hankdog

Definitely get some help Jemmy, a stitch in time saves nine! We had a fun experience on our walk today. A spaniel ran out of a driveway behind us as we walked past. I did the voice of God, it was a friendly enough dog but I was hoping for help. After a while I reaised that no help was going to come and I was making more noise than Jake so I told myself to shut up and the dogs to sit down. Surprisingly everyone did as told. I threw the dog some treats and did some look and lick and then told Jake "let's go" and we were able to disengage quite easily. The dog followed us for about 200m but he was quite calm and Jake did his purposeful ignoring thing. So all good, I was a bit concerned about the straying dog but I really had no way to get close enough to do anything for him. It was a quiet street so I'm pretty sure he just wandered home. Pretty happy day for us.

Viszla. I have a friend with a bunch of them and they're great. Large enough to be there but light enough to be portable. Trained correctly they have an off switch and I think they're a nice balance between being focussed and keen but not very annoying.

Red for me please. They're definitely little Rotties now. Too much cute in one place.

Staffys generally don't have a user control panel, pretty much do what they want. Seriously though itchy skin can be food or contact allergens. Infections are common and often they can't be cured but rather managed.

A good time was had by all! maybe it was iggymums dogs and they just blamed Tag and Puck?

Actually Jake finds people who try to hard with him to be very intimidating. Just be casual, no food from a bowl, every now and then just call her over give a bit of kibble a small pat and then set her free. You'll find they start watching you and it just becomes habit. To build confidence 101 things to do with a box is really good. It starts getting them thinking and trying new stuff. Three minute training sessions are great, no ones bored or frustrated and you just do lots of little bits through the day.

I think of whippets as little dogs, IGs must be tiny. So sweet and what a good moment to capture.

Have you considered he might have issues with his sight. Jake has divergent eyes and this affects what he perceives and I think gives him a lot of issues. His clumsiness could be related to not being able to see correctly. I have no idea how you test a dog's eyes.

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Most people don't read Jakes harness but they say they see all the gear on him and that tells them to stay away. I think a muzzle acts the same way and if you're muzzled and people report you then you're fine. You're taking steps to prevent and incident. I worry a lot about being reported (I actually was once) but the Rangers assess the situation and they don't just jump in and label the "dangerous" dog. A woman with off leash dogs in an on leash area reported me, guess who got the warning!

But it's only a little dog, and she is pretty, plus it was early in the morning and she was carrying a lead and I bet her dogs friendly. Well done council, please come to my neighborhood.

I would highly recommend separating from your other dog. Jake has oddball behaviour which I've often thought seemed what I would expect an "autistic" dog to look like. Most of the people we have consulted concur that being raised as the younger of two dogs will have caused some issues. He has a superstitious learning style, if we walk a side of the road once then we always have to walk that side of the road etc. I think relying on an older dogs judgment means they don't build their own confidence. I've been advised to change times of walks, the order in which things are done etc. well worth getting a behaviourist in but make sure you get a good one. Not every behaviourist has the depth of knowledge required for "odd" dogs.

Jake waits outside the shower in the morning. Track suit pants are greeted with joy, jeans are my going out clothes, misery sets in if I have jeans on. Hubby can't tell the difference in what I wear but the dog can.

Cheated a bit because training is on Friday this week but then training takes him to his limits. It's interesting you say other dogs were intimidated by Riley, even when Jake was really feral few dogs seem to find him intimidating, most want to have a go at him. He mostly gives himself his own leash corrections if he lunges out. Nowadays if he seems to be getting stuck I do pop him on the leash. If he has dropped into his pre lunge position I give him a nudge in the behind, it seems to break his focus. I agree though I think major leash corrections add to the level of arousal, petrol on flames. He's been doing so well lately, I think our last board train just nudged him along a bit. I also watched my trainers being quite firm with him in a group situation. He had a big go at another dog and instead of backing down Lynette just brought him under control and then carried on with where she was going. It sort of showed me to just stand my ground with him and expect him to get his act together. Anyway I'm not counting anymore days, too stressful????.

Hello, my name is Jake. I bark at other dogs. I have not done this for 176 hours. May the peanut butter be with you!!!!

Yay, finally I can show Jake. Um now what breed am I going to call him....? Has to be something unique so he will win his class. Really if you can register anything then what's the point. Get your registration for council and call those papers. It's just a list if names on papers if you're cross breeding.

Ok maybe he is a bit spoilt when he's allowed to pick a treat from the cupboard. I tell him to sit and then I open the cupboard door and offer him a few bags to pick from, when he gets his ear or greenie or whatever he chose he does this happy gallop into his chewing room (formerly known as the sewing room). He hops on his cushion and makes like he won the jackpot. Makes me laugh every time.

Ok we made it through the weekend. If we get to Tuesday 11 am we will have not barked at a dog for a week. Dogs on tv and barking back at the neighbours dogs, if they start it, don't count. Will be carefully choosing our walk tomorrow.

Jakes "speshul" he gets what he needs. It may look spoilt but he can't eat high fat food, he gets hand fed as part of his training. He sleeps with me on couch or bed because whilst initially he needed constant contact because of his anxiety, now he's got me trained and I just like having him close. He still has discipline and he doesn't ever really try push limits. He wouldn't beg at table or anything rude. Whilst he's always with me he's not a pushy, attention seeking dog so it works. Just looks odd to other people.

I had a horse with about 20 stitches from a dog bite. Large dog grabbed it just above the hock and hung on tearing lose quite a bit of skin. There's so little space available to horses and riding on the beach is such a treat that I would happily share with a horse. Common sense on both sides could make it safe.

Exactly my feeling SG. Too lazy to train them to walk on leash. I do wonder if having off leash areas has encouraged this "off leash" mentality. I also think it would make a great research project if there's a correlation between proximity to puppy selling pet shops and irresponsible ownership.

Yep, in my area so long as you're walking to the off leash area you don't need a leash. If you're about 2 km away it's still ok. Top idea. Of course if you don't happen to live near the off leash park then you can just use your local oval as an off leash because that's "fair" for everyone.

I know little of this issue but does anyone kniw why they won't ban puppy sales from pet shops? It would seem that a puppy farmer could still pump out two litters per bitch a year and still sell 200 odd puppies a year. Just more work for the bitches I suppose.

Can I ask you what exactly you did? We did try BAT excercises for Jake way back but they didn't help. If anything made him worse. We had fun at training yesterday, I was quite early so we walked around and found some sheep to say hello to. Once he decided they weren't dogs, (one came quite close to see what he was), he was quite fine. When we got back to training he lay down next to the creek, which is now a swamp so no going in, and did his jelly bones thing. We decided to just do some tricks and basic training and give him a nice relaxed day. He was good walking past the dogs on the way in and out so that made me happy. Some lovely cake and coffee after and it was probably our best training session.

Well done. A reactive dog is always in progress but you've done wonderfully. Thanks for the update.