The Spotted Devil

Oh the shaking :laugh: Em does that when I put my white jacket on at retrieving trials. Just too much impulse control for a crazy Spaniel!

Oh God, I have to do this, I am going to go sit one by the front door so I don't forget! Once he went nuts for it I started tugging him down to the letterbox - was a really nice way to transition. When he was mental about tugging at home I started to make home tugs boring and saved the fluffy tugs for out and about.

raineth - one thing I did with Zig (HATED tug!!!) was to play tug with a really fluffy toy as soon as I walked in the door. He was just super excited to see me and I channelled the crazy :D

They sprung that on a family member too. Oh my that would send me off the Richter scale of angry

Oh hadn't you heard raineth... :laugh:

DD

How bulk? We rang our local IGA and could get boxes of them on special order if we wanted to. Might be worth ringing around.

There is a study that suggests cats and dogs can become very good at interpreting each other's body language given the chance. My lot all get on very well and the dogs know which kit is PLAY TIME! and which kit is NOT TO BE MESSED WITH. However I suspect it is a "pack thing" as I know they would chase the neighbour's cat (as prey not play) without a doubt. Dogs don't generalise very well.

I play tug with Em but it doesn't satisfy her - she enjoys the quartering, scenting and retrieving. I do shoot over her occasionally which is absolutely sublime but not always practical. I let her run riot in the back block after a short training session which helps build value for stuff we do together. Retrieving training really helps satisfy her - not doing much at the moment and she keeps retrieving stuff from around the house in frustration I suspect...shoes, socks, magazines, paint brushes....

Do you show? I imagine a breeder of Poodles would want to be sure you could handle the coat before they'd talk to you about breeding. A poodle in show coat is hard work!

There's probably a few brands that suit - I've got a Ruffwear jacket for Zig. Super cheap when I was in the US for work so that doesn't help you much. Think I tried a friend's jacket on him and it looked ok so went ahead and bought one.

Yes my Dally swims like this - most ungraceful :laugh: I put a life jacket on him and it made the world of difference. Keeps them buoyant and they learn to use their rear end to power through. I only use the jacket at the start of Summer now. He has pretty good rear end awareness but that didn't come naturally at all - definitely a taught thing. My Springer powers through the water like she's got an outboard motor attached. Definitely a natural!

Depends on the size of pup and whether they gulp or chew! I will freeze a couple of chicken wings together which make for excellent chomping. Turkey is great but not always easy to find at our shops and some pups do really stinky farts :laugh:

MAZNAT the are soooo many products marketed towards owners of dogs and puppies - it can be very confusing! Personally no Nylabones for my dogs :)

Having used Nylabones in the past it's not something on my shopping list anymore. They're either too soft such that pup bites off chunks (bad) or too hard such that they're boring. I'd rather feed frozen chicken wings, stuffed Kong or even a big carrot to chomp on. For entertainment value nothing beats an old cereal box filled with dry food :D

I feed pups large chicken wings or turkey joints frozen...if they ain't chewing it's not large enough!

Literally bursting BC Crazy :laugh: He's a funny boy and has been one of my best teachers.

Trap for young players :D

Like she needs any encouragement :laugh:

Zig's journey up in lights on Vic Agility!

I take puppy classes and I agree that it does depend on who is running the class. I do teach a lot of behaviours but if someone has a puppy or dog with a particular problem (barking, nipping etc) I will get them to primarily concentrate on breaking that habit whilst everyone else continues to play the learning games. Yes, pups can learn habits around other dogs but it also may suggest that your pup has a predisposition to barking when highly aroused - a good puppy class will help you to understand that too and give you some tools for working on it. If I have folks in class that have done a lot of training already I just get them to take it to the next level :)

Boronia you just need to delete the "s" after the "http" :)

Yes that's why I love LAT - under threshold the dog learns that "stare" gets nothing but acknowledging the scary thing but referring back to me gets awesome rewards. Understand your situation though Jemmy - sometimes you've just got to manage it.

Suitably cheered :)

If you send it to me I'll put it up :) Here's the video - very interesting. It appears to me that the cat is calling the shots and broke the game off when he'd had enough…