SkyesongTollrz

>> How many dogs do you have? How often do you train etc. Do you find it hard to train all of them? What are their rough ages - ie: are some retired, do you have multiple dogs at trialling level? Do you feel that you have enough time for each dog? Do you have multiple breeds to train or do you only have the one breed? Any preferences in working style? << 3 dogs Formal training classes 4 times per week, informal training every day No A 7 year old in Obedience and Agility. A 5 year old (import dog) about to enter the obedience and agility rings, and a 10 month old pup who is in training. I make the time Only the one breed. It's not about training them, it's about living with them. This is the breed I love to live with.

It's not impossible to create high fencing on a tight budget. Some 6ft star pickets, dog fencing and a bit of elbow grease may not look pretty, but they certainly do the job to increase the height of the fence to stop her jumping over. Alternatively, she's not going to have a problem kept under the house, particularly if it is only 2 days a week. I'm assuming you're talking older style with the concreted area/garage underneath? If you're underhouse area is secure, has a comfy bed to curl up in, plenty of water in her bowl, a few toys, then she'll have no problems, and it's probably safer for her than roaming the yard without supervision. Personally I think it's a good option as you know she's secure, and there's a no chance of someone reaching over the fence and stealing her. Another option would be to fence in a verandah or pergola style area that she can stay in whilst she's unsupervised. Good luck!

Bearing in mind that you're dealing with a gundog, and they have excellent memory as far as a bird (or in this case, a guinea pig) is concerned. I had a similiar problem with neighbours and an aviary. My dogs saw it one day (when they were rebuilding a fence) and obsessed about it for weeks. I finally convinced the neighbour to move it, and let my dogs "loose" to go for the birds (where they thought they were). They realised there was nothing there, and gave up. The neighbour moved the aviary back a few days later, and the dogs never bothered with it again. If you could get your neighbours to cooperate, and move the guinea pig for a few days, reopen the gap in the fence, and let your dog see that there is nothing there, then he may just stop worrying about it. I gather your neighbours are a bit feral, but if you approach them with the fact that it's "your" dog that has a problem, and not "their" guinea pig that's the cause of it, they may be more willing to help you out with it.

There's nothing wrong with getting a pup out early, assuming you are being sensible. My newest pup was at training (a private group on private property) by 8 weeks and playing with the dogs I train with. My adult dogs are out at different clubs training several nights a week and at trials on the weekend, so if she were to pick up something, it would just as likely be at home as it would be in someone elses backyard. She went to the agility nationals at 10 weeks of age. I had to travel from interstate, so she either came with me (but didn't run on the grounds) or she got left in a kennel. Which is the bigger health risk? Which is the bigger risk to her long term temperament? (BTW, her breeders were also there and had no problems with me taking her along.) I do advocate early training and socialisation, regardless of vaccinations. I've done titres at various ages on pups and not once, at any age, have they been shown to be under an acceptable level. I'm not advocating people take them into the middle of a dog park and let them loose, but puppy socialisation classes (with a good instructor), even training, should have no impact on the health of a healthy young pup, purchased from a reputable breeder, who follows a sensible health and vaccination protocol. I did originally keep pups at home until they were older, and I'll never do it again. Uforia, What I would suggest in your situation is NOT to pick your puppy up when she gets nervous (ever!), but to lure her onto the sidelines with some treats or a toy (whichever motivates her) and do some basic work with her. Do a couple of sits or drops, always with treats and big praise. Even simple attention exercises like "watch me" will help build her confidence and take her mind off her nerves about the other dogs around her. Teach her to focus on you, not on the dogs around her. If you have to step a bit further away from the other dogs to really get her attention, that's fine, but don't let her get away with being sooky and clingy. Gradually work her closer and closer (she probably won't even realise it if she's really focussed on you) to the other dogs. Your demeanour will also help her. If you're worried about the other dogs approaching or getting too rough, then she'll pick up on that and act nervy. If you're off to the side and working with her, you're focussed on her, you're not nervous, and she's getting praised. Approach the owner of one other dog after the class, and ask if they can have a meet n greet when it's not quite so overwhelming for her. If she's nervous and you give up the classes for now, she's only going to learn that sooking gets her out of the situation. Be very matter of fact with your behaviour around her. "This is life, get used to it." Even if she gets bumped and rolled by the other puppies, don't let yourself get upset. When I was training my youngster one day, she ran up to an adult dog doing agility (I knew the dog). It growled and rolled her over, not aggressively, but just a "back off, I'm working here". The owner freaked, but I said "no problems! Thanks for the life lesson!" My pup crawled back to me sooking, and I immediately started working her again, not even acknowledging that there had been a break. She got over it in about ten seconds, and she now knows not to run away and go up to dogs that are working. She needed to learn that lesson in life. If I'd have mollycoddled her, then she'd be a completely different dog. Just out of curiousity Uforia, do both you and your OH take your puppy to the training class?

Gee Mel.... where's your dedication??

Nope it's definately an early start! And it's always freezing cold!!! Lots of people camp down there to be there on time! I'm sure the club can rustle up a few people to drop a bucket of cold water on him at 4:30am to get him out of bed on time Last I heard you could do the ET more than once if you wanted (or you are insane), although you'll only get the title once. I would assume you would only be able to do it if there were spare places at the trial. They only take a limited number of dogs each year, so I think the club would wait until all entries are in before deciding if there was space for dogs who already had the title.

I feed a raw food diet to my dogs (modified prey model). The last time I bought processed pet food was 19 years ago. I use a variety of meat cuts including chicken, beef, lamb, pork, roo, goat, rabbit and fish, depending on what is available (or on sale), plus offal. I only feed vegetables and rice/pastas as the occasional leftover from my plate (maybe 1-2 times per week). I usually add eggs and oils several times per week.

The Queensland Agility and Jumping Dog Club trains at Mt Gravatt on Thursday evenings. There's quite a few cavs that run in agility up here in Queensland.

>>and has trapping the cat done anything except make them madder and more distressed. Would removing the cat maybe upset the daughter more? I expect that when the dogs bark and she gets upset that the situation inside their house is desperate. Seriously I would contact your mental health team and have a chat, see if they can't intervene on your behalf to work out a mutually acceptable solution. Maybe also contact your GP to see if he can't give you some information about autism and aspergers.<< Why is the daughters illness the OP's problem? It's the neighbours daughter, not her's. The OP has done quite a bit already to keep these people happy, so it's about time they met her halfway. Or because they have a daughter with an illness they're suddenly no longer expected to adhere to common courtesy? Or is the OP not allowed to have dogs because the neighbours daughter is scared dogs? If they kept THEIR cat in THEIR yard then the dogs wouldn't bark. Simple.

It's very simple.... don't leave the paper where he can get to it. Dogs don't know the difference between junk mail and "important documents". If you don't want him chewing on them, put them in a filing cabinet.

I'd bypass them both and go to the butcher to get my dog some real food!

At a club I used to be at, I ended up teaching (sometimes two classes) each training night, and never got to train my own dogs. They'd come along with me, but then other instructors wouldn't show up, so someone had to teach the classes. And then on agility nights everyone would show up just when class started, and find a way to leave as soon as class was over, leaving me to lug away all of the equipment myself. Then they all complained when I refused to teach agility anymore. I'm at two clubs now. One is an agility only club, and I make sure I'm there early to help, and stay until everything is put away, but I'm now training three dogs, and need to devote the time to them, so prefer to spend my times training them. The other club is an obedience club, and I'm the trial secretary, so run seven trials a year for them instead, and consider that to be my fair share. No matter which club you belong to, it's always a struggle to find people to help out. If everyone did a little bit of something (instructing, stewarding at trials, even helping by putting out the gear and putting it away), then it would be fair to everyone. It's the members who take and take and take without giving anything back that drive me crazy, like one competitor at our club who gives her points to our club, only when there is a trial at our club (because our end of year trophies only count at home trials), and at other trials gives them to another club. She doesn't train at the club, and has never lifted a finger to help out, but wants to be in with a chance to win our end of year trophies. I'm not eligible for any of my own clubs end of year trophies because I'm always running the trials, but she can be eligible for them just by paying her membership? Personally, I'd like to see clubs impose a rule that all members must assist at a certain number of trials per year. Would certainly mean less grey hairs for me, running around trying to find stewards! Anyone want to steward next saturday night?

That's like asking which one of your children you would save. Stupid hypothetical, which has no place on a forum of dog lovers. But if I had to answer your question, who would I choose? Neither. I'd find a way to save them both, risking my own life if necessary. You seem to have stumbled over the wrong forum. This is a forum of dog *LOVERS*, not a forum of people who think it's "just a dog". Most people here live for their animals and go to extraordinary lengths to save their lives and to provide for their animals.

>>When you lose a pet, which can be as a child for some people, there's nothing else you can do, its gone. At the end of the day, in the big and simple context of life, its a dog. << Are you suggesting that people who lose a dog (or a child) shouldn't be allowed to grieve??? That they should just get over it because it's just a dog? OR a child?? You know, I've been reading these threads, and I suspected that you are a moron, but now it's been confirmed and pointed out in big neon letters.

Yup SM, for the first little while you will have to get up every few hours and take your pup out for a wee walk. Not much fun, but still much more fun than having a mess to clean up . Most puppies are fairly easy to toilet train if you put the effort into it. Think about a young baby, and ask if you would expect them to not hold their bladders for eight hours when they are only a few months old? Like children, puppies need to learn to control their bladders, and that does take some time. By taking them out in the middle of the night means that they learn success, rather than failure. It gives you the opportunity to praise them for doing the right thing, and you can then start to increase the time they hold their bladders. Three hours one night, three hours and five minutes the next night. And so on. Take your pup outside and put them on the ground, and then praise when they do their business (yup, even if you have to stand outside in your pjs for thirty minutes - you wait until they've gone). No games, no cuddles, no talking, just hold their lead and wait it out. As soon as they go, heap on the praise and make a big fuss of them. Won't take them long to figure it out. My latest addition came to live here at 7 weeks of age. For the first few nights I set the alarm and got up at 4am to let her out (I usually go to bed about 1am, and wake about 7am), and within five days I abandoned the alarm as she would whine and whack her paw on the side of the crate (which was next to the bed) when she needed to go out. By 12 weeks she was sleeping through the night (to 7am), and by 16 weeks she slept loose in the bedroom, and now at 6 months she sleeps right through and doesn't even wake me when I have my rare chances to have a late sleep in. Very occasionally she'll get up on the bed and whine in my face, then I know she really needs out. As Heidi says, don't let the heartbreaking cries get to you. You will quickly learn the difference between a sympathy cry and a 'I need to pee' cry. Bear in mind that that hard work of having to get up in the middle of the night now will pay off down the track. It sucks for a while, but you'll quickly forget about it when you have a housetrained pup that sleeps through the night.