Huski, that's the exact point I'm making. I don't habitually use punishments because I'm not confident with them. I do not think this is a bad thing. Not doing something because you are scared of the repercussions and being confident of what you are doing go hand in hand to me. Damaging a dog's psyche is something I'm scared of doing, although IME, it's very easy to recover from mistakes you make with positive methods and much harder to recover from mistakes you make with

My poor partner is going through major work stress at the moment, and when he comes home it seems to be a cue to Erik that it's time to get very excited and bark at us for the next 2 or 3 hours. It's really bizarre to me, as I come home around 5-6pm and he's very excited, but makes hardly any noise and for the next couple of hours before my partner gets home, he is relaxed and even when he's playing he's relatively quiet. Poor partner is not a happy chappy. He wants to come home

Ignoring him has limited effect. We have been doing that and some days he'll give up, but I think we're setting ourselves up for failure with that one. Inevitably, one of us cracks and goes "Erik, shh!" and he quiets for a moment because all he wanted was for someone to take notice of him. Yesterday's efforts were quite successful. I took him out just before I was expecting my partner home and started playing with the flirt pole, but then it promptly bucketed on us, so he was

Maybe you could try the chill out game, where you get the dogs into a down before Skylar gets over the top, and then spend some time doing calming things, and then let them play again. I've had a similar problem with my two, only it's very much a two way street and they both get too rough together. I found that sometimes you just have to play referree and step in and get them both to lie down and relax for a bit. Sometimes once they are down I let them play from a lying down position, which

Finnish Lapphund! All right, they are herders as well. But pretty spitzy. Kivi is an excellent companion dog. Just ambles along with you, makes himself comfortable on the ground and snoozes when not much is going on, doesn't give us any trouble.

[quote user="Liesje"]You should not be proud of being scared, you should be proud of building a confident relationship with your dog and not letting anyone else get in the way.[/quote] I am! I just acknowledge that fear is an important aspect of my own behaviour and why I choose to build the kinds of relationships I do. I don't think there is anything wrong with a little fear, or healthy respect as it may be. I perhaps think a little too much before I do things with my animals, but

It might be that there is too much social pressure for some dogs in a verbal correction from the handler. Perhaps the e-collar distances them from any sense of handler displeasure?

Drunk? All together possible! I used to get nervous doing field work out there when they were shooting Magpie Geese. I could hear the guns and there I was in tall grass, no idea where the hunters were, but at least glad there were no geese around.

For those that don't know, the Northern Territory is, obviously, in the north of Australia. The NT News is a particularly charming aspect of living in the least populated, most remote, most crocodile and poisonous snake-ridden part of the country. Here's an article that really just epitomises that part of our country, which I am rather fond of. [quote] A PYGMY hippopotamus has been shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Territory. The hippo is normally native to the swamps of west

I'm no longer sure what this topic is about. Is it about E-collars as a positive marker or is it about E-collars in their more traditional use as an aversive? I thought we were just discussing E-collars as a positive marker, and I have said what I think about the potential usefulness of that and how touch may be useful in training as a marker. I would never use one as a punishment because, as espencer suggested, I am afraid of damaging my dog's psyche. I started another thread about that