I went down to the corner at a-half past ten

[lizblackdog]

OH YAY NEW HARNESS JOY!

You wouldn't believe what a difference it makes to Spike. It's like driving a car with manky old brakes for years and then getting new brakes. But it's not so much about the physical stopping power - although that is noticeably better - as about the change in his behaviour. Harley the Corgi cross came out of her front door and barked at us and all Spike did was glance at her and smile!

The blurb that comes with the harness tells me that "Research at our Animal behaviour Centre shows that the Halti Harness calms a frightened or over stimulated dog by the "body wrap" principle first described by Linda Tellington Jones. A snug fit promotes a sense of body security, making a worried dog a happy dog."

Whether it's that, or whether it's Spike picking up on my relief and positivity (my guess is a bit of both), walking my dogs suddenly got fun again. Happy happy joy joy!

in other dog news, wirenth posted this extremely interesting dog behaviour survey last night.


C-BARQ SCORES FOR SPIKE

The following values show the behavior subscale, the score for Spike, the average score of similar dogs in the database, and the percentile in which this dog falls (compared to the number of dogs listed in the total).

Subscale Name || Scores for Spike || Average || Percentile (total = 76)

1. Stranger-directed aggression || 0.10 || 0.53 || 23 - *
2. Owner-directed aggression || 0.25 || 0.10 || 88 - x
3. Dog-directed aggression/fear || 2.50 || 0.97 || 95 - xx
4. Familiar dog aggression || 1.00 || 0.60 || 72 - *
5. Trainability || 3.00 || 3.18 || 23 - x
6. Chasing || 2.50 || 1.70 || 65 - *
7. Stranger-directed fear || 0.00 || 0.65 || 0 - *
8. Nonsocial fear || 1.83 || 0.85 || 93 - xx
9. Separation-related problems || 1.75 || 0.36 || 97 - xx
10. Touch sensitivity || 0.50 || 0.74 || 34 - *
11. Excitability || 3.17 || 1.98 || 91 - xx
12. Attachment/attention-seeking || 2.83 || 2.02 || 80 - x
13. Energy || 4.00 || 2.21 || 91 - xx

Miscellaneous Scores (NOTE: These scores are inherently less reliable than the main subscales scores.)

a. Mounting || 1.00 || 0.22 || 87 - x
b. Pulling on leash || 4.00 || 1.17 || 93 - xx
c. Hyperactivity || 2.00 || 0.88 || 76 - x
d. Tail-chasing || 2.00 || 0.25 || 94 - xx
e. Shadow-chasing || 2.00 || 0.51 || 88 - x
f. Barking || 3.00 || 1.39 || 77 - x
g. Grooming self || 1.00 || 0.42 || 75 - x
h. Grooming others || 1.00 || 0.44 || 77 - x

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C-BARQ SCORES FOR SQUISH

The following values show the behavior subscale, the score for Squish, the average score of similar dogs in the database, and the percentile in which this dog falls (compared to the number of dogs listed in the total).

Subscale Name || Scores for Squish || Average || Percentile (total = 2829)

1. Stranger-directed aggression || 0.00 || 0.63 || 0 - *
2. Owner-directed aggression || 0.00 || 0.14 || 0 - *
3. Dog-directed aggression/fear || 2.00 || 0.86 || 91 - xx
4. Familiar dog aggression || 1.75 || 0.59 || 90 - xx
5. Trainability || 1.88 || 2.67 || 8 - xx
6. Chasing || 3.50 || 2.14 || 86 - x
7. Stranger-directed fear || 0.50 || 0.57 || 61 - *
8. Nonsocial fear || 1.00 || 0.75 || 68 - *
9. Separation-related problems || 1.50 || 0.50 || 92 - xx
10. Touch sensitivity || 0.75 || 0.66 || 60 - *
11. Excitability || 2.67 || 2.13 || 71 - *
12. Attachment/attention-seeking || 1.80 || 2.05 || 36 - *
13. Energy || 3.00 || 2.07 || 73 - *

Miscellaneous Scores (NOTE: These scores are inherently less reliable than the main subscales scores.)

a. Food stealing || 3.00 || 0.96 || 89 - x
b. Fear of stairs || 1.00 || 0.36 || 80 - x
c. Marking with urine || 1.00 || 0.21 || 88 - x
d. Submissive/emotional urination || 1.00 || 0.15 || 91 - xx
e. Staring || 2.00 || 0.46 || 87 - x
f. Tail-chasing || 2.00 || 0.34 || 89 - x
g. Shadow-chasing || 4.00 || 0.33 || 98 - xx

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score Key:

* - This indicates that this dog scored within the good-normal range. Just how good depends on the percentile rank. For most subscales the lower the percentile rank the better. However, for the subscale "Trainability" a higher rank is preferable, while for the subscales "Attachment/Attention-seeking" and "Energy", percentiles in the mid-range (25th-75th percentiles) are generally better than those at either extreme. Excitable dogs (above the 75th percentile for "excitability") are generally more of a problem than calm ones, but very low excitability (below the 10th percentile) may also be problematical.

x - This indicates that this dog obtained a less favorable score for this subscale than at least 75% of the dogs in the comparison sample.

xx - This indicates that this dog obtained a less favorable score for this subscale than at least 90% of the dogs in the comparison sample.

INC - This indicates an incomplete score. Not enough questions were answered for this subscale to provide an accurate value.

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C-BARQ: Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/cbarq/

Comments

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Quite a lot of them are pretty bad. There isn't a great deal there I didn't already know, though - Spike has some dog aggression, he's excitable; Squish has some separation issues, is weird and likes to chase stuff. None of this is exactly news to me!