Dobe obsession and a dizzy bitch!

CorvusCorax

CorvusCorax

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Hi guys.

Question one - Boydog got away from me during agility last week and went over to a dobe at our training club last week. The dobe growled at him. Queue Boydog eyeballing the dobe for the rest of the afternoon - we are getting the dog aggression under control, he was as good as gold before this incident and the fact that he went over to the dobe and sniffed him, not launch into him, is a huge accomplishment.
However after that, it seemed he was concentrating on the other dog, not me.

Towards the end of the day I noticed he seemed to have a dislike of the dobe's owner too - this man handed me a quoit I had dropped and the boy got really defensive. One of our trainers pointed out that the man had walked up to me very suddenly on my blindside with the object in his raised hand and had taken me by surprise, hence the dog's reaction.

Tomorrow, I am considering asking the dobe man to give Bodo some treats etc to show he is not a threat to either of us- I am also going to see if the dobe man and I can have a private session on our own for a while - any other ideas?

Also - his sister. She is running off all her energy before we even go for a walk in the morning. She runs in circles, paces in her run, bounces off the walls.
As a result she has lost a lot of weight (she is on the same amount of food as her brother, who is twice her size and does lots of more controlled physical activity.
Is there anything we can do to stop her anxious behaviour and is there anything we can feed her to bulk her up?
This question is perhaps inspired by the calmer post below - do these work for dogs?

Cheers, apologies for the essay!
 
I would probably have asked the "Dobe man" the same as you're considering to do in your shoes. (As in I would give him some of my treats to give to my dog, acting all casual, ignoring the dog and while talking about the fascinating life ants have, accidentally he just offers a treat or two without really giving much notice to that he was offering the treats, or just skip the treats and stand there and talk nonsense, go away do something else, come back and say hello to "Dobe man" again and do that over and over again as much as possible.)

If it is the right thing to do or not I don't know, but I'm a firm believer in not avoiding things/situations that has been difficult and in pretending that I don't notice the dogs reactions in those situations. And as you say, the fact that nothing happened when he got away from you, sounds like a true step forward.



About the bitch, I've heard about several people that have given their dogs Valerian capsules for day use (I presume the ones for night use is stronger) with good result to take some of the edge out of their dogs anxious behaviour.


Good luck.
 
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I'm a firm believer in not avoiding things/situations that has been difficult and in pretending that I don't notice the dogs reactions in those situations. And as you say, the fact that nothing happened when he got away from you, sounds like a true step forward.

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I used to just drag him away, apologising profusely, which made him worse, which is why I want to stop this right now before it becomes silly. He has come so far and I don't want him to slip back into the old behaviour.

Thanks for the advice FL, my Mum and best friend will be there tomorrow so hopefully the extra womanpower/distraction will help if he starts messing about!
 
Definitely think getting the dobe guy to give Bodo treats is a good idea, does sound like he is really improving though if he only eyeballed the dobe.
Can't really offer advice about Bella, our Saffy is still fairly active in her kennel at 11 years old. When she was younger she used to have twice the food of the others to keep her in similar condition. On the positive side she looks really well for her age, think it must be the constant exercise
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Ironically the man brought the dobe along because of...dog aggression!!! I spent ages talking to him the first day he came about how much my dog had improved.

He was super last week up until that point, lots of people had commented about his progress...bah, flippin' dogs!

D used to do laps of her run too, she would have been a fab herder, but this is different, Bella is like a coiled spring all the time, loads of nervous energy, just wish I could do something to make her feel more secure.
 
You could try Rescue Remedy in her water, it might just take the edge off her. I used to give my old girl some around bonfire night, and it did seem to help.
 
Treats from doberman bloke worked a treat, although he now thinks all club members are duty-bound to feed him for no reason whatsoever - and he has a new hobby, watching the WHITE German Shepherd
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He worked really well today, yipee.

I talked to their breeder who has suggested crating Bella in the morning before her walk so that she doesn't have the opportunity to burn off all her energy in the run, will give it a go tomorrow.

Thanks again.
 
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Treats from doberman bloke worked a treat, although he now thinks all club members are duty-bound to feed him for no reason whatsoever - and he has a new hobby, watching the WHITE German Shepherd
tongue.gif


He worked really well today, yipee.

I talked to their breeder who has suggested crating Bella in the morning before her walk so that she doesn't have the opportunity to burn off all her energy in the run, will give it a go tomorrow.

Thanks again.

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Club member = walking treat-giving-machine. Glad he trained well, even though he found himself a new hobby...

Hope things works out for Bella too.

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Well, here is Hurricane Bella...do you think this will work?
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At that time in the morning she is usually pirouetting around like a whirling dervish.

Apologies for the awful, awful coat, I'm trying my best with it, there may be a bath in the offing if the weather improves.
Ironically, her brother is looking the best he's ever looked!!!
 
My god what have you given her, and can I have some for Evie who is going stir crazy with her enforced rest
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I have 2 with coats like that, fun isn't it
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I think she just realised she had nowhere to go, so decided to flop out. Brought her in again in the early evening when she started 'spinning' and she lay there watching me make a curry, I can't believe how chilled she was.

Fancy going into business stuffing some mattresses? Or making some nice wooly jumpers?
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Don't worry about the coat, my three recently, hm, well they didn't look as if they were so guilty of it, but that thick, new extra padding under every sock got to come from somewhere.
And as always I have to say, if you're going to blame your dog for being a Hurricane, you shouldn't post photos of them when they look, well, look so opposite of a hurricane. The word docile is more likely to turn up in my head after seeing that photo.

Fingers crossed the chilled attitude is here to stay.
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Yes, fingers crossed indeed!

I think she may have a fear of open spaces, I've never seen such a difference in her. Either that or she is planning to become a house pet - I don't think that would go down well with a certain kennel-mate.....
 
I have saved a lot of my dogs hair through the years and still is, it is important that you don't store it in plastic bags because then the hair dies and then you can't have it spun, or at least the result will not be good. Haven't knitted any jumper of it yet, but have vague plans of doing it in the future, after all I regularly use jumpers knitted from sheep wool, so why not.

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Yes, fingers crossed indeed!

I think she may have a fear of open spaces, I've never seen such a difference in her. Either that or she is planning to become a house pet - I don't think that would go down well with a certain kennel-mate.....

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Hm, yes they do sometimes seem to have their own plans for the future...

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