Just Midol

I've looked up Basenjis doing agility on Youtube - can be rather hillarious! :D

I love Basenjis!

I fed mine barf, and he put on around 1kg a week average so his weight gain is normal imo. One of my vets claimed he was growing too fast but his trainer and other reputable people said he was growing fine.

Yeah, a GR from the NDTF thing.

Gizmo sort of likes them. The problem is I need to feed a steady stream of treats which defeats the purpose of using it since I am trying to get him to drop some kilos.

I average my food over a week, not individual days.

So each day I roughly calculate how much food he had then at the end of the week I make sure he has had the right amount. Sometimes this results in no food on the last day, sometimes it results in lots of food on the last day.

Yeah I use the same method as Erny and Steve except with Gizmo I now use it as punishment.

Ya teach a command using the process I outlined very briefly and not very well above. You issue a command just after you put the stim on and then you guide the dog into the position and release the stim as soon as they are in position. I use the e-collar right from the start. You can combine it with positive reinforcement and your progress will be much much faster if you do. I always use food rewards with gizmo when teaching things.

Gizmo now recalls without the e-collar 99% of the time - in the past 2-3 months the only times I've pushed the button is when he saw the army of bush turkeys and a couple of Ibis. For some reason Ibis really get to him, a major distraction - ohhh, and I proofed him on kangaroos. I switch between negative reinforcement and positive punishment depending on the circumstances. When I was proofing him on Kangaroos I was using it as negative reinforcement and applying the stim before the command. I have no idea why I changed how I was using it, it was gradual and unintentional. I think what happened was I stopped needing it so stopped using it then on the rare occasion he didn't recall I had to correct him.

I've also discovered that the more eager he is to go for a walk the stronger his command response is. We do all training on walks now as I don't have time to do 30 minute walks and then another 15 minutes or so on training.

A lot of people assume the dogs are recalling out of fear/avoidance/whatever. They're not, I will consider recording Gizmo recall just to show his enthusiasm... But I dunno if I can find the camera.

I train that way sort of. Here is how I did it (with the aid of K9Force).

with a long line, let the dog wander away (or move away from dog). Press stim button on e-collar, recall command, guide, release stim¹, reward the dog on completion with praise/food/whatever.

1: I release the stim as soon as the dog starts turning to start with and the longer we're at it the longer the stim is on. I tend to turn it off as he is in the process of recalling now. It's fairly hard to "explain" this and much easier to show it.

The great thing about the e-collar is it gives YOU a sense of control. Without it even if I managed to get a fairly decent recall into Gizmo I'd always be worried he is going to go off after a new distraction or something. The e-collar relaxes me as I know that no matter what, I have control.

Anita, did you intend to sound pretentious in that post and treat anyone who uses corrections as inferior dog trainers and imply they are not using their brains?

Just curious.

Are her gums bleeding?

And I'd say probably.

Montu doesn't get any toys at all unless it's a tug and I'm playing with him, however, he finds his own toys. He'll play with his water bowl so I have to get metal bowls as he doesn't like those as much. He gets sticks and throws them around, and sits there chewing on the tree. If I feed him in a plastic bowl and forget the bowl is demolished in 3 seconds. He can't have a bad, as that is also gone in seconds. He got a new blanket over his crate last night. Destroyed already. I have a feeling you're dogs are similar to Montu? If so, no, I wouldn't give toys Too expensive.

No, they don't chew their beds or bowls, they just destroy anything given to them to play with.

Bolded bit: Sure that's an option but not the question I asked.

Ahhh. Answering the actual question, something I'm not good at.

I think it's fair and not fair. I feel meaning giving them a toy then taking it off them I guess if Montu wasn't being raised for security I probably would not dictate how he plays but it would mean he gets very few toys as I have no money tree, and even if I did, he'd eat it.

Yay, I answered the question

If my dogs did that I wouldn't get the bastards toys

Gizmo doens't "do" toys anyway, he sometimes plays with tugs but only if you just hold it, no pulling. He loves toilet paper, but unfortunately for him, I cbf cleaning it up.

Montu doesn't get any toys at all unless it's a tug and I'm playing with him, however, he finds his own toys. He'll play with his water bowl so I have to get metal bowls as he doesn't like those as much. He gets sticks and throws them around, and sits there chewing on the tree. If I feed him in a plastic bowl and forget the bowl is demolished in 3 seconds. He can't have a bad, as that is also gone in seconds. He got a new blanket over his crate last night. Destroyed already. I have a feeling you're dogs are similar to Montu? If so, no, I wouldn't give toys Too expensive.

I dunno if my dogs can pull a cart but I certainly cant use a scooter on our property.. Maybe I could add a small engine to the cart to get em going.

By your local government, sometimes.

Solution: Don't tell them.

There are also DOL'ers ERNY

and NEKHBET

For some reason I thought they were both in Sydney! I think it's caus' I first met Erny in Sydney. No idea why I thought Nekhbet was though.

http://www.fourpawsk9training.com.au

http://www.underdogtraining.com.au

Both are members on this forum.

First is Kelpie-i, second is cosmolo(SP).

I wouldn't hesitate in seeing either of them if the need arose and I just happened to be in Melbourne.

The main problem I have with these articles and people who attempt to debunk dominance entirely is that they don't offer a viable or realistic alternative... That and they're always emotive arguments.

Dont subscribe to all these lessons about dog training and apply them blindly. Consider advice in a broad sense and apply with caution and common sense taking your dogs characteristics into account.

Be cautious about taking your dog to puppy school, and ensure the instructor is an accredited trainer as most are not.

"Socialising" your dog does not mean throwing it in the deep end and letting it fend for itself.

Generally, I don't even recommend puppy school to people unless I can recommend a specific school, which I can't. I don't recommend obedience clubs either unless I could recommend a specific one and there is only one in my area and I think it's crap

I generally won't recommend a "positive only" club, I've never seen one I'd recommend... and I would be hesitant to recommend one that uses corrections as a matter of course.

I think it would be very, very easy to use the tool in a manner I'd consider cruel...

Surely there are more effective ways though?

Yeah, Gizmos fairly confident and definitely knows how to turn the stim off, we've been going for months He recalls of almost everything, before these turkeys I'd have said it was 99% - he sometimes waits a few seconds before recalling once he spots an Ibis.

Unfortunately the Turkeys wouldn't return to let me use them in training

I can't really be certain whether I got the perfect level (what he could percieve) as he was running away from me but I let go of the stim as soon as he showed signs that he was turning towards me and he never showed any avoidance (that I could identify) so I think I am okay there.

Gizmo is pretty switched on though, I'd put money on him recalling off the Turkeys next time.

Anyway, good to know I did the right thing. I meant to post up asking how people handle unexpected major distractions a few weeks ago, but I procrastinated. If I had have done it earlier I would have known for certain what to do.

Hey Erny,

How to you handle an unexpected distraction.

For example, Gizmo was fairly well proofed on Turkeys, I knew his working level rose slightly but it was only 3-4 levels. However, one day we encountered a rarity at my house which was a huge group of Turkeys, around 30 of the bastards. Proofed on one Turkey obviously didn't mean proofed on 30 running Turkeys.

I had 2 options here:

1) Increase the stim, it would have to go above his working level. It was very obvious working level alone would not do anything.

2) Not recall as Gizmo is too slow to catch Turkeys.

I went with 2 to start with as I figured if he did get close to Turkeys then I'd simply give him a correction when he got close but then the Turkeys shot through the neighbours fence so now I had to recall. I had to go about 15 levels higher than his working level for it to be a high enough level of stimulation for him to pull off the Turkeys.

So, how would you have handled this? I know I'm suppose to set the situation up so we don't encounter this but we only get the huge groups of Turkeys once, maybe twice a year and I didn't see them when I set out so it was unexpected.

That's a bullshit excuse.

A temperament test is no more dangerous than the training information posted on websites and forums world wide. If they don't want to make it public, then I'll assume there is a reason for it.

I can't find any references to the actual temperament test and a description of it?

Is there one... or do they hide what they do?

That type of temperament screening is ridiculous. Good article.

Which of the listed points do you think is/are rediculous? They look pretty much like the screening I went through when my girl did hospital visits with Delta -- and a reasonable, though vague, description of things a dog should be evaluated on before being adopted.

1. Accept a friendly stranger;

2. Sit politely for petting;

3. Appearance and grooming;

4. Walk on a loose leash;

5. Walk through a crowd;

6. Sit, down, and stay on command;

7. Come when called;

8. Reaction to another dog;

9. Reaction to distractions; and,

10. Supervised separation.

I'd say the article is a bit muddled, and doesn't give the information needed to evaluate the 'ambasadors' program. Its intent seems, mostly, to damn the program and brand it as 'killing'.

It first says dogs must pass 100% to make it out alive, and then it says that some shelters rehome dogs that are less than 100%, but just don't label them as 'ambassadors'. No clue about what percent of shelters require perfect scores for the dog to be rehomed, or how the listed points are interpreted (eg. #8 . . . is the dog ok if it ignores another dog or is it required to be friendly; #10. . . what is the dog supposed to do under supervised separation). The pass/fail rate isn't given. There is no information about whether dogs are given a little training before being tested. Nor does it say what percent of shelters have a policy of euthanasia for all pitties, and whether some of those shelters have adopted the 'ambasador' program and are now rehoming a fair number of pitties.

I bet the majority of dogs owned by dolers would fail those.

1) Fair enough.

2) Do they train the dog to sit "politely"?

3) So they only adopt out good looking dogs?

4) Do they train the dog to do this?

5) Fair enough, but this is a training excersize.

6) Do they train the dog to do this?

7) Do they train the dog to do this?

8-10) not enough info.

That's a very shallow list of requirements and any organisation which uses those 10 points to temperament test can not be considered reputable. If someone wants to run a rescue, and use those as guidelines for releasing dogs then they need to train the dog to perform in the expected fashion, if they don't, they're killers.

And he likes sibes. Anyone who likes sibes gets an extra 10 awesome points.