Weasels

I LOVE this game. When we first got my younger boy he was obsessed with watching our other dog, especially if she was being intense. You could put a treat on his tongue and he still wouldn't move a muscle. We built up a "Weaz, who's that?" then click & treat and it's really turned him around. Now I can distract him from other dog, bikes, even sheep! It's been great for his reactivity and focus. I'm glad you gave it another go Sheena!

I bought a bunch of narrow PVC pipe and elbow joins this morning to make jumps, but they could probably be used to make weaves too? (http://www.ehow.com/how_4860596_make-pvc-weave-poles.html). The pipe was $2.38 each, 20mm, just over a metre long at Bunnings. Not sure how much the elbow joins were, but not much. I had previously maade some temporary weave poles in the backyard from leftover bamboo stakes I had for staking tomatoes etc, but I didn't use them for a while and one by one they turned into chew toys

Hardy's Angel I don't think they are saying you should never take things out of their mouths, just not take things away unnecessarily while the aggression problem is still being treated. Then work up to taking things out of their mouth. I also like to have a rock solid "drop it" command because then I can stop them eating bad things even if I'm not in grabbing distance.

Sometimes I wonder how i'd get anywhere with my dogs if they weren't so keen for treats Glad to hear she's doing so well already

I had it done on one of my rescues. I mainly did it because I wanted to see how they did the test, since I have some background in genetics. She came back 1/3 kelpie, 1/3 coolie and the rest 1-2% of every other breed. There wasn't any information about how many DNA markers they used, which/how many reference samples from each breed etc. so I couldn't tell how reliable it is, but those proportions are a bit weird. She does look like a kelpie but has some odd coat markings which could be from a coolie. It was $150 BITSA test from genetic technologies in Vic. I think the real question for pitbulls would be whether a breed test would hold up if the council came after the dog, and that I don't know.

If your brother was anything like mine growing up, I think you just answered your own question!

Also the medical research findings flow into veterinary science, so animals do benefit as well. It's a thorny problem, because whenever there is a drug on the market that causes problems in humans there is huge uproar and massive lawsuits, so you can see why the companies would want to test as thoroughly as possible. Essentially, most people do value human life and comfort over that of animals, and as long as that is the case animals testing will continue.

My OH is a dog person, but refused to get a small dog or anything 'yippy'. I didn't want anything too big (GSD-size and above for example) as I wanted inside dogs and we are in the suburbs at the moment. I'd grown up with working dogs and poor kelpies are so overrepresented in shelters we chose to give 2 of them an active loving home. We don't show (we don't know who their parents are) but they are ace little dog-sports dogs Hopefully when we move onto a bigger property we will look at adding a GSD or whippet (ETA: or a border collie. or a coolie. or an Aussie. Arrrgh!), cos I love working dogs, always will. I'm still hanging out to see a corgi herding!

My younger one seems to have a radar for finding blowfish on the beach Luckily he's a nervous soul and drops it as soon as I freak out (4 fish and no poisoning so far). I guess I'm lucky that my resource-guarding dog and my 'find horrible things' dog aren't the same one! ETA: +1 on good to hear you're getting someone in to help your boy Luke

Eep! I guess I didn't think of that because I have short dogs and almost never cook

Ah cool ok I think the point my sleepy brain was trying to make is that taking away the resource should be the last step in the addressing the guarding rather than the first, as emergencies where you need to remove something are not overly likely to occur during the time you are doing the training, and would probably set the training back a bit anyway.

I'm genuinely curious as to why people want to take their dog's bones away? We've been working on our girl for a year and have never needed to take away a bone, although we can now call her off them. But our objective is to not be growled at as we walk past, not to be able to take away stuff. Maybe in a house with lots of dogs it might be handy, although I would've though they'd be given bones separatly if there are likely to be issues? I'm not fully caffeinated yet and I can't think of too many reasons other than 'asserting dominance', happy to be corrected though.

At the risk of being totally boring, the point is just as a marker to show that the gene has succesfully inserted into the cells and is expressing protein. The next step is then to take out the glowing bit and replace it with genes that cause disease in both dogs and humans. For example, if they create dogs with a gene that causes asthma (totally random example), they can then use those dogs to test medicines that may then be used to treat the disease in both dogs and people. Since the dog cost something like $3 mill to develop, it's definitely not for the pet market.

I'm not defending the use of animals in experiments generally, but the green fluorescent protein that they put in these animals is a naturally occuring gene from jellyfish, so not toxic. Although I haven't read up on this specific case, the insertion of this gene would have been at the single-cell stage, so the animal would have developed normally until they put antibody in it. I can't see how the green would affect it other than preventing a good night's sleep. The conditions these animals are kept in is another matter, however.

Yep, Cecile from Pawprints was the behaviourist I mentioned in that thread. She came out when we adopted each of our dogs and was very helpful both times.

I wouldn't think so. For one, guarding one type of object doesn't necessarily translate to general 'dominance'. Secondly I'm sure I've read that in hierarchical wild canid societies subordinate individuals will still try to guard resources against the breeding pair or parents, which makes sense in a resource-limited situation. I won't bore you with too much dog science, but my opinion is that general obedience training and working with a dog's natural reward system should work wonders regadless of whether you subscribe to a general dominance theory or not. Best of luck with her She must be adorable at that age.

My girl has a growl for all occasions she growls when my husband gets home, when you rub her butt, when she wants our other dog to play, when she plays with humans and when she scratches her ear. All different growls though! My boy on the other hand only occasionally growls when playing tug with the other dog, not at any other time. Crazy kelpies :D

When we adopted her from the shelter they told us she had a bit of resource guarding, and I can't remember if it was the trainers there or a behaviourist we got in to help us get her settled in who advised the method I wrote up in the other thread. The central idea is to change the way she feels about you approaching rather than just suppress the behaviour, as then there is the risk they will skip the growl and go straight to biting. No point getting angry at her, she's just communicating edit: spelling

I posted on how we addressed this in one of my dogs in the training thread earlier today, but she was only a low level resource guarder, and as others said pro help is a good move. I wouldn't be disappointed, she sounds like a lovely dog and as poodlefan says just reacting how feels right to her, and letting you know she's not comfortable. When my girl would growl she would make submissive body language at the same time, as if to say "I love you and I don't want to growl at you, but you standing there makes me very uncomfortable"

You could also try rewarding without taking anything away, so that you approaching is a 100% positive experience. Start by getting close enough that he won't growl and throw a treat from there. Then move gradually closer with a visible treat, walk off with it if there's any growling and stay a bit further out next time. I've been doing this with my girl and at the moment we are at the stage where I will just touch her bone with one finger, if no growls, then some roast chicken or another small bone. If she does growl, all the chicken goes to our other dog. It's also nice that if I walk past her now while she has a bone she looks up to see if there is something nice coming to her rather than worrying about her bone. She still growls at our other dog tho ETA: personally I don't like taking bones away from resource guarding dogs until the growling is under control, as I feel it's kind of justifying their their attitude. Others may disagree though (including my husband).

http://pawprintspettraining.com.au/ Not too far away and definitely PP. The trainers there have been/are associated with the dog refuge in Shenton Park.

I have a similar problem I use the hand signal of pulling back my hand, palm up and open, back towards me. They stand up, but put their nose in my palm and won't stay standing. They seem to think the objective is nose in hand instead. They are also pretty quick with most things but stand seems to be a stumbling block for them. I will be watching for suggestions too!

I'd say anything you don't want to happen again, address it. I would expect marking is self-rewarding (as opposed to attention seeking behaviour) so addressing ("No!") or redirection (taking him outside to a friendly tree) should work better than ignoring. Teaching him where/when to pee and where not to might be the best option rather than trying to stamp out a natural instinct. Boys will be boys.... Great advice thanks so much- how exactly do I teach him where and when to pee? Others may have better advice, as my boy only tried to pee on out other dog's bed once (right in front of me!) - I was so shocked I yelled "noooooooooo" and grabbed all 20kg of him and ran him outside holding him under his front legs I think the extreme reaction was enough to put him off trying it again. But if you are out on a walk I would develop a good "walk on" command (then treat), so if he starts to lift his leg or sniff too long you can get him to abandon the marking and keep moving. When I'm out walking my boy I let him mark some things, but walk on from others (like letterboxes or people's new plants), so he gets used to having some impulse control and isn't quite such a menace to society :D ETA: I just re-read your first post and saw you said you don't let him mark on walks. Do you mean you pull him off with the leash or redirect? To me the pulling away is just leaving him with unfinished business, whereas redirecting to a 'walk on' or a 'heel' is him voluntarily abandoning the marking for something better (treat or praise)

I'd say anything you don't want to happen again, address it. I would expect marking is self-rewarding (as opposed to attention seeking behaviour) so addressing ("No!") or redirection (taking him outside to a friendly tree) should work better than ignoring. Teaching him where/when to pee and where not to might be the best option rather than trying to stamp out a natural instinct. Boys will be boys....

+1 But the bottom line is, I trust my dogs to decide who they want to play with. They're quite happy to igonore or trot away from any dog they don't like the 'vibe' of, and they will always be able to read dog language better than me. It's still comforting having a good recall away from other dogs just in case tho!