Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Yeah, we ask Opal to stop licking her spots ("leave"), and thankfully she does without intervention...it's gotten to the point where she'll turn her head back to lick it and then turn away because she knows we'll just ask her to stop.

Thanks Nettle! There is actually a new vets' office opening up down the road...about half the distance of our old one, and the sign says something about holistic medicines or something...I'll double-check next time I go that way. :) I'll keep an eye out for new hot spots and see if I can connect the...

EDIT: After this summer's hot spot outbreak, I've found that for Opal, green or black tea bags work better than ACV; additionally, the tea bags don't bother her like the ACV did. It should be easy to find more info on this on the web! Basically, we have our German Shepherd, Opal. She gets hot spots ...

It is partially our fault...since we acquired him randomly and he didn't need much training, we didn't read up on how to raise puppies properly...didn't know we were supposed to play with his paws when he was young! Opal's pretty okay with me trimming her nails, at least, as long as I've got bribes....

It's funny - all the breeds we've ever guessed, and all the ones here, are typically high-energy and/or high drive...but he's lazier than a mastiff! :) He is a sweety...and looking at pictures of border collie crosses, some look a lot like him (and some look not at all like him...haha). Let's see - ...

Onyx is our 12 year old mutt. We got him in a happy sort of accident...our cousins were looking for a dog, and right before Thanksgiving, someone dumped a litter of mutts in our neighbor's yard. We grabbed one for our cousins, and were planning on having to keep him and our old German Shepherd, Mica...

I posted a while ago in the advice section about my Onyx ( the one in the middle, though he's not fat anymore ), since his nails were growing out and he did NOT like people touching his paws. Well, after some work, it got to the point where he's okay with me holding his paw for about a second (sound...

Oh yes, that squeaky is one of Opal's favorites too. :) Her absolute favorite is her rope (not a short one, about 6' long and used like a flirtpole, also like in the second video), her next favorites are her food toys (not a normal kong, but a Wobbler and another brain-food toy), and then her purple...

Thank you! Only the first two are mine, but still.

Some of the suggestions have positively made my dog worse - used to take him to obedience and agility classes which he really liked despite the potential for reacting - in the main his behaviour was good so long as he was focussed on me or an activity. However he would get into trouble when we were...

As far as his biting when you take his collar - this is something that Amadeus, the malamute I helped raise, did. It could have been pretty dangerous, since some kids that came over to the house would try to lead him somewhere and he would snap at them. The trainer his family hired suggested getting...

It's been back for a while. I haven't been using Google services because of it. :/

...I am saddened to realise that Rocky hasnt forgotten the aversive training he had some 8 years ago :( Yet another reason why aversives are SO dangerous to use, the scars they can leave are deeply embedded! (However as my visit to a friend a few months back shows.. he still chases feathered live s...

Alright, thanks for the advice! Luckily Onyx is very intelligent...he learned the normal sit/down/stay/speak/shake just by mimicing our old dog, and housetrained himself in about 12 hours. I'll start clicker-training him, then.

It might just be the scheduling. While I'd still advise a vet visit, since it was a sudden change, I've noticed that my GSD doesn't want to eat in the morning in the summertime - instead, she'll wait until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, eat, then eat her dinner at 7 or 8. The malamute I sit for does...