Weasels

Righto then. I've seen people get torn apart on DOL for what I suspect is just their lack of skill with written English and hate to see it, but I really have no feel for what the case is here. I can't find an angle where you would not see how talking about rules, boundaries limitations, calm submission etc. could not bring CM to people's minds? They're practically his trademark phrases. It has nothing to do with who you are or how you train but everything to do with how you are presenting your business to the public on social media. So if you weren't aware of it before, the feedback has now been given here. And defending HA is not the same as attacking you.

I had a look at your article on dominance (http://caninebehaviourexpert.wordpress.com/) and am still not sure what your take on it is, especially in combination with the description of the dog with dominance agression further down. But I can completely see where Hardy's Angel is coming from, there are a lot of phrases in there that I've never seen outside of a Cesar Millan show.

if you make it down there, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts SM

We had an awesome training session with the kelps this morning - second one back after 6 months off. They worked calmer and wider than usual, and the humans are getting better at it too I think ;) Weez managed a short fenceline drive away from the handler and the dry work I've done with Chess' walk-ups towards the ball has paid off, got some nice straight walks to the sheep :) It's amazing the feeling of doing calm, correct work with a sheep dog, I've missed it!

Can you set up a video or webcam to see when it is/how constant it is/ how bad it is? We did this after we first got Chess and it was hard to watch but helped our trainer assess the situation :/

We should clone Bob Bailey.

Having a quick look at UNE's course catalogue, there is not a degree in this, and B. Animal Science has one unit on animal behaviour (and one on "working canines") - http://www.une.edu.au/courses/2013/courses/BANSC/majors/canine-and-equine-science.html

So, the goal of your training is to decrease his fear, but when in the presence of this trainer his fear is increased? I read a quote yesterday from Roy Coppinger, which I thought summed up how useful dominance is as a training tool:

The dingo issue is separate from the temp testing issue. That appeared to be a cock-up from social media and some individuals hassling the pound, not the fault of the rescue that was blamed from what I could see.

Noooo don't blame Miss Maddie! She's a little sweetie pie :D (I have a soft-spot for 'background' dogs )

This! And this! Yes my immediate family and husband come 'first', but the dogs depend on us and I don't ever want to let them down.

No probs Teekay glad it helped in some small way :) We were extremely lucky in the way we were able to set up controlled scenarios and could do almost textbook counter-conditioning with him. All up I think we spent about 2 hours over the sessions and the change in him has been amazing! So I guess it shows what can be done, but again I appreciate it's that much harder with dog-dog reactivity. E: regarding the sitting still, at the strart of the training we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to break it down and make it easy, to set him up for success; then by the last session we were trying to figure out ways to challenge him more and get him to give a crap about the scooter :laugh:

Or if that isn't possible, videoing your training is the next best thing! You can pick up on so much that you miss in real-time :) -- And yes, improvement is possible, I have a success story here :) I was "lucky" in the sense that Weez is motion-reactive rather than dog-reactive so it was a million times easier to set up controlled predictable scenarios for him to train with. But now I can't even play LAT with him and bikes because he just doesn't see them as anything that needs looking at! Happy to PM anyone the video of his counter-conditioning that my trainer made if interested.

I dunno about normal but my girl does it, will shake the bed violently in her teeth between humping. It's never transferred to anything else.

There was a similar thread recently which may help you - http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/243665-humping/

Both of the physios I've seen have said to me that if I must run, please oh please don't do it on pavement. Brutal is a good word for it! I run with my dogs off-lead at either a sports complex (multiple ovals) or on the salt pans nearby. They seem to get the best of both worlds - part of the time they just jog along with me and get the benefits of that, then sometimes they'll get caught lagging and get some sprints in to catch up. On non-jogging days they chase a ball for 45-60 mins with breaks. All 3 of us are out of condition at the moment thanks to the heat making running unappealing, but they're starting to bulk up a bit now we've had some cooler days to get out.

No, population control is dependent on the the number of reproducing females. Steralising males is practically irrelevent. While this is true of wild populations, I doubt it would play out this way in a population that is largely confined and mating opportunities are not random.

I agree, as I've said twice in this thread. And was following on from people who said the vibration was scarier than the shock for some dogs; it's not just a matter whether it hurts, it's about how it's trained.

I can't speak fo Rosetta, but I would think any objection would be as much/more about the effect of a foreign, confusing sensation delivered to a dog just going along doing its thing, than the actual pain - especially for a dog which may already be a bit nervy due to the deafness. Although I'm sure this is avoidable if conditioned well at the start. This one I have tried on myself! I recieved a shock 'out of the blue' (from my perspective) when I was a kid. Although the actual pain of the shock was minimal and quick, the surprise and confusion had a greater effect, to the point where even with the benefit of rationalisation and over 20 years since the event I still involuntarily cringe when I go near a wire fence. Of course not something I'd worry about in this case with Superminty asking the question, but something I would mention about if someone at the dog park, for instance, suggested using a e-collar in this way.

It's possible that "heel" is now a poisoned cue - more info here: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/2849

I don't see that the collar would need to be aversive though in this instance with some prior conditioning? If the vibrate/low stim is taught to cue a specific behaviour ("look"/"watch" I'd imagine) and is paired with a positive experience (reward for the behaviour), it would be just like teaching a dog to recall using your baddest, most panicky voice which some people do to increase reliability (?) Or like conditioning a dog to wear a halti or muzzle (which clearly a lot of dogs find naturally unpleasant given the number of dogs I see at training each week pawing madly at their noses).

It's like it was made for him :)

Yes my thoughts are with anyone up near the fires at the moment I hope everyone and their homes (and dogs!) are ok!

I was sure Chess would need an E. collar after she got stitches from an attack last year, because she is a very busy/fussy dog and I think I recall reading she had trouble with her stitches after desexing at the shelter. We bought one but never put it on because she was under constant supervision - she sleeps next to me and I woke up two or three times to licking, said "no Chess", and that was the end of it. If you are there to supervise I wouldn't worry. Also we paid about $5 too, $25 seems pretty excessive!

just a note, there are a lot of restrictions on owning dingoes in most states, and recently there was a successful lobby to prevent the importation of "savannah cats" (a serval-domestic x) to Australia on the grounds of the potential for environmental devastation. So foxes aren't necessarily singled out among the feral predators here in terms of legislation.