Jump to content

Menu

hornblower

Members
  • Posts

    12,399
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    29

Everything posted by hornblower

  1. Aerius is my friend & you can't take it away from me :laugh:
  2. hornblower

    Nm

    true that :) [total aside - I was watching Susan Garrett's puppy peaks online coaching thing yesterday & having such a laugh at the puppy she picked. It's SUCH a naughty puppy LOL but I'm sure she'll be a champ soon. There's a video half way through this post which is quite funny ]
  3. wow, your poor dd. I ditto the suggestions for biofeedback Also neurofeedback
  4. hornblower

    Nm

    I was out for a bit & thought about this some more & want to add that I'd actually strongly advise AGAINST a puppy given a child on the spectrum (eta in the house. I realize it's not the intended dog primary) Puppies are no guarantees. Many puppies get removed from service & guide dog programs even though they passed their puppy temperament testing with flying colors. And uncontrolled exposure of a puppy to a volatile situation can cause lifelong problems for the puppy (esp if it's going through a fear period) It would be much safer to find a young adult dog with an unflappable temperament.
  5. I suspect the Hivers are going to want to help with this. Set something up girl so we can help you!
  6. Rabbit Air. I've been scoping them out & consistently they're the ones people mention to me - because they work & they're quiet. But they're $$ & I'm not sure I need one that badly.
  7. hornblower

    Nm

    Dogs go where there is reinforcement. That reinforcement might be attn, food, playtime, cuddles, training, attn, quiet time - whatever the dog's currency is. They also avoid people who make them uncomfortable. So if a dog is sensitive to noise & movement, they might avoid a young loud child but choose to hang out with a quiet calm child. Or a pick a quiet calm man over the talkative/hands waving woman. They might find the man's deliberate calm movements much more understandable for instance. I just look at where the dog's going and what it's avoiding and from that you can see what the dog's reinforcers are and what its aversives are. (& they vary for dogs. Some dogs like cuddles and others don't etc...)
  8. Hey, since I used to work the border, I'll talk about the passport thing. if you're flying, you need a passport. if you're driving up, you can use an enhanced driver's licence (not a regular one) or a nexus card BUT if you have to fly home due to an emergency, you'd need a passport. details under entry/exit & visa here
  9. hornblower

    Nm

    If she likes the idea of agility training, then I'd encourage her to start reading Silvia Trkman's website. She is a Slovenian woman who started very young, teaching herself positive methods when they were not very popular yet, and her parents while not against it all, weren't apparently that supportive so as a kid she had to take her dog on the bus to the training center. :lol: And it was a large samoyed! Anyway - she's now a gazillion time national champion and euro champ and world champ with a bunch of different dogs. She's fun & her dvd's are well worth it. The online classes are very good too. If you're a full participant she will comment on your videos that you upload to the classroom & give lots of advice. This is her very old site which she keeps only as an archive but it's where you can read her story of her first dog, which she got when she was 11. Her new site & blog & videos are all here: http://www.lolabuland.com/ I would not get a bulldog. They really can't run agility for one thing. They can barely walk frankly & yeah, their bills will put the vet's children through college. I think bonding is almost all a reflection of time (both amount & quality) invested in the relationship. Apart from a few dogs that have huge predisposition for a certain gender, it's what you put in. Dogs are much more simple than us (& much more simple than cats too) I'd just pick a happy, friendly and stable dog that you like the looks of.
  10. Three Men in a Boat narrated by Martin Jarvis The Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters but only the ones narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt. Cabin Pressure - bbc radio play.
  11. Have trust in your medical team, have trust in yourself. Sorry that the google PhD & MD people are being eejits. I know you're smart & taking care with your medical decisions. :grouphug:
  12. It is normal for a dog to complain about being crated when exciting things are happening. Your idea of keeping her leashed near you is actually excellent. It's called umbilical cord training & I use it in those circumstances. Reward her for all calm bhvr. Anytime she sits and is quiet, cooked chicken (or her other favourite treat) should be popping in her mouth. FWIW, I'd probably just keep doing the leash thing because it's the simplest thing. Eventually the dog learns to just stick to you & be calm at your feet or you can practice sending them to a mat to relax (see below) You can also gradually condition her to accept crating in those circumstances by building the bhvr bit by bit. So for ex. you could crate with a stuffed kong when you know someone is coming for just a very short time. I rarely use crates in the house but I do work on calm crate behavior when at dog competition/class. The thing is, it means that while the dog is in the crate, you're working the whole time, watching them & reinforcing all moments of calm so it's hard to do when you have company if you actually want to be a host. To be an effective trainer you have to gradually build the bhvr and that means setting up the environment too. So you might want one guest only, fairly quiet & only 1 min quiet in crate. Then 2 guests etc & slightly longer. You can also start by training 'calm'. In my house I call it 'chill' separately & then try to combine it with the crate. Have a look at this article on how to stop unwanted barking ETA - help your dog succeed by making sure she's had an extra long outing/offleash romp before asking her to be calm for company. Also, depending on the climate where you live & the season, I know some people whose dogs adore cars & will happily sleep in a crate in a car, parked on a quiet street. Obviously this only is appropriate in cool, safe weather, parked out of the sun & only if the dog likes the car. You can set up a baby monitor to listen in on the dog. Also:
  13. ds has the Miriam Webster app on his phone. You can say the word & it will find it.
  14. I think bottom line is that it doesn't matter what's wrong with her. I think there's this big deal in our culture about trying to understand people's motivations. In your own words - "having some understanding of where it is coming from can make her easier for me to deal with, with grace (and sanity)". FWIW, in my life I am working hard on not giving a %^&* about that in other people. That is between that person, their therapist, their priest, their journal & their meditation practice to sort out. All I care about is their bhvr & my response to it. You can respond with grace & sanity because that's the kind of person you want to be. You can respond that way to anyone & everyone, no matter how absurdly annoying they are. People who bug me a lot, who are annoying & demanding just get slowly excised out of my life. No Rockwell fake 'but it's family!' stuff here. There are people whom I'm related to who live within a 15 min drive & I haven't spoken to them in years. I know that doesn't work for everyone but it's been incredibly liberating for us.
  15. the house fire one I struggle with I admit. Usually our charitable orgs here leap into action. There was a largish fire a few weeks in my town & there was a mountain of clothes toys & furniture donated within hours. I get that.... & Yeah, I know someone who had insurance & is just wrapping up their claim 18 months later. It's a struggle.
  16. :blush: awww, thank you. I'll raise a virtual glass to all of you.
  17. Since Canada has universal health care, I don't really feel obliged to help out with health care costs either. The other one that gets me is things lost in fires/theft. That was a life choice to not get insurance.... I feel crappy about that one though.
  18. most welcome! And check out these posters on body language too "Every year over 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs. One of the most common causes of biting and aggression in dogs is fear. This color poster developed by Dr. Sophia Yin and illustrated by Lili Chin, shows the common as well as more subtle signs of fear and anxiety in dogs. Download the pdf version of the "Body Language of Fear and Anxiety in Dogs". You are welcome to make copies to distribute for free."
  19. It's not about discipline. It's about training incompatible behaviors. Learning for animals should be life long - just like for us. No reason you can't keep on teaching tricks forever.
  20. But it is debatable whether Buddhism is a religion or not. http://www.buddhanet.net/nutshell03.htm I don't know if what you practice is a religion or not. I guess it depends. And the issue of god in Buddhism is a topic of debate, is it not? I think atheists, agnostics & UU's & buddhists are often very similar to each other. Oh & Jainism is also similar in that deities are not really a focus. I hardly ever hear about Jains though. They're even more under the radar than Buddhists... When I think about it too long I get sort of vague on the whole what is a religion thing. Like the Pastafarians and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster; I have seen people who follow traditional religions get absolutely furious at Pastafarianism but I've not really heard any credible rebuttal for why it should not be treated as a religion. Same for the things people like to call cults (like Scientology was called on these boards recently) I do think Christianity gets the brunt of the arguments on the boards simply because it's culturally dominant. I do note that frequently the Christian arguments gloss over other major faiths but I don't see any real solution to that. If someone from a certain tradition is arguing in favour of a god, they will explain it in terms of their own faith, right?
  21. some people also forget that dogs don't have opposable thumbs. Their mouths are how they grab everything. Some mouthy dogs are just being playful but people freak out.
  22. It has nothing to do with dominance. Dominance is not a useful paradigm when looking at domestic dog behavior & all serious dog training & behavior professionals have long abandoned the concept. (here is a pdf from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists on Dominance...) Some dogs have extremely high tolerance & very high bite inhibition. But that is quite rare. Dogs snap at children because children do silly things like get in their faces, hug them, steal their food, + run around & shriek high pitched (which is pretty much what prey animals do). So generally it's usually a case of either children violating dog rules, children activating prey drive, inadequate training (of both children & dogs) and inadequate supervision. For dog bite prevention & how to learn to read dogs (& how to teach children to read dogs) see Doggone Safe For examples of commonly rude things that kids do (& people take pictures & post in the internet as "SO CUTE" and behaviorists and trainers are all OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING?) see Eilleen and Dogs "Before You Share That Cute Dog & Baby Picture"
  23. I'm glad you have answers & plans. Best wishes for your son. :grouphug: for you. Hope life settles to some sort of normalcy soon.
  24. Can't stand this trend. Organized begging. As I do lots of animal related work for a while I was getting swamped with gfm's for vet bills. Pleeeeze. Be a responsible animal owner & quit begging for money for fifi. I know I sound crabby but honestly, it's never ending. Complete with 'threats' of if you can't take them / if people won't donate I'll have to have fifi put to sleep or I'll have to release fifi in the wild (common with rabbits & pocket pets...) Don't put that on others, you irresponsible jerk....
×
×
  • Create New...