poodlefan

LadyH: Any dog is a product of its genes, its environment and its training. On the genes/temperament side, if you are asking whether some poodles can be dominant or aggressive or highly strung, then the answer is yes. On the environment/training side did your Grandmother's poodle think he was the boss of her household - it sure sounds like it. Poodles are smart dogs. They need boundaries. Fail to give them and some can become little monsters. Careful selection AND raising of a pup is so important. But that goes for any breed. If your family knew nice poodles, its a pity that one nasty one has soured them for the breed. You'll find good and poor examples in EVERY breed though.

Emm: Emm, if I can do it, anyone can. You've identified the key ingredients.. motivation. The other is practice. Get a couple of lessons, buy Shirley Kalstones book and away you go. I'd recommend you have your puppy done by a professional as it sets up a good routine with someone who can be quick on a wriggly pup. But go ahead and buy all the gear and you can at least be bathing and drying (that takes time to do well) in between visits. No. Black is the most common colour, followed by brown. Silvers and whites are less common in the mini and apricot and red the least common. Personally I'd recommend you find a breeder you like and take whatever comes. I like the blacks myself - far less work than a white, that's for sure. Not, not particularly high demand - just far less popular than the toys - check the numbers of breeders and litters listed here as an example of that. However, finding a good breeder may take a bit of effort, depending on where you live. I think the minis make a better family dog than the toys as they are more robust physically but toys are tough little critters. Sometimes breeders will run a pup on that doesn't develop into a dog they want to show. These are usually sold on as older pups to homes. Personally, if you are wanting a pup for dog sports, I'd suggest you get a baby puppy and do all the raising and socialising yourself. Those early weeks really matter in terms of the level of focus and confidence you'll get in an older dog.

Tell your OH to consider her as a Rottweiler on the inside. A lot of small dogs are as tough as teak and need the same rules and boundaries as their larger cousins. Toy poodles need to be treated like 'real dogs' despite their appearance. Sure you can get some softies but many Toy Poodles are feisty little tykes. They are very capable sports dogs PP. Maybe some obedience or agility would channel her energy (and OH's desire for games) into a more positive path. He'd not be the first guy to do dog sports with a poodle either. Witness Gidget the Mini Poodle and her handler at the World Dog Games.

I buy all those treats over the internet from here Way better than petstore prices, that's for sure.

Isn't that a pretty unusual place for a fatty lump? It's on the joint - and could be a few things. A vet visit is definitely the go.

Rough play produces rough responses. Slap him over the head with a rolled up newspaper. We get the dogs we raise. If you want a gentle dog, raise her gently. My toy poodle would defend herself if cornered and worried. Our job is to stop that happening. Teach her to tug if games are what you want.. just remember that she only weighs a few kg.

There are plenty of other options if you want to avoid intensively farmed animal products. Kangaroo tendons, beef ears, beef tendons, deer ears, dried fish.... Personally I don't think its particularly "dog friendly" to feed manufactured treats when their are better options available.

Limping is not 'normal'. It indicates injury. Your dog is in pain. It could be something as simple as muscle sorenes or something more serious. If you suspect tick paralysis, you should be making a beeline for the nearest vet. Time is of the essence. Otherwise, the usual approach is to rest the dog for a couple of days and see if things improve. If not, you should take the dog to the vet to find out what's happening.

What pretty girls - the facial expression in the first one is priceless! Howard enjoys crunching up the sticks too!

Unless the mince you're feeding has bone in it (eg. chicken pet mince) there won't be a balance of calcium and phosphorus in the pup's diet. That's trouble for growing bones. I'd suggest you feed half of all meals as meat on the bone eg. chicken necks or wings. Feed your mix for the other half. When they are adults, go for two bone meals and one meal of mix for every 3 meals. Offal should only form about 10% of the diet.

The big growth spurts should be over by about 8 months but dogs continue to grow a little in height and to develop more muscularly for some time after. The only way to know for sure if your dog is fully grown is to establish whether or not his growth plates have closed.

My role as moderator is identified in the forum index. However I take your point and have amended my profile accordingly. My role as to what is said is to ensure that it remains within forum rules. My actions were prompted by a report from another member. Stick to the forum rules and I won't be editing or removing anything.

Such a shame, it was the first time I had found something interesting enough to write about on DOL in many many months maybe a year!!!! IMO you shouldn't have removed them at least people were writing, maybe it wasn't the correct place but I don't agree with you removing everything and it was just flow on from other threads. But your choice, just a shame that you have lost so many people who use to regularly contribute. I wonder why a Poodlefan who says she isnt a 'Lab person' feels she has a right to edit the Lab breed site - I find this mildly annoying - I would have thought it was the perogative of the DOL team and Troy alone to do that. Its a pity - I will probably not use this section again. I'm the moderater of all threads in this section and have the capacity to edit or delete posts because Troy enabled me to do it . The posts were reported to me as a potential breach of forum rules and I removed them because: 1. They breached Forum Rule 7: No denigration of dog shows or exhibitors (and no show ring 'politics') Our site actively promotes the exhibition of pure bred dogs. We prefer to concentrate on the 'positives' of this activity. If you have a gripe about what happened at a particular show or the conduct of an exhibitor, please take your soapbox elsewhere. 2. They also did not serve to educate people about the breed (which is the purpose of this section of the forum). If you are unhappy with my moderation I recommend you PM Troy. You could start a thread about the relative merits of those Labrador Retrievers who title and those that do or do not attend specialties in the show forum or post about these issues in the breed sub-forum in General. Troy and his full time mods do all the moderating there. Experienced breeders like you have a lot to offer those who wish to educate themselves about this breed Labs. I hope you will continue of offer your experience n here to those with questions about your breed of choice. There are more appropriate places on DOL for discussion of other breed issues within forum rules.

The same kind of owner that names one Howard.

No doubt when we are old, we'll get out of bed with aches and pains in the morning and loosen up throughout the day. Is she on any medication? Something like Cartophen may give her a new lease on life.

When you say "BARF", does that include a lot of raw meaty bones? Actually my apologies he is on a product which is raw meats combine with bones etc. Cannot remember the name of it. I know it looks terrible!! We get it from a place called Big Dogs foods. It was recommended to us by a trainer. And he loves it! In addition to that he also gets chicken necks and the occassional raw bone to chew on. Question while i am at it, can we give him a cooked bone? For example if we have roast lamb and have the shank leftover, can he have that? You've got a mouthy breed. I strongly recommend you up the amount of chewable food you give. RAW chicken wings,drumsticks and carcasses, turkey pieces, beef and lamb ribs etc (all bones raw) will provide a channel for this urge. My personal theory is that dogs need to chew - I think they get some sort of endorphin release from it. Mine certainly seem to 'bliss out' chomping on a good bone or chewy treat. Dried tendons make awesome chewies or dogs. Mine get roo and beef ones.

Awww crap. So sorry for your loss. Geeze I hate snakes.

There are plenty of DOLers who know what happened. Aziah clearly isn't one of them. I saw no 'demand'.

Dogs that have had the pants trained off them fail to perform all the time AF. Go to any obedience trial and you'll see that. The difference is the place where they're being asked to perform and the change in attitude of the handler. Unless the dog is a robot, you can never be 100% sure of results. The issue here is one of an anxious handler (by her own admission) and a new highly distracting environment. It's a piece of cake to stay calm when you really don't care if the dog performs or not. Add performance nerves and things change. Ask ANY trialler in any discipline. She may be an absolute trooper. She may not. Until the big day, who knows.

First time I took Ted back to see his breeder I've never seen a dog so excited. He ran around like a crazy thing and drooled - a lot. First and only time he's ever done it. Just don't expect perfect performance Bub. If you get it, great. If you don't, you'll know why.

When you say "BARF", does that include a lot of raw meaty bones?

I love it!

The poodles are all retired now. My goal for them for 2010 is to have them end it happy and healthy. For Howard, his show championship would be nice. And perhaps to be able to get around a novice Agility Course. He starts training in February.

I know macadamia nuts are not good. I'd be worried about the choke hazard if they gulped them down the wrong way. Besides, all cashews in my house don't get past me!

Most law enforcement agencies have rigorous checks and balances on their powers. You'd not see the police getting to advertise on telly or in the papers for the introduction of a law, getting to advise those who draft it, then being allowed to enforce it without rigorous oversight. I think there is a genuine need to enforce cruelty laws. I'm less than confident though, that a private organisation should be funded to do it, particularly when that function has the potential to conflict with the organisation's other roles. Do you think one organisation should be able to all those things and not be completely answerable to our elected represntatives?