Mrs Rusty Bucket

Most breeders don't list on Dogs SA website because it costs them more money than they think it's worth. Some do list on DOL. But a lot are tech phobic and don't have much in the way of a web presence at all including not looking at their email. The gun dog club probably has some labs coming there and they'd have a good idea of who is breeding what. http://www.gundogclubofsa.org.au/obedience.htm Or you can look up dog shows at Dogs SA or the SA lab club... http://www.salabclub.com.au/ there's quite a few breeders listed there including Gladys.

I know Pin Needham of Glenside vets - his partner breeds Labs - chocolate - there might be a couple of these at Agility at West Beach tonight (if training is on). Or you could phone the vet office and ask for recommendations. I would not describe any of his labs as "submissive". Most Labs I've met that are submissive get beaten up or bullied by other dogs at the park and/or they have major structural faults. One is quite shocking - nearly blind, legs don't work properly and is terrified of nearly everything. The owner's kids would not let that puppy be returned - and yet they don't help look after it. So I guess there are breeders of good quality labs and breeders of completely crappy ones (structurally and temperamentally) so you want to go meet what they've got, do your research and don't take their word for anything without checking yourself. I think there is another nice breeder / trainer, I've seen at SAODC. Gladys Hann. She uses club for distraction training mostly, as best I can tell - her labs are super friendly and seem well built to me. I always apologise for teaching one of her dogs to grovel-greeting - tho the lab (and my dog the grovel teacher) neither are really submissive. She breeds mostly yellow labs. https://www.dogzonline.com.au/breeds/member.asp?name=GHANN

Maybe cos it doesn't splash? She had a third session - not much left but she actually made it out the back door that time. I suspect - even tho I cleaned up most of the substance of the first time - at 3am, and then bicarbed it that maybe she ate some of the bicarb residue... Not suprised that set off some more... She's not too happy about being on a fast at the moment. I will look for some "nature's miracle". I think I'm becoming accustomed to the smell tho :S

Hi all Just want some more ideas on what I can do about dog vomit on the red persian carpets. One of the carpets is probably cotton, not sure what the others are. Took one of the smaller ones to a persian carpet shop and they destroyed the cotton tassels on it with acid or something and then tried to sell me new tassells - not going near them again ever. I've done the basic scrape up and soak up the mess, followed by lots of bicarb soda to get some more of the gut acid out, and then a bit of talc and vinegar spray (as per some net advice). I've looked at Shannon Lush stuff, and it mentions this: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/07/03/2293752.htm I know she's put a new book out about pet stains... I'm not overly bothered by the stains (adds character) but the smell of old weetbix/kibble is not fun.

That is so sad. You're doing the best you can. I feel like crap when someone beeps at me on the road when I was doing nothing wrong... sigh. I need more resilience and maybe to listen to Taylor Swift "Shake it off" another thousand times... Don't let the bastards (bad neighbours) get you down...

Is probably more than enough - I would do 2 minutes sessions with play between. Fast and exciting. But if basic sit / stay etc is easy - start making it a little bit more difficult - by adding distractions. Can your dog respond to cues if you're sitting too? What if you're standing on a chair? Or hiding behind the chair? What if there is a balloon over there? Or ball? Or bowl of food (maybe with a lid on first few times). I'd also want to increase the number of tricks as the puppy becomes really good at the basics (with distractions)... can you fake the dog into breaking the stay... fun game... but keep it short short. collar grab and its yer choice are two games I'd add. And "Give" and "geddit" and a release word ie "stay" needs "go" as well. And maybe crate games. For loose lead walking - really important to not go forward when the dog pulls and probably best to wait standing still until the puppy is calm enough to pay attention to you and eat something really yummy (but tiny) or play a very quick game of tug. I've just had a fun week training a terrier puppy that has not had any rules applied while out walking... freight train puller - fortunately only 7kg. Hey sled dog - whatcha doing? Cos I'm not moving until you calm down. With my dog - she has to do a nice calm sit at the door - at the moment - she likes going for a walk but hasn't quite grasped she's not getting out the door until I put the collar and lead on... but she does know once that's sorted she has to hold a calm sit at the front door until I say "go". If she moves her butt or hackles up or barks before I get the door open - I shut the door and we start over. If she hackles up or starts barking or pulling after we get outside - we go back inside until she calms down. With a puppy - 10 minutes of this will be worth 30 minutes of the old style sled dog walk because it really works the brain. And it will not take more than a couple of days for most dogs (even puppies) to figure out what they need to do to get to the good stuff. Before this - you've been rewarding the pulling (makes pulling more) by going on with the walk anyway. for a 12 week old puppy - rule of thumb is about five mins of exercise for each month of age - so you probably don't need to do more than 15 minutes at this age. And you can break the door games up into 2 minute sessions... ie ask for the nice calm sit, go out (no pulling) come back in, play tug/give/geddit etc.

There's two problems with gambling - one is the addiction... the other is fiddling results (at the expense of the sport and the addicted). It happens in horse racing, and human sports too, anything that people can put bets on - is vulnerable. but banning gambling - just drives it completely underground.

No, not liable - ranger said as much and neighbour admitted his dog put paw on your side of the fence. However - it's not what I'd want my dog to be doing - so I'd be blocking up the gap and bringing my dog inside if she barks at the fence or the neighbour's dog (or possum or cat). Ok if the cat or possum wakes me up while in my yard - I might do something different. The neighbour is at fault but I would not want my dog to be biting other dogs paws or fence fighting so I would prevent this.

I haven't noticed this around here. There's just the same ones that have always been here, tho a couple have joined franchises. I have noticed that there are quite a few vets without enough work, and loads can't afford to set up practice on their own.

This would be "rehearsals of undesirable behaviour". He's a mix of naturally protective breeds, defending his territory by seeing off all strangers (anything that walked past the front fence). And fence running and barking - is self rewarding behaviour - the more he gets to do it, joy from doing it - the more he will do it so if he's been left to do that for a week or a month or months, it will have gotten really bad and easily transferred to every critter on the footpaths. So now you have to train more desirable behaviours to replace the ones you don't want. The reactive dog thread - I found a bit depressing because it advised keeping your dog away from any triggers all the time - which is impossible. I find if we can't get an appropriate distance from a trigger (more practice of unwanted behaviour), I just put more "money in the bank" - rewards for desirable behaviour - when I can maintain a threshold distance from the trigger. Threshold distance - is how far you are from the trigger (eg other dog or cat or scary looking man) when your dog can still pay attention to you, respond to cues and accept rewards. For my dog - I use praise only for rewards because otherwise she joins behaviours - being naughty then being good to get the food (called "back chaining"). Some basic things I do with my dog that help - especially close to home (much more "protective" here)... has to hold a calm sit at the front door before I open it. If she stands up before I give permission to move - I close the door. If she hackles up or barks - I close the door or pull her back inside and start over. Must hold a calm sit with the door open to get permission to go out the door. Any behaviour I don't want and we go back inside or through the back gate and away from the triggers and start over. I also practice a three second greeting with dogs I think are suitable and I avoid letting her greet dogs that are pulling on lead unless I know them and know it will go well. Stranger dogs pulling on lead tend to get "scolded" by my dog and much as I think they deserve it - scolding is not a good way to train, and not something I want my dog doing. But any dog we greet - same rules as the door, she has to be able to hold a nice calm sit. Tho at the beach we cheat a bit and she does a nice calm friendly crawl and roll over. And no pulling on lead allowed. Mostly I just stop and wait for her to notice. But if she's being reactive, I actually drag her back to the "threshold distance" which is usually further than normal if she's already gone over the threshold of no self control or response to me. The threshold distance is not a set distance - it's behaviour and trigger dependent. Ie closer to home - the distance is greater when she starts getting upset, and little fluffy dogs - she can be quite close before they upset her (tho she will upset them at a greater distance - and I like to respect other dogs' thresholds as well - ie if they've gone over the top - we're avoiding them).

I think they might have to start enforcing their own rules if various governments are just going to wave a magic wand and shut down an entire industry because some are treating animals badly. Just look at all the puppy farms... I'm sure the RSPCA would shut more down if they could prove there was a problem and when they did there were sufficient sanctions to stop repeat offences. There's a double whammy - proving what looks obvious to us - isn't so easy with the current law, and when they do successfully prosecute the most appalling cases - the offenders get slapped with a tiny fine as if animal cruelty doesn't matter. NSW and other governments are using the wrong fix for the wrong problem - similar to BSL applied in Victoria - not dealing with the source of the problem or preventing dog bites etc. Will end up like Italy with 95 different dog breeds banned or declared dangerous?

My vet reported the same thing about four years ago - that business was down because fewer people owned pets. The ones that do own pets - take them to the vet more often (vaccinations and stuff), but less people own pets. I have noticed in my council area - that there are more and more restrictions (tho completely unenforced) on what dog owners can do with their pets.

There is already a mass culling of these dogs. But banning the whole breed and all racing - that's equivalent to banning driving, cars and car ownership because some people like to hoon. There must be a better way. And did anyone vote for animal justice party? because when I read up on our candiates - they're linked to PETA - who would ban all pet and animal ownership.

I hate when they make the dog talk in a way that makes them seem human... If I said to my dog "we're gunna be mates" - there's no way she'd whine "awww" back. She can be quite chatty but it's not human chat. At the beach she's known to some as the "roo rrooooo" dog cos that's how she says hello.

we had an Australian terrier with no hip joint - it was removed when she was fairly young because of problems. She did ok without it. So for a small dog that could work.

Sigh. That's the physics definition of force. So when someone says they're a "force free trainer" they're not talking about physics. They're talking about forcing an unwilling dog to do something it doesn't want to or doesn't understand that you want it to do (or not do) whatever. So to me Force based training - is when you see a dog "trainer" get a dog that is sitting or standing - they say "Drop" and then force the dog into a down position with a firm shove behind the shoulders. I have actually seen this at dog obedience clubs - it gives me the creeps. Same dog does not get rewarded, praise or pats when it does do what the trainer asked.

Way to go. Keep up the good work. :)

Gary Wilkes is one of the trainers I'd say was in cross over. He used to use a lot of aversives designed to punish (reduce) a behaviour but he's looking for more ways to reward what he does want instead. TSD you are an awesome trainer. My dog's first job as a puppy was to evict cats from my house yard cos I didn't like being woken up by them fighting outside my bedroom window. Dog is very very good at this job and loves it to bits. So it's very difficult to persuade her that some cats are not for chasing. But occasionally I've managed it. It really really helps if the cat doesn't run. Which also means I have to work on the training ignore the cat pay attention to me envelope - instead of allowing evil hound to bark at cat until the cat's ears can take no more and the cat runs. Dog always gives it a head start and keeps her distance. But the barking is insane. What I have to watch when trying to do LAT - is back chaining. Ie accidentally training the dog to act naughty then good to get the treat. Or trying to "lure" or "distract" the dog from the exciting cat with the treat and then rewarding when she gets distracted by the treat - oops. I found using pats was better. And distance if she could not focus on me (ie don't be close to the cat to start with).

I guess. My gazebo is a bit wimpy when it comes to shade, and when I put another cover over - it actually gets hotter, but in the crate is cooler (thicker layer of shade). One day I might buy some of that silver mesh stuff. I also like how the k9+ crates keep the bugs out.

Evil hound spent some time shut in the big crate today because she didn't seem to understand that screaming at my house guest who happened to have a bit of a sore head, was not ok. She nearly ended up in the car for the duration.

I dunno - shade important. Hot wire would be no fun. I can get two soft bladed fans into the caprice with my dog. I stole her cool coat tho.

I don't think that's going to achieve what you want but at least it sets a clear boundary of where you want the dog... It's good for body awareness training. Now see if you can get the same thing with an icecream container or shoe box.

can't keep my dog out of mine. And I've got two - a medium sized one that we use for short stays (training) and a big one (caprice?) with the sides that cover all the way round for doggy peace and long stays (competition and overnight in non dog places). The one in the pic was the small crate (wrong choice for the night but they still both went in it).

SG says It wouldn't be a training fail - if I did what I said I should do... But I forget. I'm way more like a vending machine than I should be. Willem Agility breaks... I have a crate for my dog. She LURVES being in the crate - if she gets frustrated during training there's a risk she will nick off back to the crate cos that feels better than being frustrated. I also practice start line stays or drops with distractions. And that I do get right regards rewarding "average or better" so the stays become exciting training opportunity for dog. But they have to stay on the mat to get the reward (which is release and a game of tug - good, or food (ok) or release and it's our turn on course now - best - from the dog's POV). If the instructor is talking to me during or straight after a run... I always look after my dog first and give her something to do, drop, leg weaves, pats and ear rubs if she needs calming down... It's easy if I have crate set up, I can send her there (from quite far away) and then listen to instructor. Crate also protects her from loose dogs which happen sometimes. If we're moving around with lots of different start places I don't always set the crate up, I will make her drop and stay. A lot of us do that. It's an opportunity to train a reliable stay. But at home you've got to try and break the stay with increasing levels of distractions... fake her out. Something to try on the walk (and I confess I haven't got this yet) is random sits and drops - excellent if you can get it working with big lab distraction. Start close up with lots of rewards. have a list of things you can do while you're waiting your turn that don't need equipment or much space. eg change of position games (sit,drop,stand, spin, twist, drop, stand, sit, pretty....), leg weaves if you don't need to be on lead or if you're on course when you have to stop. You need your dog to be just as excited about "stay" as they are about jumping...

For that recall where she didn't come straight back... Susan Garrett would have given a pat but no food treat. For me this is one of the hardest things - not rewarding a crappy recall - because I'm scared I will get no recall. But when I actually do the pat not treat for crappy recall - dog gets a little bit more excited cos she was *expecting* a treat (training fail on my part), and will work harder next time - ie I actually get better recalls if I aim to reward "average or better" performance instead of crap performance.