katbod

Glad you said the chews and toys were for the dogs!

The puppy classes I helped run didn't involve puppies playing together. Maybe it was slightly different as a training class but to me it made sense because on occasions where owners had let their puppies play together they were so intent on continuing to play that they couldn't learn anything. Outside of the class environment playing is fine but it just wound the pups up. If you want a dog that pays attention to you, you also need to teach it that you're the most exciting thing in the world! It's not impossible to be more exciting than another dog but it takes time to teach a puppy that so we taught people that you can socialise a puppy without letting it play with every dog it meets. Socialisation just involves exposing dogs to things and I think people have become scared that if they don't let their dogs play their dogs will never learn that other dogs are OK. Now I've met behaviourists who are extreme in this and never let their dogs play with other dogs (they believe it teaches dogs to fight, I believe it teaches good bite inhibition!). I take a more moderate view and let my dogs play with dogs I know but don't let them as pups run up to every dog they meet. I think people need to be aware that you can have a well-socialised dog without letting it play with tonnes of dogs, it just has to meet them. Then when they've learned to come when called and that they get to play games and get treats from their owner, they can go play with friendly dogs. Most owners probably won't care if their dog isn't impeccably behaved of course and probably think that it's all a bit extreme not to let puppies romp around together. But you think about it, in the off-lead thread we've been discussing that not all dogs like dogs charging up to them. Dogs need to learn that they can't run up to every dog they meet and when better to start than when they're pups?

I think you already know the answer to this! Follow what your instincts tell you. I always advise anyone taking their dogs to classes to go and sit in on a class without their dog first. If the methods make you uncomfortable go somewhere else. I've run puppy classes before and they never involved alpha rolls! You can teach a dog manners and good training without anything like an alpha roll. Especially puppies! It's a shame if you can't get the $120 back (try though!) but if not then take it as a learning experience. If you continue with that class you may just end up having to pay more money later on if your dog develops other behavioural issues because of it. On the positive side you can know that you're helping me to see what training can be like here (I recently moved here from England) and inspiring me to set up classes!

Actually you're really lucky if that works! Dogs don't always walk evenly on all their toes and often still need their nails clipping even if you walk them daily on concrete! Also depends how soft their nails are and I'm guessing that your dogs don't have dew claws then?

Aside from health reasons it's good to have insurance so you get third party liability. E.g. your dog runs across a road (hopefully not getting hurt themselves!) and causes a car accident (though of course we all hope that's never going to happen). If you're sued for that the insurance company will cover it.

It might be worth a try. Watching the vet use it was very funny though! I do agree with baker_girl that there's nothing to stop you from getting to the quick if you did it for too long. And I also imagine it would take a while to do each nail so you need a nice, calm dog like the ones in the ad! (Which probably defeats the purpose of buying one since you could use nail clippers! )

I moved here from England recently so I know about Pet Plan but don't really know about the others. Looking around though Pet Plan does seem to be best still IF you can afford it! I was with a different company in England but it doesn't exist here so no point telling you about them! The benefits of Pet Plan over all the others I've seen are that they don't pay up to a limited amount for ongoing illnesses. So for example if your dog develops diabetes, most insurance companies will give you up to x amount and then stop paying for that particular problem, whereas Pet Plan will give you whatever the maximum amount per year is regardless of whether you claimed for that problem last year. The other nice thing about Pet Plan over the others is that they'll cover alternative therapies like acupuncture and I haven't seen any others that do that. I also know that they're good at paying up when you make a claim. But they are probably the most expensive for those reasons so it depends on how much you can afford and what level of cover your comfortable with getting.