Nushie

Has anyone been to Dog O Mat before??

I found that training usually wore Jager out. We used to do training in the add breaks during tv shows. That way i knew they would only last for short periods at a time. As for getting them out of the aparment, i took him a lot of places with me, we used to go for car trips every afternoon when i picked my boyfriend up from work. I would take him out of the car and hold him. That way he got to see things, smell things, hear things. People would talk to him. There is still the risk but i just figured it would be a reduced risk and the rewards would be greater. We also spent a lot of time at my mums house and a friends house. They both had dogs that i knew were always fully vacced, both had gentle older dogs that would let Jager run amock and crawl all over them. So that helped in getting him out and about and also tuckering him out on the weekends. But during the week it was only training and car trips in the afternoon. Good luck with your little one. I love frenchies!!

In the way of time spent with a toy - Jager loves his nylabones. We have 3 and they get carried around the house to where ever we are at the time. They eventually all get lost down the back of the lounge and you know cause you dont see him with them for a couple of days so you have to go for a hunt. In the way of fun - definitely plastic coke bottles, we take the caps and the plastic ring off and he has a grand old time chasing it around. He also used to love the cardboard toilet roll inserts, now he has grown they wont do, but he loves shredding cardboard boxes that 24 cans of coke come in or the cardboard holder for the 4 packs of redbull. He also loves to pull the stuffing out of his bed :)

I have been looking for work in the animal industry for the past 3-4 months. From what i have seen, there isn't much available and the ones that are all want experience. At the moment i am studying Certificate II in animal studies. I am hoping that will give me a bit of an in so that when i am done i can start looking at maybe doing some volunteer work in my spare time, build my skills and experience and then start seriously looking for job. Have you considered working as a vet receptionist?? I know a lot of the smaller vets just use their vet nurses to man the reception but some of the bigger ones dont. I believe you get paid under the administration award so the pay is better and you still get to work in a vet but just dont do any of the hands on stuff.

Anything with beef gives Jager the runs. Went to a friends place one night and she gave him a bone to chew. Next day, the concrete was a lake of poo. Poor little guy. I started him off with a really little amount when he was younger and it upset his stomach every time. Even now if i dont check what treats i give him, i can tell that something must have had beef in it when i do poo partol the next day. I would love to him a nice bone to chew on, but oh well. He still gets pork and lamb occassionally as they dont seem to be as bad but even then it can only be once a week, any more and i can tell. He is fine on chicken though.

Just off topic a little, what type of yoghurt do people put in there to freeze?? Jager isnt a huge fan of the natural yoghurt, would it be okay to put some of the flavoured ones in there with some kibble?? Also, how do you plug the little hole at the bottom??

I have had to change the way i address my boyfriend when i talk to him. I spend sooo much time talking to Jager and our cat that when i want to talk to Simon i have to say "Simon, how was your day?" or "Simon, can you please...." If i dont use his name he just assumes i am talking to the animals! :)

A friend of mine had one of those balls with ropes on it (assume that is what you are thinking of??) It lasted about 15mins with their staffy x. She managed to get the rope handles off and pop the ball. Her fave toy is a semi deflated soccer ball. The current one has lasted about 6 months and is still going strong. When it starts to get tatty they throw it out and give her a new one. Whenever they give her a fully flated ball, she pops it, so 3/4 full is about right apparently.

I agree with the suggestion of treats. From when he was really young i put Jager in the bath every few days (no water) and just gave him treats. When he was happy with that, i took a small jug of water in and pour a little bit in the bottom of the bath so that he can feel it running under his paws, continually treating. From there, i went to putting the plug in and putting a little bit of water in and splashing it around his legs (treat treat treat)... well you get the idea. I worked slowly up and now he stands while i wash him, dont need a lead or collar, just need my treats! I cant say he ENJOYS the experience but he stands quietly. You just need to make the place that you will be washing him a great place to be.

Do they have any quiet time together? Or is it everytime they get to be together they play and mess around. I would be tying to enforce some relaxed time that they can spend together, maybe at night when watching tv. Just so that they learn they can be in each others presents without the energy levels through the roof. When you do intervene and seperate them, dont let them play again until they have both settled. I think that they will grow out of it.

This is Jager's favourite at the moment: http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/yuppie_puppy_marrow_chews?sc=9&category=172 But he goes through cycles. For weeks on end he wont touch anything but the above and then for no apparent reason he will chew on one specific nylabone and then wont touch that one again for a few months. So we have: - the above marrow nylon bone - 2 x nylabones (1 chicken and 1 beef) - T-Bone http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/Texas-T-Bone Loves all of them. He didnt really get into chewing them until he was about 6-9 months but since then he cant be stopped. And even the beef nylabone which was the only one we had for ages is still going strong.

Jager still loves his Nylabones. We have 4 i think now. And he carries them around the house with. If we are sleeping and there isnt one in the bedroom he will run upstairs to get one and bring it back to chew on our bed. Best investment ever for us.

Yep, we use one but we have it on the balcony. We just got some spare grass from Bunnings, empty the jug each day, pour some warm water over the grass in the evening to rinse through any excess pee in the grass and then remove the grass and hose it and the base down on the weekend. It only takes a few minutes a day and it tends to stay pong free. I went away for a week and my boyfriend mentioned that he couldnt open the balony door cause it was starting to smell, he decided that my daily cleaning was too much effort and didnt do it at all. So i wouldnt recommend leaving to for more than a few days between cleaning. Jager doesnt seem to mind using it to pee, but he does circle alot when doing #2's and sometimes ends up going off the side. But in general i am happy with it.

We have a pig in mud door. Picked it up from Bunnings.

We used the long line when out and about but we also made use of friends with backyards. That way he could truely be off lead in an enclosed area. There was the added distractions of new sights and smells. We only ever let Jager off lead when he is sitting patiently, we unclip and then give him his release word. Thats the way it has always been. When in someones backyard, we would call him over, ask him to sit, treat him and then use the release word and he would go back to sniffing etc. But yes, whenever in public we used the long lead. Even now when we are down at the dog park and he is off lead, i will call him every so often, sit, treat and release.

I didnt read all the responses so sorry if this repeats what others have said. Jager was always an early riser and i am NOT a morning person. He was crated next to the bed and whenever he woke up (usually any time between 4-6am)i would take him to the toilet and put him back to bed. If he cried again, i would tell him "Shh" and then wait for him to be quiet for a second or two and give him something to chew on. that would usually keep him entertained enough for me to get some more sleep. At 6 i would then get up and go and lay on the couch with him and watch tv until 7. But i made it a rule that i would not get up before them. I didnt want him to develop a habit that if he continued i would get up. If he cried after chewing i would put my fingers in the crate and that would usually calm him down. Took him till he was about 6 months to sleep through to 6am. And then from there i stopped setting my alarm, if he woke up between 6 and 7 I would get up, if he didnt, more sleep for me. From about 9 months he was consistantly sleeping in till 7 when i had to get up for work. He now doesnt even get up then, he waits for me to be ready for work then bounds upstairs for his breakfast. Then he goes straight back to bed and sleeps the extra hour before my boyfriend gets up to walk him.

A friend of mine has laid those bunnings compost mesh panels on the ground along their fence line where their staffy cross digs. They just laid them flat and secured them with bricks. They tried chicken mesh but it just bent as she dug and ended up in a huge mess. The compost mesh panels are thicker and dont bend. but i guess it will depend on what you have on that fence line. They just had grass but if you have a garden bed it might be a little more difficult.

Bottles dont work for us, Jager can get the cap off in about 5 mins and then the cap is much more entertaining than the bottle. And I am terrified that he will choke on one.

Hi all, I am starting to run out of ideas for tricks to teach Jager. We dont have a lot at the moment as my imagination isnt so great! We currently have sit, drop, stay, play dead, shake (can do either paw) and we started "spin" last night which he has picked up really quickly, i will be working on "turn" as in going the opposite way to "spin" so that he can go both ways depending on the command. I have attempted beg but i dont think he has the balance. He is a pug and i think his chest and neck make him too top heavy and we havent been able to get anywhere. I also tried crawl but i think i was confusing him so i stopped. I am just after some suggestions of some good youtube channels that will give me new ideas and simple instructions on how to teach them. He is a smart little cookie, in 3 x 5 minute training sessions yesterday afternoon we had spin pretty good. I can stand upright and do the command and around he goes. And he seems to really enjoy the training, i mean the treats :)

I guess it depends on how nice you want it to look and how much money you want to spend. I used the Bunnings compost panels (and still use them for various things) for Jagers pen when he was a puppy and also used one as a gate across the stairs. We have since bought a proper baby gate for the stairs cause we decided that he doesnt need access to the bedrooms when we arent there and at least the cat has a place to get away if she wants. If it is a short term solution, just get the compost panels from Bunnings, they are super cheap, if you want something nicer you can get a proper baby gate. I thing ours is from Dreambaby. You can get a hall gate which is wider and then add extensions to each side to make it wide enough for i think it is up to about 3m. So it should be fine for you. Bunnings sell these too (the gates and the extensions). Good luck with your little one.

Agree with what most people have said, block off areas that she might be able to see out and bark at people going by etc. Jager used to bark at other dogs barking. We solved it by leaving the radio on, seemed to fix that. In our complex there is a dog that barks at everyone walking down the hall, so i would suggest blocking off the door area so that she cant get to it. Also make sure she is super tired when you leave. A tired/sleepy dog is generally a quieter dog.

My friends dog used to do this to Jager when she was a pup. Every time we saw them she would hang off his neck. Never broke the skin. And we just figured that Jager would tell her off when it got to much. Weeks went by and nothing, then one day, he growled at her and nipped her ear, no skin broken but from that day on, the neck biting got less and less each visit. Now she doesnt do it at all. I assume it is just a puppy thing, and they grow out of it eventually. I would seperate them when you arent supervising. And if you are really worried maybe if she hangs on for more than a couple of minutes, step in and seperate them for a few moments to calm her down or distract her with a toy they can both play with.

I just used an old shirt, wore it the day before picking him up and put that in his bed. Also had a hot water bottle for warmth. We never had problems with him settling when i put him to be (slept in a crate next to our bed). First night was about 10 minutes of whimpering and the next was practically nothing. When i got up in the middle of the night to take him to the toilet, i would reheat the bottle so once he went back to bed it was nice and cuddly and warm for him.

In regards to a puppy pen. We used the wire panels from Bunnings. I think they are designed for composting. They were pretty cheap and we got 2 sets (4 panels in each set). They have been great. We gave them to a friend who got a puppy and they are still going strong. I think they were $25-$30 a set. Super sturdy and if you want, you can attach them to the top and create a roof that way.

So glad this topic came up. We have a "know it all" friend that doesnt even own a dog, in fact i dont think he has ever owned a dog, that insists that we are encouraging dominant behaviour in Jager. Mainly because we let him on the couch and sleep on the bed. When we play he often tries to hold the toys with his paw on our hand. Apparently these are the beginings of a very dominant dog. However, we like that he cuddles on the couch when we watch DVD's and i love the fact that the first thing i do every morning is give him a cuddle, cause he is right there at my feet. If we dont want him on the couch or bed for some reason, we just tell him "down" and off he gets. No fuss, no complaining, just straight down and he will curl up at your feet instead. These aren't unwanted behaviours by us and he has never been aggressive with food or toys. If he has something he shouldn't, he gives it up when we ask. I never really understood the purpose of the alpha roll. Growing up, a friends dad did it every time their dog misbehaved and the dog ended up scared and would run away. I want a dog that will come when he is called, no matter what they are doing or have done wrong or whatever is happening on the street.