Inherited Dog - Australia

orlao

She's a cutie

You can buy Advocate OTC in Australia - might seem dearer than some of the other flea and worm treatments but it deals with every parasite (inc heartworm IIRC) except tapeworm which needs a drontal or equivalent once a year.

HTH

hethmar

Hi General, so glad you took on the poor little mutt.

Is she spayed? You dont want half a dozen more to care for. Also, I guess like here, the vets are very expensive, so look at insuring her too.

You can teach a dog at any age. Get some coaching treats from a pet shop and only give them to her when you train her, no other time. Just getting her to sit - let her sniff the treat and then you hold a coachie treat over her head and move it backwards, saying "sit", the dog automatically sits on their haunches as they watch the treasured treat go over their heads. So now she associates "sit" with getting in that position when a coachie is due to be given Give it a go, sometimes its taught in seconds and get yourself a decent dog training book.

Generali

Well it looks like I've managed to train her to come to me on command. The last three days she come to my side when I've called her.

Next I need to train her to make tea.....

foreign_correspondent

Generali wrote: »

Well it looks like I've managed to train her to come to me on command. The last three days she come to my side when I've called her.

Hey, well done!! :T that is a great start! Keep rewarding her when she gets it right!

Generali wrote: »

Next I need to train her to make tea.....

.. don't fancy your chances on that one much - but good luck!;)

Generali

Gonna continue with 'sit' tomorrow.

Move the doggy treat over her head or push her bottom down? Woodhouse(?) IIRC did the latter on the TV when I was a kid.

foreign_correspondent

Generali wrote: »

Gonna continue with 'sit' tomorrow.

Move the doggy treat over her head or push her bottom down? Woodhouse(?) IIRC did the latter on the TV when I was a kid.

stick with the former - Woodhouse also used to advocate beating dogs with dead chickens, which makes me think she may have been slightly unhinged!

Basically, if you can coax, rather than force it is preferable!

Used to love watching her as a kid though - "SITTT":rotfl:

lostinrates

Former.

Might help to positioon near a wall...most dogs follow the treat back over heads and either sit or...walk backwards . I keep my index finger pointing up for sit, the treat between thumb and rest of hand at first so it can be seen, later closed in hand, then in other hand, till the pointing upwards finger alone is enough. Treat as soon as she does it: consistancy is key.

Generali

Another question.

It turns out we get blue tongue lizards now and again in the back garden and Lady is quite partial to snacking on them.

Is there a way to stop her apart from hitting her with dead Blue Tongues/chickens?



They're a bit over a foot long if that makes a difference.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Another question.

It turns out we get blue tongue lizards now and again in the back garden and Lady is quite partial to snacking on them.

Is there a way to stop her apart from hitting her with dead Blue Tongues/chickens?



They're a bit over a foot long if that makes a difference.

Yes, but its not so quick. the next thing to teach her is ''leave it''. Leave it starts wth a treat in your hand and everytime she reachs out you close your hand so she can't get it and say leave it, in a quiet, low and determined voice. The voice right she WILL, look away, then reward. Extend the time. Teach he a release command (mine is thank you) i.e. leave it.....thank you, on thank you she can take it

If she's sitting down well, time to start ''leave it'' for her supper. Sit, leave it, thank you. Its a harder one and takes calm consistancy, but its not by any means too hard. Its natural for a dog to defer to a ''boss dog'' for its turn. don't make her wait too long at first.

Dont tell her off, just re sit her, and start again.

Build up to the bowl of food, start with the treat. With my dogs the idea of leave it takes about a session, may be too (a session being dog deendant but no more than a few minutes). Leaving supper takes a little longer, but once they have the idea its easy to build on it.

Leaving is a ''big deal'' in training, a lea f faith from her that you will reward, so never let her down, but prolong the gap from just a couple of seconds building a little at a time.

Then, once she has ''leave it'' as an idea its aplicable to..chickens in yard, cats, a biscuit in your beautiful childrens' hands ....anything you want her to leave!

At the same time I'd start teaching her a command to get her attention: often overlooked but incredible useful, most people seem to use ''look'' or ''listen''. I use ''at'' because its crisp, and clear, carries in the wind.

NB: are they harmful to eat?

foreign_correspondent

Generali wrote: »

Another question.

It turns out we get blue tongue lizards now and again in the back garden and Lady is quite partial to snacking on them.

Is there a way to stop her apart from hitting her with dead Blue Tongues/chickens?



They're a bit over a foot long if that makes a difference.

ay chihuahua!!!:eek: - you get those things in your garden and they are over a foot long!? That's huge!

- when you said the dog was eating them, I imagined them to be little 4" long lizards! Is she actually killing them, or has she just found a dead one?

Why do you need her to stop eating them? Are they rare or protected, or toxic, or a danger to her if she tries to kill them?