Cheyd

Hi guys,

I lurked in here awhile ago because I was possibly getting a new pup... It wasnt certain and I wasnt going to jinx it, so didnt say anything to anyone.. not even close friends (I must admit - that was hard!!!)

Well now he is home, let me introduce 'Hemi' my gorgeous 12 week old Westie pup

He had a 5 hour flight from Brissy to perth on Monday, and handled it great!! Considering he was loaded at 1.30pm brisbane time, and we picked him up at 6.10pm perth time (6hrs and 40 mins in his crate), he didnt make a mess once! He is fairly good at night, he gets put to bed about 11pm, and he wakes me up around 4ish am to go out (I guess he still is on brissy time).

He is everything I could ask for and more. after my boy passing suddenly at 18 months old earlier this year, I didnt know what to expect bringing a new puppy home, especially of the same breed, but he has just brought so much joy into our lives, he has mended a very broken heart, although Cruise will never be forgotten and I still miss him, I have a new puppy to bring me joy and help us move forward..I have my dear friends in qld to thank, for making a dream come true!!!

Oh what a cutie pie :D :D :D ;)

Congratulations on your new best bud!

Dont puppies have a wonderful way of healing your heart, my Merlin did the same for me. First time we had ever flown an animal, he came from NSW, handled the flight better than I would have!! And he has been a complete dream ever since, I still miss my Holly every minute of every day but I look at Merlin and I just melt

Hope you bring him to a Perth meet!

gggrrrr let me at that bitch, poor defenceless little puppy going through that hell

See how she likes being thrown down and hit with a shovel

I hope he makes a good recovery and finds a forever home who will love him and show him not all humans are pigs

Mavericks Mission - he is a cutie

Have you thought of a name for him yet?

Well done on giving a rescue a loving home

Hi Everyone

Love the pictures of all your new puppies they are all so beautiful and I WANT ONE lol

I have my name down with a couple of breeders, looking for a second sheltie pup to be a companion to Merlin. Hopefully within a couple of months we will have a buddy for Merlin

Keep all the stories coming, they are great to read

So very sorry for your loss Kbrown and RIP Keysh

Its so hard when we invest so much love in our animals to lose them especially unexpected. I played the "what if" game when I have lost all my babies and all I can say is you did your best, Keysh knows that and loved you for it. We make decisions based on the information we have at the time, hindsight is always perfect.

Take comfort in the 4 1/2 years you had together and YOU DID MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO KEYSH thats all that matters really

Thank you for rescuing Keysh and for the love you gave her

Made me cry

Very touching and something everyone owning an animal should read

Thank you for posting that even if it made me cry

I hope Lucky lives up to her name and comes through, Parvo is horrible

Holly - cause it rhymes with Holly Jolly Collie - silly but she responded to that name, only name she responded too and I tried for about 4 days before that one came up

Missie - I wanted something different LOL little did I know every kitten or puppy I came across for the next six months was called Missie

Merlin - my OH suggested it, our new puppy would bring some magic into our lives, and a bit of a play on blue merle

‘Josephine’ was sent to us at Peak Crossing all the way from a reputable Townsvelle breeder. She was wonderful dog for the children, gentle, timid and friendly. Very pretty and clean. We even had her desexed before she was sent to us.

Surely if they knew they were getting a puppy they would have brought a collar and tag before hand, I know thats what we did. I loved choosing toys and a collar before Merlin arrived, we even had a tag engraved with our name and phone number, added his name later when we had chosen it but it was all ready for him when he got her.

Still a very sad situation for everyone

RIP little Josephine

Congratulations on your new puppy

Sorry I have no experience with Siberians but I would LOVE to see some photos of your Mya :D

Hi Holly's Mummy,

Hopefully this works, still trying to figure out how to do this all.

I am a little biased but I think she is beautiful

OH MY GOSH my heart just melted, she is just beautiful, I love her eyes

Thank you for the stunning photos

Congratulations on your new puppy

Sorry I have no experience with Siberians but I would LOVE to see some photos of your Mya

H/M, suggest you contact the breeder at this link, they are in W.A. and specialise in Blues. http://www.tiakinashelties.com/

Thanks Hesapandbear, I have met and spoken to Tiakina and I have my name down with her also. I am not sure that she will be breeding again early this year as she had 2 litters late last year, and she helped me get Merlin also

Merlin is from a pair of dogs bred by Tiakina and he is just gorgeous

I have had a big talk with my other half today and we have decided to wait until we can get the puppy we want.

I am grateful for all the answers and advice it's given me a lot to think about.

I think I was missing Holly and watching Merlin with Justin (other half) made me miss her more. So a couple of melancholly days later I think we will wait for Merlin to get a little older

I would like to let any breeders know that I would be most estactic to hear if anyone is planning litters this year? I am looking/hoping to get a female blue Sheltie, definitely not for breeding just a beloved pet.

Thank you again for all the advise

Not sheltie specific advice but 2 dog advice the best suggested combination is usually 1 of each sex and that you leave sufficient time between dogs that the dog is trained to a level you are satisfied with before adding a second. The suggestion given is usually 18 months to 2 years ideally slightly longer. It means the older dog has enough training to be pretty reasonably behaved (if you have done everything right). Two dogs means only half as much time to devote to training so its easier if one has solid basics before introducing dog 2. Also a friend did mention she had 2 pretty close in age and the sad fact is that when they get to the other end of their life you can find yourself losing them both in a short period of time.

Sometime else to consider when working out when to get a second dog.

Thanks Ness, definitely something to think about.

oh boy the thought now of losing two in close timing, is very daunting...

HM now would be a good time to introduce another puppy to your family, provided you feel that the family have enough time to care for them both and to give them equal attention. If you read through the last few pages of the sheltie thread you will see that Tali has recently added a puppy to her family, I think Jess (the older of her two) is about 2 years old and the puppy approx 6 months now.

I did read that and wondered if I was being hasty, a few other threads mention not introducing the second puppy till a bit later.

Merlin is in the process of completing his course of obedience, much more training/reinforcing to be done by me . We also share our home with 2 cats, Bella is around 4 and Jessi who is almost 20. My partner is fully supportive, but he is working shift work at the moment - soon to change hopefully

I would be really interested in hearing any wisdom that Tali can share as I dont want to make a mistake here

If we did introduce another puppy, what sex should the second puppy be? or it wouldnt matter?

Also a lot of threads mention making sure the puppies get along, would it be better to get a puppy locally or from another state? Merlin came from NSW and was my first experience with having a domestic animal flown anywhere, he handled it really well so I am happy to consider a puppy from interstate but not if its not a good idea?

Thanks again for any advice

Second Puppy

I was wondering if anyone could tell me when would be a good time to introduce a second puppy to our home?

I currently share my life with Merlin (oh and my partner!) who is 41/2 months old, he is a blue merle sheltie, desexed.

Any advice is welcome as I think I might be a bit eager to get another puppy

Thanks

One way to get rid of the ants without using sprays etc, is to sprinkle some corn flour around where they are(preferably where your dogs can't get to it) they then carry this back to their nest and the whole nest will eat it, can't digest it & therefor end up dieing

Thanks for the idea, but will go looking for a chip'n'dip plate or something similar

I bought a Chip & Dip plate to combat an ant problem for my cats food and it seemed to work a treat. Just fill the chip part with water and put food/kibble in the dip part. easypeasy!

Brilliant idea - thanks and so simple

I was thinking I would have to make something up myself but I will go looking for one of these :D

Oh it's not an implication that you're not looking after your pets or over feeding them - when i was given that advice it was for the exact opposite reason, that my dog wasnt eating enough. By making her meal a once a day thing that only lasted a set amount of time i could make sure i knew she was getting enough food in her, and encouraging her to eat up and put on some weight because food was to be eaten when it was available.

I was trying to be helpful - but take it as you will

I do apologise sincerely if I have misinterpreted any answers

i'd try getting a shallow container with a big surface area, eg a cat litter tray or paint roller tray and filling that with a shallow pool of water, and then putting woofer's bowl in the middle - same thing as an ant-proof bowl but a much bigger moat to really drown the little suckers,

I agree with Nicole, put the kibble bowl in a shallow container that is quite a bit bigger than the bowl.

I leave kibble down during the day when I'm at work and often have ant plagues (not really but lines of ants all over the bathroom, kitchen and laundry), and they would get all through the kibble. Saxon's bowl is only small (as is he) so I put it on a plastic picnic plate and filled that with water. It worked well, and the ants seemed to just stop trying to get into the bowl - well, I didn't come home to lots of drowned ants.

Thanks Di and Saxonpup That was the idea I came up with but thought I would ask incase there was a mat or something that ants just dont like to cross, bit like talc powder as previously mentioned

However it seems rather than helping me, almost everyone here just wants to judge me with how I look after my animals. Not that I have to justify anything to anyone but my family, my pets and my vet are all very happy with how healthy they all are. None of my animals are overweight either.

I look forward to reading more helpful responses!

"If you really want to do it, you can buy special bowls that have a moat(ap?) around them that you can fill with water " OP mentioned she had tried that.....

"I have purchased a ant-proof bowl but to be honest its useless, the water channel is too small and the water evaporates too quickly"

If you want to leave kibble down elevate it on a small piece of wood or something similar and sprinkle talcum powder around the edge of the wood. ants don't like talc. I wouldn;t sprinkle around the bowl itself to avoid any possibility of the talc being ingested.

Thank you Fit for a King,

I too had that problem till i took the advice of others on here and only gave my girl 15-20mins to eat her dinner. But if that's not suitable for your situation i'd try getting a shallow container with a big surface area, eg a cat litter tray or paint roller tray and filling that with a shallow pool of water, and then putting woofer's bowl in the middle - same thing as an ant-proof bowl but a much bigger moat to really drown the little suckers,

Thank you but I dont actually leave the fresh food out for very long, and his kibble I like to leave just a little out for him to snack on, my animals have always self-regulated their kibble and I dont see any reason to stop that now.

Sometimes he will not eat straight away, especially if it has just come straight from the fridge, I try to bring it to room temperature but dont always manage that. The ants are so quick, and they loiter around his bowl all the time just waiting for something to be dropped.

Gee wish I had thought of that

Help please!

We feed Merlin in the laundry and unfortunately we have an ant problem. Any food left in the bowl or on the ground is quickly set upon by lots of ants. I am reluctant to use too much spray on the ground as I dont want it to get into his food

Even if I leave a handfull of kibble out for him to eat, they will attack that also, its not just his fresh food

I have purchased a ant-proof bowl but to be honest its useless, the water channel is too small and the water evaporates too quickly

Can anyone recommend some way of preventing the ants from reaching Merlins food please?

I was thinking there might be some sort of surface that ants arent able to cross or maybe a better designed food bowl, this is so frustrating ggggrrrrr

Hi Holly, you can start now if your dog has had it's puppy shots! What breed is your puppy? Got any photos?

The Agility Club of WA training starts tomorrow night. They have a puppy class.

Puppy class Start Times

7.00 pm -7,30pm under 6months

7.30pm - 8.00pm 6months to 12 months

Be there at about 6.30 to enrol then help set up the equipment.

Here's the website for the details and membership form.

http://www.agilityclubwa.com/

It is held on the bottom oval of the Canine grounds, corner of Warton and Ranford Roads, Southern River.

Hi Amypie

thanks for the info unfortunately I have a prior committment tomorrow night, do you know if they would accept anyone joining the following week?

Merlin has had his shots and has just been sterilized. He is a blue merle sheltie