WinGus

How do you teach the dog to "give" up the item on cue? I try this and Pepper just keeps her hold, so desperate to "win". Is this what is known as drive? I'd also love to learn how to teach her "gentle" and "off"!! With the former, I get worried sometimes as she pulls with such strength for a tiny dog. With the latter, I normally just get up and walk away from the game.

Thanks for all the replies! I normally don't leave the food out for more than an hour, so I guess that seems to be okay. I'll try nuking the food too for a few seconds and see how she goes with that.

I'm not sure how long you are going overseas, but when I went overseas for two weeks, I made up enough barf food to last the whole time (plus more), froze them in daily rations and had my in-laws feed that. It was easy and they didn't have to worry about getting more food. Plus they have an extra freezer, so heaps of space! Of course if you are going for a long time, this might not be so practical.

My little "princess" has decided that she no longer likes to eat cold food straight from the fridge (apparently I have heard that this is common for little dogs - why?). Would leaving her food out to "warm" to room temperature be hygenic for her, and the humans? She is fed barf, which I make up every night with either meat or fish and an ice cube of vege mix (which is normally defrosted in the fridge every morning).

Becks, I'm definitely working on this one. It's really difficult as I seem to have a very shy/nervous puppy. She's not good with huge dogs either since she is quite small, but will ALWAYS want play with any dog that is up to knee high!

Pepper eats grass sometimes. Doesn't worry me much. Most of the time it just comes back out the other end!

Wow jbbb!! That will be something for me to aim for, to get Pepper to lie/sit still! Mind you, to try and get a terrier pup to sit still is a feat in itself! :D

My guinea pigs all had black nails. I used to shine a torch underneath them or lift them up to a light. Not sure if that would work with dog nails! The website that Spotty.spot.spot posted gave good advice on cutting black nails. Pepper has some black nails and I try to cut them a bit longer than the white ones. There have been times I've cut too much though and she's bled. :rolleyes: Dru, is that an offer? I'm up on the Northern Beaches quite a lot! Should move there maybe!!!

Haha! Me too. I blink and Pepper wakes up!!! Dru, I was thinking about taking Pepper to a groomer and having them show me the technique. But she's a very nervous dog around strangers, so I'm not sure this is a good idea. I suppose I could always go and watch the groomer doing another dog. I heard about using a dremel too, but wouldn't it take longer? Using a clipper is pretty fast if you do it quickly.

Thanks everyone! Pepper does let me hold her paw, but as soon as she sees the clippers, she gets a bit nervous. Kavik, I'll try your suggestion and just take time to get her used to the clippers near her feet and then clip. She tries to bite me too, and that hurts me more than it hurts her claws!!!! ;) Cuddles, I tried wrapping her in a towel (as that is how I used to do my guinea pigs - boy were they easy compared to this little wriggler!!!), but she would just wriggle straight out of the towel no matter how firm I wrapped it around her! She's used to me touching her all over, but when she sees the clippers, she won't let me near her feet! Jillybean, that happened with Pepper too. With her struggling, I'll inevitably end up cutting one claw too deep and it will bleed. Wish I could get someone else to help. DH is no use, he just stands there watching and gets stressed, which makes Pepper stressed! I tell him off for this everytime. I think next time I'll have to lock up DH rather than the dog!! ;)

How can I get my puppy to stop squirming when I want to cut her nails? I know she hates it and she gets a bit scared. She's going through her second fear period at the moment so I don't want to make things worse by forcing her. Can dogs feel their nails being cut? Surely it shouldn't hurt if I don't cut the quick, but the way Pepper squirms and pulls back, you'd think I cut off her whole toe!!!!

I was going to suggest this too. Chilli is just missing her litter mates and needs company. If not your other dog, then a Snuggle Puppie should do just as well. My baby was too scared and tired to cry the first night, but the second and third nights were pretty harrowing. I think the Snuggle Puppie helped, although now she just uses it as another "kill" toy!! Hang in there newpup! I'm finding that you sometimes have to be cruel to be kind with dogs, especially puppies as they need to learn their boundaries.

I've read Billinghurst's book as well as Tom Lonsdale's book. My mix is also about 2/3 meat, 1/3 veges, or thereabouts. I don't really measure either! One ice cube seems to be enough for Pepper, but then she is only 3.5kg. I'm not sure what that equates to if you have a bigger dog. I usually just blend together a mix of veges as I don't drink juice. I make sure that there are at least two green leafy veges (eg. spinach, chinese veges etc.), one starch or heavier vege (eg. sweet potato or carrot) and one or two fruits, especially berries, for the antioxidants. The amounts of each vege are absolute guesses! Whatever looks right!!! As JeffnCel mentioned, chicken frames are the left over whole skeleton after all the meaty bits have been filleted off. There normally is a small amount of meat still left on it. Lenards will sell you a bag of chicken frames for $1. You normally get four frames to a bag. I give Pepper a quarter of a chicken frame for brekky.

That's what my freezer started to look like, so had to go out and get a bar freezer to put all Pepper's stuff in! Now our freezer is empty!! But at least we have lots of freezer room! Good to fill with frozen desserts!! ;)

I thought as much with the Missing Link! I'll look out for the human one. Might help the ol' bod too! I buy bulk meats too, but not 5kg!! Instead of making up patties I just freeze the meat in batches, enough for two or three days worth and defrost one batch every second or third day, then make it up fresh every night (combined with a vege mix that I freeze up in an ice cube tray on a weekly basis). Unfortunately, because Pepper is small and doesn't eat a lot, I have lots of batches of meat sitting in a freezer dedicated to her!! ;) BTW, I do make sure that I label and date everything so that I know how long the meat has been in the freezer. I normally chuck anything that's been in there longer than five or six months.

Hi jeffncell Sorry to hijack your thread, but where do you get your Missing Link from? I haven't been able to find it, although I must admit I haven't been looking very hard! Sorry I can't add more to your thread. I make up Pepper's dinner fresh every night and don't make patties.

Welcome to DOL jojo! I echo what Persephone and Scarlet have said! I must admit I had one breed in mind after all my research, but did visit a number of breeders before making the final decision to get a dog. I had previously been to some dog shows and watched dogs in action, so that was great too. Puppies can be a bit of a handful, and need lots of care, attention, training and patience. Might be a bit hard when you have four kids and are thinking of returning to work. Vice versa, the excitement of four kids wanting cuddles and play at the same time may scare a puppy. You would probably be better off getting a mature dog. You really need to think about the time you have spare to give to a dog too, not just a puppy, but a mature dog. I mean in terms of grooming, exercising, play and training. We considered all these things before getting our little baby and haven't looked back since! Have you tried looking at SelectAPet? http://www.petnet.com.au/selectadog.asp" target="_blank"> http://www.petnet.com.au/selectadog.asp It's pretty good and may help you to narrow your search.

My Pepper did this, and funnily enough, during the week AFTER she was desexed?!? Of course I found it quite cute, but had to supress this and teach her that this action was not appreciated. She normally did it when I was sitting with her, so I would stand up and ignore her for a while. Her humping only lasted about two weeks (she was pretty intermittent), and she hasn't done it since (almost three months later).

Thanks Erny and 4leggedvariety for the excellent replies. I do understand that it is difficult to get proper advice over the internet and I guess it's more for me to be better informed rather than apply everything that I read. I will assess her behaviour when I get back from os. She is at my in-laws place for two weeks, so that will either make or break her!! Taking her to a behaviouralist (or having one come to my place) is at the front of my mind. I can understand about treating her at the wrong time, so I get my relatives to ask her to sit and not reward her until she sits. She normally obliges. Stays still for a second and then off she goes again!! Funnily enough she doesn't bark at people when we are on our walks. And it is only some people she barks at when they give her attention. It's really strange. Normally when people hold out their hand for her to sniff, she will either ignore them or sniff and then run before they can pat her. When we stop to talk to people, she doesn't bark at them either unless she feels as if they want to play with her. Maybe she can pick up on these vibes?!? Anyway, thanks again for all the great "tips"!! Dog behaviour is DEFINITELY COMPLEX!!!

Hi 4leggedvariety. Thanks for your advice. How do I go about introducing Pepper to people in a way that will make her trust me and them? At the moment I have been handing over treats for the person to give, and making sure that Pepper sees me do this. I'm not sure if this would be effective. I have been trying K9Force's TOT and also doing NILIF. The latter is SOOOOO hard to do!!!!

Excellent! Pepper is a mini-foxie, so it's really good to know that the Furminator works on them! I'm not looking forward to collecting all that hair though!! If you are looking for a small one, Four Paws had the cheapest price I could find: Four Paws - Small Furminator

Amypie, when people want to pat Pepper, I tell them to give her a tickle under the chin instead and she seems fine with that. She still doesn't like when kids try and pat her on the back though. Kavik, I have been considering taking Pepper to K9Force, but am going overseas in two days time, so I wanted to wait until perhaps the end of the year, or maybe even a bit into next year. We've been to obedience training, but due to various reasons, we haven't really been consistently, so hopefully if we can get at least three weeks consistently next year, I'm hoping that might help before we see K9Force. I'm sure Pepper will bark her little head off at him too!

Pepper sheds like crazy! I have tried a rubber brush, and that seems to help, but only if I do it every day! I have just purchased a Furminator, so will try that and see if it makes any difference.

Thanks Reddii. I think I will try getting her to sit before any attention is given. I'm hoping she'll grow out of not wanting to be cuddled, as I love to give cuddles!! Erny, thanks for your advice. It probably is a leadership thing. Although I'm not quite sure how to assess exacty where I am at in terms of being her leader, I do have a feeling that I may not be as strong a leader as I could be. But if she is challenging leadership, why would she be doing this to everyone she meets, not just her pack members (me and DH)? Your first sentence has me thinking - could she be doing this as a fear reaction? She's always been a bit of a nervous dog around people, even though she's never had a bad experience with anyone yet. She tends to run away whenever someone tries to touch her and then it becomes like a game to her - "haha, touch if me you can!!" Either way, I do think it could all boil down to 1) her being in her rebellious/challenging stage and 2) us cementing our leadership roles?

Welcome to the world of adolescent dogs, newnewf!! I've been told with my dog, it could last anywhere from 18mo to 2yrs!!!!!!!!! Like you Amypie, I'm getting the "Yeah, what for?" look whenever a command is issued. :p