imy

Hmm... might do that.

I was worried about putting them right onto lite food, being greyhounds, they don't need to lose a GREAT deal.

I won't feed them only dry food and veg. The pet mince stays (my greyhounds can't have tinned dog food)

I don't mind cutting out the rice and pasta as they only have ONE of those two options once a week anyway.

My boys are fatties.

I have been feeding purina dry food and some pet mince, chicken necks and veggies (occasionally egg, rice, pasta, bones, fish etc...minimal treats) BUT my problem is, they are getting fat...well, for greyhounds anyway!

I noticed that the purina stuff has a 'lite' variety.

My question is... should I switch to it or do a mix of the low fat stuff and normal???

Their racing weights were 30kg and 33kg and they are now 34kg (not too bad, and this is the one who does minimal exercise) and the other weighs 40kg

Hmm... I wanna see pics.

But you've given me an idea. I wonder how much money I could get for rescue if I put my greyhound up for advertising. Highest bidder gets whatever they want shaved into his coat No swear words or offensive stuff... advertising okay

Or 'ready to attack'... it'd be pretty intimidating for people who were trying to talk you into letting them into your home!

Start with the command now... she seems bright, she'll pick it up :rolleyes:

I taught my dog to target (nose touching) my hand

I forget why.... what is in Erny's sig, something about having a goal in mind :rolleyes:

Anyway now whenever you reach down to try and pat her she shoves her nose in your hand, If you put your hand out as in....go outside, or "the balls over there" she'll target my hand, even jumping up to do it.

If you put your hand out to signal a "stay" she'll run over and target it ;)

The look on her face is....aren't I clever, this is what you want eh ?

My family and any visitors know to keep their hands in their pockets now, to avoid the persistent wet nose poker that she's become.

All my fault :D

LOL... I WISH my doggies were so responsive!

ANYWAYS, put a sticky note on your hand and teach to target THAT instead... that way you can move your target around and cut it smaller and smaller until she gets the message to target what you want!

(I don't know much about training so correct me if I'm off track here)

My OH and I used to ask our boys to go out every time OH went to the back door for a ciggy (when we were house training initially)... they got a treat when they did a wee. Now every time they hear the lighter 'click' they are bouncing around like goofy idiots *sigh*

The other one was thinking that Gingko would come back when we called. The day after we got him, he was startled by the chooks (der!)and broke through the fence, we searched for four days and when we finally found him in a huge paddock, we called and he galloped off in the other direction! No way you can catch a greyhound when they bolt. We were lucky that a farmers' wife cornered him after he crossed the snowy river to visit their dogs, they locked him in the bitches' box and being straight fron the kennels, he was happy as Larry there! I lost 5 kg looking for him every waking minute though so it wasn't all bad :rolleyes:

One of my cats died of a reaction to something... he was eating the juice of some lasagne I put down in the kitched and just flopped down and choked there and then... it was either something in the jar of sauce I used to make the lasagne OR the vet said he may have eaten a bee/wasp a little earlier.

Another person told me of her chi's reaction to eating some canned food... the premium kind (spoilt dog) it had seaweed in the mix apparently and he had a reaction to that and died.

Has you GSD eaten anything out of the ordinary?

Possibly.

I have no idea what she's up to. It HAS been pretty cold here so maybe she's just doing a 'token' pee in the hopes that she can get inside quicker? She does this even with a coat on so I dunno.

She's getting better... only one or two oopses during the weekend.

I started using treats when she went but she'd make the squat (without peeing) to trick me, then hop around like a maniac for a treat.

We've also discovered that she needs two pees when she goes out. The first one is urgent (or very quick anyway) and then she tries to go inside... BUT if you walk her around for 5 mins she goes again.

Funny little thing!

She has her own spot and knows whats happening when we go out... she's just tooooo sneaky

I know of many greyhounds (pets) that have been trained to ring a bell at the door.

Ooohh... thanks for the info. I'm trying to devise a way of making an automatic door opener for my boys but one that won't let the cat out too... I was looking for an inductive sensor so it would open when it sensed a tag on the collar... but just teaching them to nose a touch pad sounds cheaper and easier!

Now to figure out the rest of the plan... LOL

Yup... sadly

She'll be a little porker by then and probably about 10 times the height ;)

She'll be fine , sounds like a good spot for her, I dunno about me though!

She's doing a good job. I've already given her a few today after wee stops and no accidents (yet)

She hasn't gone to the door or whined to go out yet, but that will come as she learns that toilet stuff outside sometimes gets you a good treat!

I think she may have been a bit hesitant to go out because its been really cold lately and even with a coat on, she ends up shivering like crazy... not much incentive.

I've been doing liver treat as a reward and only a tiny piece. Lucky she's not bigger because she'd be a bench surfer for sure... she knows the treats are on the bench somewhere...just...can't...reach.

Thanks for your help, I'll keep you updated.

We have a possible home for Ella already ( ;) and ) so I'd like to get her trained before she goes there in just a few weeks.

Guess who is going to be a spoiled gal for what little time we have left???

Ta... I wasn't sure that it was good to give treats after a toilet stop.

She does all the right things and goes when I take her out... just does INSIDE too!

I suspect she hasn't had a GREAT deal to do with patting and praise so a treat would probably have WAY more impact (she's a guts )

Okay so we've only had her for a week but in that time we've taken her outside to pee every 1/2 hour (no fail) after she wakes up, after playing and after eating and during the night when she cries in her crate... she does 'her thing' outside and gets lots of praise... but she still has no problem with dropping and doing whatever she feels like, wherever that may be.

I'd understand if she was rushing to the door but didn't wquite make it or if she wasn't being let out a lot... but she is!

EG: Playing with a toy... wrestle, wrestle... stop... pee. RIGHT THERE NEAR THE TOY!

Am I being too harsh since she's only been away from home a week? She's 12 weeks old.

I do have to admit, when she arrived, she smelt really bad and did actively seek out her bedding to poo and wee on so I suspect that her hygene wasn't so good at her past home. She has stopped doing that now though.

SO glad I don't have carpet downstairs! I may tile the whole house yet! LOL

phew... glad the hound is okay.

My dog doesn't tolerate big chunks of raw bone (10c piece size) and sometimes hurls them a day or so later too... not cool that your neighbours aren't doing what you asked.

? any news?

I'm with you dane... vets immediately before it goes down any further!

They would have been able to make your pooch boff under supervision and removed the sponge... now its in there!

Kabana, black pudding and kransky will fatten her up and she won't be able to resist it... I almost guarantee it!

However, she sounds okay to me... she's eating well. Most grey girls are littler than boys aren't they? I have seen some as small as 23kg! (my boofa boys are 34kgs!)

Mine sniff my hand when I say "sniff!"

not as cool as the beer trick but I was excited LOL

Now to teach them to pour me a class of wine from the bottle... hmmm

Cool. So i'm doing it right?

I had them touching my hand with their nose when I was saying 'sniff'

but I thought that might be a bit confusing, though, they were doing it. So, I moved onto just the attention to their names. The good part is, they know the click is something good and they are pretty happy when I pull it out.

BTW it was too hard getting them alone to do it (one would always be scratching and whining at the door when he heard the click) so I'm doing two at a time, thats kinda why I started them with attention to their names. So I say their name and THEN the command so they know who I'm talking to.

Well, started doing a little bit this weekend and I have got to the point where I can say individual dog name and it looks up at me from the comfy bed *click!*

I figure that having their attention is a good start.

Where to now? "Drop" when they get on the bed? "bow" when they play bow? (they do a lot of that!)

Someone tried clicker trainig themselves and got into the treats bag. Luckily didn't eat the clicker.

Oh... here's the birthday cake too!

A good trick for humans to practise clicker timing skills is to bounce a tennis ball. When the ball is at the highest point, click. Its ok to give yourself a smartie as a treat for getting it right.

Remember the click is a 'kodak' moment of what you want, don't click too late. You need to click while the behavior is happening.

The worst thing that can happen is something might take longer to teach if your timing is off.

LOL... thanks pax... I'd better get smarties too!

This is getting better and better!

Gawd... I hope I can get one now!

Just looking at your site now dunnybrush... do you use a whistle or clicker?