Two Best Dogs!

Although both are scent related, noseworks is different from tracking and does not have any obedience requirements. :) Had not realised! How so? (would still hold off to avoid confusion, but curious!)

I am really looking forward to when I am in level 4 and T and I can start doing tracking. We could start now, but this is one of the lessons I want to do from scratch with the instructors to make sure we do it right. It is really hard to hold out for it :laugh: hopefully her ability to find the treat right under her nose will improve :laugh: :laugh:

I believe she's national pet register. I didn't get to choose which she was registered to :X why do you recommend against? I would have preferred CAH myself, all other are pets on it. I like that you can edit all in one go... *phone didn't even attempt to autocorrect???

Thanks canetoad that is opening up some opportunities to me! PK for this I am thinking more general acitivities versus anxious behaviour as I feel I'm getting enough supports on the anxious part to not want to join across too many areas and spread my memory/base too thin. And yes quite a few groups/forums are disappointing or misleading. I left one group because all it was was dog memes and not the walking spots they advertised as sharing :/

Is this for nsw microchip? It forever pains me that the nsw registry wouldn't update her details because it's a VIC address.

Does anyone know some big Australian dog groups on Facebook? I'm looking for groups that trend towards: - activity discussions - gear discussions - location discussions (as in, cool spots you may enjoy with your dog versus dog beaches) - general health discussions but not like vet worthy things. The group doesn't need to cover off all of those but I find I'm not very good at finding groups on Facebook. Maybe cause I only use it on mobile? There was one called "cool dogs" or something but I didn't like that. I am on the dog gear swap australia and do like that. And a few canine body awareness ones but they're worldwide and I'm looking for local intel... Cheers Ps! Oh, is there like a science dog research group? My RSS feed is broke and I don't remember how I set it up in first place. Time to migrate to modern platform?

I can ask about it, We'd need to put her on the long line for a ball at the end but hopefully she won't be so out of sorts as to not want to chase it at least. Haven't had much luck with squeaky toys in class, even her favourites she will lose interest in in the class environment. Her small-break-play usually consists of a lot of fuss, a lot of physical affection and a jog away from all the stress. She does love to chase small, fast moving things though!

What a clever old man, don't think I can fault that method XD

Thistle did well at obedience last week, although she did bark a couple of times at head trainer because he was walking past whistling. But he helped me with my timing on when to reward focus at me. So she'd look at him, look at me (treat!), look at him, look at me (treat!). She ignored him next time he walked past whistling. We are progressing well on stand, using the slowly-closer method. I have Thistle in a stand, I stroke her and reward her stand/focus while the trainer walks around us at currently 1m distance. We are going the slow and steady method, but i think in long run more beneficial like with grumpette's dog. Thistle will do a stand for some trainers but not others but not unexpected as different levels of familiarity. Everything else is on track and advanced level. On saturday i had to mow a big circle around her because she was eating a bone and doesn't care about the lawnmower anymore. I thought it was funny so i've left the circle of unmowed grass there. I'll probably regret that later I bought a chuck-it and fetch has become kind of fun to downright amazing. I love watching her zoom after the ball like a little blurry missle. However, I have hurt my arm from playing it so much. I can't wait for lure coursing in september, I am pretty sure she will love it. However she probably loves Didi more so may need to do a solo run XD (cooling off in the mud. backpack contents consist of a sock and my phone to hatch pokemon eggs...) We have been doing BAT's mark and move, on and off, and I am noticing an improvement on her regard with other dogs.I think she is moving from the hyper alert "I MUST GREET (RUDELY) TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE SAFE" to more of a "huh there's a dog over there but...i want to sniff this grass then go on my way". I will try to scan the summary pages of the book for others to research on. And a small-big success at obedience. Thistle was sniffing Buddy's owner, buddy came over to sniff Thistle. Thistle didn't see him coming so startled when he pressed his nose into her butt. She flinched back, gave him a sniff, then sniffed the OWNER again, then sniffed buddy again. Then Thistle and Buddy started getting a little too excited over their sniffs and were moving into "lets play and/or wrestle" territory so we each recalled our dogs. (Thistle and Buddy have sniffed in the past which is why i let them have a greeting rather than recall, All their interactions have been promising, but i was very pleased at her startle-and-recover. In a way, I think Buddy is a lot like Thistle would be if she hadn't had such a bunch of bad experiences?) That's my update for the week. *edit* oh!! Thistle saw Tim (best friends staff member in the store) and she wanted to go say hello but he was leading puppy culture class so I didn't want us to interrupt. There was a whippet puppy and a bulldog puppy! and other puppies but those two were cutest. I see some delightful pictures of Justice and Gruf up above, they are delightful mirror images!! Justice you go! Good job :)

What an overreactive dogpile Negative reinforcement isn't the only way to go about educating people, but if you prefer what comes out of ganging up and driving people off versus attempts at conversation and education I've completed your survey Clare, it was pretty straightforward but I had to use the other field a couple of times. Good luck with your phd and the next few years of work. I would suggest facebook groups to get a wider representation of victorian dog owners, if you haven't already.

Yay Packer!!! :D you must be so proud and relieved. He's going to do great with such a great start up to life! I really like this puppy culture.

:) What a lovely story, I'm glad Spud is getting better to keep his old man company.

That's great! I hope he keeps putting it back on and feels better soon. Which methods did you find most helpful for him? :D

Hi Bluehealer, I'm teaching bow by "capturing" her behaviour. It's not something I want on command, but for it to be a behaviour she offers when she wants attention/play. It's a little tricky because I taught her a default-sit for attention. Right now I am just making a big fuss whenever she stretches/bows/lowers her head - anything in the direction of a bow. The idea is she realises that for some reason, bows = a lot of attention! So ideally she'll offer it a little more often. It is a slow process to start, as I have to keep an eye on her to rain down the praise when it happens. I am not clicker training with this, just praise and toys. I'm not luring either because I want to keep it bouncy and natural, in whatever way she prefers to express a bow. I'll shape it more as she offers it more, i.e. no body contact, deep bow etc. I only have one dog right now. When i get second dog I am likely to exercise/train them separately an awful lot - especially in first few months - so they can be independent of each other and not learn negative quirks. When new dog is better trained I'll start taking them to places together where they can let loose. But for a walk around the local park I'd start with individual ones personally, and likely keep it that way. For thistle, she gets a lot of confidence off her dog buddies but i also want her to learn to handle things on her own. but is just my thoughts on it :)

The artist might sell them - their website is in the bottom right. I've got some print outs from the BAT 2.0 book they illustrate for but it didn't have the socialisation one.

This is me to a T. So many breeds and types and personalities, so little time. :laugh: When I am old I will have a pack of equally old mutts i reckon :laugh:

i think my excel sheet needs to be bigger :laugh: it has just been tracking training classes,think it needs a sheet on things to try like protocol and BAT and how they go/what works better yes lots of videos :) i should share more often, on instagram a gsd owner gives me lots of helpful advice and feedback. mostly on obedience but also on calm with people (their gsd is very HA but you wouldnt know it from the calm and focus. different to thistle i realise, but yes pick up lots of things no matter where. what i dont use for us, maybe for future dogs?)

Yes and no XD I found *I* was the on getting bored while Thistle just sat there. I think I will read through the paper trail and incorporate those things I think she finds challenging into our usual reward-for-calm-or-relaxed behaviour. Instead, I have focussed on starting to do BAT 2.0 type stuff. I was really heartened by how much looser and calmer her body language became when given choices (granted, she can not always have choices because life ) - and I have also been rewarding much more frequently at the start of training sessions/challenging situations then slowly increasing difficulty like the calm session do. but really value the protocol as a list of things to do randomly around dog to help her practice her inner calm buddha XD I will look at the guide again and see what we can do. I find myself trying to do lots of little bits of things as the need arises that other things, like the protocol (even tho it's a great base to set up) tend to fall to the side.

What a difference. How has Obi been going? Was it his aunties who were going to smack some sense into him?

It's tricky and alarming when your dog is big, but he's still a young teenager. Be patient, do your best and remember that some days they can be a little bit crankier than usual :) it doesn't mean you're a bad trainer for those bad days <- valuable things I try to remember on bad days If it does escalate or you're struggling in a few months, I would consider bringing in a behaviourist to see incase there is something else going on. Maybe consider doing some impulse control exercises, since you're already feeding by hand. If dog looks at you, not the meat, dog gets the meat. Slowly increase the duration they must look at you and reduce distance of the meat/increase meat movement. It can help teach your dog to control his impulses and improve his focus on you :) You can do it many other ways as well:

No dog is 100% perfect! For example, she may surrender to me but I am very careful not to give her bones, pig ears, anything that takes time to eat around other dogs. She would probably resource guard against other people too. And I won't lie, the first time she growled at me I had a small freak out! (I went to take her bowl of food away from her). She is also hand-fed her dinner and weekend breakfast, but for different reasons. I am unsure if that helped or not.

Hi Spice, I 'fixed' this with the Trade Game. Do not force, push or otherwise scare your dog unless it's an emergency! This is some guides on what I did to deal with Thistle's food aggression. Happy to report I can now take high value raw meat and bones off her without issue, for example today when she brought me *somethings* former leg while on our walk. I reached in, said Give as I took it out of her mouth then immediately praised and gave her a WHOLE lot of training treats. (and threw the bone back into the bushes while she was busy scavenging lol). She was happy, relaxed the whole time. I keep everything light but I do watch to see if she stiffens, in which case i would have offered the treats and encouraged her to drop the bone instead. A pdf I find easiest to remember from - i printed it out Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 I reinforce this every month or so randomly, just so she remembers that giving up her food = something even more awesome and I do not inadvertently scared/annoy her.

Those EYES! He looks to be pretty pleased with his life. Amazing he is only 7 years young, I would have thought even younger with an adorable face like that. Later I will try to share my favourite parts of BAT 2.0, now that I have finished reading the book. I'm going to try a small bit of the Mark-and-Move, or possibly the LAT, tomorrow outside the fenced dog park (at a great distance, located near the train tracks incase of offlead dogs outside the park as T is not bothered by trains). I have a couple of other books on recognising dog communication on their way. I would really like to work and reinforce Thistle on being calm about other dogs running around/making noises. I'm going to put her in her harness and the long line like BAT 2 describes. The Diamond Creek park i think it was? It's going to be tricky, working out which angle to take and the difference between when she is excited, when she is scared, and how easy it would be for her to flip between the too when her energy is up. I think sometimes she can't tell the difference between scared/excited and I can't either, reliably. I think the major difference between BAT and LAT is that LAT, you reward looking at trigger or looking away from trigger? BAT seems to be more around rewarding the dog for a disengaging behaviour (which I'm still trying to learn to recognise. As small as side glances or sniffing the air?) but by marking, moving away, then rewarding after moving. I am also trying to teach Thistle bow, to put in her repertoire of skills, as a part of a chapter talked about teaching a dog to bow when the dog wants something can have the dog increase the use of bows when greeting other dogs? I don't plan to do that again (off lead strange dogs at beach) for a long time, but I thought it would be a better substitute to the looming=chase thing she does. She did offer bows with a couple of dogs she engaged in play last time so she's not a total lost cause, would hopefully increase the frequency? Well, that's my theory. We'll see how it goes. I am trying to find more 'good example' calm dogs to teach her how to be a polite dog citizen. Especially smaller ones. She'll be seeing her bichon x friend in a few weeks. (I'm trying to teach her the more natural bow by capturing behaviour rather than luring her. Slower, but I find the captured positions she is better in than the lured ones.) *edit* found this blog that is posting about their BAT 2.0 training, pros, cons, experiences etc https://boogiebt.com/category/training/bat-sessions/

F'ing genius I tells ya! Got the method from a friend who uses it to watch their bunnies who got it from another friend etc etc. So far I've discovered Thistle: 1. Sleeps 2. Sleeps 3. Adjusts head position 4. Sleeps 5. Perimeter patrol of fence 6. Stands in sun for 10 minutes 7. Sleeps 8. Sleeps 9. Sometimes rolls over 10. Sleeps Also good for teaching dog to be calm when I am arriving home. I don't open the door if she's hovering in front of it or jumping or any of that sort of behaviour.

I do this :)