hankdog

Well done Staffyluv, Zig is going great guns. Not breaking a stay with dogs nearby is such a huge achievement for our speshul puppies. Good luck for Sunday!

Well I'll give anything a go. Micturition drive.....do I walk around with a tree and plonk it down when he's been good?????????????????????

She's very elegant, you can definitely pick good looking dogs. Jake went into the pound with a female who was a bit older than him. My behaviorist thinks a lot of his lack of confidence comes from that situation and being separated from her. If we could just get over the other dog thing his separation issues would probably be helped by having another dog. I think you're brave because I honestly don't know that I will ever have the courage to take on another dog though. Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Well done Jelly, you're very brave in helping Roo. I'm watching with interest as I think a companion would help my boy too. The brown stuff on her teeth may have to be scraped off by a vet. My last dog had a long, houndy shaped head and limited interest in bones so had to go visit the dentist yearly to get his teeth scraped under ansesthetic, especially the back ones. Apparently it can give them tummy problems and other health problems if left.

I was thinking that you may want to read Megan's posts. I don't know if you can somehow just look at her posts in the reactive dogs thread but her girl Lucy was also a very fearful product of a puppy farm. She wrote a detailed post not so long ago about how troubled she was when she first got her she wouldn't even come in the house and now she even does agility and is a happy little dog.

Hey raineth, welcome to the thread. It's a shame your dogs been attacked, the scourge of off leash dogs. It's not all bad, by the time you've learned LAT and done some BAT you will have a whole new understanding of the world of dogs. As annoying as a reactive dog is you certainly learn so much.

I was in the same situation 18 months ago. K9-pro website will give you info on the behavioral interrupter which would be the first thing I'd teach because it's a rescue from all possible bad situations. Get yourself a clicker and on the Internet is a program of 101 things to do with a box, after that the sky is the limit. For my boy he learned to offer actions and that things he did could earn him treats, for dogs without a human interaction history I think this is a huge lesson.

Thanks Wobbly will start on that tomorrow. Very generous if her to share the lesson on YouTube.

I'm a trick noob as well but I have been working on heel and come as stations. Now taking them into distracting environments and moving the heel. Just a few steps for now. He doesn't play so I've taught him with a clicker to run out for a thrown toy and he will mouth it until it squeaks. I can't seem to work out how to get him to hold the toy and give it to me. As a bulldog I'm not sure if its uncomfortable for him to hold toys with all the flappy gums? He does chew bones and kongs but doesn't seem to have the instinct to tug or hold a toy?

Cheeky little mite. Your dogs are very well behaved. I've noticed the wild lorikeets punch way above their fighting weight. They take on the brush turkeys and win at our feeding bowl.

Thanks Corvus, those look like they'll save me from coming home covered in peanut butter. Wobbly I actually think all the other training you can do, tricks or agility or whatever is very helpful. I really feel I have a better connection with Jake from doing all the non dog training and that they learn to listen and trust you.

I also would have thought Cooper. Got that same look off Jake after his bath today. Must have the camera handy next time. I always thought it was sunshine and beach all the time at your place tlc, glad to see you also get mud puddles. Love the after Jammie's shot.

It's interesting what counts as a distracting environment, I have a very long, about 100m driveway. There's an exact point at which all brain is lost. One meter this way and all tricks are perfect, stays are fine even with the neighbours dog barking at him, step that way one meter and he can only just sit and only his most ingrained tricks survive in a very half hearted way. I often drive him to a nearby office park and we have never seen a dog there. I can even work him off lead there, he's even better than in the garden. I've been having a lot if success with peanut butter. I read about it somewhere, the smell helps distract them and apparently the licking action makes them relax their jaws. I started using it with Vicki and then in the garden when he sees the neighbours dogs. It's now got to the point where he sits on the verandah desperately waiting for the neighbours poodles to appear and then races to me to tell me he's earned a lick. I've started taking it walking, he gets treats if he only hears a dog, peanut butter is only for seeing a dog. I got caught in a dog sandwich the other day and was able to lead him past a dog with his nose firmly wedged in the jar. I did order some of the Lickety sticks but they don't have the same appeal for him. I have an unopened chicken and beef flavored tube if anyone wants to give them a go pm me your address and I'll post them off.

We have 2 cockatiels and 4 chickens. The younger cockatiel periodically takes on the bulldog. The dog was not used to birds when we got him 18 months ago but has now got to the point where he will stare at or walk away from all 60 grams of fighting fury. All three chickens will ignore or avoid the dog but the fluffy teacosy rooster standing at a mighty 1300 grams will charge and attack the dog, I admire the dogs restraint but would never leave them alone, I think he restrains himself from having a go rather than is totally at ease with them.

Because Jake has great butt whorls!! I just love Cookie and the focus in those pictures is marvelous. Looking forward to seeing Koda growing up.

Holding thumbs for Zigg.

A Stan visit and a fridge clean out, bonus!

I believe I have a spot in the Stan queue too????. Jakes job is to amuse me and make me active, he slightly over achieved in the active part. Why would anyone want a difficult dog though?

Laughing too much????????????

Is it possible to take a bad photo if a Frenchie? She's beautiful.

Well it's interesting that running is a reward. I experimented with run away for a while and Jake loved it and started doing it for fun. I stopped because I was advised it could lead to a heightening of fear. So I don't like to discuss my present training too much but we work over threshold. This is not a pleasant way to train and is last gasp desperate type stuff. I wouldn't recommend trying unless you're with a professional who has very stable dogs to train with. However part of this is allowing Jake to take himself away and as it turns out he now regularly chooses to run away. He loves running, I've bought a pair of good shoes and out of our 90 minutes walk we probably run over half. He is way more confident running and will now run past known dog-harbouring houses to "check them out" and then once he's seen where the dogs are will often stop and go back to do some LAT and get some food. I've done a lot of clicker training set ups that involve weighting different tricks and then letting him choose to either squeak the chicken for 5 treats or press the bell for 2 etc and I change it round to get him thinking about earning the most food rewards he can in a situation. I guess I sort of realised he's not the kind of dog to unquestioningly do what you tell him. He needs to decide for himself how to cope and I just have to find ways to get him to make the decision I want.

Buyers remorse is very common for many large purchases. Just realisinh the commitment now that the excitement of choosing is over. It should pass.

Yep I'm about to take mine out of his freezing clam shell pool and give him a nice warm bath. He has the anti cruelty people on speed dial apparently.

Unfortunately I've not seen him again. Just keeps sitting in the back of my mind bothering me.

So sad you do a wonderful job. I'm sorry this happened.