Mrs Rusty Bucket

I guess they won't be doing that again. Does explain how it all went to hell. Too many firsts at once, for dogs, handlers and observers.

the 'out' couldn't have come soon enough! that would have been one very firm and unhesitating chomp! I think - to get both legs so severely - there must have been more than one chomp. And don't they usually go for an arm?

You need to find the nest and get it destroyed. If they're that quick that they're on the scene before your dog is done eating - the nest must be very close. European wasps forage by doing a sort of grid search over an area. When they find some food, they collected it and head directly back to the nest. So you can use this to track them back to the nest or triangulate it. Ideally with food that is not your puppies dinner. Otherwise - feed puppy indoors behind screens that the wasps can't get through. If this is not possible - consider getting a very large soft sided crate - and feeding inside that with the doors zipped shut. Maybe spray the outside of it with surface spray. That way the wasps can't get in. You can also make or buy traps for wasps - if you hang these around your boundary - hopefully the wasps won't come further than the traps. This page describes a bit more how to find the nest. Ask your local council to get it destroyed if it is not on your property. If it is on your property, get professional pest controllers to do it. If it's on your neighbour's property and they won't get it destroyed - talk to your council. https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=283

I guess her situation is not a lot different than if you're walking in a park or along a footpath and get attacked by a dog that you weren't interacting with. If this was a police dog in training and it latched onto the wrong person... erm. The "out" should have been quicker.

everything in the right quantity can be toxic. Even water. Or oxygen. Ie breathing pure oxygen and nothing else for extended period of time will kill you. As will drinking too much water > 2 litres an hour or 12 litres in a day - something you'd do if you were hiking in hot weather. So my dog got raisins yesterday but seems fine. Every now and again she eats cooked chicken bones and is fine. I do remember giving previous dogs cooked lamb chop bones with no noticeable problems but I would not give my current dog these tho she has occasionally eaten something equivalent. And we've had icky problems with raw chicken wing but not so bad we needed a vet. Frozen works better. She has to break it up to swallow if it's frozen. I guess we know more now and we get more paranoid. Vets get to take bones out of dog throats on a very regular basis. But that doesn't happen every time a dog eats a bone.

The LAT training is described in detail in a book called "control unleashed" by Leslie McDevitt There's a similar system developed or published around the same time called BAT or Behaviour Adjustment Training by Grisha Stewart. If your dog won't take food - like the others said - you're too close to the trigger. You need to find a place where there is a trigger (eg another dog) but where you can be far enough away that your dog will still listen to you and then you can practice. This is not that easy to find but around here, dog clubs can be good because all the out of control dogs have to be on lead... and you can be the other side of a football oval (where dogs are also supposed to be on lead). And then you take note of what that distance is in that place (it's going to be a little bit different in every new place) - and work on the edge of it. Sometimes with really extremely sensitive dogs, they need to be put on valium / Prozac for dogs - just so you can get them to be calm enough to pay attention to you for training. And once they're used to the training routine and starting to calm down, then they can start to come off the drug. For that system you need a vet-behaviourist (equivalent to a psychiatrist who can prescribe drugs) and a trainer (eg equivalent to a psychologist or a counsellor or life coach who can teach you new ways of looking at the world but not prescribe drugs). sometimes that's one person but often it's two. Hopefully you don't need to go the drug route but it is an option if you can't find a way to be on the edge of the trigger distance. Look forward to updates after you talk to Thistledog's trainer.

This sanitarium one http://www.sanitarium.com.au/products/spreads/peanut-butter/natural-smooth-peanut-butter 100% peanuts But last time I looked all the peanuts were imported - some from China - except Dick Smith - and this was in the foodland. PS good to know about the nutrigel - I hope I never need it for any of my hounds.

Maybe - you think so because of the way some of them carry on, but in fact - some dogs are born this way and it's very hard to get them to see the world as a friendly place. But they can definitely be improved. Some dogs have been horribly abused and still see the world as a great place and forgive all. This is usually the best way to get a good result. Punishing a dog that is frightened - just gives it a good reason (instead of an irrational one) to be frightened. Scolding or slapping a dog for growling - can lead to suppression of the growl - so the dog goes from aware of another dog to attack with no inbetween warning for anyone, because it's been "trained" not to give any warning (growl). As Willem said - if you reward train for some of the time and put your dog in situations where it is overwhelmed (too close) and reacts badly other times - you're going to set your training back. Also with my dog - if I reward calm behaviour - after bad behaviour with food - she acts bad then calm to get the treat. If I reward with pats and praise - she understands that and the pats and praise help calm her down some more. I also reward with distance - moving away - which reduces the pressure and need in her to be scary. PS this is one of K9pro video on retraining a fear aggressive dog - excuse the dramatic music.

Thank you. I've got photoshop so I can use it.

This would be the low or no sugar options. I checked a bunch of jars in our supermarket fairly recently and couldn't find any with this stuff. Tho it is common in the USA and definitely means checking the ingredient list. The most recent jar of Dick Smith - was the only jar I could find with Australian Peanuts, also had some sugar - which I rate as undesirable but non toxic. I guess the only other way is to get some peanuts crushed at your local health food shop. Then it's all peanut and nothing else. Except trace of rat poo - all peanut has this, well all the imported peanuts will. PS I had to google nutrigel. Apparently its main reason to exist is to make tablets taste better while giving the dog a vitamin boost. But I would not want to have to use it for dog food. Not at $80 per kg (same price as many liver treats eg $8 for 100g). (Or over $1000 for a 15Kg bag - if you could get it that way).

Mine is very good at sorting the haves from the have nots at the beach. Have treats - no I don't - yes you do - no - oh wait... I do - what a clever dog... dammit (dog gets treat for being a treat detector with the manners of a bushranger).

European wasps have hives. Usually when they find something to eat and take back to the nest - they go directly towards the hive. So you can put out a small amount of meat or maybe something sweet depending what time of year it is, and they will pick some of that and make a direct line back to the nest. You can then move the tin of food further along that line until you find where the nest is, or triangulate with several tins and where the lines intersect is where the nest is. My brother's house had a most enormous nest under his verandah, I noticed when they hosted a birthday party right next to it... ugh. Nobody got stung. Mostly if I see them out in my back yard - there's not many, I get out the fast knock down fly spray and kill them. European wasps find food by doing careful searches, and when they get back to the nest they don't tell all the other wasps. So if there's not many you can stop them by killing them, spray and duck.

As best I can tell they're similar in terms of energy and enthusiasm and prone to getting weird lumps in their old age. Got one friend with a Vizsla with major health problems including cancer and it's very young, had the first lump off when it was about 6 months old. But that's the only one and I see lots. I see more Vizsla off lead than GSP suggesting that they're easier to train (recall) than GSP. But there is a wire haired GSP competing obedience and agility here and no Vizsla. So it might also be something to do with who chooses what. Vizsla tend to be cling rats. They like to lean on people and they're everybody's friend. I don't know if they get separation anxiety more than GSP - both varieties like to be with people. A lot. But if they get a good mental work out in the morning before you go out and be professional all day - that should help them be calm and sleep all day.

Wow - way to go NZ... Closest we've got are council rego discounts for desexed dog, microchipped and "trained" - which has a bunch of very simple criteria like being able to hold a sit while another dog walks by on lead at an appropriate distance. To come when called from some huge distance like 10m - you get three tries... I've got the list somewhere. It was considered equivalent to a pass at grade 3 level at our dog club. And they could issue the certificates. My current council doesn't even have a dog club. So not much training going on around here. And I cannot persuade people with little dogs to stop them from harassing big dogs. Or how bad it is for my dog as part of the little dog pack - to go harass the big dogs too. Ie the big dogs don't take the little ones seriously but my dog - different story.

I'd like dog owners to pass a test too. When is it ok for your dog to be off lead? When is it ok for your dog to approach a dog you don't know? What must you provide for your dog at home? Must your dog be registered - who with? If your dog is not desexed... precautions and breeding questions How often should your dog be vaccinated and wormed... (more than one answer but I don't want to see "never") stuff like that. that other dog owners don't seem to know

He'd probably like "the hat game" I park my dog in a stay and I start sneaking off and trying to fake her out of the stay... if she breaks her stay (moves a paw or more) - I put her back where she started, with a collar grab or asking for some fancy heel work (pats but no treats)... If she stays - I tell her "go" the release word and run away from her and as she gets close I put my hat out on the side I want her to arrive, so she can grab the hat and run with it... When we're at the beach - I usually use a toy or a ball and throw that ahead of me for her to grab - cos she will take my hat and dunk it in the water if I use that at the beach. Now to get a rocket recall all I have to do is take my hat off...

I guess you could try Gawler or Para Districts or Munno Para or maybe Woodville? Sunday Mornings - Para Districts trains obedience Sunday mornings. This page has a list http://www.dogobediencesa.com/clubs.html Not sure any of them would be training on the Easter Weekend. There's also a calendar of when the trials are on - from that website. If I was picking a club for Sunday Mornings for training - I think I'd be happy to go with Para. They also do Dances with Dogs and agility - which hopefully means more reward based training and more fun for handler and dog.

Wouldn't be good for footballers falling on it either. Our worst problem is when they put dynamic lifter all over the ovals. And evil hound wants to eat it or roll in it. They use the stinky stuff. I used to play hockey on grass fields we shared with dog walkers. Some areas, they were really good about picking up and others, not so much. And quite often it was some of the hockey players who brought their dogs and had to be told to go pick up. I guess in areas where dogs are very likely to get wormed regularly, I'm not so worried. There's bird poop and in some places - bat poop on the fields too. Duck poop is the worst. And we're not going to stop them.

There's a lot of jobs around that require no formal qualifications or licence to do. It's up to the person paying for the service to check that the person has what qualifications or skills they want. With a "dog trainer" - what I really want is someone who can teach me to train my dog and make us both feel great doing it. http://www.collared-scholar.com/lessons-learned-from-my-dog/dont-be-a-dog-person-an-open-letter-to-dog-trainers/

Doesn't seem to rate Oddball but does have the correct rating for Red Dog.

That seems like a good outcome for both dogs for now. tho I'm not sure Annie going to visit Rusty will be good - unless you supervise the interactions (no bad behaviour from Rusty, to prevent bad behaviour by Annie). I've had to crate or put my dog in the car when visiting my brother while he had extremely rude dog. And in the end I stopped taking my dog to visit while he had rude dog.

Do you think things would improve if they had more judges, ie like ice skating... have several different judges and maybe a vet who specializes in dog structure and movement scoring the dogs? And ditch the score that is most distant from the average score? I know that would be too expensive for most local shows but it should work for the big ones like Crufts and that huge one in the USA and maybe our Royal Shows... I don't know what choice that judge had or how dogs qualify to get into Crufts - so hard to say whether she chose the best from a whole group of wobbly GSD.

I can't believe how much yanking around they do to get the dogs where they want them. I'm pretty sure a normal GSD could be trained to run out in front if that's what they want, and then heel nicely without being yanked and then held there with brute strength. They should be able to do all those moves on a loose lead. And the shape of them and the way they move - ugh.

I got told that in Mudgee - dogs were not allowed on football ovals at all. Frustrating much. I thought it was a NSW rule. I don't know how that would go down on council land that residents with dogs pay for in SA.

This suggests that consistent training could work but also his trigger for rude behaviour is Annie the Kelpie. Now I'm wondering if he's rude with all other dogs or Annie is special. And whether he is bullying her or trying to placate her. I think he's bullying her from your descriptions but I don't know why - other than he can. Nuts off - good to know. Unfortunately removing the nuts that aren't there means not an option for trying to improve his behaviour (or humping Annie enthusiasm).