Max#1

In my short experience with dogs and dog trainers I have noticed that some people, and I guess maybe CM is the same (though without seeing it all in person its hard to know) have a way of communicating with dogs that includes body language, that some people definitely don't. When you witness this, it truly is amazing. I have a friend who can shut my dog up with one look - but then the minute my friend calls him - my dog is waggily over to him like its his lucky day. I, unfortunately, don't have the same effect! Despite my best efforts!

Its hard to know about taking them to the vet - I'll let someone more experienced answer. But I feel your pain. My puppy has eaten on separate occasions part of a blue and a red deflated balloon. Both times he poo'ed them out within a few days and hasn't seemed to suffer any ill consequences. Hope it turns out fine!

Oh dear. Fluffy poo pants sounds awful! Lucky I read this while eating dinner..... Hope she's feeling better soon!

I can totally understand when people don't like leaving their dogs...... so I always make sure my OH does it . He leaves for work last, etc etc. (And I'm the one who gets to come home first and gets the cuddles!). I know its my weakness, and nothing to do with the dog. That being said, my 'rational mind' knows that if we have to leave him for whatever reason, and whether it be vets or kennels, it will be okay. To the OP - if its of any comfort, I heard somewhere once that dogs live in the moment (I hope its true!). The don't feel time the same as we do. Maybe for Riley it'll just be a moment that you're not there.... ETA: KTB - Max also thought the other lady in the waiting room was his owner when they brought him out after he'd been desexed. I tried hard not to be too offended.......

Morning all! I was inspired by KTB's lap dog photos to add some of my own. Its hard to imagine such a cuddly, sleepy puppy can be such a terror. Well he can. This weekend he seemed to exist in a hightened state of excitement, I blame the weather? It felt like he barked the whoooolllee weekend long - and he would fall asleep, but the tiniest noise or movement from us would send him from sleep to 150% in an instant. Then it would take him ages to calm down again. He's not like that all the time thank goodness, but it wasn't fun. For Saturday + Sunday he got a cumulative total of at least three hours walking, which included swimming and off lead running. And we even did a fair bit of training with him - I was teaching the OH how to train him while playing. He's now doing zoomies through the house - a rarety, so I'm not overly hopeful for today. Okay while I've been typing this I just noticed he's stolen a couple of gummi bears of the kitchen bench........ Sugar high anyone?

Love the squish face. Why do they do that?

Evening all! ps - Facebook killed my internet for some reason? Truly the dark side. But for a photo.... Truly a hard day in the life of a dog. Reading the newspaper, on the kitchen table....... again

Just a quick reply - no efficient reading and posting tonight I'm afraid.... Wuffles - I'm sorry to hear about your training session - I'm sure it'll be okay, and good luck for the trial!!! If I had any hope that Max would get to competition I would be at obedience classes every week like a shot. I think that's the problem. Obedience, really is a sport - and as we're not good at it, I give up. Am I too competitive maybe? Maybe. Flyball, on the other hand, he kicks ass . Last night at training even after a four week absence coming off Christmas break he still remembered it all - and did really really well! Made me so proud!!!! Looks like we'll be ready for our first competition in June! KTB - what are you doing to me putting all those links of sad puppies up???? Friends in our flyball club who were recently in Canberra for the show/competition came back with a little Jack Russell x puppy, and they bought him to training last night. Such a cute little bundle of roly poly puppy!!! Max and his friend were following the little puppy around - they weren't really sure what to do with it. Very sweet. Max was a medium-stress puppy. Not super easy, but not completely hard work. Our puppy 'Puppy' growing up was worse. He had a flea allergy, lost all of his hair and had chronic diarrhea due to giardia. Let's just say he was not your typical 'lovable' puppy. Especially as we had wooden floors and all you could hear all night was 'thump thump thump' from scratching. Max is easier because I don't have to worry about him so much - he is sociable, can eat everything, takes things mostly in his stride..... Fenster look forward to your stories....! Facebook. I'm on there but not an 'active' member. I don't put up photos, don't tell the world about my state of being, and rarely go on there (blame DOL! :D ).

Ah ha! I've got one tab with the thread in it and one with my reply - this should work a treat! Clastic: happy belated birthday!!! I don't believe that photo! And that is mean doing that to him! And taking a photo! I agree with Betsy! KTB: beserkers does not sound like fun. Especially the 'can't reach him' bit - that really struck a chord. Just remember all the stuff that you and Mr KTB have taught him so far - and that you are human, he is dog. You will win! I'd be telling a big fat one if I said that there was nothing about Max that I would like some professional help with - just have to work on the OH.... Wizzle: your turn to make me laugh with that classic apple shot! Don't you love it? They knock, you go and stand at hte door. They drop it. You open the door. They pick it up. You shut the door. They drop it. You open the door............ Lilli_star: great shots! Ruby looks oh so happy! Especially in the dogbed :D . Fenster: don't tell me about off topic. I'm only a few away from there - but am struggling with finding things to say.... :D And judging by that thread KTB linked us to, its either going to be cheap to have fewer posts - or we'd end up having to pay for off-topic even if we did make it to 150.... I can't believe people are actually suing about a forum. I can't believe it. I always get the impression the internet is a bit like 'make-believe' so how can someone really sue? Anyway! What is it now? 7 days to go? Betsy: I hear you. After Max stayed at our friend's last week - they said to me in no uncertain terms, 'he needs a friend'. Then tonight at the lake, I had a lady also talk about it, 'oh its cruel to have one, I'm just sorry I waited so long... its been the best thing ever in the whole wide wide world...'. You get the idea. There's only so much bitey face I can do Rav: feel better soon. A confession. I've decided to give obedience a miss for now. Maybe my OH will talk me out of it this weekend (in which case HE can take the wriggly puppy!) - but I'm just a bit over it. Its just not hitting the right spot. So far we've hardly gone out to a park to practice (to play ball or socialise with other dogs, yes, to practice sitting and standing, no), and I guess without me making that effort there's not much point.

Like many - have been reading but not posting..... But Wuffles - wow! You look so so so beautiful! And that beach, that sky! Today it feels like winter in Melbourne - but that beach, that sky! (And of course the doggies look in their element!). KA: hope you and your family are feeling better soon. Betsy: a challenge for you to capture Ziggy in motion! Lilli_star and Wizzle: Mice. Gross. I wonder if they're attracted to dog food though? We had a few in our old house after we looked after a friend's lab, and we figured they were after the food. But I hate them too! My OH works with them - and when we were at the same uni in NQld I would go to see if he wanted to have lunch from time to time, and often walked in on him going through the mice's intestines looking for the peyer's patches (think tiny lymph nodes). Sorry wizzle! Well i have a very sleepy puppy tonight. Yesterday and today he's spent the day, while we're at work, with our dog-friend, who has three dogs of his own. Both days, Max didn't stop the whole day long - and basically crashes out upon arriving home! I almost wonder if I've brought the wrong dog home! I think I can pretty much say he's had two of the best days of his life. Speaking of high-energy dogs, I was surprised KTB to read that you're trying to squash the drive? Especially in the light of that you've managed to teach him so much 'the way that he is'. (At my new work, I've told them about Max - of course - and they were all really curious how I got into doing all that training stuff - and thinking back, I never would've - its just that Max wanted to learn.... what you said, KTB, reminded me of that). Just pondering - but I was wondering with Max whether or not there's some things that he's more suited to because of his personality and the hyperactiveness that comes along with that. For example, Ava, Hoover, Mars sound suited to obedience because of their personalities. The more hyper dogs sound more suited to excelling in, well my experience, flyball. I'm not sure where agility, herding or other 'sports' fit in that though. And then following from that, there's some behaviours that I figure I just have to 'put up with', so to speak. Anyway, here's my hyper puppy right now.... I've turned the exposure right up so you can see his squishy little face! He didn't even wake up when I moved to get that photo - so he's seriously KO'd. This is rare. In terms of face-licking. I'm also a no-go person there. But some dogs just manage to sneak one in! (For example one of the dogs at my friend's place today will greet you by coming up to you and looking at you with big brown bc eyes, and just as you lean down and coo... he jumps up and smacks you one right on the mouth - he gets me every time). Max, while never eating his own poo (but standing in it a thousand times), loves to wait until you get out of the shower then help you dry off. Gross. But sweet. I can't think of anything else I've missed. But my heart goes out to the rescues. KTB I'm sure the videos make a big difference.

A stare of kelpies? Or a stalk of kelpies? A laugh of labs?

Fenster - so cute!!! Wuffles - a big congratulations! I hope the day went really well! And - enjoy your holiday! KTB - unfulfilled prey drive = hyperactive crazies? Ha! I thought it was just Max! What sorts of things are you going to do to try and get some fulfillment? For us, its the ball. Making the ball a very serious game, where we give our full attention (not just mindlessly throwing over at the park - but incorporating commands etc etc) - and then by extension flyball. While we use the kong for when we go out, when we're home and he's getting restless I might go out in the backyard wiht him and throw it around - exciting cause of hte different directions it goes. He has to do a complicated routine of commands before we start though! You should see him - pupils dilated, quivering, every sit/stand/drop is instantaneous! Also with the tug. Doing all this seems to work quite well? But then I'm not sure if that's the idea or not. As soon as I say 'are you ready', its on. Training this was an accident, and unfortunately comes up a bit too often in normal conversation!!!! As to free run of the house - Max has been getting that for months and he's 10 months old. Mind you, he sleeps on our bed, the lucky furball, and isn't inclined to leave it for no good reason! He takes himself off to bed most nights at 10 pm - he doesn't give us any trouble when we try to hop in, so that's the main thing. If he does get up during the night I don't know about it cause I sleep like a log! From time to time if he has to spew up a bit of bone or something, its the OH who knows about it . During the day if we leave him inside (at the moment we're getting our house restumped and the whole underneath is open now so he could go from backyard-street no worries, plus workmen there all day) - he gets the spare bedroom - he LOVES this - I just put an old sheet on the bed to keep it 'nice', the hall, kitchen and back room. Basically we wouldn't leave him with the 'electronics' - tv, computers etc, just in case. Its been ages since we've had destruct-o dog, touch wood. Though at the moment he's mightily impressed by the big holes the workmen have made and takes every opportunity to drop something in there, much to my chagrin, as I have to get down in the mud and get it out!!! ETA: I thought of Niques the other day too. Hope all is okay!

The problem is if they pee on my carpet, the carpet will have his urine smell! I am so scared that he would be attracted by the smell and he will not pee on the spot i want him to pee on! =( White vinegar is pretty good. Our whole house is pretty much carpeted, so we just put up with it. It didn't seem to have an issue with his toilet training, in fact he would usually do it by the back door. (Fancy putting carpet near a back door!)

Its so hard to leave them when they're new!!!!! Is it so bad to get a stain on the carpet? You can clean it enough - its not so bad. Puppy pads/newspaper are good - but to be honest I'd come home and find the puppy pad shredded into a million thousand pieces and that was worse to clean up! And leave lots to chew!

Hey - congratulations on your new addition! Its hard to think of everything at the start - you really try to do your best, but some things you just can't foresee. We lost a cord, a pair of shoes.... it happens. We had for our puppy a pen, it was quite large, it took up most of the kitchen and was 1 m high. And it was not cheap! It took him (all six kg) three days to figure out how to climb out of it - I'll never forget coming home to find him on the dining table sitting in a basket of washing. He was VERY happy to see me - who knows how long he'd been stuck in the basket! I recommend just leaving lots to chew. I think chewing is relaxing for them, helps keep them calm. Also leave things around that are okay to be destroyed - newspaper, for example. The plastic bottle with treats inside is a good idea - even just scattering kibble around the house will help. It gets better, you get your routine, and you stop worrying (so much) at some point. Good luck! Also bitter spray didn't work overly well for us, and our dog likes chilli, it would seem. I would recommend vicks/eucalyptus - that menthol-y smell is a lot more effective.

Pigs ears used to last half an hour - now its a three minute job. We've never had choking luckily. We did have choking with the sticks, whatever they were made of, I think they were dried - as a puppy Max swallowed almost 10 cm of one, which caused some trouble going down. The noises he made . But he was fine afterwards (despite my worst nightmares). The only other thing I can think of that we give him to keep him somewhat occupied is a soft-boiled egg, with just a bit of the shell taken off. It takes him a while to peel it, then get the yolk out, then work on the whites for a bit. Definitely an outside treat. It would depend on how the dog works on it - if they just chomp it it'll be gone in secs!

Love it stormie! Max is fond of luring you in for the belly rub, 'reaching out' to you with his paws, then socking you in the eye with one! I'm a sucker every time!

Welcome Fenster! Definitely looking forward to puppy photos! Raven - The rat poison is very scary. There was a thread recently about dogs being poisoned in a park? The thought is really bone-chilling. Some people are sick. Meanwhile your medical condition sounds very exotic. I hope all is okay. Your description of Astrid bringing everything from your handbag is pretty funny. Max seems to be able to tell the difference between things he *can* and *should not* have. He's not shy about shoving a toy into you to entice you to play (I try to be strict about it, I swear, I really do). But if he gets something like a pen, the dishcloth (his FAVOURITE), one of my new stockings (and I'm pretty sure he thinks they're alive ) he gets so secretive about it. He makes this hilarious face, where his face is pointing down, but he's looking up at you with his eyes. Its impossible to be cross. The all time best was the ball of raw pizza dough that he stole off the kitchen bench, cause it looked like a big white 'smile' with his black face, at least the bits hanging out from his mouth did. Okay - I'm going to make an effort to video Max's greeting to my OH when he gets home from work. This is my future promise.... Kyliegirl - careful with the broom. :D when Max was a puppy he loved chasing the broom. We didn't correct this (nor did we sweep that often). But now he's manic about it. Which means he'll nearly break the door down if he can hear us sweeping outside. If he's outside too, well then there's no real sweeping. I'm a bad bad bad dog owner. Good luck finding a good walking path! Meanwhile I often try to go a bit of a different way (he pulls less if he doesn't know where we're going - when he knows, he can really just take me there - bloody LLW!) - there's no better way to find out more about your suburb! ETA: I'm not too sure how welcoming Hoover looks, I'm afraid to say. Hoover looks like he's planning something...... ET also A: geez I love Elbie. Just looking at that photo....!

The title of this thread really made me laugh. My Mum used to say that because saying 'fart' was classified as swearing . My pup can do some real stinkers. They're eye-watering. I haven't been able to link it to anything specific though, unfortunately. He also does loud ones. These often happen when he stretches - which is pretty funny - in a juvenile kind of way. All other things associated with the digestive system are usually okay, so I don't worry too much about it.

My rational mind says, can't be so, but perhaps it is! My puppy has both cheered me up and taken care of me. Once I had a migraine, which involved lying very still for most of the day. He's a lively little guy and usually would never spend the day lying still - but this day he did. I was so grateful!!! I remember distinctly one day I was very sad. He clowned around til I went from crying out loud to actually laughing out loud. I didn't realise at the time, and was actually annoyed that he wouldn't just let me be. But in reflection, he was very sweet with me. I agree that all children should have a dog to tell their secrets to! Hope the food poisoning has passed.

Like Wuffles - I can't imagine G chewing ANYTHING! What a sweetie! Poor Satch squashed into the hole. His face is almost Elbie-ish in its seriousness!

Evening all! Lovely photos as always. I love the one of Ava on the couch. Sometimes when they're asleep it just makes you feel so warm and gooey on the inside, cause they're just soooo cute. On Saturday night we stayed up late watching movies and Max, who usually takes himself to bed around 10 pm, decided to stay up with us. Poor thing couldn't stay awake though and curled up on one of our chairs, which is actually too small for him. His sweet little sleeping face.... so innocent! Hope those feeling poorly (including the doggies) are better soon. Nothing worse. KTB - I think there's flyball at the Canberra show. Not that I can come. Couldn't take four days off work this close to starting, and there'd have to be some travel time in there. Max wouldn't be able to compete anyway, cause he's too young. Great news about heelwork for everyone. We still haven't even started learning about it! We've been working on 'wait'. It seems to come quite naturally, like he gets that he has to stay still until further instruction, its just a matter of building it up. If I ever meet you all I'll be so ashamed by my un-obedience trained dog! Though he is pretty good at recalls

I think I must've read it different. I didn't think a breeder would throw away everything else to just rely on a test like this. And I wouldn't be too sure about dismissing it as the latest craze. Sequencing genomes, and the information that this can provide, is only becoming cheaper, easier, and more informative. I think as a breeder, you'd still start with your two intended dogs, but as well as their known breeding/backgrounds/temperaments (and whatever else is important!) you might add this test as well to see what you can find out about the cross. Especially as its a new technology - you'd have no idea what sort of information you would get from it. Then again, you might find out both dogs are heterozygous for a particular gene/trait that might mean a quarter of the litter is affected. You might find out nothing (like I can imagine the 'what's in my mutt' test is not really that accurate or informative - yet). Now, I've just finished a long discussion with my OH, who is actually an immunologist . I understood that genetic variation (as in having parents who are genetically as different as possible) is necessary for the immune system to work optimally - you get the most recombination and hence variation at the Major Histocompatability Complex. However, he says I'm wrong! Apparently (and what's very interesting) is that your body (and I'm assuming animal's as well) produce white blood cells called T-cells, which can recognize a billion + different 'bits' of bacteria/virus etc, due to the DNA sequence that makes up the T cell receptor. And that this 'system' working well has nothing to do with genetic variation. You learn something every day. Let's just say Max was not impressed with being ignored during this discussion! ETA: what I should add is that he works with mice that are inbred such that they are genetically identical - therefore removing that as a variable in his experiments.

15 years ago we fed our family dogs - those dog food rolls, tinned food (though never Pal, cause it made them quite *stinky*), chicken wings, and for the fussy one if she hadn't eaten enough she would get cooked mince meat and rice - and I remember she would pick the mince out and leave the rice! Two dogs ate out of the same bowl, always in the same order. The older, fussier one always ate first - with the younger gutso waiting for what was left. We'd also leave dry food down for them (probably contributed to the fussiness of the older one!). They both lived to be in the early teens - one died of kidney failure and the other heart failure.

Afternoon! Well a hectic few days. New job looks good - hours will be quite variable - so good news for Max. Some long days sure, but also some shorter days too! Yay! Betsy - yay for LLW! But I find the inconsistency so infuriating! Hope you're all enjoying your morning of training! Of course, still under quarantine, still can't go. Only one more week.... ETA: oh Oliver is so so so cute. More photos! How old?