sidoney

I'd love to see some updated photos!

I do that too pf. Take the dogs when picking up son from school and give kids treats to give the dogs. BTW would not put this dog under that kind of pressure just yet but positioning further away at school release time so there are not so many kids, and rewarding dog with kids around could be OK. Also possible to get chosen kids to toss nice visible yummy treats near dog, dog associates treats with kids without having to be too close, as dog feels more comfortable then kid/s can get closer and eventually hand feed. Also not sure where nipped kid patted dog. On top of head? Not a good place. Better to pat from a lower approach while relearning - over the eyes can be intimidating. ETA: ETA means edited to add. Also, your own kids should be fine since they will be a part of the everyday family - dogs will behave differently to their own family kids. Dog next door is a fear biter but fine with their grandchildren (who lived there for a time).

I would tell them that they don't get to pat dogs that they tease and throw things at, and if they want to be friends with the dog they should be nice to him and not do things to him over the fence. I had a similar problem with kids next door. They want to get the dogs to react and do stuff. I have had words with more than one group of kids and parents.

I'm not clear from the description exactly what you are trying to achieve. If you want to achieve a particular behaviour, you need to be clear about what you want. From there you can work out how to get it. It sounds to me like the dog/s may not be operant in training with you. That is, may not understand how to try things in order to get you to give them rewards. (Dogs are operant in their day to day interactions with their environment but can become dependent on being shown what to do if they are not taught to be operant in training.) If you want to clicker train with an operant dog, try the "101 things to do with a box" exercise to teach the dog to be operant. This is a good starter article. Beware what you teach the dog as its first operant behaviour as this tends to become a default behaviour. Make it something that you don't mind, or something that won't happen without the object cue (e.g. a box). I made the error with my CDX dog of shaping her bark for a radio contest to sound like a particular word. She already did "speak" but I wanted to make it sound more like this word. That became her default behaviour - I can tell you from experience that this is not something that you want. My kelpie nose touches my hand which has spilled more than one cup of tea. I had not considered this when I first trained it. From now on all my default behaviours will be ones I like the dog to offer.

It's nice that you people care. I have a neighbour whose dog barks every time one of us is outside - and he complains to the council about my dogs, who bark much less than his (and he cannot take the spurious complaints further as he has nothing to take). But then, he is one of those endlessly angry people. I do nothing about the dog because barking at me is one of the only interesting things it gets to do - it never goes out, for example, and is usually alone.

Great looking girl - make an eye catching performance doggie.

It's easy to obsess over lumps, I know, I've done it too many times. I always get my vet to check them. I've had a few removed from various dogs and none have been anything to worry about. Other lumps I've been advised to just leave as they are fine. I have a friend whose dog had mast cell tumour, and ended up dying, same breed as mine (Vizsla), so I do obsess over them. Don't poke at the lump though coz if it IS something you don't want, you could disturb the cells in it and maybe distribute them in ways you don't want, IMO. Of course that said I can't stop poking at our latest lump, that I've been assured is just a wart.

IMO there is the quality of the drive satisfaction to think about. What "does it" for the dog. Is a ball (or other reward) going to satisfy the drive as effectively as herding sheep? (And is there a difference between dogs that have and have not worked sheep, in regards to the ball?)

Working dog people I know who do or have done both agility and sheepwork tell me the dogs are much more serious about the sheepwork. Still, it's much more difficult to access sheep than agility equipment in the 'burbs.

One vet has seen it and one has not. That says something to me. If you want a different opinion then see if you can get it from someone who actually sees it. My two rescue foster sheps both had what you describe. I had them fixed when they were desexed. It was never an issue for them, I just thought it might help with their adoptability - it's possible (one never knows) that this is why they landed in the pound in the first place.

IMO "many people" haven't learned the importance of putting shaped behaviours on cue. It's easy to get a dog offering behaviours. It takes repetition and time to get them properly on cue, so they appear when the cue is given and not otherwise. I'd rather do at least the foundations of the different things I planned to do, so that the dog doesn't get too fixed in one "slot". Before agility was really around much, I competed in obedience with one of my dogs. It was harder then for her to learn to work away from me in agility. The younger one got a bit of each and didn't have the issues in changing from one to the other. Mrs D dogs are very strongly contextual creatures. That's why you have to proof, proof, proof in different environments, because a behaviour known in one environment is not automatically generalised. I'd suggest you don't do obedience exercises near sheep! If you can have a cue for the dog, "sheep work" or "obedience work", he'll work it out. In fact the more practice he has the better he'll get at working it out. Do you do dry sheepwork at all? Away from the sheep? Or is it all on sheep? If it's all on sheep, then the sheep themselves make the cue. Otherwise you could do something like have an obedience outfit and a sheepherding outfit, or something like that.

I just saw this thread. Can't offer anything other than support. Kaeleigh has certainly had a rough trot in her life so far. Hope things look up for you.

Chillies have historically been used for intestinal worms. And still are by many.

Yes, you need something he WILL NOT get out of. By gradually improving the fence after he got over it, you most likely (without meaning to) made it more likely he'd try harder each time he tried - the "I got over it when it was this high, maybe I can get over it when it's this high" progression. I had a dog that was a terrible escaper, mostly because I didn't have much money and kept making things a bit better each time. Each time she got out, it made her more likely to try harder the next time. It didn't stop until I got a dog yard. So you can say I learned the hard way - these days I understand the behavioural theory behind what happened. That is, the extinction component of behavioural theory says that if a behaviour (e.g. jumping to get over the fence) is unrewarded, the dog will try a bit harder before it gives up - and if trying harder is successful, then it's just been rewarded for trying harder. Once I got a dog yard, she could NOT get out, and she did eventually give up.

My lot seem to often have a brief bit of psycho at that time. Exercise in the arvo as said could help, or you could have a play with your pup and then she should sleep well afterwards. I use the time to do a bit of inside drive training with my Kelpie, just a bit of asking her to do a few things in "high rev" mode, and she gets her ball or tug for them. Or if I'm doing something else, since I have more than one dog, I can let them play with each other. What games does your pup enjoy? You may be able to do a bit of play-that-is-also-training with her, and both benefit.

Oh you did say that, I remember now! Sorry!

Worked for me. Not an expert at this kind of work but he's keen, isn't he? What does "free" mean? Also, timing of cue sit? IMO, should predict behaviour - opens a window for him to be able to earn the toy. But someone with more experience with this kind of work would be able to better comment.

BTW if she's not reading current body language, she may be remembering past behaviours towards her, or she could have something like an association with perhaps a smell and your behaviour towards her - even if she had an association between the smell of wee and your behaviour, it would not mean she had an association between the ACT of weeing and your behaviour towards her.

She would be reading your body language, that's why she runs. You don't want to keep on with this as it will damage your relationship. Showing a dog something after the event does nothing positive but a lot negative, as it shows the dog you punish it for no apparent reason - punishment, if given, has to be AT THE MOMENT that anything is done. Bleach your landing area to take the smell out. She'll be weeing where the smell is. Put stuff on the landing to make it harder for her to wee on it, at least for now. You need to build a new habit. Try going back a few steps in your toilet training with her, and taking her regularly to where you want her to go, and reward her for doing it there.

IMO it would be hard to make any of those calls if you look at an isolated instance. You would need to see it in context, of that instance and over time. Are you journaling your training sessions?

I was feeding optimum but was a bit 'spensive with my two growing shep fosters in addition to my usual doggies so have been giving a la carte a go, they are doing well on it. The dogs also get chicken frames and odd bits of fruit, veg, etc that are going around on the day.

Now I'm not coming from sheep experience here, but I don't see that the two have to be mutually exclusive. If you set it up so that they have only limited options for action, one of which is the right one, and none of the others being a problem, then you could do both. It's what we usually do as trainers, I think. Don't have the possibility of "all going to pieces", but set it up so the dog can choose, while making it easy to choose. I think it involves a certain amount of creativity in setting up the situation, but that's half the fun.

I thought I'd posted on this thread! I was watching Shine yesterday (well as well as I could while also videoing) and to my inexpert eyes she's looking really nice, smooth and calm.

This would reward the dog for barking, since any attention is better than none! (That's why kids often act up, it gets them attention, I had to listen to a mother do intense interaction with a kid that was acting up today, when she would have been much better ignoring the behaviour and rewarding for desired behaviour.)

I have a wagon and among my crates I own one with a door on the long side as well as the short side - this is great for travelling a dog or 2 and having easy access (numbers depend on the size of the dog, it's a Vizsla sized crate and can fit two Kelpie sized dogs easily). Door on short size is not great for access in a wagon. I can leave the back of the car open to keep the dog cool when stopped, but dog is safe (e.g. a stop on a drive somewhere) and the dog won't jump out if I open the back door. Also good for travelling rescue dogs when I'm helping with rescue transport!! Not sure what kind of car you have but it's worth mentioning.