sidoney

Videos play fine for me. Lovely dog, thanks for the video links.

If you have things you really do want her to get on and off, a safe way for her to get on and off things would be to give her a non slip ramp.

LOL yep my first Vizsla almost fitted the description ... except she once chewed three irreplacable pianola keys from an antique pianola that had been pulled apart for restoration ... keys made of shaped wood with ivory on the ends where you play them. Replace ivory keys? Don't think so. Not her fault. She'd been shut into that room for a while and hey, what are these sticks here? Mind you both her daughter and granddaughter have destroyed plenty of stuff. And dig? LOLOLOLOL ....

Do you mean for discriminations? Rob Michalski? I did a workshop with him earlier this year and that was discussed - he's gone to body language cues for obstacle discriminations, which he showed us. I'm with Mav - quiet unless I want the dog's attention - I want anything I say to MEAN something. Having been to two Greg Derrett workshops helps with learning to be quiet of course.

Putting up a barrier between the fence and your dogs, set out from the fence a bit (distance may depend on what is effective), may also help - prevents them barking directly AT each other through the fence.

Any updates?

Emergency vet Baulkham Hills or Strathfield. The Coreen Ave one specifies for established clients only. See how the dog is before you go driving it across half of Sydney in the middle of the night. Another 24 hour one, at North Ryde: Veterinary Specialist Centre Cnr Delhi & Plassey Roads North Ryde, NSW 2113 Phone: 02 9888 9800 Fax: 02 9888 9338

My dog had late onset epilepsy ... wasn't much you could do about individual seizures, just let the dog recover and keep an eye on it, but she went on a management programme that got them mostly under control. A bit of twiddling about to get the medication levels right. Seizures can be caused by other things than epilepsy, eg. brain injuries, tumour, high temperature. They can come in single episodes that settle down, or they can come in groups or "clusters". I was lucky, my dog tended to have only one, although at her worst she'd have more than one in a day. As she got older she tended to have petit mals rather than grand mals. But more of them. If the dog is settled and all signs seem fine then I'd let it be for the evening and get it assessed in the morning. If otherwise, I'd take it to the vet. That said, I found the whole thing scary at first but got used to it over the years and so individual seizures didn't freak me out any more. There is a 24 hour vet at Baulkham Hills I've used but don't know about Penrith way. Yellow Pages? Sometimes the local vet will have an after hours number on a recorded message at their normal number.

He should recover pretty well ... be groggy for a while ... keep an eye out for more seizures though ... if all seems OK, take dog to a vet in the morning for assessment and treatment. If things not OK, get assessment sooner. I remember when my Cattle dog bitch (lived until she was 16) had her first one ... scared me so much! Thought she was dying!

Wasn't thinking of SARDA Labs. And I was only guessing based on a limited number of dogs I know of down there. Um ... how about JRT ...

Lab

Oh I should note that there is an updated version of ToT from the one in the Mad Meg thread. It's been posted recently ... Here it is.

Yes, I hoped you might. Meg started behind a gate as she could not have a lead on - your dog may benefit from a similar approach. Edit: LOL, I just saw who made some of the later posts on that thread Gemibabe - it was you!!!

Don't know why TOT would result in dog thinking it was in trouble? Anyway this thread reminded me a little of "Mad Meg" that Rozzie had (except that Meg was not responsive to food), here's the link: Unresponsive dog thread

Steve would be the one to know about Zoe's aggression in those circumstances ... but prey drive is not aggression and from what I've learned so far, a properly structured drive development and training programme would not have aggression issues related with it.

Being a working Kelpie, Kavik, there is a good chance it will be. :rolleyes: My guess would be seeing how the pup responds. I have seen that Xia gets more high about prey items than food ... she loves food but prey items are more exciting to her.

Did my first prey drive development session with the 6 mnth old BC foster (probably foster?) that arrived today ... she switched on to the moving object virtually straight away, chased, caught and tugged several times. Enthusiastically. A good start.

I won some Coprice a while back and the dogs liked it fine. Only one bag between 3 dogs (or may have still been 4 then) so not a long term trial.

I agree with the people who suggested that you are using food as lure/bribe. Seeing or smelling the food becomes part of the cue for the behaviour. Agree with suggestion to get food off the self, did someone say get it off the person? IMO (and that of more experienced trainers than me) many, many people lure too much. Luring can look as if the dog is doing the behaviour so it gives fast apparent rewards but the dog is mostly learning to follow your hand and its nose, rather than using its brain and working out the actual behaviour. Triangle of temptation as mentioned would help ... the full protocol of that has a similar effect to Susan Garrett's "rule outs", that is, just because it's there doesn't mean you get it, focus on me and not it, I tell you when/if you can get it.

I will be there with my Kelpie Xia. Will be interesting to see how we go ... have been practicing making drive in different locations. Getting better but not yet where I would like us to be.

Latisha, most likely the best way to answer all the questions would be to take a trip down to Vic and see and talk first hand to the SARDA group, find out what the minimum requiements would be, in terms of people, dogs, funding, equipment, training, time and so on. What kind of resource level would it need to launch? There is also the issue of networking with the relevant organisations in terms of getting work or possible work.

It's similar to the way infant formula companies made so many babies sick by promoting the idea that formula is better than mother's milk - particularly in the poorer places, where the mothers would dry up and not have their own milk, and be unable to afford the formula, and so would water it down and the babies would be malnourished. Unfortunately the huge companies have more resources to (mis)inform than the people who believe in forms of feeding in which there are not immense profits. The infant formula got to be a public health issue but there is not the same interest in animal welfare.

Try cross posting to training forum.

If I'm using soft treats in warm or hot weather I keep them in a small esky or a cooler bag, with a cooler block, and take them out as I need them.

You mean, a club that doesn't rely solely on the use of lures, don't you?