raineth

Gily make sure you put her in the (non) Dane challenge every three weeks as well.

that means she will be learning something new every couple of weeks all the time - great for a doggie like her that needs lots of mental stimulation.

Yeah I was wondering about these things.....

What do I have to do with them? I tried the throw one (when you throw stuff at them, i think it was called Bomb proof Stay????) with Bella but she wasnt at all interested. Thinking about it she was probably really good at it cause she just went to sleep and didnt pay attention at all.. hehehe. :D ;)

Ill keep my eye out for it..

I just called my Local dog club and they meet on sundays and Wed so I am dragging OH down there for a look on Sun...

I hope the dog clubs turns out to be great

Well you can do the challenge with both of them. But if Bella is ok and its Molly who is needing extra stimulation you can just do it with her

Sas will put up a link to a video which describes the steps you need to go through to teach the dog.

Then you just follow that and if you get stuck on anything you ask a question on the Dane thread.

Video tape a few (or all) training sessions so you and everyone can see how you're going. And then at the end you submit your final video!

Its well worth it because if you win you get an awesome prize!

Its not going to Help Molly with her actual obsession of course. But as part of the problem is probably boredom - well it will certainly help with that

Gily make sure you put her in the (non) Dane challenge every three weeks as well.

that means she will be learning something new every couple of weeks all the time - great for a doggie like her that needs lots of mental stimulation.

The new challenge will be announced on thurs or Fri in the Dane thread :0)

Go to bed yourself and ignore all protests.

Easier said than done I'm afraid! It's like sleeping through an alarm with the volume all the way up! Speaking of which, i once lived with a friend who used to do that all the time! Not the radio mind you, the actual buzzing siren tone! It was so loud you could hear it from the street, and yet he still slept!

it is easier said than done - but probably what you have to do!

How about leave the laundry door open so she wakes you up for her toilet break at around 5-6 a.m. Then supervise her toiletting. Once she's done put her in the laundry -close the door (may have to take the gate off) and IGNORE THE SCREAMING

I do think it would be good to give her something to chew on or a toy though

But seriously ignore her! maybe you won't be able to get back to sleep but it will only be a couple of nights before she learns the lesson

she sounds like a cutie - a photo would be nice

there are some lovely stories here

I have a son with a disability; and I must say I have found it to go both ways. Unfortunately his movements bring out the prey drive in some dogs, or frighten other dogs. Other dogs are not bothered. And a couple of dogs have been fantastic with him, seeming to truly understand

The main one being our Dane in my siggy. He could always cheer little man up, and calm him when he was having a meltdown. looking after little man's emotional needs came very naturally to him and little man's quality of life improved so much during the short time Mr Darcy was with us.

The one other dog was a Labrador. We were visiting markets and little man was finding it all very stressful (too much noise, movement and people) then we happened to meet some friends who we hadn't seen for a long time and their lab. Little man sat on the ground and put his fingers into the labs fur. Little man was having lots of tremors due to being stressed. So it must have felt very strange to it to the lab, but it just sat their with a lovely big smile on its face. Gave little man the odd lick for encouragement. Little man was able to calm down was a lovely moment they shared together

all sounds pretty good Lhok

sounds like she's got the mothering bug

6 out of the 8 pups in Maverick's Puppy Preschool were oodles!

I can't talk because both on my dogs are cross breeds..

But.. they are shelter dogs! Not "designer" oodle dogs!

I have a Koolie Cross Husky - Hector

and a Malamute Cross Border Collie - Maverick

I love them to bits!

In no way do I support backyard breeders or the breeding of "designer dogs"

I think saving a life in a shelter is okay tho..

I know there are probably a lot of people that don't agree tho.. each to there own!

I don't think there is anyone on here MM that wouldn't agree with your statement above

I guess in my area 95% of the dogs aren't walked sadly :D

But of those who are I'd say its about 50/50 with most of the pures being labs, and GSDs and Spitz breeds ;)

when I took Mr Darcy to puppy preschool the dogs were all pure (except one) but only my dog and a Daschund was from a registered breeder.

I don't know Lhok

maybe ask in the training/behaviour part of the forum? I'm sure there will be people who have answers there

so sorry Darkrai

I think any of the terrier breeds would be very likely to want to eat your chickens.

research for breeds that are not bred for hunting (especially for hunting small things/birds).

Also as someone else says the Ridgie may really not appreciate a puppy. Its probably not a good idea to leave the ridgie and the puppy together by themselves. You would only do that once you feel that the puppy respects the ridgie enough to not annoy it; and the ridgie is comfortable with the puppy.

I think a pug would be good regarding the chickens. I know someone on here put up a photo of their pug very at home among their chickens. But what you would have to be aware of is weather and exercise. Pugs can succumb to heat very quickly. I have a friend who lost her pug when they had a 'black out' on a 40 degree day.

The 'instructor' that I mentioned in my post above, is not part of any club or organisation and has no qualifications (that I know of).

I have been wondering if I should be doing something about what I saw.

I don't want to take the thread off track - what would people do, if they saw what I saw?

I really don't want to end up in a confrontation, and I don't want to end up sued.

I have been considering writing a spiel about positive training methods (maybe with a links to a few websites) and handing them out to people attending as they are leaving class?

It seemed to me that a lot of these people were very new to training/dog ownership and maybe it might help fro them to know there is an alternative way to train a dog? thoughts people?

Anyone who dared to touch my dog in such a manner would be on the receiving end of the same treatment

I wouldn't touch a club like that with a ten foot pole. I would make sure the Club President knew exactly why I was leaving.

Ditto.

They have no right to discipline people's dogs like that. They should hold its collar until it's owner can come and get it.

Pick the wrong dog and they could get a serious bite!

and for some dogs that would be enough for them to be terrified of strangers for the rest of their lives :D

this is a really sad thread. its like its an excuse for already sadistic people to do horrible things

where I live there is one kennel club. its training times and location etc are really inconvenient for me. So when another training school popped up I was really keen to check it out.

I went and had a look at the first training session: there were seven dogs in the class some of them puppies, some of them were already well behaved - others just a bit excited.

The instructor chatted for a minute the proceeded to put gloves on and to noose a rope around a beagle's neck. She then demonstrated her 'method' of leash training. Which comprised of reefing the beagle back in such a way that its head slammed into her knee :D

There was also no consistency - sometimes she waited until the beagle was quite a bit ahead of her before she did it, other times it was immediately when the dog passed her leg. there was no reward, no praise, just unpredictable reefing and yanking :D

She went round like this for about ten minutes (with zero improvement) and getting crankier and crankier with the poor beagle. ;)

Apart from being cruel, it just also illogical. You should have seen her struggling around the place with her yank method on a beagle while there was a full grown GSD in her class and an older rotti pup - no wonder she didn't choose them to demonstrate on!

I prefer positive methods. But I don't have a problem with a check chain used properly either.

And that's what I can't understand. If she wanted to use an aversive sort of method for teaching leash walking, why not go with a check chain: one short quick correction, times properly so that a dog can understand. Not the hideous drawn out thing she did with a rope

we had a similar problem with a Staffy. the Staffy was besotted by my Dane. The Staffy broke a lot of our property (plants, swinging chair, gate) put deep scratches in our front door. Sometimes you wouldn't know he was out the fron and you would opent he door to collect the mail and he would barge in.

To make it worse my beautiful Dane had neurological problems and the Staffy would knock him to the ground and hump him all over. Getting him off was nearly impossible as he didn't wear a collar and he took less than no notice of yelling/screaming.

Once when my parents came to visit in their new car he jumped on their bonnet and then up onto the roof of the car

I called the rangers so many times but it was always 'out of hours'

They kept advising me to drive him out to the pound myself - but there was no way I was going to put my kids in a car with an out-of-control dog (car is a sedan- so couldn't exactly tie him up in the boot!).

In the end the owners promised they were going to get him desexed - but I think he ended up being pts. They told me he could jump their fences yet I am skeptical as he only ever 'visited' outside pound hours bit of a coincidence hey?

anyway I also wanted to say that I hope you can get the situation resolved and I really feel for you

I've gone back to basics with Ruby and Millie, too, and trying out this "bombproof stay" thing that was posted. So far so good. We're clicking and treating very often, much to their delight!

Oh great! In a couple of weeks do a video of it if you can - I would love to see how you went doing it with your clever - and presumably very food motivated labs

I think with this method the more you click and treat initially the better

We changed our dog's name when we adopted him; I wanted something kind of cute and that would reassure people as he is a bit of a 'muscle dog'. I was feeling guilty about it when his foster carer pointed out to me that really a name is just a command for attention

Digby has picked up his new name no problems at all! OH and I were talking about it, and about how most dogs will respond to anything said in that voice - you know the one used to call your dog. So we experimented and to our surprise found that it wasn't necessarily true

Digby took no notice when he was called 'foofoo', 'chunky monkey', or 'tootles' - but he was very responsive to 'Maryanne'

'Get busy'

:D

I have had 7 foster puppies in the last four months so you can only imagine how frequently my neighbours must hear me say this

I do wonder what they have worked it out ;)

Thats ok i just thought that with 68 people viewing the topic you would think someone would answer !! Well im looking for ways of proofing my boy . He Usually does really well at stays but lately he has decided that he wants to get up when other dogs are wandering around or he just likes to fidget (when he fidgets he doesn't usually move up off the ground, in a drop stay he will pick at the grass and sniff the grass and in a sit stay he seems to just re adjust his front feet , i really don't like fidgeting as feel it leads to wandering ) He can also be really grumpy toward other dogs that come into his space which makes me really nervous and I'm really just trying to find out what other people do to proof their dogs in these circumstances. We are currently training for open and this issue has just come about of late . Diesel is 5 years old but we have only been competing for a couple of years. He has his CCD and CD titles . I do train at club twice a week where we get to do stays but not proofing staysdue to the different levels in our class (we are a very small club) . Any ideas would be great . Thanks

then I really think the above method will work really well; as you end up conditioning the dog to think that any distraction (including other dogs) is a positive thing - not something to be worried about.

Oh I have been meaning to post an answer since I saw this thread!

I really love the clicker method of training a stay. I can't reccommend it highly enough. In the Dane thread and the muttly thread we have been actually just had a little competition to train a bomb-proof stay. We used this video as a basis for our training:

kiko pup

please have a look at it as its absolutely awesome!!!

I trained my boy using this method for two weeks. He is a rescue and I have only had him for a few weeks when began the training.

that just illustrated what you can achieve in a short time even with a dog that has noise fears and has had very little training

Hi Rocky,

I think you are doing the right thing

When a dog has done a behaviour because it is rewarding (i.e. he is rough with humans and is rewarded by them playing with him); and then suddenly the reward for doing that behaviour stops (you ignore him and don't 'play along'); then the he will most likely persist for a long time and may even get worse as he is trying so hard to get the reward he expects.

This is unfortunate as a lot of the time people will think they aren't doing the right thing - when they are!

So yeah I just wanted to say that just because you haven't noticed a change yet, doesn't mean its not going to happen. You sound like you're being very consistent. And so my bet is that this behaviour will continue for a little bit and then all of the sudden it will decline rapidly and disappear

by the way this 'phenomenon' is called extinction

let us know how it goes

just wanted to add that I love this thread!

So many amazing photos!

I love the child making the whippet sit!

and the one of the dog in the fridge

and MTD's naughty little spaniel - sssoooo cute ;)

naughty: sitting on a child's lap

naughty: backing up to sit on the lounge when told to 'sit' - and doing it with attitude

Good:doing a sit stay

Good: gentle snuggling

Naughty and Nice: here is a photo that looks naughty. But Mr Darcy was actually being good as he was given his 'digging command'

good: shaking paws

naughty: spying on the neighbours

naughty: sitting his pumpkin on the lounge

naugty: attempting to sit in the washing basket

more to come...

hiya,

here is a link to a height and weight chart for great dane pups. It is in lbs and inches so you may need to google search to convert it to cms and kilograms

height and weight chart

that may be a clue to how big she'll be

yes you have to be careful with what you say about muttlies

there are plenty of people here who own muttlies; and everyone here loves and values dogs whether they are muttlies or pure

don't forget to say Hi to us on the M & M thread (mutts and mongrels thread). have a look in the "breed sub forum" which you can find at the top of the general section.

ETA the link for the muttlies thread:

M&Ms

Walking...

Don't ever let her get any where if she's pulling. Never. Consistancy.

If you never leave the driveway. So be it. Patience. Tiny steps.

I can't emphasise that bit enough! think of it this way: if you let the dog go forward while it is pulling you are rewarding it for pulling!

Now about the issue of feeling embarrassed when you are basically going around in circles - think of it this way:

A bit of effort now will mean that for years you and your dog will look fabulous together as you walk down the street, your dog walking calmly and attentively by your side

isn't that worth a bit of short term embarrassment? ;)

Oh yes and something you said in your post Flux:

I have tried changing direction, but to be honest sometimes the prospect of becoming entirely lost in a suburb does put me off these random deviations and I don't actually think she registers their intended purpose.

changing direction is an excellent way of teaching your dog to walk nicely on lead.

the moment your dog's shoulder moves in front of your leg, spin them around in the opposite direction. then when they do it again, spin them around in the opposite direction. In the early stages you will only get a few metres before you have to turn around. So you probably won't go much past your frontage

as your dog gets better you may just do a 360 turn so that you end up heading in the same direction. So no need to worry about getting lost in your suburb and ending up in a different location to where you are going.

and most importantly: reward them for the right behaviour. Often if you always reward the correct behaviour, you can get away with ignoring the behaviours you don't want ;)

good luck

Hi again everyone

I have contacted Cosmolo off the forum, I think in the next two weeks when I have the cash I will get her out to try and fix this. It is very upsetting when your gorgeous pup has such behavioural issues and is so loving and sweet otherwise.

Strangely, when he has had bones stuck in his mouth (happened twice in the 5 years I have had him) he has come very sheepishly up to me for me to help him. I think he knows he's called my bluff, unfortunately although backing away when he growls is giving him a victory, I believe it would be pretty stupid to challenge him when I don't know how he would react

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

also don't forget that in a way it is actually good he is growling. Growling is a warning - if he didn't give you a warning it means he would jjust go straight to biting you. So you never want to teach a dog not to growl. You need to fix the underlying problem ;)

I think its great that you're getting help of cosmolo

Hi

I am going to suggest a possible course of action. I think before attempting to pick up the bone, it would be better to do a prelimenary training in which you get him to be happy for you to be close to him when he has a bone.

give him a bone.

walk away a distance then slowly walk towards him - look for the spot at which he tenses up (maybe stops shewing becomes still, that sort of thing) then take a reasonable step back from that.

At that point throw an incredibly high value treat; aim close to his mouth. even better use a clicker or bridge word before you do it (if he knows what they are).

Do this a lot. Ever so slowly get closer. But always be behind the point where he has a problem with you.

Make him think that you being close when he has a bone is a really good thing!

These methods take a long time, and their success lies in going slowly.