Weasels

I've been eyeing off this class too! I'm not really sold on obedience yet, and this looked like way more fun :p I use both, depending on the situation and the dog's frame of mind :) If I can tell they are thinking of barking out of boredom I use the tricks they know really well and can do by hand signal so it isn't disruptive; like targetting, beg, spin, sit-down-stand combos, finding heel etc. I find if the dog needs a down-stay but is a bit too worked up, I send them to lie on their side for about 5-10 seconds then back into the downstay (lying slouched) which seems to feed back into their brain to chill out :) :thumbsup: That is a huge thing that helps me with Weez too, getting in on the ground floor before the reactive elevator takes off! --- Weez in his new collar :) Hopefully people won't get so offended when he runs away from them now! (I have a policy to never wake a sleeping kelpie....)

I guess then the question becomes: if they become a domestic breed, are they still a 'dingo'? Do we want them only in captivity, or out in the wild too where we can't protect them but also won't alter them?

I don't think even that will help - by far the biggest threat to dingoes is being bred out with domestic dogs. That will drive them extinct far sooner than any culling effort.

Oops! Surely she should know better, she's been in the dingo game for a while now...

MrBusy if you are happy to provide the area you are in someone should be able to recommend a good local behavioural trainer :) It's impossible to accurately advise on this sort of thing over the internet.

Congrats! I take: a tie-out stake, a 10m lead, spare poo bags, water + bowl for dogs, water for humans, sunscreen, chapstick, tug toy, and a ball or two. I keep treats, clicker, money, phone, and more poo bags in my treat pouch. Gets us through most training and trials :)

Another reason I feed Holistic Select, in addition to being happy with the ingredients, is that I can get it regularly and easily, which isn't true of all premium foods. As a bonus, the dogs like the taste enough that I can use it as training treats.

Yep that's the one I was thinking of :) And shock horror Ness - the OH said he would be willing to do Treiball with Chess! He of the very picky dogsports involvement :p Edit: so that's 4 different clubs so far....

Has anyone done one of these courses? I'm trying to sort out doggy activities for the rest of the year and wondering if this might be a good choice for Chess. She started obedience in February but hasn't really taken to heelwork the way Weez has, so I don't want to persist with something she isn't that interested in. She'll be doing herding and agility besides, and I'll be doing herding and rally with Weez. The C.L.A.S.S. stuff looks more like the informal/day to day training we do - more stays, self control, working around distraction but then I'm wondering if it's not going to be challenging enough. I also don't really get excited about training precision, but I do make an effort to work on reliability. I found one previous thread on this by Snook but it had no replies. Keen to hear if anyone has any experiences with the course since then, and if it sounds like it would suit us :) Thanks!

Unpublished work is wasted time. ;) weelll it still got me a phd, so not a total waste :laugh: But yes, i'll hop to it The same happened to us a couple of months ago when I was fixing up our house ready to move, although it manifested as counter surfing and bin raiding which Weez had never done before (or since) Not sure if it was the radiated stress, the decrease in attention or the decrease in exercise but it certainly had an effect. Sounds like you both did great on your ride tho! Panz :hug: I hope things start to settle soon! Weez has improved quite a bit with his recent horse-reactivity :/ At one stage he bolted 100m to bark at a horse when I took him out to pee but now he can hang out up to about 10m away without having to do distraction/training and closer with LAT or being otherwise in training mode. It's been a good chance to practice his Rally-O work in conjunction with counter-conditioning :p I think all the previous work we've done has made it easier and quicker to deal with new reactivity challenges, plus it helps I now have full confidence in the little man to learn and change :) But it's an ongoing process!

If it really was just this one time, it could be as simple as he had a headache or needed to poop. Don't beat yourself up just yet!

Great work Corvus, congrats on the publication :) I'll have a look through later! (incidently, though, adding hugely to my guilt about not having published anything from my thesis ) I am starting over with Weez and horses *rolleyes* Barking, lunging and snapping - luckily the horses are older and pretty settled but it's still very uncool. So most mornings Weez's breakfast is in the form of CC/LAT with decreasing distance. Much improvement already, but I still don't trust him alone with them.

Funny this should come up - I was watching this video just yesterday urging caution in dog trick training - E: it's not saying don't do them, just take into account your own dog's biomechanics and abilities :)

I'm just going wherever Ness tells me to at the moment, but sure :p I've found one training club I would rather poke my eye out than attend tho, so that's a start! Also - squeeee little puppies!

OMG! You can't up and leave without telling us first!! Go start your own SA thread :p So why the move? it was a bit sudden! Husband got a job over in SA and we upped & offed within a couple of weeks Still waiting for all our stuff to arrive.... Plus the kelps now have 30 acres to live on & explore :) Was an offer too good to refuse. :laugh: It certainly was a hub of doggy activity :D Congrats to Kenzie, Ptolomy and Bedazzled! --- Hope the foot heals up soon Mirawee!!

I left the state

Thanks MM! The 2 horses in question have settled down a lot since then and probably wouldn't be too bothered these days, but I'll keep it in mind for any future additions :) (Although given the fact the electrical contractor hasn't been able to grasp either "shut the gates after you or the animals will get out" or "don't flick cigarette butts around the paddocks or you'll burn the whole f&@*ing district down", I wouldn't be overly optimistic they'd stick to it)

2 of my folks' 3 horses used to get spooked by the line-checking helicopters too (there are lines going through the paddock) - until my mum gave them a massive earful so now they check them from much higher up with binoculars. Poor things, must have been terrifying for them A colleague of mine once said to me when we were working in rural NSW - "these people live out here for a reason". Generally people on property aren't the type to want people in their pockets, and value their space and privacy - which is completely separate from whether they are doing anything wrong. (Edit - slightly OT but one time when the helicopters went over the youngest horse ran straight to the boundary fence to the next-door sheep, and they touched noses to comfort each other! Sweetest. Thing. Ever.)

A lot of people in the community did and do object to the ear tagging of Fraser Island dingoes.

That makes sense - thanks SnT!

Have you tried burying some mesh a few cms down horizontally along the fenceline, so when he tries to dig there he hits mesh? I feel like I read somewhere that electrified fencing is illegal for dogs and cats, but someone else may be able to confirm or deny that

Or you could ask Riding for the Disabled?

And not just the owners. I just found out, 2 years after getting Weez chipped, that he was never registered anywhere! Not sure if the problem was with the vet or the registry but it was a bit disconcerting

I would say it depends how many people are there and how you are using the leash. If there aren't many people around and you shorten the leash to normal length when they approach, until you can suss out the situation, there shouldn't be any problems.

I'd take him on a long line, a 5m or 10m horse lunging rope for example. Poor boxers, they are goofy sweetie pies but yeah a lot of dogs really don't appreciate them (including mine) (edit: I'm assuming you don't have a head-snapping recall to call him away from other dogs?)