Re: Buying A Dog : Fri May 10, 2013 11:40 am  

Anyways...


Go to YouTube and type "Bird Box Studio Pub Dog" and see if you recognise your own hound...

Re: Buying A Dog : Fri May 10, 2013 4:00 pm  

Slightly O/T.

What is it with dogs and crisps?
I reckon it's the salt ... I watched two dogs in the local pub, one of them licked a crisp packet from one end of the bar to the other but the smarter one knew to put his foot on it to hold it still.

Re: Buying A Dog : Fri May 10, 2013 4:20 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

Slightly O/T.

What is it with dogs and crisps?
I reckon it's the salt ... I watched two dogs in the local pub, one of them licked a crisp packet from one end of the bar to the other but the smarter one knew to put his foot on it to hold it still.

Every dog I have ever known has treasured a crisp packet and would sit patiently waiting for you to finish it before taking to their bed, splitting it so that it folded out into one piece and spending all night long licking it, the splitting down the seam and neatly folding it out must be genetic now because they've all known how to do it.

The current hound also covets used yoghurt pots.

Re: Buying A Dog : Fri May 10, 2013 6:33 pm  

Nothing worse than seeing a dog with a broken spirit. Void of life and ruled by the iron fist of it's owner.

Re: Buying A Dog : Fri May 10, 2013 8:21 pm  

Mine's a Russel cross ( staff we think ) rescue goes by the name of Hendrix ( or little 5hit when he ' legs it ' with my socks ) and he knows exactly who the ' Boss ' is

Him

On facebook under Hendricks pike

Re: Buying A Dog : Sat May 11, 2013 10:14 pm  

Got a rescue Staff Weimaraner cross a couple of months ago (reckon the dad must have been the Weimaraner unless the Staffy managed to get hold of some stilts. Anyway he was dumped by his previous owner around two years old, guess he got a bit too much for them to handle and he spent most of his life in a back yard or a crate. In his favour he's crate trained and not aggressive as well as being a sucker for a bit of attention. On the downside if you ignore him for any length of time he suddenly appears with either a shoe or cushion in his mouth and tries to start a game of chase with it. He's also pushing the boundaries by climbing on the furniture and then cowering but ignoring any instructions to get off. He then goes into passive aggressive mode and growls when you try and shift him. If there's any sin bin behaviourists about a bit of advice would be appreciated lol.

Re: Buying A Dog : Sun May 12, 2013 6:17 am  

Keith wrote:

Got a rescue Staff Weimaraner cross a couple of months ago (reckon the dad must have been the Weimaraner unless the Staffy managed to get hold of some stilts. Anyway he was dumped by his previous owner around two years old, guess he got a bit too much for them to handle and he spent most of his life in a back yard or a crate. In his favour he's crate trained and not aggressive as well as being a sucker for a bit of attention. On the downside if you ignore him for any length of time he suddenly appears with either a shoe or cushion in his mouth and tries to start a game of chase with it. He's also pushing the boundaries by climbing on the furniture and then cowering but ignoring any instructions to get off. He then goes into passive aggressive mode and growls when you try and shift him. If there's any sin bin behaviourists about a bit of advice would be appreciated lol.

You could try using a long house line on him. When he jumps on the sofa, gently grab the line and bring him down, using a cue word like "off" and once he is down treating and plenty of praise. I let my two on my sofa, but they know they have to be on their own "cushions", likewise with my bed, I have a throw which they lay on. I don't think he's pushing the boundaries, this is probably a learned and acceptable behaviour in a previous life and you want to now change the behaviour, which is ok, just going to take some work and patience with him and plenty of practise.

As with the shoe or cushion, is it that you want him to play but not with those items? If thats the case and you want him to play with an acceptable toy you need to get that toy when he comes to you and ask him to drop the unwanted item in favour of the acceptable toy. If he is more food orientated you could start with teaching him the "drop" using a treat first and when he gets this change the treat for his favourite toy. I wouldn't discourage play unless its not acceptable or the right time for you ie you are on the way out, to bed etc.

If you feel he has too much energy check the protein level in his food. For example feeding Bakers with all the e numbers (sunset yellow is banned in the UK for children) is like giving kids McDonalds for breakfast, dinner and tea 7 days a week. I use a working dog food but its only branded as that to get around the VAT. James Wellbeloved, Burns or Chappie are good commercial foods.

Re: Buying A Dog : Sun May 12, 2013 8:21 am  

Be careful when choosing a new pet food to make sure that it's ethically produced. Some pet food manufacturers actually keep animals caged to use them for taste testing. The more ethical ones do testing on family pets kept in the home. The 'uncaged' website used to have a list of foods to avoid, with Purina, Pedigree, James Wellbeloved and Iams being amongst those featured as being particularly poor. The website has been archived now, so I'm not sure if that info is still current. There's a link here to another website with a list of manufacturers and an ethical rating out of 20. The organic ones are really expensive, but there are plenty in the 8/9/10 rating range that are not too costly.

Be careful when choosing a new pet food to make sure that it's ethically produced. Some pet food manufacturers actually keep animals caged to use them for taste testing. The more ethical ones do testing on family pets kept in the home. The 'uncaged' website used to have a list of foods to avoid, with Purina, Pedigree, James Wellbeloved and Iams being amongst those featured as being particularly poor. The website has been archived now, so I'm not sure if that info is still current. There's a link here to another website with a list of manufacturers and an ethical rating out of 20. The organic ones are really expensive, but there are plenty in the 8/9/10 rating range that are not too costly.

Re: Buying A Dog : Sun May 12, 2013 8:31 am  

Rock God X wrote: Be careful when choosing a new pet food to make sure that it's ethically produced. Some pet food manufacturers actually keep animals caged to use them for taste testing. The more ethical ones do testing on family pets kept in the home. The 'uncaged' website used to have a list of foods to avoid, with Purina, Pedigree, James Wellbeloved and Iams being amongst those featured as being particularly poor. The website has been archived now, so I'm not sure if that info is still current. There's a link here to another website with a list of manufacturers and an ethical rating out of 20. The organic ones are really expensive, but there are plenty in the 8/9/10 rating range that are not too costly. We feed CSJ http://www.csjk9.com/ They keep the costs down by plain packaging, not advertising and marketing the products as working dog food to get around the VAT.

Rock God X wrote: Be careful when choosing a new pet food to make sure that it's ethically produced. Some pet food manufacturers actually keep animals caged to use them for taste testing. The more ethical ones do testing on family pets kept in the home. The 'uncaged' website used to have a list of foods to avoid, with Purina, Pedigree, James Wellbeloved and Iams being amongst those featured as being particularly poor. The website has been archived now, so I'm not sure if that info is still current. There's a link here to another website with a list of manufacturers and an ethical rating out of 20. The organic ones are really expensive, but there are plenty in the 8/9/10 rating range that are not too costly. We feed CSJ http://www.csjk9.com/ They keep the costs down by plain packaging, not advertising and marketing the products as working dog food to get around the VAT.

Re: Buying A Dog : Sun May 12, 2013 8:45 am  

Keith wrote:

Got a rescue Staff Weimaraner cross a couple of months ago (reckon the dad must have been the Weimaraner unless the Staffy managed to get hold of some stilts. Anyway he was dumped by his previous owner around two years old, guess he got a bit too much for them to handle and he spent most of his life in a back yard or a crate. In his favour he's crate trained and not aggressive as well as being a sucker for a bit of attention. On the downside if you ignore him for any length of time he suddenly appears with either a shoe or cushion in his mouth and tries to start a game of chase with it. He's also pushing the boundaries by climbing on the furniture and then cowering but ignoring any instructions to get off. He then goes into passive aggressive mode and growls when you try and shift him. If there's any sin bin behaviourists about a bit of advice would be appreciated lol.

I'd probably go along with HWS and I know the Dogs Trust behaviorist would too in that persuasion and reward and particularly the same command word will work, you can't shove a big dog off a settee, I know that too

Our GSD has his favourite position on one of our settees, its his guilty secret but not so much of a secret, if you leave the room he'll climb up on there and lay with his big head on the arm ready to stare at you with those puppy dog eyes when you walk back in - we don't even have to say anything to him now, just point to the floor and he gets off, thats simply from re-affirming the same message over and over again, rewarding the correct reaction from him (ie getting off) but most importantly making sure that all of the family tell him the same thing every time he climbs up there - we'll never stop him doing it but he never resists being told to get off.