~Canis-Equus~

Yes please, if you cant do a scan? Em

And me.... fully housetrained dog starts wetting in the house, always shouts 'fear, anxiety, nervous' to me.

whens the album out? so i can have moved to mars..... rofl!

Good point..... I dont think it is necessarily stronger, but i think they are less used to the concept of 'play' than other dogs. Scabbers is a daft old moo but she has even learned that my cat is not fair game - other ones are though... Sspose it just depends on the dog, not all ex racers are completely devoid of the concept of play, not all ex working lurchers are stock adn other animal trained.... Em

Scabbyabby sometimes has to be called off.... partly cos shes not realising yet that shes an OAP and will overdo it... And partly because she will HUNT, although im 99% certain shes well aware its a game and not for real, she takes it further than other dogs enjoy. Shes fine with dogs who politely tell her to eff off cos shes not funny, but dogs who do become worried and curl up in a ball she keeps them there on the floor. Not physically pinned, but mentally..... she wont let them get up, if they do, she chases them down again and keeps them down. To her, its a fantastic laugh and shes EVEN done this to my cat (oh was THAT a heart in mouth moment), fortunately he had the sense to stay down and not move! I think had i allowed her to do this from day one, she probably would have injured someone. I didnt though, and shes learned to PLAY, and now its less of a risk because it is just a game. Shes even played with tiny yorkies, and whilst i do think that in the heat of the moment whilst running they can forget its a game, it only takes a yip or a snarl for them to come back to reality and realise its another dog they are playing with, not a rabbit. This doesnt cover all dogs and certainly not ex racers who havent yet learned to curb the chase-hunt-bring down- kill scenario into 'chase-hunt-play'. I think its slightly LESS of a risk with lurchers as most workers have been brought up to recognise some stock and other dogs from prey (blummin useless worker if it cant be trusted iwth terriers and stock!). Not all will have been, but a great many will and a great many more can be trained to recognise the difference (taht being the whole point of the lurcher!). Wise however, to call a halt to things when they get a bit silly though, definately. Dont forget though, a muzzle wont prevent injury, just biting. Abby can scare the living daylights out of a small wimpy dog wihtout ever opening her mouth, if she DID start to bash at a small dog with a muzzle on, or she tripped a whippet going full speed, she could cause injury quite easily. Em

Shes associated the flash with the camera - dogs can generalise pretty quick and make associates damn fast and this is how a phobia of one thing can lead to a fear of pretty much everything... My dog dilly is like this and it started with rumbley trains... it went like this.... Rumbley train... On a train saw another train approaching when nose pressed against glass (if you do this youll see that the passing train almost appearsto HIT your train and it can feel like it too as your train will rock as the other passes)... Clearly, next time on the train he was TERRIFIED... Thunder - sounds like rumbley trains. Wheely bins sound like thunder. Rain, when thunder happens its usually raining. Hail, can happen in thunderstorms. Fireworks, sound like thunder etc Dark - all the above have happened in the dark Fear of going to toilet in my garden, well that was present already along with a low level fear of the dark, as next doors gsd used to jump on his head and try to kill him whilst he was toiletting.... that dog is long dead but the new associations of fireworks, thunder, etc..... he wont toilet out there! And so from one bad experience, the train, hes now fearful of many things - he IS predisposed to it i think. I also think being neutered young didnt help him much either but the main thing is he was exposed to a very scary thing right in his 8 month fear period. My fault entirely. And yes - hes frightened of cameras that flash and now cameras that dont flash although hes getting a little better wtih that, the time i took him to a photo studio for photos to go with an article about him, he had to be pinned down as everytime the camera started up, he legged it. I think the camera thing is getting better as we have a camera on hand most of the time and photos are taken most days of various things including him although not always him, and we make no big deal of it at all. Curing the other stuff isharder as i cannot predict fireworks, thunder, rain etc. If its JUST cameras now, and fireworks, then you need to work hard to change the associations with these thigns to positive ones before she learns to generalise her fear to things 'like' fireworks and flashy cameras. Em

He could be worse i guess - still at least ive not seen him advise HANGING a dog as Rob Alleyne did last night... oh well - at least Victoria Stilwell usually hands out good or at least unlikely to backfire badly, advice, so it balances out the dangerous stuff Dog Borstal shows Joe Public.....

Mmm V. relevant issue for me right now. Agree with the others who have said, if you have a mega major go about it, she'll just hide it. Taking an E, taking E's from time to time, does not make her a junkie, any more than you having the occasional drink makes you an alcoholic. You need to have a good think about what you want and what you can handle. If this was a friend of mine id be wanting to know why they wanted to take Ecstasy, who they were getting it from and who they were with when they take it. I personally have a couple of strict rules about class A drugs. Dont take it if you dont know what it is. Dont take it if you dont have a trusted friend who is NOT taking anything with you. Dont take anything and keep it secret from those you are with. Your choice now is, get rid, get out, dont get involved at all. Or... Find out why and offer to babysit, at least THEN you know who shes with (YOU), what shes had, when and you can be there to keep her safe. Thats a big thing to handle, but perhaps if you offer this she wont need to take it. Id guess, and its a wild one not knowing the age of the person, that other people she looks up to or wishes to emulate are taking E as well, or that she is not happy and is looking for something to take the edge off reality for a while. One more thing for you to think on.... Cigarettes and alcohol are drugs, drugs every single bit as damaging and dangerous as ecstasy. Abuse them and you risk your life. Im afraid with having a mother who is currently in hospital long term because of the effects of long term alcohol abuse, i class people who take ANYTHING other than fresh air and food as drug users (note 'users' there is a massive difference in my book between 'user' and 'abuser'!). Em

Deeyur Scampi.... I yam soreee to sa that i HAYT YOO AND YOR FIGURR ATE HEDCOLLRS..... I carnt pul, i carnt do handstandz and reemoov it, i carnt go bakwurdz (i carnt spel as wel as yoo eever), i hav too WALK PROPERLEE!!! Dizgruntelled ov Bury (Pteppic) Sorry about him, thanks for the fig 8s and leads, walks are considerably more pleasant now that a certain sprollisation cannot do yoyo x bungee jumper impressions. Em

Have sent OH to order 4 leads and two fig. 8's..... hopefully he wont mess it up! Em

I dont know of any that are padded, i k now dogmatic make several versions of their headcollar in different materials but i dont know how good they are as i havent used one, just have one for adapting (woz KathyMs thus dharma sized, thus doesnt fit my tiny muttlets :lol: ) I am adapting the dogmatic to make it less bulky and softer over the nose though, but still with the same 'does not ride into eyes' thing - hoepfully, however have not started on it yet. You could get whichever one suits the dog best and then have the nosepiece padded? Em

Still waiting for my periods to come back properly after coming off Depo at the start of the year,.... so far, two pathetic attempts spaced a week apart and now nothing again.... and certainly nowt worth buying a moonbucket (rofl) for! Gah, the ONE time i want my period..... Em

Im going to tattoo 'i do not ming' in reverse on your forehead if you dont stoppit jo! Em

I 'avent done anything manky for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages now.... the last thing i did was get a stupidly fat black foot after falling over mates silly Leela-dog and tbh even THAT wouldnt have been half as amusing as a shot of where i ended up would have been..... Which was headfirst in the cat litter tray at the bottom of her stairs, upside down, legs in the air saying some very rude words..... Will bear this in mind when i DO manage to do something manky though! Em

Sorry, i have to agree entirely with what Tracey, Jo and LukaBeama have just said, especially Tracey and Jo's points about positive training not being 'permissive'. If you allow a dog to get into a position where he can do the behaviour you dont want then you have already failed, you have missed the boat in pre-empting and preventing that behaviour. Sorry if that is harsh but thems the facts. Whether you allow the dog to begin to carry out that unwanted behaviour and then go on to use reward based or punishment based methods, you have missed the point at which doing something, anything would be useful or constructive. However i fear you have already decided to do as you please, at least you have decided (i hope) not to use a punishment collar, to be honest citronella collars are only marginally better than shock collars. Em

The thing is, by the time he has barked at them like mad, its too late really to effectively punish, which is the age old problem with punishment. If you are going to punish barking then, disregarding the problems mentioned before, you need to do it the SECOND he opens his mouth to start barking. By the time someonse gone over there, got him, bunged the lead on and taken him back to the car to put him away, he wont remember why its happened. If he looks sad and dejected on the way home its because he doesnt know why he had to sit in the car whilst everyone else got a walk, not because he knows he did the wrong thing. He clearly has a raeson to bark, irrespective of whether you can see that reason or agree its a good one - if there was no reason, he wouldnt bark. If you havent enough breath to whistle him, what about a gundog whistle - especially if you condition him to know that 'whistle = amazing reward'.... the other tack id take is to have him on a long line and ANY time he sees a person wtihout a dog (as that seems to be the problem even if he doesnt bark at them all), recall him and reward him. Eventually the idea there is that 'dog free people = reward from Mum'. That CAN be done - one of my dogs issues is giving other dogs what for, hes never physically hurt one but he likes to zoom up and pin them down and scream in their faces that He Is Boss. This is obviously totally unacceptable, but we have got to the point, after several YEARS, not weeks, of training, that 'other dog in distance = look to mum for game with ball'.... thankfully i found the thing he likes better than being a bully, and i CAN now have him off lead within FEET of the sort of dog hed really like to be horrid to, without him even thinking about it. I dont live in the countryside either, although its more rural than london ill grant you - in fact i find the countryside WORSE as its full of..... duh duh duuuuuuuuuh, SHEEP (which should be banned i think!) - so we still have to contend with other distractions getting in our way. The biggest problem here is free range dogs, usually very opinionated terrier types (and as mines one of them its always a bad situation to be in!). Em

Ditto what Traceymcl has just said. Sorry Kathy but he DOESNT know hes done anything wrong, the punishment you have chosen there is in my opinion even less useful than the spray. It takes too long, its not clear enough. If you MUST use a punishment, and understand the associated risks of him misunderstanding or supressing the symptom rather than curing the need to behave that way, use one that is short sharp and effective. Far better would be that every time you see a man, you 'open the treat bar' just make sure theres lots of yummy treats to hand (taken from his food ration) and get him to associate seeing men with coming back to 'mum' for a treat. If you do use a punishment and even if he ISNT scared (and id suggest he is, but just scared of something YOU cant see or sense), you will teach him that there is a reason to be worried - he barks at these people, he associates them with a bad thing, all the more reason to shout at them and warn them away again! I dont disagree that barking at random people is unacceptable, of course it is, but punishing it, when he is not going to understand adn it runs the risk of making it worse is not acceptable either imo. Em

Means someone has hacked DP's. Shouldnt affect your computer though, ive seen a fair few 'we've hacked your site' pages and they have never affected my pc in the past. If you ever come across soemthing liek that and THEN get a pop up, do be wary, but that alone is only affecting the site involved. Em

Ahhhhh sooooooooo, now you are admitting that vegemite is not smooth.... So... see i think of a non smooth thing as being well, rough, and yanno...... GRITTY... So vegemite IS gritty then. If someone wnts to post me some vegemite they n o longer need, i can test the grittiness myself.... im not BUYING any though! Marmite Rocks. Em

But by YOUR reckoning, poo is smooth and so is vegemite, so the two are the SAME THING..... Gritty poo is probably what you GET from eating vegemite.... Em

I am special because all my friends say so, although sometimes they say it whilst backing away slowly and often tehy say it whilst coming towards me wtih the funny jacket that does up at the back. But thats STILL special right? Em

That song..... Its one fo the best reasons i have haerd NEVER EVER to buy or eat vegemite!!!! *runs* Also it appears vegemite is NOT firefox compatible.... yet another great reason to NEVER EAT IT

Marmite is that thing you yearn for on a cold day after a chilly walk with the dogs, on hot buttery toast, with a HUGE mug of hot hot tea. Vegemite is that thing you leave at the back of the cupboard, having tried it once and gone omg, wtf..... CUT OUT MY TONGUE NOW, GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD THIS STUFF IS EVIL...... Its kindal ike the difference between /(one would imagine), a large bar of chocolate.... And a large lump of POO. Look similar - taste somewhat different. Em