Pets
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I've been chatting with a sighthound breeder about the Azawakh and Sloughi, and she recommends not neutering them before 12 to 18 months. Her concerns were about ligament damage, much as the PDF said, especially as her dogs often run in coursing competitions. But I think that it's a fairly generic recommendation for larger breeds.
Then again, a breeder of the Xoloitzcuintli in Western Australia often has her puppies neutered at ten or twelve weeks, before they travel to their new homes.
(Yeah, I like all the weird, obscure, and rare breeds!)
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Aren’t all pets pamperedSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Great shot. Ian.
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When it’s too hot for playing fetch, I like to tire him out by getting him to use his brain. And with so much of a dog’s brain being dedicated to scent, there’s no better way to do that than by getting them to find things with their noses.
Here he’s locating a penny that I throw into the garden. When he locates it he goes into a down. I wind him up by asking him to ‘show me’ where it is again to reinforce the association with the penny even more. I also deliver the food to the penny, rather than his mouth, so that he thinks it’s a little miniature dinner plate and turbo charges his desire to find it.
He’s getting too good at this. So next step is figuring out how to train him to distinguish different scents and find specific items when multiple objects are hidden.
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Now the weather’s cooler, it’s back to games of fetch!
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This old man won’t fetch. All about belly rubs. -
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Gonna continue the kitties theme
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Aww super cute pup^
I’ve posted my dobies before but I just love this picture -
That penny trick is amazing! This is a smart doggie.
We're getting our golden pup next week. We're very excited…
It was quite easy to train him to find the penny if you want to have a go once your golden is a bit older:
1. Hold the penny up to dog, say 'yes' and reward for any interaction with penny.
2. Once dog has figured out that something is going on, refine the behaviour by insisting on tapping the penny with its nose to get the treat;
3. Check that the dog understands that the reward is for the penny, and not whichever hand you have been holding it in, by swapping the hand that holds the penny randomly. When the dog interacts with the penny, not the empty hand, reward the dog.
4. Start to put the penny on the floor near you and in an obvious place (e.g. on a plain carpet or tile floor). Reward for 'finding' the penny with its nose. Move the penny around for each go.
5. Once the dog has this, introduce a behaviour you want the dog to do after finding the penny. So if you wanted a Down like I do, then once the dog 'finds' the penny command the Down, and only reward once the dog is in the Down. After a few repetitions the dog will learn that finding the penny predicts that you will command a Down, and start to offer a Down without you needing to command it. Keep repping until the dog goes into the Down (or whatever behaviour) reliably and without having to be asked.
6. Now start incrementally extending the length of time the dog performs the "i have found it" behaviour before delivering the reward. You want the dog to understand that it might have to wait for you to catch up to it before it gets rewarded. You may also want to add distractions at this stage to make the behaviour bomb-proof.
7. Start rewarding by placing food on top of the penny, using it like a tiny dinner plate. The dog will start to love those tiny copper disks.
8. Now you are off to the races. Start 'hiding' the penny further and further away from the dog, until you get to the point where you are genuinely hiding it out of its sight and the dog understands that it has to sniff the penny out. Sometimes accompany the dog and find the penny together, for example on-lead in the park, or off lead and making the dog have to find it without your close-company and then you catch up once it's in the Down.It's a good game for dogs that like to sniff when walking because over time they will learn that the most rewarding smells to fixate on are not those that are around normally, but the ones that you place there. My dog started to pay less attention to the pavement and verges and more attention to me after he got good at this game.
If your dog is large enough and or stupid enough to swallow a penny, maybe consider using a different object? It just so happens that copper coins are quite smelly.
The new pup looks gorgeous by the way. Good luck with her training, and that awful mouthy period where they chew everything!
