Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[Niques]

which, although fabulous machines, are not really worthy of pics on their own...

:D

You think you have a cat-dog, KTB - mine spent half an hour this morning playing with a ball of wool! Kept batting it around as if he were a kitten. Until he decided that pulling it apart was much more fun - there's still a bit of dog in him yet The sitting room looked as though it had come straight out of one of those Melbourne ads...strands of wool everywhere and carefully threaded through and around every piece of furniture.

[Clastic]

I was sitting there watching The Bourne Identity and thought it was OH snoring, but he was awake.. found the culprit.. FINALLY got a vid of him without waking him. Sorry about the static noise... don't know why the phone does that.

And here is a vid I found off my phone from ages ago, Pepper getting Mars to play.. she likes to paw at him, not so much anymore though.

[KumaAkita]

ooohh... we have a Dyson. Actually bought a new one last weekend, coz our original one died after 8 solid years of service. Our new one has a motor head to pick up all the fur - it is UNBELIEVABLE!

hmmm... Just got back from obedience - nice to have a good trainer who doesn't automatically see a big dog and think "oooh, aggressive!" and he wasn't the naughtiest in the class. Super cool, hope I don't end up looking like the biggest idiot in the class Does help to wear him out with a play/rumble with Merlin the Berner before class. I will have to keep an eye on the weather, Kuma was starting to feel the heat today and it wasn't that hot - hopefully he'll drop his winter coat soon.

After class Kuma had a play with Ava and Elbie. Though Elbie wasn't too sure about Kuma at first, so we called Kuma off, Elbie just kept coming over for a sniff and would run away. Soooo cute. Kinda like "I'd like to play, but now I'm not so sure..." Little by little!

Ava on the other hand... she can rumble with the best of them! She and Nugget the Shiba playing chase - super fast doggies!

[wuffles]

Awww, cute videos Clastic. Does anyone else's dog suckle in their sleep? :D Ava sticks her little tongue out and makes sucking noises. It's cute and creepy at the same time

ooohh... we have a Dyson. Actually bought a new one last weekend, coz our original one died after 8 solid years of service. Our new one has a motor head to pick up all the fur - it is UNBELIEVABLE!

The motor heads are awesome! Satch is shedding like a maniac at the moment, leaving big clumps of fur wherever he decides to lie (usually in the middle of our lounge room carpet).

Ava on the other hand... she can rumble with the best of them! She and Nugget the Shiba playing chase - super fast doggies!

She sure can Aussies tend to be pretty rough players... she terrorises poor Satchy in our yard. He can definitely give it back but is often too lazy to do so...

[koalathebear]

You think you have a cat-dog, KTB - mine spent half an hour this morning playing with a ball of wool! Kept batting it around as if he were a kitten. Until he decided that pulling it apart was much more fun - there's still a bit of dog in him yet ;) The sitting room looked as though it had come straight out of one of those Melbourne ads...strands of wool everywhere and carefully threaded through and around every piece of furniture.

Awesome. Sounds like one of those toilet paper ads that has cute, roly poly, cuddly lab puppies in it. Did he give you that mournful: "What???? I am innocent!" looks?

Clastic: those videos are so cute. Random question - will Pepper's ears go up or stay down when she's older? They're so cute now although Mars' ears are very awesome - Batman!

Like wuffles and kumaakita, it was our first day back at BDOC after a week off. It was Elbie's first day in silver class and he did surprisingly well. As usual he was hyperactive and over-excited after getting out of the car and seeing all of the other dogs. He stayed demented around Kuma the Akita but then he was reunited with Rogue the huski cross and briefly with Dotty the JRT and he seemed to calm down a little bit. First was heelwork which went fine although it's always funny to watch the handlers getting confused and going in different directions. Then it was mealtime manners, also fine. Then we did go to your mats with a stay - where the leash was next to the dog We had images of Elbie breaking free and running loose with the cows and kangaroos but fortunately he maintained his stay even though the dog on his left broke and bolted and the dog on his right broke the stay 3 times. Towards the end, though, OH was holding up two pieces of devon going: "Look at me! 2 pieces of devon! Look at me!"

Our instructor seems very nice and down to earth and OH (who is hard to please) approves. Our classes even come with their very own distraction-tester because the instructor's dog is a large lab x poodle that is tethered to the fence and barks a lot. Elbie ignored the dog very nicely. In sit for pats, Elbie did not break his sit but he wriggled on the spot very excitedly and the instructor said: "He's very wiggley isn't he." Shelly the Whippet's owner said: "Oh - you have no idea how much he's improved. He's a lot calmer now than he used to be." and a little bit of OH and I were worried that with our hyperactive dog in silver we'd be like those humiliated parents hauling a screaming child through the supermarket.

One new exercise we did which we thought was great that instead of weaving in and out between traffic cones, dog and handler had to weave in and out of a line of other dogs and handlers - great distraction-testing for everyone! Elbie sat stoically for the first few dogs. When it was his turn to go around, he did well except that he and Jaffa the chocolate lab lunged at one another. It's a really good exercise for a dog like Elbie because dogs walking by CAN be a huge distraction for him. OH was saying that he wished we'd started that exercise in bronze but I pointed out that perhaps it's not a good exercise for bronze because it would be a waste of time with quite a lot of dogs lunging.

Poor Bella the little Westie was sick and threw up twice so had to leave class. She and her young handler looked very miserable and despondent today. Just as we thought Elbie was getting better at the "sit for pats", we discover he now has to do "stand for examination". His stands are shocking - very short-lived because he'll drop or sit at the drop of a hat so we're going to have to work on doing a lengthy stand with him and them introducing the pat/examination element.

Off-lead was good today. Mostly big dogs but it wasn't crazy at all and Elbie knew most of the dogs. Elbie wants to hang out with Kuma but he's not very good at playing with him yet, alas. He followed Ava around for a bit but as usual, he mostly did his own thing - chasing after the frisbee like the nigel in the corner or begging for treats from handlers. I don't think Elbie's ever going to get to the point of body-slamming, face-biting and boxing like the others.

After class, we stopped by the butchers at the Belc. markets where we always get Elbie's lamb flaps. Today it was a feast - they gave us heaps of lamb flaps, cut them in halves, also some roo bones and cut a marrow bone up into quarters for us. "And it's all organic!" they told us with smilingly.

ETA: One not so good thing. Elbie's very good with taking tablets and is sort of ok about getting his nails clipped. What he really does NOT like is getting his Advantix anti-flea stuff. It's in a little tube which you kind of slide down the back of his neck on the skin. He HATES it. When we did it today, he wriggled, squirmed very violently. All the treats in the world would not tempt him. In the end, I held him and he was fine when the nozzle was on his skin but as soon as the liquid touched his skin, he bucked and pulled away like it burned or something.

Then for about 10 minutes later, he kept running away from us. Then he stood at the top of the stairs staring at us VERY reproachfully. I couldn't bear those reproachful eyes staring at me, particularly as I was at the sink separating and preparing all of his lamb flaps/marrow bones/roo bones for freezing so I shut the sliding door. Instead of opening the door like he usually does, he pushed it open about 2 cm with his nose and stood there continuing to stare at us reproachfully with one baleful eye.

Eventually I said to OH: I can't bear this - please open the back door to let him outside. So OH let him out and he went into his kennel which faces the kitchen door and stayed in there and stared balefully at OH instead. He's back to normal again now, though. it's all a bit odd!

Edited October 10, 2010 by koalathebear

[wuffles]

ETA: One not so good thing. Elbie's very good with taking tablets and is sort of ok about getting his nails clipped. What he really does NOT like is getting his Advantix anti-flea stuff. It's in a little tube which you kind of slide down the back of his neck on the skin. He HATES it. When we did it today, he wriggled, squirmed very violently. All the treats in the world would not tempt him. In the end, I held him and he was fine when the nozzle was on his skin but as soon as the liquid touched his skin, he bucked and pulled away like it burned or something.

Something that may help you... my two don't get flea treatment and I've never seen a flea on either of them even though they interact with other dogs all the time. Our vet said not to bother because flea infestations are rare in Canberra and even if they get one or two you can give them a Capstar tablet. The only time mine get a flea/tick treatment is if we're planning a trip to the coast. Or if you really want, you can give Sentinel Spectrum which covers all worming plus flea birth control, it ends up lots cheaper in the long run! Saves us a lot of money...

We found the weaving between dogs exercise very hard Fine if I had food in my hands. I don't think Ava or Harvey the samoyed walked past each other once the whole session without lunging at each other - they are in lurve

As for our day today, the two newbies in the trialling class (us and Clyde the beagle) got a bit of a shock having to do things off leash For the recalls we had to remove the leads, then heel forward a short way before halting. Ava heeled for one step then kind of wandered about 2m to the side as we continued... but she was a good girl, didn't run away, was just distracted by nice smelling grass. Her recalls apart from the heeling at the start were great. She moved one foot a tiny bit in the stand for exam but I'm happy with that! We already got some great advice about body language and some heeling exercises to try

[tigers12]

I was sitting there watching The Bourne Identity and thought it was OH snoring, but he was awake.. found the culprit.. FINALLY got a vid of him without waking him. Sorry about the static noise... don't know why the phone does that.

And here is a vid I found off my phone from ages ago, Pepper getting Mars to play.. she likes to paw at him, not so much anymore though.

Ok, I've returned from a period of lurking Hopefully I wont go back into being a lurker for too long after this!

Was that a freight train or a dog you were filming?! Think you need to see a specialist about his snoring problems My cat can almost rival the loudness of that snoring. Sometimes i have to nudge it just so i can get a moment of silence and get it to stop!!

We have hit a little bit of a snag in the search for a puppy. While trying to convince an unwilling family member, we hadn't replied to the breeder for nearly two weeks and they since sold their pups , which is disappointing but was entirely our fault!

So the search continues!

[lilli_star]

Hi all.

I took Ruby over to my brother's place today so they could see how big she was and Roo could harrass her mama dog It was quite an eventful day. I hung out with my nephew (almost 14) for the morning while my SIL and niece were out doing horse stuff and my brother was working on the farm. Master Almost 14 took me for a drive in their "new" paddock basher and we took the dogs up the paddock to one of their (now full!) dams. Ruby jumped straight in- then decided to snack on some cow poo. Mmm mmmm. When we got back to the house, Ruby found a dead mouse- and ATE IT!!!! Now, to say I was a bit concerned is an understatement because I had no idea how the mouse had died, and all I could think of was the thread on here about the two dogs who ate rat bait. Master Almost 14 thought it was HIL-arious! I. Didn't. When I eventually grabbed her, I shoved my hand down her throat, but no luck. (I also said a word that rhymes with luck...sorry nephew) I went inside to mix up some saltwater when my SIL rang and assured me that the mouse was killed in a trap last night and they don't have any bait around. So, I just had to go with it. I have marks all over my hand from Roo's teeth, but it didn't slow her down, or her appetite. She's been fast asleep since we got back almost 2 hours ago, which suits me.

I'll post some pics of Roo with her mama dog later.

Hope you all had a good weekend. School is back tomorrow

[koalathebear]

Something that may help you... my two don't get flea treatment and I've never seen a flea on either of them even though they interact with other dogs all the time. Our vet said not to bother because flea infestations are rare in Canberra and even if they get one or two you can give them a Capstar tablet. The only time mine get a flea/tick treatment is if we're planning a trip to the coast.

Ah, ok, thanks. Good to know. Sometimes I wonder if our vet over-medicates a little.

We found the weaving between dogs exercise very hard Fine if I had food in my hands. I don't think Ava or Harvey the samoyed walked past each other once the whole session without lunging at each other - they are in lurve :rofl:

That is so cute! How can you stand in the way of Twu Wuv? I am really hoping that in several weeks, the weaving will help to desensitise Elbie to other dogs. His major tests will be the White Shepherd and Jaffa the bouncy chocolate labrador.

So glad that your trialling class was fun - it sounds interesting! And being off-lead must have made things more exciting. Also, Clyde is an awesome name for a beagle. I wonder why there aren't more beagles at our club.

Ok, I've returned from a period of lurking Hopefully I wont go back into being a lurker for too long after this!

...

We have hit a little bit of a snag in the search for a puppy. While trying to convince an unwilling family member, we hadn't replied to the breeder for nearly two weeks and they since sold their pups , which is disappointing but was entirely our fault! :D

So the search continues!

Don't go back into the lurk! I'm so sorry that you don't have your border collie yet - hopefully soon ... Yesterday, I kept remarking to OH how cute and lovely Clastic's dog Mars is and what a sweet-looking face he ishas and how funny he looked sticking his head out the car window and the paws, too and OH said: "If you love that dog so much, why don't you steal him?"

;)

I don't think that Clastic would be that impressed.

Ruby jumped straight in- then decided to snack on some cow poo.

Breeders keep telling me that cow poo/sheep poo is just regurgitated grass, all dogs love it and I should stop being a squeam.

I can't help it. I think I'm doing pretty well doing the regular poo pick of the yard ... when it's new, fresh and steaming, I generally leave that to OH ... Yesterday at training, Elbie did one and there was no bin so we had to drive for 5 min in the stinking hot weather with a poo bag on the floor of the car.

wuffles appears desensitised to poo because today during play in the offlead area, she was standing there chatting away airily holding a bag of poo in her hand without batting an eyelash.

I am so glad that Roo is ok. I'd be freaked out, too about the dead mouse but if it was killed with a trap, presumably it's fine ...

I'll post some pics of Roo with her mama dog later.Hope you all had a good weekend. School is back tomorrow

Photos are good! (1) Roo is cute; (2) it will stop this thread being reported and moved to goodness knows where. I'm not sure where they would move it to be honest but if we all stuck to our breed specific threads it would be a pain.

Sorry to hear school is back tomorrow. Back at work tomorrow and I have a feeling it's going to be a Tough Week at work. Ulp.

Edited October 10, 2010 by koalathebear

[wuffles]

Here are some pictures to keep the photo thread going

Sleepy girl

Not so sleepy boy

And this... a certain large, black dog decided he was going to wander past the table and do a sneaky lick of the sour cream that was sitting there One of the reasons I'm taking him back to obedience classes

[koalathebear]

Beautiful photos, wuffles. Ava looks so serene and lovely ... that's the quietest I've seen her. I love the look on Satchmo's face there - I find it a bit crazy that I haven't met the celebrity Satch yet!!!

Regarding the sour cream - did you throw it out after that? It's always a dilemma. I was chopping ham the other day, turned around and saw Elbie with his paws up on the counter licking the cubes of ham near the edges ... I tossed out those bits and kept the rest and hoped that Elbie hadn't licked more when I wasn't looking.

[wuffles]

Beautiful photos, wuffles. Ava looks so serene and lovely ... that's the quietest I've seen her. I love the look on Satchmo's face there - I find it a bit crazy that I haven't met the celebrity Satch yet!!!

Yes, Ava only runs on two speeds. She's either crazy or passed out. She really only sleeps after dinner, and when she does, she's dead to the world. You can touch her, talk to her, and she just keeps on dreaming. Meanwhile you so much as breathe close to Satch when he's asleep and he wakes up.

Regarding the sour cream - did you throw it out after that? It's always a dilemma. I was chopping ham the other day, turned around and saw Elbie with his paws up on the counter licking the cubes of ham near the edges ... I tossed out those bits and kept the rest and hoped that Elbie hadn't licked more when I wasn't looking.

We kept it, he only got the lid, plus we are so used to finding dog hair in our food that we aren't squeamish about any dog grossness anymore Same as dog poo like you mentioned with the poo bag today. Having two dogs means is an awful lot to pick up! Also, having a dog with longish fur means you sometimes have to deal with clingers... Sorry, TMI, but it's reality

[lilli_star]

Breeders keep telling me that cow poo/sheep poo is just regurgitated grass, all dogs love it and I should stop being a squeam.

True. And considering I grew up on a farm, I should too, but still...Dogs just LURVE all things gross. When my dad would cut and clean out the horses' hooves, the dogs would be right there to grab the tasty titbits. I'm not sure whether any of you have had the pleasure of being near horses while their feet are being done, but it's stinky. And not pleasant.

TMI, so look away if you are scared, but Ruby just got up and sat by the door. Good, I thought, even though she had not long been out. Toilet training is coming along well. Well, Ruby must have been having so much fun today that she forgot to go to the toilet, because she did quite possibly the biggest poo in the world! I'm hoping that's the end of mousie too.

This is Roo and mama dog (Poppy) not long after Ruby got out of the car

[lilli_star]

Can't be bothered uploading to Photobucket. Sorry.

Poppy is such a smiley doglet. Try as I might though, I could not get a good photo of the two of them together. Poppy doesn't know the 'stay' command apparently

Edited October 10, 2010 by lilli_star

[Clastic]

KumaAkita - Oooh, we will have to take a look at a Dyson with a motor head.. sounds like every dog owners dream. Last thing I want is to vacuum and there is still fur everywhere!

Glad to hear that you've got a good trainer this session, hope Kuma sheds his winter coat soon..

wuffles - You'll have to try and take a vid of Ava making sucking noises, sounds cute!

Gorgeous pics of your two as well. Mmmm.. sour cream..!

KTB - Pepper's ears will most likely stay down, much to OH's delight. Her ears do go wonky sometimes but have never wanted to stick up. Mars's ears had decided they were going to be pointy when he was 3-4months old and have stayed that way since.

We don't flea treat unless necessary, own personal choice though. We only apply Advantix when we go camping or to the coast. Pepper really dislikes being brushed, the same way that Elbie doesn't like getting Advantix on his skin so I know how you feel. She looks at me with those eyes and makes me feel like I've done somthing very very horrible to her, makes me feel like a bad Mum.

Hrm.. I don't know if I would refer to Mars as cute and lovely.. you saw how horrible he was on Saturday! Little trouble maker.. Although he really did look rather cute sticking his head out the window, but then attempted to climb out!

lilli_star - Ewwwwwwwwwwww dead mouse!! Glad that Ruby is OK though. We took the dogs camping a few month ago and they though cow poo was the best thing ever! I don't mind Kangaroo and Sheep poopies.. but cows just make big cow patties!!

tigers12 - I think I will need to see a specialist, especially since its loud enough to disturb by late night TV watching. He has been snoring from a young age though, luckily Pepper doesn't snore.. or else we'd never get any sleep!

Sorry to hear about the pups, more will come along though! Keep us updated!

Here's a pic I took of the kids last night, Pepper looks huge in this pic but its the angle.. she's actually rather small, much smaller than when Mars was 6 months old.

ETA: OH is really hoping that Pepper stays this size and puppy like.. hehe!

Edited October 10, 2010 by Clastic

[koalathebear]

I know I should stop being a squeam given that I'm now a dog owner and we both cleaned up many little messes when Elbie was still being toilet-trained but still ...

I actually find it hilarious how many poo threads there are on DOL (why does my dog eat poo/I prefer poo picking in winter when the poo is cold/why does my dog poo when I'm doing poo pick etc).

OK, here is My Funny Poo Story

When Elbie was very little, now and then he'd go out to do his business and then we'd hear crying, squealing noises of distress. We'd run outside, convinced that someone was trying to murder our puppy.

Instead, it would be Elbie spinning around and around in very distressed circles with a lump of poo hanging out of his butt by a strand ... _{My fault because I have long hair.} He must have licked some of my hair off of the floor and so he had dangly poo and he'd be running as fast as his little legs would let him to try to escape the dangly poo. Honestly, from the noise he was making, you would think he was in physical distress as his little head kept darting around to try to look at his own butt.

Twice, I was able to 'flick it off' with leaves/a twig but one time, he moved too fast and it was ME running inside squealing and making noises of distress: "Out of my way, I have poo on my hand! I've gotta wash it off!!!!"

Luckily, Elbie seems to have learned to avoid licking bits of the floor with my hair because we've only had one 'Dangling Poo Distress' incident in the last few months.

[lilli_star]

No words. Just lots of laughing.

[Clastic]

I know I should stop being a squeam given that I'm now a dog owner and we both cleaned up many little messes when Elbie was still being toilet-trained but still ...

I actually find it hilarious how many poo threads there are on DOL (why does my dog eat poo/I prefer poo picking in winter when the poo is cold/why does my dog poo when I'm doing poo pick etc).

OK, here is My Funny Poo Story

When Elbie was very little, now and then he'd go out to do his business and then we'd hear crying, squealing noises of distress. We'd run outside, convinced that someone was trying to murder our puppy.

Instead, it would be Elbie spinning around and around in very distressed circles with a lump of poo hanging out of his butt by a strand ... _{My fault because I have long hair.} He must have licked some of my hair off of the floor and so he had dangly poo and he'd be running as fast as his little legs would let him to try to escape the dangly poo. Honestly, from the noise he was making, you would think he was in physical distress as his little head kept darting around to try to look at his own butt.

Twice, I was able to 'flick it off' with leaves/a twig but one time, he moved too fast and it was ME running inside squealing and making noises of distress: "Out of my way, I have poo on my hand! I've gotta wash it off!!!!"

Luckily, Elbie seems to have learned to avoid licking bits of the floor with my hair because we've only had one 'Dangling Poo Distress' incident in the last few months.

Oh poor Elbie, but that was just hilarious!! Poor KTB too..!

I could barely read it I was laughing so hard!!

[betsy]

Lurking.......and laughing really hard at the poo story!

[wuffles]

:laugh: It's very rare that something on this forum makes me laugh out loud, but that sure did. I've had to remove dangly poos from Satch as well

Thought I'd also add something funny from today which KTB will remember. We were talking to a lady after obedience classes today when she said, "Did someone pee on your head?" while looking at me. She was actually speaking about Ava who had just had a head chomping session with the other dogs, but KTB thought it was pretty funny

Edited October 10, 2010 by wuffles