Recent content by lastkid

A lot of the companies that produce the drug/combo of drugs that were used successfully for years (and are still used on animals) are based in Europe, and they won't sell it for executions anymore. Hence all of these recent executions with drug combinations that are in theory supposed to work...

Is it weird that I'm so used to lurking I'm having trouble de-lurking even just for one post? Same here! I love this place: the information, the photography, the debates... ;) Most interesting and least crazy dog forum I've ever read. I've learned a ton since I first registered back in the...

There is NAMASCA (North American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of America) which functions as a registry, and does have a Nationals, but they want the Mini Aussie to be considered a size variety of the Aussie, which neither ASCA or USASA (the AKC side of the breed) want, as far as I know...

Mini Aussies are NOT "just smaller versions"--they are a separate breed with a separate breed standard. Australian Shepherds may have been used in the creation of the Mini or the North American or the Royal Basque Shepherd or whatever the current name is, and bad breeders may still breed...

(delurking...) I had a similar need and a similarly clingy dog. I trained a nice quiet tie just like I would a "stay" only she was attached to something and she could sit, stand, lay down, whatever (as long as she wasn't pulling at or chewing the leash or barking/whining). She's still...

Apparently, back in the 70s, they wanted to have Aussies that would be better house dogs and easier to travel to shows with... according to one story (which should be a bit of a tip-off - there are a couple different versions of how minis came about). Which never made sense to me - Aussies...

Preterite refers to a specific event, like, say, "I ate fish this past weekend." Comi pescado el fin de semana pasado. (with an accent on the 'i' in "comi".) Imperfect refers to things in the past that you did more than once or something you usually did, etc. "When I was a kid, I ate fish on...

San Francisco - $2.65, and we're all cheering that it's that low. :p This week, I've seen it as high as $2.98 for regular in some stations, but on average, it's about $2.65 - $2.70 a gallon for regular. I'm just happy it FINALLY dropped below $3.00/gal.

This is about the only thing that set off the warning bells - a mandatory training collar? A collar that they have no pics or description of, at that. I'd guess by their description of their methods that it's not a prong, e-collar or a choke chain, but... what is it? And why would they...

After my last dog died, I didn't want to be dogless - I hated not hearing tags jingling, and not having that physical dog presence in my house. So I spent a lot of time looking for somebody new, preferably a puppy, since I hadn't had one before and was in a good place time-wise to have one. I...

Yep - I used to volunteer for a hearing dog program that let the SPCA's summer campers work with the dogs - take them for walks, that kind of thing. The summer camp dogs would end up with lines across the bridge of their nose from the Gentle Leader. The volunteers all joked about being able to...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/08/MNGGTKD03E1.DTL Here's the original article from the SF Chronicle. The dogs were NOT human aggressive, nothing ever suggested potential human aggression, and the poor kid was sexually abused because of CPS and ACC's over-reaction...

By 'balanced' I meant, not Koehler but also not relying entirely on positive. Balanced to me is like, 99.9% positive, and 0.1% corrections for proofing purposes only. Which isn't really (literally) balanced at all, lol. I really believe that positive reinforcement is the best way to train...

Never on a four-month-old puppy. Reason being, the puppy's still a baby. They haven't learned anything that needs to be proofed yet. There's really no need to be tugging on a puppy's leash... they're so malleable at that age that it's easier (to me) to encourage the behavior I want instead of...

Make the GL into a feed bag. Every time you put it on or take it off, feed through the nose loop. It'll help the dog associate it with good things, not with "that awful annoying thing that goes around my nose." The more he wears it with positive results, the better he'll be at the beginning...