Natpants

Thanks FF! I've er only just got in, been gossiping with Kaz all afternoon then went to B&Q to buy glue (my dad said the same - scrape what I can, sand the edges and then seal with glue/water mix) then Sainsbury's and McDonald's so I've done bugger all yet! Been get cracking. Will post before and after pics if I ever get it finished! Thanks for the replies And thanks my lovely Kaz, was ace to meet you and sorry I stayed for hours

Oh God I couldn't possibly let you see the state of the house or me! Purdie has gutted Eeyore the stuffed toy everywhere and I am totally covered in paint! I'll come to you when I'm clean if you don't mind me borrowing it? thank you so much, will be lovely to meet you at last too

*bites Kaz's hand off* Yes please! Seriously, that would be great. I'm not sure the plaster was sealed properly before painting, so I'm not sure if I won't need to seal it again? Although I am using white emulsion as a base coat and the plaster would be long dry wouldn't it? How very dare my father be at work? He used to have a painting & decorating business on the side and his main job was paint technology for Dulux, and was taught by the mastercraftsman, sadly he's not much use to me 90 miles away and not contactable! It's times like this I miss having a boyfriend Though some friends have offered to help me. Kaz how long would it take to sand with your fancy-pants sander do you think? The room is fairly large I'm not sure the paper would stick! And I'm even less confident about tackling papering without someone who knows what they're doing to help

I (probably somewhat naively) have always painted over painted walls, which is what I did this time in my bedroom. It looks like it's paint straight on plaster, so I sugar soaped, and sanded round the bits that had exposed plaster, and all seemed fine, but when rollering on the first base coat of white emulsion, the paint is peeling off in small strips, at first I thought it was lining paper but I think it's just old paint. Where do I go from here? Do I have to sand every bit of this huge room or can I scrape with a scraper? Then should I seal the walls with glue and water or can I paint straight on top of them? I've got 3 days to do it all in, I have people staying on and off now until Christmas and no spare room and am having a party soon etc, and no more holiday time to take, so I was hoping to get this finished by the weekend. At least the ceiling is done! I've never had this before, any expert advice would be gratefully received! Thanks Paint-splattered-Pants!

I've a stop-pull harness, halti, figure of eight (I think) and a trail style harness you are welcome to try )I'll need the stop-pull back in a couple of weeks but the rest can wait) if you like?

Rusty is hoooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmme! Some kids down her owner's road had got hold of her and held onto her for 2 weeks! What were the parents thinking? A Neighbour saw them out with her and challenged them, got a load of abuse and I don't know the rest of the details but suffice to say she is home and fine and her family are very very pleased

There's been a possible sighting on Primrose Hill/Hawkesley. We desperately need to get more posters out if anyone could help?

Rusty apparently was hit by a car and ran off, bledding from the mouth and could not be caught, this was on the day she went missing. She is thought to have run in the direction of Cotteridge. There is a poster on the doglost site, please could anyone living locally print some off and distribute them/put them up wherever possible, shopkeepers are apparently taking down Tracey's posters (I haven't seen a single one despite living on the road behind her).

Nope, escaped from a garden, (like the other one)

Lost staffy bitch, last seen at Kings Norton Green on 11th November at 5.30 p.m. Red with white paws and white chest marking, aged 7 and not spayed, she is microchipped but wasn't wearing a collar. She is very friendly and loves people. Please PM me or call Tracey on 07813 929307 if you have any information.

Hello. Thanks for the replies. Very quickly before I go to work. Yes I am nervous about taking Purdie out, purely because we've worked so hard and she's come so far and I don't want to undo the progress. She's come on amazingly but would any of us trust a dog that is aggressive 100%? That would be foolish. She is not stressed, let me make that PERFECTLY clear. She doesn't bark, chew, pant, or any of the other things that would suggest she is stressed, she is more bored than usual and therefore more attention-seeking, so I have taken measures to try to understand that and work on it. Grounding her has calmed her and the workshops have meant that I have a dog who can be off-lead with aggressive dogs. Neo in the workshops winds her up and she pretty much ignores it - we are talking about 2 problem dogs who once upon a time would have been fighting. This is the only thing that has ever worked and I have spent a great deal of time and money sorting her out. So I do not want to undo that. The sort of perfect home for Purdie would be very very rare, as we are not just talking about the lead work and dog aggression, yes she is wonderful with people, there are some reasons why I love her afterall, but she is enormously hard work around the house too. Who else has 2.5/3 years experience understanding her? She is very complicated. Fortunately for Purdie that is a moot point. She is NOT being rehomed and I do not doubt the decisions I have made with regard to Ange's workshops. I could simply have continued walking her but that did not solve the problem. Many behaviourists believe that a dog who dislikes other dogs is unhappy and stressed, so simply not allowing them to come into contact with other dogs doesn't change anything - you still have a dog who hates other dogs and is still unhappy. Easy for you but not for the dog. I wanted to change that for Purdie. I know now I can allow Purdie to run around with other dogs under controlled circumstances (i.e. muzzled) and that is a massive leap forward. She will NEVER be perfect! She is however much calmer in general and immensely improved with other dogs. Sadly my life isn't perfect, for that I make no apologies. Who can say theirs is or guarantee their circumstances won't change? Actually this thread HAS done wonders for my confidence! It's made me realise just how proud I am of my progress with Purdie and how I really don't give a monkey's if people think what I've done so far is right or not. Purdie is a calmer, happy, constantly wagging girl and I'm really proud of the changes I've brought about in her. I've got buckley's chance of everyone agreeing with everything I do so I will continue to question and take on board others' comments, especially of those behaviourists and experienced trainers, and make a judgement based accordingly. I am an intelligent and well-informed owner and will continue to do the right thing, as I see it. Happily this is not the "should I rehome Purdie" thread but the "how can I CONTINUE to IMPROVE Purdie's life" thread. Thanks everyone for all your replies

Hi Wend. No, I don't think Purdie was the right home for me, even though my circumstances were different then. I had no experience of dogs although I had tried to do my homework, I clearly was very inexperienced. However, selfishly - I could not part from her, and she and I are very bonded. She has always been very much my dog, despite living with one person for a year as well as me, and with my current housemate for 18 months, she is very much my dog. She adores me, and I her. She's my world, and much as Purdie loves everyone, I am hers. Rescues talk about "forever homes" a lot. I am not giving up and never will. That was 2.5/3 years ago and I have learned a lot about Purdie and dogs in general. Unselfishly - how many people do you think would be willing to take Purdie on, even as far improved as she is now? Angela Stockdale has rehomed 300 odd dogs and rehabiliated God knows how many more, and has described her as being one of the worst she's ever met. She even swore when she met her and G says she had never heard her do that with another client. I have asked her opinion and she doesn't think I should or even could rehome her. She says that she is lucky to have met me, that she could well have ended up dead by now, that she is gobsmacked that I was walking her at all as she is so difficult to control. She pulls into every harness we have tried, and manages to escape from TTouch balancing lines (all of them! ) for example. So walking her on a harness isn't fun, but we do do it. We've worked hard on her "stop" and "this way" commands for this reason. Exercising her more makes her more fit, and able to take more exercise but it doesn't make her any less energetic. She can run for 5 hours but it doesn't mean she is tired mentally. Purdie is calmer now than she ever was. Yes it's clear that lately she is bored, so I am making efforts to make amends for that. I said before I was changing career so that I could spend more time with my dog. I posted on DP a couple of years ago asking about what sort of jobs would be good for having a dog from the point of view of being able to work from home. One took my interest and that's what I've been doing since. It's a shame that I was made redundant but I don't have control over that. If I rehomed Purdie the next home may also encounter unforeseen problems - couples break up, people get ill or pass away, people lose their homes. Life isn't predictable or perfect but I am doing the best I can. No my situation isn't ideal. Yes I will continue to manage it. Meant to add about the treats/walking idea. We did that for a long time before seeing Angela. I could still do that. I taught her a great "watch me" command. But even if she focuses on me, she still has a problem with other dogs, distracting her doesn't change that, and a lot of behaviourists would argue actually makes it worse. I wanted my dog to have as great a life as possible. She will never be perfect and I accept that, but I wanted her to be able to run around and play with other dogs, at least some of the time. I've spent a great deal of time and money trying to enable that to happen.

Thanks That certainly used to be true, although my health doesn't factor into it as I've lived with the pronblem for 6 or 7 years, so I manage it, but I do try not to overdo it as it makes me worse. Purdie certainly rang rings around me when I first had her - she was entirely unsuitable for a first dog - I'd never even had a family dog before. Although obviously I wouldn't swap her for the world and she's taught me a lot, and I'm proud of how far we've come Things are very different now, I am very used to coping with her and am relaxed now, apart from the idea of off-lead walks and the threatening encounters we used to have I admit makes me nervous about doing it again. She is currently left at home, I am fortunate to have a housemate who is around a lot, finishes work early and only works term-time only, and to have a couple of friends who help out too. When I first rehomed Purdie I lived with a mature student and I worked near home so could come home at lunchtime, unfortunately my circumstances have changed so I'm having to manage with a less than ideal situation. I do try hard to ensure Purdie is stimulated and she always sleeps during the day whether we are here or not, but of course that means that when we are around she requires a lot of attention. Of course I have other commitments but I wanted to retrain to a career that would suit having a dog which is why I intend to be self-employed when I can and work from home. As for the toys, I would love help on this, thanks! Purdie doesn't have free access to toys, she has a couple she likes to "gum" on that I leave lying around as well as nylabones, the rest are in a toybox and I control that. She also has a special toy, that has a name. We get her excited by saying its name (where's tuggy?) and we play with it. I drag it along the ground and we play tug with it and I decide when it goes back in the box. Its original use was to teach a running/chase recall (it hasn[t quite worked like that). The problem with any toy is that she gets bored very very quickly, I'm not sure how to make it any more exciting? Purdie's attention span is very limited and I think this is one of the main problems, making me interesting enough, I've done the hiding behind trees type things til I'm blue in the face but she loses focus very quickly. Often I think she doesn't intend to lose sight of me but forgets to focus on where I am when she finds something interesting (like a chip hidden in long grass, for example). Jo I would love your advice sheet, thanks (it's on my msn messenger addy!!) I dislike fabric muzzles as they don't allow her to pant and only use a basket one. I have tried a fabric one before and needless to say, she hated it. She also hated the Ttouch calming bands on her nose and also some bizarre calming thing that looked like a gimp mask, she just hates anything on her face. Lynne and I worked on this in Ttouch but I'm sorry to say Ttouch really doesn't seem to do an awful lot for Purdie and we did persist for maybe 9 or 10 months. Thanks for your help everyone.

She doesn't... that's the point of the post, it's about the fact that Purdie isn't walked, and when she should be going out for walks again... hence the title... When she was walked, I would feed her some kibble as training, and towards the end she would get her food portion as rewards for watch me commands, with special treats for recall.

I can't stick to the twice monthly workshops, I don't have a spare £100 a month having had a lot of financial problems and a car that had an undiagnosed problem that the garage can't find but has me losing power on the motorway (I suspect it only occurs during long journeys) and Purdie would stress like mad being towed in my car if I broke down with me in the breakdown van for 2.5 hours from Somerset. It's not possible for me to go to regular workshops so it's making the best of a bad job, whether I should wait, or start walking her again. Purdie travels badly and my health is poor too, and I have found myself having prior engagementsby the time I find out about the workshops too. What people think to the off-lead theory, I don't know really. I just posted because for the first time in a year I felt I was floundering and the behaviourist isn't able to answer my questions as she's not here. Whether I would do more harm than good allowing P out now, whether I shoudl persist with more workshops, albeit sporadically. The routine, well, she has a routine of wees/poos/feed/morning chew followed by kong when I leave, evening meal at a set time too with training and games ad hoc, I rely on help from my housemate to help me with Purdie and we are both trying to change career with studying so it's not very structured :dunno: Structure seems to make no difference to Purdie other for her to wake up an hour earlier and cry and sing or and cry and "sing" for her supper when she knows something is due to happen (specifically, dinner).

I think a point that was raised before too on DP is that I used to get very stressed, whereas Andrea has the right attitude and is very positive and relaxed, I am more nervy. I am an awful lot more relaxed than I used to be, but I admit, worrying about the abuse (one bloke threatened me and said he'd follow me home for example) from the people is as much a part of the worries as the dogs - if not more so! What I don't want to do is take a decision I'm not comfortable with, and be miserable, as I was before. Therefore I am worried about allowing Purdie off-lead. We looked into tennis courts and equestrian places before to try to find somewhere to allow her off-lead. The good news is that Andrea and I can now allow our aggressive dogs to go off exploring together if we find such a place! And this is all assuming Ange thinks it's okay to let her be walked with a lead. It does definitely change the dynamic of the dog to dog relationship and I don't want Purdie to suffer a setback due to my impatience... Purdie looks at me, says "bored now" or "where's the food" to that Ball games, well, they're fun as long as she's allowed to EAT the ball she takes it and chews it or leaves it. She has the attention span of a goldfish. Although that might be being unfair to the goldfish. She's what Freud might call, orally fixated, is my dog Any tips on making her more toy orientated would be excellent if you have some? That's kind of what I meant about the food fiaxation, I feel like it's making it worse, and I'm not sure it's healthy to encourage it...

Sure, sorry, I thought most people here would know my tales of woe from old inside out Most of Ange's "patients" are grounded until they learn proper behaviour, as is Purdie. She doesn't have any physical exercise, other than ball games at home, and that which she gets at Angela's. Stimulation is mental, games, kongs, chews, training tricks, that kind of thing. The theory is that naturally dogs wouldn't exercise unless to move away from the pack to seek food, they sleep most of the time and stay around one place, so it's really humans that dictate that dogs need walks, and we accustomise them to the routine. Purdie adapted just fine in fact, to my surprise, and calmed right down. It's in looking back at old threads on DP I can be so proud of how far we've come. But lately she's bored. I don;t do as much as I should but training with food makes her even more foody and highly-strung. She's not allowed any contact with other dogs unless in controlled situations (Ange's workshops) as she has to encounter the right dogs. Dogs which she is allowed to freely bully got her to where she is now - to my knowledge, during the time I had her only one dog (an Akita, a bitch) ever had the better of Purdie. Although she is slight of frame and looks dainty she is impressively strong physically but moreover, mentally. She is capable of killing a small dog and seriously harming a large one without too much trouble (God I feel terrible now Wendy, knowing what I do now and how mean she was to your dogs at my house that day ) She is doing very well, but I don't trust her 100% and never will, having seen her in action properly, luckily I'd stopped allowing her off-lead before she was given the chance to show her true colours - people called me paranoid but I am glad I was! She will always be muzzled in public, even just to and from the car. In Birmingham, certainly where I live, it is never quiet. My friend and I took her out in the middle of the night not long ago and we still met people. Noisy teens, people snogging, dog-walkers, we met them all. I have to drive a long way to find somewhere secluded sadly.

Yup. Purdie is a bad case, I think everyone will vouch for that who's seen her at her best... LukaBeama can tell you about how she took on 3 dogs at once (including one of hers!) and simply refused to give up - now that was scary, how I didn't cry I don't know!

I am sorry I was being defensive and I shouldn't have been If you do a search on my (and indeed Bebe's and many others) threads on DP's t&b perhaps you'll see why as it always degenerates into an argument. It is controversial - and I was very sceptical. There's a lot of info on DP which you would probably be interested in reading. It's the only thing in 3 years of you-name-it-I've-done-it that's worked, even slightly. I trust Ange completely, I don't always agree with her but she factors that in too. But above all, it's clear she loves dogs, even Purdie who she calls (affectionately I think ) "Cowbag" It amazes me how stressed and unhappy I was when I read back over th e years - I am so relaxed now! And so is/was Purdie. But lately Purdie seems unhappy, well, more bored than unhappy. And the fact that my money/time situation isn't good means I can't invest in the process properly, so it's a bit of a second-best scenario now. It's not doing what it's mean to do. I suspect that Ange just hasn't realised I'm still not taking her out. My main problem will be the off-lead work which I just don't think I can morally justify. If my dog sods off into the hills as she's done before or yunder the wheels of a car that's my problem but if she causes another dog issues - well it's not just me and P I have to think about then.

We looked into that before actually, couldn't find anywhere but worth looking again. Need to check my lottery ticket as Andrea and I are going to buy that paddock if we can find £8K! (as if, I can't find £20 to go to a workshop )

Sorry, it's just that from experience, every one of these threads ends up in a debate over AS and the original point gets lost - perhaps I'm being unfairly premtptive, apologies if I am

Hey, I'm doing my best Please can we not have another bun fight about Angela Stockdale? I just want some opinions on the current situation. Ta

Only if you say "please"

Yes, I think maybe Ange has forgotten as she has a problem with her memory, which may be why she asks me every time if Purdie's out or not. She has been saying that as long as P is ok, to leave it, but I'm starting to feel she's not. I've emailed them both and tried to ring G, will try Ange tomorrow I think.

Car is broke Andrea Still got the transmission problem... so I can't go on a motorway til that's fixed... Yes chat more tomorrow? Did you go shopping today? Perhaps I should PM you... Edit - I think I have her mob number actually! D'oh! Why didn't I think of that?