Grow Your Own Magazine

This is understandable, most problems with dogs behaviour has little to do with the dog and everything to do with how the owner ensures they are head of the pack.

Dogs are like children and do not come with a manual, but they should always know who is head of the house.

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Gardening is the grandfather of Rock and Roll, its all about sex and drugs.

Quite correct, although I would go a little further and say that dog behaviour (unless a medical condition) has NOTHING to do with the dog (regardless of breed) and EVERYTHING to do with the owner.

The most effective way to sort out ANY bad behaviour (unless a medical condition) is to be the dogs pack leader.

The techniques are very simply but the understanding behind it takes a while to grasp as we have to learn how to communicate to our dogs and know how they communicate to us.

You cant go wrong using Cesar Millans (AKA the Dog Whisperer)techniques, watch his shows, but more importantly read his 3 books to get a real insight of what it is all about, you will soon be a pack leader after that!!!

We bring dogs into our lives to fulfill our needs, but not many people think about fulfilling the dogs needs.

Getting a dog and showering it with affection is not enough, in fact affection given at the wrong time can cause very extreme bad behaviours in our dogs.

As Cesar says......Exercise.....discipline then affection strictly in that order!

Are we truly any different!, when we look at our own children who wear their emotions more than we do. If you do not ensure plenty of the first, it will lead to little of the second, and make it very hard to show any of the third.

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Gardening is the grandfather of Rock and Roll, its all about sex and drugs.

Squashisue, my dearest, I did not think for one minute that you were targeting me personally. The point I was trying to put across was that we(the goodies!) are in the majority rather than the minority(the baddies!!)
But, as in all walks of life,the baddies get the publicity. How many caring and sensible people had a voice on that programme! None, for as good news doesn't sell papers good news doesn't sell T.V. time.
Tootles, I don't breed many litters, maybe one every two or three years (and what work and emotional expense goes into it) so I can see where you lost money.
A friend bred a litter of Ibizans and, rather than make money on them,gave them away to Ibby loving friends. Should I breed from a pug this year I will reciprocate because I know those pups will be loved and kept forever.
jamesp. I agree fully with you! Firework night, I get so cross with people saying that they have to huddle with their dogs on the floor to "re-assure" them. All they are doing is telling the dog that they are right to be afraid "Look, here is me , your pack leader also terrified" The sensible thing is to ignore the dog and carry on as usual until the dog says "Oh! God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world!"
I have mooted a scheme whereby every litter born and advertised for sale would need to be micro-chipped by the breeder (at their own expense) and every dog that goes into rescue must be ,at least, the financial responsibility of the breeder if not taken back by them. I would hate think of any pup I have bred being flung on the wings of the world and that goes for any pups my stud dog has sired.
Anyway, I didn't get any sleep today as, when I took the first lot of dogs up to the field, I found five ponies loose in the lane (Not for the first time either!) Exercised the dogs, put the ponies in our field, thinking I would put them into their own field when I had the bigger dogs with me. But,no, our field was much nicer than theirs(too nice, probably) Happily the dogs are used to these ponies and when they had chased each other to exhaustion they settled down to be friends. I just wish I could find the owners of these ponies, who are all so lovely, I might have a word to say to them on fences, gates etc.
Thinking!! If I were to breed pidgeons or pigs to show no-one would turn a hair if I ate the surplus!!

Ah but as a nation we do not eat dogs!, we do however keep them as pets, so there is always a lot of emotion charged around animals that you keep as a member of the family. The truth be told they are for me the only real pet, you do not keep a cat it chooses to keep you company, you cannot interact or communicate with a pigeon, or a hamster, or a goldfish. Dogs are truly mans best and only friend.

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Gardening is the grandfather of Rock and Roll, its all about sex and drugs.

Well said. Sadly we don't always reciprocate.

The problem with Crufts is not the show dogs there, but that it triggers 'fashion demand' for winning breeds, and this creates an opening for the unscrupulous breeder to breed from unsuitable parents, in oreder to supply pups to the uninformed buyer who sees them do well on TV and 'wants one of those', without thinking.
There is nothing new in this effect. Several breeds have suffered from it over the decades, and some have only recently started to pull back from the brink (and some probably still need to make progress). Requiring a 'health certificate' before registration can be finalised would help, a lot! Adding 'viability' clauses to all breed standards would be even better.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

No, Bluemoon, but usually.

You make a very good point there!....like it or not we are social pack animals with human differences such as emotional intelligence amongst other things and we are the only species on the planet that will 'follow' an unstable leader.

In fact some people who have learnt Cesar Millans ways have used similar techniques on their children with great effect!

Look at the kids these days going round in 'packs' with hoodies on, I don't blame them as nobody has set any rules, boundary's or limitations for them, and they channel their boredom and frustration into bad behaviour into such like as smashing peoples cars up, if they had exersise....discipline....then affection they would have far less energy for bad behaviour, its the same for dogs, ie in the wild they would walk their territory for 8 to 10 hours a day, when they sleep they do not 'twitch' in their sleep as some domestic dogs as they are so drained of energy and more or less toxin free which can cause the twitches.

I agree what you do here is better than giving affection, but I have found this works far better.....please read the link.

Some recent dog behaviour cases I have helped with....

Polly FA, I totally agree with you, not enough good stuff as people wont watch it! I didnt want you to think i was being critical of every dog breeder.

All 4 of my GSD's were from loving breeders who bred for the love of the breed and for the love of the dog, i remember when they took a pup back when someone wasnt being so kind to it, they just went and collected it (it was being kept in a shed) they were horrified and gave them a refund and the pup turned out to be a champion!!

James, one of my GSD's hated fireworks, so that he would bark all the time, i just ignored him and turned up the tv as he was putting me off my viewing lol!!!! he soon shut up lol!!

I totally agree MW - dogs should be man's best friend, I would love my Rosey to come back to me, she was my best friend in the world - RIP Rosey x

PS. Polly - can i have those ponies, i would love them and look after them!!

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Gardening - A labour of love that begins with daybreak and ends with backache!
http://clarkiesveggieblog.blogspot.com/

That'll be why we'll never have a pet rabbit!Daisy refuses point blank to eat chicken~but at present has no emotional ties to rabbits.

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

If that works then that's great, im glad you didn't have to witness more than that as my dog was showing a much higher state of fear than just barking and that's why I took the action I did.

The real proof of the pudding so to speak is what happens the next time our dogs hear fireworks, it could be weeks or months before they here them again so the correction at the time may not work the next time fireworks are heard by your dog, so I did this......

Repeatedly played a loud recording of fireworks and went through the same corrections until he ignored them all together, repetition in cases like this and used as a 'flooding' technique as we do for humans, ie if someone has a fear of spiders you make them confront a number of spiders to help them get over it, in most cases it is very successful and its the same with dogs.

Also as dogs communicate back to front to us, ie Nose first then eyes then ears, I bought some fireworks so my dog could smell them as this helps when fireworks are present again, they will smell the scent of the fireworks well before they go off!...even if the fireworks are miles away...

My two are ok with fireworks, they have a bit of a bark at first which we ignore, then they lose interest, come in and go to sleep.

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When a woman says nothing's wrong, it means everything is wrong. When a woman says everything's wrong, everything is wrong. And when she says something isn't funny, you'd better not be laughing your a** off!!

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008
www.bradleyroundtwo.blogspot.com