Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

lostinrates

Our kitchen floor is still......concrete. I do walk around it barefoot when its not freezing. (For example, have been the last few days) and drop stuff at least twice weekly)

zagubov

lostinrates wrote: »

. Fwiw, a cold bath outside on a cold day stops it for weeks but is exceptionally horrid for both her and me.....I cannot argue it is a great welfare decision.

I give him a hot bath but I reckon from your description that a cold one might be more convincing. :cool:

I know that contact with dogs helps heart disease survivors live longer. Can't help but feel that immnosuppressed cancer patients would find them less helpful! :eek:

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

I give him a hot bath but I reckon from your description that a cold one might be more convincing. :cool:

I know that contact with dogs helps heart disease survivors live longer. Can't help but feel that immnosuppressed cancer patients would find them less helpful! :eek:

If you really want to train it out and are not bothered about positive reward training....(I am , but I also use negative disincentives sometimes, its not my preferred method but it can be effective ) those air releasing sprays are pretty effective. You need to walk him on a lead till he drops a shoulder to roll and BAM spray. Timing is everything, a short sharp burst is sufficient and it should be on the other side of you front eh dog IMO. I have another disincentive which works in the same way but better for me. Dh calls it my 'duck noise'. Works on all species of animals and is utterly instinctive. I am fairly vocal anyway (which many disapprove of, rightfully saying it causes confusion) but it works for me.

Tbh, it's just not worth the effort for me. .

I was hoping to work on a different issue last summer but couldn't. This summer it might be my project though....depends how I feel. It's all positive reward based.

neverdespairgirl

Watching dogs interact is also fascinating. My parents' border collies are both absolutely obsessed with collecting balls - but there are strict rules. Dylan seems to get first dibs on catching / collecting the ball, unless it lands right next to Doglet, and then he's allowed to try to catch it.

But Dylan never brings it back. He runs to within about 30 yards of the thrower, then drops it and runs off again, and Doglet collects it and brings it to the thrower, dropping it at the thrower's feet. It's a routine with them.

One thing which annoys Isaac massively is that they don't take him seriously as a ball chucker - Doglet always takes the ball back to someone else, anyone else who is handy. Isaac got quite cross over Easter when he was chucking on his own, and Doglet kept taking the ball back into the house and dropping it at my mother's feet. She was also a bit irritated, because she was trying to make bread, and didn't want to keep falling over saliva-coated tennis balls.

LydiaJ

Avatar-dog was quite happy to take my kids seriously as ball throwers - even when they were toddlers and only threw the ball a couple of feet. But DS used to get frustrated that Avatar-dog ignored any verbal instructions from him, and would only take orders from grown-ups.

neverdespairgirl

We have a magic ball chucker stick thing, so even Isaac can heft balls a fair way. But the dogs just don't take him seriously.

It's a stick, so you press it on the ball, and then launch it. I've no idea what the real name is - my parents just call it the chucker.

LydiaJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

We have a magic ball chucker stick thing, so even Isaac can heft balls a fair way. But the dogs just don't take him seriously.

It's a stick, so you press it on the ball, and then launch it. I've no idea what the real name is - my parents just call it the chucker.

I don't know what it's called either, but I know what you mean - I see dog walkers using them a lot round here. We never had one for Avatar-dog, but instead we used to have a ball on a rope, which makes it much easier to throw it further, although even with a rope DS's first attempts at throwing didn't go very far. I think he was less than 2 at the time, though, so understandable that it took him a while to get the hang of how to throw. Tennis balls were no good for Avatar-dog - he killed them within minutes - but the sort of "dog ball on a rope" that you can buy is much more solid and resistant to chewing.

Spirit_2

Our first dog, Sedge, was of working stock and his instinct to retreive was second to none. His preferred toys were sticks and he would find and bring back to your feet teh exact stick thrown.

The next dog, Fen and now Ben, were/are not of working stock and although both would look for a stick neither were that bothered and would give up. Throwing balls means you often then have to walk to where they have taken it and dropped it as bringing it back is optional.

Ben does however love tennis balls to carry about and then leaves them around the house to make it dangerous. In the sitting room any sofa/chair moving usually reveals, to his great joy, a lost ball.

We have a redundant 'throwy thing' too (no idea what it is really called).

Ben is a fabulous swimmer (the breed are good at this anyway) as his first owners had a boat and he would swim off the side of it. If we take him to the beach we have to throw sticks into the sea for him to fetch...otherwise he heads out to sea:eek: it is very scary. He fixes his eye on a boat and then looks back at you to say "its OK. Thats our boat." Then heads off towards it. We have taken to letting him off in an area behind a headland where boats cannot go as Mr S was becoming a nervous wreck.

vivatifosi

I've been mass leafletted over the past couple of days in advance of this week's elections. Putting party politics and what I think of the candidates to one side, it's really interesting how the candidates present themselves.

Both the Lib Dems and Conservatives have sent black and white photocopies through with a lot of local info on what their plans are for the area, who the candidates are, their backgrounds etc. Labour has sent a very glossy flier round with lots of information on why David Cameron is horrid, but very little on what their policies are, only broad brush plans for the county as a whole, nothing local. The Greens are also standing here but haven't sent me a leaflet, which may be quite appropriate.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Well, after many months of procrastinating, being on the receiving end of endless nagging, coming up with a variety of work-related excuses, and generally being grumpy about the whole thing, I have given in.

We're going to a gym today... For the first time in 2 decades.

On a positive note however, despite my rather large liquid lapse this week, and the scoffing of a couple of McDonalds breakfasts when Mrs McT wasn't around, I have lost another 3 kg.

That's now almost half the weight lost in the last month that I gained in the last 10 years. Clothes are starting to feel a little baggy.