poodlefan

And I WANT PHOTOS.. I bet they are cute!! What colours are they?

Mocha "puppy school" is usually a bit like pre-kindy for pups.. lots of socialisation, tips for new owners but not full on. You could look to finding the nearest community based club in your area or there are excellent privately run ones. These take dogs pretty much from 3 months of age and some train towards dog sports.. others help people mould their dogs into good canine citizens. Where are you located? We may be able to suggest somewhere.

I'd simply distract them or ask them to "hush" and reward them when they are quiet. It's not a behavioural 'problem' so much Mocha as simply behaviour you don't want to encourage. It's normal, just noisy. I'd really encourage you to take these pups to a training.. they are smart, learn quickly and benefit from the social experience of group training.

Mocha it's not raising the pups that's the challenge but training them to be obedient to you, rather than following each other and to be able to cope well separated. If you haven't considered taking them to obedience training, I'd strongly urge you to think about it. Once they get out of their baby stage, mini P's are very active dogs that need plenty of mental AND physical stimulation. Some kind of dog sport (all based in part on basic obedience training) is the ideal way to keep your pups entertained. Incidentally, I'd be quietly discouraging any barking.. this can be a noisy breed.

My hatred of those doggie bags is on record MPB. If he had to be carried, I'd be more inclined to use a plastic airline style petcrate. How far do you have to go to get to puppy school?

You need to build a little space between the dogs and to adjust them to spending time apart. I would feed them separately and take each of them out for some time on their own each day.. build up to over an hour if you can. It sounds like the younger pup is very dependent on the other. Make time apart for each of them enjoyable at first. Take one out and leave the other with something tasty to chew. Train them separately and teach them to walk separately. Dogs bonded too closely can be a real challenge to manage apart. Personally, I'd have recommended against getting two pups so close together in age as they tend to bond more to each other than you. You need to build a bond to each of them that doesn't involve the other and only separating them can do it. Ignore the crying. Crate Chacha, leave her with a treat and leave with Momo.. for a few minutes at first then build up from there.

Only in light showers at worst. No contacts if it's at all wet for agility.. and not much else anyway. Not at all for obedience. Two of my dogs are miserable on wet ground and I see little point in forcing them to do something they'd never do otherwise simply because I can. It would be forcing too. I don't enjoy trialling a clearly unhappy dog. I don't trial in it either. I do it for my enjoyment and I don't enjoy being wet (no fun at all if you wear glasses). Wet agility equipment is dangerous and I value my dog's long term soundness over any one trial.

Both my boys cock their leg .. and one was desexed at 6 months. My girl will also cock her leg to over mark scent. Leg cocking is not gender specific.

Honestly? None. If you are feeding the diet correctly, there should be no need to supplement. However, if like me you prefer make sure that you don't create dietary defiencies, all I'd recommend is that you use a general nutritional supplement like the one from Greenpet and don't overdose it. If you have not yet read Grow Your Pups With Bones, I'd highly recommend it.

What does Buster do when you put the lead on? Does he do "donkey dog" (that's what I call it when they park and refuse to move) from the word go or does he take a few steps? The key to get him to follow you is to get him used to wearing his collar and leash when he's stationary or at home where it doesn't worry him and get him walking happily around the house or in the yard. I start with using food or a toy to encourage him to follow and to reward ANY forward movement. Like a baby, you start with a few steps and nice and slowly and build up. Treat or throw the dog for him... You should get help with this at puppy school. Balky puppies are pretty common.

Half an hour is a hell of a lot of walking for such a young puppy MPB. I'd recommend you limit walks to no more than 5 minutes. I'd be practicing with the lead in the back yard first too. I don't walk my pups on lead for exercise until they are 6 months old. How long does it take to walk to puppy school?

Next time give her half Skwo. At 5.2kg, a whole tablet is double the dose she needs. Provided you keep her weight no greater than 5.5kg, half a tablet will be a correct dose. If she get's heavier, give her 3/4.

The RMB meals cost an average of 40c per dog for my poodles. The BARF mix, which I make and feed every third meal, costs $1.50 per dog... the secret is to buy and make it in bulk and try to source your ingredients on special or from bulk suppliers.

I'd be getting it checked out. If it IS anal glands, you don't want to leave it. Better safe than sorry!

I have seen dogs pull on every training device you'd care to mention... halti's, sporns... the works. One of these will give you more control because initially the consequences for pulling are adverse. If you don't train your dog not to pull, you'll be back at square one before you know it. If your dog learns to pull on a halti, it may do itself injury doing it. Agree on consulting a trainer and getting some lessons on teaching your dog to walk on a loose lead.

I think you're new vet's views are unusual at best and down right irresponsible at worst. Clearly your new vet is not a member of the Australian Veterinary Association. This is the AVA policy on desexing:

If the problem is yeast infections, removing wheat from the dog's diet can really help. I know a standard poodle whose chronic infections cleared up with that step alone. I'm definitely an advocate of ear plucking too. I don't use any form of ear cleaner and touch wood none of my dogs has had any ear issues.

Skwo do you give her the whole tablet or half of it?

I prefer to treat fleas if the dogs get them (which they've done once in 5 year) rather than use a preventative. It's one less toxic substance to expose your dogs to - perhaps unnecessarily.

How much pumpkin do you give her per day (and how big is she btw)? I assume it's cooked pumpkin, is that right? Do you also give her psyllium husks in addition to the pumpkin? Thank you so much! She's a toy poodle Laffi. She only gets pumpkin every third day and it forms about 25% of her meal. It's pumpkin pulp (after going through the juicer) that I feed but boiled or baked is fine too. She loves baked pumpkin - all my dogs do.

Laffi, my vet recommends the dog's fibre intake be increased. Pumpkin was recommended or psyllium husks. Anal glands need to be "massaged" from the inside by fibrous food passing through the bowel. In the wild this would be fur or feather, but few dogs consume that these days. I've opted for the expression route with my girl - and lots of pumpkin.

Min I know two dogs that have had it done. One is a Cocker Spaniel and the other is a large Border Collie. The ops went well but recovery was painful for the dogs. They were done after having continual problems with impaction and abcesses. Neither dog suffers from faecal incontinence which is a risk with the procedure. Both are fine now. Has the vet discussed any dietary changes with you?

Great, we can keep training!! That sure beats chaining myself to the gates of the RSPCA ACT!

Just got the final word from RSPCA. RSPCA Australia (all States) encourage obedience trialling.

I don't tend to instruct the beginner level because I get as frustrated as the handlers!! The best advice I can give any beginner is to have it clear in your mind's eye what you want the dog to do before you ask it. That goes for how you are going to handle and what criteria you expect for each obstacle performance, what and how you are going to reward and stick to it. You don't want to be having problems down the track with blowing contacts and lead outs and people have a tendancy to want to get going without grounding the basics. The hard slog of doing that will be rewarded many times over once you start sequencing and running courses. You've got a lot going on in agility - you have the dog to direct while watching it and moving yourself. I can say that practice helps... planning your moves and doing them without the dog, while looking rather crazy, its useful. I'm sure I've provided plenty of amusement pirouetting my way around sequences while my dog looks on from the sidelines!! If you haven't yet subsribed to Clean Run or joined OzAgility on Yahoo, I'd do both - the more you read and discuss and practice and the more you realise that what you are experiencing happens to most of us, the less frustrated you'll become.