Rileyroo

Oh no! That wasn't supposed to happen. I'm really sorry to hear Sir H is having a bad time. Lots of to you all and I hope that he's comfortable overnight and back with you tomorrow.

This flyer has landed in my inbox - I will be going for the weekend as it's almost on my doorstep and I have trained with Helen before (in fact I've been studying with her for the last year). If anyone starts reading and switches off at the word 'gundog' then I'm assured that anyone who does not want to work on gundog stuff (ie me and at least one other person that I know is going) will do separate activities. If anyone's interested PM me with your email address and I'll forward you the booking form. You can bring multiple dogs, but the dogs you're not working with must be happy to be left either in the car, or tethered at the side of the field. Cars will be parked in the shade right by where we're training so they can be left fully open if necessary. International trainer and author of 'Clicker Gundog' Helen Phillips is coming to London to run a training weekend on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th August, 2009. This is a great opportunity to work with this very experienced and knowledgeable expert in the field of dog training. Helen has over a decade of experience in working and training dogs, is an established breeder of Hungarian Vizslas under the 'Costwoldawn' suffix, teaches a certified course on canine understanding and behaviour, is a principle trainer for the Learning About Dogs organisation as well as having her own training organisation and travels around the UK and the world running workshops and trainings for all types of dogs and their owners. The training will cover gundog and field training as well as aspects of agility and social behaviour. The training is focused on creating a fun and postive training experience for both dog and owner. Helen's training uses a reward motivated based system, which ensures training is effective and dynamic. Helen's training's offer us the chance to continue to develop the relationship we have with our canine friends by increasing understanding and communication between dog and owner. The course is open to all levels - whether this is your first foray into training classes or if you are already an experienced trainer yourself - there will be something for everyone. Dogs of all breeds, ages and abilities are welcome, provided they are fit and healthy and able to be in an environment with other dogs. The weekend will take place on Wimbledon Common (the Richardson Memorial Playing fields will be the base) and the course times are 10am - 5pm on Saturday 15th and 10am - 4.30pm on Sunday 16th. The cost of the weekend is £130 for a working place for you and your dog or £50 for a spectator place - for partners who want to come along and learn or those of you not bringing a dog but who want to discover more about training, techniques and canine communication and understanding.

http://www.chowgroup.co.uk/Dog%20Show%202009.html Chiswick House (Chiswick, SW London) is having its annual dog show again this year. The club I teach at will be doing an agility / obedience / HWTM display and there's full programme of classes for the dog show. It's really well attended and they have been advertising for stalls if anyone's interested. It's 27th September.

I agree with this completely. I went through terrible break up from an abusive partner about 10 years ago. At the time a work colleague would take me to lunch every day and force me to eat - and I really did feel better afterwards even though I wouldn't have eaten if I'd had any choice in the matter. It gave me the energy I needed to cope - without it I would have been so much worse (and I was pretty bad even with his interventions). I can also identify with the separating and getting back together thing. My H and I were together for about a year when we split up - it was awful. We both genuinely believed that it was over, and we got on with trying to re-build our lives separately. In doing so we changed the things that had driven us apart in the first place, and when we bumped into each other at a party about a year down the line we recognised that all the things that brought us together in the first place were still there but that we'd also fixed the things within ourselves that were causing us problems (in my case unresolved issues from the above abusive relationship). We've now been married for 6 years. We're only a successful re-union because we built lives that enabled us to be happy apart - we didn't do things that were motivated at getting the other person back but at making ourselves happier alone. This too will pass.

Thanks, everyone. I will check out the recommendations. I'm also wondering if I can use the same stuff to wipe down Kevin's front legs after he's eaten his meaty bones - he looks like the victim of a car crash with bits of raw meat and blood all over himself. I think he's saving a snack for later - sadly for him it gets washed off before he has a chance to savour it.

Can anyone recommend a disinfectant that's animal safe, plant safe and will be suitable to use to wash down our patio? Recommendations for a hose spray attachment or a sprayer to distribute said disinfectant would also be appreciated. Kevin is definitely a dog who prefers the feel of stone under his paws while doing his business and the rigmarole of disinfecting and keeping the cats and dogs off the area afterwards is getting to all of us! There must be a safe one out there.

Absolutely - make your own mind up, but do so from a position of knowledge. So, read some Turid Rugaas (Calming Signals) or Brenda Aloff to learn what dogs are saying with their body language and then watch CM with the sound off so that you're watching what he does, and what the dogs do, without the voice over telling you what you're supposed to be seeing. Then come back and tell us that the dogs are all happy, joyful, relaxed and eager to be with their owners / CM. Good training does not need Don't Try This At Home. One of the joys of having a brain is the ability to think how to achieve what you want without using force and intimidation - it might not make great TV but it makes for better dogs. There are plenty of ways to have solved the collie's problems without resorting to a shock collar (rehoming for one - sometimes it is the best solution) not least because by suppressing that chase behaviour you're setting the dog up to have to find another way to get the release he needs and you probably won't like that one either so you're back to the shock collar until the dog just gives up and doesn't do anything for fear of getting shocked. The creditable dog experts and researchers (Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, Karen Pryor, Patricia Mcconnell, Bristol University, Southampton University, Lincoln University, David Ryan to list some of the ones that spring to mind immediately) all oppose CM and his methods - doesn't that tell you something?

Regarding Jordy Chandler - either his parents are the sort to exploit their child by getting him to pretend that MJ abused him, or the abuse did happen and they settled out of court in an attempt to reduce the impact on their child. Those of you who feel that you'd never accept money instead of a conviction (and so therefore feel that the whole thing was a fabrication) are also, clearly, not the sort of parents who would get their child to lie in such a way . Either way, it sounds to me like the parents couldn't do the right thing but that does not make MJ innocent. As for the aquittal - he was aquitted by the residents of a very small town in the middle of a desert whose livelihood depended on MJs continuted presence in the area. Hmmm, not the soundest and most independent of juries in my opinion. The next few weeks are going to be horrific for his family and his children - but I hope that from now on they may get a chance at a more normal life, without his bizzarre influences and choices inflicted upon them. I also have to ask if they are really his. As a young boy he was very definitely black. Yes, his skin has got a lot paler - whatever the cause - over the last 20 years but his children are white. I struggle to see that they're mixed race, but they do look like him. I wonder if the confidentiality agreements with their mothers will stand now that he's dead - and what other details are going to emerge.

I could be here all day listing the things I object to on his programme but others have already done it better than I can: Articles on Cesar / similar training methods: http://www.komonews.com/home/video/37440019.html?video=pop&t=a http://www.4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm http://www.4pawsu.com/cesarfans.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/opinion/31derr.html?_r=2 http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6361.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...CMGPHL9D1N1.DTL http://www.urbandawgs.com/divided_profession.html In short, he's a bully, he uses force and intimidation to scare a dog into do things his way, he routinely uses very strong aversives (the magic shht noise is conditioned to an electric shock collar), his 'dog psychology' is based on outdated, and flawed, theories that have been routinely exposed as such (see the Bristol Uni paper above). Watch the programmes with sound off, so that you're seeing properly how the dog is reacting rather than listening to the words - what he says and what he does are two very different things. Finally, any good trainer doesn't need the words 'Don't Try This At Home' - if a training method is dangerous then it's flawed, surely?

The trouble with that is that when you get a stud dog brought over here, especially a championship winning one, he tends to end up siring 100s if not 1000s of puppies - which means that his genes end up right across the breed. That's what's happened with the Viszla who won best in Group at Crufts at the end of his two years over here - so the gene pool is no wider for the future generations as they're all linked through him, and could be worse off if it is later found that he's carrying an as yet unidentified hereditary condition. Equally, not breeding from dogs with bad hips, for example, futher narrows the gene pool by excluding them which is good as far as hips are concerned, but potentially bad with regards other issues. We don't know yet, but the bad hip gene may also carry a protective marker for a different problem. Just like when Belyaev selected and bred silver foxes for tameness within a few generations he got tame foxes, but they had piebald coats, tipped ears and they barked - tameness brought unknown other features along with it. There are ways to widen the gene pool - Sweden is a good example of how to do it, although not all their breeders are happy about it - but this is all a bit off topic and I'm wittering FWIW - I'm broadly in agreement with Snow, purple mog and Cycas re buying / rescuing.

Doh! Of course - we tend to walk there rather than drive so I forgot that it would have an impact

What's up? Anything I can help with, or is there something I should also be avoiding on the Common? RMF: I have finished two more units for college - two to go now.

Lots of positive thoughts for Fugee, and for all those involved with Dogstar The last few months must have been exhausting, I hope that Fugee's recovery (which I am sure will happen) is the turning point

He is a very clever boy - and my job was made a lot easier as his lead walking has always been superb so I've never had to do anything other than occasionally reinforce it. Riley and I are doing the Gold in August, and hopefully Kevin will do his Silver later in the year.

Just over two months after joining us Kevin excelled himself on Monday night and passed his Good Citizen Bronze Award There was a rather bored Innuit also taking his test, who decided to liven things up by winding up the other dogs but despite that testing of Kevin's patience we still passed. Here he is with his rosette and certificate. As you can see, rosettes are for chewing, apparently He's a real character, although he does have some resource guarding issues which we're working on. Riley was very pleased to see him after his test on Monday night (the first time she'd been left without him at home, although Paddy was with her) and wouldn't go to sleep until he'd played with her.

Sounds like you're having a lovely birthday - I hope this evening is good too and that you're suitably hungover tomorrow morning Happy Birthday!

It looks amazing. Next time we go up to Pwllheli we'll have to make a detour. I especially like the sound of the walks nearby.

I'm voting - it's even more important, I think, to vote this time round because of the way the MEPs are allocated. Proportional representation means you're voting for a party, not a person, and the BNP stand a strong chance of picking up votes because of their appeal to fear / prejudice in this difficult economic times. They've been stirring up the resentment and preying on people's fears in order to get them to the polling booth. They know this is their best chance. Any vote for a party other than the BNP decreases its chances of gaining a seat - and that's far more important to me than anything else. I'm torn as to which way my vote will go but I absolutely will vote, and not for any of the UKIP / BNP types.

Me three. Tesco takes £1 billion pounds a week through it's tills - how can that possibly be a good thing? So much money and power concentrated in the hands of one company. I'll support the smaller shops as much as I can - supermarkets give us less choice, not more.

If clicker training can get a hyena to press itself up against the bars of its cage while it has blood taken then I reckon you can get Farah to wear them and like wearing them

Really, I'm in Paddington and it's dry here

Aside from asking where he was from, no - as I said to Jazz, she was very nice to Kevin It was 7am though and we weren't exactly chatty either. She only talks to pointy dogs though - Riley's never had a look in.

So pleased that you've come to a decision on this. For what it's worth, I know someone who's dog has similar lumps with a similar history and she's doing exactly the same thing.

She was very nice to Kevin

Today's RMF: we took the dogs for a walk very early as they are on their own for 4 hours this morning. At the end of our walk we met Annette Crosbie who admired Kevin enormously (but then she loves anything pointy).