whiskedaway

You will find that there are a lot of us who own dogs (and have raised puppies) who work fulltime or close to fulltime. I took a week off with Akira when we first got her and because at that stage I worked weekends, my OH and I were able to juggle it so that she was only left alone 2-3 days a week. She's now alone 4 days a week and is absolutely fine.

Not sure there's anything that can be done for a broken rib. There's definitely not for humans - when my OH broke his, he was told lots of rest and pain relief. Keep her quiet and get some pain relief from the vet. Eta Nekhbet's right about the false bravado actually. No pain relief will keep her quiet without you having to force it. Dogs generally won't do anything that hurts.

I think it will take more time. While I really liked Akira, she was sooooo frustrating up until she was about 5 months old. I never really bonded with her, though OH did, and I felt a little bad. However, as she's gotten better behaved, I've noticed that I love her more and more every day. When I'm at home, she's always around and we play and train together. I think being much more aware of what her personality is has really helped. Oh and her growing up and not being quite so naughty has helped too!

A friend of ours bought a petshop Husky a while back, and they said "oh, we should breed him to your dog!" I replied that Akira was desexed, and they said "Why would you desex a beautiful purebred dog like her?"

Akira generally does not toilet on lead. We never made a big deal out of training that, she has just always preferred not to. She is starting to learn a toileting command, though, because when I take her to work for the day, she has to toilet on lead because the yard isn't fenced. She has also always preferred not to toilet when out, but she's starting to grow out of that. I just make sure I carry bags.

Akira has destroyed every dog bed she's been given. I don't trust her with anything that remotely resembles a mattress/dog bed anymore. Until she's finished chewing everything up, she gets towels.

Akira's not excited to see me either. Seeing OH is a completely different matter, though. Even if he's at home, if she hears "his car" (the neighbour owns the same car, and it's a really distinctive noise) she'll race outside to be the first one to greet him. :laugh:

I saw Pro Plan Breeder on the Pet Shop Boyz website. What's the difference between Pro Plan Breeder and the normal 15kg bags, such as Pro Plan Puppy?

OT - but Akira looks like she should be a member of "Kiss" Haha, she's a bit Gene Simmons, hey? And she also has the longest tongue ever, Ker can attest to that! The guy we got her from wanted to call her Zorro or Batman because of her mask. We scrapped that, seeing as she's a girl. :D OH and Akira became a team today. OH trapped the flies against the sliding door and Akira caught them and ate them.

Ditto Dju. I love Sibes, especially black markings. But she is definitely the most gorgeous Sibe I've seen She is going to get such a big head. Thanks Minxy. Sav, that 8 month old picture of Savanna is gorgeous! Seeing the difference between puppy/adult of big breeds is always amazing. Emmy and Kairu are such cute fluffballs. :D

Akira most definitely has bad habits. She's a massive PULLER (which we're working so hard on) and she's a bench surfer, which she knows is bad and will run away if we catch her. She's also scared of the microwave.

We've just redone our backyard and we're about to start planting some plants. We're going to put in more mature plants to stop the possibility of Akira pulling them up, and we plan to get cheaper hardy plants. However, my main worry is bees, because Akira likes to catch flies and I suspect she'd be the same with bees. As she's alone for a decent part of the day four days a week, I don't want plants that will attract bees because I'm afraid of her eating one and getting stung and no one being around. :D Does anyone have any suggestions on some really dog friendly, bee-free plants?

Do people think obedience school is a must? We had planned not to take Akira to training and to do it ourselves. However, we quickly realised that while we had done our research, training a Husky was VERY different to our previous dogs and we needed the help, especially with PULLING. That problem still isn't completely solved, but we had a fantastic trainer today who has helped us heaps. For a dog that is a bit difficult, I think it's important to get someone else's opinion and/or help. People who do go- why do you go? did you find it boring to begin with? See above. But we still go because I enjoy going, Akira enjoys seeing all the other dogs and normally we both enjoy our classes. We're both a little bored of our current class, but that's because we should have moved up two weeks ago (because she knows how to do everything) but they're holding us there until Akira learns not to pull. I've always enjoyed it, because our club tries to break up the monotomy with some time getting used to basic agility equipment for the puppies and socialisation. Can you do other dog sports eg flyball, agility without having attended basic obedience classes? In my club you have to be at a certain level to do both agility and flyball. Puppies agility you have to pass level 1, and flyball you have to pass level... 3 or 4, I think.

If it was a breed where I knew the breeders fairly well, then definitely. If it was a breed I wasn't so sure about, I'd find someone who does know the breed and check with them what the best course of action is. But I'd be more likely to tell breeders than not, I think.

Akira gets two cups a day of Supercoat Puppy, morning it goes in her treat ball and evening she gets it in her bowl which we use to practice her sit/stays. She sometimes gets sardines or raw chicken mixed in with it as well. We considered switching to Pro Plan, but Akira is doing so well on the Supercoat that we decided to stay as we are. When it comes time to change to adult food, we may switch her over then.

Week 41: Love the pic of Echo with horns. :D

I've always thought that Akira is hands down the most beautiful Sibe I've ever seen! Aww thanks.

Wow, she's gotten huge, hasn't she??? Akira will be eight months old in a week's time. This is her at 11 weeks And this is her now

My pup LOVES chasing and catching flies. Unfortunately, a lot of the time that means her jumping all over the couch or smearing the windows with her nose in her attempts to catch them.

IMO (as the owner of a Husky) this sort of attack wouldn't have happened if the owners of the dogs were responsible owners who knew what sort of care a Husky requires. While our Husky is prey driven and will catch birds if you let her, if the fence fell down on our side and she was able to get into my neighbour's yard (who has a Maltese) she would NEVER hurt Casey at all. Yes, Huskies are prey driven, but no, not all Huskies are like this. In fact, I would say that the owner is probably the sort of person who tells his dogs to "git 'em!" every time they're faced with another dog, and if that's the case, who can blame them for turning out like this.

Okay, I'll warn you in advance, I'm a professional web developer/designer. I would advise against using a photograph as a background, especially if you're going to cover it with text (eg About Me, Prices and Services, Galleries, Contact Me). It's hard to read unless you use a colour that stands out and it distracts you from the photograph. The highlighted link (ie, the way the link looks when you're on that particular page) should probably be the pink colour rather than white. That once again ties in with how hard it is to read on the photograph background. Font: try and use an easy to read font for body text, such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma or any other sans-serif font. The font you've used is fine for headings, but can be hard to read when it's in body text. The scrolling photo gallery on the first page would maybe be better if didn't scroll unless the user moved their mouse along it. Otherwise you can miss a photo that you might want to click on. The other thing, and it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine, is that the site is completely made with Flash. Flash is fine for people who have internet and computers that can handle it, but for people who have slower internet it can take forever to load, and for people who have old computers, or, heaven forbid, an iPhone or iPad, they can't view it at all. I understand that your site has been built using Wix, which only allow you to to make Flash websites, but you can get a free host and put a static template on it. Plus with some free hosts you don't have a hugely long URL, which makes your site look more professional.

We have a Sibe who is a digger. Our solution was to put down fake turf. So far she hasn't tried digging it at all, but it has only been down since Sunday, so who knows! The real test will be tomorrow when she's by herself all day for the first time since it went down.

And mine is a fluffy black and white pitbull.

No I didn't see your thread. Good that it resolved itself. Akira did it once this morning, but she didn't do it all day yesterday so I think the irritation is going away. Still keeping an eye on her, but it seems a lot better.

Wow, look at his (her?) eye!