Two Best Dogs!

Ignoring her initial uncertain and cautious behaviour around strangers, I haven't yet found anyone she truely can't stand. But then, I prevent ppl I think she won't like from bothering her. That said, she has been exceptionally slow on warming up to one of our trainers - even for her.

Sorry idk what advice or suggestions you've been given so probably repeating: Once they're so focussed they can't think, all you can do is redirect away. Try keeping a mental note on the distance your pup gets steadily more focussed. You want to stop and reward when she's starting to look over or glance, but not when fixated or so tense she can't respond. Even if that means you're a whole block away. Do you have a friend with a dog she might react to? Can you ask them to meet you somewhere and you can work on getting her attention and rewarding her at a suitable distance? She needs to build up the habit before getting closer. Sometimes you need to go back a couple of steps and reinforce basics I think. I'd also see if you could get that trainer to come watch you experiencing the problem in your usual area. Is she lunging? Or just slowly moving forward? If she's not lunging I would suggest a head halter to save her neck and your hands, as it would make it easier to turn her around and redirect. But I wouldn't yank or anything with it, just as a redirection aid.

How odd, I've transferred around between various vets and usually asked for a hardcopy of records to pass on to my new vet. Never been asked for a fee before. I'd happily pay the costs for printing/time but $40 is very steep

Go Dozer and go Justice! :) so great to see all the dogs progressing. They can do it!

Quoting from mobile is hard but wanted to highlight this. 5 year old recalled from a dog? Amazing! Probably not fast or a direct line but hey, 5 years old. Pretty impressive. I find adults with worse recall ;) Everything I would hope from a parent when they see their kid going for something they shouldn't. Recall and redirect. Seems the owner just didn't realise how stressed or worried their other dog was getting. Very unfortunate that the dog didn't growl or air snap and went straight for a bite. Hopefully the owner will be more prepared in the future of their dog around kids. I'm fortunate in that my dog likes children, seemingly for most ages, but I watch her like a hawk anyway because dogs and children can both make mistakes, but chances are my dogs mistake will have more impact on the child than vice versa. Something all owners really should keep in mind imo, regardless of dog size. I do hope the kid bounces back and doesn't become fearful. 5 is such an impressionable age :/

One day I'll teach you my ways :p I'm in and out in 15 minutes! I go in knowing what I want, first thing I do is ask someone what aisle, grab the cheap range then bugger on out! I've learnt my lesson about loitering - leads to more expensive purchases ;) I have to exercise that impulse control lol

Thanks guys, next time one of them says it, depending on their level of seriousness, I might just have to let them know I'm pretty sure it's an "old man's tail" and not of concern. @showdog, I wasn't told specifically but overheard the staff saying it was from a gippsland farmer. I'm going to assume some of the raw roo trial where farmers are allowed to sell as pet food? Am appreciating it, $ has been a bit low this half of the year. I'll ask them for details when I go back, the store is a new discovery.

This is also a very good statement, that I've only realised can apply to myself as well. I am much less worried about people I perceive as having control over their dogs (looking at their dog, checking in on their dog) versus those who are not (ignoring their dog, letting their dog rhomp all over the end of standard lead without any attempt to redirect or control). Most recent example on my mind is two different people who both own a young GSD each (1yo?). One of those GSD's recently nipped my dog, but I'm not overly concerned because they immediately recalled and redirected their dog. A+, thank you. The other one I attempt to avoid as much as possible because she lets her GSD all over the place, doesn't keep an eye on him, doesn't respect my repeated requests to keep control of him around my dog as he tries to jump on her. That person worries me, even though their dog is not nippy like the other one. It's the visible lack of focus on their dog that worries me. So keep doing your best to show you're working on it and don't worry about frowny faces, could be they're worried you're like my second GSD owner, when it sounds more like you're the first one.

I imagine a lot of people run errands and stuff throughout the day on the way to/from things with their dog in toe. I know I do, although I keep mine in the car with front windows half down and ask the greeters to keep an eye on her/misguided do-gooders wanting to break in. Never for long trips, just quick in and outs. I saw the Bunnings announcement as confirming dogs can go in store instead of staying in the car on hot days, and not encouragement to bring the dog for a bunnings-day-out. There's a more detailed article out now: http://mobile.news.com.au/finance/business/bunnings-new-pet-friendly-policy-has-been-called-into-question-after-a-dog-bites-girl/story-fnkgdftz-1227601830750 All reads as an unfortunate incident and the dogs were a bit overstimulated. Doesn't sound like the owner's going to be in trouble: "She (the mum?) said the busy environment of the hardware story may have been to blame and did not want the dogs to be put down."

Don't get me wrong, I don't want it banned etc, I just won't be taking my clowns. They're too big to scoop up if there's trouble, its a totally foreign environment with other dogs in the same boat and I don't want to put them at risk as close to bomb proof as I think they are. Its not worth jeopardising that for us. Everyone else is welcome to go for gold, haha. Agreed. There's no way I'd take my dog into a Bunnings. But I believe this new permission was given due to their desire to avoid dogs in the car park? Bound to be some teething issues as everyone willy nilly takes advantage of the new permissions. God knows I was tempted by the novelty, then told myself off for such a stupid idea ;p I'll stick to parking right in front of gardens and asking the greeter to keep an eye on my car The article I linked is definately sparse on details, as new news articles usually are.

How unfortunate :/ There goes those privileges though. Dogs possibly unused to children? http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/mother-claims-five-year-old-girl-was-bitten-by-dog-inside-bunnings-store/story-fnii5sms-1227601484591

Aww yeah she loves tails! The store I found this weekend was out

Yeah Scotts, the gist I'm getting is they'll get hooked and not eat anything else. Have had 3 ppl tell me this so far (they don't know each other and are different states) but I must say I'm not convinced. Friend of a friend of a friend warnings they sound like.

Is that true? I've tried googling and aside from reports on worms in shot roo, I'm beginning to suspect this is a folk tail spread about by various older men in my life. Where did this idea come from? I'm mostly curious. That and the dog is a garbage guts so I don't expect her to get stuck on one meat. I vary it up every purchase anyway. Dry black hawk in morning and raw whatever at night, if you're wondering.

I'm hyperviligiant about cyclists and I still get surprised by them suddenly zipping past us with no warning :/ They're so quiet! One snuck up and parked stopped politely behind us at some traffic lights, the dog glanced around and saw him and jumped a foot or so in the air, making me jump. He apologised at least. Should put little cat bells on them.

Oh yes! It was a much bigger, more dog-interactive lesson than expected I think all the dogs were a bit more all over the place than usual because we didn't get lessons last week thanks to the horse races, so all eager to sniff everything. Forgetting their manners! Next sunday I'll try to space things out more/ensure I am between her and the two GSDs if we do weaving. The labs, poodles and other assorted mutts were all lovely. Nice, quiet and low key until Thursday's usual session. I didn't know that about the stress reactions in her body! Definitely do not want trigger pile up when she's handling everything so well. I hope that "good girl" cow leg I gave her helps relax her some lol.

That's a good starting method, as it sounds like he's working himself up and getting so excited he can't think! When he starts doing like what he did today, move back further away (perhaps not with today's particular dog though, wouldn't want it crossing the road and getting run over) and work on that focus. But only give the treats/click when he looks at you, I would think, since he's already happy to look at the dogs. Then when he's doing that pretty reliably, move on closer. For what to say to people, do not say "he's friendly!" As someone else said, that's really just code for "bouncy and not respectful of other dogs" for some of us. Personally, if I hear someone say that I am turning around and going the other way. Instead, use phrases like "Sorry he's in training/we're working on this/he's over excited just a second." You might even be able to ask them to stay where they are so you can work on the behaviour? i.e. "Sorry, we are working on this. Could you and your dog just stay there for a second" - then move back a bit until he behaves and reward him there. And never let him drag you over to another dog to say hi, make it so he only gets to say hello to other dogs if he does it calmly. Even if you have to keep stopping and starting. But then his reward for being calm is to sniff the other dog! You'll need to find dogs to practice on though :p Obedience classes are good, even if you do not attend the class itself - before and after you can hang around and see if anyone is willing to practice on you! (I might interlope on two extra classes each week, myself. ;) no-one has minded). I'm sure all these methods have suitable names/acronyms that I don't know the name of XD but things I have found useful.

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, was worried this might be it but she seems to have recovered fine. Doing our obedience classes, all dogs are dropped/sit/stood about 1.5 metres apart and one person heels their dog between all the other dogs. Dropped dogs are to keep focus on their owners. Thistle was a bit worried, doing great and getting more confidence with each dog we walked past. Then one of the GSDs whipped her head around and growled-nipped Thistle on those nose! Unsure if contact was made or an air snap. Absolute disaster right? Scared dog hemmed in between a dog that just growled/nipped at her and a poodle (unknown dog) to her right? Thistle froze, didn't react back and continued the heel/returned to me with only a couple of worried looks back! All within a split second :D and no whining! her tail was back between the legs but her body language loose. We weaved through the rest of the dogs no problems, including another loop around that GSD (but positioned so I am between Thistle and the GSD, so she is closer to the poodle). At the end of the looping she barked at owner of other-GSD who we had already identified as dogs/people Thistle doesn't like (the GSD that almost play- jumped on her a couple of months back and she nipped, after both I and the trainer had told the person to stop letting their dog run up to all dogs). She has a long memory, but just bayed once than remained standing. And a follow up was GSD-1 and known-staffy doing the loop around us both at the same time and she was worried, but kept her focus and position. A+ Thistle! She also had a good sniff greeting+ A WAG with the young kelpie I've been working her up to :) and polite greetings with 3 different labs (1 working and 2 customs-bred?). 3 very nice dogs, I'll keep customs-bred in mind for a potential friend later down the track in addition to rescue-foster-with-a-view test runs. Oh and we had them all dropped in close quarters and she stayed in her drop AND had a slightly tense but polite greeting when the known-staffy dragged himself into her face (he's a pretty bouncy fella, but a good dog) Sorry for the rambling, I'm so hyped up from how well she is doing. Even 1 month ago I could not imagine her politely greeting other dogs let alone not-reacting to another dog nipping at her. Hopefully that other shoe or step back won't happen for awhile C:

Oh man had my heart in my throat there, on if the wombat decides to defend itself. Hopefully wombat has a back way out so it isn't trapped as well. Oh! It's been a success! Yay dog! They got him out 45 minutes ago: http://www.southcoastregister.com.au/story/3474095/breaking-brooklyn-rescued/?cs=203

I'm too used to having pets that don't have insurance available, so I guess I am self insuring? What insurance seems to covers for us, I could probably cover myself with a plan and it seems to stop at things I would truely need help to cover.

Don't suppose you're getting random tornado/bad storm warnings too? Can you please smoosh his little face for me, it looks so smooshable.

Well done Talie! I think extra leads as fails safes are good ideas, especially when they give you better control! Look at how well you two navigated obstacles today!

....Well I'm bookmarking Roova's for future buying! I've been needing a bed that protects the walls from the dogs dirty behind. The Faux-Fur one has caught my eye and it is on sale!

Perhaps Didi can become DOL's very own dog rehab dog, she really helped Thistle be at ease. Even when Thistle got the stares going on (so rude, I know). I also feel honored she snuffled my hand. I definitely think long lines next time, so they can romp properly with some supervision so no-one gets too excited (Thistle's got to learn dog playing rules all over again sigh) and without ripping our arms off. But everything exceeded expectations! In other news, Thistle is stupid and ate a bee or wasp. So after some injections I'm at home today. She has a fat face and is looking very sad.

Happy birthday!! Good dog :)