hankdog

That's a beautiful dog, she's just a bit misunderstood.

What a unique big boofa, if you get a dollar for every time people ask you what he is you're going to be rich!

He is such a lovely looking boy. I have a bulldog and it seems other dogs don't really like the wrinkly faced dogs because they can't read them which could explain his initial reactions to the pug. I guess there could also be some contributing nervousness from the little dogs and their handlers because of the perceptions of your dog as a breed. I would think he has a good chance if this just being a bump in the road if you get it nipped in the bud with some professional help.

My bulldog is pretty jowly and can't be risked collarless. He wears a leather martingale because it can be fairly loose but tighten up if I need to grab him. He is however never unsupervised outside. It can come off easily so he would either lose it or there's the risk of it catching. Have you looked at K9 pro. They've got a range of syn-tek collars that look interesting.

I'm sorry Teekay, some days are just so disheartening. I guess the way I deal with it is to do stuff that he's good at, joined the 52 weeks for dogs photo forum, I do at home agility and lots of trick training. It helps to do things he's good at so the bad stuff gets in perspective, it's just one part of him. I have also mentally given myself permission to PTS when I've had enough. Each day is my choice. That sounds harsh but owning a pet should be a rewarding experience and not a chore. On balance Jake is improving and I do enjoy having him. If you can't get a formal BAT setup Raineth can you find a calm dog behind a fence. Some of my most constructive sessions have been with a lovely lab up the road who sits quietly for treats behind her fence. Sorry your chickens were duds on chicken camp, should have sent my little girl Lola, she's super smart and good looking too. Jake hit a milestone today, he came with to the garden center. My OH came with and we kept a good lookout for dogs. He had to go through a turnstile gate, walk next to a trolley, get pats from strangers, wait in the queue to pay and then go through auto doors to exit. I was very impressed, he was stressed but gave himself lots of shakes, he sniffed the compost bags so hard I'm surprised the bags didn't burst. He tucked himself into heel and was very attentive. I was so proud to have what looked like a well behaved dog. It was lovely to have him with, Hank was such a bombproof dog he would always just jump in the car and come with everywhere and I'd love Jake to get that way.

Farewell Gnarla, well done to you and your hubby!

There's just so many captions to go with those pictures....

I think so. When I got home from PTS of Hank I took a chair down to the bottom of the garden and sat there. On the tenth day of sitting in that chair a cockatiel flew in, chased by mynahs and pretty much landed at my feet. This is the most feral, annoying bird ever, Hank sent her to tell me to get out that chair and get another pet. Our dogs want us to be happy.

Darn separation anxiety dog. Wish I could go to chicken camp, but I'd have to bring my own chicken and he'd look surprisingly like a bulldog dressed in a chicken suit????. Have fun guys, hoping for some top tips.

50kg???????????????? you must have strong arm muscles that's a big dog....bet she photographs well??

Incredible, she actually has no shame over what she did, she doesn't know that she did something wrong. The sad thing is she's probably just going to get another dog.

Jake taking revenge for me bathing him by drying himself on the couch. Weibritty I think your photo above would make a lovely poster and would look good on a blue wall. He's a stunning dog.

Haha maybe I should carry lollies and give them a treat shower too. I have had passing temperament test threats so I tend to try be very polite. Raineth I think each dog has their own style and I agree any improvement is good. Jakes really rubbish at reading all the books I've read so I just let him make it up. He can really stare before deciding to move on, I think it's Aloff that recommends just letting them stare as long as it takes and then have a treat ready as soon as they move on. MacTub has a very obvious wheels turning thought process so I just let him think, really my style is to let him make his own decisions and reward the good ones. I think this is a slower way to change behaviour but he's not really a dog to pay attention to negative input.

I love how on his first picture he looks like "meh, obedience win," in this photo he's so completely "Dudes I got a win, check me out!" Well done, I'm so envious!

Staffyluv invented the squish up against fence move, I've used it in an emergency and it works well. I've also found if I keep my focus on Jake and deliberately ignore the other dog it's better, but I don't pull him away from looking at the other dog. I will obscure his line of sight, behind cars, wheelie bins whatever's handy but once the dogs out there he seems better off if he looks at it.

And there's the gem for today- "corrections destroy motivation." That's an excellent thought. You guys have manged to motivate me to get the brain-slug working so hence the twenty questions. My background is human psych and I disliked shoebox approaches for people and I dislike it for dogs. I don't think it makes sense to try to "fix" anything by just whipping out the same tools regardless of the individual you're working on. Gut feel is ok if that's all you got but can often say more about you than the broken individual. Personally I think this bias may have contributed to the repeated PTS recommendations for Jake. I would love to see some sort of "personality" or "drive" measures done with a dog before anyone starts to prescribe a course of treatment. Even some completely ridiculous system of neasurement would be open to improvement rather than nothing. Prey drive, pack/ social drive, food drive are the ones spring to mind for me. Between my two dogs Hank had huge prey drive, low social drive and medium food drive, he was a calm well- behaved slightly aloof dog, at the park he would interact with other dogs by chasing them when they ran after the ball but other than that didn't care for them. Wanted to be in the same room with me, enjoyed pats from me, tolerated them from strangers and would take food where he got it but not actively seek it out. Jake has little prey drive, high pack drive and high food drive. He doesn't fetch and was easily dissuaded from chasing birds, he has to be with people and despite his inter dog skills I think he desperately wants dog company, and he actively seeks food, all food must be kept safe. This is a simple but useful framework for me and I feel with more drives/ traits elucidated I could better understand how to manage my dog. I don't mind Internet discussions because they improve my understanding, when they deteriorate into slanging then they're a waste of time and probably hurtful. Although again says a lot about the protagonists?

So Dr Corvus or Wobbly, when we got Jake he wanted to kill our indoor cockatiels and outdoor chickens. But he got over that in a couple of weeks just with harsh vocal reprimands if he looked sideways at them. Strangely he has never had an issue with the ducks to the extent that one was sitting in the lounge with him and he didn't even get off the couch. I've rationalized how easy it was to get him to leave the birds versus how difficult it is to leave dogs because they are exciting his pretty low "prey drive" whereas dogs excite his "self defense, preservation drive." To my limited understanding he is a low prey drive dog, although initially he was highly aroused by the birds because he is not high prey drive he was able to inhibit that arousal fairly easily. The difference between that and his inability to learn to inhibit his dog reaction is one I've never been able to articulate. I intuitively understand that harsh reprimands that worked on the bird situation are fuel on the fire with the dog situation but since they look similar, bark, lunge and attempt to attack, its hard to justify my different approaches. I do cop criticism for "rewarding" his dog reactions. Type slow Doctor Corvus or Wobbly, old dog new tricks!!

He is a little outhouse. Weighs in at 23 kg but I keep him lean and we walk/ run for 90 minutes a day. I'm not a fan of the roly poly look which I know is strange for a bulldog owner. He's at the upper limit of my handling capabilities as he has quite a jump. When I said to Vicki that I thought a taller dog would be harder to manage she pointed out her BC was a bit lighter than Jake which was a surprise. BC's must be little whippets under all that fluff. I'm not sure if its easier or harder to have a shorter dog when they lunge? He does get a bit underfoot when he's doing his thing which can be tricky with two leashes, luckily he doesn't do the complete bananas thing anymore. Today we even got past a BC which is his worst dog to see. The owner was so oblivious to the frantic peanut butter licking that the dog stopped exactly opposite us for a sniff of the weemail. I've perfected the "nothing strange going on with this jar of peanut butter stuck on my dogs nose" look. I do try to only let him see dogs that look calm and under control but he is still quite freaked out and most dogs are still quite unhappy with him. I'm never quite sure how to greet the dogs owners. I'm trying a mixture of smile, wave and thank you, he's in training. Some owners still give me quite a big scowl. I really need my neighbourhood to be Jake friendly or at least tolerant. Some of course are very encouraging which gives me a big smile. Zig, go you good thing. He looks very proud of himself.

Oh Ness, neither of you deserve this. I think of you often. I'm so sorry for your heartbreak.

No need for hot water bottles tonight,

Gotta love the "pay up" nudge. With Jakes undershot jaw you can get quite a wack if you forget. Still it means they have an understanding of the rules.

I think the thing to realise is that when we implement training we are working at specific one dog level whereas theories are formulated at general, middle of the bell curve level. Depending on where your individual dog sits on that bell curve for that trait you're trying to modify the theory may be bang on or irrelevant. Lots of misunderstandings occur and lots of dogs get mistreated because handlers have one theory and apply it across the board irrespective of the dogs individual personality. Enter method peddlers who decide a dog is untrainable because it didn't respond to their method. Corvus are there tests for dogs that score them on traits the same way there are for humans. Would be useful if they were tied to some of the theories, so that theory x applies to dogs that are high in need for social contact, low in prey drive and have no tolerance for loud noises, as a fictitious example? ETA: this is a response to Wobbly saying she had made "mistakes" and the general feeling if so many theories seeming to conflict. I don't think you've made mistakes, I'd say your needs have evolved and had moved on the bell curve to a different position, so now needs different input. Make any sense? Feel it's making less the more I type, so now I'll stop typing.

Raineth consider your triangle as a training opportunity. If they're all fenced just treat it as a BAT setup and one you have 24/7 access to. Jake update..... We are now starting to see leashed walking dogs. Still very stressed but mostly I can shove the peanut butter jar on his nose and this will keep him licking and he may get out some strangled cries but not too bad. As usual Jake likes to push things a little bit. Yesterday as we were coming home from an uneventful, non-dog sighting walk (thanks rain) he sat down in front of the very last dog before homes' house and started barking. Very much a sounding bark, toneless, repetitive and with a gap between each bark.My approach to unwanted behavior is to stop and wait. Bark, bark, no response. Pokes my leg, looks pointedly at dogs' house. Much excitement and puffing. Nope still ignoring. Staging a do-over (walking back the way we came). More fussing and barking for about 3 minutes. Finally sits down in big humph. Wait till he gives me eye contact "good boy, lets go." About 20 meters on he got a small check in treat and I'm actually pretty happy with the whole thing. The way I see this is he has now worked out that he is addicted to licking peanut butter. He also knows he gets to do this when he sees a dog and he was confident enough to "call" this known dog so that he could set himself up with a chance to get his hit of peanut butter. Unfortunately it didn't work and the dog didnt appear. This may appear "naughty" but I don't think Jake has the concept of right and wrong. He operates on a "get stuff I want" basis and if I'm consistent and he can only get what he wants by doing a specific action (looking at a dog) then eventually he will only do right things. "Right" is my subjective judgement, if he had brains for him it would just be the most efficient way to get peanut butter. The bit of barking just shows me he knows how dogs work and is confident enough to use that knowledge, the staged do-over shows he knows how I work. That he proactively tried to get a dog to appear I'm hoping shows an attitude shift. "Dogs are good for peanut butter" as opposed to "dogs must be made to go away by barking."

Yes it is 15 degrees but still have to have a dip after every walk! Shame about Spirits ear Gertrude, Jake had the same when I got him but you hardly tell now that the hairs grown over. Very photogenic your dogs. Impatiens I love Harvey photographed against green, it seems to set off his colouring well. I read somewhere that cameras battle to focus on black and white objects and I was wondering if that's why the focus in my last few has been ordinary? Anybody else heard this?

Beautiful dogs, I'm a big fan of the cuddly breeds....Collie looks like a big snuggle.