Steph M

What about small bouts of swimming, if pup happens to be a swimmer? Or paddling. Would that be suitable at all?

Very true, but it does still stand! And as for the neck and or ear tags I think we'll stick to microchips and ID tags on collars here too. They would last about 5 mins in this house and I don't fancy one getting torn out and an infection of the neck region.

You're right about the reliance, Nekh, we have made a consistent point of taking them out separately and walking them alone where possible but she did pick him before us, she was listen as only to be rehomed with another dog, as she'd been fostered with her brother, so I suspect there might have been an inkling this could be a problem even initially. I should have asked more questions but she did seem pretty normal for the first few days and we assumed it was just settling issues when she started to take things. Youre pribably right that our value is lower than his, she is devoted but honestly he could give or take. Haha. He's happy to lounge with us and have a cuddle on the couch. Not to say she isn't fussed with us, she will drive you mad for a cuddle and I'll often come in and find Brooke cradling her like a baby and her fast asleep. She's very much his buddy. As for the catahoula, your guess is 100% as good as ours. Haha! She's chipped as a JRT x. Go figure. Probably somewhere back there she's got JR, among everything else. I'll pop you off an email tomorrow. We are going away to see family in a week or so, they're coming too so will be a few weeks off getting started yet but if you tell me she's certifiable and a nutbag then we can think about medication but hey, any foundation and insight is better than nothing, right?

Poor dog indeed. And she rehomed him too. How would one even go about finding him a new home, all sad. Should definitely be in prison .

I can rattle off at least 10 bigger wastes of money! Haha. I like the idea. Loads of people get rabbits as pets and they just languish in the yard. I'm all about it!

The problem with getting her to these things and even obedience is her nerves. She sees someone she doesn't like and she just won't do anything. We have tried lure coursing as she loves to run, that was a big flop until someone asked if she would like to run with their dog, even that only worked once! Haha. Even basic obedience, I worry what happens when Gus moves up a class. I would love her to have a job, or try agility or something but we have a lot of kinks to work out before that's a possibility! I certainly have never felt she is acting out to get her way, it seems pretty genuine to me. I wish she were just carrying on! Also total obedience is pretty low on the list too. I'd settle for being able to take my eyes off her for an hour and go read alone! Haha.

Double post!

Haha, Gus brings me presents like Hank, It's so funny turning around or coming out of the bathroom to a pile of toys and sticks and once he even piled up the couch cushions. Oddball he is! She can clear a baby gate like she's on springs, so we've kind of, duct taped two on top of each other. Haha. Our house looks like a prison. The give game is a good one, but I have to think hard for something more rewarding than the shredding. That seems to be the endgame of it all. Hmm!

I'm just not quite game to try it again. Last time we tried to crate her we left it open for a week and she would come and go, we put her toys and treats in there and she would eat them half in half out, I'd praise her for going in and sitting or dropping but as soon as I closed the door she lost her mind and panicked. I went back a few steps and after a week did it again, thought she might calm down but after ten minutes she'd ripped up her pads trying to dig out so I think we might try the mat thing. I just can't ever see myself alone being able to get her to a point where the crate would be a nice, calming place to be and don't want to do more damage. You might well be right about the food though. I will scale back on her 'doing things' time for some 'not doing things' time.

That is actually not a bad idea, although she wouldn't come out of our room for almost a week if she could see Gus in his cone so may not be so great in execution, but if I can get one on her without her spazzing out and losing it that might be a good last resort! And thanks, Aliwake. The upside of it all is she makes Gus look like the eaaaaaaasiest dog alive to own! Haha!

Part Koolie, Part insane. Haha. Mat training is a good idea, we're working on her basic obedience as we go, she had next to none. I believe that's part of this weeks challenge, but I might get a head start today. Good thinking, 99!

Try teaching her to give it to you. I have a kleptomaniac Dane. She was exactly like your Rosie, except more strategic about it :) Does she know 'give'? If not teach her 'give' with a big reward every time she takes something. Then start to encourage her to come to you before you ask her to give. Before you know it when she steals things she will bring them to you. My Delta has brought me everything from roast chickens, kids lunches and dead birds. Clearly this does not suppress the behaviour, but makes it much safer and more manageable. Once she has got it, continue to reward her for bringing things to you, whether it be with praise, a pat, or a treat. Secondly, it sounds like she has way too much freedom. Is she crate trained? If not the time is now :) Make it a nice place, and really use it. Whenever you are busy she should be in the crate. This is too much. Try spending half the amount of time that you are getting her to do stuff, teaching her how to do nothing. Catch her calm and calmly reward her. Sit with her on her bed and stroke her in a relaxing way. Spend time with her chilling out, so she learns that calm behaviours are nice and pleasant and rewarding too :) It is understandable when a dog is being very challenging for you to feel fed up and tired. If you feel like your relationship with her is being really affected by these behaviours of hers, every day try to jot down in a little notebook something fun, clever, good or pleasant that she did that day, or something you love about her. This helps to train your mind to also focus on her positives and not get so worn down with the other stuff :) She is very high energy, being part Koolie and part whippet, or so we assume.... any less and I find the problem really does compound. We do reward her for sitting down quietly on the couch and having a snooze while we watch TV. If I'm home we move her bed into the office and every time she relaxes and sits down quietly she gets a nice little bit of chicken or whatever is on hand (the bookshelf in here is more like a doggy shelf) so we do try to reward quiet time as best we can but I really find cutting down her busy time makes life more difficult. The notebook is a lovely idea though! The other day I had to really convince myself to spend some time with her but as soon as I tucked her into our bed and sat down to read before sleep (she sleeps on her own bed at the foot, but we like to have a snuggle time) I remembered why I love her so much. She is so sweet. If she wasn't we'd be in an entirely different situation.

She does not take at all to crating. We did think it might be an option at one point but she tries very hard to dig her way out and that ends in her tearing her pads up, so it's just not worth it at this point. She is generally outside when she can't be watched, that's good advice.

I love the header on their page "Sydney Animal Behaviour Service - Not in Sydney" I will send them an email and ask if they can help us out, Thanks for the suggestion!

I think that's where most of it stems from. She was (as far as we know) born in a pound, which means she simply hadn't SEEN rain or normal household things until 8 or so weeks and she went into foster care from then. We have considered this, and it's the next step. We're on the hunt for one we (and she) clicks with. We met with a general behaviourist, suggested by her obedience club, briefly a month or so ago and she just would not have a bar of him and shut down and he basically said he can't help if she won't engage, so back on the hunt. A woman would be ideal I think. She's pretty sexist. Haha. As for a genetic component that would be a lucky dip too. It could well be a heady mix.

I actually disagree. It's the vanity of it all that bothers me. What comes next, doggie earrings for Fluffy? Nose rings for your hipster Frenchie? What if this were to set a precedent and that was the next wave of doggie fashion. You can take your dog to a puppy tattoo parlour and get Rocky a nice big tattoo to make sure everyone knows he's a 'badass' Why can we not just love our animals as they are and not set a precedent for them further becoming an accessory or a fashion statement. It's not comparable to desex tattoos or working dog branding which actually serve a purpose, it's just vain and stupid and I would be seriously concerned if it took off. As for the woman with her 'my dog is cooler than yours' bravado. She sounds like a genius.

We've had Rosie for about 6 months now and she's been an absolute barrel of laughs. She's so sweet and funny and always up for a chat, but she's always been fairly anxious about certain things. We've tried to positively charge these things by making games of them, or making them treat-worthy occasions or redirecting her to do something she can do well and praising her but it seems we've hit a wall and gone as far as that can take us. The most pressing problem is her stealing things. Everything is fair game. Undies, socks, clothes, their water bowls and food bowls, shopping bags as you're unloading them, even a can of hair mousse I was using once. I put it down and looked away and POOF it was gone. Once these things make it outside she systematically destroys them. The easy answer would be to deny her access, but it's not simply when we aren't home, it's when you turn your back for a moment she's got something. I'm really wearing out having to constantly have one eye open, so to speak. I can't really relax and do the dishes or even have her sit on a cushion by the computer like Gus does, she's always off and scheming to find 'things' When she can't take something out to destroy, she will find something outside. Be it a toy, part of the fence, the lawn or the hoses to our brand new washing machine when it was delivered and left under the carport. Anything is fair game. She will take washing off the line or generally be a terror. A lot of it is being a young dog I gather, but enough has to be enough. I keep her as busy as we can. She gets an hour of free running a day, two ten-twenty minute training sessions a day, she eats her dinner and breakfast from kongs and puzzle toys and I make a point of a game of something out the back for 20 minutes or so every day. She's pretty high energy, but she will come home from an hour of obedience and a big hour long run at the creek behind it on a Saturday morning and walk through the house with what we call her 'sneaky face' on and make a beeline for the bedroom for something to nick. I really can't work out why she does it. It feels like under stimulation and boredom should be the answer, but there's no pattern or reason. We have tried cardboard boxes to destroy, things she's allowed to have and wreck and she does, then moves onto the next thing. We do try to send her to doggie daycare once a week, but that's an expensive habit and it doesn't change things, just gives us all a day of respite. No one walks out the back with baited breath to see what needs fixing today. Haha. I really hate feeling like I resent her, but sometimes I'll go have a shower and come out and she's actually dug up a small tree in the yard and has been towing it around the lawn, or I've left her in out of the rain and she's shredded a photo album all over the rug. It makes it very hard to do anything. The secondary issue, and the more anxiety based one is that she is quite honestly afraid of everything. Everything. Rubbish bags send her into a shaking drooling frenzy, so does the rain (she will actually freeze up and not walk in the rain. Many a time have I had to carry her home)and thunder, we won't even go there with the thunder. She's dug up all our lino once when we couldn't get home before the thunder and made the 'mistake' of leaving the laundry door open for her (they do have a big deck too) which was a rookie mistake. The list of what she doesn't fear is shorter than what she does. Loves kids, women and food (although she wouldn't ever take food from the hand of anyone but us, not even if it was bacon!) My brother is a particular concern to her. From the very start she has been petrified of him. He's tried everything, throwing food down for her and not looking at her, we've tried having him play with Gus (she will skirt around the sides and not let him near her, but want to get involved) he's come for walks with us and she just freezes up, we've tried him ignoring her and not so long ago we got called away to see Brooke's family and he housesat for us and she wouldn't eat, spent her whole time pacing the hall and refusing to walk past the closed door of the room he was in. We're not sure quite what to do when we have to go away, he lives with mum so she can't go stay there, wouldn't put her in a traditional kennel as she'd likely go mad and can't well lump her on friends or sitters knowing she's so destructive. She relies very heavily on the presence of other dogs to bolster her confidence, so we spend a fair bit of time training them separately, taking them out separately and engaging with them on their own but she really does sort of shut down without Gus. We took her to a BBQ at a friends the other week and she just sat in a garden bed looking sad until we gave up and took her home. If Gus had been there or another dog present, she's the life of the party! We've spent months working our butts off and every time I think we're making headway, a new phobia pops up and we're back to square one, or we'll go back to one I thought we had licked. I hate to feel like I resent her as I really do love her to bits, but we're running low on ideas and she is costing a small fortune in time and money. Not to mention I'm pretty sure I'm headed for an early grave, it rains and I panic internally. If she got out she would just be gone and in such a flap. I was talking to Brooke today after she smashed a record of 3 new pot plants I left on the table outside while I showered and I said if I'd known all this when we adopted her I wouldn't have taken her in, which isn't to say we want to get rid of her or anything, simply that had I known it would have been different. We manage her as best we can, we do love her and she's generally a happy dog. She just makes life hard for us. Haha. Anyway, this is the beast in question at Day Care the other week, where apparently she is a total angel and the guy seems to think I'm crackers when I tell him of her laundry list of issues.

FWIW I quite like the name! I think it sounds pretty apt. Haha. I can see how it'd give some a Lord Of The Flies vibe though!

A 20 year old could well be qualified. Or could be a 30 year old who looks 15, I know a few of those. Haha.

Seems downright stupid to me. Vain and stupid. Dog is under for surgery and you're there asking if you can tattoo her while they take her spleen? Idiot. Total idiot.

Really interesting! I ha e questions but need to form them properly. I'll be back! Haha.

What would you say had the dogs not been playing, but recalling back t their owner? They're certainly under effective control. It just seems so silly to be trying to pin fault. I just tripped over a loose tile and stubbed my toe. Can I sue my landlord?

Hahaha, mine too now you mention it, almost daily some weeks. Can we sue anyone for that? I have lost a few good cups of tea that way!

Hey, I'm 26 now and when our family dog went last year I really struggled. I'd spent so long denying it and ignoring the fact it really hit me when it happened. Never is easy!

If that were me, and most anyone I know I think of be telling myself I was a fool. Who would she sue had she tripped over a fallen branch? Or a puddle? Sometimes shite just happens and I personally can't imagine scowling my way around life looking for someone to blame for everything.