I would like to introduce myself

[Harry]

Hi to all new friends
I am a new member to this forum, and I would like to introduce myself my name is Harry from Liverpool United Kingdom I am a retired technical engineer, my hobbies are wild life, walking and dogs,
I have been a dog lover since a child. I have a lot of experience with some breeds of dogs' but feel I will learn a lot from you guys.
I have always trained my dogs in the past by the reward method.
I look forward to speaking to you guys about dog training, and dogs in general.

Hope to meet some friends here.
Thanks to all
Best regards Harry

[Stephanie]

Welcome Harry from Wembley! It's nice to have you join us. What breeds of dogs have you had and do you have a dog at presant? - please tell us more...

[Harry]

Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for the reply, in answer to your questions about what breeds of dogs I like or I have had. Over the last 40 years or more.
I have owned mainly German shepherds and border collies, I have also owned 2 Rottweilers and 1bull mastiff. At this moment I only have my 6 year old Rottweiler (buster) he is a big gentle giant and very well behaved. when we have visitors he thinks they have just called to see him.
Sadly last year in January we lost our border collie bitch (Tess) *and in November we lost our border collie dog (Shep) both to old age, Tess lived to 15 years and Shep lived to 17 1/2 years. They we're both great dogs and lived happy long lives.
We are also a foster home for our local animal shelter. And at present we have a three year old (we think). Belgian maladies dog named (Mally) in our care. We have just been informed by the shelter that they have found a new permanent home for him so he will be leaving in a couple of weeks when they have had all the usual checks done and he's visit to the vet. I'm very happy for (Mally). The couple who he is going to seem very nice they have a large house with a large garden and a three year old German shepherd who gets on very well with Mally. It is hard to say goodbye to them but we can only hope thay live happily ever after. And will be nice to visit him in a couple of months time. I am now looking around for a new puppy or two. most probably German shepherds but my mind is not made up yet they may be border collies, or one of each, it seems a long time since we have had a poppy or two running around the house.
I have always liked the medium to larger breed of dogs I don't know why I just like them. If I had to make a list of my favourite top five dog breeds it would probably be something like this"
German shepherd,
border collie, Belgian Malinois, Rottweiler, English bull mastiff. Don't get me wrong I love all dogs but I think we all have our favourites. Incidentally I was looking at the pictures of your dogs and they look great.
Anyway Stephanie I hope this has answered your questions and look forward to speaking again, I have got to go now for two reasons one is it's getting late and I am on duty tomorrow morning for four hours at the dog shelter, I have a very important job to do its called poop scooping and the second reason is I can only type with one finger and it is getting very sore, so take care and I hope to speak to you again Best regards Harry.

[chrissie]

hi harry my names chrsi and i live just over that litle bit of water, the Mersey,in Birkenhead.

We had a cross border dog, blackie, he was truly half human and we lost him at 17 years of age, broke our heartsand I diddn't think we could ever take another dog into our home, felt like we would be betraying our lovely Blackie, but we have taken the plunge and bought an irish setter bitch, Ruby.

I had another setter many years ago but had to let her go as she was absolutely wild and i worked full time and my poor mum could not look after her so i half knew what we had in store for us with our new setter.Luckily Ruby is quite ggod but has starting biting us i think she is playing but it's getting harder and we are worried it might get out of hand as we have grandchildren, any good sound advice Harry??

Ruby used to come back when we took her out but now it's getting harder to get her back. we live right next to birkenhead park so thats her play area which is great but again any advice would help in this problem. she has about 2-3 hrs exercise per day - shecould actually run for double that time haha.

look forward to any comments you may have.

keep up the great work!

take care chrissie

[Harry]

Hi Chrissie thanks for getting in touch, always nice to hear from a fellow Scouscer.
Yes, it is very hard when your friend dies, especially after having them for a great number of years, but you must move on. Dogs need people, and people need dogs.
But to get to your problem,I normally do not like to give advice, especially on a thing such as biting without First seeing the dog to determine its behaviour.
You didn't say how old Ruby is but from what you have said, I am assuming that she is a young dog.
If she is doing this play biting / mouthing* during play it might not be such a big problem, but if she is doing it for other reasons you will definitely need help.
Your second problem the recall is nothing to worry about it is just a bit of basic training. I have put together a couple of solutions that may help your problem it is basic stuff that you can find anyway but I think sometimes when we haven't had a dog for a while you tend to forget the basic training methods. There are many good books in our city centre for dog training, but I would suggest that you enrolled in a good training course it is great fun and great exercise for both, you and Ruby.
Anyway Chrissie I hope that this helps please let me know how you get on.
Take care, best regards, Harry


*Dogs bite for a variety of reasons. Puppies tend to do so because they are young and biting is a natural part of their maturation, training to curb this will be necessary.
Never punish your puppy physically, as this will just provoke him and develop a long term fear of you that will take a grate deal of hard work to reverse, to a young dog, Play biting is simply another one of his ways of communicating by taking your hand in his mouth to get your attention, Puppies interact with their mother*& siblings*by pulling at their ears and tails not intending to hurt them, but simply to get attention. But, as puppies grow up, so do their teeth,* When a puppy goes into a home environment he must be taught which behaviour is acceptable to his new family.

If this is play biting in your dog, follow these steps. If this fails, I would enroll him in a training course because it may be something moor serious

1 - just say "no"
When your dog starts to play bite, give a loud yelp or a firm "no" command
Ignore the dog for a few minutes fold your arms tern your back on the dog
He should learn that he gets more attention*& praise by not using his mouth

2 - the reward for getting 'off'.
Hold a treat*& make sure you have your dog's attention
Get him to sit so he is focused on the treat, held just in front of his face
When he tries to jump up*& snatch the food, take it out of his reach and say "off" quietly*& firmly
When he turns his face away or steps back, give him the reward*& praise him
Keep up the training regularly,*once he's got the knack of the "off" command you can use it to stop your dog from mouthing or play biting.
*Remember to give praise where it's earned!

The Recall

Things to Make Your Dog Want to Come Back
Even if you have played the recall game and your dog is very good indoors, you will still have to compete with distractions outdoors. These are some things that you might consider to help keep yourself the most interesting thing on offer:
Rewards can be praise, food treats, playing a game or with a toy, or cuddles. Use a high value reward for coming back outdoors. If you use dog biscuits indoors, use sausage outdoors.
If you haven’t got your dog’s attention, they won’t come. Use your dog’s name, clap or whistle (high pitches are more attractive to dogs than low ones); use exciting tones; crouch down to dog-height; lie on your back and wave your legs in the air if necessary, but get your dog’s attention!
Once they start to come, praise, praise, praise. They’re not here yet, but they’re heading in the right direction!
Don’t be a predictable bore on your walks.
Hide behind a tree or in a gateway; your dog will come and find you! The relief from the anxiety of losing you and the praise you heap on them will be a huge reward.
Run away. Just run in the opposite direction and your dog will come with you (it might be missing out on something). Both of these strategies will encourage your dog to keep one eye on you, as they don’t know what to expect.
Practice recalls on walks. Randomly call your dog, give them a reward and send them off again. Call them, clip on the lead, reward them and let them go again.
Think about the times when you call your dog. Home-time, end of the walk, to stop it meeting another dog/person, to stop it chasing something, to stop it eating or even sniffing something. From your dog’s point of view, being called often predicts the loss of something. It is an event that they associate with a negative outcome. You can change that by introducing positive associations.
Playing games of any kind on your walks is a sure-fire way of keeping your dog’s attention. Practising some obedience is fun if there is a reward in it and it helps to increase your dog’s positive view of a recall.
Don’t grab your dog as they run past. This won’t teach them anything except to give you a wider berth next time. Wait until they voluntarily come right up to you, take hold of their collar and reward.
If you really have no confidence that your dog will come back off the lead, you can practice on lead at first, or you can attach a long line (strong washing line?) to your dog’s collar and tie the other end to something sturdy, then play the recall game in a field. When your dog is very good at that, untie the other end of the line and play with it dragging on the ground. Your dog will still feel under control, but is free for a gallop (you can catch the end of the line in an emergency). As your dog becomes more dependable, cut the line in half, then half again and eventually there will be no line at all.
The more positively your dog views you and the keener they are to interact with you at any time, the more likely they will come back whenever you call them.
Chrissie I hope that this helps please let me know how you get on.
Take care, best regards, Harry

[Stephanie]

...........I have got to go now for two reasons one is it's getting late and I am on duty tomorrow morning for four hours at the dog shelter, I have a very important job to do its called poop scooping and the second reason is I can only type with one finger and it is getting very sore...........

Thanks Harry, I see you have a fondness for herding dogs. Before the boxers, I had collie x's I understand your passion. I enjoyed reading your last post to Chrissie, you make a number of really good points, I pity your poor finger though......

[Harry]

thanks Stephanie,
yes my poor old typing finger is now half inch shorter than it was.
I don't mind giving help or advice on basic dog training but when it comes to biting, I am always a bit concerned, about what I say without first observing the dog in question. But I see from Reading elsewhere in the forum that Chrissie has had some good advice, from (Bill in the US). And as I thought here dog is still only a puppy, so the problem should be easily rectified.

And yes Stephanie
I do like my herding dogs if I knew how to get the pictures into the signature box like yours, I would pop a couple in, but I'm afraid I know more about dogs than I do about the workings of this form.

I've got a vet run in the morning, (Mally) the Belgian maladies, is leaving us next week to go to his new permanent home, it will be sad for us but, good for Mally.
Anyway, once again, thanks Stephanie, you take good care of yourself and we'll speak soon, *Best regards, H

[Stephanie]

Hi Harry, hope it all went well with the vets, I have fostered twice and ended up keeping the dog [Roddy] the second time around, he was with us 6 months as he had lots of 'issues' and it was just too hard to let him go.....When we let the first one go we both felt so sad and we had to leave it a few months before volunteering to do it again.

Anyway, I have the upmost admiration to people that can do this, rescues are just soooo strapped financially......and it is gut wrenchingly sad to think that perfectly good dogs get PTS for lack of a home or kennel space..

Now about my signature pics, Harry I opened a photobucket account, loaded pics onto that, resized them and then copied the [img] code over into my settings - - I don't know any other way to do this, sorry.

You can post as many pics on the forum as you want without having to open up an outside account, I put the info on this thread here - http://www.dog-obedience-training-re...-pictures.html

[chrissie]

hi harry, hope you have had agood day today.
We have been following your@s and Bills advice and I think we are having little break throughs already!!
We took Ruby the park this evening and once on the field she bounds up and starts biting at my arm, I duly crossed my arms without saying anything so what does she do?? bites my bum!!

[chrissie]

DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED THERE MY POST JUST DISAPPEARED! Anyway she didn't really carry on and the next time she ran at tommy we did as advised and again normally it'a a prolonged attack but we both stood still and crossed our arms ignoring her she then just ran off so we feel we are getting somewhere (and it was without treats, only because we forgot them!
We called her after her run, lo and behold she come to us straight away, again no treats are we backing a winner here!! We think so.
Not celebrating too quickly but we somehow feel different and I really think Ruby knows we mean business :]
Thanks again Harry and Bill I will report back soon!