poodlefan

A dessert spoon of Seabreeze Oil, Baby Oil or another coat oil in about a litre of water, poured over the dog after the final rinse and worked through the coat will make her gleam. (Don't rinse it out) I tried this on one of FHR's Vizsla's once and he virtually glowed!! Give it a test run though so you get the quantity right - you want a shiny dog, not an oily one.

Yes. No point in putting your dog over obstacles if you can't control it between them. Obedience is great for establishing and maintaining focus and control.

Whilst people has said that rubbing a pup's nose in their mess doesn't work, perhaps a more detailed explanation of why might help. Firstly, no pup has good bladder control until about aged 5 months - so we have to keep an eye on them and reward them for letting us know they need to go out and for doing the right thing. At 10 weeks, your pup is an absolute baby. When pups need to go, they start displaying signs - sniffing, circling etc. If you aren't there to show them what to do, you can't blame them for doing what comes naturally until they understand that outside is the place to do it. If you find an accident and rub the pup's nose in it, it won't connect what you are doing with it having eliminated in the wrong place. What it will do is connect you handling it with an extremely unpleasant experience (dogs have far more sensitive noses than us) - before long your dog will probably cringe and hide when you get home because it knows what will happen but still not understnand why. If your CKCS (correct breed name is Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)/poodle cross girl needs to be left inside, then show her WHERE you want her to go (eg. newspaper) and praise her for doing it). Have you got a dog door - is she using it confidently yet? I find the best method for dealing with accidents is to grab a rolled up newspaper and hit YOURSELF on the head - for failing to show the dog what is required or not being there to reinforce it. It's fine to yell Arrrgggghh or similar if you catch them in the act - then take them outside and praise them for doing the right thing. Don't let up on the praise - take her out when she wakes, after she eats and after play - and praise her for doing the right thing. She'll learn far faster being rewarded for doing the right thing than being punished for doing the wrong thing. :p

Train her that she doesn't get greeted or patted unless she's sitting. While you teach that, put her on lead so you can keep her off people when they arrive. Sounds like obedience training would be a good idea - I think its a must for all breeds but especially larger breeds. If you want her to walk nicely on a loose lead, now is also the time to be insisting on that. Rehoming merely passes on problems, it doesn't solve them.

I agree totally with Cordelia. This is CLASSIC resource guarding behaviour. Unfortunately, all the fussing over his feeding may have increased his anxiety about keeping his food. Cordy is right, every time he growled and you backed off you taught him that growling works! Push the envelope and he may bite you. Step 1: Stop thinking of this dog as a "puppy" - he's actually on the far side of adolescence. Rather than thinking of him as a baby, think of him as a 16 year old boy who is tellng you "you're not the boss of ME". Obedience training (to reinforce your status as leader) will help with this issue. Personally, I'd be looking for a behavioralist familiar with resource guarding issues and who will look at your relationship with the dog rather than his diet.

LH: Crikey... you could end up with anything... in terms of size, temperament and trainability. :D The right pup will be worth the wait. If your daughter hasn't considered the Swedish Vallhund, that's another breed she'd probably like. Kind of like a Corgi and possibly an ancestor of them.

LH: LH, what breed of dog are we talking about? If the "breeder" isn't vaccinating and is prepared to release the pup so young, I'd be very concerned about what other short cuts have been taken, and in particular about health testing for congentital health issues common in the breed. I think your instincts are right - the pup available "right now" may not be the right pup in the long term. If you tell us what you are looking for, we may be able to help. Where are you?

Luckyheidi, when you say "breeder" is this a registered breeder? I hope not. To release a puppy to its new home before the age of 8 weeks is a breach of the ANKC Code of Ethics. I have quoted the relevant section below. Are you supposedly getting papers? Will the pup have had its first vaccinations?

My Sibe: The point My Sibe is this. There are three desexed bitches in my house at the moment. Two were spayed before their first season and one was spayed after. The two earlier spays suffer from hormonal incontinence and the later spay doesn't. I'm not the only person to have noted that bitches spayed after their first season don't seem to develop the problem as often.

Morgan: Watch it Morgan... them's fighting words!!

All mine are desexed too CavnRott. However, there's no way I'd desex a male until at least 12 months old and having had one experience of letting a bitch have a season before desexing, I'd consider that too. I'd consider a dog desexed at 8 weeks to be 'damaged' from a development potential perspective. As I said, no way would I ever own one.

CavnRott: I think Skipy is calling dogs desexed at 8 weeks a less than perfect dog. I'm with Skipy. There is no way in hell I'd buy a dog that was desexed at 8 weeks. Too many potential skeletal issues and the potential for developmental issues caused by lack of hormones is real. I saw the RSPCA study on early desexing. They concluded that it didn't cause long term problems. Their definition of "long term" was for only 5 weeks after desexing. Sure the surgery at that age doesn't cause problems - its the lack of hormones that does.

The perfect puppy is like the perfect/man woman... a creature of myth and legend. Anyway, puppies are what we make of them.. personally I like a bit of a devilish pup... one that's into everything.

I don't breed and I don't rescue. I'm not a fan of early desexing and would never want a dog or bitch that had been desexed at 8 weeks. The impact on physical development is still too much of an unknown. HOWEVER, IF I did breed or rescue I'd imagine my view would be different. Early desexing is a risk management decision. If I bred CKCS or a similar in demand breed for BYBs and millers, I'd be balancing my ability to vet a good responsible home against ensuring that no pet pup I sold would ever end up in a puppy mill or churning out litters for a BYB. Knowing how some peoplel would lie cheat or steal to get their hands on such pups, I'd be looking hard at early desexing. Yet another reason why I'll never breed dogs.

Harminee: Dog's don't think like that. All Lilly will know is that when she visits that place, she stays in her crate when inside. If you have made the crate her safe place, rather than a place she is put when she does something wrong, she'll be fine provided you give her breaks outside. My view is that as the visitor its up to you to do what you can to make the resident dogs comfortable in their own home. Put Lilly in the crate, and leave the little guy to pluck up the courage to check her out.

My three have the annual injection.

Clearly Mr Katz has never observed African Hunting Dogs feeding (I love those critters). They actually allow the young to eat first. Come to think of it I've never observed a wolf salivate over an entire Caribou before allowing others to feed either. Observations on wild wolves actually have shown that who is "alpha" changes according to the task. One dog might lead the pack in protecting territory but another, more skilled hunter, may lead the pack to hunt. Anyway hate all this "act like the same species" kind of training. As Patricia McConnell says, dogs KNOW we aren't dogs. The key to training is to communicate clearly and effectively in a manner the dog can understand, not to try and become a dog. I'm certainly not going to spit on my dog's food, or overpee all their pees..

Kirislin: In which case, save your sympathy for the dog. Ask your friend what she thinks would happen if she had to go to hospital? What is she had a fall in the house? The result for that dog of any inability by your friend to care for it is likely to be a lethal injection. Her treatment of the dog will probably result in a death sentence - is that "love"? Not according to me. Its a pity you didn't report the bite (I understand why you didn't)... perhaps a visit from the local ranger might have been the jolt your friend needed. Does she know that she could still get help with this dog?

I think every puppy owner goes through the "oh my god what have I done" stage. If you find yourself having to say "no" all the time, perhaps its best to arm yourself with some better training methods. Go out and buy a copy of Gwen Baileys' book The Perfect Puppy. I think you will find it useful. With puppies its the joy of knowing that the hard yards you put in early on will be rewarded by a happy, healthy well trained pet. At least they grow up faster than children!

Whippets are fantastic family pets!! They are one of my favourite breeds of dogs. I babysit FHR's whippet Herbie from time to time and he's a great dog. And yep, he sleeps in my room when he stays. Whippets don't have a particularly high exercise requirement, don't tend to be barkers, don't tend to have aggression issues and have fine coats so you don't notice the shedding. However, they can be unreliable offlead if not very well trained and do have the instinct to chase small animals. If you have a chance to take your whippet lure coursing when she grows up then give it a go.. although Herbie wouldn't be seen dead chasing a plastic bag - he prefers rabbits.

"Someone" doesn't appear to know much about training dogs. Do you want this dog to toilet in the house or outside? If its outside then you have to make the effort to get her outside every time she needs to go. As a baby, that's probably once or twice a night.. but as they mature their control improves and they can get through the night. Every accident she has inside the house (laundry or not) means you'll probably have another 3-5 inside after that. I know people who've refused to get up to their pups who have never effectively toilet trained them - you don't want to go there. Your laundry is an area of the house known as a "heat sink".. that means that it absorbs heat and is generally the coldest room in your house. You want to confine a fine coated puppy with limited ability to maintain temperature, to a heat sink? Do you coat her at night? Ideally you want her in your bedroom so you CAN get up and let her out when she needs to go. She will also be happier sleeping with her 'pack'. You bought a social animal - let her be with you as that is what social animals need. If you hate getting up, install a dog door and train her to use it. However, I can assure you that you can get up, let her out to toilet and get you both back to sleep very quickly after some practice.

Sky: Not true Sky... I have a bitch that lifts her leg to mark. Apparently its not that uncommon. There is no method of peeing that's confined to one or the other sex in dogs.

What are you feeding her? My guess is she's getting mainly kibble??? Sound a bit like she's having trouble eliminating... is she getting constipated than getting the runs? What's her stool consistency like?

Some dogs never lift their legs... and some bitches do. There are lots of ways dogs and bitches can pee - and none of them is confined to one sex. He's still quite young - it might be a while yet, if ever, before he does.

If your dog behaves well at obedience and does this elsewhere then he's learned to particularise his good behaviour to a given situation - you need to expand it out wider. Your dog CAN learn to walk on a loose lead, come when its called and behave - perhaps you just need some very experienced person to help you achieve your goals. Don't get sad - take action!! No kind of collar or non-pulling gadget will substitute for a good trainer who will tell you that it takes TWO to have a dog pull on lead - dogs don't pull offlead now do they? They only pull because we let them and they can learn to pull on anything... Sporn Harness, Halti's - whatever. I wouldn't take another step with him pulling.. can you use a clicker? I've seen dogs grasp the concept of "we don't go anywhere when the lead is tight" in about 5-10 minutes. The challenge after that is to be consistent and NEVER allow the dog to pull.