Clastic

And here are some pics from camping.

Our campsite - Mars staring at a fly

Pretty scenery - Pepper swimming, she's in there somewhere!

Pepperoni wet from the rain on the first day -

I think most of us are on FB anyhow, but in case there are some who aren't.. I thought I would share these photos.

Ewwwww, please excuse my very very dirty floor..

Hehehe, Echo on the treadmill is so cute, he looks so happy on there. Mine would probably freak!

matte of poop and fur..

Thats exactly how I felt when I was cutting his not so fluffy pants at the time..

Awwww, he does look like a giant teddy! Gosh he's gorgeous!

Poor Ava, hope she feels better soon!! Mars sends his luuuuurve!

Darn those fluffy pants! Pepper has a lovely set on her, OH keeps wanted to trim it back - I think they're pretty!

When Mars had an upset tummy his pants were beyond washing, it was like a big matte of poop and fur..

I'm just terrible and haven't resized any pics yet - weekend coming up though so will have a bit more time.

oooooh, new toys! I have to buy my lot a few new tuffies, they got a tuffie crocodile from my sister for Christmas last year and Pepper being the destructor of toys has managed to pull its mouth/jaw apart.

Does Hoover squeak when your OH picks him up now?

El cheapo toys are the best, Mars loved his woolies bought toy, it was the first one he ever learnt how to squeak and suprisingly it lasted longer than all his other ones; normally woolies toys break the moment you touch them.

I think mine give up on the harder antler because even though they are chewing on it, they aren't getting anything from it - so its possible it is the same with Roo's, or she could possibly not like it too much - but at least she still chews a bit from time to time.

Glad you got Roo back fine lilli_star, I had a problem like that when we first moved into this new place. Because we don't have a gate and back fence yet either OH or I supervise the pups when they go outside to do their business, one particular day it was me and I turned my head for 1 sec and the dogs disappeared. The neighbours across the road have a pup and were playing with him and squeaking a toy, naturally my dogs sprinted to the sound of squeaking. Off I ran in my 'chillaxing' on a Sunday afternoon clothes to get them back, it sure was one way to meet my neighbours.. in clothes that my OH would say that I look very 'comfortable' in.

Mars and Pepper chew on their antlers for quite a long time, although there is one piece of antler we got where they chew for a few mins then give up on, that particular piece is rather hard and they can't seem to put a dent into it.

We have a Dyson and I was so amazed when I first used it, infact I'm still amazed everytime I vacuum. My OH now even offers to vacuum and mentions everytime how awesome the Dyson is!

Yikes! Those first 2 pics that were posted are scary!

Awwww.. very cute, I love that 2nd pic!

Wuffles has given some great heeling advice there - and Ava's heeling is a lovely example of how well these can work. I would just add - lots of those heeling games, with the emphasis of finding heel, turning, and heeling as you start off. Keep it short, and fun, and make sure that your dog wants to play the game!

Thanks CleoJ, I have taken your advice and have been trying to keep it short so that he's still interested in what I've got instead of getting bored and sloppy. I was actually holding a bag today and Mars thought it was food, so he came straight up to me on my left side and just sat there staring at me.

Puppies aren't all that bad, Mars was actually quite pleasant as a puppy, he was a dream to toilet train nor did he whinge at night. He did chew on things in the backyard, dig holes and kill all the plants but he sure did make me realise he was one of the easier pups to have. After having such an easy time with Mars, Pepper came along and she was the complete opposite!

Thank you so much wuffles, your info is really helpful, I will be referring back to it constantly through our stages of heeling.

I'd be very grateful if we could meet up one arvo to see how I'm going. As I said I will be away this weekend, but during this week and the weekend we will work on it and hopefully improve. If we could meet up next week or something? I'm sure I could video myself to watch my faults, but it would be good for someone to actually watch in person and let me know.

We're off on a camping trip this weekend so won't be able to go for a play-date.

Training wise we're still working on our heeling, any tips anyone? We're just doing a heap of short 5 min sessions as CleoJ has suggested, its just trying to keep Mars from wandering too far in front of me. We seem to be getting a bit better at home, the test will be out on an oval or something. 3 more weeks until assessment.. eeeeeeek!!!

There are so many worthy pound doggies, I find it very sad when I see a lot of surrenders posted.

Thanks for all the advice guys, keep it coming if you've got any more puppy suggestions. I'm adding stuff to my list to do over my next 2 days off.

I need to re pot some of my plants so tomorrow I'm going on a big drive out to a cheap pot place to pick up some big pots. Bunnings is so expensive for large pots.

Only advice I have re: plants - place them up high where the pup can't get to it. Pups seems to luuuuurve chewing and destroying plants, or Mars and Pepper did anyways. Mars pretty much killed every live plant my Mum had in her garden, it looked like a lawn mower had been over all the plants. Pepper thought the small hedge was a nice place to lie and swim around in, must have been comfy.

lilli_star - Roo must prefer the softness of the brown polar fleece blanket, or I think its polar fleece.. we have like 5 of them at home for our dogs.

ravenau1 - Big *hugs* for you!! Also *hugs* for Astrid!!

KTB - That last episode was very interesting, I was very suprised about their cross breed choice. Guide Dogs cross Labs with Golden Retrievers, must be a service dog organisation thing? :D Crossing breeds for something more versatile to suit their needs? I dunno...

Happy Belated Birthday to beautiful Shyla!!

I've finally found it, a place on Mars' face which he finds annoying. His nose.........! But here is a pic of him before I found that most sacred spot..

When we are at work they are in the backyard, during the weekends when we're out for short periods of time they are left inside.

Thank you for the birthday wishes!

Wizzle - Those pics of G are so cute, she really is pleading to come in with that apple core. Bathing wise, we normally give the pups a bath when they start stinking of dog.. their last bath was about 3 weeks ago, but before that I think it was 6 months or so. We also bathe them if their normally white fur looks yellow..

TheFenstar - 8 more days, how exciting!! Hope it goes quickly for you!

lilli_star - Hooray you have Roo home, even though she is stinky-licious from rolling around on the farm. She looks so comfy in her dog bed, so glad she is finally using it especially because it cost a bundle to buy. Hehe, that pic of Jasper in Roo's crate is gorgeous, cats always seem to rule the house over the dogs.

betsy - Training was OK today, Mars was very attentive at the start of the class which was nice. We have to work on our heeling, he's currently walking out too far in front of my feet, which is my fault because I taught him wrong in the first place. Lots of training to do and maybe this time we'll actually attempt being assessed instead of me whimping out. ooooooh, are you thinking of a doggie friend for Ziggy....?!

Doggies are both sleeping at the moment, Mars had fun running around with other doggies in the off-lead area after class.. he was also very possesive of toys which were not his. Sorry to others that wanted to play, but Mars was being a hog and also being growly and snappy. ETA: Although he was very amusing when he had the frisbee in his mouth and was shaking it around trying to get Ava's attention.

Aww, so cute! :D

I gave up trying to teach Genevieve 'shy'. She has no snout, so I couldn't put anything over her nose to get her to paw it! Even sticky tape didn't work - she just tried to chew it! We have taught her kiss though, and if you lean in to her and say 'kiss' she gives you ONE lick on the nose. Occasionally she tried to sneak a second lick in, but retracts her head so fast because she knows she isn't allowed to! It is pretty cute!

Hahahahaha! Our two have pointy snouts and I long for the days of puppyhooded, snubby-nosed sans-snoutiness! Seems like shy can be quite tricky – from memory, Clastic's Mars was so placid about it that he just sat there with all kinds of Stuff on his face.

Yes, that was us.. my failed attempts at teaching shy. I have now devised a plan to put sticky tape over his eye/on his eye lashes and see how that goes. I think it will be so annoying he WILL have to brush it off.. hopefully with his paw and not just shaking his head.

I hope they both have homes to go to soon! I have 3 more videos to make and they're going to be challenging ones because I rarely get 'pretty' or 'cute' dogs to 'market'. It's usually the big, gangling boofers who people ignore because of appearance …

I hope Delta and Ginger find homes soon, I must say I was never too interested in the boofa types (other than Rotties) but seeing how gorgeous the staffies and the pitbulls are in your pics and vids, they kinda make me melt.

I totally forgot to post this the other day, kinda gross but for me it was amusing.

OH normally picks the pups up like kids, well the other day the dogs were doing their business and when they came back in OH picked up Mars and cradled him, talking to him and everything so Mars licked his face as he normally does. Poor OH.. Mars had just eaten a poopie meal and his tongue must have still been stinky, OH ran to the bathroom to have a shower with the most disgusted face, I don't think he appreciated it when I said "Lucky we worm them eh?"

Just quickly popping to share a video with you; its a litter of 7 week old Cardigan Corgi puppies being tested for herding instinct with ducks. I thought KTB, and Clastic and Wuffles and any others who've done some herding would be interested in how young they can display behaviours.

Plus,

A. They're adorable - look at those hairy little hobbit paws

B. its hilarious to watch puppies ths young starting to herd - watch those lttle, white tipped tails wag!

an

C. The little girl who's doing so well in this video actually reminds me of Ava - the white mismark head looks kinda similar

They were having so much fun! Pouncing around, circling around those ducks, those little waggy tails!

I've got to take Mars for a bit of herding again, he enjoyed it last time so it would be nice. I'm not quite sure about Pepper and how she would be..