Aidan3

Funny looking cats

To be fair, was that what Dr Day was scheduled to speak about?

Fresh batteries last 17 hours, if I taped it to a harness it wouldn't be difficult. Hmmm, I'm curious now... It would be interesting to compare my dogs.

I should strap the GPS to Django and see how far he goes, I would think at least twice as far as me with all the extra running around he does.

Average human walking speed is a bit under 5km/hour. According to my GPS I walk about that speed and spend about 15 minutes in every hour stopped when I walk my dogs. I walk for 45 minutes most evenings, more in summer. Sometimes I run, but I cover the same distance which is about 3km. Weekends I go considerably further, usually 6-10km depending on how much time I have available.

I walk with Ghandi and Cthulhu, so we don't really have a problem.

No problem. 3 weeks of sleep deprivation will do that to you! As it turns out that he is not barking at the same time each night (although there is a pattern), I agree that it's best to seek professional help. It seems you have a lot going on, and it may be worth mentioning the sleep issues (if there are other causes) to whoever you see. If you call Jane Harper I trust that, with her reputation, she would refer you to a medical specialist if she sees a reason to.

He starts at the same time each night. AS I asked in my last post...in what capacity do you know them? I'm a completely different person and have no knowledge of either of them. I was just asking the question because it seemed the obvious question to ask (as a dog trainer who works with problem behaviours). If he starts at the same time each night, a likely explanation is that something in the environment is triggering him, and from the sounds of it, it's something that really upsets him. If you know of anything that starts at that time of night each night (even if it seems unlikely), it might be something you can rule out.

Does he consistently start and stop barking at the same time each night?

why does picking matter??? A certain amount of "how we eat" is learned. I have seen dogs whom I suspect have learned to eat less and less until their metabolisms are only just ticking over, which I don't think is a good thing. On the other hand, a dog who eats everything in sight (within reason) is easy to feed. If they start putting on weight, we can cut back until they are a healthy weight again.

http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Writing/TeachEat.html

They way I see it, shaping really only becomes stressful if the rate of reinforcement drops off (dog keeps trying something/s that isn't working). If that is the case, then we need to back it up a bit or split it down more. In this case, that might mean option 3 simply because there isn't a better way to back up or split it down than to do some rear end awareness work.

I taught Sabella kick-back stands and fold-back downs, she made the whole thing look seamless. But she can levitate, too

Are you holding the dummy in your hands? So does it look like this? 1. present dummy 2. he touches 3. you click and treat 4. you're still holding the dummy in the same place 5. he's still sitting there wondering what you want him to do next? If so, I would put the dummy behind my back and re-present it - just like you would with a target stick. Just about every dog I've ever trained will sit there with either a blank or expectant expression if you don't re-present a target. Presenting the target is a prompt or cue, in the absence of that prompt or cue, you often won't get the response (until the dog has learned that it is an extraneous cue).

They have to learn this ["sense of entitlement"] somehow. Persephone's suggestion would probably lead to a better outcome. No doubt they will appreciate the food more if they are hungry, but I doubt they will link this with the behaviours you want to change unless you make them work for it.

I don't think you need to claim any sort of moral high-ground to think about ethical choices. In fact, once you start thinking about it, it's very hard to claim the moral high ground.

From the old version of "The Book of Training Levels" by Sue Ailsby: "PROBLEM SOLVING: SHE PUTS HER MOUTH ON IT AND THEN SPITS IT OUT SO FAST I CAN'T GET ANY KIND OF HOLD AT ALL! A normal step in the progression. She's been putting her mouth on the dumbell and you've been clicking. The click ends the behaviour, so she thinks the behaviour is to grab the dumbell and ungrab it as quickly as possible. Relax, we can fix this. Of COURSE you've been clicking as she hit the dumbell, rather than as she was moving away from it again, right? Click X10 for the grab. Now let her grab and ungrab it, and you DO NOTHING. Sit there holding the dumbell out with an expectant look on your face and do NOTHING. She'll hit the dumbell once, spit it out, look at you, give you a "Hey, Stupid!" and hit it again. CLICK! You got two grabs for the price of one! Keep asking for two grabs before you click. If you start to lose the grab, by all means go back and pay X10 for a single grab, but then ask for the double again. Ailsby's Principle Of Laziness says that it's easier to hold something than to grab it twice, so if you keep clicking the second grab, the behaviours (spitting it out and reaching for it again) between the two grabs will get slower and less enthusiastic. Sooner or later, she'll ask you if maybe she could just sit there holding it with you instead of actually spitting it out? And you'll agree that yeah, that would probably be OK… And bingo, you've got your longer hold." ( http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Leve...17Retrieve.html )

But should we reward this attention grabbing If we wanted to reward it, wouldn't we use something like, say.... ice cream?

I'm not surprised. It was an interesting choice of medication for the problem you describe. It is used for anxiety, well that's what I am prescribed it for Yes, I think that might be part of the problem actually. "See a symptom, prescribe a medication that says it treats that symptom". Whether your vet was right in prescribing it or not is not for me to say, it might have been totally appropriate, but not the right dose for your individual cat. Alprazolam is short-acting, so it's useful for short episodes of anxiety, in response to known stressful events (so in this regard it might have been appropriate, say, if the change in your house was only a few hours). If the anxiety is longer-term, there are other medications which have longer lasting effects without the ups and downs. For spraying in the house a completely different class of medication is often prescribed. Also, the dosage window is very large. It's likely your cat got way too much of the drug. The idea is to return the animal to as close to "normal" behaviour as possible, not knock 'em out of the park. Glad the homeopathic drops are helping. This is not so much a critique of your situation but a comment on why a medication might be prescribed inappropriately. It's a far more complex topic than reflected here, though.

There's a lot more to responsible pet ownership and reducing dog attacks than has been offered by these experts. However, if training were compulsory (an idea I would strongly object to, but there could be more effective incentives) it would open up the opportunity to educate owners on responsible dog ownership and dog safety.

Nature abhors an empty thread

Everything sounds like an icelandic name or word when spelled backwards.

I'm not surprised. It was an interesting choice of medication for the problem you describe.

The definition is any stimulus which increases or maintains rate of responding. It doesn't need to be good or bad or wanted or unwanted or encouraging or discouraging, i.e it doesn't have to be something with a valence or something that elicits an emotional response. It just needs to increase or maintain the behaviour. Talking to a dog might reinforce the dog's behaviours, or it might not. If the rate of responding is increased or maintained, then it it is a reinforcer. The problem is that people are fairly poor judges of rate of responding unless it is really obvious, so the practical advice that gets dished out is usually fairly general - "don't talk to your dog if he's jumping on you" - there's a good chance that if your dog is like most dogs, this will be a reinforcing consequence. There's also a good chance that something else is maintaining that behaviour, but at least we ruled out the talking and fussing.

If a dog is severely anxious or is exhibiting stereotypies (OCD-like pacing, licking, clinically diagnosed separation anxiety etc) then anxiolytics can be very helpful. We need to be careful not to rule out appropriate medical care for this sort of problem, as the risk of side-effects vs the benefit gained is very low. The research does support the use of anxiolytics in clinical settings, whether they are being prescribed appropriately by vets is another matter though.