Mrs Rusty Bucket

My ACDx is very good at ducking and dodging fast moving anything - other dogs, people trying to pat her or catch her etc. She also likes to herd with her mouth. Ie we do an about turn obedience move and she puts her mouth on my thigh and herds me. Doesn't hurt but it's a bit rude. She used to nip ankles of anything moving including joggers, other dogs, bicycles, and cars. Kept her distance from the tractor mower tho. Just ran circles barking at it. She does that a lot - anything new or weird to her - she runs around it in circles - just out of reach and barks her head off at it. Ranger, gardener, lady on beach with umbrella, cat, umbrella on beach, washed up bit of tree trunk on the beach, sunbakers... And she seems quite fearless ie will approach anything. Deerhound, Rottweilers, Cows, Horses, snakes, water, tractor mowers, model air planes, kite boarders, possums etc.

You can get wooly mats for dog beds off the web. Of course my evil hound decided to chew pieces out of hers. There was a basic mat it came with and most of her beds I line with large bath sheet towels which she also eats, and old pillows in pillow slips - so far only the pillow slips have suffered the occasional munching. And old fleecy tops - sometimes I wear these for a while before I put them on her bed. Plenty of stuff in the $2 cheapie shops, big W or the op shops. I've even got a really cheap duna that I was thinking of using for dog bed or car fridge insulation. Cost $20.

Definitely follow it up with yummy treat. I had to wrap canex up in promite toast with lots of promite to get her to eat those. They must taste yuck. Hmm why don't they make dog repellent out of these things? I sometimes use peanut butter, the crunchy sort so the dog can't sift out the lumps either.

Could be a "fatty lump" or benign cyst. Deep breaths. Get it checked by the vet. I don't know if you can tell them apart by feel. Dr Oz said that breast cancer in human female would feel hard and spikey. All the fatty lumps and cysts I've ever felt (in dogs) have felt smooth and slightly squidgy not hard. But that's completely unprofessional opinion. I am not a vet or medical professional. I suspect (best guess) the way to be sure is with a biopsy.

Joelle Sorry to read about your loss. Our Adelaide ABC local radio did a segment on rat poison a while back. The expert said that there are different kinds of poison and he estimated that a dog that ate three rats that died of talon poisoning would probably die. The active ingredient in Talon is the strongest and fastest acting of the rat poisons. He said something called "racumen" or "ratcumen" - I was never sure about the name of it, was slower acting and less likely to kill an animal that ate a rat that died of it. That you'd have longer to get your pet to the vet for treatment if it ate this poison. The trouble with Talon is that it comes in purple wax blobs, which a rat (ideally) will carry off back to its nest and kill the whole family. (sorry rat lovers). But if the rat carries this wax blob into your yard and the dog eats it directly - your dog is dead. I'd be looking for the neighbour with fruit trees or chooks or both and asking them if they were baiting rats and to let you know when they put the baits out because you're getting a puppy to replace the one that just died from rat poision. Be as nice and calm about it as you can, or send someone else who is less emotionally involved to ask. The neighbours may have been oblivious to the problem for your dog(s) and amenable to using traps instead. Or they might not but at least you'd know. Maybe they'd be amenable to getting border terriers, that would solve their rat problem without toxic chemicals. And I guess that you would not be able to leave your dog outside alone at all ever again. I won't leave my dog outside on her own either because I'm paranoid about the rat poison problem. I do trap mice. Dunno if I've got rats. Haven't seen any but every now and again the trap gets dragged somewhere and there's nothing in it. But that could be the sleepy lizard eating the (dead) mouse. The neighbours across the road have chooks and fruit trees. The neighbours next door have a cat, canaries (eek), and fruit and veg too. The neighbour across the back lane has a gigantic fig tree infested with lorikeets, another cat and gawd knows what else. In my old house I used to put the purple blobs in the roof of my house because there were rats up there. Every now and again I'd catch a sick rat. My neighbour over the back fence had a lilli pilli tree overhanging his yard, with rats or possums in it, and he had two dogs. Never occured to me to tell him about the rat sack, given I put it in my roof, a long way from his yard and there were no gaps under the fence. And as far as I know, his dogs never got sick. One would bark all night at the possums. I think that one might have been re-homed as there were al ot of complaints about it barking. I didn't have a dog at the time.

How old is puppy? If he's 4 months old he should be ok for four hours or so in the crate. Can he hold it all night? A puppy will try to avoid going in the crate but might not be so careful with the rest of the house. Plus - being in the crate he can't practice evil things like eating furniture.

How is the landlord going to know if you only let him up the front to sleep in his crate? Put something yummy in his crate when you put him in there. Definitely recommend crate games. http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php I think Agilityclick.com sell it in Australia.

I'm not sure what a ping string is but I can't see how it would stop a lab - even if it was electrified. I've seen a lab jump clean over a 1m fence and they could probably clear taller fences if they were motivated enough (bitch on heat, scary thunderstorm). And a trip wire (ie string at lab nose height) would not be fun around a pool for anyone else either.

I think it's a bit like the words "fresh" and "free range" ie not well defined in law or general use so people can use them in a way that most people would not. I think a dog trainer - trains a dog to do tasks on cue. A dog training instructor trains the dog trainers. a behaviourist is who you go to when you want the animals behaviour to change, not necessarily "on cue". Ie you want the animal to stop ripping up the furniture when you're not home or barking all day in the back yard. Or attacking other dogs when you're not home. A behaviourist should be able to do all the things a trainer can do, and ideally train the owner/trainer too. I think all can use learning science/theory ie classical and operant conditioning. I would expect anyone charging for their services to have some tertiary education on the topic and some experience and success, or not to charge.

My sister's place has a pool as part of a court yard. It originally just had part of the boundary fence ie kids from off the street couldn't get to it easily. When she moved in, she got a kind of glass panel fence put around it with child/lab proof gates. It left about 1 to 2m around the edge of the pool but didn't spoil the view. Ie the court yard still looked big. However - one of the glass panels shattered. So I'd recommend getting laminated ones or security film put on. It wasn't supposed to shatter but there was nothing to stop the glass from going everywhere when it did. A (weather proof) security film or laminate would do this. Or maybe perspex would be better. Anyway it should be possible to lab proof the pool in a cost effective and asthetic way. And that would help if you ever have kiddies to visit too.

I think my vet said it would be ok to change over at 6 months. I have ACDx, he has Labs. I think smaller dogs mature faster. Just do it bit by bit. Ie mix a bit of the new stuff in with the old each night, a little bit more each feed, until it's all changed over. My packet recommended swapping 1/4 at a time.

If you think your dogs could drown if they fell in the pool, you're going to have to keep them where they cannot fall in the pool unless you're there to supervise. I wouldn't try to rely on training or fingers crossed for this one.

When my dog's head goes down onto the ground, sometimes it's stress and loss of focus. Mostly it's because she's found something yummy, new and exciting and I've got to find ways of topping that to get her attention back. I have loads of problems at my dog club because possum poo usually rates - on novelty value alone - as better than almost anything I've got to offer. I've got a few things that top it, but I just have to remember I've got them and pull them out and make her work for them. Have been seriously considering loading up a treat bag with fresh possum poo. Sigh.

I would love to see the end of choke chains and harsh corrections. One of the most experienced but least educated instructor at our club yesterday, instructed one of my class mates to give her naughty lab a "Correction" which involved a mighty reef on the choke collar and yelling "NO" at it. Instructor said it was ok because dog had run off instead of doing a recall, and had been caught by someone else. She didn't get that if you deliver the adversive, the dog is going to look to avoid you. Several of the rest of us would quit class before we let that happen to us or our dogs. There would certainly be a stand up ding dong fight about it. At least she's not chief instructor this year and this year's chief instructor has been to McGreevy's seminar so knows something about learning theory and how bad choke chains are (in his opinion - which I had some studies to wave at people). Personally, I know a lot more about learning theory and how to apply it (even if I'm still relatively crap in practice). And I know a lot more about "fall out" from harsh badly timed or inappropriate punishment. Still see people punish their dogs for coming back e v e n t u a l l y, and wonder why that doesn't fix the problem. How stupid can you be? Still not sure about what to do with my dog who will blow me off in favour of possum poo grazing even when I've got the best treats in my bag, and never punish her for coming back to me no matter how embarred or frustrated I get when she's naughty.

Here's another SG is mixing up the use of treats and toys. Pay attention to how often Feature the dog gets a treat - ie lots and often...

cattle dogs, bcs, and some staffies and other dogs have a white tip tail. I read somewhere that it makes them easier to see in the dark/dusk. So now for a few ACD behaviours. Does this dog like chasing runners and nipping them on the ankle and when you try to hit it with a rolled up newspaper (I don't recommend actually trying to connect, but a nearby swipe will do), does it easily dodge the swing and then grab the newspaper and rip it up like a long lost favourite toy? Does it like swinging from horses tails, but they never manage to connect when they try to kick it? (I don't recommend encouraging this either).

Susan Garrett recommends a head halti like the gentle leader to get a dog's head off the ground - in her book Ruff Love. She also talks about value transfer. If the dog love food, teach it to love tug and transfer the value of the food to the tug by rewarding a good game of tug, with food. You can use food to get the dog fired up and excited and then train in short bursts of 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. The higher the rate of re-inforcement (with tiny treats so the dog doesn't get full) the faster the dog learns and the more excited about training it remains. My dog will do that lovely heel as long as I have a treat in my hand - usually held somewhere around my belly button but sometimes over my left or right hip. I like doing agility so we need to work both sides. I try to make the whole deal a fun game. So I pay attention to what my dog loves doing (apart from mouse hunting) and work that into the game and training. Is Shelley into retrieving at all - because throwing a ball and fetching it can work as reward. It may help to put the ball into a sock so it can be used as a tug too and to limit travel when it lands. Or get/make a ball with a rope in it. There is a GR doing obedience comps around Adeliade that moves stuck to the owners leg with its head up and all happy paws. Trainer got all vague when I asked him how he did it.

A whippet once won the Naracourte SA High Jump against Kelpies and GSD... those dogs can jump...

I do loads and loads of stand in place then go then tug with my dog and it has really helped with a solid start line stand, I can lead out, fake moves at her and she won't move. And then on release, she blasts off, I put the tug in the hand I held up for starting - ie she is supposed to come up on that side of me and reward with the tug. If I have bungee tug I hang on to it but if its just a little skinneeez I let go, and chase her to keep her moving and call her back and run the other way to get her to chase back to me... There are so many variations on this and it has helped so much with handling. She hasn't nicked off nearly as much as she was before I started. And she's much easier to get back if she does, I just wave a tug at her, hide it and assume the ready to start position, semi crouch, bum out hand up - GO and she comes flying...

Skip I think you would have to "generalise" the training for the chi. Something's different so you have to start again as if she knows nothing about loose lead walking. Ie no going forwards while she is pulling (or what ever method you used the first time to train her) - you need to get the new walker to do all the training moves again. However given it's something she does know how to do - although only with you - she should learn much faster in the new environment (ie with a new person on the other end of the lead). Can't help you with the problem of being attacked by other dogs. It's always a risk.

k9 pro have some good stuff on how you should pick a trainer. Steve from K9 pro will also recommend someone he trusts who may be closer to you. The all dogs people - I've looked at their website and it rings alarm bells for me - I'd avoid that one. However I've seen Steve work with a DA dog and was very impressed with his skill, timing and gentleness. The equipment was a tad scary to look at (prong collar) but he taught the dog what to do to relieve pressure - ie move closer to Steve, before he exposed the dog to any other dog. And then he taught the owner how to work and help her own dog. Was amazing and very encouraging that this dog could be helped so easily and relatively quickly, although a long term solution would take longer ie having the dog safe in all situations.

I think you may need to try the umbilical cord thing and a 20 minute timer. If the dog has been scolded (or imagines it has) it will hide when it goes. What is more inconveinent - a lead so the dog can't sneak off, or having to clean up the mess. And is there some reason why you don't want to crate the dog when you're not able to supervise it. Some dogs find crates a safe place and quite soothing. Provided you have gotten them accustomed to being in there (lots of treats).

Nekhbet I'm pretty happy that she doesn't kill things even though I'd rather not have to. I think my cousin's guinea fowl are pretty happy about it too. She has pulled a bit of wool off some rather shaggy sheep in herding lessons so not sure I trust her completely though the teacher didn't seem too upset about it. Ie dog backed off when told. Just got a wee bit too excited. Maybe it's a feel thing ie wet cold wool so thick dog can't feel the sheep would be similar to a stuffed toy where as a warm mouse with a heart beat would not. However she won't damage or eat or chew the dead cold stiff mice either. Sometimes I wish I knew what she is thinking.

http://www.freewebs.com/dogmatters/pullingonleaddamage.htm http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/LA/hawgood1.htm http://www.vetinfo.com/dog-training-collar.html It is basic physics ie you apply force over a narrow area ie a narrow chain, it causes more damage than same force applied over a wide area. A dog's neck is a very sensitive area. It contains the dog's spinal cord. If these things were purely for decoration - you could use a bit of gold wool thread that would break before any harm was done to the dog. Only last Tuesday morning at my dog club a woman with a well behaved but somewhat DA Weimerana, was greeted enthusiastically by another not so well behaved Weim who had nicked off during a recall exercise. The woman grabbed both dogs by their choke collars and significantly damaged her own hands and would have done the same damage to the dog's neck. Physics again, the force would have been even across the chain around her fingers and the dog's neck. There was a lot of screaming involved. So if you can guarantee your dog will never bolt to the end of the lead for any reason - use the wool. Why risk using a skinny chain? And yet I have read in here of heaps of dogs being attacked or rushed by other dogs at shows. And I'm sure even the most well behaved dogs would not remain calm and on a loose lead when being attacked by another. So even if your dog is perfect - not all dogs are, but it's still your dog that would suffer.

My dog doesn't think any time of the day, night or morning is too early for chasing cats. Though she doesn't dispatch those either. They don't make a habit of yowling outside my bedroom window at 2am anymore though.