u/queenhev

Question for the pack today because this is something I have witnessed with not only my own WSS but also our breeders. Went out to the dog show on Saturday, brilliant day, both Tofu and Bao (our corgi) handled everything fabulously. Visited a cafe afterwards, went out of sight to go to the bathroom and Tofu SCREAMED the cafe down. Luckily, we were the only customers and it was our breeders daughters cafe. My partner, the breeder, the other 2 swissies and our other dog were all there but she was not happy I had left her proximity and she couldn't see me. She has also done this with me when my partner and our other dog have walked out of sight to a poo bin... Our breeders dogs also do similar behaviour when one of their 'pack' leaves their sight.

Please consider..

1. Tofu can be left at home alone (without our other dog) and settles and sleeps, no signs of SA at all

2. Tofu can also be left at home alone with our other dog and she settles and sleeps, no signs of SA at all

3. She does follow me everywhere, but I don't mind that because of the 2 above points

4. I do mostly take her everywhere with me because she's my dog and I like sharing my life with her

So I guess the question is, is this normal behaviour? I personally don't want her making a racket when I leave to buy a coffee or visit the bathroom. So we have planned to do more work outdoors on going out of sight for 1/2s and building it up and rewarding.

I would hate to be causing distress to her, and then to my partner and our other dog when she starts this behaviour so just looking for methods to address and make sure she is the happiest girl and confident in me too!

Thanks all x

I have the most gorgeous Swiss Shepherd puppy. She is 8 months nearly 9 months and has been an absolutely amazing dog to raise. Shes has incredible lead manners, we’ve done puppy school since about 3 months of age and she lives with me, my partner and our corgi who is four.

I regularly take her to different places for training and we practice all the usual things, recall, focus, games, basic commands all in varied environments. We usually keep our distance from others at the moment because she has a high prey drive and that is taking the most work to get her to focus on us and not birds and other small cute things. I take both my dogs out together AND separately so that she has training with him and without him too.

When she was younger (4mo) we were in the middle of a quiet park, and someone was not paying attention to their young child and it was running towards us. I could see she was uncomfortable with this so we walked away and the child kept harassing us. I asked the adult with the child to take his child away as it is causing distress to my dog and he shouted at me and told me I should train my dog better. Which I was in the middle of our training session and he had no control over his child. At this point I was frustrated but I took her away to a different location and we had a play and some treats and walked home.

This has severely impacted her view of children. She is terrified. We had friends children visit who wanted to pet her and she was cowering underneath my legs and wouldn’t leave my side so I ended up sitting distanced away or going upstairs with her and she was fine as long as there is a distance between the two. We have had multiple lovely adults ask for their children to pet her to which she barks and wags her tail (I do not think this is an excited wag). She will take treats thrown on the floor at a distance from young children but will not let them come near her.

I do not want to pressure her into interactions with children and we can walk past them on leash and she is fine. It’s when they approach or get too close. I also do not sense any aggression from her or her body language she just seems terrified.

I love her dearly and I want her to be comfortable with any situation and whilst all our training is going fabulously, does anyone have any recommendations on what I can do to support her other than avoiding children completely. I do not have kids but one day I will, although I think it would be different if it was my own children because she has been brilliant with relatives newborn babies! She has no issue with adults or teenagers. Today she went up to a lady who had a young son but ran away when he came over. It genuinely is just the small people! 🤣

Anyway no more rambling but any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

I have the most gorgeous Swiss Shepherd puppy. She is 8 months nearly 9 months and has been an absolutely amazing dog to raise. Shes has incredible lead manners, we’ve done puppy school since about 3 months of age and she lives with me, my partner and our corgi who is four.

I regularly take her to different places for training and we practice all the usual things, recall, focus, games, basic commands all in varied environments. We usually keep our distance from others at the moment because she has a high prey drive and that is taking the most work to get her to focus on us and not birds and other small cute things. I take both my dogs out together AND separately so that she has training with him and without him too.

When she was younger (4mo) we were in the middle of a quiet park, and someone was not paying attention to their young child and it was running towards us. I could see she was uncomfortable with this so we walked away and the child kept harassing us. I asked the adult with the child to take his child away as it is causing distress to my dog and he shouted at me and told me I should train my dog better. Which I was in the middle of our training session and he had no control over his child. At this point I was frustrated but I took her away to a different location and we had a play and some treats and walked home.

This has severely impacted her view of children. She is terrified. We had friends children visit who wanted to pet her and she was cowering underneath my legs and wouldn’t leave my side so I ended up sitting distanced away or going upstairs with her and she was fine as long as there is a distance between the two. We have had multiple lovely adults ask for their children to pet her to which she barks and wags her tail (I do not think this is an excited wag). She will take treats thrown on the floor at a distance from young children but will not let them come near her.

I do not want to pressure her into interactions with children and we can walk past them on leash and she is fine. It’s when they approach or get too close. I also do not sense any aggression from her or her body language she just seems terrified.

I love her dearly and I want her to be comfortable with any situation and whilst all our training is going fabulously, does anyone have any recommendations on what I can do to support her other than avoiding children completely. I do not have kids but one day I will, although I think it would be different if it was my own children because she has been brilliant with relatives newborn babies! She has no issue with adults or teenagers. Today she went up to a lady who had a young son but ran away when he came over. It genuinely is just the small people! 🤣

Anyway no more rambling but any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

I recently finished an apprenticeship (L4 Data Fellowship) and was promoted into a role as a manager. My role is fairly circulated around streamlining systems and supporting data collection/dashboard creation/monthly and quarterly kpis along with reporting for specific legal requirements. We utilise Power BI and whilst I am confident in my skills and can use AI to help me, what sort of training/further development can I request or research to ensure I am doing my job properly? I’d love to learn more about how to show the impact we are having but also ensure we’re working to policies and procedures that’ll need creating no doubt. I love my job but I don’t know anyone in a job like me personally to ask, so I thought I’d ask here. Note I am looking into Fabric Analyst training through Microsoft but the world of data is huge!

Thanks

I've tagged this advice, but it's more of a discussion -

I'd love to hear more about your routines with your WSS.

Currently, Tofu is a livewire and our routine is roughly structured as below. Her brother (my friend has him so we regularly update) has a completely different routine with completely different experiences with him.

I'm intrigued as to how other people structure their day with their dogs and to see if there's any additional tweaks I can make for the both of us if anything funky crops up. During 'free roam time' as mentioned below, sometimes the dogs get seperated as they can play like maniacs and I want them to settle down. Tofu is happy to play alone or with her corgi brother.

1. Wake up around 7.30, outside for a wee and a poop. I get ready for work (I work at home so honestly not much content here) and then we prep for our walk.

2. Morning solo walk 8.30 - 09:30 (can vary dependent on whether we do a training walk, or a sniffy walk)

3. I log on for work, Tofu and other dog rest/crate time until roughly 11.30 (this is quiet time for me to try and reduce the risk of seperation anxiety seems to have worked) - we also crate due to Tofu being an avid chewer of her toys and beds.

4. Release the hounds, dogs free roam and I continue to work. They play, chill, whatever they want really I let them enjoy their own time.

5. Lunch around 12:30/1

6. Resume release the hounds til end of workday, break inbetween around 2.30 for a short training session in the garden and a snack for the dogs (and me probs)

7. 5pm Log off work, double walk with the pooches until 6pm, 6.30.

8. 7pm Dinner time, then it's mine and my partners time to cook/eat/relax, dogs free roam and chill

9. Bed time varies 11 onwards honestly but Tofu just chills.

Weekends vary as we tend to go further afield for walks, have puppy classes and do random stuff as normal people do on those days.

Sometimes I wonder if I do enough for Tofu, she is on the go alot of the time and loves me so much, she enjoys her mini training sessions throughout the day and her walks but could I be doing more?

https://preview.redd.it/invt5juqfr1h1.jpg?width=709&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c00fef5547c095ec8b021a1db20fdd4f45b1f5b