JulesP

Look at the roots maybe? Dead grass will have dry roots. Brown grass that is still alive should still have moist roots.

I hate fireworks but more because of the horses than the dogs. They had a fireworks display in Lilydale a couple of weeks ago and the local animal aid is now full with all the dogs that ran away. I can never work that one out as if you have decent fencing then how did the dogs get out in the first place. My dogs aren't scared of storms but do tend to run around like idiots chasing the thunder.

Yeah! And were are the pics????

Croydon's pre-puppy school starts on 9th Jan. It is on Wednesday nights at either 6.30 or 7.30. Puppy just needs 1 injection to go.

Natures Gift tinned food. At room temp.

A reverse 7 and that was when pushed.

Croydon is a very good club. We have lots of good instructors in the trial class. I've gone through the levels a couple of times there and can't say I have had to change much once hitting the trial class. Just a matter of tidying things up. They do agility as well and flyball.

ohhhh very cute! You will have lots of fun with her. I've got the week off on 'maternity' leave and all I have done is play or watch the dogs! Have my first pre-puppy class tonight.

Yes I would put a book in the same category but a DVD is slightly better as at least you can see the hand signals etc, get a feel for the tone of voice needed, copy the body language etc.

Can't really answer as it depends on what is going on at the time. Why I think the dog hasn't done what I ask etc. Don't think you can give a set answer.

OMG I spent ages looking on Plush Puppy and decided I was really silly because I couldn't find it!

But even teaching basic stuff like sit etc and doing it wrong (wrong timing, reward etc) could lead to a confused dog and possible behavioural issues if the dog is that way inclined.

I have always thought it was a tad dangerous to give people advice on training horses over forums. You can't see what the horse is doing, you don't know the ability of the person and you can't check that the timing is correct. I suspect it is the same for dog training. Thoughts?

Can't really think of any polite way to say this - but are you sure that you know what TOT and NILF are? If you don't have a clear idea then you could be confusing the dog. I know that you only heard about these things on Reddii's thread the other week. With TOT the dog is supposed to look at you before it eats. Once you have given the command to eat you go away and let it eat. Please correct me Steve if that is wrong! With NILF you should have asked the dog to sit and then thrown the ball and let it go straight away. The sit was the NILF bit. You could work up to the dog sitting for a while. So the dog likes chasing the ball, it wants the ball. It has to do something for you to get the ball, but it should get the ball straight away. Same if the dog comes up and wants a pat, it has to sit/drop or something first.

Everyone has their fav dry food. I feed Eagle Pack and Pro Plan. Just make sure the people know to add a bit of the kibble to some mince and not go straight to that sort of diet. I used to just do Barf but now I do premium dry with Barf. Mainly so I don't have to bother with all the kelp, brewers yeast etc.

Nutro isn't that easy to get hold of which might be off putting. I would just steer them into buying a premium brand rather than a supermarket brand. You could explain that it works out about the same price as you feed less and is much better for the dogs. You could even call some of the companies and get some samples for them.

How about doing a meal plan for a couple of days. i.e Morning - chicken wing, lunch - mince & veggies, etc. When I had my litter I fed total BARF but did feed the pups some dry food as that is what all the new owners wanted to do. Whilst I am happy to tell people why I do something I never try and force it on them. I do think the BARF diet has got complicated in general which wasn't the idea.

A new pup for you too Dogdude? That will be fun! We will have to bring the little graemlins to the training session. Puppy's name is Poppy. She is very cute but very noisy and hates her crate!

lol

Congrats on everyones results and to Leopuppy for her hard work running the trial. I couldn't come down to cheer as I picked up my new puppy and had my hands rather full!

He will hold it whilst not moving any attempt to move and he spits it out. If I hold gently under his chin he collapses on the ground. I have even tried doing turns on the spot and he still spits it out.

I've got Brock to hold the dumbell and he will reach out and take it . If I hold it on the floor he will pick it up. I would like to get him to walk with it but he is really spitting the dummy about that! Any ideas?

I used to love doing the Beagles! They came up so nicely and were easy to do. I have jsut got a booster bath. It looks pretty good. So far i've only used it for brushing which worked well, my back was happy! I'll give it a go on the weekend and report back!

I would actually like to know if the pup is biting as in biting and meaning it and drawing blood type biting or is she nipping? Without seeing the pup she sounds like she has a high herding drive. Dislikes joggers and chases cars. My mum's sheltie used to do a far bit of herding type nipping and lots of poking with her nose, lol. Annoying but different from biting.

What do you want to do Carp?