Doggy Podcasts

If you're on Itunes (or other) have a look at the many podcasts available on dog training - Victoria Stillwell (it's me or the dog) has a series, as does Ian Dunbar and quite a few others - great listening while you're on a walk!

Best Gumboots or Waterproof Shoes?

Having worn soaking wet joggers for several hours last Sunday, I was reminded that I need to buy some good comfortable waterproof shoes. Now I do have some heavy duty hiking boots that will suffice, but I have seen some triallers wearing very funky gumboots and/or some waterproof gardening shoes made by "Sloggers." I know the fishing crowd also have waterproof shoes but do you ladies have any suggestions?

Obedience Pics

These pics are from the Tuggeranong trial last year where Gabe and Charlie came first in CCD and Jet came 2nd in Novice. We lost to John from Queanbeyan and his dog Teddy on a countback.

Obedience Trial - Good Luck!

Congratulations Cheryl and Jet!

Well done Nicolla and Shandy (and Gabe and Charlie????) ...

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Watch 'what is this' - very interesting skill!

http://www.canisfilmfestival.com/2011/finalists.php

Flyball Mayhem

After being away last week, we arrived at FLYBALL beginners class to find a whole lot of new faces – probably around 30 of them! The three classes we joined in last year just before Christmas had been relatively quite with mostly experienced dogs so it was good to be back in our depth.

Having said that, starting and then having a break obviously has some learning benefits. I have noticed it with new tricks when I just do a couple (literally 4 or 5) repetitions and then don’t try again for a few weeks and it seems that they must have thought about what they were doing during the break!

The same happened tonight – not a single jump was missed – over-over-over-over. Both Pepper and Rosie even waited on stays while I went up the other end of the jumps (this because Pepper got a little scared at being ‘held’ – one thing I will have to do more of but there’s hardly a need when you can click behaviours!).

We also practiced the ‘box’ by going over a jump, around a pole and back over the jump. Both were exceptional and got it on just a click or two.

On Saturday at the Vicki Austin seminar one of the other attendees asked if a dog’s brain got ‘full’ as they got older because his dog wasn’t able to learn new things – Rosie at 9.5 years learns new behaviours every day – just this week we put together our first behaviour chain – with five clicks she learnt ‘flat’ (to lie on her side) and this was put with ‘bang bang’ – ‘down’ – ‘flat’. Well, two days and 15 repetitions later – tonight she ‘died’ from 2 metres away in a paddock full of barking crazy dogs. That tells me the only thing that can get ‘full’ (or stuck) are primate brains!!!!

RSPCA behaviour seminar next Tuesday 22 Feb

All work and no play? Modifying the behaviour of animals

Hoping to pop in to the 10am talk on dominance and dog training!

http://www.rspca.org.au/what-we-do/science-and-policies/science-seminar.html

Blog Management

Is there any easy way to see what new comments have been added without having to into each blog? I also thought there was a box to tick to recieve by email (or rss feed?) but cannot find it? Any ideas?
It's okay - now I've found it - the rss feed address to add to outlook is:
http://bdclickclique.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
(This is under tools, account settings, rss feeds, new)
(And if you want to paste text, in the 'blog' switch to edit Html tab (rather than compose) and it then lets you paste!)
L-Plater

Training in drive

Has anyone had a look at the training in drive package from K9 Pro? I have to admit that I'm pretty tmpted, from a competition point of view. I've seen some pretty amazing results from this. I wonder if it would be possible to do as a group, or even see what it would cost to get a workshop together?
Anyone else interested?
k9Pro TID

Hope you all like the photos. I agree Niccola, that you have posted the best photos onto the front page of the blog - they were my favourits as well.

John has said that if we ever want any more photos taken, he would be happy to do so. He could take the shots more front on, with the dogs for example being in a semi circleetc. This way we might get a better view of all the dogs.

Lovely Pics

Gabe's husband took some lovely pics of the dogs together

and my fave,

Best Clicker DVDs and Books?

Question for Angela if I may. I have subscribed to Karen Pryors KPCT newsletter, have ordered Karen Pryors Clicker Training book and have watched Gabe's great DVD Clicker Training the Perfect Foundation. (I have some of my own DVDs but they are more Schutzhund related - but do use clickers.) I have seen the Bow Wow DVDs advertised and the Kathy Sdao various collections too. Given I have Valentines Day, Birthday and later on Mothers Day coming up - what DVDs in particular - but also books do you recommend ? I am thinking of getting copy of the DVD that Gabe has - I intend to loan it around the club to people like Peter ( and Clyde the beagle) and possibly Charlie if he is interested - but really would like something more advanced too.
Thanks for your time.

Training with Benefits

I really enjoyed today's session again, and I'm going to miss our get togethers this session. I think (aside from the great training!) one of the biggest benefits has been our discussions. I've found it really helpful to bounce ideas around with a like minded but diverse group of people. We all have our own take on things, while still having similar goals and ideals in training.

So thanks, folks, I've really enjoyed these sessions and your company, and I look forward to continuing to work around our other training obligations to get together at least semi-regularly. And big thanks to Ange for all her hard work in coordinating our sessions!

Hitting the ground running

I had a great class last night. I had the Silver newbies and Ann took the repeaters. My group could all do on the mat and sit stays without any problems and for the time required. Heeling was really good too. Pretty amazing for the first night, particularly as the dogs are all excited by their return to the grounds.

I'll need to nag about steering wheels and reins over the next few weeks though.

Blog Admin

When you're logged in, can you all see the little tool symbol to the right of the Favourite link widget? This is what allows you to edit and add to them.

Tully and fluffies

I've been reading the posts on aggressive behaviours with interest, and will try and view some of the related links today. It seems to me that the problem with Tully is her inconsistent aggression with others (usually small and fluffy) dogs. For example, she's had no problems with Charlie's dog and is okay with Charlie (too many Charlies here!). Sometimes one growly contact seems to be enough for her and then she's mates with that dog. Here I'm noting my observations with Gabe's Charlie and with my daughter's dog Buckley. She has, with the other dogs in our click clique, made friends with new dogs using the oval and with class mates at BDOC. Her behaviour on first sighting any new dog is the same: exclusive attention. By exclusive I mean disinterest in anything other than the other dog. It seems that it's when the other dog reacts fearfully or aggressively to the attention that Tully responds with aggression. There are no doubt exceptions to these observations. Generally speaking, I don't believe exposure to situations where there are dogs in the distance will be helpful as it's not all dogs, or even all small fluffy dogs. I'm interested in your views/advice as I would like things to change.

Desensitization & Counter Conditioning

Ladies,

I am interested in helping fearful and/or aggressive dogs and have been reading up on the difference between desensitisation and counter conditioning ( see below if you are unsure). I was interested to read some examples of how counter conditioning ( in particular aversive counter conditioning) is used with humans, thus have included an example at the end of this post!

Desensitization:

Desensitization is a process in which we reduce the strength of a response to a certain stimulus. For example, if your dog responds fearfully to the site of another dog, by desensitizing your dog to other dogs we will reduce the fearful response.

Desensitization works by gradually exposing the dog to low levels of the fearful stimulus.

In our example, we may let the dog see other dogs from a distance long enough so they do not show fear. Gradually, we will let the other dogs get closer and closer as long as the dog shows no fear.

Desensitization is usually accompanied by another process called counter conditioning.

Counter Conditioning:

Counter conditioning is really nothing more than classical conditioning. The big difference is that the dog already has an association between 2 events so changing this association and creating a new one requires a lot of repetitions.

Think of it this way. Let’s say Pavlov would have done the experiment a bit differently. Let’s say Pavlov would have started by associating the ring of a bell to a painful electric shock. The dog would have known that a bell ring means an electric shock and would have displayed fearful or aggressive behavior when the bell rang.

Now, after hundreds of repetitions and after this association is in place Pavlov would go ahead and start associating the same bell ring with food. Pavlov would have tried to counter condition the dog to the bell ring. It meant pain, and we want it to mean food from now on.

How long would it have taken to accomplish that? I can’t answer this specifically but it would have taken a long time and many repetitions.

Back to our example: we want to counter condition our fearful dog to accept other dogs. By combining counter conditioning and desensitization we can accomplish that. We will start exposing our dog to other dogs at a very low level – in this case a far enough distance (that’s the desensitization part). In addition, we will give the dog very tasty treats when he sees the other dogs (that’s the counter conditioning part). Gradually, we can convince the dog that other dogs mean good treats.

Human example!!

Another type of counterconditioning is aversive conditioning, which makes a particular behavior less appealing by pairing it with an unpleasant stimulus. Aversive conditioning has been used in adults to break addictions to substances such as tobacco and alcohol. Alcoholics are sometimes given an alcoholic drink together with a drug that induces nausea to weaken the positive feelings they associate with drinking.!!

PS - Oops a bit long for a blog. I will keep the next one shorter!

YOUTUBE - TAB 289 & KIKOPUP

Hi guys,

Like Angela, I am a big fan of TAB289 on YouTube. Another good dog trainer is kikopup. I have attached a link to the her YouTube video on "rear end awareness" and its uses, as well as a link to her website. They are both worth a look!

Video

Website

Dumbell Work - 1 min Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmhv1e57lvY

I am just messing around with uploads - 1 minute of video takes an hour to upload - nearly 90mb! I've missed the bit with Rosie just looking past the dumbell (avoidance) then dropping it on my foot - ouch!

I think I'll bring the vid on Saturday so watch out!

Clicking to calm

I've just been talking to a friend, who's small dog has developed some dog aggressve behaviours after being attacked by another dog a few months ago. Obviously fear aggression - he's still submissive when he actually meets other dogs, just defensive. Her dog trainer recommended correcting any defensive moves with a leash pop, which is only making him worse.

I've suggested that she try something similar to what Ange suggested for Tully - set up a distance from where she knows other dogs will pass, and click and reward for calm behaviour, and focus on her instead of the other dog. Rewarding for the right sort of behaviours, and making other dogs approaching a positive experience again. It makes sense to her, which is a good start, so we'll see how it goes.

Anyone got any other suggestions?