Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Well done MollysMom, that was a really good idea! We haven't had television for many years. You don't miss it. I did a house-sit a few months ago and every day I checked what was on TV, thought No, don't fancy any of that, and only watched it for a total of 2 hours in 2 weeks (a programme about wolv...

Alternatively, what MollysMom touched on - build a pen with a roof inside your yard, and keep him in there when you can't supervise him.

You will feel so much better knowing he can't escape and get hurt or stolen.

Do read the link posted by evaluv on another thread in here. Personally I take charge and protect my dog by stepping in front - I have posted about this yesterday so please save me :lol: and have a read about this method. Observe dog body language every time you see dogs and soon you will recognise ...

Absolutely spot-on Well done for understanding

I used to work 12 hour shifts which often were extended to 16.

It's perfectly possible to drive responsibly after that.

Loud noises are a human thing. If you make loud noises you will excite all the dogs that hear them. The idea with using silence and body language is to project calm control of the situation.

You never hear a confident dog making a noise - but other dogs make way before it.

I use tiny pieces of meat or cheese for treats.

OOOH a first puppy - how lovely! Have a check on the other recent post here about feeding :D which will suit your situation too. If you feed liver - only a little, and only once a week. Pups don't have to gain weight regularly - they grow in spurts and stops. Forget about weighing her and judge by e...

It's appalling. Dogs need consistency. As griffin said, there will be so many different takes on "behaviour" out there, the dog won't know which way is up. Then there will be the people who treat the dog like a therapist - lean on it for emotional support, tell it all their troubles, treat...

When other dogs approach, get your own dog behind you "safe place" and you eyeball the approaching dog, make big body language ie stand tall and wide with shoulders back, in your mind think powerful "back off buddy" thoughts and block every attempt it makes to get past you to you...

Well, there's nothing like a series of really big problems to concentrate the mind! :D You have two very small untrained dogs and two very big untrained dogs, one person who is ill and one who isn't, limited accommodation, plus a short timescale. Worst case scenario is the two big ones killing the t...

jaydawg, I have sent you some stuff by PM and I strongly recommend checking out some research by Laura J. Sanborn last year (find on Search). Some behaviour info by Stan Rawlinson is worth reading - I don't rate him that well as a behaviourist but he is one of the ones brave enough to mention the li...

You haven't mentioned which gender :D It does make a difference. With female dogs, three months after the first season is the earliest they can be neutered in health . It is possible to neuter very much earlier, but there is a huge penalty paid in health terms, both physical and mental. If the neute...

Just an alternative point of view - it wouldn't bother me in the slightest to feed a dog in its crate, especially if the dog needed to learn that the crate was a nice place.

Just take the pup out whenever you think he needs to go out. Not every dog will make a noise to tell us, and we shouldn't expect it - especially from very young pups. It is our responsibility to see that our dogs get every opportunity to be comfortable - not theirs to remind us.