Any dog experts/dog whisperers on here?

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by Professor

PS. The furniture in the photo is actually Terry's, so there's no
crime in him sitting there. When we bought him (as a puppy) we gave
him a 3 piece suite (garden furniture). OK, we didn't buy the 3 piece
suite specifically for Terry: it was already in the conservatory and
we told him to sleep on this 3 piece suite, which he did.

PPS. As to the other 3 piece suite, the one allocated to humans
(myself, Mrs Professor and Miss Professor), Terry would get onto it
only when Mrs Professor was away: he would jump onto Mrs Professor's
sofa, thus indicating that he is now in charge (as Mrs Professor's
deputy).

PPPS. I believe that I am sufficiently strong as a person. When I
was Head of Department my Dean and my Provost always cracked jokes
at meetings, comparing me with Joseph Stalin. Still, I could not
control Terry.

I wasn't trying to comment on you or Terry...I was using the picture as an example, that's all.

Any dog that growls, snarls, protects, bites etc should not be allowed to sit or lie down anywhere but on the floor IMO and that is shared with every professional I have ever spoken to. But I am no professional and I don't know you or your dog. There's always an exception to every rule.

[Fallout]

Terry sounds like a head case! I would suspect the only way to get control of him is the way that Caesar chap did on tele. He wouldn't have slapped him, but instead pinned him down. Dogs can take masses of physical abuse. For example, my parents' dalmatian was kicked in the head by a horse, over a fence and now has a permanent hole in his skull, but that didn't put him down! He got up and walked to the vet (sheepishly!) So slapping, smacking is useless. It only has an affect on a dog that is already a subordinate, and that's called animal abuse.

I think the idea of pinning them down, is it completely remove their control/power 100%. Ya know how vulnerable you feel pinned down? Its much worse than taking a punch, because you can still do something, but pinned down, you're 100% helpless, and the animal will have to eventually submit when it realises it has been bested ... even if it takes several attempts.

But I'm not suggesting you do that, cos I'm pretty sure faced with a snarling dog, I wouldn't have the bottle to do that either. Plus like giggles said, we're not experts or trained to understand dog behaviour. All I'm saying is, having seen that programme, I think physical dominance comes from tying up the dog and withdrawing its freedom of movement, giving it that sense of total submission. Hitting them is like someone flicking you on the ear. It's just gonna get on your tits!

We believe that Terry is simply mentally retarded (by dog standards)
and we cannot do much about that. Especially at his current advanced
age.

Originally Posted by Professor

Terry pulled that face because we were telling him to go to the
garden to have a pee

Terry loved that woman

PS. The furniture in the photo is actually Terry's, so there's no
crime in him sitting there

he would jump onto Mrs Professor's
sofa, thus indicating that he is now in charge (as Mrs Professor's
deputy)

And we tried slapping Terry for while, with no effect whatsoever.

Sorry, there are rare cases of untrainable dogs, but you can't put this dog into that category. You can't ask an Maths teacher to teach French, and then blame the kid if he doesn't do well in his French exam.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Sorry, there are rare cases of untrainable dogs, but you can't put this dog into that category. You can't ask an Maths teacher to teach French, and then blame the kid if he doesn't do well in his French exam.

Great way to put it

Think any training needs to be done by your Mum. Maybe you could get her a good book "Culture Clash" or similar.

Originally Posted by Professor

The good news is that they normally calm down with age. Terry is now
14 and the only person he really goes for is the postman. Grabbed
the postman's pants this December when my wife was giving him (the
postman) his Xmas present. Fortunately, our postman has excellent
reflexes so no blood was spilled on that occasion.

Begs the question.....

Just what was your wife *giving* the postman for a present

Originally Posted by Teejayexc

Begs the question.....

Just what was your wife *giving* the postman for a present

I presume the present was pretty innocent. Box of chocolates, I guess.

But one can never be sure. Maybe Terry was doing the right thing, going on the attack.

Regarding terry, I do think there are dogs that you can't train. Our hamish is one of them, we have tried behavioural therapy, diet, exercise - he's mad. He's not allowed on furniture but goes for you if you try and get him off, has ripped through husbands shirt twice when he tried to discipline him. He was nine months old when we got him and he'd been locked in a room since birth, with no training or interaction so that explains it for me, but we just work round it. He's shut away if young kids are ever here, and supervised with older ones. He can also be the sweetest dog ever, but he's a trial indeed, but we adopted him for life and put up with it.

It is a relief to learn that Terry is not the only "special" one.