Katie P

I have only been lurking for a couple of months and posting in the last 2 weeks, but DOL has really had a big impact on my life in terms of my dog. I am more aware of his needs and how to assist him in becoming a balanced and happy dog. Training, rescue, breeding, health issues, different breeds, legislation are some of this stuff in which my brain has happily devoured new information and appreciated seeing different points of opinion on certain things. I am loving making friends on the 'breed' section of the forum and watching/hearing the stories of a variety of dogs grow and develop. I have definately become aware of byb'ers, puppy mills, RSPCA, irresponsible breeders and the unfortunate stereotyping of certain breeds. I have been bitten by the doggy bug and are currently in the process of expanding our family with a breed I hadn't really heard much about. In the future I would like to participate in the rescues (Have to move out of home first!) and maybe even show. THANK YOU DOL!

:D Some people are just....grrrrr. That dog could have been injured or even killed and not once ounce of gratitude.

Well we had him in the crate the first night and yes the door was shut, but once he worked out how to get out through the doggy door he started to take himself out immediately so we instead changed tactic as this seemed to work better for him and us. At night and during the day he just pops outside whenever he needs to go to the toilet. He loves the crate to sleep in and I have now put him back downstairs in his crate at night. Especially since everyone goes back to school and work soon we prefer not to have him in his crate from 9am-3pm. He is extremely reliable toileting wise when downstairs (he has his bed in the laundry and has never had an accident) and we leave the child gate open and he just goes in and out of the laundry and is allowed access into the 3 adjourning rooms but only when we are downstairs and supervising. We make an effort to praise him once we see he has gone to the toilet outside (although as I mentioned he is very hard to catch in the act). It only occurs when he is in a particular sisters room and in two of the instances she was holding him at the time. He has not had an accident in any of the other rooms and is under strict supervision while upstairs. We spray with nuetralizing spray. I ended up talking to a dog trainer/behavourist and she seemed to think it was a 'pack order issue' since it was consistently with the same person and reccommended she start feeding him and working with him training wise. He hasn't seemed to bond much with her. What they said made sense and although I know puppies need heaps of encouragement and reinforcement, it was just abnormal after no accidents to suddenly have so many in such a small timeframe. We have now decided to limit him to parts of downstairs only again and hopefully this will further encourage him to go outside. Or are we doing the toileting process completely wrong? We figured since he takes himself outside this was a positive step and eliminated the need to crate him consistently for toileting purposes? Thank you for your assistance!

Just a quick question, there may be several topics on this but......my pup (3 month cross) has been extremely good in regards to toilet training. However in the last 1.5 weeks he has had 5 accidents all bar 1 which have been in my sisters room, 3 in different areas of the floor and once on the bed. I find this puzzling as he sleeps in my bed at night the whole night through and has not had an accident once (we originally tried to crate train but found he just popped through the dog flap outside anyway when he needed to go) and from 5pm onwards keeps me company when I am studying in my room with no incidents. He always waited until I went downstairs for dinner. It appears to always be in the same room and with the same sister who is watching and with him that he has accidents. Would there be an underlying reason for this? Is it a fixation on a particular room or ? We clean the areas throughly and put stuff on it to take out the smell. My parents have now banned him from coming up stairs. He had never had an accident since we brought him home 5 weeks ago, do you think there may be an underlying problem? He is unbelievably hard to catch going to the toilet, he doesn't sniff around, or circle or anything, just sort of 'goes' and we have found it hard to 'praise' him when he did go outside because we could never catch him in the act. We tried going outside with him when it was sort of 'time' that he would go to the toilet and I have waited around for an hour, kept taking him out for regular intervals for a couple of hours and when I gave up 5 mins later he took himself outside and went (I could tell because he was damp ) I know he is only a pup and these things take time until they are at least 95% but it just seemed a bit abnormal in terms of circumstance. Plus I would rather my parents didn't get to the point where they ban him from coming inside (which really doesn't teach him anything). I pointed out it was normal for pups to have accidents but alas, its always my fault when he has an accident although I was never with him at the time. I have tried to educate my sister incase she was missing the 'signs' but she is quite aware and was quite puzzled. FYI I have read some of the other posts on the same topic but it didn't really assist me in coming to a conclusion

Double post.

I admit I haven't read all of the comments past page 5 but what was the outcome for the attackers? Were they pts?

Woohoo! We are officially on a waiting list! The breeder is really nice I am going to Sydney Royal or sooner at a show close by to meet her and some of her show dogs. We shall be getting a (hopefully female) Japanese Spitz Not too sure how long we shall be waiting for, but we don't mind as long as we get the right puppy for us. Fingers crossed late this year or sometime early-ish next year.......hopefully we will get more info soon.

No he seems to be fine......not uncomfortable or anything. Thanks CW_EW

Hi everyone, I have noticed over the past day or so that my pup (maltese x) has quite dry nose and mouth- when he licks me there is barely any saliva. I may just be a overtly concerned parent but is this a dehydration issue or is it perfectly normal? He has easy access to water etc. Thanks! Katie P

Thank you very much everyone, I appreciate hearing the various suggestions. I think I will carry him around to expose him to more things then.....I was just concerned about letting him 'be a dog' and not babying him too much! I will definately take what you all mentioned into consideration as I have younger relatives (children) who visit our house often and we will definately attend puppy classes. We are very reluclant to take him to dog parks anyway especially due to his size let alone before vaccinations so that wont be an issue! It all makes more sense now, thanks all!

Hi all, This may have already been mentioned etc but I had trouble searching for the relevant info within this section! (Computer illiterate! ) I am picking up my Maltese puppy this coming weekend and have been doing a lot of research as you do. I am feeling torn and confused about balancing socialisation verses waiting for vaccinations. My pup has recieved some shots at 6 weeks (he will be 9 weeks on pickup) and the breeder recommends not to socialise until he recieves all of them. However I am very concious and determined that he shall be properly socialised around people and other dogs and want to start as soon as possible. Is it a case that we have to make a decision between the two or can this be balanced? We have friends with friendly, socialised and calm dogs (all up to date on vaccinations/free from disease etc) and would like to introduce him to them fairly soon after we bring him home. This would be a case of us visiting their homes not taking him to a public place or anything. Would taking him to the shops be ok or not advised (we don't want to baby him and won't be carrying him)? Would it be detrimental to the socialisation process if we wait? I know there probably is a lot of grey areas concerning this, but we just want to ensure we are doing the right thing! Puppy school from other posts appears to be ok? (Also does anyone know any good ones in the North Shore Sydney area?) Your comments/suggestions will be most welcome. This is our first dog. Thank you *Note not my puppy, a friends