Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Welcome It sounds like you're doing most things right - house training a puppy with four children to keep an eye on must be quite a challenge!

If you comb her and she objects, then you treat at the end, she may think she's being rewarded for the bad behaviour. As far as possible, depending on her coat, I'd start off just treating her for being relaxed while having the comb next to her, then run the comb over a less sensitive area and treat...

What I would do is go back a few steps in his training and reward more for a while. Work on recall around the house, but set him up for success, so do it in situations where you know he will obey, and reward well, with his favourite treat. Then, when he's coming to you consistently and eagerly in th...

What I would do is whenever the doorbell rings, throw a treat into her crate/a room you can shut her in behind a stairgate. Get someone to stand outside and keep ringing it, until she gets the idea and runs into her 'special' place whenever she hears the doorbell. Then, when someone has come in, let...

Most labs I see are rather overweight, so yours could well be just right! An hour of walking twice a day may be a bit much at his age - the general advice is 5 mins per month of age (this doesn't include free play). Not sure if this is the case for labs, but you may want to research this further.

Nayshiftin wrote:a dog is a responsibility and neighbours do talk.

Stuff the neighbours

I'm sure you've made the right decision. Anyone who works with rescue dogs has my utmost respect, your heart must almost break on a regular basis. Good luck in your search for your forever dog.

Four weeks is really not very long for a dog to settle in, particularly one with a disturbed past. I'm sure as she grows in confidence she'll follow you around less - in fact one recommendation would be to spend a long period of time moving from room to room, finding a quick job to do in each, until...

Bones and raw chicken wings/carcasses

When you're coming home, the moment she pulls turn round and walk in the other direction. Then when she's walking OK, head for home until she pulls again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Alternatively, the moment there's tension on the lead just stand still and don't move till she moves back a little and re...

I nearly didn't bother ringing the vet as the wound seemed a lot drier this morning and he was doing his best to make up for a few days of not feeling like running, but decided to play safe. I fully expected the vet to do nothing as he tends to be quite hands-off, but he cauterised the wound and has...

Thanks - this evening he'd actually stopped limping so what I may do is ring the vet and ask if he's likely to recommend ABs, and if he has a 'watch and wait' approach I may do that. If he says to come in so he can check it, I will. Ten minutes foot bath is going to take a lot of peanut butter :shoc...

How does clicking and treating differ from saying 'good dog' and treating, then? I think with any dog you have to be aware of his mental state when training. Some will happily (and I mean happily) perform all day, some will look miserable but perform because they are told to, some will start offerin...

Jasper injured a nail on a back foot after taking off after some deer on Tuesday. There's no bits of nail hanging off, but it's lost a bit off the end and is red and a little pulpy underneath. He's limping on it intermittently and licks it quite a lot, though not excessively. He also climbs into the...

However, I don't want Oscar to tell me who can and can't live with us. If, despite trying all the methods suggested, you find you can't introduce another puppy to the home, please try not to think of it as Oscar telling you who you can and can't live with, but as Oscar communicating that he really ...

Judy, if I find that this guy tells them to turn their backs and 'make like a tree' I'll have a hairy fit!... :D . This is one method I advise against Actually, that was the one method that seemed to work for Jasper :lol: I guess that's why it's important for the trainer/behaviourist to look at the...