Two Best Dogs!

I'm a sucker for those eyes.... :D

Blue healer that is amazing! On your first class in a new situation too! I am glad your relationship is ever growing

Sorry Grumpette, had not meant to ignore you! I keep getting distracted by the magic of Justice and Gruf whenever I peek into this thread... :laugh: If only everything went to plan! Leadership and helping her to trust me that the dog is just hovering and being rude is harder than I think when something happens! I think, like for Thistle, baby steps for me. Like we will turn around and walk away (it's so hard to do that initial movement!) or *I* should move so that I am between Thistle and the incoming strange dog. So even if we're not able to walk off I can obscure their view of each other a bit? Granted...I do need to see it coming. But then, acting like a radar and looking around anxiously all the time is not good for my mental health either! There is a balance I am sure. I wasn't able to do it last week, but I'm trying to position us more to the middle of the field in classes. Technically surrounded by more dogs, but they're all leashed for classes (and many are "thistle approved) so any offleaders need to go through the whole class to bother us... Ahhh Dozer is so lucky, a crate fairy! I'm glad he is jumping less, hopefully some of his calm can transfer to you :) I find soft tv or music helps me to calm down on those twitchy nights. Sounds like rain etc...(you've prob already thought of this though )

I use adaptil sprays on challenging days. I've yet to decide if it's a placebo affect brought on me being calmer or the dog herself being calmer - but she tends to better with the added support. I've been buying from petbarn, might try this pricematching mentioned upthread...

Stumbled across some more socialisation. I promise I'm not looking puppy stuff up! I am reading articles on facebook and they recommend more articles... From "Operation Socialisation" website

Hi Mowglieandme I saw this today and thought of you:

'Six of the best' :laugh: That's a new one, adding it to the list. Some of my favourite terms for the unknowns have been mystery mutt, bitsa, heinz variety, a dog, canardly (can-hardly tell) and pure bred mixed breed :laugh:

I'm impressed at how little ruff is on the Gruf's ears? Deceptively smooth? Do you know what's in him?

I need more Justice and Gruf videos. They really are such a lovely matched pair! (A LOT more videos and photos!) Here is the video I mentioned Snook, had trouble getting the damn thing to upload What I got from this (and I be interested to see what other people see happening): Thistle thinks the plumber (in the front yard doing his thing) is going to come into the backyard. I scattered some kibble around in the grass (that I need to mow, I know) to give her something to distract her with while I dealt with the broken pipe flooding my front yard. I also figured it would help encourage calming sniffing and give her something to do. She only barked upon his arrival and quietened when I went to the door, then went to loitering skittishly (she only heard him, never saw him). You can see how bad she’s shaking and how twitchy she is at the end. I’m not sure if she’s getting better or worse, leaning to better because: She’s barking less, not peeing the ground and not cowering as much/slinking around like a caterpillar. But she’s also shaking more. But she has less jerky movement, the tail’s not completely disappeared and she’s capable of some wags at me. She's not frozen or 'stuck'. So I'd be interested to see where fear-shakes fall on the fear-scale... I realised after a couple of throws the food was startling her so waited until her head was up for the last lot of scattered kibble. I called her name at the end and aborted on touching her to get attention because didn't want to scare her... So overall, I think this is progress with strangers on the property. Especially a big, old white man with a loud voice - her biggest person-stranger fear. She's moving, she's eating the kibble on the ground, couple of wags. Eventually she went to standing at the fence listening (cannot see) with some whining, then went and hid in her kennel. This is home-specific behaviour I should clarify, she is not like this in the street/stores/park/market where we could walk past this guy without comment and she might even sniff on a good day. In part we progress so slow with guests because I rarely have them. Baby steps :/ and the pipe was just old :p rusted clean through and disintegrated when we touched it. Copper pipe replacing it.

I'll be honest, I do not want that many rabbits again! If I had been able to spay them back then I'd have had 1/3 of the number. I only have 2 right now but I'd be looking at a warren of 3-5 when these two pass on and I have an appropriate set up to manage that many. Every single one will be snipped. Longer life, a controlled population size, toned down hormones and less cancer for my bunnies? Yes please! and I'll be keeping an eye out for these discounts then, too. Got your message Scotts mum, hope you like your essay in reply :laugh:

Understatement! She came to me with 3 babies, had maybe 30 minutes with a male rabbit we were babysitting a few months later (I was so mad they were out together, family though it'd be fine! ) and got another 6 baby rabbits and then AGAIN the next year the neighbour's buck dropped by for a f*** and I had 4 more babies! 13 babies in a year and a bit! I should have been getting child support for them! She was laidback for a doe but the rest of the girls were exactly as you expect - territorial, easily offended, aloof, clingy, resource guarded me, humping-obsessed, a couple were downright aggressive to strangers and took some careful managing, many died young including from uterine cancer (so common in entire does)...I dread if the neighbours rabbit had managed to get in that pen and not to Sophie when she was having a backyard play. I'd either have ended up with 50 babies or a dead rabbit from territoriality to hand back to the neighbours. (This was back in Tassie some 15+ years ago when none of the local vets could spay does, my understanding is Paul's vet went out and got some training on it so if any rabbit owning Tasmanians are reading this...) Entire rabbits are a disaster unless you truly want to breed! /gets off the rabbit desexing platform <- i try to keep that to the rabbit forums XD

Shared to a bunch of my local pet groups and swap-and-sells. Especially for the rabbits. You wouldn't believe how expensive 'exotic' vets are in the city, any discount is worth its weight in gold! I remember the pain of an entire rabbit too well.

Ahh I love them together! They are like two peas in a pod! I have never noticed that black spot halfway down Justice's tail before? It's a lucky mark I swear! And how well he recovered from the startle he had! He looks so relaxed and happy, you must be so proud! I'm proud and he's not even mine, so you must be ready to burst from it! :D Look at that happy tail go.

I really like this bit: Also just stumbled across this blog post(again? I think I've read it before): And this because I am down today: We have guests over today, fingers crossed we keep it positive.

Thanks, I'll share in my dog groups :) and let the lady across the road know for her cats :laugh:

Snook, that is amazing! Absolutely amazing! :) biggest smile for both of you!

I hear you Normally I do start high-tailing it if we are alone (and not so distracted I don't see it coming)! I guess I was different this time because I was mid-conversation with the trainer so I think I was hoping she could tell me what to do so I froze It gets so confusing and my mind just goes blank and I'm of no help to poor Thistle. She made the best decision she thought and it got the rest of us moving, but you're right in she shouldn't have to In a way, reassuring to read if upsetting (for me at myself, not you). In hindsight I would have preferred us to start walking fast and have the trainers to stay and deal with interrupting dog. Especially the moment when Thistle looked up at me - a good moment for us to "lets go!" but all that was gone from my mind! And that's what i've been teaching her! "Look at me when you want to move away from the person/dog/funny looking object on road". but i didn't follow through on my end of the deal... I feel dreadful failing her this way, I will try better next time to show Thistle what to do. It is much harder for her to worry when we are moving, i wish i didn't worry so much too. *no doubt there will be the next time, this is 3rd week in a row of offlead small ones coming up during classes. But the other 2 we were already moving or i moved us away or i saw them coming. This one i see i should have moved too thank you for your honest advice

There is a thread in here somewhere where I was very impressed with their puppy raising culture - they provided some links. The user who started it is starkhere (sp?) and I think you could glean many tips and methods for helping set your pup up in the long run. I know if I get a puppy I would be hunting down their thread. I'm on mobile right now so struggle to search myself.

Good luck, what a shitty situation. Did you pay cash? I would consider cancelling the payment if it was digital. Those people should not have lied to you about this dog's temperament and they should not get to keep your $ for misleading you into this purchase. I'm sure she is a lovely dog but from the sounds of it I don't think she is suitable for your (or many others) home environment...

I want to say 4? You must be warm!

I'm really bummed out right now. It just goes to show, you can have 3 trainers right there with you, have a nice calm dog in a drop and talking in the middle of a big open field and still have someone else stuff it all up with their untrained dog Thistle did AMAZINGLY well considering but...still bummed out that it happened at all. Basically, this small white fluffy (ain't it always...) blindsided me and Thistle while we were talking to the trainers over our tasks for the next week. It came up behind us and apparently came on fast (obviously neither Thistle or I could see it coming from behind, so this is what i was told afterwards). It went right up in her face but Thistle managed to stayed in her drop, watched it, then looked at me. I wasn't very useful, I was "what should I do?" but I tried to be calm, keep the lead loose, said "leave it" and "good drop" praising thistle for staying in her drop. The trainers were trying to lure it away (none of us want to freak either dog out i reckon...). In retrospect I think if I put her into a sit she would have found it easier to ignore as her head would have been higher and I'd have possibly regained her attention. What-ifs and could-haves and who-knows... The dog started to leave then it came back and stopped in front of thistle (who started getting tense again) - then it did the intense stand and stare so Thistle lunged forward and told it off. It was a split second of noise then Thistle hit end of lead and came back to me. I don't think she nipped it but she did knock it back a bit. It started coming around again but the trainers were luring it away with foods and I took Thistle to the car incase it came back. So I'm really bummed out about that. Obedience was going pretty well, we were discussing where dogs are failing and Thistle was being really good and focused and we were just enjoying things going mostly smoothly. Everyone was nice about it. I think G, our trainer for the next few months as they've been rotated around again, told the other people off or something. These people were on complete side of the field and did nothing! Just stood their watching! One of the other attendees said one of them said something to the effect of "maybe we should get our dog to obedience", yes!!! Then you can get some training to not be so irresponsible and inconsiderate!!! Because they let it offlead, upset my dog, cause a scuffle and apparently it was doing it with lots of others dogs and is always that rude. It's just not fair on Thistle, she's on lead and in a drop surrounded by 3 strangers. She was doing really well Everyone was really nice about it. Like as I was walking Thistle to the car the head trainer joined me and one of the other clients and they were nice and uplifting that it wasn't Thistle's fault and Thistle had recovered pretty well, was heeling between the two and even the advanced dogs would have struggled with that. And other trainers said similar and got my bags for me to bring to the car and I hung around a bit to get my nerves back. Listened to them talk, we finished our conversation on Thistle's tasks for the next week (I'm working on changing my hand signals to the one AKC use - because more visible at a distance - more stand practice, more muzzle training - found out there's something wrong with my baskerville muzzle which might be why it always looks weird? - and the ever ongoing people socialising...and the biggest is me learning to be calm for T.) I didn't ask what she said to the owners but the dog was on lead at least... But I'm just really bummed out about it. The rest of class was good. Thistle only broke one position the whole time - stand to go into a sit. The sits, drops, LLW, heeling, leave it, focus, distraction work was all okay. She didn't bark or growl at G (who she hasn't seen up close in months) and I was just really chuffed with her. She even made a new dog friend today (another lab...) and ignored the dog reactive daschund. Then this all happened blow to the confidence. I'm not upset with Thistle - she didn't do anything wrong. Rude dog in her face and she did her best to ignore it, I'm just upset this whole damn situation happened and the owners were on the otherside of the field doing nothing. They didn’t even try calling it when the trainer’s were luring it back to them!

Being fussy will make it worth it! (Of course you have mentioned to Chris! Silly me lol) Crossing all my fingers he gets the perfect household soon

Oh no! I am sure he will find a lovely owner soon to continue becoming an awesome dog. Perhaps Chris would know someone?

I'm leaving mt Margaret now after 2 hours of awesome. The snow is quite low but there's lots of fallen trees so be careful. I am not far from Leah's spot *edit* We explored some logging roads. I started noticing snow at about 667m above sea level but it didn't start covering the road/land substantially until 930m above sea level. The areas Thistle and I explored ranged between 1000-1100m, which gave us a good 10-20cm of snow. But it did get up to clumps of more than 30cm to her joy and surprise! It was not very icy, so I did not need to use my snow chains. I think if I had gone another 100-200m of elevation I would have needed it. In the 2 hours were were there it remained overcast, hailed and snowed - both nice flakes and harsh wind driven flakes. I arrived at about 7:40am and started leaving at 9:50. I think the sun started to come out then but I didn't want to deal with the glare. As I was leaving someone else was entering the road. Also, someone else had been on the road before me but they must have gone further than I did and their tracks were slightly snowed over. <-useful info for those who want to avoid people like I do. Certified hermit :p Next time I will try cerberus road. A lot of the trails and tracks are closed right now.

Go for quality interactions over quantity I think :)