially I am feeling very fuzzy about how I can best connect the smell of the hypo to the behaviour of pressing a button. I haven't looked a lot into that yet.

Kirty that is so lovely!

I understand you Corvus ;) But there was certianly was nothing nice about the way that woman said it about my puppy. It was said in a sneering way and she had her full stink face on. if you had come up to my pup and said he was ridiculous in the way you described, I wouldn't have mistaken it

I think you are forgetting that funny thing about dogs: they don't generalise well. To her your house is one specific environment, another person's house is a completely different place. So it would never occur to her to behave in a way that is similar to the way she behaves in your house. She might not even generalise that she still needs to toilet outside. To me the way to overcome this would be to try to take her to quite a few different houses and enforce the house rules so she starts to generalise from one house to another.

thanks everyone - he was utterly adorable in my eyes too :p Ollie's stitched up eye certainly has detracted from his good looks

we had about 2 1/2 hours drive to take our puppy home from the breeder's place, so I thought it would be best to crate him. He cried for about 10 minutes. Then the scariest thing - he stopped crying! We were so worried that he'd died that we pulled over to check on him - what a relief to find he was only asleep. He slept the whole way home; and we still pulled over several times to make sure he was still alive

I was at the Ve waiting to get my Great Dane puppy weighed. In the waiting room was a couple and the woman looked like she had been crying. I felt for her so much, imagining she just got some bad news about her beloved pet. I stood there thinking "that poor woman, i hope her pet is o.k.". Anyway as they went to leave they walked past my puppy and she said to me "oh my god! that is most ridiculous thing I've ever seen " - talking about my puppy! It felt worse because I'd been having all those sympathetic feelings for her a moment earlier :D anyway here he is he is over the bridge now.

I think the fact she got a nasty bite to the butt is a pretty objective measure don't you? I think it is rotten that the owner did not help in anyway and blamed the jogger. It says to me she is not willing to take responsibility for her dog. Obviously that dog needs to be muzzled.

that bit that I bolded: that's good! and gradually get it to the point where Seth is getting the sit, eye contact and saying "eat". its hard with a pup and a little one isn't it! I'm sure you'll get there

don't forget that it is really hard for both your littlie to manage to give instructions and your pup to understand them a few things I taught my kids: "look for rain" If I said "look for rain" the kids folded their arms across their chest and looked to the sky. This was used when pup was demanding attention or getting over excited. this is good because its very easy for a situation to come up in which the pup learns that getting in a child's face results in lots of exciting noises and movements from the child which they find very exciting! A "look for rain" position is not reinforcing to a puppy We practiced different kinds of voices: happy voice and "boss voice". and we practiced when to use them. so happy voice was for when the puppy was good obviously. Boss voice is just that bold assertive voice you use when asking your pup to do something. I find kids seem to want to only ever use the happy voice, so its good to practice you can make this a game for your little one and he gets lots of praise or maybe even a sticker for doing it right do you get her to sit for her food bowl? I would be getting your son (with you right there ofcourse) to give her her dinner. But only if you are asking her to sit for her food bowl. Its one of the more simple things that get the message across that your little one is to be respected

Hi parrotpea, I can't recommend a good puppy book. But there are some really good sites to visit. check out these links: dogstardaily this one is a really good channel on youtube. have a browse around it has some excellent vids to do with puppies. kikopup also I would recommend that you find a puppy school before you get the puppy so you can take him/her right away. Not all puppy school are equal! A good puppy school will be able to help you along with any concerns you have. I personally don't like the kind where the main focus is the pups playing with each other. I think its better for pups to interact with sociable older dogs that will teach them manners, a puppy won't teach another puppy manners. So I would also be thinking about sociable older dogs that I can socialise the puppy with. One effective approach is to tether your puppy to you during certain parts of the day. this allows you to be there to distact, reward, correct your puppy's (or your kids') behaviour It also helps puppy to get used to the feel of a collar and lead. And it means pup can't get up to much mischief. I personally found it SO useful during those times when your busy and pup is a bit bored. I think toys that he has to work to get some food out of are really good for keeping pup occupied. Most toys will require your participation to be really fun though! my puppy loved his "giggle bone" which was like a dumbell that when rolled made giggling noises. I'll leave crate training to someone else

I think that's pretty awesome achievement!

hello there, agree with all said above also just wanted to say that at 2 there really is a limit to what you can expect your little boy to do (as I'm sure you know) ;) [Obviously you encourage him and reward him when he's doing the right thing with your dog] But I really highly recommend that you spend a lot of time with puppy attached to you via lead that is attached to a belt around your hips/waist. This means you are right there for every interaction between the pup and your son - you are right there to divert, correct, or reward any behaviour (from the dog or your little one!). obviously I don't mean you should be doing this mowing! definitely put the dog out of the way for that. also puppy needs breaks and sleep time and play time etc... when you can't really hvae him attached to you. I found this most useful during busy times of the day and when the puppy was in its witching hour I did this with my pup and I think it helped to make him an absolute saint in the house from a very young age.

yep they are excellent for this and very reasonably priced

she is such a gorgeous dog Kirty! I hope you find a perfect a home for her

Akita's are giant breeds are they? Generally, Dane owners would wait until 2 1/2 before any running/jogging on lead

I find this comment really offensive and small minded Perhaps some people may be very house proud and don't want their dogs roaming about the house. Perhaps some people have children and put them first. Perhaps their parents/partners don't appreciate dogs indoors. My dogs are predominately outside dogs. I do go home on my lunch break and eat my lunch outside with them. Our oldest sleeps inside with us on our old leather lounge. The others are outside in the kennels. The dogs come in for periods after work one at a time as it's easier to keep and eye on 1 dog, 1 small person + cats than multiple dogs! eta: My dogs don't get walked, too many bogans with uncontrolled dogs in town. They get exercised and trained in our yard - which is over an acre and fully secure. And we take them swimming in the dam which is on an adjoining ppty. just because someone has their dogs inside, doesn't mean that their kids aren't put first - I certainly don't see that as mutually exclusive.

both my dogs go like that in spring, but one of them is a lot worse than the other. His eyes are watery and itchy and he thinks the solution is to sometimes rub his face in the grass which then leads to lots and lots of sneezing! I haven t taken him to the vet about it. I have just been keeping him inside and keeping the lawn really short.

i love that!

Miley looks quite happy in there! I wonder if you'll need to train them not to jump out when its going or whether they'll realise not to do that? can't wait for action shots!

can you imagine how fit you'd be lugging around Spin at the speed of a Viz

yep I want pics too!

please be o.k. chase

Hi I like tlc's idea But also definitely reccommend pf's idea considering you have such a littly at home as well. attach pup to your belt with a shortish lead. encourage pup to follow you. Because he will always be with you, you are right there to reward or redirect him

Couldn't you leave the puppy in the yard? that way no mistakes can happen I don't trust a puppy unsupervised in my yard.. it's a chainlink fence, not a wooden one, and a small puppy could very possibly wriggle underneath the fence (luckily this won't be a problem once my dog is older). That, and I've read too many stories about stolen pups and so on--don't want my baby to get pinched! ;) Esky: I have that ebook, and the one that compliments it As well as puppies for dummies, grooming for dummies, dog training for dummies.. I'm a super dummy so I need all the help I can get but you can use a puppy pen in your yard