Little Gifts

When we saw the Dreadlocked Dog Whisperer he had some great advice for the attention seekers. Tempeh had a habit of sitting in the middle of the lounge room sort of cry talking and we'd be all like "what's the matter baby girl? What do you want?" He said she was grandstanding so we started ignoring it and getting up and walking in to her without saying anything so she'd have to move from her 'look at me' power position. She stopped doing it and just settles in the lounge with the rest of us now. He also taught us for over excited dogs to turn our eyes away from the dog, look up and do big, exaggerated, noisy yawns. This in turn can cause the dog to yawn which is a destresser and they then settle fairly quickly. This one works every time with my SBT but only sometimes with our pei. Apparently it is something mother dogs do to settle their pups when they are being naughty.

Tempeh carries on like she is going to die from starvation while I am preparing their dinner and handing the bowls out. I try to ignore it and the other dogs just hang back and go whatever! Her 'sit' is often just a vague bum hover depending on how ravenous she is.

I watched it and got all excited! Denise looked a bit sexy in bright yellow!

We have three dogs and they always get fed in different rooms and in pack order. They each even have totally different bowls. I can stand in one location and watch all three at the same time though. The reason for this is we have different speeds of eaters, different levels of hunger and we did have a pack order issue that we feel needs to be continually enforced. I do make them all sit before I will put their bowls down and two of them go straight to their spots and simply wait (the youngest runs from spot to spot with her starving face on but knows she is only to eat from her bowl/spot). And as soon as each is finished I immediately pick their bowls up. I've dog sat at a few multiple dog households now and where there are any more than two dogs it is quite common for some dogs to be crated or separated into rooms at feeding time. One breeder makes hers get into their trailer compartments where they can eat in private. The dogs generally go to their spots and are contained before the food bowls come out, so there is no opportunity for a mass riot. It makes feeding time safer and easier for the humans and dogs. And bowls are always picked up once they have finished eating.

Seems like we already have a new designer dog in this house and we didn't know it! The Gerbarian Shepsky. Wait until I tell my sister! Part of the designer dog problem is a focus on cute rather than health and wellbeing. If puppy farms and BYB's are not going away then maybe the regulations should change so we are not focussed so much on how many dogs they have and the conditions they are breeding and raising them under as that is clearly not deterring these breeders from making money at the expense of the animals in their care. Perhaps the focus should shift to proof of health of animals they are selling, which in turn will go back (to a degree) to the quality of their breeding stock. You can't easily sell diseased and deformed cattle so why the hell should people be able to sell diseased and deformed dogs and at exorbitant prices just because they are cute! As for the man who created the Labradoodle - he did it for a purpose and with care and it is not his fault if other opportunists jumped on the band wagon.

Just be careful about feeding leftovers. Familiarise yourself with poisonous foods for doggies. Onion is one and I thought maybe goulash had that in it? Mine have only had Black Hawk kibble with dried chicken breast sprinkles today but they ate very early (totally shocked Tempeh!) so I'm planning on giving them a toilet roll for afternoon tea! Stussy ate a lot of bad things as a young'un. We were incredibly lucky that she never required a stomach pump or surgery. I used to have to take show and tell into work. Her taste buds ran to cd's, dvd's (usually ones belonging to someone else), ergonomic light bulbs, a wire waste paper basket, the handles off plastic washing baskets, two mobile phones, thongs, an entire family block of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut chocolate, a kilo of raw almonds, pillows, doonas (but not if they were on her bed), several jars of vaseline, a whole packet of birth control pills, some anti-depressants, books and a large dictionary. There's probably more that I have forgotten about. She used to do this while you were having a shower, in the toilet, hanging the washing or momentarily distracted. The first command she ever learnt was "LEAVE!". Even though she outgrew the worst of it after three years we still never leave her in the house without cleaning everything off surfaces lower than table height because she will jump up for a taste test. She still can't resist fluff. I have to send chewed doonas for recycling about ever 3 months when a Stussy Snow Storm hits. I love that naughty girl!

Done.

I do this. I often tell my dogs that 'daddy' is home. I'm Mummy and my parents are nanny and poppy. I refer to them as mummy's babies and other terms of endearment but when talking to others about them I call them dogs. I don't care what other people call their pets as long as they treat them well and appropriately :) Because my sister lives with me I often say "your other mummy is home!" I know they love me best though.... And Tempeh adores her "Grandma" and goes all silly when she comes for a visit, even though Grandma never even brings her presents!

I call them fur babies (only to other dog lovers), not because I think of them as replacement children but because I know they are well loved.

That first one (black and white one in first post) is like a painting! Just beautiful!

You know your adoptive skin parents truly love you when they put a song to your video clips! I think they are keepers!

Thanks for those! I was waiting to see what the Gold Coast dates were as those were last years dates. I'll go check out the Greenheart Fairs now they sound great. For some reason I think I remember reading somewhere that Purina were attending a lot of the other organised Doggy Days since there are so many rather than holding their own anymore? It's a foggy memory from somewhere within so I could be wrong! ;) You are so right re the GC event dates - what a doofus I am! I think the Purina event may have clashed with Million Paws Walk here in Brissie, maybe last year? I only went once and it wasn't a very big event so I'm not surprised if they changed their approach. Greenheart is a bit eclectic. We've had a shar pei rescue stall there (we were 'recycling' them!) but I think we may have been the only doggy stall there at last year's events. Lots of people turn up with their pets though. There was a cute piggy on a leash at the last one!

Fantastic resource DogCulture! If you want to add it, the annual Gold Coast Pet Expo is on 5 and 6 Oct 2014 here in QLD. Another interesting family and animal friendly event here in QLD is the Greenheart Fair, usually held twice a year at two different locations around Brisbane. The next one is on 1 June 2014 at Chermside. Each year there is also Purina's Bark in the Park which I think is in multiple states, but I couldn't find any 2014 dates.

Apparently my sneezes are terrifying! The dogs and my sister can sneeze, but the universe caves in if I do it.

Yes I think I've become worried that mine has been pretending to eat her tablets and they are hidden in the garden somewhere! They seem to make the edible varieties so big that if your dog wont eat it you need to chop it into quarters to hide it successfully. Little tablets that we have had for health issues have been fine hidden in food but none of our dogs gets sick very often so I haven't had to deal with trying to give out a tablet that can't be administered with food. There just seems to be something about the brands of heartworm and worm tabs that I use that I can no longer disguise! Spot on it is! Thanks everyone!

Trust me, while she will immediately leave something if I tell her she is not to eat it, pretty much anything that can fit has ended up in her mouth for a taste test. She is 6 years old now so we have done ok for quite a number of years hiding them in food but finally it seems that once she feels a certain type of crunch in her mouth or smells that tablet smell, even on the edible varieties, her suspicious hat comes on and she wont open her lips for anything! She refused to eat her beloved chicken necks tonight because she knew! And her suspicious behaviour is now starting to make the younger dog suspicious too. One problem child is enough! I will check out the spot on, water soluble and injections. The spot on might be my first new choice I think. I've never used anything apart from tablets and edibles so wasn't sure what else was out there. And I know what I am capable of and putting a tablet into a dog's throat is not one of them. It distresses me to do so I don't even want to go there, especially if I don't need to.

I have an sbt who will eat anything. Except yummy, edible heartworm and worming tablets. I have resorted to some very underhanded means to disguise her tablets and the last couple of months she is having none of it and it is getting to the stage I am wasting money, having to throw out tablets covered in raw chicken/roast chicken/cheese/peanut butter/sardines/vegemite toast and start again with new ones. I've also tried to pretend it is my food that I've dropped (she'll eat lettuce under those circumstances usually) or that she is in competition with the other dogs for a special treat. Tomorrow it will be my third day of trying to dose her fully for just this month. Frankly I am getting sick of it and can't risk her not getting her full dose, especially of heartworm tablets. I have never, ever successfully stuck a pill down a dog's gob. So I don't think that is an option either. I'm not sure crushing it will make a difference either as she seems to smell it even when I just get it out of the packet and becomes distrustful of anything I feed her. Could I make her a banana chia smoothie maybe? (that's a joke but I am desperate enough to try it) So what do other people do? Surely I'm not the only one who struggles with this issue? Is there a worming paste that I could try? Is it also true that you can get annual heartworm injections? What are people's thoughts on those? And do I wait until she is due again for it or do I go now with her half dosed?

You have had a crap run RMS. It's not Bella's fault that her time has come and she is adding to the mix so what a beautiful idea to have a breakfast and beach date with her! Just enjoy the time you have left with your beautiful girl and try and let the other problems you have experienced recently sit in the background on their own for now. I'm sure you will be shedding enough accumulated tears next week.

This sounded like the only puppy school I've been to as well and sadly we were the main culprits of the chaos! I had a 13 week old rescue sbt who was used to rough housing it with two larger breed adult dogs and who loved everybody and everything and pretty much carried on like she had ADHD at every class. The rest were all molly coddling their fluffies and had no real interest in socialising or training them to do anything apart from lie on their laps and not pee on the carpet. My girl was always the first to piddle on the floor or be doing something she shouldn't. She was just a whirlwind of excitement. We tried so hard to be good, honest! I was very glad when she finally graduated and we didn't have to see their panicked faces again. Then we went and bothered new people in a beginners class for another 6 weeks.....

Woot!

The first crate I bought I overestimated the size needed and my sister and two dogs could fit inside it comfortably together. There was absolutely nowhere we could stick it without it being in the way. Fail.

I know there have been old threads on doggy toilets, both commercial ones and ones DOLers have made themselves with things from Bunnings. Maybe search doggy toilets and see what you come up with?

Thanks Boronia and Mita!

There is a DOLer (maybe Ellz?) who lost an sbt pup a couple of years back in Tassie under suspicious circs. I still have a feeling that dog is going to pop up somewhere in another state under circumstances like this. And I firmly believe the chinese crested pup that went missing after a horrific truck accident in NSW last year is happily living with a family many kilometres away from where it was originally found. I don't know how I'd cope if one of mine went missing and I had no closure on what really happened.

Stussy seems to know this too! Before Tempeh came to live with us and became the Queen of Morning Wake Ups Ready Or Not, once Stussy sensed I was safely out of my nightly coma she would jump all over me and start scratching the blankets off me and generally being irritating but I was obviously awake enough to always find it funny. Grumpy tired me would've gone spare at that kind of thing!