luvsdogs

That's wonderful. It does my heart good to see kids participate in life & not always in front of a computer/tv games screen.

I'm in the dark here, what does ADT stand for?

That's such a lovely tribute, you did a wonderful job.

April did it all her life. When we 1st got her at nearly 6 w/o I thought it was because she was so young. No such luck. Now we have Tilba & she started in the one spot, but sometimes walks too. It seems that April's presence is still felt.

I would definitely NOT use puppy pads. Seeing he uses the puppy toilet reliably, I'd put a large sheet of heavy plastic on the floor near the door, with his pet loo on top. Puppy pads would confuse him & set him backwards. If that idea doesn't suit, I'd get him used to sleeping in the laundry/bathroom/kitchen with his pet loo, a crate or a comfortable doggy bed.

Don't let puppy have access to the whole house until she is fully reliable. She should be in a small room with a tile or lino floor. Take her out regularly. After eating/drinking, playing, sleeping & every hour in between. It's a good idea to confine her to a crate while your home & release her every hour, stay with her outside until she goes, say 3 minutes, then back in the crate for another 30 mins & try again. Dogs don't like to soil their sleeping area. Have treats ready for when she goes & praise lavishly.

I picked up Tilba from her breeder on Thursday & she came with a bag of puppy food, diet sheet & a couple of toys. There was also copies of the test results done on the hereditary diseases of Border Collies plus her vaccination cert.

I'm taking Tilba to pps tomorrow night. Both the instructors are Cert IV qualified. I'm expecting it to be much better than the one I took Sooty to 7 yrs ago. All they talked about was all the things I already knew like feeding, worming, vaccinations, grooming etc. There were only 3 pups & in the 3 weeks they only had about 5 mins of play.

My new Border Collie pup is also 12 weeks old & I will not be taking her out for walks until after she has had her final vaccination in 4 weeks time. The only exercise pups need is play. Too much too soon can cause joint problems. Their bones are growing rapidly & aren't solid enough for strenuous exercise. It depends on the breed as to when they are fully matured & stop growing.

We picked up our new puppy yesterday morning. She will be 12 weeks old on Saturday & will need her final puppy worming dose. What can I give her, would I have to stick to puppy worming or can she have an adult worming tablet appropriate for her weight.

Great pics, I'm glad she had a good time.

Thank you C M for the beautiful poem.

I've always had them done at 6 mths but have read a lot of research lately on doing after maturity to help prevent growth problems & health issues in later life.

Look up www.dogstardaily.com for all the answers to your problems. Alpha rolls are not a good idea. She is in her critical period (up to 16 weeks) where puppies learn all their life lessons. Puppies need to learn bite inhibition by learning that biting hurts & to have soft mouths.

I have both his books Before y g y p & After you get your puppy. I like his methods & have been to a couple of his seminars. He has a new site www.dogstardaily.com with loads of information, videos, audio, blogs etc.

It's not always a sign of dominance. Whatever you do don't roll him on his back & growl at him, this could make him aggressive. When he does it stand up & give him something else to do such as a sit or down & give him a toy to play with. Perhaps give him more exercise.

Thank you all so much for your kind words.

I haven't heard of either of them. What methods do they use? I like Ian Dunbar's methods & watch the videos on his website. Great stuff.

Something I saw on a video today getting a dog to accept a head halter. The halter was shown to the dog & it was given a treat. This was done several times. Next the dog was encouraged to target the halter & treated. Then encouraged to put head into it & treated. Finally the dog accepted the halter as something exciting as it meant food.

RIP Scruff. I know how your mum & dad feel.

My dear girl passed on Monday night. She had a wonderful, long life but I miss her so much.

From someone that's never trialled a dog, congratulations, that's wonderful. I'm off now to check up on the training, until now I haven't bothered to read it properly.

Your dad's pup would still benefit from a good positive method obedience club. I think he's now too old for puppy pre-school. The main way to get over problems is to ignore what you don't want & praise & treat what you do want. When a puppies jumping, don't push away, look at or touch because it will see it as attention. Just turn your back & stand still. If a puppy jumps on your lap, stand up.

Same here, my border collie has never worn a collar at home in her 14 1/2 yrs. A friend of mine, a few years ago had her dogs council tag caught in the gap on her decking. The dog couldn't stand up & was panicking. She doesn't use collars at home now either. My council doesn't issue tags any more, but when they did, I attached them to the lead instead of the collar because I used to use 2 different collars, one for walking & one for training.

And never take the collar off while pup is fussing, he'll only learn its ok to fuss. Wait until a calm moment to take off.