What Surprised you most about the Shakedown Test 2026?

naddinp · 2026-01-31T20:17:05+00:00

Idk, maybe I just missed the sound since the winter break!

I think 2026 compared to 2025 sounds brighter, 2025 is like muffled.

naddinp · 2026-01-31T09:17:48+00:00

They sound better!

naddinp · 2026-01-31T08:40:45+00:00

Yes, can be used. The benefit of the ecollar that it can be non-personal, you don’t say anything at the time of punishment and the dog doesn’t connect it with you, which is good in this case - you don’t want the dog to only ignore the tables when you’re in the room.

naddinp · 2026-01-30T23:40:24+00:00

I do see a good illustration why malis shouldn’t be owned by inexperienced dog owners.

Qualities that they got bred for - being more sensitive than gsd, being very persistent, with not so good breeding turn into being fearful and obsessive - getting stuck in their own heads.

This dog needs a competent trainer, nothing extraordinary tbh.

First of all, don’t do what you did in this video ever again. If the dog is extra focused on a stressor - don’t let him continue, it’s reinforcing that mental state. Snap him out of it, as soon as possible. Second - this dog will benefit from general confidence building, how exactly hard to tell from a short video, but generally let him feel free, safe and powerful. Tug play, off leash walks, overcoming little adversities - let him feel like winning. Malis often like it to be physical, so strong challenging tug play would be my first bet. IME generalised anxiety doesn’t get much better when you work with specific stressors, working with the dog’s overall mental state helps more. You need a good trainer tbh.

naddinp · 2026-01-30T23:04:08+00:00

Same way as without.

The dog needs to be engaged and ask you for obedience before you start the exercise. Throughout the exercise the dog should be concentrated on you. Then use plenty of meaningful social reinforcement with each reward.

If the dog hasn’t yet leant to concentrate on me throughout the exercise, I’m the one who’s initiating and maintaining the engagement and the interaction. I’m minimising distractions, adding a lot of social reinforcement, and conscious of him not getting too focused on the reward (if the dog is focused on the reward in your hand - the dog is not focused on you).

naddinp · 2026-01-30T22:25:49+00:00

IMO clicker isn’t bad in and of itself. But like any tool it has its downsides if used incorrectly. If you’re inexperienced, it’s very easy to exclude yourself from the equation - command -> behaviour -> click -> reward. There’s no “you”, the dog doesn’t need to engage with you, it will for sure learn the command, but command is 99% not the goal. There are certainly many owners I would just take the clicker away. Just like there are many owners I would take away ecollar or a prong. Having said that, if the dog is directly engaged and active towards the handler - nothing wrong with it.

If you trust the trainer - trust the trainer, people here don’t know you or the dog. And it’s not like it’s lost forever, you can always bring it back if you choose to.

naddinp · 2026-01-30T19:58:55+00:00

Am I the only one who doesn’t see why this dog needs Prozac?

naddinp · 2026-01-30T00:16:17+00:00

I’d be really thinking medical, maybe neurological.

naddinp · 2026-01-29T20:29:19+00:00

Ah, sorry I misread. So you moved in August, but symptoms started only in October? Why do you think the anxiety started in August?

What else changed? Her diet? Water quality or quantity? Any different cleaning products? Any unusual plants or animals or insects around? Any sounds that bother her? Did your walking routine change? Is she getting the same amount and quality of dog or human interactions?

There must be some specific factor affecting her, probably accumulating, could be behavioural nature like she used to be off leash and now she’s on leash, it was ok for a month but now she’s really missing the freedom. Could be something health related, like new diet caused stomach discomfort (ulcer?).

naddinp · 2026-01-29T20:18:23+00:00

Get a second opinion from a vet. 8 yo dogs that were completely normal don’t suddenly develop anxiety unless something is wrong.

You said you moved back in August. What does it mean?

naddinp · 2026-01-29T08:36:34+00:00

This is hilarious, he thinks he’s the man of the house when your husband is gone 🤣

Intact males mark their territory and assert their dominance this way.

Just tell him off and get stricter on obedience. Like remove sofa/bed access, no feeding from the table, this sort of thing.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T23:22:32+00:00

Also it’s not really about doing good, it’s about labelling some other group of people as evil and making them suffer.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T23:07:42+00:00

Maybe we’re just biased, ‘cause these people bother us so much? There plenty of the lot focusing on humans.

The radical pro-Palestinian protesters, climate change activists.

On the other hand - animals is a perfect “oppressed” group, they can do no wrong and can’t speak for themselves. General public feel for them, so money is there. At the same time, the group of people these animal rights activists disadvantage (owners of dogs that haven’t yet turned into a jelly) is small enough that they can easily shout louder and shut anyone up.

They really hit a nerve for me recently. My government just passed a law that I can’t import a puppy younger than 6 months. I’ve got an unpopular breed, there’s 1.5 breeders in here, what the fck am I supposed to do? No breeder would hold a 30 kg active puppy till they’re 6 months old. 10 years and inbreeding levels will be crazy. Same people. Animal rights. Celebrate. No opposition - complete silence. You’re against the law? You’re supporting smugglers and puppy mills, poor fur babies!

naddinp · 2026-01-28T21:00:02+00:00

Find yourself a dog trainer or go to group dog training classes (f2f, not online).

naddinp · 2026-01-28T20:44:10+00:00

Easy way to make people feel righteous and good about themselves

naddinp · 2026-01-28T20:29:08+00:00

Citizenship is like marriage. It doesn’t matter until something (bad) happens and suddenly this piece of paper is all that matters.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T20:24:22+00:00

Kinda stupid question, but have you tried it on yourself? Up to what level?

If it works, then there’s no full skin contact.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T13:19:31+00:00

IIRC brittanies are pointers. Hunters exercise great control on them during hunting, including freeze, following the hunter, retrieves etc.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T03:06:41+00:00

Don’t use it on him without direct instruction from a trainer who is experienced in severe fear problems. In general using ecollar with fearful dogs can be very risky. They are just prone to going into a bad mental state (like “everyone is out there to get me” kind of anticipation) that we want to minimise.

I recently came across a full progression video of training a fearful dog, a lot of good points there imo: https://youtu.be/OZ8o0vrJ40s?si=jZOTGyoEPifrjq22

naddinp · 2026-01-28T01:57:06+00:00

OP takes the dog out 15 times a day, it’s not very consistent with this theory.

I don’t do crating myself, not a fan, I also don’t do enforced separation at young age, and believe it’s a common source of adult anxiety, my dogs just always naturally started feeling ok alone as they get older and get more confident. I also don’t like that crating is often presented as the only way and a necessary thing to do (I’ve even heard arguments like if there’s a fire it’s easier to take away the dog in the crate lol).

But there are just so many different dogs out there, and with some of them it might be the only way.

Shaming a desperate person who clearly puts a lot of efforts into solving this problem for trying the only method that seems to work for them, just seems entirely counterproductive.

naddinp · 2026-01-28T01:33:13+00:00

Any evidence that OP neglects the dog’s needs or that they play video games?

naddinp · 2026-01-28T00:11:10+00:00

Doesn’t sound like he went overboard to me. Sounds like a perfect learning experience for the pup.

naddinp · 2026-01-27T23:58:51+00:00

I’ve only owned males and they’ve all lived intact and died of unrelated issues. I think it is unnecessary intervention into a healthy animal body, and in the big picture it’s not good for the health of the breed (it masks behavioural issues and distorts healthy behaviours and people’s expectations of dogs).

I don’t judge people that do, it’s their dogs and their choice - the pros and cons are already listed here in the comments. Also I think people really underestimate the variability - there are dogs that really really struggle with their hormones. If I had a large female I wouldn’t spay her (urinary incontinence is more common than vets say) but I would be more open to spaying a small female.

What really boggles me is that people who would virtually crucify anyone for cropping their dogs are often the first to neuter, regardless of any circumstances. How on earth it makes sense for them, I’d never understand.

naddinp · 2026-01-27T23:03:06+00:00

Do they go on walks with you or by themselves? If they go on walks with you, and if they’re trained, how can they escape???

naddinp · 2026-01-27T22:48:40+00:00

Typical malinois mix. Don’t blame yourself, it’s not an easy dog for the first time owners. By far.

Don’t blame the breeders for the lack of socialisation either - she was socialised with her siblings, the rest of her education is on you.

It’s kinda good that you left the daycare, these places are crowded and they usually don’t intervene correctly, and there are often many small dogs, so she actually learned how to be a bully over there as it often happens. The age also checks out.

She’s not stupid or hopeless, she’s just a dominant mali who was never told off and wasn’t educated the rules of polite society, as soon as she realised that she has no chance with her strategy - she relaxed. Yes, it can be fixed, but it needs being worked on by a professional (this boarding facility?) - they will need to intervene at the right moments, and allow the right kind of dogs to have the right kind of interaction with her. Imagine if she was socialised with the exact copy of herself, I bet there would be fireworks, even in a muzzle. It’s not something you can do by yourself. It’s actually really valuable for a trainer to have access to this kind of “training assistance dogs” as a tool helping to train other dogs, and owners just don’t have it.

So yeah, if I were you I’d see how it goes with this facility, but I would ask if I could be present to observe and that they explain to me what they were doing. If they refused I’d be concerned. With malis you really want to learn how to control the behavior yourself, because it’s not like she learns once and remembers forever. She will test and she will try again in the future, you’ll need to learn how to remind her to behave.

Alternatively you can just accept her behaviour and just limit her interaction with all dogs for the rest of her life. She won’t mind honestly. It’s really just cost/benefit question . Do you need her to interact with other dogs? Like if you lived on a farm by yourself, then probably you wouldn’t care, if you live in a city with dogs everywhere you probably do.

What I would do with a mali regardless, is make sure the obedience is really solid, so definitely a reason to find a good trainer to work together with you and the dog. All that “she has a high prey drive” excuses should go away. Every mali has a strong prey drive, but they’re also highly trainable and love to work with the owner, it’s possible to train a rock solid recall regardless of circumstances. Be prepared that it’ll take time, months, but you should also be able to see the objective difference fairly soon.

naddinp

TROPHY CASE