Nushie

I bought the long grass, the more realistic stuff, not so much for my liking but he is very dainty with his feet and the short grass i thought his feet might get damp as it drains. I think the grass is about $60 for a metre (about 2.5m wide) and i get 60cm so its about $35 and i can get 3 sqaures out of it. Just another tip that i found - again Jager is very sensitive about the grass - i clean it every week and i bought a high pressure hose (we dont have a normal hose but that would work too) and we clean it with that each week and then soak the grass in a tub with a small amount of washing powder overnight, replace the water with clean water and soak overnight again (without the washing powder). If i only hosed the grass off, it still had a bit of a pee smell and Jager wasnt too keen on that. Giving it a good soak with the washing powder got rid of it and he uses it happily. And if i am feeling extremely lazy and i dont want to change the grass one week, it doesnt matter. I find that i can push it to 2 weeks without noticing any smell. But pushing for 3 is a little too long, and you start to get the faint smell drifting into the house. But 2 weeks there is nothing. I empty the jug every afternoon and rinse that out though so that might help cause you dont have pee sitting around.

Jigsaw - can you suggest an enzyme cleaner and repellent in one?? I have seen the drops that you can buy to attract them to a certain spot but i thought they were mainly for urinating though so they would mark over the top of it? But i guess it is worth a try. Pretty Miss Emma - We have tried restricting his inside area before, and it worked well, until he found a way out. Its really difficult to secure a pen to a door They are all good suggestions and everything is worth a try.

So i have put this in training and not in the puppy problems cause Jager is about 19months old now. We have a problem and i just do not know how to go about fixing it. Every time we go out for a long period of time (for work or such) we come home to a nice present on the carpet. He has access outside and he will happily pee outside, not once have i come across him peeing inside. We live in an apartment and we have a usless courtyard (all paved and very small) so we have a dog toilet set up with fake grass for him to use and we had this same problem before which we solved with spraying the carpet with a dog repellent so that when he went to sniff to "go" he would be put off and go outside. This worked and we slowly reduced it to the point we no longer had to spray and we havent had any problems for about 9-12 months. And now it has started again. We have tried the spray and it doesnt seem to put him off anymore. He is perfect when we are there, if he needs to go during the night he takes himself outside. I walk him in the morning and he usually goes then, but i think out of the 5 days a week that we work he goes about 3 times on the carpet. The other days when he doesnt go inside is because he hasnt gone during the day. He is 100% when we are there, not one mistake while we have been in the house since he was about 6month old. So thats why i am baffled. I thought it might be related to anxiety?? We have been working on making sure that he is calm when we leave in the morning and we ignore him until he is calm when we get home in the hopes to stop that. He doesnt cry or bark while we are gone (we have asked our neighbours and have snuck home during the day to check). He gets a kong when we leave (once he is calm and relaxed) and he has about 6-7 hours on his own through the day. I dont want to lock him outside all day. The courtyard is not protected from the sun, wind or rain. He has a kennel but being a pug i am very conscious of the heat with him. I am looking into hiring a carpet cleaner and cleaning the carpets in case that is the cause. I clean it up everytime with carpet cleaner (non amonia). I just thought you guys might have an idea as to why it is happening again?? I have racked my brain to think if we have changed anything, but our routine is the same, the times we walk him havent changed (still gets morning and evening outtings). I try not to get angry and i dont yell at him or punish him in any way, but i get frustrated and i am sure he picks up on that. How can i make it clear that he shouldnt do it, if i am not there when he does it? Sorry for the long post. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

We use fake grass on our balcony with a dog door. When we first got him home, we papered the entire floor of his pen (including the top of the fake grass) when we weren't home. When we were home we would take him to the grass and put him on top when we thought he needed to go. We slowly reduced the paper surrounding the tray until it was only on the grass and then reduced it down until we werent using paper at all. The breeder had told us he was "trained" to paper but we weren't sure if that meant he would go from a non papered area of his pen to the paper to go not, so we just papered the entire floor but if you are sure that your pup is actually trained to go to the paper than i would recommend papering the tray and some of the surrounding area and reduce it down from there. We still have the grass so that if we are out for long periods he has access to go, but generally he goes when we are on our walks. It really didnt take him long to take to it. We have a stack of spare grass but dont go and buy the additional grass from the companies that make the trays, we just got a strip of fake grass from Bunnings and I can make 3 spare grass squares out of it (our tray is about 60cm x 60cm). Jager actually prefers the grass from bunnings. I have watched him a few times with the grass that came with the tray and he circles the tray for a bit before going and it worries me that that hesitation might one day lead to "mistakes". Costs about $25 for the strip of grass from Bunnings, far cheaper than the $80 from the company (just for one).

From my reseach both beaches are on lead beaches. I just took a retractable lead, I hate them with a passion but it meant that he could run and swim. Not that the sign deterred the other owners down there, 2 other owners there with 3 dogs each, all off lead.

We parked at the Botany Boat Ramp. Looks like a fairly new car park?? It wasn't a huge stretch of beach but enough for the dogs to play. I can't imagine that's the beach the horses are on as it wouldn't be long enough for them to get a good work out. Either way it was a good morning out.

Jager really enjoyed his trip to the beach. Went barreling into the water and once it got to neck level he froze and had no idea what to do. Slowly he made his way out. After that he was very careful not to go to deep, stayed around belly height for most of it. He loved the dry sand, every time we hit dry sand he did zoomies! I had him on an extension lead so that he could have some freedom but couldn't get into any trouble. Only 2 other people down there with dogs, both had very well behaved dogs.

Haha i had heard some of some dodgey dealings, but as it is an on lead beach, they wont be in the bushes. Horses were a big concern of mine, I used to walk down at Coniston beach in Wollongong and they exercises horses down there too, and you cannot hear them approach you and the first you know they are behind you is when the jockey is swearing at you to get out the way. But i will check the tides - thanks for the tip.

So a friend and i have decided to give this beach a go and take the dogs for a walk on the sand. We thought would would try this beach mainly cause we are hoping it will be quieter that some of the other beaches in the area. I just want to know what time people think is best to go down there?? We were thinking early morning (weekends) but didnt know if there times that we should avoid or that it gets busy? What times do you go down to the beach for a walk on the weekends? Do you like this beach? I have heard the water can get a little dirty at times? Thanks in advance.

Jager has access to the house 24/7. We only have a small courtyard and although he has a kennel and shelter i still worry about it getting very hot out there. We have a baby gate at the stairs so that he cannot get to the main bedroom (and it also creates an escape for the cat if she wants to get away from him). We also close the doors to the bathroom and study so he only has access to the lounge, dining and kitchen areas. He doesnt seem to do anything while we are gone. He toys dont move and he generally lays in the sun. We give him a frozen stuffed kong when we leave and he gets walked for about 30 minutes in the morning as well. I find he is not every active during the day, even if i have a day off, he generally just lays around sleeping and then perks up around mid afternoon in time for us to come home i guess. I would say if you want to start leaving your dogs inside, make sure everything is out of reach, dont leave anything at their level (apart from their toys etc.) give them something that will take some time to eat, a bone, kong etc. Take them out for a good walk/run before hand so that they are likely to be tired and less destructive. And start off with short periods on their own and work up to all day.

I can second the crate training. Our crate is without a doubt the best investment we have made (other than Jager himself ). We tell him to "go to bed" and he races in and sits there watching whatever we are doing (if we are eating dinner or have people over). No fuss, no tantrums. At night he will wait at the door until i open it and then go in and settles down quickly and goes to sleep. When my mum baby sat him while we were away one weekend, she was surprised at how quickly he settled down. He would be racing around with her dally and she would tell him to go to bed and in he would go and that was that. She wouldnt hear another sound out of him until morning.

We went to puppy school at Struggletown vets at Randwick (Barker St). The teacher was very good and i thought it was a good mix of training, play and theory. We went after Jager's second vacc and all the pups were about the same age so it was good. Teacher was very patient and really explained things well, worked well with the dogs and was extremely friendly.

I think she looks fine. I get ALOT of comments about Jager. Being a pug everyone thinks they are supposed to be built like a barrel. He is really muscley at the front, has no ribs showing but has a nice waist. When we go to the park we often have people saying how skinny he is, suprisingly though, other pug owners are the ones that tell me how good he looks even when their pug is a little nugget. My vet is really good and tells me how great it is to see a pug that actually has a waist. So that is encouraging. I think people get used to seeing a breed a certain way and that becomes the norm. Imagine seeing a porky greyhound. People would be disgusted cause they are used to seeing them as lean, fit dogs.

I own a fat, ugly, lazy dog who's eyes will pop out at any time so he shouldnt be allowed to play with other dogs. Fat - Spends too much time running around to be fat Ugly - Definately not! Eyes popping out - Surprisingly they havent yet.... Lazy - No he isnt, but my photos probably portray that wrong as the only photos i get that arent just a blur, are when he is sleeping

They only have XS and S in the St George jersey.

That was my next option and spend some time searching last night but the site you found is much better than some of the ones that i have found. Thanks for the help. Will let you know how it all turns out.

No luck, they dont have any in stock, neither do 2 other sites that i have found that once sold them. Getting desperate now, seems they arent being supplied anymore. So if anyone can knows of a site that does look like they have some in stock, i would be in your debt forever!

I am in the same situation as you, we have a paved courtyard and have a small grassed area and he is 100% on the grass for #1 but often did #2 on the pavement. He is slowly improving, and what we are doing is praising him wildly and treat him when we see him go in the right spot. If we see him go in the wrong spot, give him a firm "No" and move him to the right spot, then praise and treat. If we miss him going in the right spot, when we clean up we praise and treat, if we miss him going in the wrong spot, when we clean up we give a "No" and then move it to the right spot and praise. I dont know if this is ever going to work, but it is improving and he is getting more and more on the grass. Its been a loooong road with toilet training and after thinking we were going so well when he was about 5-6 months old and then all of a sudden it went backwards and backwards and its only been the last month or so that we are getting back on track. Still not sure what we did to throw him off, but hopefully we are getting there. Its really about going all the way back to basics. Just watch him as much as you can and praise and treat when he goes in the right spot. Good luck

Thanks for that, seems to be an issue with the site, when i "add to cart" it takes me the the view cart page but there is nothing listed. Might give it a go in the morning.

I keep finding stores that only stock the small sizes. I need a XLarge (40cm). I found a place that also does personalised embroidery so hopefully they will get back to the email i shot off to them. If they are getting more stock soon i may be able to get her dogs name on the back as well.

A friends birthday is coming up and i would love to buy her a St George Dragons dog coat. I have hunted around online and i can't seem to find anything. One site looked positive but they only stocked XS. I have searched Ebay with no luck as well. Does anyone know a place that stocks them?

No idea to be honest.... but maybe try and distract him with some training outside? Or games so that he gets used to it being around while good things are happening? I dont know if thats the right thing to do, but it would be what i would try first off.

Me Too!! Occassionally he will get some left over chicken or vegies stuffed in there as well. But generally i am lazy when it comes to his kongs and he doesnt seem to care.

We used to put Jager's breakfast in the kong, that way if he was hungry (which he always is) that was the only way he was going to get his food. Started off with loose kibble so that as soon as he touched it, be it with a food or his face, food came out. Once he started to know that and went straight to it and go it all out pretty much straight away, we started soaking the kibble so that it would stick a little and not just tumble out. Still put it in loose though. From there we started packing the wet kibble in so that he had to work a little harder, then we put in some chicken and veg. Now he gets meat and veg in it but we freeze it and he lays on the ground with it sticking up between his paws and uses his front teeth and tongue to get the first bit out and then he starts picking it up and dropping it to loosen the bit that gets stuck at the other end. He repeatedly drops it over and over until it falls loose. Once all the food is gone, it gets ignored.

Ignore the crying, and praise when he is quiet. If you have him in his pen in the lounge room and you are watching tv or something and he starts crying, ignore it and when he stops, tell him how good he is and give him a treat. Never let him out of the pen while he is crying either. As for toilet training, even when we took Jager out and he went, there were still times when we messed up and he went inside. Like your guy, he gave no warning when he was going to pee. One second he was trotting behind you down the hall, the next he was squatting. No whimpering, no sniffing, no circling. Just BAM going to the toilet now. When we saw him doing it, we gave a hard, firm 'No' or a growl. Picked him up and took him outside. Put him where he should go and then praised him. He never continued to pee after we picked him up but still praised him as soon as we put him in the right spot. Take him out every 30-60 minutes, praise and treat when he goes. If you take him out and he doesnt go, watch him extremely closely when you take him inside again and take him out again in 5-10minutes.