Steph M

Hello! Wondering what everyone's all time favourite teething toys are? We have a wealth of frozen chicken wings, meaty bones and chews out the wazoo but any links to especially hardy teething toys would be much appreciated as the little guy is pretty strong already and growing like a weed.

I admit to doing Gus's when he's sleepy/asleep. He's just so wriggly! Still, I do them all the time, just cause they're black and I don't want it to get hard.

I agree, but just to play devils advocate what if they'd just had a new baby or lost a family member or something? Not everything is monetary and can't say I entirely blame people all the time. God knows mum's SWF's often look pretty funky due to some home-trims and the like too. Haha.

Me too, which was why I apologised and walked off in a fair bit of shame! Haha. I feel less guilty now. Less sure Gus mind-powered him/her into coming for a play!

It's like that schmackos ad where the woman gets in the car and the dog looks at her all sad, so she goes back in to give him a treat and he walks off. That is my life.

On the other side of the fence I was walking Gus past the train station here the other day, on lead and he was being uncharacteristically focused on behaving and we heard a yell and a 'GET BACK HERE' only to look behind us and see a seeing eye dog tearing off across the road after us to play with Gus! I grabbed his/her little handle and took her back to where the woman was still sitting calling him and apologised (no idea why, it felt like it should have been our fault?) and the seemingly visually impaired woman with him said 'oh never mind, he's pretty spirited, he does that sometimes'

Yep. Gus would be in the same boat 'OH MY GOD. HUMAN PUPPIES. YESSSSSSSSS!' Does love a soccer ball too. How ludicrous though!

We didn't leave Gus much when he was younger, I had a week off and my OH works from home but he's worked out any carrying on he may do when no one is home won't do anything for him and now we come home and his bed is warm and kong well chewed. He probably enjoys the break too. Haha.

Exactly, Sujo. Sadly they don't all come with individual manuals. That would be a dreaaaaaam. Plus you can't go back in time to put a process in place? Not sure what other option there is to start from now?

I wouldn't panic about doing 'the wrong thing' too much, haha. It's early days. Plenty of time to correct any issues that may crop up, least you're getting them early!

Nope, I've often said the same. If we ever rented out I'd rather two dogs than two kids!

Perhaps he heard you coming? Hopefully he hadn't been going all day, little monkey! Good idea to cut the excitement til he's calm and quiet, sounds like he's just asserting himself and being naughty more than anything more serious, hopefully you can nip it in the bud early so it doesn't progress.

I feel that pain! Our dogs must be long lost cosmic twins.

that sounds wonderful! what area is this retirement village in? Wonder if they take 25 year olds? Sounds lovely to me too!

His facebook says he went to the bridge yesterday. Poor old guy, had what looks to be a wonderful life though. https://www.facebook.com/Schoep.and.John

Kudos to the kids for having an imagination, even if it's a little whacked haha.

Can't hurt to ask the owners first, you never know they might have their own circumstantial issues preventing them from keeping him groomed and might be relieved to have him cleaned up? Perhaps he's not very welcome inside because he's filthy and they can't afford to groom him? Not ideal I know, and I agree if you can't afford dogs you shouldn't have them, but everyone deserves a bit of the benefit of the doubt once or twice. I know mum's shih tzu can go from one knot to a lump of them if you're not on top of it pretty quick, perhaps they've just had a new kid or lost a job? Never know.

Well it's our schedule really, so doesn't phase us too much. I go to bed early and get up early, Brooke goes to bed late and gets up late-ish. The 1am is more enforced than needed, he goes fine without but just figure while Brooke is up he may as well take him out for a last one, means I can sleep in a little if I need it. Score! Sounds good to me! We're always about. He'd love a play! A little, less so about to give it a lunch time bathe, I just wanted to make sure he hadn't done any damage but could be anything and she didn't seem worried, if it's not all good in a few days we'll just duck back.

Gus had a vet visit today, after a week of being in everything he has a mucky red eye, so we dashed in to get it looked at and he misbehaved SO MUCH. She was very tolerant and said a warm salty eye bath for a few days and see how it goes, she wanted to pop some dye in and have a look but he was so excited at new people and stuff it took 3 people to hold him down to get a decent look, one on the waggly bum, one on the middle and one on the front, though the one at the front got such a tongue bath! The (slightly snooty) vet nurse even asked if I had even HAD a large dog before, as he was trying to clean the clinic cat and whining when asked to sit still, then there was the attempted acrobatics on the table, lucky I had hold of him because he really loved the work experience girl with the liver treats and would have followed her to the end of the earth by the looks. I was slightly horrified, lots of 'normally he's very good!' and 'I'm so sorry, I'll wear him out before his next visit' One of us walked away with their head down, and it wasn't Gus. He even put on a protest and tried to refuse to leave, planted his butt at the gate and looked back longingly. Needless to say he's fine now, having a nap because being a brat wears you out! He weighs 12.7kg and he's growing well, she said his skeletal soundness is great, he's happy and lovely, but not great at the sitting still... In terms of toilet times, he usually comes to bed with me about 10-11, OH will take him for a wee at 1 and he'll get up about 7-7:30? It works well for us, he really resents the 1am one sometimes though.

Gus likes to hold things while he does his wee too. Will quite deliberately stop and wee when he has a face full of bone or stick etc, but not 1 in 6 times, at least you know he's emptying the tank!

I've worn the beast out! Took him on his first beach trip. He played with a Goldie for about 20mins, perhaps he liked her so much he thought he might emulate her look.

We certainly swear by the yoghurt, I notice it, and I'm the chief poop collector. Hahaha.

If ours could be trusted I would love this, but not likely! Lucky you!

Don't be sorry! All part and parcel of the puppy experience!

I thought the same reading this, but last week I had a chat to the vet and she reminded me puppies need more a lot of the time, they're always going and growing. He seems to be in good condition, but you're right in that it varies. I don't feed near as much as what's suggested on the back of the bag either.