Aidan3

Corvus, do you have an inter-trial interval in the conditioning phase?

I'm not even convinced that premiums are set based on risk. I think they have a very good system of figuring out who will agree to pay how much. e.g purebred dog owners will pay a higher premium, so they are charged a higher premium.

I know a little about Corvus' experiment and prior learning shouldn't matter as it is a within subjects design using concurrent schedules, so comparing one schedule against another for a single dog (but repeated with lots of dogs). If some dogs wash-out there just won't be anything to compare.

There are neurological conditions which impair simple learning. Damage to certain parts of the brain will also impair learning. Rare, but not impossible. I have a friend in the US who has trained Labs in hunt tests for 40 years. She uses "purely positive" methods and has done for a long time. She had two littermates, essentially rescues, who were born and raised in a wardrobe by a clueless backyard breeder. You can imagine the sensory deprivation and lack of environmental stimulation. One of the dogs was a very slow learner, but she could work with him. The other she tried and tried, and this dog never cottoned on that the click meant a treat was coming no matter what she tried. She sent him away to someone she trusted who used an e-collar and he was able to teach the dog a few things, come when called and that sort of thing.

Go to an empty room, nothing on the floor. Bathrooms are often good. Drop a plastic cup or a clothes peg or something on the ground. If he investigates with his nose, do nothing. The moment he goes to move his paw towards it, click and treat. This is the beginning of a paw target to an object. Once he can paw target something, shaking hands is a piece of cake. Waving his paw, using a street crossing, or holding a tape measure for you aren't much harder.

I lack the patience to wait.. :D I never wait, pretty much a steady stream of clicks. The patience is in the planning, thinking about what you will take and where you will head with it. It should be a very informative, logical, clear flow of information. Where people really come unstuck is when the dog gives every indication he knows what you want (but he doesn't really, it was a fluke), and then you end up lumping. Then you end up waiting, or correcting, or luring or whatever.

I think it's always worth learning to free-shape, if you learn the skill the dog doesn't need to mind-read, but it's certainly easier to target or lure to begin with.

Good to hear I worry when I hear people talking about reinforcing their kids position in the pack in relation to this, good to keep it in perspective.

I honestly don't think everyone is grasping that Aidan. It's a shame, some who claim to take their lead from wolves and wild dogs apparently don't take that lead too seriously.

I find this interesting. You've bought the pup & now you want someone to train the pup! What's wrong with you taking your pup to an obedience club? I admit that some are better than others, but it's the owners that need the training & not the pup. I took it to mean they wanted some help learning how to train pup?

I would definitely begin with target. It's easier to get things than with free shaping and it will allow you to give your dogs some guidance without having to place them into position, so they should learn to at least move their bodies in relation to the target. There is almost nothing you can't teach with a target and a little bit of planning and creativity

If there is one thing I hope this thread brings home to people, it's that with resource guarding, pack order does not matter.

Do you mean to respond to a cue? Or to offer behaviours in free-shaping? I almost always start with teaching a target to a stick, or to my fist. There is a great program here: http://www.dragonflyllama.com Click on "Training Levels". There is also an article on stacking and gaiting for the conformation ring using the clicker.

Jean Donaldson (the author of the article) has put humping on cue with her over-sexed bitch. She lets her hump her leg as a reward. Obviously this is quite controversial for several reasons, not the least of which being the suggestion that it is a form of bestiality. I think she is clear of that charge, but it's certainly not a social norm.

My entire female and neutered male will hump each other when my female is in season, never when she is not in season. ETA: however I know of plenty of dogs who will hump at other times

Why do you think it would be any different if it were sexual? Or from another angle, why wouldn't he "just do it" if it were status seeking?

My wife's old beagle got hit by a car, was dragged up the highway, then kept running with half an ear missing. Thankfully I don't know, but I doubt my GSD would do that. No doubt she would do similar in defence, but not prey. That could just be her lines (DDR), the old Vic lines I am familiar with are similar. Some of the more sporting lines might be different. In any case, empirically, the evidence would suggest that a dog who has killed multiple species has high prey drive. For Huski to teach that particular dog to co-exist happily with another species of small, fast, furry thing demonstrates that she has the necessary expertise, at least with Sibes. After all, this thread started with Northern breeds. Whether she could, should or would offer advice on working line GSDs or Mals, I don't know. I think you would be impressed by working examples of other breeds, abed. A friend of mine in the US hunts hogs with pitbulls and Filas. He now has a kennel of working Patterdales. I think any of these dogs on the hunt would make a GSD or Mal look fairly laid back, after all, if they don't hunt tenaciously they are culled. We don't ask GSDs to do that, we ask them to bite a sleeve and we make sure they do it with training.

How do you measure prey drive?

The sort of drive a GSD or Malinois presents is very different in appearance to the sort of drive a Bordie Collie, sighthound, or Sibe might present. A Sibe might be fairly difficult to play tug with, but a dog who has killed multiple species would have to be considered one with very high prey drive, and would present a challenge to a novice handler. I think it's fairly safe to say this specific dog has high prey drive. edited to clarify

I say this respectfully Huski, but how about you gain some experience raising a dog with real prey drive like a working line GSD or Belgian Malinois before you become over confident in your drive containment process. My working line GSD has never killed anything. What advice did Huski give?

Good to hear about the trainer. One strategy for separation, particularly when dogs are kept indoors, is called "crate and rotate". That is where one dog runs free while the other is crated. Then every hour or two you swap them over. You can do the same thing with one dog indoors while the other is outdoors, when the weather is a bit cooler.

Sounds like a very good idea, and apart from that this could escalate into something more serious very quickly. I would separate them until (if) a professional deems them safe to run together.

I like his teeth. I knocked mine out when I was a kid (to begin with) and appreciate the effort that goes into maintaining good teeth.

http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/APNews/Art...310bed90b195d18 "The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated."

Yes, but it's a bugger to get them on the slippery suckers