Sheridan

I've never considered a harness and we're not allowed to use them at obedience training anyway. However, no amount of training has got Roo to walk on a loose lead. He was okay a couple of times but not anymore. For a six month old puppy he's immensely strong and I'm very tired of walking a step, sticking food in his mouth, walking another step, sticking food in his mouth. As soon as I stop, he pulls. For those who say 'just train your dog' I say, you come and try. The other one is 'just use better treats'.

Wish Aunty would visit Roo who has no inhibitions at all. He thinks everyone loves him and takes no notice of being told off.

New owner opened the crate door when he arrived in Canberra. He ran. I dont know what the facilities are for collecting dogs but common sense tells me crates need to be opened in a secure room. Or car. New owner probably wanted to toilet the dog. Who knows? Probably. I've never picked a dog up from the airport so I dont know what the set up is, but I hear quite a bit about dogs escaping from them. There was a really sad one years ago of a whippet in the US. I dont think they ever got her back. I think the crates need to be opened in a secure room to give the person picking the dog up a safe place to put a collar and lead on. The dogs are brought out in crates. Employee snips off cable ties and hands off the crate. There are sliding doors so if the doors open and the dog is let out of a crate without collar and lead on, it could easily escape.

I wonder if they actually will.

Yes, it's excellent. Has nearly 17,000 members. There is a Geelong one that's quite good. Only has one admin/page owner but members are very cooperative.

Thanks all. Will give Paul a try. His prices seem quite reasonable, too.

Bunny has a big bark. I did wonder if the neighbours behind and over a bit thought she was the high pitched non-stop barker who barely pauses for breath whenever outside. A second fence would be difficult and prohibitively expensive for me as I'd need to do the lot. My fence is colourbond and the neighbours are growing a hedge on their side which hopefully stops the puppy from getting too close to their side of the fence. I have a concrete path my side so can't do the same. Besides, she starts barking in the house if she hears so merging then bolts over to the fence! I have mentioned to the puppy's owner that we should do a walk and a play date. As I was putting them in the car last night for training they went past so they got a look at each other. As I type there are a few dogs barking a lot and she's taking no notice at all. Not the puppy, though. She did a dance up and down the fence line before but when she gave a bark I immediately uh uh-ed her and she stopped. I noticed this morning when she did the same thing that she looked back at me and stopped barking. I don't know if that's good or not. If I'm not there to shush her, dies she take that as permission to bark?

Haven't posted for a little while. Bunny has been barking quite a lot during the day due to the new puppy next door. I did a door knock of the neighbours and they said it wasn't a problem but a couple of them I know do shifts. I jumped down her throat on Monday when I was home even if she just gave an experimental oof. Sprayed some water at her, too. She ignores the very barky dogs around the local streets and the chickens and I'm hoping she'll just get used to the new dog and will just stop being so noisy. Any tips?

My Bunny won't concentrate without having a runaround first. As an active kerry with a brain that either thinks too much or goes into a tizz, having her a little tired aids in calming her down.

I bet when it's shared the dog finds a home pretty quickly. Not my cup of tea but it's designed to tug at a the heartstrings and it does.

I've turned into the useful person who can answer the dog questions on our weekly work trivia. People know my life revolves around my dogs. No questions, no comments. Perhaps my work and home environment is more mature than others.

Next door has a new puppy and Bunny is having OTT hysterics over the noise. She's always been barky but now she's reacting to everything. I went round the neighbours yesterday.

Braidwood's a bit far.

Can anyone recommend a behaviourist in the Canberra area, please?

My baby Roo I thought had finished teething. Caught him crunching something and made him spit it out and it was a tooth.

This guy sounds like he's trying to do something about it so perhaps get off his back for a while.

I tried these and my deck still smells. It has pavers on it.

Sounds like what Grumpy had. He had enormous difficulty in getting up. I had to help him up. I tried physio but it was short term relief only.

I've found in the last couple of days that if I leave their food in the kitchen after they've decided they've had enough they'll finish it a bit later. Can't do that in summer, though.

There aren't any puppyfarms in the ACT.

I'm at the end of a bag of Advance. I've given them less food and they still don't eat all of it. Need to decide if I'm going to switch now or get another bag.

My puppies have recently begun not eating all their breakfast and dinner. Bunny is 6 months; Roo is 5 months. Everything I've read says they should be on puppy food until around the age of 1 year. Last time I had a puppy his breeder told me that the puppy would just stop eating the puppy food and that's when I should change over. What to do? Are they old enough to change? Roo doesn't seem to be eating enough to my mind while Bunny is still eating. Roo didn't even want a pig's ear tonight where previously he was very keen on them.

How food oriented is she? My bitey puppy I taught to kiss instead so each time he kissed me he got a treat.

It turns out it's all in the treats being offered for Miss Bunny. Did not want my treats but performed beautifully when the trainer handed over some of her treats. With Roo it's what lead he's on. With a small check chain he's like, 'Working now must behave' but when he has his normal lead on he takes no notice of anything.

I arrived home once to find my street being blocked off by the police. I found out later there'd been a shooting nearby. The officer suggested I go down to the shops. It wasn't his job to look after me; it was his job to ensure no one came into the street..