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Being dominant is an attitude....a way of being....you can be a pack Leader in a day. A highly obedience trained dog can still be dominant.

110% sure, never seen it myself either before Good Golli You're gonna have lot's of fun with that puppy!

Never heard of such a thing at 4 weeks....sure it was a hump?

I think you'll find your puppy is in the Rank & Shaping Period, this is a time where they can start to hump. Get up and walk away and ignore her if she does it, I'd probably ignore her for a few hours so she gets the message. Just remember that too many cuddles can confuse a dog....followers fawn all over the leader and that's effectively what you're doing, so if you ask for a command before affection that can help that.

Yeah, I would just hold puppy, have some towels ready incase puppy is car sick or wees or poos on you LOL

I know it's hard but try not to get frustrated. What you are experiencing is perfectly normal. Puppies attention spans are extremely limited. Lower your expectations ;) If you enrol ina puppy pre-school or puppy obedience class they will be able to show you how to train your puppy, you'll also be able to see other puppies in class having the same challenges as you're having How old is your puppy? There is a program called NILIF this is something that you will probably ind quite beneficial: http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=nilif.html Sitting and Staying can be helped along with the TOT program: http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=tot.html And it's important to understand your puppies mental growth: http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=develop.html Good Luck, don't fret, you're puppy will learn. In most cases it's us who has to learn how to teach the puppy, they're not all the same so one training method that you have used on previous dogs isn't neccessarily going to work ;)

Lot's of puppies go through this stage. My pup didn't stop throwing up inte car until about 5 months of age, they're all different. Apprantely a Ginger supplement is good for car sickness, best to speak a Holistic Animal Practioner. Some Rescue Remedy may be good too. Als lot's of in and out of the car for playing and treats and so forth.

So sorry for your loss, may only happy memories fill the void he has left behind. R.I.P sweet boy.

I'm so terribly sorry for your loss. I remember speaking to you about her at the same time we had Tubo who was fear aggressive, I know you did a lot for her. R.I.P hunny.

I believe you can use the Neo Cort for 14 days, just check the label as it says it there. Being a contact allergy you can't do alot if you can't remove the item that is causing the allergy. Checked your garden for wandering Dew and stinging nettles? You could try booties or kids socks on the dog: http://www.topdogs.com.au/products/animals/boots/dogs.php boosting the immune system with Zinc & Vit. C. You could try a natural product such as: http://www.holisticanimalmedicines.com/gra...ld-allergy.html

We're actually doing a food switch this weekend to a Kangaroo based product. We actually ran out of Dante's food for a couple of days so gave him some of Leila's and the itching seemed to lessen so we'll give it a go.

Yep, anti-hystimes everyday, tried different brands. Apple Cider in the water. Dogs get inspect repellant spray everyday as well.

Dante started itching about 1.5 months ago now. It's so frustrating trying to find out what is causing it. He is red on his feet, legs, belly, underarms and testicles. Very very itchy and ripped open a nipple the other week. Nails filed back and no sharp edges to prevent damage he can cause himself. We used Malaseb incase it was yeast related but had no luck, in fact it made him worse. Used that twice a week for 2 weeks. We have tried another medicated shampoo from the Vets, can't remember what it is called but it started with P, that didn't work and made him even worse so only used that once. We have used Neocort which you can only use short-time, good cream but once you stop using it, we're back to square one. He's had one cortisone injection which took the redness right down but as soon as the injection wore off we were back to square one so now we're on a course of cortisone tablets. We have tried homeopathic remedies for yeast as well, that did help a little. We're now waiting on a homeopathic remedy for grass and plant allergies. If that doesn't work, we'll try the one for food allergies. http://www.holisticanimalmedicines.com/ (Australian Company) We also tried: http://www.animalitch.com.au/Small.htm which worked for a small amount of time to reduce the itching. We have also tried Aloe Vera which made him 10 x's worse. Tried Collidal Silver which is ok but doesn't do anything dramatic. We've been on anti-biotics. No fleas here, we use Advantage regularily. We have also given Revolution to treat for Scabies just incase. We have replaced all the bed covers with ones of natural fibes to rule that out. We can't change food unfortunately as he's a giant breed growing puppy, but I doubt it is that as his food hasn't changed. However he's 12 months old in 3-4 months so will be able to start messing with his food then. Elimenation diets take 8 weeks per different meat....so that could take forever as well. I suspect it's grass/plant related as he started itching as summer kicked in. We have also tried a range of human topical products for itching. No hair loss, so ruiling out D.Mange at this stage. Skin Scraping showed no mites but S.Mange (Scabies) Mites are usually only detected on skin scrapings abour 20% of the time. Tape test detected a bit of yeast but nothing too interesting. We had been giving Sardines in Vegetable Oil twice a week as apprantly Vegetable oil was good for skin issues Dante has been on fish oil the day he arrived, however we have now taken him off as research has shown that fish oil added to premimum kibble can upset the balance of the food and cause itchy skin. He's on Zinc at the moment to help boost his immune system. After we've tried all this, well head to the specialist, however with only a 20% reduction of itching in most cases that have any reduction of itching, I'm not sure it's quite worth the $600 for testing and then approx $1,000.00 per year for the densentising treatment *bangs head* We're moving very soon, I'm praying that will somehow help.

We buy the Dr. Billinghurst patties and Leila has been fed on them for the last 3 years. I love them.

Sounds like fleas to me, perhaps they need to try a different flea product. I currently use Advantage and get good results with it.

Such a sad story. Sounded like a completely normal puppy. In my personal opinion you didn't give the puppy much time to settle in. Crying for a week can be considered pretty normal, you have taken the puppy away from the only life it knows and now it has to live with a human family which it doesn't know how to communicate with and doesn't know what the expectations are. Toilet training can take until they're around 4 months old, it's a game of patience. From memory my giant breed was 11 weeks before he could hold through the night and about 12 weeks when he really started to understand toilet training. He was crate trained and cried on and off for a week, he would cry to let me know he needed to toilet overnight, he needed to toilet twice a night for the first 2 weeks....that's what puppies do. As for biting, most puppies do it, this is how they interact with their litter mates, as the puppies new human family you are there to teach the puppy the new expections with patience. It's terribly sad you felt you had to return the dog to the breeder, I personaly feel with some more patience and dicipline you could have been over the worst of the transition from the litter to a human family in just a couple of weeks. High 5 to the breeder for taking the puppy back. It would be nice to think your children could experience the joy of a dog perhaps when they are a bit older and you have more time to manage a puppy who needs a lot of time and patience to learn. All the best :rolleyes:

You're not alone, most of them do it, as that's how they interact with their litter mates and learn. I wouldn't give lot's of attention as fawning over a puppy gives it the impression you are a follower not a leader. That's because puppy thinks you're a follower and you should be playing when she wants to plat. Yelling tends to just make the dog more excitable, if you can work on a basey growl like its' mother would do you may have more luck. Some dogs think the forms of punishment we dish out are fun and games even though those forms of punishments work on other dogs. You can try a few things... 1) Put puppy for a 2 minute time out everytime puppy bites/nips/snaps. I personaly allow soft mouthing as this to me is where they learn bite inhibition. 2) Water pistols can work but can scare dogs away from the water in the future or make them over excited about it. 3) Yucky tasting spray sprayed over the parts of your body the puppy goes for. Physical repremands are individual per dog when the softer methods don't work and you'll work out what works and what doesn't but making sure you don't over step the line and make the dog affraid of you after the punishment has finished. Some people don't like giving physical repremands, however all dogs are individual and require an individual approach in my opinion, some dogs will cease biting with softer methods and some won't, they may get worse.

Some dogs think grabbing and rough handling is play so it can be frustrating. Time outs and water pistols can work. Sometimes you have to step up the punishment if you have one of those dogs who thinks punishment is a game. They can also be testing their boundaries, it's about the age where they really start testing. We had a horrible time with Dante, thankfully the biting has now stopped after a lot of hard work.

Neve heard of removing puppy teeth, Dante's came out by themselves with the help of chewing some apples and toys. Dew Claws would be good to get removed, saves them from ripping them off, although I do have an old girl here still with them and no issues.

I personaly took 2 weeks off work when Dante arrived. We had a puppy run, he ate in there, played in there, spent time in there everyday so when I went back to work it wouldn't be such a shock for him and he'd be upset. They sleep so much as puppies as well. Dante wasn't getting 3 meals a day when i went back to worfk as he refused to eat lunch. But if you're puppy is happily eating 3 meals a day you'll need someone to come and feed the pupp lunch.

There was a cleft at Staffy rescue, very mature dog at that to...strange eh? And not a little cleft either.

I heard about thi when we got Dante....tried it...no luck LOL

We just attached a light lead to Dante and lead him drag it around for a couple of days (when we were home). Typically puppies don't like leads because of the tention. By letting them drag it around they'll stand on it and feel tention in a non-scary way.

Your puppy has entered into what is known as the Rank & Shaping period, read more about it here: http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=develop.html You need put this puppy back into its' place pronto, biting & jumping is the dog showing you disrespectful behaviour which it wouldn't dream of doing to a leader.

Sounds like your Kelpie has a lot of drive which is not unusual at all in a working breed. I would highly reccomend you look into drive training. This Sydney trainer & behaviourist has correspondence courses you can do in drive training if you can't get to him: http://www.k9force.net