Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

This, wot Nettle sez, but also, get into the habit of going out the front door, give her a handful of goodies and go back inside. Go out there, feed a few treats for sits/downs/whatever she's really good at, and then back inside. The idea is that she feels 'aww... I wasn't ready for THAT to be finis...

OMG SIX YEARS! Welcome baaaaaaaaaaaack! Get cracking finding out what his ideal food reward is, because you must must must pair the experiences out and about (and at home) with that high value reinforcer to create a positive association. At this age it is typical that they will just watch stuff goin...

In my house several dogs have been rewarded for performing snatcheroos out of peoples HANDS .. mostly Tatty and Womble, and mostly because my sister who has CATS is utterly untrained in the art of 'eating without losing your dinner' and she sits there, food in hand WAFTING IT ABOUT..... Now if someo...

Dunbars guide is written with the rather wealthy end of San Fran clients, who will get a puppy and go out to work etc whatever you tell them..... First things first - for bonding, happy nights and everyone getting sleep and fast toilet training, pup sleeps in Moms room, she can have pup on the bed i...

That is a very good point, sometimes young uns get driven crazy and then as adults, really aren't bothered. Nettles response has reminded me what my Tibetan Terrier was like when aged 10 months my Deerhound had her second season. We had singing and howling and bouncing and dribbling and he would hum...

I wouldn't neuter him yet - because 18 months old, he's not done growing yet. However when he is, I would, because it sounds like for him, the scent of an in season ***** he can't get to is causing him real distress. In the meantime you just have to ride it out I think, scratch training whilst you k...

Really.. no. My dogs can pick out a tiny weeny tablet from a bowl of wet meat, they can certainly avoid something poisonous on the ground! A dogs digestive tract is short and fast acting, they are well designed to cope with eating off the ground, eating things that would make US sick, eating raw mea...

It does sound as if your dog has good reason to be a bit on edge and anxious about losing control of valuable resources in the household. The thing that leaps out at me, she's food aggressive and she's only fed once a day... It takes dogs around 8 hours to digest their food so 8 hours after feeding,...

Welcome Pauline..

*THUD*... thats me falling down from cuteness overload!

Hellooooooo! Wot Nettle said really, I would have thought once a sensible healing period was up then diet could be relatively normal, unless there are further problems. I know people who have had various bits of bowel resectioned and removed and re-routed and they don't have any particularly unusual...

I would say he's probably right, but... big but, the downside of both labrador and golden retrievers is that they are SO popular there are SO many breeders and sadly, very many of them are just producing pups for the money as they know they will sell, without doing the required research, health test...

What Setter breeders probably won't have mentioned is the very high incidence of awful skin problems in English setters, allergic, itchy paws and ears, dogs chewing themselves raw - so if you go that route do ask about it! Of the two options the setter is probably the easier but neither are an easy ...

Knots in leads annoy me, just because they do. So I would stitch leather 'rein stops' (just strips of leather) to a lead if I needed a marker.

If it works for you though it's a good idea!

Your chances of finding any of the LGD's suited to service dog work are really, minimal to nil. They are independent, they are not given to performing tasks in a timely or prompt manner and CERTAINLY not performing the same task over and over. One of the major issues with the LGD's is that they are ...

If you are using positive reinforcement, you are on the whole asking the dog to think, engage his brain and figure out ways to do what you want, to earn those rewards and that means being confident and willing to try new behaviours in case they work. If you are using positive punishment you are aski...