Kavik

It was a great piece of writing Jed!

Yes dogs are the same species but breeds have been developed for certain jobs and traits and now can have very different appearances and temperaments. The good thing about purebreds is their predictability of appearance and temperament. Randomly breeding crossbreeds is not going to give you this, but may create a dog with conflicting instincts as well as appearance and coat type.

There was a great thread by Jed which explained how many purebreds may have come about. By choosing particular dogs with the desired attributes or ones that would improve current dogs. Not by crossing already estalished breeds necessarily, as many breeds were developed around the same time before there were breed standards as such.

It is simply the Lab temperament and not all dog temperaments work well together Labs are exuberant and bouncy and physical when they play. That is just how they are. I am not saying it is a bad thing, just that owners are not always aware that other dogs don't appreciate that play style. I avoid them not because they are bad or because I don't like them, but because my dog has a different play style and does not want to physically wrestle with a Lab and I have learnt that you cannot always rely on other owners to do the right thing by your dog especially when their dog is very different. I avoid Staffies for the same reason. With Diesel not so much of an issue but Kaos does have quite a different style of interacting with other dogs than Labs do. He has gotten more tolerant (the other day we had a Sheltie who continued to follow us and bark at him quite close to him for about 10 mins and apart from one bark he just ignored it and followed me - it followed us around the park) but still I prefer to avoid situations that could cause a problem.

Some one at my club who has a little fluffy dog did the test and it came back mostly Staffordshire Bull Terrier ;) I don't think it is very accurate . . .

Just on the weekend, my lab and I arrived at the off leash park. He got rushed at and bailed up by TWO larger dogs - a ridgy and what I think was an Irish Wolfhound - both at least 3cm bigger than my boy (who is not a big lab). He immediately submitted and 20 secs later they were all playing - unlike pretty much every small dog and poodly-type we meet who when Archie (politely) goes up to, instantly turn aggressive, barking and growling. Oh, um, ooops, sorry !! I think I just made a massive generalisation. Sorry about that folks ! All I meant is that it can be scary and intimidating for anyone if a dog much larger than yours comes running up to your dog quickly. I have nothing against Labs, it is just that their physical play style does not suit my dogs so I don't go near them to invite trouble. My dogs stay near me and mind their own business and will greet other dogs calmly and move on.

Imagine a Great Dane barreling up to your Lab full pelt with hackles up gives you an idea of what the other owner may be feeling. Labs do tend to play very physically and do tend to get in other dogs faces when greeting. I avoid Labs as my dogs don't like that style of play. Mine will sniff and then go on their way and don't seek other dogs out to play or wrestle and don't like it when another dog continually gets in their face.

I think this sounds like a good approach As much research as you can, try and find someone who deals with the area you are working in/need help in

If they were both up at some point I think it is likely they will both be up eventually. Their ears do funny things when teething! I love how they are mirrors of each other at the moment though - very cute

Is it 10? I thought it was 6.

I would have been tempted with Diesel if it didn't mean sitting through a 6 week course with a Delta instructor first. If you could book in or schedule like a normal trial. Would be a bonus if it was an ANKC recognised title too.

I agree with poodlefan. Especially with the vet visit first - it could be pain or allergy or sensitivity - best to rule that out before assuming it is behavioural.

Glad she managed a trip in the car without chucking! Did she try feeding in the car while car is stationary to make car a good place? Then turning engine on, then going very short distance and slowly increase distance? The only dog I've had who was carsick was a purebred Schipperke in the States. The Beagle my parents rescued drooled in the car but did not chuck. None of the dogs I currently own ( one from pound, one unregistered purebred, one registered purebred) get carsick

PAX is awesome!

I agree with this. I know someone who breeds Jap Spitzes, and there is one of her dogs I really like as he is drivey and outgoing and fun, but others of hers are more nervous. Met one at training the other night who I also really liked - he looked like lots of fun! From what I have seen of both breeds they can be reserved with strangers (though I have noticed the Germans moreso) and especially the Germans can be VERY noisy!

Teach them to shape first You can do this best away from the weave poles with tricks. To do 2 x 2 it really is an important skill for the dog to have. 2 x 2 is not the only way to teach weaves though. If your dog doesn't shape well and you don't think you will be able to get them to shape well enough to do 2 x 2 you can use another method - many methods are used sucessfully. There is the channel method, slanted poles or V-Weaves method among others and you can use 3 poles to train entries.

giraffez It is a specialist clinic - they only take appointments with referral from your usual practice to see the specialist in that field

A little brag I was walking Zoe today and a Schnauzer comes by barking, lunging and pulling on the lead (with the owner going good girl ). Zoe was a good dog and sat there looking at me on a loose lead and did not react at all to the other dog who was being obnoxious Previously she would be carrying on and it would be hard to get her attention. Yes I had food and a clicker, but I was not shoving it under her nose trying to distract her from the other dog, I was standing calmly and she chose to give me her attention to earn her reward

In my experience abed I used to do anything to try to distract my dog from other dogs including waving food in front of her face (which she would ignore). I found that with some focus work and clicker work that I learnt in Click to Calm she will now look at me for a click/treat at a much closer distance to other dogs without showing aggression and I don't have to wave food in front of her face - she will offer the behaviour on her own

Darn it, why can I NEVER remember to do this when actually in a situation where it probably would have worked! Had a treat bag full of treats too. Situtation arose about 15 minutes ago Sorry, completely OT. I've never thought of doing this! Not sure why as I always have treats! Thanks I will remember this one :D

megan - what work have you done already? Certainly one thing I would do is not walk where there are likely to be off leash dogs (or until you have a strategy, any dogs at all) I read the book Click to Calm, Zoe already understood the clicker, then I worked on it with dogs across the road so that there was no way the other dog could possibly get near us. This allowed me to relax as there was no chance of an incident, and I could then work on rewarding the desireable behaviour and treating it as a clicker training exercise rather than stressing about the other dog. With time I was then able to take it 'on the road' on our walks - pulling into driveways to get enough space if necessary and of course judging the owner and dog (if it looked like an out of control dog, I would still cross the road). Once I trusted our training I was able to relax which helped the process considerably. I always tell people who look like visiting with their dog that my dog is not friendly (though she may be sitting there quietly not reacting at the time).

I've had the best results by teaching a calm response and focus on me (using the technique in the book Click to Calm). Unexpected dogs that appear suddenly or are off lead are the most difficult to deal with I agree.

Don't bother unless its capsicum spray or a fire extinguisher.. you'll be wasting your time. Two on one is damned hard to deal with. I'd be going in boots and all. I'd also be screaming for help, even though you'd probably be unlikely to get any. I was really lucky when Zoe was attacked (by a bull breed). I was having no luck getting it off by myself (using fibre tek lead, kicking etc), I was screaming for help and luckily the people whose house we were outside at the time came and helped me to get the dog off mine. If they had not come and helped I don't think she would have made it - the injuries were quite serious as it was They also supplied a stat dec on what they witnessed.

I use Advantix and never have a problem I have also heard that Frontline is not effective any more. I don't have cats though.

What I found fascinating about the Susan Garrett seminar was exactly how she approached teaching boundaries and consequences for actions without the use of corrections. She teaches self control in the face of distractions and temptations as well as teaching the dogs to bounce back from failure in a training exercise and how to try again to give the correct response without shutting down. She emphasises giving the dog the choice to make the right or the wrong decision and each one has consequences. She has high drive dogs, and Decaf was a challenge in other ways as well. What are the consequences of making a wrong decision in the Susan Garrett system???. SG prefers to start the teaching of consequences and self control outside her main training area of agility. She does this with her program of Crate Games and It's Yer Choice. The dog has the choice of eg in Crate Games to stay sitting when the door is opened and so earn its release and reward and opportunity to work and earn more rewards or to try and barge through the door and get the consequence of the door being shut and so not earn its release and reward and miss the opportunity to work and earn more rewards. She teaches the dog to want to make the right choice and a lot of her training involves the control of resources. They have to earn priveleges from showing that they can make smart correct choices. With a more difficult behavioural problem I believe she would approach the problem as a symptom of a wider problem to do with relationship, understanding and choice rather than the problem being an end in itself to fix. So she would go back to her foundation work program and go from there. I understand the strategy, but I see the strategy as ultimately a means for avoiding an aversive correction as the priority on the assumption that administering an aversive will result in a serious detriment to the dog which IMHO is completely over dramatised. I don't see these strategies in the most part to result in achieving better training and handler control with greater reliability, I see the basis of these strategies being all about training without the use of an aversive as the major promotion from a commercial perspective. I see it as teaching the dog about choices, giving them choices, showing them how to choose the one you want, and how to overcome the stress of choosing incorrectly (when dogs shut down), letting them fail and learning to work through that. Because of the groundwork, there is no need for SG to use corrections. They are not going to do something as drastic as come up leash as they have learnt self control and impulse control through the groundwork. Since a lot of her training is done through shaping and having the dog offer behaviours and learn to work through failure this is very important. The seminar showed that most people are too quick to help their dogs and not confident enough to let them work through a period of frustration and failure. She is NOT a soft trainer! She was much more stringent with her criteria and not helping the dog too much and let them figure it out. It would certainly be more difficult to try to use no corrections with a dog with ingrained problems such as handler aggression, but SG's program done properly means that you can avoid those problems in the first place.