Hi, this is Laura and Dan from Chicago, IL.  We have recently rescued a one year old Australian Cattle Dog named Lucca.  We are looking forward to shaping him into a well behaved dog so we can eventually get him into agility.

Hi Laura! I wish you and Laura good luck, sucess and lots lots of fun. I myself have two Pits Slippie ans Socks, sisters) a Lab-Mix (Bruxinha) and a former stray (Charlie). No idea what was mixed into him. The last two ar both rescue dogs like found on the street.

Congrats that you've found Leerburg early enough. DVDs, articles, the Webboard,, various courses. and excellent items to train with. Jackpot!!! I bet, This will be of great help for you as it was for me too.

Hi Cristina. Where are you from? The name of your dog looks for me like brazillian.

Hi Eduardo. I am Swiss, living i Brazil.. My dogs ar  Brazilians. their names, though are not brazilian. Socks comes from the normal english word socks, as she wears whtie socks. Slippie comes frome the English word Slipper, but we then found it easier to pronounce it Slippie Charlie, normal Englihsh name, because he walks like Chariie Chaplin And Bruxinha is a brazilian name  (meaning : Little witch, what she really is).

I refered to Bruxinha. I am brazilian. I'm happy that there are other brazilian guys that know Leerburg. It's for me the best place there is to learn about dogs.  

Beleza! A real Brazilian in our round. Great surprise and pleasure for me. Yes, I do love LB. Only chance for me until now to learn something about my biests. I do feel at home here and I guess I'll be a lifetime customer.Perhaps in Rio or São Paulo or other metropolis I would have more chances. But here in Bahia (Santa Cruz Cabrália) - forget it. Where are you from, if I may ask? Feliz ano novo e boa sorte e muito prazer com your cachorro/cachorrinho (?).

Well i think is best "speake" english or the other guys won't understand us. I live in Cachoeira do Sul-RS, next to Porto Alegre. I have some friends in Bahia that work with dog training. And probably in June or July we will have some news about dog training in Brazil. 

Well I think, they don't need to understand everything. Don't need to know all our secrets! (Just joke!) Of course I agree with you about writing English, just wanted to throw in some Portuguese in for fun. I'm already curios about your News about dog training. I doubt it a bit though in my region. People here rarely train there dogs. They don't see the reason for it and think obviously I'm nuts, lol. But they behave always in a very friendly, inoffensive, tolerant, inoffensive wayt Characteristics of Brazilians as far as have got to know them.

Is this kind of people that I refer as pet dog owners. People like you I think should be called hobbysts. In the other topic I said something like "pet dog owners don't want a super motivated dog", well when I said that I was referring to this kind of people that is very normal to find here and I think that at USA too. Europe maybe is a little diferent because they have lots of dog clubs and the owners use to train their dogs in those clubs and even compete in different dog sports.

Ok, call me hobbyst. But I think even a normal pet owner should train their dog a bit and certainly be very consistent what they are here not in the least. Most allow there dogs to roam about the roads or wherever off leash without owner near to them

I know a few, who walk them on a leash and try to teach them a few  things. Worst thing is that you can not so easily distinguish an abandonded dog from a dog who has an owner who want to let their dogs for some hours stroll freely through there surroundings. Well, I think this is not so awfully terrible, as long as it is a peaceful dog. But I had already three times very violent discussions (verbally of course) with owners, who hold their dogs in order to make them aggressive for hours in order to frustrate them in dark kennels. Two of them attacked the dog I was walking, but fortunately the owner heard it and came. His negligency and irresponsibilty was to leave the door wide open, because he had workers who had to cross the road constantly and didn't put his dog in his very nice and large kennel.

Another one was to lazy to put his aggressive dog on a secure place while he was leaving his yard by car.

These are only examples I experienced personally, but there are other people who complain about the same.

When certain people  "train" this means, e.g. when a dog doesn't come back immediately after their "recall", they beat him.So the dog either becomes very fearful and submissive or he prefers not to come back at all.

Forgive me, i don't want to paint a negative picture of your country. I know also other people who love their dogs immensely and hold them in a very affectionate manner, but still without training in the least. But those are exceptions. It is just a fact like that in this region.

I have also met people who walked their dog  on leash and  in the manner how it should be. Loose leash walking. So exceptions too.

But you're right, such situations you  find in US certainly too. Don't believe you'll not find this in Europe. Neither in Switzerland who offers actually lots of clubs,courses, seriously educated private teachers. Nevertheless, if people don't see the sense of managing and training a dog you can meet evil situations too.