Nushie

Agree about short, daily car trips. At worst it will stop the anxiety of getting into the car and the stress associated with the car. Most dogs grow out of it eventually, some take longer than others. And don't forget about fresh air, makes sure you have a window open.

We have rush hour at my local park between 6 & 7. EVERYONE is there. There will be about 20 dogs, plus people playing soccer and kids on the play ground. Our park is not big so with this many people and dogs it gets a bit crowded. I walk down at 7:15 and have the place to myself. We might encounter 1 or 2 people with there dogs still there but generally they leave soon after, in which case I just hang around the other end. I guess we are lucky in the fact that most people will keep their dogs away from others if they are purposely hanging out on their own or just passing by the park. You just need to find your quiet time. Even if it is 6am or 8pm (assuming it is well lit).

Thanks guys, just wanted to makes sure it wasn't some diet deficiency. He didn't seem to do it during the day (at least not inside) but at around 8pm he would race outside and grab a stick and bring it in, chew it too pieces all over the carpet and then go back and grab another and another and another etc until I cracked it and told him to go to bed. Seems fine now, hopefully he is over this little obsession and I can go back to a (relatively) clean house.

Over the last week or so Jager has been eating a lot of sticks from the garden. I would like to know why he does it. His diet is EarthBorn small breed (he has been on this for about 12-18months) - no change in amount fed. He gets 2 chicken necks each evening - no change I started giving him a stuffed kong (stuffed with Beneful wet food mixed with Earthborn dry - small sized kong). He used to get them over summer and with the weather starting to fine up I decided to give them to him again (I hide them in the garden for him to find). His Earthborn and chicken necks didn't change in amount as usually I wait to see if he gains weight and then adjust the Earthborn to balance. So a couple of days after starting to give him kongs again he started to bring sticks in from the garden and chewing them up. I thought it was weird but didn't think anything of it. This went on for a few days and so increased his chicken necks, thinking he may need more substance to help digest (I don't know, seemed logical at the time). Since increasing the chicken necks he has stopped eating sticks (I decreased some of the Earthborn as well). Could it have been the introduction of a kong a day caused him to start eating sticks? Do you think the stick eating is related to his teeth or his belly?? We are going to the vet next week for his annual check up so will bring it up then. But I was just curious. Nothing else in his behaviour changed, no change to his poop (except the addition of some sticks during the days that he was eating them) but before and after are the same). His routine was the same, same exercise routine etc. He is normally a big chewer and we have deer antlers and nylabones etc around the house which he just chooses what he wants to chew on. Stick chewing is new though. Other options - I have done a lot of gardening over the past few weeks - the garden was out of control and was way overgrown - so I have cleared out a large section so maybe that has give him access to more sticks that were previously hidden by the garden = new chew toys? Any ideas?

We have a Pig In Mud door and we taught Jager to use it at around 6 months old (which is when we got it). Had one person on each side of the door and at first we held the flap open for him and then we would call him back and forth through the door and gave him treats at both sides. Then we started lowering the flap (still holding it) but so that when he jumped through he would have to push it lightly, and then worked down until we weren't holding it at all. Took all of 5 mins for him to work it out and then just had 2 sessions of him jumping through once or twice with treats for a couple of days just to make sure he was confident. Ours is really heavy/thick plastic with magnets at the bottom. This is really good when there is wind so that it doesn't blow open.

I would reword the bold bit. It makes it sound like you know your dogs are a problem.

I don't know anything about breeding, but this is exactly what I was thinking. Because the pups are going to family members, they are even more likely to accept what is best for the pups, so why not let them stay with mum for 2 or more weeks. There are no downsides (as far as I am aware) of leaving them with mum and there are so many benefits! I just don't understand the rush to have them leave home.

We use untreated bark chips. Jager has a habit of chewing and eating them (and other sticks etc he can find in the yard) so wanted to be safe with untreated. We have to replace it every 6-12 months as it starts to breakdown, but that makes good mulch for the plants and we just scatter fresh chips on top. Our yard is pretty small, only about 8x8m and it doesn't smell, even in the middle of summer with 2 weeks of hot days, but he is a pug so not very big. I cant help with the plants as they were there when we moved in. But they are clumping grass type plants, maybe growing to a max of about 40cm high. One section was really tightly planted and Jager ended up trampling a lot of it finding places to toilet. So we thinned it out and it looks a lot neater and he just weaves his way between them now. The last place we rented had small gravel type chips as the base around the plants etc and Jager hated walking on it and would end up pee'ing on the concrete instead. So we pulled it all out and but bark down and he was perfect with that, which is why we use it at our current place. Helps keep the moisture in the soil so you don't need to water so much as well.

We have a male fawn, he is 4 years old now. He has calmed down a lot since we got him as a pup. But I would still call him an extremely active dog. He does not sit still. He gets 30mins walk each day. And will go with my OH for a 10km run once a week (in the colder months). In summer, we have to vary our walk times as he doesn't handle the heat well. So we tend to walk twice a day 15mins early morning and then another 15mins later in the evening. He seems to enjoy it more that way. He is super easy to train, mainly cause he loves food! Will do anything for food (except get his nails clipped). For brushing, as Anne said, get used to having fur everywhere!! I have a furminator which I use every 2-3 days, at the end of seasons I have to use it every day. And I still have a house full of fur :)

What I did was put an ad in (it's free) outlining what I had to offer & what I wanted done etc. I then went through all the pages & anyone I felt might be suitable, I emailed them directing them to the ad I had put in. Seemed the best way to do it :) Fantastic idea! Thanks

We are going away over Christmas and New year, I have been onto the two sites suggested above, but there are just so many people. How do you know who to choose? Can others that have used the site recommend people that they have used?

This is exactly how we taught it as well. Jager picks things up super quick, and he would drop down dead straight away when we "shot" him. But our problem was that he would die and the lift his head straight away to look for the treats. So we then had to hold off on giving him treats until he was calming laying there. Now when he "dies" he rolls over dead lifts his head for a short second and then thumps it back to the ground. Still works pretty well.

What is aerial baiting? I had a quick read through the links but it didn't explain what it was.

Thanks everyone! There are some great recipes here. I will have to try the sweet potato chews, although I am not sure they would make it to Jager. I love sweet potato!

Jager sits like that when he is relaxed. His back legs spalled out either side of him, but when he is excited or we are training etc. He will sit normally. Our last place had polished floors and no matter how hard he tried to sit normally his legs would slide out to the sides. So depending on the surface she might find it difficult to sit straight.

Jager often stares at us. I always think he is trying to mind control us to go and fill his bowl :)

You can only eat him after he has delivered my eggs! Super cute!

I don't really understand BSL - so excuse me if I am naïve - but wouldn't it be cheaper for all (including the council) to get each dog they impound for BSL temp tested?? If they fail then go through all the courts etc. But if they pass, who gives a crap, fine the owner for having a wandering dog and get on with it. I just don't understand how impounding a dog for 200+ days is helping anyone. Charge the owners for it if they really want, I am sure most would be happy to pay for it if it meant that their dogs weren't going to be impounded. So glad Zeus is free - sad that he has to leave his family though.

They are pretty amazing and I love that he incorporates the real world into the background. Very impressive!

This is what my mum taught her dally to do when he got to old to jump and she got to sore to lift :) Worked well for both of them.

That is fantastic news!!! Fingers crossed they ask to use more of your photos.

Jager is pretty good, he doesnt snore, he will chew his nylabone for about the first 10mins and then drift off to sleep so that doesnt bother me, he doesnt tend to fart but if he does, he is down the end of the bed so not in my face. He sleeps between my legs and that used to really annoy me, but now, 2 years later, i find it really hard to sleep without him snuggled between my knees. If my OH is not there, he will sleep up near my chest, he has to sleep touching you, and on hot nights with a hot puppy, I tend to move away and he just wriggles back so he is against you again. And so i end up right on the edge of the bed. But thats probably only a couple of nights a month and even then, as long as its not a stinking hot night, i am fine with it. No - one thing i forgot to add that does annoy me (but not about Jager), is that when my OH goes to bed, they have a quick wrestle, and Jager jumps around and rolls on his back etc. and then he settles down. This is fine execpt when we go to bed at different times. Then Jager and I are asleep and OH comes to bed, Jager jumps up and jumps all over OH to have a wrestle at 3am!! I have a grumble and click my fingers and he calms down and goes back to sleep super quickly. Not that i get annoyed at Jager, but OH. Maybe i should kick him out of the bed for snoring, farting and hogging the bed!!

Yep, Jager gets brushed every day and our lounge room is still covered in a new layer of hair each day. On the plus side, the local birds love the handful of hair i get off him every day. They come in and steal it away, i assume they use it for their nests??

Generally we use a "Bob-a-lot" for all meals and it takes him about 10-15 mins to get it all out. The rest of his kibble (cause our bob isnt big enough to hold an entire meal in it) is put into a go slow bowl mixed with Yoghurt or an egg. This makes him lick it up instead of gulping it up. Bob is our best friend though. Best $20 i have spent :) Before Bob we used to just throw his kibble on the ground and that way he could only get a few pieces at a time. Did mean that we had to vacuum a lot more often (we lived in a unit) but our friend still just throws it all out onto the patio for her dog.

Yeah, last night was hot, i didnt think it would stay that hot so i didnt bother with the AC so just had the fan going last night. Tomorrow is supposed to be low 20's here and then mid 30's for the rest of the week. I forsee a very hot pug in our house this week. We only have AC in the bedroom and when i leave it going for him while we are out he doesnt go in there. He likes to sleep as close the front door as possible and the bedroom is at the back of the house. Silly puggy! Oh well, at least he is getting used to baths. On hot nights I have been giving him a wet down and he used to hate them, now he puts his feet up on the side of the bath waiting for me to lift him in.