GotAnyBlacker

This thread would be funny if it wasn't so sad. So if you first went to obedience with your dog when you were 10, and that was 16 years ago, that makes you 26 now. Your kids are 9 and 11, so my math says that you had your first child at 15, and your second at 17. ;) Now you are taking on two lab puppies at the same time and expecting your kids to look after them. You are also "determined to get it right and have 2 well mannered well behaved new members of our family". Hmmm. I would hazard a guess that "good judgement" is not one of your personal strengths. ;) Either you are an incredibly gifted and talented dog handler to even consider taking on two lab puppies from the same litter and expecting it to all work out (and let's not forget you also have a 9 year old and and 11 year old to look after, as well as a job to go to) , or you are completely ignorant of the numerous pitfalls that await you. Oh, there is a third possibility. You are simply here to stir up an argument, and this whole story is crock of ****. You have been advised (very politely) by many here who actually DO know what they are talking about that taking on two lab puppies at once is NOT a good idea. You appear to have completely ignored this excellent advice, and in fact, have responded in an incredibly rude and immature fashion. This includes your creation of a fake "friend" to support you on this forum. Regardless of who coccosonni is and what she plans to do, it would be wise for anyone else reading this thread to take heed of all the excellent advice regarding the difficulties faced when taking on two puppies at once. For all the reasons already stated in this thread, it seldom works out, and in the end, one or both of the puppies pay the price. It is because of this that reputable breeders rarely, if ever, place littermates together in a home.

Daisy used to pull washing off the line. One day she just stopped doing it..?

Daisy had cherry eye from soon after I got her. She had it put in a couple of times but it kept popping out again so she had to have it stitched into place. Be careful if it pops out again that your dog doesnt scratch at it. Sometimes it just goes back in and its fine but if it pops out again its likely your dog will have to have surgery.

I wouldn't leave him crated for that long either. If I am out for more than an hour or two I generally leave my puppy in his room, which is the room we nomally crate him in at night. He has toys in there and his crate is left open for him to come and go. If you don't have a puppy safe room to use, you can use a puppy pen, make sure you put it on an easy to clean floor. So can anyone answer my question, if i dont'setup a pen inside or outside when i'm at work and i just leave him inside the crate for 10 hours a day. Would he not go insane or batty??? I know for sure I would... Yeah I think when you get home there would be a right big mess inside the crate and he would be covered in it and so would his bedding. He also probably wouldnt be too impressed with you. Are you taking any time off when you first get him to bond with him and let him get used to the house etc. Can you put a baby gate across your laundry door or something like that, rather than leaving him in his crate all day long?

Sooooo true Aly doesnt think she is dog so why sleep out side. Staffords aren't dogs! Don't be silly. They're people Well Poppy would tell you that anyway. When you take your pup outside to toilet and he starts to go, its good to say a key word..like toilet...or whatever so he associates that with going to the toilet. Then when you want them to go to the toilet later on he will follow your command and go when you want him too. I've done that with all my dogs. Also, staffords are definate sleeping inside dogs

On the first night we had our last foster boy, he cried ALL night non stop! We ignored him the whole night (other than getting up for one toilet break half way through) and he just kept going and going and going because he was lying on his back with his legs up in the air just wailing! I figured he would get tired and stop but it didnt happen. He was sleeping in the lounge room in his crate and his noise made the other dogs get up and go to him to see what was the matter and he kept wailing. He got better over time and we just had to put up with it and ignore him (even though we were paranoid the neighbours could hear him and complain as it was that LOUD!). Neither of my girls were as bad as that but they did whinge the first few nights but they eventually gave up. Where are the piccie's? Goodluck

Can you leave him inside when you go out, or get a portable kennel run to put him in outside?

Yeah, my vet didn't notice till he was on the table as well. How can you not notice if you dog only has one testis? I notice them when I groom, belly rub etc I'd only had Teddy a week or two before I got him desexed as he was a foster. I'd never had a male dog before him either.

Ooh I see your reason now for wishing you'd left Axle there overnight. That bottom suture looks like it came undone too. Yep that's what I'd call invasive surgery. My boy Teddy had one testi as well which the vet realised was not there once he got him on the table, and I believe they kept him over night. They didnt send him home with any pain medication though and I asked for some and got Rimadyl. I didnt end up using it though because his wound was seeping fluid and there was a huge ball of fluid collecting in his wound. I took him back the next morning and he ended up staying at the vets for a week because it was infected and it was very serious! He almost died and the vet still couldnt find the other testi. When Daisy got desexed at 6 months she also had her cherry eye fixed at the same time and they didnt send her home with any pain medication I don't think. Just the 24 hour injection as standard. She didnt need any though as she was bouncing all over the place the same night as if nothing had happened. It was sooo hard to keep her quiet and stop her launching off chairs etc. The vets always tell me that they don't usually give Staffords extra pain meds as they dont normally need it. I would keep a close eye on your dog and if you're worried at all, even slightly, take her back to the vet asap. I would rather be seen to over react than under react and pay the consequences!

I just wanted to update this post to say that I took Poppy to my usual vet, rather than the vet that said they wanted to take the tooth out, and my normal vet gave her a stronger course of antibiotics directed at getting rid of any puss there, and it worked Her abscess went down within a week or two and she's been clear of it for a few weeks now which is great Just wanted to update....

I'm going to start taking my staffy Daisy to flyball at Dover Gardens Kennel Club. I think beginners is 10.30am on sundays. I dont know when the get back from xmas break though?

My girl Poppy has a tooth absess and the vet says they will have to pull her tooth out to fix it. She had the absess about a month ago and then with antibiotics it went away (her face got majorly puffy on one side) and then for two weeks after she finished the antibiotics she was fine, but it just returned on friday and in one day her face puffed up again. Is there any alternative to having the tooth removed? The vets say the antibiotics won't fix it and it will just keep coming back otherwise. Has anyone else's dog had this?

I think its fine :D Its natural and your dogs don't see anything wrong with it. As long as you clean up after them its fine :p My girl Daisy wont poo when we go out and up until lately she wouldnt wee either and only does so when she's busting. She saves it till she gets home! Poppy on the other hand goes everytime we walk! The walking makes them need to go, so if it was my dog I wouldnt make them hold it in.

Your puppy will get used to sleeping in the crate. He doesnt know that he's not staying in there forever and hasn't gotten into a routine yet. I have just gotten a new pup who is staying with us a few weeks and on friday night, his first night with us, he barked and howled the ENTIRE night non stop just like yours. Saturday night he barked twice to go to the toilet and last night he was an angel and I didnt hear a peep out of him. If you give in now, you will be setting a precedent. If you want him to sleep in the crate then just put up with his crying as long as he is comfortable and warm, then he will adjust to it and get used to it Goodluck. P.S put up some piccies!

I saw on tv that if you put Vicks Vaporub on your fingers the puppy won't bite it because they don't like the taste. Haven't tried it myself though yet.

My girls love going to the vet! Poppy who is four, loved going to the vet until she was about 3 when she got a painful injection and it hurt her and now she's scared of the vet. She used to love getting the liver treats so wasnt scared (she's a guts) but doesnt get them so much anymore...? Daisy loves the attention and doesnt care what happens to her as long as she gets pats and attention.

Poppy is very good at telling me when she wants to go outside. She just stands there and stares at me and if I dont let her out she makes a little Yip and keeps doing it till I let her out. (she only started doing it when she was a bit older though, not a puppy... just when her attitude kicked in) Daisy doesnt do that really. She barks if she is totally busting but otherwise nothing. I usually just leave the door open anyway. Perhaps if everytime they are waiting at the door you encourage them to make some sort of noise before you open the door for them, then they might get the hint?

Thats where I am ;) But sorry I dont know any behavourists. They could try the yellow pages?

I was watching the show with the lady trainer (forgotten the show's name) and when a dog does something undesirable she tells people to make a loud high pitched noise to startle the dog out of the behaviour. That might work?

My new foster boy does this occasionally. He is not a real barker at all but he loves to be loved and occasionally at night time (middle of the night) he barks for us to come and pay him attention. Sometimes I got up to see what he wanted, other times I ignored him and that seemed to work. I just moved him from his own bedroom to the lounge room and havent heard a peep out of him since.

Daisy loves her staffy ball. She has all three sizes of the enduro ball and loves them to bits! She would play with them 24/7 if I let her. I dont let her have it that often tho because once she has the ball, nothing else matters and she will follow it off of high walls without thinking where she is going to land (my garden is tiered), rip up plants that are in the way of it, bash the fences and ruin the garden whilst getting covered in dirt and loving it. I dont care about the garden, but I havent finished putting up lattice to stop her launching off the walls yet. They are hard plastic though and you said your dog wont play with things it cant eat. Well these balls definately aren't edible! My girls also love rope toys and they seem to last a while. Tennis balls last around 30 seconds and they dont like kongs or squeaking plastic toys. I love the enduro balls though!

It says at the top that the OP wrote it. It does sound similar to another story I have read recently, but many of the dogs stories are the same aren't they. Poor pups.

How did it go? Are the mum and pups ok?

Sounds like your pup has a typical staffy's wilfull personality and she doesnt see you as her boss. My girl Poppy was like this as a pup and if you let them get away with something once then they will keep trying to get away with it again. Sounds like your boyfriend is above the puppy in the pack position but perhaps your puppy see's you as equal and is not listening to you because of this. You probably just need to asert your position to the puppy in the things you ask it to do, and make sure it does them when you ask it to.

I have a see through bars type gate at my rental and I really dont like it as I'm paranoid about my girls getting pinched as they are totally visible from the street and I hate it. We've just bought a house and on the weekend we are doing all new fencing and I am definatley getting a non see through gate for their safety.