fainty_girl

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a toenail phobia. While the vet and I were down on the floor wrestling Kaisie for a nail clip last week, I was in the verge of asking her if we should just jab her instead. ;) We never get them all done in one go. No wonder I had problems trying to do it on my own. She's 30+kgs of muscle. We have never been able to have Jessie's nails clipped ...years ago we took her to the vet and they were like "yeah we will cut her nails", then when it was obvious that Jess didn't want them cut they changed to saying "oh she doesn't need them done" ...yeah right! . I bought some clippers a while ago and my dad is still trying to psych himself up to do it. When he feels up to the job, Jess will definitely need to wear a muzzle and it still won't be an easy task.

I was told that the sound of a guitar can hurt a dog's ears...my dog Jess hates acoustic guitars. She is also scared of vacuums and she came to us with a fear of being picked up. Tilly is afraid of head collars and advantix and not much else. Last week on a walk she did this tough girl growl and got her hackles up when she was looking at a kayak on top of a car (it had this big metal bar type thing holding it up). I had never heard her growl like that before, so I was thinking there must have been a cat or dog hiding in the bushes nearby, but there wasn't anything, so after we walked past the car and saw nothing I walked back around to the side of the car and let Tilly check it out. She stuck her head out and curiously sniffed towards the car, so I think she was ok after that.

I would love to know what breeds Tilly is made up of...Kelpie X Coolie was the pound's guess. The Kelpie part of her is obvious, but i'm not sure about the rest. Whatever she is, she sure is a character inside and out!

I regularly get strangers commenting on Tilly's markings. I even had someone say they liked the white tip on her tail, that I had never cared to notice before.

How do you refocus a dog that gets easily overstimulated on the lead? I am trying to get my dog Tilly (2 year old Kelpie X) to walk better on the lead, and while she has made progress, she gets easily overstimulated and when this happens she becomes difficult on the lead and will pull. Just so you have some background info on Tilly, she was a stray from the pound and she was about 8 months old when I got her. She had no training at all and probably spent her first 8 months in somebody's backyard. I took her for a walk down the shops last night and she walked really well for the first couple of minutes, then she lost it when we crossed at the lights (the beep beep sound to walk always sets her off). Then a few minutes later some teenagers were on their skateboards while we were waiting to cross at more traffic lights and the skateboards seemed to scare her (she has chased skateboards in the past but I have been working on her with this for a while, if she is off the lead at the park and somebody is skateboarding by I have her sit down and get her to focus on me and ignore it, but she has never seemed scared of them before). Then we walked around the corner and up the road there were two dogs in a car and they went totally nuts barking at Tilly, so again that set her off. So obviously we didn't have the best walk! This evening I took her for a long walk (7km), and she did pretty well around the residential/quieter streets, but then she saw a rabbit so that set her off with pulling again. I had a front clip no-pull harness on her and a check chain...at the beginning of our walk I used the harness and then about 10 minutes into the walk when she had relaxed more I used the check chain for a long while after that, then went back to using the harness after I couldn't stop her from pulling after she had seen the rabbit. Should I just stick to walking her around the quieter residential areas until she is better on the lead? How can I get Tilly to settle if something (eg. a rabbit) sets her off/overwhelms her, causing her to pull on the lead? She walks well on the harness and it does minimise her pulling a whole lot, but it also rubs the skin behind her legs and leaves her with a bit of redness there, so ideally I would like to be able to just walk Tilly on a check chain, because of all the things i've tried walking Tilly with, the check chain doesn't seem to irritate her skin much even if she does pull a bit. She is also happy to wear it - but she is always reluctant to wear her harness, and when I tried a head collar in the past that thing terrified her.

My mum has that camera and I absolutely love it and have used it a heck of a lot more than my mum. These are some of my favourite shots that I took with the 450D With the long lense:

I took this one of Tilly today...as you can see, she has perfected her begging trick. When we had a shelf delivered a while ago, Tilly thought that the foam packaging was a good place to play. Jessie with a dog toy dummy

My television watching dog Tilly is pretty switched on and alert to everything around her that she sees/hears. Whereas, my other dog Jessie, who does not react to tv is pretty laid back and lazy most of the time, so she probably just can't be bothered watching. Both of them are clever, but Tilly is far more alert.

Yep my dog Tilly reacts to dogs and other animals on tv. The dog whisperer episodes normally get most of her attention, then she'll also watch things like meerkat manor. She even went up to the tv the other day when she saw an animation of the silhouette of an elephant walking across the screen. Tilly also watches youtube if I play clips of dogs, puppies, wolves or cats, etc. Tilly watching wolves on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFu9lNFWs58

Some more for the list : *You find it hard to leave the house in the morning without being covered in dog hair. *Family members bag you out because your car smells doggy (I challenge them to try and keep their car smelling fresh with a wet dog or two travelling in there daily). *Your computer's desktop photo is a picture of your dog. *You only give your dogs free range chicken. *You think it's normal to buy bulk packs of 27 tennis balls (when my sister was visiting from overseas I was shopping at Big W and mentioned that I needed tennis balls for the dogs. When looking for them my sister grabbed a 3 pack, while I came back with the 27 pack, thinking nothing of it). I bought 54 last time so that they would last longer, because Tilly loses them so often.

Tilly loves socks...she loves running around the house with one in her mouth, and she also likes putting holes in them. Quite often when I get home she will excitedly get a sock in her mouth and run around the house. She also has a favourite glove that she claimed for herself, so she will run around with that but has never chewed through it.

Same here ...I just emailed that as a suggestion at the peter alexander site too.

It's a shame X breeds can't be entered...I am biased, but my dog Tilly is pretty damn cute!

Etsy have a great selection I like the look of the layered tags on etsy: Seller: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheTwoBeans And this style looks pretty nice too: Seller: http://www.etsy.com/shop/makeyourdogsmile

Tilly got her new soccer ball today...at first when I opened the mailing box she was too focused with playing with her favourite visiting dog. But when I put the box on the floor later she stuck her head in there, pulled out the soccer ball and ran around the house with it like a lunatic for a good ten minutes. She was very chuffed, so thanks for tracking them down. Tilly with her new soccer ball...

Yes I think dog toys are absolutely worth it...we have a dog toy box here, although it isn't very full because most of the toys are around the house and yard. The dogs love it though - they will stick their head in the toy box and choose a toy. Tilly knows that when I come home with a bag she has a chance of getting a toy, so she gets quite excited when I bring shopping home.

I love my kelpie X Tilly for the exact same reasons. My stumpy tailed cattle dog X Jessie isn't really my type of dog - she is the opposite of Tilly in a lot of ways. The most challenging thing with Jessie is that she is a velcro dog with my mum.....Jessie is well behaved and quiet when my mum isn't home, but then when my mum is home it is like you've flicked a switch, she becomes really different (and not in a good way!). Jessie is very easy to train in other ways though...she can learn tricks really quickly.

Tilly didn't pop hers until after she got all of the ropes off...the ropes stayed on for quite a while, gradually coming off one at a time if my cattle dog decided to shake it. Tilly preferred to carry it with the ropes, strutting around as if she'd won a prize.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I just put through an order then. Her soccer ball lasted for a while and it really was one of her favourite toys so I don't mind buying another. Tilly will be SO excited when we get that in the mail. She will flip out for sure. :rolleyes:

I grew up with a kelpie X and I loved her to bits so ever since I have always loved kelpies. My Kelpie X Coolie Tilly is such a lovely dog and is a real character. She was a stray at the pound and I still can't believe that somebody gave her up. I love how kelpies are so intelligent, intuitive, loyal, happy and friendly... Tilly is determined, impulsive and definitely has a mind of her own though, so I wouldn't say she is an "easy" dog to own, but she is so loveable and friendly.

I'm in NSW ;) and i'm happy to buy online too if anyone knows where they're being sold. Yeah my dog Tilly loved strutting around with it when it had the ropes on it :rolleyes:

Hi everyone, I bought this dog soccer ball from kmart a while back and i'd like to buy a new one, as the ropes have come off and it has been popped. My dog still loves it, but i'd love to get her a new one or something similar. Has anybody seen this one or anything like it for sale? I haven't seen them at my local kmart for a few months. :rolleyes: Excuse the crap photo!

My dogs eat nature's gift canned food...then they also get things like chicken drumsticks, lamb shanks, tinned sardines, etc.

I didn't intend on getting a second female dog and I did go to the pound to look at a male dog, but ended up choosing another female, Tilly, because of her lovely nature. In the early days there were a few issues, but when the pack order was sorted then Tilly settled down a lot. They do get a bit jealous of each other sometimes, but it doesn't result in fights, it is more about them both wanting to be patted, etc. Outside of home they play together at the park, but at home they are a bit more competitive...eg. I could throw a ball at the park with no issues, but I don't do that at home because in the early days it did result in a couple of fights (with Tilly starting it - Jessie is not a fighter at all). Tilly is also protective of me, so she gets a bit huffy if Jessie (who is quite a moody and vocal dog) grumbles at me, but Tilly will snap out of this when I tell her "hey". I also think temperament has a lot to do with it...just because a you have a female and male together, it doesn't mean they are going to get along. I know a male Kelpie dog and he can't stand Jessie, but he absolutely loves Tilly.

I thought of more...when Tilly wants to leave the park (when she is tired from playing fetch) she will go and wait beside my car, while looking at the boot and then at me. If I say "where's my car" she will run to my car and if I say "where's dadda's car" she will run to my dad's.