Bubitty

Excuse me but my dogs do not have issues. And yes they get to be dogs so please keep your nasty comments to yourself.

Hehehe thanks guys! I have no qualms about sending Bubby off! I am a bit of a control freak over Bit Bit! But the bright side is she will have some of her littermates to play with her and all her other biological relatives to play with as well!!!! I know its silly! I mean they bred her, bred and raised him and are the ones who taught me how to raise these dogs!!!!! Should not be flipping out! I feel kinda better unleashing the crazy on here so I can be sane (relatively!) when I see my breeders!

Hi Folks I will be on holidays soon and Bubby and Bit Bit are going back to their breeders. I am really stressed about Bit Bit being babysat as she has never been away from us before. I’m worried she will come back a different dog to the one I sent off. I ADORE my breeders, they have babysat Bubby a million times and have been amazing (not to mention that they raised Bubby for the first year of his life) but I can’t help feeling anxious! I have put in a lot of work on this puppy and she is everything I want her to be so I’m just……………………….very edgy with the idea of sending her away!!!! I feel so silly but can’t help freaking out at the thought of not being around and training her every day. I need advice and just reassurance that all will be ok!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for letting me vent/rant! I figure I’d do it on Dol rather than sounding like a raving loon when I see my breeders!!!!!

You can do it Serket!!!! I started with 30 secs, 1 min, 2.5 min, 4 min and then 6 min last night! Going to make sure she is stable at 6 min before I move on. There are so many things I teach Bit Bit that when I first start out I think “OMG!!! We are NEVER going to learn this!!!! NEVER!!!!” but after a few sessions she has it down pat and then you think “What was I fussing about???”. I still remember the tanties she threw at me during our first few clicker training sessions where I sat around and wondered why she was not offering up anything! Stupid mummy!!!!

Thanks guys!!!! I am just having an awesome time training her!!!!!! I get so very excited whenever we learn something new!!!!!!

Hallooo!!!! I am so happy!!! We managed a 6 minute stay tonight with me walking around and packing stuff away, making noise etc! Only had to look at her twice to remind her to stay and she didn't fidget either!!! I just thought I'd remind her in case she wanted to move! I know its nothing fancy but Im thrilled!!!! :nahnah:

Another method which can be used for a different style of NO using the clicker is to gently place a cottonwool ball just inside the ear just enough to tickle the ear. As soon as the dog shakes its head to dislodge the irratation you click and reward. After a few times of doing this try without the cottonwool and if your dog is familiar with how the clicker works and has picked up on the idea it will give you a shake of the head to get a click and reward. After a few successful tries without the cotton ball you can then add a command. A discrete hand signal is also handy as then you can cue your dog when you ask a question and people won't notice the signal. Just watch with your signals though I found that my dog was mistaking the way I was holding the camera for one of her signals. in this clip, but it will show you the other type of NO. By the way, if you say YES when the dog says NO what are you going to use when you teach YES. That's the fun of training dogs lots of tricks you have to be careful what words you use in case you need those words for something else. Have fun. I second this!!! I used Ozjen's tip for my pup and it worked perfectly!!!!

6 months Erny

I am trying to teach Bitty to "say her prayers". I am using a box which is suited to her height. Is this bad for her joints? We were going so well when I suddenly got worried that maybe she should not be in such an odd position at this age?

1. Socialise 2. Clicker train 3. Be patient, be kind, be consistent and teach your puppy to adapt to your world but be very firm and clear about boundaries from day one.

My baby is 6 months and I go about 10-15 mins these days. I suspect she can go for longer. I have been told that this is way too long but she does stuff with so much gusto and spirit I really can’t make myself just cut her off. I have tried cutting her off when she was a bit younger and she’d march in front of me and sit and stare at me until we trained some more. We do a lot of silly stuff though so not sure if she’d go for that long doing serious stuff!

LOL I am so terrible with photos! I am unable to get a natural shot of her! In every photo she has this “Ohh I am doing a sit stay cuz Mummy told me to!” expression!

Thanks for the link Aiden!!!! And thanks again for the last link! It has been bookmarked and consulted many times and has provided Bitty with many activities!!!!! By 5 trials do you mean 4/5 in one session? So say I go home today, she gets squirrel happily 4/5 times, then I can raise the bar? Serket: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Leve...vel/2Level.html Enjoy! I LOVE this site!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Folks! Need some questions answered! I have a 6 month old pup who I train about 3-5 times a day, each session about 10 – 15 mins. I try and mix up what we do so in the morning she does different things to the afternoon and so on. I have a “revision” session where we run through stuff she knows and its just good fun. I also have a “free for all” session where she does stuff and I click what I like and treat. I want to know how fast I should move onto new things and whether moving on quickly would confuse her in case she hasn’t learnt the first thing “properly”. For example I have taught her to pick up objects for me. She sits by my foot and runs out to pick up her ball and bring it back to me when I tell her. That was on Tuesday we learned this. This morning she has learned to pick up her squirrel toy as well and did it reliably about 10 times. I am thinking of adding another toy into the mix but am wondering if this is too soon. Should I do ball and squirrel for a few more days and then add another toy and then increase the distance? I don’t want her to get bored though by having to repeatedly pick up ball and squirrel over and over again. Should I try to do this at the park before adding more objects? Also, I have taught her to run around objects (that’s to a link from Aiden!). We can do virtually any object now. Should I aim to increase the distance? And then try to get her to do it at the park? I guess my main aim is to not confuse her, bore her, entertain her and to make her be able to do these things fairly reliably! Any advice/general ideas/tips? What do you folks do? Would love to do doggy dancing with her but that is another beast to tackle!!!!!!

I don't think Bub is lazy... but the owner might be I am going to ship him to you one day and see what joy you can derive from him Miss!!!! I'll stick to training his sister! Who actually has work ethics! :D

There is one at Gannons Park. They are quite nice there. Too bad Bubby was so lazy!

Salmon heads are fine! I feed whole leather jackets, red spot whiting, Bonito, Sardines, Mackerel, generally just whatever whole fish I can get at a good price.

Ohh thanks so much for that link!!!!! I try and vary things for her to keep life interesting so this will be another great activity for us! Our aim Aiden is to try doggy dancing eventually. We are currently working on different tricks right now but I will need to teach her to do things from a distance (which apparently involves throwing food away from me so I am not very confident about this!). She is my second dog but the first one which I have attempted to train and half the time I am not sure of what I’m doing! She tries soooo hard though!!!!!! We are having lots of fun but that poor clever puppy is wasted on me!!!!!!

Yup! My dogs eat raw fish 3 times a week and they love it!

I have been trying to trade up but my trouble is getting her to be interested in the “leave” object in the first place. Her train of thought seems to be “Ohhh Mum told me to leave ZZZ” “Alright Mum! I’m not going to do anything! I’m going to sit here and wait for directions from you” Although this morning we had a terrific recall session because she was madly chasing after my husband (she is REALLY into him) but came running back every time I called. And I released her back to him again so she was such a happy camper!

Hmmm I tried again tonight with tissues and some new toys I haven't given her yet. All good the first time, she went for them, I told her to leave it, she left it, got her treat. Then she just sat there and looked up at me and ignored all the stuff laid out around her. I am wondering if I should drop stuff at the park, walk along innocently with her and call her off them..............................

This is why I love Dol so much!!!! I am such a dumbell! Thanks heaps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Guys Bit Bit can balance food on arms etc. I am now trying to teach her to leave random food. Trouble is I think she has two modes. I think she knows "normal" mode and "training" mode so the last few times I have attempted to scatter food around the floor she has been ignoring it and focusing on me. I have been feeding her treats while she does this but she is not exactly leaving food as she was not into it in the first place. I am using pretty yummy food such as roast chook, stir fried meat and hard boiled eggs so I don't think its the food that is the problem. Any ideas? I would like her to be tempted by the food, and then call her to leave it and then reward her for leaving it. Right now she is not tempted so we are not making much progress! I have thought off maybe cooking dinner like normal and then dropping food constantly to see if she goes for it and then teaching her to "leave it" but I'm worried this is the wrong idea and could confuse her. Or if I am not fast enough she'll just end up learning to guzzle food off the floor which is not what I want Any help will be great!

Thanks so much Ozjen and MrsD! You will be hearing from me with 100000000 questions!!!! MrsD when you find the contacts for Syndey DWD can I please have them?

OMG thanks so much!!! Didnt realise I would get a response so quickly!!!!! Does she need to be really civilised to join? She is a very friendly pup but is only 5.5 months so I am wondering may take a few weeks to actually tone down the excitement. Does it work like an obedience club with levels for beginners? Any extra ideas and info will be great guys since I have no real idea of what to expect! She's a keen worker and we LOVE the idea of DWD but I am wondering if she needs to be obedience trained at a club first??? She knows her basic manners commands and some tricks. Sorry I sound all waffly! Tell me what I need to know!!!!!