hankdog

Well see DD that's the problem you're not being specific enough and the dogs aren't getting a clear message. You need to clearly say "you are going to Blacktown" or wherever they came from, good training needs to be precise!!!???? I am so lucky to have a food motivated dog, he actually cues me when he knows he's done the right thing, he'll look and give me a little nudge if I'm not quick enough with his treat.

I'm looking at the photo of the quite small base and the very tall extended crane and high school physics is telling me that's a really bad idea. Great pictures I also like the one looking down the neck of the crane.

Here's one for unpredictable. Walking up the hill and a little foxie appears, emergency u-turn and there's his bigger mate behind me. I head across the street hoping to get up against the fence but they come in quickly and I'm kicking them off in the middle of the street. Jake is staying behind me and barking, I hear him yelp at one point he may have got bitten. It feels forever but I finally kick the the bigger dog hard enough that he retreats. Jake takes off in a manic run. I stop once we are away , can't find any punctures so give him lots of cuddles and a drink. I'm really annoyed as his training now is to give him the choice to run away or do LAT when he sees a dog, any barking and I freeze and ignore him until he is quiet. Since this isn't very practical to do when not in a set up I work hard to avoid dogs he can't deal with. He loathes two terriers that live on the steepest hill around but I realize I'm going to have to go home that way . Lately he has been doing run away past their house but then stopping and going back to do some LAT. It's Jake so I just go with it. Today he doesn't start running at the beginning of the block and as we get parallel with their gate he very calmly sits and starts doing LAT, his eyes are not glued on them and his body is completely relaxed. The owner is in the garden and she shushes the dogs and we have a little chat. Jake has a drink, eats a bunch of treats and then calmly moves on under his own steam. I pick my jaw up and tiptoe home behind him. Just when I think I'm getting to know him he does something so weird. Njce but no closer to unlocking the puzzle that is Jake.

What, dogs don't listen to reason , when did that happen!! Send your dogs to the pound for a bit, all mine have been rescues and they all eat like hoovers, think they may learn that while they're in jail.

Oh Megan I wish you had a DVD that must have been hilarious!

I think that's true with our "odd" dogs, their thought processes might be slightly different to regular dogs and this makes them react unpredictably. Whenever I read a book that says "do X and the dog will think Y and do Z" I just know that's not what's going to happen at all. I think that's why you have to have an overall strategy that you consistently apply no matter what reaction you get from the dog.

Oh my ballerina daughter would die for Justices turned out feet. He looks really proud if himself there. Chuckandsteve from my experience Jake has become sensitized to going to training and he's never had any negative reinforcement except actually seeing dogs which is stressful for him. That being said I don't mind using mildly aversive training methods in principle but find them counter productive with Jake in particular since his level of arousal around dogs is so high you would be off the scale on aversive to make any impact coupled with being a bull breed that was bred to take wallops from large animals and go back for more you would be at best wasting your time and at worst fanning the flames. So that's a long winded way of saying I don't know but it's sounds like you're making progress if he can hang out with a pack of dogs.

10/52 Look at the camera Jake.

Don't worry about being an idiot, Snook had to tell me to take Jakes reward treats out of his daily food allowance. Luckily she did before he turned into a barrel! I think sometimes I'm so busy thinking about what I can do I miss the obvious.

Sorry for your stress, but I thankyou for keeping us in pictures when you are so busy.

Thanks for the puppy pics, always good to get a virtual puppy fix.

Is he a dogue? He's so beautiful, I love the wrinkles.

Stan,you're such an evil genius!

Hugely off topic but if you watched Better Homes tonight the dog Doctor Harry was throwing a ball for is Chilli and the little foxie is also Vicki's. They're all in the Choosi pet insurance ad as well.

Great, he looks like a stuffed toy, all squishy and soft!

great looking boy!

Oh did you go to Underdog today? Did they find Scooties reset button. Darn I wish I knew where Jakes was!

Isnt it strange Jake is much more relaxed if we walk near traffic. I've put it down to being white noise or possibly giving him something else to focus on. Yesterday a kid rode his scooter into the back of him, he didn't blink. For the next 200m the kid rode back and forth between us and his mother, absolutely no problem. Went to the vet tonight and there were cats in the waiting room and again no problem, sat beautifully whilst I did paperwork. He is so bombproof in every other way, I do wonder what happened to make him like he is. BC I had Amy envy when Snook woukd write about training before I found Vicki, keep looking there'll be a trainer for you somewhere. Such a relief when you find the right one.

Dear Jelly and Roo, I have twice got one week away from making this decision. On both occasions I told myself that I would throw everything at it for a week, pretty much 25/7 and if I didn't get any improvement then that was it. You have one life and you need to enjoy it and live comfortably with your decisions. You're in a corner and fighting very hard and either way you're going to be uncomfortable, there is no easy way out of your situation unfortunately. I'm in a different place to you, as a recent empty nester I have the time and resources to invest in my dog but some days the walls close in and I have to think very hard about what I want to do. Whatever happens I wish you strength.

He's lovely and so are you for helping him. Good to see 2 months behind bars hasn't crushed his spirit.

I'm glad to hear Noodles back to walking, does that mean his back has improved? When you say pills are you considering behavior altering medication, I will say it's been a big help for us. I don't want to keep him on them much longer but I think it's given us a good leg up to get some good behavior started. My neighbours dog has started some treatment that had made her more alert and she now spends a lot of time at the window that overlooks our garden barking at either Jake or the chooks. I've been using this as a great training tool, a barking dog on tap just out the front door. I've been doing all my clicker training out there and today Jake was sleeping on the lawn and I was across the creek about 50m away, she fired up barking about 10m away from him and I saw him jump up. One quick call and he changed direction and came straight to me. Big dollop of peanut butter for that one.

My bulldog is a mix of bulldogs and has resulted in quite an athletic dog, probably quite similar to what original bullbaiting bulldogs were. We walk for about 90 minutes in the morning although we do quite a lot of stays and heel work with turns and pace changes that helps him keep his breathing going. We do an afternoon garden session, I'm trying to teach him zoomies so he gets a bit of running but mostly it's brain work with clicker training. He has really good muscle definition in his back and shoulders, tummy not so much.

The reason I switched from Steve to Vicki was because I felt I needed more training, it's looks simple but To get the timing and everything else right is so tricky and I think when you're working with a highly anxious dog you have so little room for error. I was also lucky with all my other dogs, I've always had second hand adult dogs and some have had their quirks but none as difficult as Jake. I just know if I'd seen him being walked down the street before I would have thought "why doesn't that owner train that awful dog." Jake has certainly taught me a lot, and not just about dog training.

My itchy bulldog cannot be washed in malaseb so in the evening all his feet are washed in quit itch which is an iodine solution and then rinsed in water, his chin also gets wiped over because of the transfer when chewing. Lots of fish, canned sardines, tuna or dory fillets. Lamb bones, chicken or beef but not the same protein too many meals in a row. No rice, he had bad reactions to most of the expensive kibble but can tolerate little bits if super coat. There's a list in this forum if the different antihistamines digs can have, just work through until you find one that suits. His feet had reddish goo between the pads when we got him and whilst he will always be slightly itchy this routine keeps him under control. My vet said considering his breed and the state he was in we could pretty much assume he was allergic to such a range of things that we would just try managing for all the common allergens.

I live on the bush with a creek and am forced to pick up beheaded whip birds, mailed blue tongues and chewed ducklings. I even photographed a cat with a duckling in its mouth, council are no help. Yes it's the owners fault but if we wait for change we will have precious little native wildlife.