koalathebear

Thanks! And wow - you have an Akita and in Canberra of all places I just watched Hachiko's story and was blown away by how beautiful the Akita is - I already adore the Shiba Inu and having both in the same movie was so great. He must be a lot of work though - any photos? With the dogs ... we really don't want Elbie barking. Last year there were poisonings in Evatt (next suburb) and it's always a bad thing to have a constantly barking dog in the yard annoying the neighbours.

Well we moved in yesterday and it's been ... interesting ... Elbie was very, VERY unsettled yesterday - hurtling around the new house like a lunatic, clearly very anxious. We made sure one of us was with him at all times and that his explorations of the house and the yard were in our company. We kind of guessed that we might have to repeat crate training/house-training with him in moving to the new house and let him relearn old skills. Yesterday he cried for about an hour at bed time - he had no problem going into his crate but he cried when we left him. It wasn't possible to have him in our room. By the time I woke up at 4am for his toilet break, he'd settled and went to 'poo corner' very nicely and then whimpered for about 5 minutes after I left him with his new hot water bottle. Today,he was much better and toileting in Poo Corner of his own volition although he did go renegade and poop in two other locations. He can be pretty fast so it's hard to direct him to the right spot in time. Today, he also started going to the kitchen door and barking to be let out to relieve himself which shows that he's getting used to the house. Unfortunately he's still getting his bearings around the house so when he was in the lounge, I think he got a bit confused and wasn't sure how to make his way back to the kitchen door and we hadn't showed him the sliding door from the lounge so before we knew what had happened, there was a number one on the lounge room floor and a number two in transit as my OH grabbed Elbie and tried to run towards the door with him He is settling much more today, though and tomorrow we will show him the sliding door in the lounge so he knows that he can ask to be let out of that one, too. Today he dozed off willingly in his crate and in his dog bed, he was also less frantic in his explorations of the house. He is interested by the yard, but the neighbours on all three sides have dogs and they bark a LOT. He's in the yard supervised for now - we thought we had puppy proofed it until we looked at him and went: "Where did he get that metal spike from?" He won't be left alone in the yard this week - we'll try to get him settled in more. I felt so bad at how anxious and worried he was yesterday - you could see how bewildered and confused he was about being in a brand new place but I'm sure he's going to end up loving it because our old place was a rental and Elbie was never allowed anywhere except the yard and the kitchen and here we can give him access to more of the house (always supervised of course!)

Hi Sonja: We got Elbie at just on 8 weeks and because we are currently living in a rental house we knew that we'd have to crate train him to minimise any damage to the landlord's property. The first few days we had Elbie, we did not close the crate door at all except when we put him in there at night to sleep. We just had the door open and he would wander in and out as he saw fit. We put toys in there, treats ... like your puppy he'd wander in and then wander out again. Now and then if he stayed in there for a little bit, we'd close the door partially - sometimes all the day but not lock it. The first three nights, Elbie screamed his head off and we were very worried that it would give him a distaste for his crate but he actually loves it and will go to it to chill out when he wants to relax or have a nap. It's important to put the crate where the people are and not in a separate, quiet room. Elbie's crate was in the kitchen and we have basically relocated there during the remainder of our rental period It means he gets to be in the thick of the action. If the family mostly hangs out in the study/lounge/family room/kitchen, you should move the crate there. Not all dogs take to crates but after a few days, he should get comfortable enough in it that he wants to go in there voluntarily and doesn't mind if you close the door. These days, we have a dog bed for Elbie and we only lock the crate: 1. at night when it's sleep time 2. if we're doing something like cleaning/opening the front door etc and don't want Elbie running around underfoot 3. someone's just come to visit and Elbie goes hyper and we put him in his crate to calm down and settle before we release the kraken on our poor guest 4. we are going out at night 5. we are going out during the day for more than a couple of hours. If it's more than 2 hours, we'll generally leave him in the backyard to play rather than crate him. Once we went out intending to leave for no more than an hour and a half, got lost and it was over 3 hours before we got home. Elbie was fine but we felt so guilty ... I love crating but it's a bit scary to think of what would happen to the poor dog if we were in an accident or something ;) But that's a morbid thought. The main thing is, as everyone says - never use the crate as punishment - at least in the early days. Elbie's pretty settled with his crate now so now and then if he's being overly rambunctious or biting at his bed mat, we will sometimes plonk him into his crate for a few seconds as a time out. It doesn't seem to give him any aversion to his crate but it does seem to let him know he's done the wrong thing. Like I said though, in the early days though - never use it for punishment. Even now with his dog bed, Elbie will voluntarily seek out his crate rather than his bed if: 1. he is sulking 2. he is afraid of something e.g. the first time I used an electric mixer, he ran to his crate to hide for a few seconds before coming out to investigate the sound :D Good luck with the crate training!

CaseyKay: Gael is beautiful! I especially love the photo of her at 9 months where she's got one ear up and one ear down. Gorgeous

dognurse: your puppy sounds awesome - like a normal, naughty, adorable little puppy Don't worry, I wasn't posting about my puppy in this thread either because although we're very proud of his general development and we love him to bits - like your pup he is quite frequently a little monster!!!! I didn't want to mislead because he is far from perfect 1. He toilets on command and doesn't mess in the house BUT he seems to have a LOT of poop in him :D Some days he also farts a lot 2. While he can be very calm, sweet and affectionate, sometimes he goes into turbo mode and completely crazy and uncontrollable e.g. in the car, during the classroom sections of puppy class 3. When he jumps up, his claws HURT a LOT 4. He can be a total sook ;) 5. He keeps chewing up his bed mat which is driving us bonkers So don't worry you're not alone. Our puppy is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde but I figure he's just a normal, cheeky little puppy ... Sometimes at puppy class we look wistfully at Alfie the cav who sits there and literally does nothing ... but then Elbie's so full of bounce and liveliness that I wouldn't swap him for the best behaved puppy

*choke* I almost spat my coffee at the monitor

Hi there. We got our puppy when he was just on 8 weeks. At first we made the mistake of feeding him Pedigree - this resulted in a LOT of runny dog poop. We could not believe how much poop that little creature was producing Then our vet's nurse told us that dog food like Pedigree is basically just wheat and crap with very little nutrition so he suggested Hill's Science Diet for puppies. After Elbie got started on that, things got a lot better and his tummy seemed to settle down - his poos were certainly a lot more solid and easy to clean up That being said, I'll let you know the issues that we've faced. - we will never give Elbie pigs ears again, first of all they are high in fat and they made him fart horrendously ;) - now and then for no apparent reason, Elbie still gets runny poo and bad gas ... it could be excitement or stress or it could be the fact that at puppy class he's getting 'strange' treats from the other people - when he gets the runny poos, we settle his tummy by giving him some rice and cooked chicken - Elbie LOVES peanut butter and we put it in his kongs (frozen). We don't give him too much because it's probably not good for puppies to get too much - it also makes him farty. Don't ask me why our little puppy has so much gas - for treats, Elbie also loves cheese and apples - but we only give him a little bit each time Hope that helps!

Sigh. The vet had already gone ahead and ordered the heartworm chews for us. Turns out she ordered Heartgard and "each chewable contains 136 ug ivermectin" She's a very experienced vet ... perhaps it's all right given that Elbie's only 1/4 border collie ... I'll speak to her next time we go ion because he doesn't have to take the latest heartworm tablets until August. Until July he's on 1 tablet of Milbemax Dog a month. I just know she'll give me a really baleful: "You are stupid and annoying" look though ... From memory, I think the incidence of reactions in border collies is less than 5% whereas collies is 70% so maybe it's not too bad

hee! gorgeous! My OH loves Elbie's white patch - it's a different texture to the rest of his fur and comes to a strange sort of ridge. My OH jokes that Elbie has a faux-hawk on his chest or says that we have a Rhodesian Ridgechest

The one on the right?

We've been moving all of our stuff into our new house and we were considering getting baby gates but given how many heavy boxes we have, we're thinking of using the boxes to block off exits for the time being Elbie had his last puppy class tonight and graduated He had to do a sit, a drop and one other trick. At firs the was so dementedly hyper and zoomie that we couldn't get him to do anything and the whole class was laughing at us - but eventually he settled down did his sit, drop, beg, high five, shake hands and rollover. Phew. Obedience classes start at the end of the month which should be fun! Have you got any video clips of Ava yet? Also, if you are shy and don't want to start your own thread you could always post your Ava pics here and we could call it the Elbie and Ava thread

We have a backseat buddy - not that brand but something similar but the annoying thing is once we put it on, there's no gap in it for us to pull the strap to clip the harness to the seat belt! So today we had to put half the cover there and half not so that we could buckle him in. From that website, the 'real' backseat buddy does seem to permit access to the seatbelt buckles and straps. He does seem to be getting more accustomed to car rides and was a little bit calmer coming back from puppy classes but unfortunately he was still whimpering and sounding a bit distressed. It's a strange contradiction though because he gets so excited when he sees the harness and he hurtles to the car and he's the one who wants to get inside the car so we can't understand why he cries so much

Elbie's had one nightmare since we've had him. Usually when he's dreaming - he's clearly running. We see his little paws running through the air and sometimes he'll make little barking/yipping noises that are very cute. Once though, he kind of snapped awake and started barking like crazy and looking quite frightened. He was in his crate at the time and by the time I peered in to look at him, he was awake and calmer, but it was clear that he'd had a bit of a fright. I have to admit I did say: "It's ok, Elbie, don't be frightened," and I patted him - but he seemed fine and hasn't had a nightmare since. I hope Katie doesn't have anymore bad dreams! Given how great her life is right now, I'm sure she'll be dreaming of running, playing, toys and food

Hi collipaws - I love the name Thank so much for the compliment about Elbie. We adore him although he has soooooooooooooooooooo much energy that he's really very exhausting sometimes but he is a clever little thing. Did you see the Elbie thread I made for him? It has photos and videos and some of them are quite funny. I LOVE that photo of Luka with the toy - he looks so beautiful and filled with concentration. Those Nina Ottoson toys really do look great and I think I'll definitely get a few once I start working again - we have spent a lot of money on our puppy and I know I'm the one most guilty of being extravagant :p We supervise Elbie for most of his toys - only the kongs and cloth rope thingy are toys we leave with him to play with alone but all of his other toys are scrutinised because he has a habit of dEsTrUcTiOn ;) Would love to see more photos of Luka and his toys. Did you see the fabulous photo posted by fbaudry? The funny thing is Archie looks so sombre given hos many awesome toys he has :D

Here is Elbie pretending to be patient - as he waits for permission to eat his kibble Mind & Scent Games for Puppy - Elbie and the Muffin Tin. Also, after , Elbie is .

We're going to BDOC as well but we'll be starting the Sunday beginners class, alas. Perhaps there will be a club gathering at which we'll get to meet you and Saxon Thanks to you and wuffles, I've just told my OH that we have to add fingerless gloves and a raincoat to our shopping list! Also, what do you use for a treats bag? The pet shop had a bag for almost $20 which seemed a little crazy. Normally we carry our treats for puppy class in a little ziplock bag but that won't be so convenient for obedience classes!

Hee! Thanks. I wanted to buy more than one but: (1) I only have one puppy; and (2) he can only wear one tag at a time so it would be extravagant to buy more than one ;)

What ones did you order? We ordered this one: http://www.etsy.com/listing/48856637/sterl...er-handmade-pet It will have an E on the front and on the back "Elbie" plus our phone # We found out that in the ACT, dogs have to wear their ugly yellow plastic tags and there's no help for it so we didn't bother putting his registration number on it. We did clip his tag though so it's not a loop that can snag on things and it just hangs from his collar. I feel guilty though, dog toys are for the dog but a tag like this? It's just bling for us to enjoy ;) He wouldn't know the difference!

Rubystar: it's here http://www.urbanpuppy.etsy.com/ She's probably going to get quite a few queries from us [Oops I was too slow ;) ]

Bwahaha! I have to say that the at first our decision to opt for Sunday was: "Hmm, when we start work again, if we work late or there are traffic jams (all those stupid road works in Canberra right now!!) then we might be late." Then it was: "Oh gawd, standing around at night in the cold and the dark. Brrr!" We're hoping Sunday morning will at least be sunny even if it's quite cold. I was amused when the info pack said: "Class will continue even if there is rain." My OH and I will need to buy raincoats now just in case because doing obedience with a brolly just wouldn't work ...

Beautiful! I had a look at etsy before and saw some nice ones like these, but these ones are magnificent! they might be the same one! I emailed because 1000markets won't ship outside US and the tag maker (Nancy) directed me towards her etsy site which DOES ship to Australia. I can't wait until our tag arrives - they look so beautiful!

Yup! We might see you around in the cold ... We'll be at obedience classes starting from 20 June - I think wuffles and Ava will be there, too although in a higher class than Elbie. I can't wait until Elbie's old enough to hold it for longer. I get so cold in the mornings when I let him out for his 'elimination' session. I also make him a fresh hot water bottle at that time

Ha! Canberra is soooooooooo cold at nights now and when I'm standing there at 3 or 4am waiting for Elbie - even though he's very prompt and obedient, it still seems to take forever!

They kind of didn't give us an option and had ordered it before I knew what was happening ... but for the next batch we'll buy it online. They seem to have ordered Heartguard chews? No idea if they're any good

GoldenGirl85: That's exactly it! In the sedan version of the Mazda3 - poor Elbie would be on an angle if we got a medium-sized crate and I don't think he'd like that at all. Also - when we bought the car, we didn't have a dog and at that time had no intention of getting a dog Yesterday we tried following the advice of having him sitting in the back on his own - ignoring him - except that even though we tried to make the strap as short as possible - poor Elbie gave a yowl and threw himself down beneath the seat (where you put your feet). I had to go and sit back there with him so that he didn't accidentally strangle himself. We're going to go to Pet Barn today or tomorrow to try to find a harness that will strap him in more securely until he settles. I wish I'd recorded him - he seriously makes monkey sounds sometimes when he's distressed He , he makes monkey sounds and he loves food as though he's a labrador What on earth is he?