The Spotted Devil

Howling like a Beagle That is serious! ;) Don't forget to reward the good behaviour! Do some "practice" when you have a chance and let puppy out for a play and a cuddle when she is quiet I always put Zig to bed with a puppy kong filled with his biscuits - quite often I would hear him wake up, have a gentle whinge, then discover his biscuits, have a small feed, quieten down and go back to sleep It will get better

I haven't got around to reading those and didn't mean to exclude them - I was focussing on more structural problems :D

Stormie - you probably end up with slightly less muscle development (it really hasn't been assessed objectively) - but I think it is accentuated by the slightly longer bone length. It really is a case of weighing up the pros and cons - so a breeder that has faith in their puppy buyers may recommend waiting until sexual maturity before desexing but a shelter and a breeder of dogs in high demand for 'designer' dogs would be safest desexing early. See if your council does discounts for other things like microchipping, member of training club etc :rolleyes:

I've done a 2000 word lit review on it - I posted in breeders a while ago....basically if the dog is desexed before sexual maturity (i.e 12 weeks or 6 months - makes no difference) the dog will grow very slightly taller. The absence of sex hormones delays growth plate closure. At this stage there is no evidence that this leads to any physical problems such as HD - very difficult area of research and it is difficult to reach any solid conclusions. There are just too many variables!!!

I feed chicken wings and frames - the latter I leave frozen so it takes a bit more work to chomp up but Zig is very careful, despite being a guts

If it's any consolation, I was out doing some training with Zig this morning and I felt like I was starting with a beginner dog I agree with dogdude - all that wild wind does NOT help the concentration!!!!

It's so hard to say goodbye Julie, may you spend many hours basking in the warm afternoon sun with plenty of mice and birds to entertain you and human servants to wait on you :nahnah: RIP lovely girl

I've got a K9+ Royale - great product - it's so easy to put up I can do it with one hand :D

I'm so sorry you have had to suffer such pain for so long, Rom - but what a beautiful girl your Tina must have been to touch you so deeply. Run free, Tina, you wise, faithful little dog :D

I stuff Zig's kong with broken up bits of the large Farrell biscuits - takes him ages to get them out

Another vote for 4Legs here! I find that cooked chicken (with lots of skin and fat - thank goodness Zig is like a weed!) is wonderful as is boiled egg. I tend to prepare them just before I go training which means they are still warm - I think this increases the aroma and makes them even more yummy Oddly enough Ziggy also goes completely nuts for the Farrell biscuits too. ETA: Also I carry small jackpot containers of tinned salmon which are rather popular.

Definitely depends on the dog - my ACD overheated just being in the house but on a chilly day you'll find Zig curled up in his bed with the sun streaming in the window and his head over the central heating vent He loves his coat and I'm teaching him to touch it with his nose when he wants it on - plus if I hold it up and he wants it on he will put his head through the opening. Not sure that he fully understands the concept of choosing to have the coat on but he's getting there

Apart from the fact that I love working with my mad Dally, if I lost motivation, there goes my house and backyard Daily training in some form or other keeps him out of mischief. Once you get into the habit it becomes a lovely time-out from everyday running around!

Wow - what a blast from the past! I knew Sue years ago when she had one of my all time favourite dogs - Dancingate Golden Tonka. My ACD and Burmese cat boarded with them a number of times and they did a wonderful job of organising their journey from Perth to Melbourne when I was in the Army. Jealous, much!!!

Beautifully put!

My Dally has so much potential for destruction it's terrifying The only reason I have a relatively untouched house and yard (apart from adequate physical exercise and LOTS of mental stimulation) is that he is with me at all times when I'm home so I can praise appropriate behaviour and distract/correct inappropriate behaviour and is in the laundry in his open crate when I am out. Fortunately, I am at home a lot and he is learning to exhibit much more appropriate behaviour......at least now, at 18 months of age, I can trust him on his own for 10 whole minutes while I have a shower.....of course that's only after an intense training session and a good gallop on the beach!

My Ziggy does that with us too - he really likes it if you hold one end of the bone so he can concentrate on the fun stuff :nahnah: The only difficulty arises when he throws his bones at the feet of the cats........they are rarely amused!

Thank you - I tried heeling this afternoon with him after you had posted your suggestion. He heels very well with a food lure. I am going to try and reduce that down over a little while until he is walking by my side. Would you give a command to come back or just expect him to come back on his own? Corvus -- KT doesn't NEED to do any tricks! He is cute enough without them!!!!!!!!! In the beginning, don't worry about a command as he doesn't know what "position" even means yet, let alone responding to a word. He needs to learn that being by your left side is very rewarding for him. That's the beauty of shaping - when he starts offering the behaviour you can introduce your command.....be patient, though - puppy is only young. My lad had the concentration span of a gnat at that age

Yup, thank you. I think I was rushing a little with him because he has been insanely quick to pick other things up. I am going to go back to basics with him and focus on positioning. I keep forgetting that he is only 11 weeks old!!!!!!!!! Poor thing!!! Blame the handler, not the dog Glad it helped - remember to enjoy the learning process too :rolleyes: When pup has started to work out position, try clicking and throwing the food out in front or to the side so pup has to come back and find the heel position again.

TerraNik, is it position or the focus you're working on? I taught position first, then added focus later. For position, I started in a very low distraction environment (i.e. the lounge room without OH and the cats), walked around the room and shaped the behaviour by c/t when Zig got curious and ended up on my left hand side. I trained "watch" separately. When we had that sorted out I took him to the park and he forgot everything :rolleyes: so we had to start at the beginning again. Does that help?

Jedda, do you mean in terms of Immunoglobulins? The problem is that they are proteins and are broken down by stomach acids and digestive enzymes into their respective amino acids in the stomach and small intestine. They then become like any other amino acid and are absorbed through the gut epithelium. In the young animal (up to 24h old and somewhat up to 48h), the digestive enzymes are inhibited and the gut epithelium is able to absorb them as whole proteins. Plus, even if they could be absorbed, they tend to be species specific so I can't see that they would be of much help, even in a very young animal. Bovine colostrum is certainly a rich source of nutrients but I imagine you could supply them in an excellent quality diet, which I'm sure you're already doing. I don't know enough about diets and tumours to comment any further - best wishes to your girl Sorry to be such a wet blanket - just hate to see people getting ripped off

In terms of the benefits of bovine colostrum, the best thing about it is it a highly digestible (albeit expensive) form of protein, carbs, fat & Vit A, and can line the stomach, reducing nausea. Some promote the benefits of Immunoglobulins but I would hope they also offer a free set of steak knives

My lad has to avoid all the artificial flavours/colours/preservatives so I use chopped cooked chicken, boiled egg, raw carrot, apple, tinned salmon, ricotta cheese and yoghurt (in little jackpot containers). Nature's Gift training treats are great for us too :rolleyes:

I've got a Cuz here for Ziggy - courtesy of Uncle Horus and his Dalmatian cousins he loves it! As for soft, squeaky toys - I did find one at a pet store - it's got squeaky tennis balls (which you can replace) and has a "tug" rope - it's quite brilliant and very hardy. Can't recall the name - it's got a big Q on the front so not sure if that's relevant. Ziggy also goes nuts for the small, soft, squeaky toys but shreds them in no time - instead they only come out to play "hide and seek" - he learns something, gets to play with his favourite toy and doesn't have time to destroy them

I use apples and carrots as part of Zig's training treats - very popular