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Shanty bit Scarlet yesterday.
The fault was all Scarlet's, I noticed too late that the mini golf club she was swinging would make direct contact with Shanty's head...and it struck her full-on in the eye.
She yelped and struck out and Scarlet got a nip to the arm.

no skin broken, no blood, nothing.

But I kindof over-reacted and banished Shanty outside with a slap on the rump so I'm not feeling too good about doing that
But it was just a reaction for my fear over my child being hurt,and half an hour later, Shanty was back lying at my feet watching Bridgit Jones' Diary.

She's just lucky that Meaty was out on a walk and didn't see her do it. One dead Dane, for sure.

If you REALLY want weather so hot it melts your mother-in-law's fake nails.......su re.

Shanty spent most of the day on her padded couch under the airconditionin g unit in the loungeroom, stretched out like a dead giraffe.

Even in the shade, the water in the bucket turned warm in minutes.
It was a rotten, rotten day.

Remember that rescue Dane I had problems with, with going to the toilet inside? Yeah, we're okay with that now.

Well, there's a new problem that I need a bit of experienced help with.

Her previous 'owner' {I use the term loosely because he was an abusive ****} said that she walks just fine on a lead, but she hasn't been walked in "like, forever".
Understatement .

I clipped a leach on her in the backyard and walked her around, just to see if she pulls on the lead, or hates walks, or whatever.
She heeled the entire way {without being asked}, sat when I stopped, and was an angel; the best dog I've ever walked.

Excellent, I think, we can now venture onto the street.

The instant, and I mean, the very SECOND we were out of sight of the house, she lunged forward, dragging me a good 10 metres, and when I'd recovered my balance, I planted my feet and tried to stop the pulling.
She strains forward as if she's trying desperatly to choke herself, pushing all her weight forward.
I did what I did to train my last rescue dog, and stopped completely, ordered her back to me, and to sit.

I didn't plan on moving until she did that, as she did it perfectly in the yard.

She looked back over her shoulder at me, then saw another dog across the road. She jumped forward, and scrabbled at the road, panting and barking, and trying to drag me along.
Snarling and barking and howling, trying to get at this other dog.

She will not listen to a word you say outside the house.
I spent four hours yesterday doing this:

Inside the house: "sit"
Responded with an instant sit.

Step outside the front door: "Sit"
Totally ignored me, wandered in a small circle, lay on her back, etc.

I can firmly say "Sit" until my face turns blue, push her butt down until my bones creak and refuse to move until the world comes to an end.
But it makes no difference...s he does not listen to me anymore than she would listen to the wind in the trees.

I'm stumped.

I've tried every trick in the book.
"No-pull" gentle leads, even.

so, senior dog owners, any advice?

She's going into Adult Obedience classes in three weeks.

Should I just keep her in the backyard until then?

I'm confused, she's telling you she wants to go out to go potty and you want her to pee inside on papers? Only during the night, when it's too cold out and there's no shelter in the backyard for her to go into.

Where do you have her sleep that you can't hear her? She has a bed in the room with me but she prefers to sleep on the kitchen tiles next to the backyard door. She doesn't 'bark' as in loudly "woof" she whines quietly like "woooooo". If I'm asleep, it's very difficult to hear her.

Is she not in the house with you?
In your room? ^^^^

Also, you plan on keeping her outside? Once the kennel is delivered.

Yes, that's the colour!

Thanks guys.

Big slobbery kisses from MeatLoaf as well....we're getting a Great Dane/Wolfhound cross to be his mate and he's that colour.

I was trying to explain to a friend who lives in Sweden what colour he was!

MeatLoaf has taught me not to buy my daughter any toy that looks like a snake.
He hates snakes and anything that resembles a snake {including those funny things you use to block the bottom of doors} will be tossed around and torn to ribbons.

When I got MeatLoaf from the rescue centre {he's a Saint Bernard X Old English Mastiff}, he wasn't trained at all, except for 'sit'.

Because I had a young daughter at the time, I spent lots of money and time with a private large-breed dog trainer and heaps of personal one-on-one training time, to make it safe for them both.

MeatLoaf knows both verbal and non-verbal commands. Non-verbal being the same as his verbal commands, but in Auslan, which is the Australian version of sign language.
We have a few friends, as well as my step-brother, who are at various levels of being either deaf or mute, and this makes it easier for them to give him commands if I'm unavaliable.
Also, if I can't speak {like being restrained by an attacker} I can still command him using hand signals.


A few of the things I've personally taught him are:

When I go to the door to open it, he gets to my right in a way that allows him to see a hand-signal and to get through the doorway easily {like if I was being attacked}.

He won't eat anything thrown on the ground, or drink water from a stream or pond. I grew up in the bush, where dingo bait was poisoned meat left on the ground, and our dogs were taught only to eat things that they found in their personal bowls. If we go out walking in an off-leash area, I know he cannot be poisoned by eating or drinking bait.

He was worked with by my trainer and my daughter, so that he knows that she's an important member of the family, and she can give him commands too. This, of course, meant she'd constantly fire "sit,roll over, fetch, beg, drop it!" all at once, and he'd go crazy trying to do it all.

He is also a child safety officer. Well, not really, but that's what I call him! One step towards a road and he blocks the way with his body, same goes with the kitchen, pool and bathroom.
Difficult at first, when I tried to give her a bath and he'd constantly leap in front of us and block our way. Being too tall to step over, and too heavy to knee-nudge out the way.

He can fetch balls and frisbees, too.


So, what commands does your Paw know, and how did you teach them?
I'm looking for what ideas others have, and maybe some more things I can teach him.


By the way, is he too old to teach new commands to?

That's exactly what I thought guys. He's been trained not to eat anything that isn't in a bowl {I grew up on a farm and chunks of meat lying on the ground were usually poisoned dingo bait, so all our working dogs were taught not to eat any meat that they found on the ground}

So if they did poison a chunk of meat and throw it over the fence, unless it fell into his bowl, he won't touch it.
They couldn't get over our fence without going into a neighbour's yard then using a ladder, because we have a *always locked* garage roller door as the front entrance to the backyard.

My daughter has an appointment with a counseller next week, and hopefully that will go well. I'll keep you guys posted!