Lollipup

I'm not a big fan of any DVD that actually has Leerburg in it. I feel the Leerburg DVDs I purchased were the most wasteful dog related products I've bought.

The Michael Ellis ones are pretty good though.

Do you mean the Ed Frawley ones? (Owner of Leerburg) I don't like his either. But I love Michael Ellis! If you can get his stuff that would be good.

Envy at 1 day old. She has come a long way in 15 weeks!

And now

LIsa we have done a road trip or two with Envy already and we took a lot more than we needed to really. Probably because I have a van for the business and it's always full of dog gear anyway.

essentials would be:

Food & Water bowls

Food & water

Leash

Long line

Crate

Bedding and spare bedding/towels

Poop bags

Collar & harness

I bet you already have all that sorted though ;)

Lollipup cute horse and Envy is like Barney from how I met your mother, she never looks bad in photos :) .

--Lhok

Bahaha love it & thanks :)

Thanks Sheena I've been looking for it too and just ordered one there :)

She's so lovely Lollipup! How is she with horses?

Really good :) I've been taking her there a few times since I got her so she is pretty used to them now. She was wary at first. Now she tries to share the horse food. Has no fear and gets a bit too close to the legs for a sniff. Luckily my horse is quiet and fine with dogs and Envy doesn't try to nip her or anything. Hoping she stays so good! We also get to see ducks and chooks and geese there and lots of other horses :)

Helloooooo big doggy!!

Thanks Hankodie, and yea, I get stopped constantly. Had a man yesterday ask me what mix he was and after I told him he was an Aussie he just went "Nah mate, thats a koolie cross". Urghhhhh, people annoy me lol.

Yes! I get, "Oh that dog has some german shepherd in it"

all. the. time.

Lisa what is Nova's date of birth? Is it 10th may cause that is Envys too :)

Hankodie, it sounds like you did great. I would have been stressing out too! I have been in similar situations and I wonder why the parent doesn't seem to have any control or even try sometimes?

Sounds like you handled it the best way you could and don't worry - I think Hank will be fine. I'd still be having a drink or two after that though! But I am not a kid person.

Yes definitely normal. My last dog was a lab and i remember him floppy running as a pup

Nova does it but not as extreme, still falls flat on his face sometimes though

Lolipup I think crazy teething ears depends very much on the breed and then the individual dog. Aussies have a few different accepted ear sets, rose, button and I don't know the name but like button but higher set, almost like a BC! So Novas are moving around now that teething has started. His breeder was convinced his would stay rosed but today we suddenly have one button!

I have heard with pricked eared dogs the amount of teething floppage (lol) has to do with how strong the ear cartilage is.

.

I was wondering why you said button and rose. I've never heard of that before!!

But can we look? Show us a pic!

Large breed puppy owners please enlighten me, is it completely normal that Hank runs really "floppy"? That's the best I can describe it lol. He seems to run with all four paws in the air, flopping along. Occasionally he will get clumsy and fall over himself. Is it because large breed dogs tend to be a bit more gangly when they are puppies? I never remember Odie being this clumsy. Probably just me being paranoid but I just wanted to double check!

I hope it's normal cause Envy does it too :)

Is it true that the ears will re-floppify when teething happens? Hard to picture Envy's ears going floppy again but I love the confused ears look. So cute

We have a clam shell pool too. This was a few weeks ago. I think Envy was wondering why Lola is in the water

Can't wait to see pics. Could it be a maremmma?

And we now have signage to go out and about with and hopefully stop at least the majority of the people who pat without asking

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions and reassurance - I'm just overly worried about doing the right thing this time around, Odie spent a lot of her puppyhood quite ill and as a result I spent more time fretting over her health than working on her training and focus hence her awful leash reactivity. Its an ongoing battle with her too, she's food motivated but I can't give her any food during walks due to her very strict diet, it's frustrating and makes me a little sad but as my trainer told me we can only work with what we have.

Lollipup thanks again - Hank seems to take it all in stride, I watch for any signs of distress and for the most part he just seems very curious/alert :) Really going to try to enforce focus especially around other dogs. Can't wait until he's ready to be on the ground though as it's much easier than carrying him!

I let Envy go on the ground from day one, and just avoided places that are highly trafficked by other dogs. But as long as you are getting out and about that is the main thing :)

We just went for a short stroll the the beach. Lovely weather here lately, just a bit windy today. Here is Envy just 20 minutes or so ago

Thanks Aliwake - how old is Nixon now? Unfortunately we don't know very many people with kids (all our nephews/nieces live overseas!) I can tell he loves kids though, I've introduced him to the kids in my neighbourhood and the breeder also sent lots of photos of the puppies interacting with her grandkids so I know he's good around them but I'd just like to continue this. LisaCC a sports oval is a great idea, there are a few around here so I might give that a go.

Taking him to work is a great idea except for the fact that I work for myself so there are no co-workers to meet! :laugh: Same with my husband - he runs a family business so most of the people working there Hank has already met :laugh: starting to realise that we are the most boring 20-something year olds on the planet!

Great list Lollipup thank you - I've done a fair few of those already (vacuumed around his puppy pen and rewarded him for lying down/staying calm, had him sit and watch from the deck while my husband used the lawnmower/whipper snipper). The beach down where I live is a good place to go because there are lots of different people of all ages there. We've been aiming to take him out at least once a day somewhere new - short 20-30 minute trips where I usually sit with him and reward him for looking at me and carry him through the environment calmly. Do you think this is enough or should we be taking him out more?

Sounds like you're doing great :) Does he take it all in his stride? I would say it's probably enough if he is confident and doing well. Great that you are doing all that focus training.

I do similar things with Envy. We go as many new places as we can and work on focus there and do some obedience.

If you need him to get used to livestock or anything like that, expose him to those things lots now too. :) We go and see the horses, cows, chooks and ducks :)

Lisa, I hope Nova's worms are all sorted soon. I'm sure they'll clear up now. That's a worry about the drontal not working. I remember when Lola was a puppy the morning after we got her all these worms came out, maybe because they wormed her the day we picked her up and this was probably the first time they had actually done it. I remember I was so worried, freaked out she was going to die and took her to the vet! She was of course, fine.

Lollipup that woman sounds horrible! I would've reacted the same way Also I've known far too many people who buy dogs purely because they like the way they look. Especially people who buy working breeds and then wonder why the dog becomes destructive when it's not exercised or trained

Does anyone have any ideas on where else I can take Hank before the 12 week mark? I know the next couple of weeks are crucial in terms of socialisation which is why I want to be vigilant about taking him new places. So far we have been to the following places:

• Down by the beach on the weekend when it was quite busy (sat in the back of my car with the hatchback open) watching kids/people run around, skaters/people on bikes/people on scooters, dogs on lead)
• Outside the grocery store - watching the road in heavy traffic with lots of cars zooming by (again with the hatchback open sitting in the back)
• Sitting at the cafe in the morning - watching other dogs/people
• Neighbours houses & around the neighbourhood block
• Park/grassy area (again in the car) watching people jogging and walking their dogs (lots of dogs barking and playing)
• Also had a "puppy day" where we invited some friends over to say hello

I really want to find a market to take him to but there are none on in the next couple of weeks, unless we make the drive to Sydney (we live on the coast). I'm struggling to think of ideas. When Odie was a pup we lived in Sydney fairly close to the city so exposing her to crowds/lots of situations was a bit easier but now our lifestyle has changed into a fairly quiet one, I just worry that i'm not doing enough for Hank in terms of socialisation Any suggestions?

I have stacks of ideas! Socialising is my passion! I have a three page list. So it depends how much you want to see but to break it down into general ideas:

Loud noises - thunder (you can play an audio track), party poppers, dropping tin pans & loud kitchen sounds

Machinery - lawnmowers, chainsaws, whipper snippers, motorbikes

Passing things- cars, bikes, skateboards, scooters, skates (could go to a skate park)

Old people, small children, walking sticks, wheel chairs, glasses, hats, coats, boots, teenagers

Lots of new environments but make you the most rewaring thing in any environment or situation.

Hope this helps :)

I've gotten to the point where I'm not going to take that shit from people. My last dog had severe stomach allergies and you would be shocked at the amount of people that think it is perfectly ok to feed strange dogs!

Thank you :) Nova is a Blue Merle Australian Shepherd, the merle is the pale patterning, with 'blue' meaning black base. You can also get red merles . They are very pretty dogs, probably why he keeps being mistaken for a girl. But people look at him and go on about how much they want one, when they don't even know what he is until I tell them, so I try to put into peoples mind that they are a working dog and need a lot of training and exercise. i don't want people going out and buying them just because they are pretty

If you look into the Aussie pics thread you will be able to see some more, they come in different colours and the merles all have unique patterns, all with varying degrees of tan and white (or none). Nova has lots of Tan and not as much white as some.

The pattern is also seen in other breeds like Collies, Border collies, Shelties, Dachshund (called dapple), great danes, Cardigan corgis...and I'm sure theres more!

Dory thats sad people are still so judgemental towards rotties. My partner still gets it with his ACD, apparently they are all vicious dogs.

I had some random woman come up to Envy and me and tell her to sit, she didn't know that word at the time and so the woman grabbed the skin on her butt and grabbed her neck and pushed her into a sit. I was like "EXCUSE ME! DON'T DO THAT!" She just said oh, ok. LIke I am the crazy one. Then she proceeded to tell me that Envy must have some "German in her" because of the dark features she has. Yes you see that darkness in her face, that is German.

Thank you for telling me what my dog is.

A few weeks ago when staying at the in-laws my bro in law's GF (who is not a dog person at all) met Envy and within about 30 seconds she was saying she wants one of this breed. And she didn't even know what the breed was. Ummmm, no you don't. I think she thankfully changed her mind when Envy started mouthing her hard.

Lollipup Envy is getting more and more beautiful! She sure is looking like a muscular machine!

Also noticed she has grown out of the Ezydog harness! I think Nova has probably 1 more week in his!

Oh she is getting huge but it does still fit her. She has about 4 harnesses so there's all sorts in the pics. Mainly because Lola is the same size so I already had them :)

Took some photos last weekend. Oh the chaos. Especially for this group shot. We'll just pretend Envy is being focused and not about to go in for bitey face!

In the car, nice and tired after dog school

And... asleep!

I just caught the malinois bug myself. Envy is everything I wanted and gets more awesome every day. I don't think I will want another breed :) I do like the WL GSDs too though. And spaniels. But the mals are my fave. If Envy continues on the path she is on I think she will be the dream dog I wanted :D

From a legal viewpoint, I don't think the breeder is obligated to do anything. Some do and some don't. Was there a contract? If not, you have less to back you up.

This kind of thing happened to me. Elbow dysplasia in a border collie at 4 months of age. Specialist and vet agree most likely genetic. Parents were not tested for anything, just "clear by parentage." Breeder was advised straight away and was nice about it but no offer of refund or anything, and she didn't have to.

She is now breeding my dog's sister and doing all the health tests. I do think the issue is in the lines though.

We paid a lot of money as well and the whole process really sucked. But I share some of the blame as I should have done more research. First pedigree dog from a registered breeder and I thought I had done it all right.