Christina77

I know what you mean but using a "I mean it or else" command with "come" could result in your dog associating "come" with some aprehension and therefore you might end up getting a lesser response to come. Now that my dog has learned to come by positive response , she will also now listen to "now" , and knows I mean bussiness, she just picked that up herself by the change of tone in my voice , I still praise her for coming. If I really need her to come quickly , picking up a stick does it everytime , she will then totally focus on me , come towards me and sit , which gives me the option to either put her lead on or praise her for coming , I then give her the stick to carry until were ready to play. maybe you could find what really gets your dogs attention , maybe taking out a treat and holding it up , calling out "ball" if she's ball focussed etc and follow that with "Come now" I find also with my dog that my husband can be far more "do it or else" with my dog (female) then I can , she'll do absolutely anything he says instantly , but with me I have to work at it typical girl bitch

What we did with our pup (ACD) who was a bit mouthy but also wanted to "round up" the humans in the house and the cat too but the cat soon sorted that out was to 1. yelp loudly if the bite was to hard , walk away and loudly yell "yerk" or any forcefull sounding word , and totally ignore pup for some time (5 minutes is fine) 2. go back to play after a while , repeat the above until you see some improvement over time . 3. remove toys , you instigate to the pup when it's play time and that you control the toys , put toys away when play is over. encourage your pup sit , for receiving the toy and when its time to put things away , also helps them learn to sit/wait etc pups will naturally mouth but they need to learn which pressure is acceptable and what is not. I can play with my ACD now and she's 18 months , and she has a soft mouth now although I do ocasionally stop play if I don't like the way she's playing , play is controlled by me . Puppies soon learn what play is being accepted , if your lying on the floor and you pup has access to your face , that's what will either get slobbered on or bitten ! If you laugh at the antics , it's like reinforcement to the pup that hey this is fun , be serious when you need to be , pups soon pick your reaction to their behaviour. To stop my pup from going for our heels I used rolled up newspaper , that I whacked on MY LEG not the pup ,and use "No", the paper makes a cracking sound and is a negative response for the pup . I was really suprised that this worked for my pup , I also find that because of early training she's also easy to train now , and still learning new tricks as she wants to learn/earn/please all the time.

Our Coles often does "specials" on Poultry , I've quickly learned that it means: " just about off but we'll sell it to the stupid customers anyway" After my 2nd such purchase , I returned the whole lot , 4 kilos of chicken legs , and dumped them on the counter for a refund , only to be told , you don't need to bring back the chicken , just the $ pack label and your receipt. (so how often does this happen then ) I told her she could dispose of the chicken , I wasn't having it my bin at home. Our Woolworth is no better , makes it hard to get fresh chicken , so much for their "fresh Produce spiel"

Thinking of you , hope it's not sad news. 20 years of love , what a gift you have given your dog and vise versa :rolleyes:

My dog seems to be forever wet :rolleyes: She's in the ocean x3 a day , then when we get home I rinse her with the hose , she only gets a bath maybe once a month like this morning. 1/2 way through soaping her up a friend knocked on the front door, I yell out come round the back , Bella does her block , then goes all silly when she sees who it is and runs up to my friend , shakes and shares the bubbles I just found an empty shampoo bottle out side , it must have tipped over in the washing basket in the commotion and leaked , it's all gone , expensive stuff as well :p I soooo love female dogs , they smell much nicer ! My Bella never has an odour to her (not saying all male dogs smell , but mine always have phewie)

No I don't think so Mana , I checked everything , she'd only been up 1, 1/2 hours and slept with us that night , was with me at all times and the fact that the cat was also sick although not badly . She's ok now though , slept for hours , got up and was "hey Play time , whad I miss ?"

I'm going to retract what I said in my post a few posts up and stop feeding canned food , After our walk this morning my dog scoffed the cats left over seafood breakfast (homebrand small can Coles) and was violently 10 minutes later, and vomited for over an hour She settled down and we kept an eye on her , she's fine now but she scared me ! Wether it was that or not ( DH says he saw the cat throw up outdoors ) I am so over caned food , this is the second time I can relatively confidently say my dog has been ill from canned food. Makes it hard because sometimes its a great back up and the cat's very fussy.

My dog always gets the other 1/2 of the can of homebrand sardines/seafood as I won't keep those cans for more then a day. I feed the cat homebrand fish 2x a week , human grade canned fish often has a lot of brine etc whereas the cat food is all fish/jelly etc. Just a tip , if you do have fish of any kind left over , tip the remainder into a small freezer bag ( 120 for 49c at Coles) then put the bag back into the can , no plastic dishes to wash up and the fish doesn't get tainted by the can.

:rolleyes: Cat crunchies I don't know why it works but I have noticed when my cat has a few (4-5 biscuits) of the dogs Supercoat bisquits the dogs leaves the crunchies alone. cat gets a couple of dog biscuits because he wont leave the kitchen until he's "tasted" the dog's dinner Just in case it's better then his maybe ?

Thanks guys No it doesn't get easier , some stay in that special place in your heart don't they .

3 years now and we still miss you , run free and play all day and never have any pain again, Mummy still loves you

:D crying with you today , I had to put my dachie to sleep 3 years ago today , may all our pets be playing free on green grass and have never ending love . Sir Bastion :D run free

Thanks KitKat , I'll see if I can hunt any of those down with suppliers here

Not being near a pet store I purchase all my goodies online , next to get Heartguard plus antibacterial spray or cream Collar for dog multivitamins for the cat ear cleaner for dog and if anyone reads this : I need something to help my cats appetite , he's getting older (14) and seems to have days where he doesn't eat much and he tends to loose body weight quickly , is there something I can replace proteins etc with ? Like a supplement ? then that's on the list too

No problem here either ? When you say she stinks , does she smell from her body/fur/mouth etc or poos ?

I'm also thinking tooth or gum's aching ? ear problems ? Sandflies in the soil / garden ?

I've tried to teach my dog to leave them alone , but I wouldn't trust her to do so fully , I don't let my dog out alone after dark, and then she's on a lead . I'm paranoid about cane toads and snakes If you catch the toads and place them in the freezer ( in a bag ) they go to sleep and die , then throw out the bag next garbage collection day. I keep catching mine ( I use an terracota pot and put it over one , then hubbie removes it) and the numbers are down to just the odd one , maybe I'm finally irradicating the whole family

Glad you had a great day , nothing better then seeing dogs working oh yes lots of pics :p

Hi mgeyer Well I have a red ACD however its a girl so not much help there ;) Could you discuss with your vet some form of hormone treatment to settle the dog ? this might sound odd , but does he lick himself or hump an object that could cause an irriation ? If he was my dog , I don't think I would consider getting him fixed at his age , actually he's doing extremely well hey , 17 years old ! yep we want pics !

Yes I watched my parents dog die a horrible death from Heartworm investation , because they "didn't think it was necessary" and didn't want to fork out the money for tablets . They loved the dog and it was well cared for so to me it never made sense. Dad kept saying that in Holland , dogs never got the disease and he wasn't the kind of person you could tell what to do. Their ignorence was no excuse . Sorry if that all sounds harsh , but it's not something I'd ever want to see again . It's not a scam , perhaps there are areas within Australia that might not be prone to it , but I wouldn't take that chance. I'll also add that my parents did get another dog , and yes that time around it was well cared for , lived till 13 years of age and Dad cried for days when he had her put to sleep. Next time you go to your vet , ask to see the jar with a dog's heart in it , invested with Heartworm. That will change your mind !

My ACD never smells , she swims daily and I rinse her off when I get home , she does occassionally get a bath when her coat feels a little oily and I think that's from human hands handling her But that would not be more then 1 bath a month and even then it's not thorough . You could wipe him down with a face washer , his head and back etc , otherwise why wash what's not dirty ?

:D for a moment I pondered wether I would have tried to pick them up , nahhh let the dog be the cleaner ;) mine loves peas as well , and Bok Choy , but has turned off raw carrot , only cooked carrot now , she's starting to fuss :cool:

:cool: I'm so sorry to hear he's gone

Alibear even if you only get a bit done at a time , just be very calm and while he busy licking off the yummies fiddle with an ear , then try an dclean it , don't let him see or smell the cotton wool . sometimes it takes me a few goes before I get both ears done but force will turn him off even more . The cotton glove idea ellz suggested sounds very good , you can get them at the supermarket where the normal washing up gloves are

Some time back there was a suggestion on DOL from one of the members to put Peanut Butter on your fridge and while the dog is busy cleaning it up , you do the ears. It works Dont forget to clean the fridge door after for nails , it takes 2 of us sitting on the floor , 1 to distract the dog with a treat and the other quickly clips a nail, this can take a few days but in the end we get them done friends have a dog who howls as soon as you go near him with clippers , only way to do his are at the vets where he sits patiently while the vet clips them ;)