Simply Grand

;) Clever girl!

Saxon loves to play with anything Poodle - pure or cross, and any size. If it has poodle in it and does the poodle arms up, boxing / wrestling thing he'll play. He (being a toy poodle x of 4.8kg) has happily played with a young (and BIG) standard poodle x GSD - it was slightly uncoordinated play, with both standing on hind legs, Saxon's arms being about knee height to the other dog, and her arms waving around about a metre over his head, but they both had fun! He also loves to play with Huskies... and Beagles... and Pugs... and Labs... and Rotties... and ACDs and Kelpies... and he likes small fluffies like Jap Spitzs and Poms, I think he thinks they are a cat like my fluffy Persian x cat Charlie, who he loves to play with. Oh and he also likes to try and play with Greyhounds, who generally ignore him. Hmmmm... perhaps he just like to play with anyone! ;)

That is soooo cute! Farmer Pepper has been growing her own treats. I bet she has been secretly tending them the whole time until she decided they were ready for her and you to eat... but not for Tango! Ok one for Tango...

Oooohhh, she is so gorgeous!

Interesting comments about him maybe having Kelpie in him, my first thought when I saw the pictures was that he looks a bit like koalathebear's Elbie (Kelpie x BC). Actually that was my second thought, my first though was "he's so cuuuuuuute!"

I love your post koala, what a good story! Elbie sounds like such a character, I can just picture him doing all the things you described. I don't have any advice for you, to me it sounds like you're managing really well, and Elbie sounds like a normal, if confident, little puppy. And he is clearly very much loved I think I will try and come to BDOC to watch the Sunday class so I can see him in action!

Aaawwwww, look at the pile of cute puppies! They are totally gorgeous qbf!

Oh Magnus... Jed, what a beautiful tribute. I'm glad Magnus got the chance to have the amazing life he had with you.

I love it when the RSPCA ad comes on because Saxon watches each animal cross the screen and keeps running to the side of the TV to look where they've gone. It's so funny! If it comes on and he doesn't notice I make him look at it, just so I can watch him and laugh He reacts to most animals on TV, dogs and cats obviously and he responds to seeing or hearing them, and he's also been known to bark at horses and elephants. He also reacts to the sound of babies or toddlers crying or yelling - if he hears them he looks at the TV then looks at me and sometimes whimpers, it's like he wants to make sure they're ok. It must be instinct, he's never met a baby or really young child in real life (and no I'm definitely not anthropomorphising about my dog's amazing abilities! )

Oh CW, how sad Poor little Cooper, he is so cute! I'm sure he has had a good life of being loved and hopefully he won't suffer too much in his last days. My brother-in-law has just gone from Sydney down to Canberra to say goodbye to his family dog, she has throat cancer and they think they will need to let her go this weekend. I'm lucky not to have had to make that decision for my pets so far, but I imagine it is such a sad and difficult time for anyone who has to go through it

Just catching up on the thread - what a rollercoaster! Watched the news clip and cried, read Jed's comment about not looking like a wally and laughed, then read about the gorgeous Meg and cried again... Cheered up now by all the amazing DOLers and the incredible strength Jed is showing Jed -

Just introduce your very small dog to a very big horse, and he'll express them himself in terror!! Just kidding, I wouldn't intentionally scare my dog... and he made friends with the horse in the end

Love it! My advice is be genuinely confident that you can and will teach your dog to be well behaved. It's true, you can, and your dog wil pick up on your confidence - or your lack of it!

Oh how exciting to see a post from Jed! YAYYYYYY! Welcome back Even those of us who don't know you other than through your amazing presence on DOL have felt so strongly for you during this very hard time and are sooooo happy that you are recovering. Keep healing, and reading, we ain't going anywhere! *hmm, my eyes seem to be leaking too...*

Hi Minet, welcome! Good on you for adopting a shelter dog and working to improve her behaviour! DON'T feel embarrassed about her behaving badly at obedience, that's the whole reason you're taking her there! People understand that most dogs aren't perfect and need some help to learn how to behave. Also, I think a lot of people are more focused on their own dogs than anyone elses, at least in my limited obedience training experience. Like Nekhbet said, if the trainers at this school aren't really helping, maybe it's worth checking out another school, or some one on one training. Good luck

Marley is such a little cutie MM! I'm glad he has a loving home with you. Like the others have said, it's all about patience and perserverance. Saxon took a looong time to toilet train (months) but probably because I'd never had a dog before and didn't really know what I was doing. I also got him a bit younger than I should have (without knowing any better) so maybe that had an impact. I originally used just praise but found that he responded much better when I started using food treats. I mainly use liver treats - not too unhealthy and don't go off like chicken or cheese, plus I kept the packet just next to the back door so it was easy to grab some on the way out. As already mentioned, take him out LOTS! After meals and drinks, naps, playtime and any time you notice it's been a while - I'd say at least once per hour for a puppy that young. Also, say a cue word every time he actually goes to the toilet outside (I use "toilet" in a happy, high voice) and eventually he'll learn what that means so you can tell him to go as soon as you take him outside. You will eventually pick up on his 'needing to go' signal, maybe even without realising. I don't actually know what Saxon's signal is/was, I just found that I could look at him and go "you need the toilet, come on". I didn't do crate training, but I know heaps of people have great success with it, and there are a whole lot of threads about it on DOL, you could do a search to find them all. Good luck!

I've never been to a show before but would love to check it out. How does work, can I just turn up and watch? Can I bring Saxon to watch?

Another one lit, from me and Saxon. Thinking of you Jed.

Aaaaahhh, thanks BP! Yep, that'd be what it was. After that video, off to have dinner

So I've read about anal glands being expressed, or needing to be ( ) Saxon being my first dog, I'd never heard of this before. I didn't think I'd had the pleasure of experiencing anything to do with them yet, but it suddenly just occured to me that maybe I have. A couple of times when Saxon has been scared (once when he met a horse for the first time and once when he was attacked by another dog) some smelly, watery stuff came out of his bottom I thought it was a bit of a scared bowel movement, but maybe it was him expressing his anal glands?? Does that sound right? If so, it wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be, but it was smeeeeelly. Poor Sax

Yes, hopefully we'll run into each other there at some stage, I so want to meet little Elbie! I have a treat bag that I just got from the supermarket (Coles), it has a drawstring at the top and a clip on the back so you can clip it on your belt/pants and another clip at the top so you can hang it off something if you want. I can't remember how much it was, but I don't think it was expensive, less than $20. I still put the treats in a ziplock bag and put that inside the treat bag. I so love this thread with all the puppy photos... I shouldn't even be saying anything yet but I'm hoping I can join in the not too distant future (well, kinda distant), I'm thinking about getting another puppy around April/May next year heeheehee!

I haven't been in in a while as I've been sick, but I'm glad to come back to some positive Jed news. So glad to hear you're recovering Jed, we're all still here sending people and puppy cuddles

I hadn't thought of that, he's just trying to look cool and tough in front of all the big dogs! Can't wait to see how Mars has grown, he look so gorgeous in the photos, as does beautiful Pepper :p :p

Beginner Obedience, hehehe! I have to say it wasn't too challenging for him, just the basics which he mostly already knew, and he got a lot of practice at sitting on his mat! It was fun though and I'm very proud of him :D ;) We start the next level (Bronze) on 17 June and I think we'll keep going through the levels. Here is his posing nicely with his ribbon: And here he is eating it :

Hey Clastic and koala, which club are you going to for obedience? We go to BDOC at Mitchell. Saxon just graduated Beginners and we start Bronze on Thurs 17 June. I hope you guys go there so I can meet your puppies! I recommend a jacket, scarf and I just got some fingerless gloves (I know, not the coolest, but you need fingers to get treats out ). Obedience is fun! Saxon is funny, as soon as he realises he's at the place where he gets extra good treats he gets totally focused on me, like he's going "quick quick tell me what to do so I can have some cheese!". He never wants me to pat or cuddle him when we're there either, it's like "no time for this mum, back to the treats!!".